Archive for September, 2007
LIP Health Hazards Part 3: Over Hydration
Yes, that’s right…over hydration not dehyrdration. There is such a thing.
Here’s a cautionary tale from my own travel experiences…
About 4 years ago, I took part in a 400km Marie Curie bike ride for charity in Vietnam with my Mum whose ovarian cancer had just been re-diagnosed. I was the youngest on the trip, she was [...]
Yes, that’s right…over hydration not dehyrdration. There is such a thing.
Here’s a cautionary tale from my own travel experiences…
About 4 years ago, I took part in a 400km Marie Curie bike ride for charity in Vietnam with my Mum whose ovarian cancer had just been re-diagnosed. I was the youngest on the trip, she was the oldest!
[Side note: That along with a group trip to the Mexico, Guatemala & Belize stand out so far as two of the best ever trips I have ever made - usually a bit shy of groups, these experiences totally changed my mind about group travel].
One of the things we’d all been warned about was drinking plenty of water of course. Cycling for up to 5-6 hours each day, we needed to keep even more well hydrated than we would simply blobbing by a poolside.
After a couple of days of acclimatisation, our cycling trip began along the very dusty, very noisy & very busy highway 1 just outside of Ho Chi Minh. Tough going it was and at a
welcome break after an hour swigging sugar cane juice and fresh mango
juice from a roadside stall, we were all knackered and swigging back
the copious amounts of water provided by our excellent back up team.On the bus at the end of the day, Charlie, our guide asked if everyone was feeling ok - one of our group, a girl said she felt a bit ill. When we arrived at our hotel in the hills (3 hours from the nearest city), she was still feeling ill and my Mum had to help her shower and then put her to bed.
Skip forward 2 hours and on return from our dinner (she’d stayed in bed), she was worse still and had fallen unconscious. They drove her back to HCM in a minibus (over a 3 hour drive) and straight to the nearest hospital where they couldn’t work out what was wrong with her.
After 2-3 days (our cycling trip continued but in a very subdued manner), we had word that she was out of the coma and they’d figured out that she had over hydrated and completely screwed up the electrolyte balance in her system because of it…with everything being far too diluted to be effective. She fully recovered after a few weeks but had absolutely no recollection of the event nor the trip afterwards.
So just how much had she drunk? Well, we’d been advised to drink approx. 5 litres of water a day whilst we were cycling but this girl had drunk 5 litres of water the day before we started cycling, as well as at least that on the first day of cycling. Apparently she had hardly sweated on the ride nor had she had to pee that much either so the intake of water was disproportionate to the amount she was losing or that her body needed. Scary story and it certainly gave everyone food for thought…
And what does this mean for LIPs?
Aim for around 2 litres of water a day as a minimum, irrespective of your body size or if you want a more accurate measure, multiply your body weight (in kgs) by 0.033 to get your recommended intake in litres. And don’t forget, if you are more active & sweating considerably more, increase your intake accordingly but don’t over-do it…if you’re not losing water by sweating or peeing, don’t over-do the increase in your intake.
Get A Private Invite To Dopplr…
…and become our travel buddy so you can follow our travel plans & we can follow yours!
Dopplr is a new social networking site designed just for frequent travellers and allows you to plug in your travel plans so your buddies can keep track of where you are & when…and you can do the same.
The site [...]
…and become our travel buddy so you can follow our travel plans & we can follow yours!
Dopplr is a new social networking site designed just for frequent travellers and allows you to plug in your travel plans so your buddies can keep track of where you are & when…and you can do the same.
The site is currently in private beta, so is only available by invite…but we have unlimited invites, so if you want one, leave us a comment!
Packing Hand Luggage
As a bit of a weakling, I like my carry on luggage to be pretty light when I travel, even if J does often carry it for me. Here is what I take in my hand luggage and why…
1) My Sony VAIO SZ4XWN/C laptop in a ZSHOCK hard case with charger to fill up any [...]
As a bit of a weakling, I like my carry on luggage to be pretty light when I travel, even if J does often carry it for me. Here is what I take in my hand luggage and why…
1) My Sony VAIO SZ4XWN/C laptop in a ZSHOCK hard case with charger to fill up any waiting time at the airport, get some work done or test out the wireless facilities wherever I happen to be.
2) A Freecom Portable 120GB external hard drive with a back up of my files.
3) A universal travel adaptor to charge up my things at airports, during delays and in case my other luggage gets lost.
4) My 80GB Apple iPod to drown out the noise of the plane (and other people).
5) My travel ’shroud’ - a very thin cotton sarong which I use as a blanket or to put over my head on a plane when I want to sleep (J has attemtpted to disown me on several occasions but failed each time).
6) Travel documents of course…like passports, copy of my travel insurance, tickets/boarding passes and my driving licence.
7) My travel wallet - neither of us use a bulkly wallet or purse anymore and have swapped these for slimline versions which hold just 2-3 essential cards each and a few notes.
My Canon Powershot 700 & USB cable in case I see anything of interest to take whilst in transit and then want to blog about it instantly.
9) My personal air ioniser which 
10) A clear re-usable plastic pouch which carries a small tube of my favourite organic all-pupose moisturiser, a small bottle of organic hand sanitiser, a small tube of lip balm and my toothbrush - in case of emergencies, this is pretty much all I’d need if everything else got lost.
What are your must have travel items that you take with you in hand luggage?
P.S. Very alarmed to hear that some UK flights are now banning laptops as carry on items because of heightened security…
LIP Health Hazards Part 2: Mosquitoes
So what do you do if you get bitten by a pesky mosquito and your bites usually swell up the size of a tennis ball?
That’s typically the reaction I used to get (until this year) and if I were unlucky, it would be combined with a violent red line streaking up my arm for which [...]
So what do you do if you get bitten by a pesky mosquito and your bites usually swell up the size of a tennis ball?
That’s typically the reaction I used to get (until this year) and if I were unlucky, it would be combined with a violent red line streaking up my arm for which I needed anitbiotics to prevent blood poisoning.
After our last stint in Grenada earlier this year, I’ve perfected the art of dealing with any bites I get which minimises swelling and means my bites usually settle down & go within 2-3 days, instead of a week of misery, constant itching & permanent scars.
Here’s what I do…(note the rather unfortunate acronym which may help you remember it!)
1) Ice
The best thing you can do as soon as you get bitten is to apply an ice pack to the bite and keep it there for 10-15 minutes. This minimises swelling and reduces the itching instantly.
2) Raise
Once you’ve iced the area, make sure you keep it raised. A bit like an injury or cut, raising your arm/leg above heart level helps reduce the flow of blood to the area and therefore the circulation of the histamine/poison the insect injects and reduces swelling.
3) Antihistamines
If, despite the above treatment, the bite appears to be a nasty one or you have multiple bites, it may be worth taking an antihistamine tablet (only ones recommended by your GP/pharmacist before you’ve left) to help your body cope in the short term & minimise the swelling & irritation.
If you are out & about (and even if you’re not), I recommend having the following kit with you on your LIP travels…store it all in a neat little case/toiletry bag and it’ll ensure you have everything you need to hand and will never be caught short.
Your Mossie Kit
- Some re-usable or disposable ice packs
- A bottle/packet of suitable antihistamines
- Antihistamine cream or calamine lotion
- A stretchy bandage (to keep the ice pack in place if you want to continue with what you were doing)
A word about other gadgets…
I have tried all manner of other gadgets such as those little clicker things but nothing works as effectively as the above process. If I get ice on the bite immediately, it usually reduces it so much that it’s gone within 20 minutes and will only flare up again if I get hot, scratch it or it gets irritated.
