1. The sleepless plane ride over. A guy behind me insisted on talking at a yelling volume to the guy next to him. During the dark (sleep) time on the plane. For two hours straight. That, combined with the sleepless 7-hour layover in Newark Liberty Airport means I got no quality sleep for 23 hours. Then, I had a 2-hour nap before starting the new day in Scotland. No sleep is bad for immune function.

2. I tried haggis my first morning in Scotland, and kind of liked it.  In my quest to eat more haggis in the ensuing days, I’m pretty sure I was served “black pudding” instead. Made of pig’s blood. I don’t think it agreed with me. I spent 24 hours finding out the hard way, but it did not put me down.

3. Rainy weather in Edinburgh. It rained nearly every day. And I was outside during a lot of it. Cold rain. And wind.

4. The plane ride home. Surrounded by two screaming kids and two coughing kids. I think kids under 8 years old should not be allowed on flights more than 2 hours in duration. Again, no sleep. Also, two men coughing their heads off and not doing it into their bent elbow.

So how did I live? Dumb luck? Maybe. A daily EpiCor regimen before, during and after the trip? Maybe. Washing hands several times a day? Perhaps. Getting plenty of sleep at night while on vacation? Possibly. And, finally, a certain beverage may have helped as well. See the picture.

“One well-known study in 1979 found that when a plane sat three hours with its engines off and no air circulating, 72% of the 54 people on board got sick within two days. The flu strain they had was traced to one passenger. For that reason, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an advisory in 2003 to airlines saying that passengers should be removed from planes within 30 minutes if there’s no air circulation, but compliance isn’t mandatory.”

Man I hope that doesn’t happen on our trip. I will be slamming plenty of EpiCor before, during and after.

And, here are some “fun” (gross)  plane horror stories from flight attendants that will really spell it out for you:

Click image to enlarge so you can read it better

My family and I are taking a vacation soon. And everyone probably knows how that goes. You get frantic trying to get everything done…at work and at home… so you can have peace of mind on vacation knowing that all is well back home.

Of course, what actually happens is that you run yourself ragged, in time-crunches and in worry, trying to beat the deadlines before vacation launch.  Then, once you’ve finally left, it takes a day to wind down. Then, you get sick because your body is finally catching up with reality and it does not appreciate what you put it through. So it rebels. You come down with a whopper of a cold or flu or both. And by the time you get home, you’re just now recovering.

Here’s a lot of dialog about this topic on Fodor’s Web site.

My theory–and I’ll bet it’s borne out in some research–is that the stress you put yourself through to reach vacation time (and maybe even during vacation) knocks your immune function off track. The lack of immune balance comes back to haunt you once you’ve set sail from the office.  An NIH immunologist gives some thought about it, too. And, we’ve seen in this blog some of the science showing stress actually alters the good/bad bacteria in the gut, leading to a profound change in immune function.

I’ll go into my vacation fully confident my immune system is ready (with my EpiCor regimen fully in place).

A good time was had by all…

to Orlando, with stops at every McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Steak and Shake, and Arby’s in the Miwest and Southeast. We were in and out of buses while the temperature ranged from 0 to 20 something (even in Georgia!). And, of course, some girls and guys insisted on wearing shorts and flip-flops in sub-30 temps. Once in Orlando, we started in each day at 6:00 for breakfast at the hotel, and usually ended at midnight or 1:00. This wasn’t a vacation, it was an endurance marathon, especially at the Disney parks ( 4 parks in 4 days), where it got so crowded at Disney World they shut off the entrance gates for a while during a Monday afternoon. And of course, real food places at Epcot and other locales were booked full all day, so one had to rely on the famous $9.00 Disney burgers, or every kind of fried, breaded chicken shape plus fries.

So, between the nutrient-deprived diet, lack of sleep, close confinement with many bodies inside a bus for hours at a time, wildly swinging temperatures, days full of logistics and deadlines, and some truly bad burritos at Epcot’s Mexico, there was ample opportunity to get sicker than a  dog (and not Goofy). About 9 or so of our kids did come down with something, but were able to bounce back within a day.

As for me, I took a 7-day ration of supplements on the road with me, and also ate massive servings of pineapple, melon and orange juice every day for breakfast (and yes, a little bacon, biscuits and gravy and eggs).  I’m sure I didn’t drink enough water. I was fine the whole trip, yet when I got home I came down with some sinus inflammation and mild cough a day later. But those seemed to be dissipating within 18 hours or so.

…as was precious sack time when you could get it.

The new Oasis of the Seas — with more than 2000 virus-haven restrooms.

another cruise in a heartbeat, but, next time, we’ll probably need to take some extra precautions so as to not ruin the cruise by being holed up sick in our cabin all week.

A new CDC study published this month and discussed in the New York Times this week shows that restroom cleanliness may well be the epicenter of infectious outbreaks on cruise ships.

And we’re talking a lot of outbreaks. Since 2005, 66 outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness aboard cruise ships have been reported, according to the Times story.

Novovirus, the cause of almost all of these outbreaks, “is a tough  virus,” said the lead author of the study, Dr. Philip C. Carling in the Times story. “It isn’t killed by alcohol hand rubs. Chlorine bleach is the only thing that works.”

Good God, there’s more. One study in 2009 of passengers returning from a three-month world cruise showed that 4 percent tested positive for hepatitis E, with one-third of those being symptomatic.

In my book, cruise vacation means immune system prep. Diet, sleep, exercise, supplementation. All hands on deck. Actually, keep your hands off the deck and off the restroom fixtures, too.

Dr. Stuart Reeves

Wanna experience one of the most beneficial half hours of your life? Listen to Embria Health Science’s Stuart Reeves as he is interviewed about immune balance on a Latrobe, PA radio station.  Stuart hits the big points on immune health and quality of life, from colds and flu to stress and travel  to extreme exercise vs. moderate exercise. He also gives some great detail on how EpiCor is produced

Click here for the interview.

It seems that Windows Media Player works well for this.  If you need to grab it for your machine, download it here.

My wife and I and one of our daughters last Sunday decided to take a rare “open” afternoon and drive downtown to stroll around an international food fair outdoors. The timing was perfect; beautiful fall weather, a whole afternoon where we were all free (no music rehearsals, no band parents volunteer events, no piled-up household chores that couldn’t wait).

Of course what happens? My daughter is texting her friends the entire afternoon, reaching into her pocket to grab her phone about every 90 seconds. I came that close to snatching that phone and throwing it into the Des Moines River, my version of that Corona beer commercial. So much for taking an afternoon to catch up  on conversation with my daughter, who normally is sequestered from me during the week by homework, late practices and who knows what else.

And of course, me being the quiet, in-control male, I refuse to honestly confront the issue at the time of the offending behavior. I try to signal my displeasure subtly with a scrunched brow and roll of the eyes. It is acknowledged and then promptly ignored. So I let it fester inside, probably doing wonders for my already borderline blood pressure.

I fear for both my daughters and their penchant for all texting all the time. I hope it is a phase that will somehow pass by the time they’re young adults, but I’m not encouraged. Between texting and Facebook–the first thing they descend upon when they get home and the last thing they do before bed–they are plugged into a network nearly every waking hour.

As they and their peers grow older, what awaits them? Look at what’s happening now in the corporate world. A New York Times story today describes the serious rise in physcial ailments that health care professionals are witnessing among business travelers. Greater coronary and related conditions spawned from a world of airport jungles, Blackberry addiction and the crush of multitasking demands made possible by your friendly neighborhood global wireless broadband.  This trend is channeling directly into the heart of the immune balance story. Big time.

If my 16-year-olds are living like this, is there any doubt that a new wave of adult-onset Attention Deficit Disorder will take shape soon? I recall an interview with John Cleese, a founding member of the legendary Monty Python’s Flying Circus, who had since built a successful business producing corporate training videos (do you think sitting through one of his training films might actually be fun??).  The question put to him: What is one thing you would wish for in the business world that is missing right now?  He said that he truly believes business decision making and management effectiveness could be improved if executives could and would take a good amount of time to stand at a window, look out, and ponder problems and opportunities. In other words, solitary meditation. That does fly in the face of another executive whose staff told me he schedules his day in 10-minute increments, so be ready to go when he is…and then wrap it up quickly.   

Maybe I’m all wet (or, as they say within the digerati, not a high bandwidth individual). Maybe the onslaught of toiling within multiple electronic (and airborne) pathways is simply a matter of mild adaptation and readjustment. Anyone else have some words of wisdom on the wisdom of a wired existence?

Looks like Australia is already starting to experience some nasty pandemic-like waves.

Welcome aboard the HMS Germ

My sister-in-law and her husband just left on a Mediterranean cruise this week. One of the big concerns on any cruise these days is whether the whole ship will get sick. We’ve seen this happen several times. If I were cruising to Monaco and Sicily and Venice, I’d be royally PO’d if I had to spend my trip in bed.

Could a healthy, balanced immune system help stave off your getting ill when many or most on board are in the sick bay?

Of course, many people who go on vacation–no matter where–end up feeling lousy the day they begin vacation, possibly because they’ve endured the pent up stress of getting everything done and organized ahead of time so they can break away for a week or two. We all know, stress can impact your immune system, which can lead to variety of ailments. MSNBC has an interesting piece on cruise crud from a couple years ago.

Anyone really wanting to delve in the cruise/passenger health world should visit the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program Web site.

I’ll let you know how my sister-in-law fared when she gets back.