We all love to go on holiday and spend some relaxing quality time with our friends or family. Quite often this will be outside of the UK, especially when looking for some warmer climes. The last thing any one of us wants during this much anticipated time, is to feel ill. However, these are the times where we are most likely to suffer from the common issues such as travellers diarrhoea. Changes in climate, water and food, can all contribute to anything from an upset tummy to severe diarrhoea.

The reason for this is that travel overseas combined with consumption of unfamiliar foods and water can sometimes lead to disturbance of the normal healthy balance of the billions of microflora which exists in the intestine and this can lead to intestinal discomfort.

One way to help try to prevent this, and if it does happen, to try to lessen the severity, is to take probiotics. Supplementing with a good quality probiotic will help to ‘reset’ the balance in favour of the ‘friendly’ bacteria, leaving less room for the ‘non-friendly’ potentially pathogenic bacteria which are causing the problem. The way in which this works is a basic principle of space. So by ensuring that before you leave for your holiday, that your gut/intestine is populated with friendly bacteria. These ‘attach’ to the inside of your gut which means there is less or no room for the ‘bad’ bacteria.

Supplementation should be continued throughout the holiday and for a short period of time on our return, just to make sure the population of ‘good’ bacteria is topped up, therefore not leaving any gaps for the ‘bad guys’ to get in!

B Vitamins

One of the little irritations which is not such a great addition to your holiday is the mosquito, or mozzie! Some people seem to be more prone to being bitten by these little flying insects when abroad.

There is some research which suggests that skin can be made much less attractive to biting insects by taking Vitamin B vitamins, and in particular Vitamin B1 and B12. This is not to say that if you take Vitamin B for a couple of weeks before going, you will escape being bitten completely, but it may help! You can find Vitamin B1 and B12 in most B Complex formulations, and it is suggested you start taking these a few weeks before you go away to help try to prevent bites.

So, this as well as using insect repellent could really do the trick! This is especially important if you are going to a country where there are specific diseases carried by mosquitoes such as malaria.

*You may need to take added precautions such as sleeping inside an insect net, in high-risk areas*

Vitamin C

Boost your immune system before going on holiday to beat the bugs circulating in the air conditioning. Airports and airplanes, are the perfect places for bugs to spread their way round. There is such a high amount of traffic passing through that it can be unavoidable.

Make sure you boost your immune system with Vitamin C and Zinc before going, to give your body the best chance of fighting them off.

I never go on holiday without a couple of sachets of my immune support sachets, these contain a combination of Vitamin C, probiotics and other immune-supporting goodies. They are great for a little pick me up, and rumour has it, they also help with hangovers!!