Tips for Healthy Flying

2. Keep Your Hands Clean

Your hands are the most consistent point of first contact with cold, flu and other germs. It is a direct line from armrest/seatback/handshake to fingers to fork to mouth to full-blown fever a few days later. According to a National Institutes of Health factsheet, the type of virus that causes the common cold and the flu has been found to survive for up to three hours on your skin or on objects such as armrests, TV remote control handsets, tray tables and other similar surfaces. However, the simple act of washing your hands with hot water and soap is a formidable rampart against this transfer of harmful microorganisms.

Hand washing is not just for restaurant workers and travelers; health professionals and researchers working to combat communicable diseases in many third-world countries are waging a fierce campaign to encourage residents to adopt this simple practice into their daily routines. If possible, wash your hands before any in-flight meals, and after your flight as well.

Of course, airplane cabins are tight places, and getting out of your seat to wash up before and after every snack time can be almost impossible, as the flight attendants command the aisles, your seatmates are trying to eat, tray tables are down cabin-wide, and no one involved really wants to have folks getting up and down and roaming around the cabin. (Even on the ground, the water in many locations can carry water-borne bacteria that may not agree with all Western constitutions.) In these cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends alcohol-based products made specifically for washing hands.

3. Don't Forget the Dental Hygiene

Just as keeping your hands clean can prevent transmission of germs, using a germ-killing mouthwash in-flight may add another layer of protection while simultaneously helping to keep your throat moist. Just make sure your mouthwash bottle is three ounces or smaller to comply with the latest carry-on rules for liquids and gels.

4. Take Your Vitamins

The rapid response effect of vitamins is unproven, but many travelers swear by them. Charles Westover, a retired VP of fleet management for a major shipping company, starts taking vitamins two days before flying. "I have no idea if it helps at all, but of the hundreds or thousands of flights I have taken, I rarely get colds," he said. "I just take a standard multivitamin, and it has never let me down." The NIH concurs, sort of, offering that no conclusive data has shown that large doses of vitamin C will prevent colds, although it may reduce the severity or duration of symptoms.

5. Wear a Face Mask

The NIH cites airborne germs as one of the top two sources of cold virus infection; some travelers have taken to wearing masks either to prevent infection, or when they themselves are already infected. Personally, I would not last more than a half-hour or so behind a hot mask, but this may be an effective prevention tactic nonetheless.

As the proverb goes, an ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure -- or perhaps 113 cures.

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