Don’t let inflammatory bowel disease and fears of COVID-19 get in the way of your travel plans. Here’s what you need to know before you start packing.
By Tina Aswani-Omprakash
Summers are a time to look forward to rest, relaxation, and vacations. But for those of us living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), going away on a trip can often mean additional anxiety. And with the addition of COVID-19, anxiety levels are heightened. While many of us want to travel, we struggle to wrap our heads around how to travel when living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, especially as new variants of the novel coronavirus circulate around the world.
In fact, stressing out over travel may worsen symptoms. A study published in Current Pharmaceutical Design in 2017 found that stress and anxiety can increase the severity of inflammatory bowel disease by negatively influencing the “brain-gut axis.” A more recent study, from June 2021, in Digestive Diseases and Sciences indicated that IBD patients feel significantly more vulnerable to COVID-19, which has “increased overall illness-related anxiety.”
As a patient advocate who is personally affected by Crohn’s disease, among other immune-mediated inflammatory diagnoses, I often travel to speak at conferences and events. I am always worried about getting sick during travel, and I keep an open dialogue with my care team so I know how to best prepare and keep myself safe.
In today’s climate, even though the coronavirus is still at large, traveling is a very personal decision and based on comfort level. But it’s important to remember that we can and should try to do the activities that make us happy, traveling included. Whether that means day trips to a nearby city, beach, or mountain, or even short weekend trips by car, traveling is whatever we define it to be and whatever we might feel comfortable with at any given moment.
So, how can we make the most of traveling without getting caught up in worrying about how our health will fare during our travels? For some of my go-to travel hacks, please check out the full article on Everyday Health’s website: https://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/my-health-story/tips-traveling-with-inflammatory-bowel-disease/.
