Vacation Health Care

Alternative Names: Travel Health Tips

Information:
BEFORE LEAVING

1. Bring nonprescription medications that you might need with you.
2. Take insurance ID cards.
3. Take a medical first aid kit.
4. Take sunscreen, hat, and sunglasses.
5. Check with your health care provider before leaving if you are taking medications. Carry any medications with you — not in your luggage.
6. Check your health insurance carrier regarding your health care coverage (including coverage for emergency transport) while traveling out of the country.
7. Consider traveler’s insurance if you are going abroad.
8. Take the name and phone numbers of your pharmacist and health care provider.
9. When traveling to another country, research the accessibility and quality of health care there.
10. If you are leaving your children, leave a consent-to-treat form with whomever is caring for your children.
11. If you are planning a long flight, minimize jet lag by scheduling your arrival at your destination at roughly your usual bedtime, according to the time zone to which you are flying.
12. If you have an important event at your long-distance destination, plan on arriving 2 or 3 days in advance, if possible, so that you will be fresh for your appointment.
13. Take immunization records, along with any other important medical records, especially when traveling to another country.
14. When traveling to an underdeveloped country, make sure that everyone in your traveling party is adequately immunized against any infectious disease you might encounter. Some countries require certificates of vaccination against diseases such as cholera and yellow fever. Check with your health care provider and see the section on immunizations.

ON THE ROAD

1. Upon arrival, check the local emergency number. Not all communities use 911.
2. When traveling with children, make sure that they know the name and telephone number of your hotel in case they get lost. Give them enough money to make a phone call and make sure they know how to use the phones if you are in a foreign country.
3. When traveling to less economically developed countries, don’t drink the water if you want to avoid the risk of diarrhea. Remember the ice may also be contaminated if there is concern with the water. Bottled water may be safe, as long as it is factory bottled. Traveler’s diarrhea can also result from drinking beverages that contain ice. Bottled carbonated sodas, beer, and wine (without ice) are safe.
4. Cooked foods are usually safe, but raw foods and salads (lettuce, raw vegetables, fruit with peel, unpasteurized milk, milk products, undercooked seafood or meat) can lead to gastrointestinal problems. Eat in restaurants that have a reputation for safe cooking.
5. If you come down with diarrhea, drink plenty of bottled liquids. Broths and carbonated beverages are good for maintaining your strength.

New Research on Genetics of Height

LONDON: Scientists have identified dozens of genes and genetic regions that influence height in humans.

This advancement results from the efforts of a team of researchers–including Dr. Tim Frayling from the Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, and Professor Mark McCarthy from the University of Oxford.

It is the same team that, last year, identified the first common gene variant to affect height, though the gene made a difference of only 0.5 centimetres.

In the present study, the researchers used DNA samples from over 30,000 people, many taken from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium–the largest study ever undertaken into the genetics underlying common diseases–and from the Cambridge Genetics of Energy Metabolism (GEM) consortium and the CoLaus Study in Switzerland.

Their study led to the identification of 20 loci (regions of genetic code), common variations of which influence adult height.

“The number and variety of genetic regions that we have found show that height is not just caused by a few genes operating in the long bones. Instead, our research implicates genes that could shed light on a whole range of important biological processes,” Nature Genetics quoted Dr. Frayling as saying.

“By identifying which genes affect normal growth, we can begin to understand the processes that lead to abnormal growth – not just height disorders but also tumour growth, for example,” adds the researcher.

Half of the new loci identified by the research team contain genes whose functions are well documented.

The researchers say that some of these genes help regulate basic cell division, which may have implications for cancer research.

Other genes are implicated in cell-to-cell signalling, an important process in the early development of embryos in the womb, they add. The researchers call these genes “master regulators” that act as switches to turn genes elsewhere in the genome on or off.

The researchers have revealed that one locus in particular is also implicated in osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis involving the effects of wear and tear on the body’s structures. According to them, this locus may be involved in the growth of cartilage.

Dr. Frayling, however, says that 50 per cent of the 20 loci identified by the research team contain genes about which little or nothing is known.

The researchers compare these findings to their work last year which identified the first common gene for obesity, the FTO gene. Even though the gene has been shown without a doubt to be influence body size, its role is still unclear.

“There may be more than a hundred genes which affect our height, many of which will work in surprising or unpredictable ways. The challenge now for us is to understand how they influence growth in the body. This could open up new avenues for treating a range of diseases,” says Dr Mike Weedon, lead author on the paper.

‘Sexist jokes bring out prejudice’

NEW YORK: This isn’t funny at all. Sexist humour is more than chaff and exposure to such “jokes” can lead to hostile feelings and discrimination against women, a new study has revealed.

According to the study’s lead author Thomas E Ford of Western Carolina University, “Sexist humour is not simply benign amusement. It acts as a ‘releaser’ of prejudice.

“Our research demonstrates that exposure to sexist humour can create conditions that allow men — especially those who have antagonistic attitudes towards women — to express those attitudes in their behaviour.”

The researchers came to the conclusion after analysing two experiments. In the first one, they asked a group of male participants to imagine that they were members of a work group in an organisation. In that context, they either read sexist jokes, comparable non-humorous sexist statements, or neutral jokes.

They were then asked to report how much money they would be willing to donate to help a women’s organisation.
“We found that men with a high level of sexism were less likely to donate to the women’s organisation after reading sexist jokes, but not after reading either sexist statements or neutral jokes,” Ford said.

In the second experiment, the researchers showed a selection of video clips of sexist or non-sexist comedy skits to another group of male participants. In the sexist humour setting, four of the clips contained humour depicting women in stereotypical or demeaning roles, while the fifth was neutral.

The men were then asked to participate in a project designed to determine how funding cuts should be allocated among select student organisations. Ford said: “We found that, upon exposure to sexist humour, men higher in sexism discriminated against women by allocating larger funding cuts to a women’s organisation than they did to other organisations.”