Title: Travel Smart, Live Wise
Subtitle: An Insider Guide To Healthy Travel
Author: Stephanie A. Coleman
Publisher: Toplink Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 978-1948779586
Pages: 80
Genre: Health & Nutrition
Reviewed by: Beth Adams

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Author Stephanie A. Coleman has written a fascinating book revealing her deep understanding of the human body, disease, nutrition, germs and bacteria as she juxtaposed it over her career of being a flight attendant, bringing together issues such as hygiene in airplanes and hotels. Travel Smart, Live Wise: An Insider Guide To Healthy Travel is indeed an appropriate title, she writes about many health related subjects as she brings readers into a deeper understanding of bodily functions including sleep, digestion, as well as offering advice on healthy lifestyle changes such as exercise. One area in which I found particularly interesting was a listing of various food groups and showing which other food groups are compatible to eat with it – while listing those groups to avoid. Steak & Eggs are a “no-no,” and milk should be consumed by itself; are some of the points within her associations.

Directly addressing the environment of airplanes, she explains how travelers receive more radiation being higher in the atmosphere for hours upon hours. A cross-country flight, for example, exposes a person to the same amount of radiation one would receive standing on the surface for one year. Foods such as green tea are excellent in removing many toxins gained from the effects of air travel; received by being around chemicals, odors, people’s sneezing, recirculated air and relatively no humidity. Tips on inspecting a hotel room, although a bit scary when she suggested to peel back the sheets to inspect the mattress for bed-bugs, blood stains and parasites, also have practical ideas such as wiping all surfaces with a disinfectant and even running the water in the shower with a bit of shampoo for a few minutes to help cleanse the drain from germs.

Paging this book drew me in right away, as I finished it prior to putting it down. She writes so much information, humbly presented in an unpretentious manner, and although much of the health related issues readers may already know, I promise the way Coleman puts it together is totally captivating. She has such an impact with exposing the obvious while illuminating the unknown, bringing her “higher level” of knowledge gained by her decades of flying along with her professional career of becoming a nutritionist, combining it with her first-hand knowledge of being a breast cancer survivor. She walks the walk, talks the talk, so to speak.

This isn’t the travel guide telling about the fountains in Rome, nor the pubs in Ireland – but this is the book to get prior to embarking on any traveling. It is also a thoughtful gift to jetsetters of any age to have them understand just what the real risks of flying are to their health. The information Stephanie A. Colman presented will be lingering in my mind because of covering so many topics, that come into play on my next trip!