medicines Archives - Corporate Travel Safety

The 8 most purchased must-pack over-the-counter travel medications you should pack. It never fails if you’re going to get sick while away from home, it’ll happen at night when the stores are closed or somewhere when you’re a distance from a town with a drug store, and the worst scenario is it happens in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language. So be prepared to alleviate your symptoms or cure your ills by always packing a few key medications in travel sizes.

Best Tip for Storing Travel Medications

I personally keep them in my toiletry bag and never take them out, so they are always on hand for my next trip. The trick to not packing your whole medicine chest or liquids is to look for travel-sized packages of tablets, as they are light and take up minimal space in your luggage. Make sure you check the expiration date on the individual packages of your travel medications each time you go.

Should You Contact Your Doctor Before Travel?

If you’re going to a more exotic destination, visit a travel clinic first. The clinic doctor can help with vaccines and prescription travel medications. Contact your physician if you need to travel with prescriptions or medical devices. Take photos with your phone or photocopies of your prescription bottles and scripts in case of loss while you’re traveling. Having your exact dose, physician’s name and contact information available can help facilitate getting replacements in another location.

Our Top 8 Picks for Over the Counter Medications Smart Travelers Keep Handy

Anti Diarrheal and Heartburn Medication

Stomach Upsets and gastrointestinal issues are the number one sicknesses travelers fall victim to. Diarrhea is usually caused by contaminated food or water or by bacteria that your system is not used to. Rich foods, strange water, and spices are enough to cause problems for even the heartiest of travelers. Whatever the cause, you want relief as soon as you feel bad. Select tablets or capsules, as these forms won’t leak and make a mess inside your bags. Tablets and capsules are also lightweight, which is another advantage over the liquid form of relief.
Pack: Imodium or Nexium.

2. Pain and Fever Medication

These medicines can help with achy feet, sore muscles, headaches brought on by high altitude or jet lag, and so much more. One of the most typical complaints of travelers is general aches and pain caused by walking. You can easily log a lot more miles walking in urban settings in a day than you do at home. Too much walking can cause achy feet, a sore back, and overusing of muscles. Make sure you select a medication that doesn’t interfere with any other medications you’re taking. If you’re unsure as t which type of pain reliever is best for you a quick call or email to your doctor will clarify your choice.
Pack Advil or Tylenol

3. Over the Counter Motion Sickness Medicine

Feeling motion sickness in a car, bus, train, or cruise ship is absolutely awful. Nausea and dizziness can make the journey unbearable for you and your companions, especially if you’re prone to vomiting during your bouts of motion sickness.
Counter the effects with motion relief medicines Pack: Dramamine or Bonine.

4. Over the Counter Mild Laxative

Here we go with more tummy ailments. Sometimes, when you’re on the go, it is tough “to go.” Different foods, water, and getting used to any time changes can have an unpleasant effect on your digestive system. We recommend looking for products that are tablets or capsules that can’t accidentally spill into your luggage. When looking for a travel laxative, look for a mild formula, one you may have already tried. You don’t want any uncomfortable surprises.
Pack Miralax

5. Over the Counter Antihistamine

Allergies can spring up in a new climate; don’t suffer the misery of a stuffy or runny nose, itchy eyes, or sneezing. Different locations, even just a couple of hours away from home, can be a new micro-climate. A new micro-climate or location can encourage different grasses, flora, and other allergy-triggering plants to create a miserable experience for you. And don’t think that an urban or city location is exempt from triggering allergies.
Pack Claritin or Zyrtec

6. Over the Counter Cough Drops and Suppressant

You’re at an increased risk of getting sick while traveling. Usually, it’s only a cold or related symptoms. Those symptoms can be irritating to you and your companions. Cough suppressants can help soothe your throat so you don’t cough as much, and a suppressant does, well, what the name implies. Pack Halls or Cough Relief Soft Gels

7. Over the Counter Decongestant

One of the worst feelings is a stuffy nose, a runny nose, or a sinus pressure headache, especially when flying when the changes in altitude can cause discomfort and even pain. Look for non-drowsy formulas. Benadryl can cause drowsiness, so be careful when using it. We like to opt for non-drowsy formulas. Pack: Sudafed or Mucinex

8. Over the Counter Sleep Aid

These can come in handy to help overcome jet lag, noisy sleeping conditions, and uncomfortable sleeping conditions while en route. Frequent flyers keep a sleep aid handy in their carry-on for longer overnight flights. Read the packaging so you don’t inadvertently find yourself groggy upon arrival at your destination. You certainly don’t want to drive in a sleepy state. Consider using eyeshades and earplugs to also assist in getting the rest you want.
Pack Unisom or Melatonin

Travel confidently by thinking ahead and having solutions in your bag for any minor inconveniences and symptoms that travel may throw your way. Over-the-counter travel medications can help you feel better, sleep well, and get the most out of your travels.

Bonus Tip:

Keep your small bottles of travel medications (pills or soft gels only) with your toiletry bag. That way, you’ll remember to bring them with you and the comfort they can provide. If you’re a mom of a young child, store and bring any medicines they may need in the same fashion. Lastly, keep other medication information here, too.

What is the difference between a travel medicine physician and a general practitioner?

While your regular doctor may have knowledge about what diseases you may encounter when you travel, healthcare professionals at travel clinics are specifically educated on the many various health problems you may encounter around the world. Travel clinics specialize in vaccinations for Meningitis, Polio, Typhoid, and Yellow Fever to name only a few plus medications for diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis and more. The decision to vaccinate in some cases needs to be weighed versus the risks of the vaccination. That is where the value of a travel medicine doctor comes into play.

If you’re visiting somewhere tropical, subtropical or if you have any chronic health condition such as diabetes or kidney disease, a trip to a travel clinic could provide life-saving recommendations that your general practitioner may not be aware of. Beyond medical concerns, the clinic may also counsel on precautions regarding food, beverages, insect bites, and even pickpockets. They can also clarify which over the counter medicines to pack are best according to your destination. Of course, all this good advice depends on the doctor and clinic you visit. Lastly, depending on your health insurance a trip to a travel medicine doctor is often covered.

To underscore the issue regarding the decision to vaccinate, here’s an enlighting article by Julian Klapowitz, MD illustrating how and why a doctor skilled in travel medicine could be a good health care partner to seek out when it comes to understanding recommended vs. required vaccinations.

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Should Overseas Travelers Get a Yellow Fever Vaccination?
The Benefit vs. The Risk

Julian Klapowitz, MD

Internal Medicine and Travel Medicine

www.travelsurenyc.com

Professor Martin Gore, a leading UK cancer scientist, died on January 10^th, reportedly as a result of a Yellow Fever vaccination he had received.

Unfortunately, all vaccinations may have life-threatening side effects. Severe allergic reactions/death can rarely occur after all shots. In our NYC travel vaccination clinic, we review these risks verbally and with VIS’s.

The issue with the Yellow Fever vaccine, in particular, is that:

A) It can also cause severe neurologic and multi-organ side-effects (in addition to allergic reactions).
B) The actual risk of getting yellow fever disease during travel is not always easy to determine and is sometimes not much higher than the risk of the vaccination.

The Disease: Yellow Fever is a potentially life-threatening mosquito-borne viral illness. An estimated 15% of people infected with Yellow Fever will develop severe illness and up to about half of those people die of complications. The vaccination is nearly 100% effective at protecting against the disease.

The Risk of Getting the Disease: Generally, in West Africa, 50 per 100,000 travelers having a 2-week stay will develop severe illness and, for South America, it is 5 per 100,000. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The risk varies significantly, though, with the specific location, length of trip, activities during the trip, and whether or not there is an outbreak of the disease.

The Risk of the Shot: The risk of the severe/life-threatening side effects from the vaccine is approximately 1.1 per 100,000 people vaccinated for age under 60 and 3.4 per 100,000 in ≥60 (Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, 2018).

So, if the risk of the disease is very low (for instance, traveling to a country in S. America for a few days where Yellow Fever is present at low levels), the risk of the vaccine is close to the risk of getting the disease, particularly if a traveler is older.

Other factors that need to be taken under consideration: a traveler’s health, what medications they take (immune suppressants), and whether or not the Yellow Fever vaccination is REQUIRED for the trip (as opposed to RECOMMENDED…I will address this subject in a later post).

Bottom line: The Yellow Fever shot, and all other vaccinations, carry risk. Thoroughly reviewing what is needed on your trip with a Travel Health Care Professional will not eliminate that risk, but it will help ensure you are getting only the shots you need. As with Yellow Fever, in particular, the decision to vaccinate for travel is not as simple as it may sometimes seem.

Doctor Klapowitz has more interesting and important information you can find here:

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