Your health: Protect yourself on vacation

Summer travel issues

If traffic and packing weren't enough to stress about before going on vacation, Prevention magazine has come up with dozens of its own “vacation perils and pitfalls” and ways to avoid them, says The Washington Post.

Leaving on a jet plane? Watch out for blood clots, colds and the 60 percent of airplane food trays that carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to the article.

The magazine suggests bringing along an alcohol-based hand sanitizer and pointing the air streaming out of the overhead vent slightly in front of your face so that “if someone sneezes, those 30,000 airborne droplets are less likely to rain down on top of you.”

Sleep deprivation, food poisoning, weight gain, bedbugs, sunburn and “unexpected mishaps” in the bedroom are also addressed in the June issue.

Protect yourself

Nights and weekends in hospitals can mean contending with “the weekend effect” — the sparse staffing and slower pace that can delay a response, according to The Washington Post.

Studies of hospitalized patients have found higher rates of errors and poorer outcomes for those treated at night or on the weekend compared with the day shift. Just make sure you are asking questions, know who's treating you, have your doctor's contact info after hours and don't delay surgeries for a Friday, says The Washington Post.

Swapping soda?

A sky-high soda tax might convince people to stop drinking soda, but they wouldn't necessarily lose weight, according to an article by law professor Jonathan Klick and economist Eric A. Helland in the libertarian Cato Institute's Regulation magazine.

“For instance, adults may trade their Pepsi for a Pabst, while some individuals may decide that, because they stopped drinking Coke, they are free to eat more cake” the authors write.

The Washington Post goes on to say that the authors do an admirable job dismantling studies that examine the relationship between soda consumption and weight and conclude that “while politicians at all levels of government in the United States have been drawn to soda taxes as a way to both raise money and fight obesity, the evidence suggests that taxes may in fact do neither.”