OK, my rare vacation is coming up. And vacation stress will be dealt with accordingly. I will not get sick!

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My family and I are taking a vacation soon. And everyone probably knows how that goes. You get frantic trying to get everything done…at work and at home… so you can have peace of mind on vacation knowing that all is well back home.

Of course, what actually happens is that you run yourself ragged, in time-crunches and in worry, trying to beat the deadlines before vacation launch.  Then, once you’ve finally left, it takes a day to wind down. Then, you get sick because your body is finally catching up with reality and it does not appreciate what you put it through. So it rebels. You come down with a whopper of a cold or flu or both. And by the time you get home, you’re just now recovering.

Here’s a lot of dialog about this topic on Fodor’s Web site.

My theory–and I’ll bet it’s borne out in some research–is that the stress you put yourself through to reach vacation time (and maybe even during vacation) knocks your immune function off track. The lack of immune balance comes back to haunt you once you’ve set sail from the office.  An NIH immunologist gives some thought about it, too. And, we’ve seen in this blog some of the science showing stress actually alters the good/bad bacteria in the gut, leading to a profound change in immune function.

I’ll go into my vacation fully confident my immune system is ready (with my EpiCor regimen fully in place).