Living Life blog

Travelling and health - India and beyond

It's no surprise that more of us go travelling than ever before, really. If you think back to the 20th century, that's when modern travel really began. In the 18th century things were opened up enormously by the building of the railway infrastructure, but it's only when cars go into mass production and aeroplanes become a form of mass transport that we really start seeing large numbers of people going abroad. In fact, I'd love to know the percentage of UK nationals in 1913 who'd been abroad as compared to the number now. And pretty much all down to technology.

As countries like India and China begin to show unstoppable economic momentum, there are likely to be increasing numbers of opportunites for skilled workers as investement grows. This type of overseas assignment obviously differs from one in, say, Australia or Canada as it means that language training will likely be required.

Anyone travelling to India should of course make sure they have comprehensive medical cover. In terms of health insurance, India policies are available for international (long term) stays such as those undertaken by expatruates and also holiday health insurance for those staying for a shorter length of time.

India is a diverse country with an almost infinite amount of interesting places to visit and cool things to do. Yoga, trekking, boat cruises - you name it, India probably has it. There are even places in India you can snowboard, although generally it's not a snowy place!

If travelling to India the FCO advises visiting your GP a couple of months prior to setting off in order to find out which vaccinations etc may be required.

 

 

Holiday Health

So a couple of months ago I posted on the decisions surrounding my holiday to Majorca - and now it has been and gone.

In fact, I only got back last week so I'm quite pleased to report that I've still got that holiday feeling....and maybe a small hint towards a tan. Anyway, while I was gone I thought of something I'd like to share on here. Basically in between enjoying sun, sea, sand and sangria, I realised that there are quite a lot of health issues to take into account. In fact, some of them ended up costing me a fortune when we realised we'd forgot to pack essentials - such as mosquito repellent. It occurred to me that if someone had written me a quick check list it would have made things a lot easier. So here is mine. Hope it helps on your next holiday!

Holiday health essentials: a checklist

• Mosquito repellent - an essential if visiting somewhere inhabited by these nasty little insects. As I say I found out how important this is the hard way.
• Sun lotion - pretty obvious, but there you go. Tick it off!
• After sun - Aloe vera works a treat on frazzled skin
• Plasters - watch out, pool tiles can be problematic
• Resolve - a good shout for any headaches cause by too much sangria
• Water - It's easy to forget to drink enough water when you're spending each day at the beach, but dehydration can cause lots of problems, especially in the heat
• Health insurance - an essential, don't leave the country without it
• A European health insurance card - providing cut price or free medical care in Europe, it's well worth applying for one of these. Especially since many travel insurance policies now won't cover treatments you could have received free with an EHIC.

Have I forgotten anything? Let me know.......

 

Wanderlust

We all want to just up and travel to somewhere we have never been before. We all would like to leave responsibility behind and just go for a big wander. But sadly we just can't there's too much on our shoulders.

But we can do some of the things we'd like by offloading the responsibilities onto others, luckily there are plenty of ways to do this. For a start there is the thorny problem of illness, sadly the rest of the world doesn't have the same ideas in healthcare than us in the UK. I'm not saying that the Britain has a better service, they are just different.

So when/if we decide to wander it's better to leave all that in the hands of proffessionals, there are several people who specialise in tailoring an international healthcare plan for everyone depending on their choices, depending on their circumstances.

But mostly everything is covered by just a little bit of preparation before you start to wander, and enough money, and credit cards to see you out of any spots of bother.

Salt Mine the new Treatment for Asthma

A large salt mine in Pakistan, reputed to be the second largest in the world, has started to draw long-term sufferers of the respiratory condition asthma. The Khewra mine, which has it's own mosque made from the mineral, as well as it's own internal railway line, has become Pakistan's leading health tourist resort over the last couple of years.

The interesting thing is that there is absolutely no medicine involved. The beneficial effects come completely from the antibacterial nature of salt, which in the deeper parts of the mine have caused an almost completely sterile area, which allows the sufferers to breathe in deeply allowing a clearing of the affected passages.

Although there have been some putative benefits reported from both the mine-owners, and the visitors, most of the clinical studies into the benefits of salt to asthma have shown at best a neutral effect and clinicians recommend that if traveling anywhere for the good of your health [even Pakistan] it would be a lot more prudent to take out international medical insurance beforehand. But have stopped at dismissing this sort of therapy completely out of hand.