I have a bit of an obsession with travel, especially to developing countries where we love exposing our girls to different cultures, unique foods and inevitably, the occasional food-borne illness or pathogen.
We just got back from a family trip to Indonesia and I thought I’d share a few of my travel first aid kit must haves. While some of these would be appropriate for any kind of vacation, we tend to frequent more of the underdeveloped areas where hygiene and medical services are a bit lacking, hence the heavy gastrointestinal theme. So, without further adieu, I give you:
Durango Acupuncture Clinic’s officially unofficial and ever-changing list of travel first aid kit must-haves.
Probiotics: Because digestive issues happen, especially with travel. These help prevent travelers diarrhea and keep you regular while also bolstering the immune system. I prefer spore based as they don’t require refrigeration and can survive extreme temps as well as your digestive system. 🥘
Activated Charcoal or MegaIGG imunoglobulins: Chances are that if you’ve ever visited a developing country you’ve encountered some sort of dramatic gastro-intestinal funkiness that resulted in you visiting a number of traumatically disgusting bathrooms (there’s a truly terrifying bathroom in Hanoi I had to take my then 8 year old to that haunts me still). Activated charcoal is great for absorbing a wide range of toxins, viruses, and bacteria, stopping gas and diarrhea in their tracks and MegaIGG is even stronger. 🚽
Oil of Oregano capsules: Protects against food poisoning from pathogens like E. coli, staph and salmonella. As one of nature’s strongest antibiotics it can prevent colds and flus and is great to dose yourself with for your plane ride. You can also break a capsule to apply on insect bites as it has powerful antihistamine properties, I used this on nasty Bott fly bites in Belize and they worked incredibly well. Lastly, this is my go-to herb for killing parasites, so if you’d like to return from your travels alone, this is your friend. 🦠
Melatonin or ortho sleep: Got a 14 hour flight in economy coach? A hostel mattress that feels like an ironing board? A 10 hour death defying ride on a night bus with seats seemingly designed for children? Either of these sleep inducing and nervous system calmers is your favorite bed companion. 😴
Berberine: Ice cubes in a margarita in Baja sent me packing with a gastric little friend who just wouldn’t evict, 2,000 mgs of Berberine daily helped to send her packing. Excellent for bacterial or viral induced diarrhea. 😷
Digestive enzymes with HCL: Tonsai tummy; a gastrointestinal nightmare experienced by most of the climbers visiting Tonsai Thailand is the love child of food-borne bacteria. We credited this ailment to the fact that soap is non existent in the bathrooms of any of the kitten and chicken infested outdoor restaurants and guest houses which meant that little if any hand washing was taking place. HCL increases stomach acid resulting in better digestion and the killing off of potential food born pathogens when taken with meals. 🤢
Thieves essential oil: On our flight back from Tokyo a few years ago, one of our daughters was seated in front of a man with the most disgusting hacking cough, Fortunately, I doused us all head to toe in Thieves essential oil. Let’s face it, a 12 hour plane ride is akin to bathing in a Petri dish of germs, and thieves essential oil is excellent for protecting you from other peoples funk. 😊
Arsenicum album 30c: Because, as mentioned before, diarrhea happens, ditch the Imodium as it will only make things worse, instead, opt for homeopathic arsenicum. This stuff works incredibly well without stopping you up for good. 💩
Grape Fruit Seed Extract: Ten drops of this magic sauce in water two to three times daily can kill off viruses and bacteria both prophylacticaly and once the damage is done. This is also great to add to the rinse water on camping trips to help kill off any bad bugs.
Lastly, beware of Monkeys, the pictures above are of my daughter being bullied by monkeys in Indonesia.
Other travel tips:
*Always book an aisle and a window seat when traveling with family or friends in the hopes that the middle seat will be empty, whoever has that seat will be happy to trade.
*Bring a sarong: it’s a skirt, it’s a towel, it’s a blanket on a hyper air conditioned flight, it’s a picnic blanket, it’s ahead scarf, instant sun screen and a sanitary bed sheet for those questionable budget lodgings.
*Bring a plug converter, after lugging it to the most remote areas all over the world and never needing it, we found ourselves in desperate need of one in Indonesia, of course, we’d left ours at home.
*Bring a reusable water bottle, trash has become a real problem in most developing countries and there’s a real push to limit plastic water bottles, we were happy to notice that nearly everywhere we stayed had water stations for us to fill up at.
*Don’t mess with monkeys