"Health is like our personal bank account."--Diana Fairechild

What everyone should know about air travel.

WHY DON'T I GET JETLAG?

First Published 3-22-97 in the Jet Smart Newsletter

"Former flight attendant Diana Fairechild flew 10 million miles before health problems grounded her, a direct result, she says, of exposure to pesticides and other chemicals on commercial aircraft. Now, seven years later, Fairechild's campaign to alert travelers about the dangers of spraying bug killers on airplanes is being waged in cyberspace. From her home Hawaii, Fairechild produces Flyana.com, a well-researched, engagingly personal series of columns on the Internet's World Wide Web." -Laura Bly, Los Angeles Times

DEAR DIANA

"Why don't I ever get jetlag? I have been to the Far East, Eastern Europe and many places in between, and yet, I have never suffered the debilitating effects that my travel companions complain about. Am I weird?" -- Thornton Shepherd

DIANA RESPONDS

Dear Thornton,

Thanks for your question. I suspect you are in good health and don't travel enough to feel the affects of accumulated jetlag. That's great.

Think of health like a bank account. You have a certain deposit at birth depending on your parents' health. Then, your lifestyle is probably healthy; you regularly make deposits when you eat good food, exercise, think positive, and do all the right things for yourself.

Of course, partying all night, smoking, traveling on commercial jets, these are the kinds of activities which use up our reserves -- they can be likened to withdrawals from our "health account."

You obviously have enough reserves in your account so that the withdrawals do not make much of a dent on your balance.

You're lucky. Keep making deposits and you may never suffer from what the rest of us know as "jetlag."

FOR MORE DEPTH & INFORMATION, SEE DIANA'S BOOKS AND/OR WRITE TO DIANA

FLYANA.COM