Holidays are amazing! They most often than not come badly needed after periods of hard work and stress, and they allow us to take time out, relax and forget about the daily stresses and challenges of everyday life. They give us new experiences, good times and happy memories, delicious food and, or at least they should, good health from all that de-stressing.
However… It’s not at all uncommon that people end up ill just as they embark on their holiday, arrive in their destination or while away. Sometimes still suffering after coming back home. And that sucks!
The reasons for this can be many…
1) Your stress hormones
Stress hormones, such as adrenaline, that have kept you pushing through your busy schedule just before your holiday, may be protecting you when you are still working. Adrenaline can boost your immune system, so it may be doing exactly that while you are working so you can meet those deadlines but as soon as you stop and relax, the levels come down and that protection may disappear.
2) Holiday stress, combined with lack of sleep
Going away after a longer period of work pressures can itself be stressful and chronic stress and elevated cortisol (another stress hormone and your morning awakening hormone) can hamper your immune system, making your immune defenses more vulnerable.
You may also be neglecting your sleep to get things done and everything ready before you fly off, or your mind may be busy so you can’t get a good night sleep, and you end up with a tired body and brain when you are travelling. Tiredness makes your body more prone to illness.
Stress causes cortisol to be secreted at the wrong time of the day, throwing your circadian rhythm off kilter, and that can lead to various symptoms and health issues, including weakened immune system. Not to forget that stress can really wreak havoc in your gut, and stress, sleep and gut health are all very much linked. Add to that the fact that poor sleep often leads to poor food choices, which can then further aggravate any sensitive or IBS-prone guts.
3) Poor cabin air
If you are taking a flight, particularly a long haul flight, you will be exposed to the poor, recirculated cabin air for hours, and with lots of people in a small enclosed space, viruses can have a field day circulating around the cabin and finally finding their way into your airways. Some research shows that the risk of catching a cold can increase by as much as 20% when travelling by plane.
Cabin air pressure can also increase water retention in your body, make your gut gassy, dry your skin, eyes, mouth (saliva) and the mucus lining in your nose. These in turn can compromise your first line of defense as our beneficial bacteria reside in these areas (and play a huge part in your first life of defense) but need moist mucus-filled surfaces to live in.
Also, while on air and not moving much, your legs can get swollen due to the poor blood flow that circulates blood back up to the heart.
4) Dehydration
You can be losing a lot of fluids and electrolytes during the hot weather through sweating. Travelling, particularly air travel, can also lead to dehydration. This can lead to headaches, low energy, constipation and many other symptoms. A dehydrated body is a stressed body. And if you are forgetting to keep yourself hydrated, inadequate fluids intake can stop your bowels moving and can lead to painful symptoms.
In hot weather, the digestive system can feel the stress of the change in temperature, which can alter the bacterial growth in the gut too, as well as lead to more moisture being reabsorbed from the stool in the intestine back into the body, making stools hard and more difficult to pass.
5) Alcohol and sugary drinks
In hot weather, chilled white wine, bubbly prosecco, beer or fizzy drinks might be a joy to have, and for many having a drink at the airport or on a flight is a welcome pleasure and great pastime.
But watch out what and how much you drink. Alcohol and sweetened (with sugar or with artificial sweeteners) drinks too are known to disturb the gut environment and can lead to leaky gut and dysbiosis, or imbalance of your gut microbiome.
Alcohol also depletes serotonin levels in the body and may reduce motility, as well as cause low mood. And it’s a diuretic so can lead to further dehydration during hot weather.
6) Change in diet
Have you noticed your gut suffering with the heat?
You might get a funny tummy during hot weather, which is actually not that uncommon even when staying at home. It could be due to changing your diet with weather, so your digestive system may be struggling. If you are going away to somewhere where you eat different very food from what you usually eat at home, it may lead to gut symptoms, just due to this change.
You may eat more salads and raw foods that are harder to digest. Check out my old blog on raw food here. Or you may eat more processed food, or just overeat from the all-inclusive buffet, or maybe you end up eating too many desserts, treats and sugary things.
And if you are really unlucky (I’ve been in that situation at least in two occasions), you may end up with food poisoning or traveller’s diarrhoea. Or ‘Delhi belly’ as they call it in India (I learned this phrase the hard way on a trip round the Golden Triangle one year, and I wasn’t laughing at that joke!). A food poisoning will most probably take you down for a couple of days, during which you just want to stay near a toilet. But even after the acute infection, it could leave some pathogenic bacteria in your gut and cause further, longer-term gut symptoms.
7) Lack of movement/exercise
During holidays you may be just taking it easy, lying by the pool, sitting at restaurants and cafes, driving around or sitting in a coach to see the sights, hence moving and exercising less. Your body is meant for moving, so it may start complaining. Stifness, aches, pain, niggles…
Some of these could also be due to the hotel bed you are sleeping in; a too hard/soft mattress that your body is not used to can cause you wake up in the morning less than refreshed. Combined with eating bigger portions, more sugary food, and drinking more alcohol, you might get guts issues and could end up checking yourself onto the return flight a few pounds heavier.
Yes, holidays can be hazardous indeed! But….
Don’t despair! There’s so much you can do to protect yourself from falling ill, enjoy your holiday and return home healthy and relaxed and ready to go back to work and take on the world again!
Read my top tips for staying well on holiday here.
Happy holidays!
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