Travelling around the world is arguably one of the best things to do in life. People who frequently travel can unanimously agree that it gives a sense of fulfillment and relaxation. They can even say that travelling is a healing process for them. This fact, while can be hard to understand at first, has some merit to it! By having something to do and look at, we can momentarily forget our problems and be able to enjoy the present. In fact, many articles promote that travelling can be a great form of stress relief.

However, one mustn’t forget the dangers of travelling. There are many things to be wary about, but I wish to emphasize one thing for this article: Health. I wrote various tips in my previous article on how to stay healthy when travelling. They are wonderful tips and I stand by my word with them. However, in this trying times, I believe it is best that I add another tip to that list.

Why Should I be Worried about Nutrient Deficiency while Travelling?

When you travel to a place you have never been before, there are usually two reasons for it: to relax, and to have a good time. However, travelling somewhere new holds a risk of being exposed to unknown pathogens. If you or someone in your group has a nutritional deficiency, then it may become a huge issue while travelling.  Nutritional deficiency is no joke. It can snowball to a huge list of health issues if not taken care of properly.

While nutritional deficiency isn’t as awful as I make it sound to be, it is still a very important. It can be the one factor that will make you or someone sick. The most prominent example is iron deficiency. Being deficient in iron can cause multiple things ranging from headaches to a weakened immunity system. These same things can prove to be an obstacle to enjoying your vacation.

A weakened immunity system is something that you could not afford while on vacation. You can get sick from whatever pathogens were in the air at the time, and you can infect other people around you.

Travelling with Nutrition in Mind

Personally, I have a son who needs to take vitamins in order to make up for his weak immunity system. Whenever we travel, his condition becomes one of my biggest worries. I usually take more time in keeping track of his medications and vitamins over the planning process itself.

Unfortunately, to know which Vitamin someone is lacking from can be very difficult. Nutritional testing can be time consuming, and taking one while travelling will only consume your R&R time. While eating balanced meals can prove to be helpful, it does not give huge results. Just randomly recommending our friends with supplements can bring more harm than good. So how do we deal with this?

Let’s say you’re travelling right now, and you come across this article. Like I’ve mentioned earlier, nutritional testing is our only way to know which vitamins and/or minerals we are lacking of. However, to even perform one, you would need to:

• Find a laboratory that does the testing to go there to book for an appointment.
• After booking an appointment, you either have to go back to the same lab on your scheduled day to perform the testing, or perform the test later in the day.
• You will have to return again in order to receive the results.

In essence, you have spent three precious days; these days you could’ve spent on enjoying the vacation!

Thankfully, the wonders of the internet save us the time. HealthLabs offers a private and affordable testing to check for your nutritional deficiencies. Instead of looking for a hospital or a lab and waiting behind long queues, you can simply order the test online! They also provide a list of their laboratories near you, so finding one wouldn’t be difficult. This way, you will only have to spend approximately two days, while avoiding the hassle of waiting altogether!

Image credits:Erik Odiin