I’m heading overseas. Do I really need travel vaccines?
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Australia is in its busiest month for short-term overseas travel. And there are so many things to consider when planning your trip. Unfortunately, it’s easy to overlook the importance of pre-travel vaccinations.
That’s particularly the case for those visiting friends and relatives, who are less likely to get vaccinated before leaving the country. Unfortunately, this is also the group at greater risk compared to other travellers.
That’s because they generally stay longer, are more likely to travel to rural areas, eat or drink local or untreated food and water, and have closer contact with the local population.
Why are travel vaccines important?
Although infectious diseases exist everywhere, in some destinations there is a higher risk of becoming sick.
This can be due to tropical climates, the quality of water and sanitation, and insects or animals that carry diseases. This is alongside declining vaccination rates in children and low vaccine uptake in adults (for instance, for the flu vaccine) globally.
Getting sick overseas can at best, interrupt your holiday plans, or at worst, lead to serious illness and having to navigate foreign health systems.
Which vaccines should I think about?
The first group of vaccines are routine ones, not specific to travel (for example, the measles or flu vaccine).
The next group are specific to the risk of infectious disease where you’re travelling (for example, typhoid vaccine) or related to a person’s health or planned activities.
Finally, some vaccines might be required by law (for example, a yellow fever vaccine, or vaccines for travellers to Mecca). These will require evidence you’ve had them for entry to some countries.
Measles
Measles is a highly infectious virus that can cause severe illness. It can transmit easily in public spaces such as shopping centres or on aeroplanes.
There are outbreaks globally. This includes in Australia, where cases are mainly linked to people returning from overseas, including from popular holiday destinations in Southeast Asia.
So ensure you’re vaccinated with two doses of the measles vaccine. You may not know if you had two doses as a child. So you should check your vaccine records or with your GP. If you’re still unsure, it’s safe to have another dose, particularly if you’re planning to travel overseas.
Measles vaccines are given to children in Australia at one year of age, but young infants are at highest risk of severe disease and death. That is why Australia currently provides an extra, free measles vaccine for infants from six months of age if they are going overseas.
The flu
Flu remains one of the most common causes of infection in travellers. Most people know they should get a flu vaccine during autumn or winter.
However, the vaccine best protects against disease for about three to four months. So another dose is recommended for people heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter.
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A is a viral infection of the liver. It spreads through contaminated food or water, or through contact with an infected person. It’s common in many parts of the world.
A vaccine is available that can be given from one year of age. Two doses, given at least six months apart, provides lifetime protection against disease.
Typhoid
Typhoid is a bacterial disease that can cause high fevers and abdominal pain. Complications such as brain inflammation occur in 10-15% of people.
It is most commonly acquired in people travelling to Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Typhoid, like hepatitis A, is spread through contaminated food and water.
There are two types of typhoid vaccines: an injection (which can be given from two years of age and is safe in people who are immunocompromised) and an oral vaccine (for people over six years of age).
Rabies
Rabies is caused by a virus that spreads when an infected animal bites or scratches. Dogs are the main carrier of the virus, but any mammal can be infected, including bats, monkeys and cats. Rabies is almost always fatal.
People who are bitten or scratched by a land mammal overseas or bat anywhere need urgent treatment (called “post-exposure prophylaxis”) to prevent getting rabies.
This treatment needs to given as soon as possible after the bite or scratch. But access overseas can be difficult, particularly in remote areas.
Rabies vaccination before you travel can reduce the need for this post-exposure prophylaxis or can simplify your treatment if you’re bitten or scratched by an infected animal.
So a two- or three-visit vaccination course is recommended before travel.
Other vaccines
Other vaccines include those against:
- mosquito-borne diseases yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis.
- cholera, a cause of severe diarrhoea
- mpox, which is recommended for sexually active gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. It is also recommended for anyone (regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity) who is planning overseas travel with the intention of having sex with sex workers or in a country where a type of the virus known as clade I is circulating.
How do I find out more?
See your GP or a travel doctor to find out how to stay healthy on your trip, including which vaccines are recommended for you. This will be based on your travel destinations, planned activities, and baseline health. Many vaccines are also available at pharmacies.
You might have to pay for some pre-travel vaccines. But this is usually a relatively small cost on top of what you’ve already spent on flights, accommodation and activities, and will mean less chance of disrupting your trip.
Archana Koirala, Paediatrician and Infectious Diseases Specialist; Clinical Researcher, University of Sydney; Anthea Katelaris, Public Health Physician and Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney, and Phoebe Williams, Paediatrician & Infectious Diseases Physician; Senior Lecturer & NHMRC Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Is It Possible To Lose Weight Quickly?
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In Victorian England, weight-loss trends like the dangerous tapeworm diet were popular. While modern fad diets can seem less extreme, they often promise similarly fast results. However, these quick fixes can have similarly harmful consequences:
Not so fast
To illustrate the difference between gradual and extreme dieting, the video bids us consider two identical twins, Sam and Felix:
- Sam adopts a gradual approach, slowly reducing calorie intake and exercising regularly. This causes his body to burn glycogen stores before transitioning to fat as an energy source. Regular exercise helps Sam maintain muscle mass, which boosts his metabolism and supports sustained weight loss.
- Felix drastically cuts calories, forcing his body into starvation mode. He quickly depletes glycogen stores, loses muscle mass, and burns fewer calories, making long-term weight loss more difficult. Although Felix might initially lose water weight, this is temporary and unsustainable.
You cannot “just lose it quickly now, and then worry about healthiness once the weight’s gone”, because you will lose health much more quickly than you will lose fat, and that will sabotage, rather than help, your fat loss journey.Healthy weight loss requires gradual, balanced changes in diet and exercise tailored to individual needs. Extreme diets, whether through calorie restriction or things like elimination of carbs or fats, are unsustainable and shock the body. It’s important to prioritize long-term health over societal pressures for quick weight loss and focus on developing a sustainable, healthy lifestyle.
In short, the quickest way to lose weight and keep it off (without dying), is to lose it slowly.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
How To Lose Weight (Healthily)
Take care!
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Mango vs Pomegranate – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing mangos to pomegranate, we picked the pomegranate.
Why?
In terms of macros, pomegranate has more than 3x the fiber, more than 2x the protein, and slightly more carbs, giving it an easy first-round win.
In the category of vitamins, mangos have more of vitamins A, B3, B6, C, and E, while pomegranate has more of vitamins B1, B2, B5, B7, and K, for a 5:5 tie here.
Looking at minerals, mangos have more selenium, while pomegranates have more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, winning easily.
In other considerations, both have plenty of polyphenols, though pomegranate peel specifically has some extra beneficial properties (since the peel is quite tough as-is, it can be steeped for tea, or else dried and ground to a powder for use as a supplement), making this round either a tie or a win for pomegranates, depending on whether or not we count the peel-only benefits.
Either way, adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for pomegranates, but by all means enjoy either or both, as diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Pomegranate’s Health Gifts Are Mostly In Its Peel
Enjoy!
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Steps For Keeping Your Feet A Healthy Foundation
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Important Steps For Good Health
This is Dr. Kelly Starrett. He’s a physiotherapist, author, speaker, trainer. He has been described as a “celebrity” and “founding father” of CrossFit. He mostly speaks and writes about mobility in general; today we’re going to be looking at what he has to say specifically about our feet.
A strong foundation
“An army marches on its stomach”, Napoleon famously wrote.
More prosaically: an army marches on its feet, and good foot-care is a top priority for soldiers—indeed, in some militaries, even so much as negligently getting blisters is a military offense.
Most of us are not soldiers, but there’s a lesson to be learned here:
Your feet are the foundation for much of the rest of your health and effectiveness.
KISS for feet
No, not like that.
Rather: “Keep It Simple, Stupid”
Dr. Starrett is not only a big fan of not overcomplicating things, but also, he tells us how overcomplicating things can actively cause problems. When it comes to footwear, for example, he advises:
❝When you wear shoes, wear the flat kind. If you’re walking the red carpet on Oscar night, fine, go ahead and wear a shoe with a heel. Once in a while is okay.
But most of the time, you should wear shoes that are flat and won’t throw your biological movement hardware into disarray.
When you have to wear shoes, whether it’s running shoes, work shoes, or combat boots, buy the flat kind, also known as “zero drop”—meaning that the heel is not raised above the forefoot (at all).
What you want to avoid, or wean yourself away from, are shoes with the heels raised higher off the ground than the forefeet.❞
Of course, going barefoot is great for this, but may not be an option for all of us when out and about. And in the home, going barefoot (or shod in just socks) will only confer health benefits if we’re actually on our feet! So… How much time do you spend on your feet at home?
Allow your feet to move like feet
By evolution, the human body is built for movement—especially walking and running. That came with moving away from hanging around in trees for fruit, to hunting and gathering between different areas of the savannah. Today, our hunting and gathering may be done at the local grocery store, but we still need to keep our mobility, especially when it comes to our feet.
Now comes the flat footwear you don’t want: flip-flops and similar
If we wear flip-flops, or other slippers or shoes that hold onto our feet only at the front, we’re no longer walking like we’re supposed to. Instead of being the elegant product of so much evolution, we’re now walking like those AT-AT walkers in Star Wars, you know, the ones that fell over so easily?
Our feet need to be able to tilt naturally while walking/running, without our footwear coming off.
Golden rule for this: if you can’t run in them, you shouldn’t be walking in them
Exception: if for example you need something on your feet for a minute or two in the shower at the gym/pool, flip-flops are fine. But anything more than that, and you want something better.
Watch your step
There’s a lot here that’s beyond the scope of what we can include in this short newsletter, but:
If we stand or walk or run incorrectly, we’re doing gradual continual damage to our feet and ankles (potentially also our knees and hips, which problems in turn have a knock-on effect for our spine, and you get the idea—this is Bad™)
Some general pointers for keeping things in good order include:
- Your weight should be mostly on the balls of your feet, not your heels
- Your feet should be pretty much parallel, not turned out or in
- When standing, your center of gravity should be balanced between heel and forefoot
Quick tip for accomplishing this last one: Stand comfortably, your feet parallel, shoulder-width apart. Now, go up on your tip-toes. When you’ve done so, note where your spine is, and keep it there (apart from in its up-down axis) when you slowly go back to having your feet flat on the ground, so it’s as though your spine is sliding down a pole that’s fixed in place.
If you do this right, your center of gravity will now be perfectly aligned with where it’s supposed to be. It might feel a bit weird at first, but you’ll get used to it, and can always reset it whenever you want/need, by repeating the exercise.
If you’d like to know more from Dr. Starrett, you can check out his website here 🙂
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Owning Your Menopause: Fitter, Calmer, Stronger in 30 Days – by Kate Rowe-Ham
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Likely written in response to the popularity of “Thinner, Leaner, Stronger”, this book has different goals: being fitter, calmer, and stronger.
Which, at the end of the day, must surely be an improvement. While society certainly wants us (women in general, and at least some men) to be thinner and leaner, it’s not always what’s best for us, whereas fitter and calmer? It’s hard to go wrong with that.
Much of the book is given over to detailing the processes involved in menopause, and the ways in which changes can be managed with diet, exercise, and other lifestyle interventions. For example, the author herself quit alcohol partially because she knew it was sabotaging her hormone metabolism (amongst many other things, of course). She also recommends HRT and discusses it in depth, but notes that there are some exceptions, details those too, and leaves us to make our own decisions in consultation with our own medical providers.
The “30 days” in the subtitle refers to an exercise plan and meal plan, and yes, the latter includes recipes. The recipes themselves are a little on the basic side for this reviewer’s taste, but then, perhaps that leaves room for personalization, so it is not so bad.
You’ll notice that we haven’t talked a lot about “calmer”, the reason is that neither does she; it’s mostly a recurrent theme presented as a result of following the other advices, and thus getting to better health in a stress-free fashion. She does discuss recovery and sleep, though.
The style is light pop-science, as one might expect from someone who is a personal trainer by career, not a research scientist or medical doctor. The author is British, so you will see spellings such as “oestrogen”, but we’ll trust this is not an insurmountable barrier to understanding.
Bottom line: if you are navigating menopause and want to stay healthy (or maybe even level up your health and fitness), this book can help with that.
Click here to check out Owning Your Menopause, and get fitter, calmer, and stronger in 30 days!
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Why do I keep getting urinary tract infections? And why are chronic UTIs so hard to treat?
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Dealing with chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs) means facing more than the occasional discomfort. It’s like being on a never ending battlefield against an unseen adversary, making simple daily activities a trial.
UTIs happen when bacteria sneak into the urinary system, causing pain and frequent trips to the bathroom.
Chronic UTIs take this to the next level, coming back repeatedly or never fully going away despite treatment. Chronic UTIs are typically diagnosed when a person experiences two or more infections within six months or three or more within a year.
They can happen to anyone, but some are more prone due to their body’s makeup or habits. Women are more likely to get UTIs than men, due to their shorter urethra and hormonal changes during menopause that can decrease the protective lining of the urinary tract. Sexually active people are also at greater risk, as bacteria can be transferred around the area.
Up to 60% of women will have at least one UTI in their lifetime. While effective treatments exist, about 25% of women face recurrent infections within six months. Around 20–30% of UTIs don’t respond to standard antibiotic. The challenge of chronic UTIs lies in bacteria’s ability to shield themselves against treatments.
Why are chronic UTIs so hard to treat?
Once thought of as straightforward infections cured by antibiotics, we now know chronic UTIs are complex. The cunning nature of the bacteria responsible for the condition allows them to hide in bladder walls, out of antibiotics’ reach.
The bacteria form biofilms, a kind of protective barrier that makes them nearly impervious to standard antibiotic treatments.
This ability to evade treatment has led to a troubling increase in antibiotic resistance, a global health concern that renders some of the conventional treatments ineffective.
Some antibiotics no longer work against UTIs.
Michael Ebardt/ShutterstockAntibiotics need to be advanced to keep up with evolving bacteria, in a similar way to the flu vaccine, which is updated annually to combat the latest strains of the flu virus. If we used the same flu vaccine year after year, its effectiveness would wane, just as overused antibiotics lose their power against bacteria that have adapted.
But fighting bacteria that resist antibiotics is much tougher than updating the flu vaccine. Bacteria change in ways that are harder to predict, making it more challenging to create new, effective antibiotics. It’s like a never-ending game where the bacteria are always one step ahead.
Treating chronic UTIs still relies heavily on antibiotics, but doctors are getting crafty, changing up medications or prescribing low doses over a longer time to outwit the bacteria.
Doctors are also placing a greater emphasis on thorough diagnostics to accurately identify chronic UTIs from the outset. By asking detailed questions about the duration and frequency of symptoms, health-care providers can better distinguish between isolated UTI episodes and chronic conditions.
The approach to initial treatment can significantly influence the likelihood of a UTI becoming chronic. Early, targeted therapy, based on the specific bacteria causing the infection and its antibiotic sensitivity, may reduce the risk of recurrence.
For post-menopausal women, estrogen therapy has shown promise in reducing the risk of recurrent UTIs. After menopause, the decrease in estrogen levels can lead to changes in the urinary tract that makes it more susceptible to infections. This treatment restores the balance of the vaginal and urinary tract environments, making it less likely for UTIs to occur.
Lifestyle changes, such as drinking more water and practising good hygiene like washing hands with soap after going to the toilet and the recommended front-to-back wiping for women, also play a big role.
Some swear by cranberry juice or supplements, though researchers are still figuring out how effective these remedies truly are.
What treatments might we see in the future?
Scientists are currently working on new treatments for chronic UTIs. One promising avenue is the development of vaccines aimed at preventing UTIs altogether, much like flu shots prepare our immune system to fend off the flu.
Emerging treatments could help clear chronic UTIs.
guys_who_shoot/ShutterstockAnother new method being looked at is called phage therapy. It uses special viruses called bacteriophages that go after and kill only the bad bacteria causing UTIs, while leaving the good bacteria in our body alone. This way, it doesn’t make the bacteria resistant to treatment, which is a big plus.
Researchers are also exploring the potential of probiotics. Probiotics introduce beneficial bacteria into the urinary tract to out-compete harmful pathogens. These good bacteria work by occupying space and resources in the urinary tract, making it harder for harmful pathogens to establish themselves.
Probiotics can also produce substances that inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria and enhance the body’s immune response.
Chronic UTIs represent a stubborn challenge, but with a mix of current treatments and promising research, we’re getting closer to a day when chronic UTIs are a thing of the past.
Iris Lim, Assistant Professor, Bond University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Hack Your Hunger
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When it comes to dealing with hunger, a common-sense way of dealing with it is “eat something”. However, many people find that they then eat the wrong things, in the wrong quantities, and end up in a cycle of overeating and being hungry.
If this gets to the extreme, it can turn into a full-blown eating disorder:
Eating Disorders: More Varied (And Prevalent) Than People Think
…and even in more moderate presentations, the cycle of hunger and overeating is not great for the health. So, how to avoid that?
Listen to your body (but: actually listen)
Your body says: we’re running a little low on glycogen reserves so our energy’s going to start suffering in a few hours if we don’t eat some fruit, kill something and eat its fatty organs, or perhaps find some oily nuts.
You hear: eat something bright and sugary, shout at the dog, eat some fried food, got it!
Your body says: our water balance is a little off, we could do with some sodium, potassium, and perhaps some phosphorus to correct it.
You hear: eat something salty, got it, potato chips coming right up!
…and so on. Now, we know 10almonds readers are quite a health-conscious readership, so perhaps your responses are not quite like that. But the take-away point is still important: we need to listen to the whole message, and give the body what it actually needs, not what will just shut the message off the most quickly.
Here’s how: Intuitive Eating Might Not Be What You Think
Bonus: Interoception: Improving Our Awareness Of Body Cues
About those cravings…
As illustrated a little above, a lot of cravings might not be what they first appear, and in evolutionary terms, our body is centuries behind industrialization, in terms of adaptations, which means that even if we try to take the above into account, our responses can sometimes be inappropriate in the age of supermarkets.
See also: The Science of Hunger, And How To Sate Cravings
Natural appetite suppressants
Eating more is not always the answer, not even if it’s more healthy food. And hunger pangs can be especially inconvenient if, for example, we are fasting at present, which is by the way a very healthful thing for most people:
Learn more: Intermittent Fasting: What’s the truth?
One way to suppress hunger is simply to trigger the stomach into sending “full” signals, which involves filling it. Since you do not want to overeat, the trick here is imply to use high-volume food.
Consider for example: 30 grapes and 30 raisins have approximately the same calorie count (what with raisins being dried grapes, and the calories didn’t evaporate), but the bowl of fresh fruit is going to physically fill your stomach a lot more quickly than the tiny amount of dried fruit.
More on this: Some Surprising Truths About Hunger And Satiety
Protein is of course also an appetite suppressant, but it takes about 20 minutes for the signal to kick in. So a “hack” here is to snack on something proteinous at least 15 minutes before your main meal (for example, a portion of nuts while cooking, unless you’re allergic, or some dried fish unless you’re vegetarian/vegan; you get it, pick something high in protein and good for snacking, and have a small portion before your main meal).
Nor is protein the only option!
See also: 3 Natural Appetite Suppressants Better Than Ozempic
Scale it down
Related to the above, there is a feedback loop that occurs here. The more you eat, the more your stomach slowly grows to accommodate it; the less you eat, the more your stomach slowly shrinks because the body tries hard to be an efficient organism, and will not maintain something that isn’t being used.
So, there’s a bit of a catch-22; sate your hunger by filling your stomach with high volume foods, but filling it will cause it to grow?
The trick is: do the “eat until 80% full” thing. That’s full enough that you have had a nice meal and are not suffering, without stretching the stomach.
Enjoy your food
Seriously! Actually enjoy it. Which means paying full attention to it. Eating can and should be a wonderful experience, so it’s best savored rather than inhaling a bowl of something in 30 seconds.
Have you seen those dog bowls that have obstructions to slow down how quickly a dog eats? We can leverage that kind of trick too! While you might not want to eat from a dog bowl, how about having a little bowl of pistachio nuts rather than ready-to-eat peanuts? Or any shelled nuts that we must shell as we go. If you’re allergic to nuts, there are plenty of other foods with a high work-to-food ratio. Take some time and enjoy that pomegranate, for instance!
Not that we necessarily have to make things difficult for ourselves either; we can just take appropriate care to ensure a good dining experience. Life is for living, so why not enjoy it?
See also: Mindful Eating: How To Get More Out Of What’s On Your Plate
Enjoy!
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