Whether travelling for business or pleasure, here is a
nutritional kit to keep you healthy.
First, there's the flight. For long-haul flights,
if you want to get some sleep, there's no question that melatonin (the neurotransmitter
that is released during the night) helps with jetlag. You take 1mg for every one-hour
time-zone difference, an hour before the "new" bedtime, then halve it
every night.
For example, for New York (a time-zone difference
of seven hours), you take 7mg on night one, 4mg the next night, 2mg on the
third night and 1mg on the fourth. Then you'll be in sync.
Melatonin is made from 5-HTP. Having 100mg
to 200mg of 5-HTP an hour before the "new" bedtime is your next best
bet.
There's a lot of extra radiation in
long-haul flights, so make sure you load up on vitamin C and antioxidants. In
any event, I take 1g twice a day, plus a multivitamin and mineral containing
plenty of antioxidants, including at least 10mg of immune-boosting zinc. Keeping
yourself optimally nourished is essential for more adventurous trips where
eating well isn't always an option.
Patrick Holford
I always travel with probiotics providing
significant quantities – at least 1 billion viable organisms - of both
Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifido bacteria. If you ever get some kind of
food poisoning or bug, take double the dose for the first three days, then one
a day for the next four days. This should halve your recovery time.
A teaspoon (5g) of glutamine powder also helps.
It's also good for hangovers (best taken with 2g of vitamin C and lots of water
as you go to bed, and again in the morning).
If you have been exposed to some kind of
bug, perhaps in water or food, there are certain natural remedies that are good
all-rounders. These include grapefruit seed extract, artemisia, oregano oil, garlic,
black walnut extract and olive leaf extract. Of course, you can eat garlic, and
when I'm off climbing mountains, I take a root and have at least a clove a day.
You can also cook with oregano.
There's a form of artemisia called artemisia
annua, also known as Chinese wormwood, which is highly effective against
malaria, helping both to prevent and treat it. People who get malaria are often
given Artemisinin, a drug version of this herb. If I'm in a malaria area, I take
20 drops a day of a concentrated tincture, starting a week before travel and
continuing at least two weeks after. Artemisia is also a good anti-fungal,
anti-parasitical and anti-bacterial agent.
Teatree oil is a must as a natural antiseptic.
Geranium oil and citronella are both anti-mosquito, and you may even find them in
natural mosquito repellants (available at outdoor or camping stores).
I also travel with Allex, a combination supplement
containing quercitin, vitamin C, glutamine, MSM and bromelain, which are all great
for calming down allergic or inflammatory reactions. If you get sunburnt or
have skin inflammation, aloe vera is excellent. In many hot countries
(especially South Africa), this grows abundantly and you can always break off a
leaf, slit it and use the gel that the plant exudes.
Talking of sunburn, the best way to protect
the skin is with vitamin A-based creams. Vitamin A is the skin's main protector
against radiation, backed up by vitamin C. Vitamin A-based creams load up your
skin to protect it from sun damage, but don't stop vitamin D production, which
is inhibited by sun cream.
You make most of your vitamin D in the first
15 minutes of sun exposure, so I often wear no sun cream for the first 15
minutes or early-morning sun, then apply.
Ten Secrets of Healthy Ageing (Piatkus) is
out in March. In March, Patrick Holford will be running seminars across South
Africa.
