Search Results for: blog other ways flying can make you sick

How Daylight Savings Affects Animals

If you’re eating early, why can’t I? This coming weekend is unpopular for many people across the country: spring daylight savings time. We’re about to lose an hour of sleep, though at least we have Sunday to recover (my condolences to anyone who does have to get up early for any reason). For most of us that lack of sleep just makes us grumpy during the day; unless we have our whole lives scheduled down to the exact hour or minute, it doesn’t have much impact. Our pets, however, might feel the daylight savings shift more strongly than us. Pay … Continue reading →

Finding the Right Seat

I have always preferred window seats on airplanes. While I agree that aisle seats work better if you have a small bladder, like to stroll around or need access to the overhead bin throughout the flight, I’m not a big fan of beverage carts, flight attendants and others smacking into me as they make their way down the plane’s narrow aisles. And then, there’s the dreaded middle seat. Or, purgatory, as I like to refer to it. Does anyone ever request a middle seat? Not likely. According to travel experts, exit rows, aisle or window seats, and seats located near … Continue reading →

Travel and Germaphobes

Traveling’s tough for germaphobes. In addition to protecting themselves from bacteria found in airport bathrooms, the airplane’s tray tables and seat pockets, they have to contend with dirty luggage. Fortunately, studies show that checked bags that are exposed to grease, mud, and a host of other foreign slime won’t likely make you sick. Of course, there is always the possibility that E.coli might take up residence on the bottom of your bag, so it’s always a good idea to formulate a post-trip cleaning plan sooner rather than later, especially if you are a germaphobe. Health experts suggest that upon landing … Continue reading →

An Airplane’s Germ Zones

The title of this blog probably seems redundant if you’ve read my previous posts about the health of commercial aircrafts. For all intents and purposes airplanes are pretty much flying petri dishes and if you complete a flight without catching a single bug, then consider yourself blessed. At least that’s what researchers and investigators would have us think. Their years-long findings regarding dangerous germs found on major airliners is enough to make anyone re-consider jetting off on a romantic rendezvous in Paris or even a short flight to meet up with Mickey and Minnie. In my previous post I mentioned … Continue reading →

Other Ways Flying Can Make You Sick

So far so good. I didn’t lose my lunch… or my dinner, or my breakfast. Maybe the airplane water wasn’t tainted with bacteria after all. This time. Still, if you don’t hurl from the water or the food, then there are plenty of other ways you can fall ill from flying the friendly skies. In fact, bacteria is as close as the seat pocket in front of you. At least that’s what a new report claims. Health experts say that you are basically fishing around for cold and flu germs each time you stick your hand in an airplane’s seat … Continue reading →

Everybody’s Sick! What Do You Do?

Two of my favorite people in the world welcomed twins into their family back in July. They are amazing parents — at least in my humble opinion. It certainly doesn’t seem easy to have twins, but they make it look good. This month, they both got sick. Some sort of upper respiratory crud — not the flu, hopefully, because everybody had their flu shots — that lingered on and on, sapping energy on top of making them feel miserable. I was talking to mom as they were starting to get better… and she commented that she practically hadn’t seen dad … Continue reading →

One Key to Effective Parenting…Planning

I know in my brain that there is not just ONE magic key to being a fabulous parent. As a matter of fact, most of the time I feel like anything but a fabulous parent—instead, I feel more like I’m bumbling along, flying by the seat of my pants and praying for support. But, I do think that one way to deal with many of the curve balls parenting and family life throw our way is…planning. Planning for the inevitable, planning for everything that might go right and might go wrong, planning for rainy days and sick days and all … Continue reading →