Autoimmune Flare-Ups After Traveling: Causes and Solutions
So you’re back from vacation and you feel horrible. You’re having an autoimmune flare-up and you’re suffering from fatigue after traveling. You had a great time while you were on vacation, but now you’re wondering: why am I so tired after vacation?
You’re definitely not alone. I hear the same things from many of our practice members. Vacation can send many people into a downward spiral. My practice members and I really have to work together to get them back to a good place after traveling.
The question is: why do you have this flare-up of autoimmune disease post-vacation? In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the common causes of autoimmune flare-ups after a vacation. Some of them might surprise you.
Eliminating Potential Triggers
Maybe you felt better while away, only to return home feeling fatigued after vacation. Maybe your autoimmune disease worsened. If that’s the case, ask yourself if by traveling, you may have removed a possible allergen or something you unknowingly react to while at home. That’s what happened to a Caplan Health Institute practice member with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Her autoimmune condition improved when she was traveling and got worse when she returned home.
I had to work with her to figure out the variable—in other words, what was different when she was on vacation that made her feel better? She cooked all her own meals while away, but she did that at home, too, so that couldn’t have been the variable. We finally pinned the culprit down to her oil diffuser that she used every night while at home. When she told me she hadn’t been using the diffuser while on vacation, I suspected that might be the reason why she felt better when traveling. I recommended she stop using the diffuser at home, and her autoimmune flare-up calmed down. In other words, she was reacting to the oil in the diffuser and when she eliminated that exposure, she felt better.
Some people feel better while traveling and worse when they come home after vacation. In that case, there could be an airborne allergen that they’re exposed to at home, such as airborne pollen or mold spores. There could be a toxic exposure in the home. Or emotional stress may go high upon returning home.
On the other end of the spectrum, the problem could be something you’re exposed to while traveling. If you swam in pools or soaked in hot tubs that have a bunch of chlorine or other chemicals, your skin can react and that exposure is just another factor that can build up to an autoimmune flare. Usually there is more than one thing that tips the scales into an autoimmune flare after traveling, as I discuss later.
Overall, having a flare-up can be a good learning opportunity, although it’s uncomfortable and inconvenient. If you do flare up, you can learn from it so that you discover what beneficial things you can do on a regular basis for your health, or what things to avoid. Not just while you’re on vacation, but in your everyday life.
Crashing After Stress
A lot of change happens when we get out of our normal routines on vacation. For example, we might get less sleep or just sleep at different times, throwing off our circadian rhythm. In addition, on vacation, we aren’t in synch with our usual meal times and meal habits, not to mention eating different types of foods than we consume at home. I talk to many practice members who get constipated when they travel or have bowel issues. Because the timing and content of their diet is off, it’s stressing out their bodies.
Another thing that happens during vacation is we often overdo activities. You’re constantly on the go and you’re trying to cram in a lot. You’re walking and doing a lot more than you would do when you’re at home. This near-constant activity can be another stress on the body during vacation. When you’re on vacation, it feels like a positive experience. You’re on this adrenaline high and it’s making you feel good, but then it catches up to you when you return home and you have to recover.
It’s the same concept as when you’re at home and you work out a lot at the gym one day or exercise a lot. You might feel good at first, so you try to get a lot done. Then you’re so tired you crash for the next couple of days as your body recovers from doing too much.
It can be difficult to notice when your body is struggling in the moment because the body doesn’t really distinguish between good stress and bad stress. Even if you feel like your experience is a positive thing, it may actually be having a negative effect on your system. You’re still getting that cortisol release, which is a wear-and-tear stress hormone.
Stress in Disguise
Some of the worst culprits are things you don’t recognize as stressful. For example, if you usually eat three times per day and now on vacation you’re skipping meals and then eating food you don’t normally eat and staying up late to boot. That is stressful.
We don’t always think of these things as stressful, but it is stressful to the body when your routine and diet changes during vacation.
Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus and Sun Sensitivity
Many of my practice members come back after vacation with skin issues or flare-ups of autoimmune diseases with skin rashes. Lupus and sun exposure can often lead to a sun rash. RA medications also can make you more sensitive to the sun. Going on vacation to a sunny place can lead to more sun exposure than usual and can act as an autoimmune trigger. If you are having a flare-up of an autoimmune disease after vacation, consider if too much sun exposure might have thrown you off course.
More Than One Autoimmune Flare-Up Trigger
Flare-ups of autoimmune disease are rarely caused by one trigger. Most of the time, there’s more than one cause. Usually, a combination of factors are involved and it reaches the point where something is the last straw for the immune system. The more you can pinpoint and investigate all of the possible flare-up triggers that you encountered while traveling, the closer you will get to figuring out why you’re having a flare. With that information, you’ll be able to reduce your triggers and avoid flare-ups in the future.
Autoimmune Detective Work
It’s good to take inventory on how you’re feeling now that you’re back from vacation. What’s different about how you were feeling when you were travelling, versus how you feel in your home after vacation. Look at all of the different factors. What were you doing differently? What were you eating? What was different in your environment? Maybe all that extra activity and being on the go, walking a lot, was a good thing and it helped your joint pain. Or maybe you were sleeping more on vacation and that made you feel better.
Maybe you had a lot of enjoyable interactions with family and friends during vacation and those moments are scarce while at home. It felt good to spend time with people you like. Look at those differences and you can use that information to narrow down the reason why you’re having a post-vacation flare up.
Treating an Autoimmune Flare-Up After Vacation
If you’re tired after traveling and have an autoimmune flare-up, the best approach is an individualized one. For example, people can think about what dietary supplements normally make them feel better. Whatever supplements have worked in the past, those are the ones to rely on now.
Second, go back to the lifestyle and dietary approaches you were having success with before vacation. For example, before one practice member went on vacation, she had gone on an elimination diet and lost more than 60 pounds. She was feeling amazing. Then she went on a cruise, ate whatever she wanted, and came back 25 pounds heavier. She felt really bad. For her, the fix was to go back to the elimination diet as a reset to where she was before.
Get Your Energy Back After Vacation
After a trip, I recommend you give yourself a few days to recover and get back into a normal rhythm. It also helps to work with a functional medicine provider to get you back on track. Here at Caplan Health Institute, we can help you answer “Why do I feel so tired after vacation?” We can find the triggers for your autoimmune flare-ups and dig down to the root cause so you feel well again.
The first step? Schedule a free 15-minute discovery consultation, by phone or video. If you come on board as a practice member, we’ll do some detective work to find out what’s causing your post-vacation flare-up. This can involve lab testing, taking medical histories, and investigating why you may have felt better on your vacation and worse when you came home. We’ll help you feel good again and make some real progress in optimizing your health.
Leave a Reply