Twenty-five Important-But-Often-Overlooked Outdoor Health Tips
by Buck Tilton

1. Apply sunscreen to your ears. Those flaps are two of the most often overlooked body parts – along with the lips and behind the ears – where skin problems may develop in later years. Sunscreens of SPF 15 will do the job for most skin types, but many dermatologists recommend SPF 30 for safer protection. Shade from a wide-brimmed hat will protect your ears, too. The brim should be at least four inches wide all the way around the hat. Unfortunately, sports fans, baseball caps won't do when it comes to ear protection.

2. Make sure your sunglasses protect against ultraviolet light. If they don't, you run the immediate risk of sunburned eyes and the long-term risk of cataracts. Not all sunglasses are created equal. Not all are rated according to the UV protection they provide; some imports have inaccurate UV protection labels. Buy a high quality pair of glasses with guaranteed protection from a recognized manufacturer, or take your sunglasses to an optometrist or optical shop to be tested for UV protection. The testing service is often free.

3. Check your first-aid kit before every trip. Medications expire; water, heat or freezing cold temperatures may have damaged items; you may have used items and forgotten to replace them. Some environments, say a desert, may require a few first-aid kit changes from your last trip to the mountains. Pack for first-aid as thoughtfully as you pack your food and other gear.

4. Do not put disinfected water in a water bottle that has not yet been disinfected. 'Cooties' that can multiply to gut-wrenching proportions may be living even in containers that appear dry. A rinse with boiling water will do the trick, or a thorough wash at home before the trip. And don't forget the lid. Those rings where the lid screws on are great places for bad bugs to hide.

5. Maintain hiking endurance by drinking plenty of fluids. One- to two-quarts low – an amount you can sweat out in only an hour of hard exercise under a heavy pack – and physical performance can drop as much as 25 percent. You'll stay powered up better if you drink regularly, about one-fourth of a one-quart water bottle every 15-20 minutes, instead of chugging the quart at one sitting.

6. Keep your fingernails short and clean to promote health. Clean hands probably rate as the number one way to prevent the spread of disease around camp – or around anywhere. That interesting dark stuff collecting under your fingernails, sort of like a rich soil in your garden, supports germ growth better than any other plot on your hand.

7. Do not trim your toenails too short. Yes, keep them trimmed. Long toenails squashed into hiking boots can rip the flesh of a neighboring toe, and excessive toenail length destroys your socks. But toenails cut too short a.) fail to protect the ends of your toes from damage while you are hiking, and b.) may become painfully ingrown on a long trip.

8. Make sure your socks fit. Besides being uncomfortable, ill-fitting socks encourage blisters. Baggy socks form clumps of material that apply undue pressure to sensitive areas of the foot. Tight socks reduce healthy circulation and are stretched too far to maintain equal protection over your entire foot.

9. Make sure your boots are in good shape and provide support. You can develop tendonitis in your foot or ankle during one day of hiking in broken down boots. And remember, it's safer to lace your boots no tighter than is necessary to hold your feet in place. Boots laced too tightly cause more blisters and tendonitis than boots laced too loosely.

10. Speaking of boots, prevent frostbitten toes by wearing larger and/or cold-weather boots in cold weather. Sounds overly common-sensical, but, nope. Frost most often bites the lower digits of hikers who wear extra socks inside light boots to "make do" in an icy environment. Light boots do not provide enough insulation, and extra socks cut off circulation to the toes, a perfect set-up for cold injury.

11. Maintain a high level of fitness to prevent injury. Fitness is the single best way to avoid an injury or overuse syndrome while backpacking. Hikers with a year-round fitness plan end up "sidelined" with pain far less often than those who say "I'll get in shape on this trip." In addition to more strength and endurance, the fit have less fat, and every pound of extra body weight you shed means less stress on joints and muscles, as well as less chance of injury.

12. Warm up and stretch every morning on the trail before shouldering your pack. A brisk pack-less walk, light calisthenics, or a slow jog sends blood into muscles, warming them. Warmer muscles are softer, more fluid, able to stretch more easily, and so, are less prone to injury. After a few minutes of warming, stretch your muscles to maximize strength and flexibility, and to further decrease the chance of a strain or sprain.

13. Know how to safely get the load of a pack on and off your back. Most nagging wilderness back injuries occur while shouldering or dropping a heavy backpack. Lift the pack onto one knee, slip into one shoulder strap, and shrug the pack around onto your back. Or, lift the pack onto a log or rock, sit in front of it, slip into the straps, and settle the pack on your back before standing. You may want to have a companion lift the pack while you snuggle into the straps.

14. Use insect repellents safely. Although the EPA regulates repellents, approving only those that pose no unreasonable adverse effects, several guidelines for the safe use of repellents have been published: a.) Read and follow label directions. b.) Keep all repellents out of the reach of small children. c.) Apply an insect repellent only to exposed skin or clothing, never under clothing, and wash it off your skin as soon as you no longer need protection. d.) Do not get repellents in your eyes, mouth, or in open wounds. e.) Do not put it on the hands of small children who are prone to putting those hands in their eyes or mouth. (Note: DEET-based repellents will dissolve plastic, so carry yours wrapped in a cotton bandanna, sealed in a plastic bag. Any DEET that leaks out stays safely in the bandanna, which can be worn later to help repel insects.)

15. Do a tick check twice a day during tick season, and immediately remove any ticks found on your body in order to prevent tickborne diseases. Ticks must bury their heads in skin and feed for hours-days in order to pass the germs that can make you sick. If you find one roaming free, simply pick it off. If the head is buried, gently grip the tick at skin line with a pair of tweezers, and pull it out with steady traction. After removing an imbedded tick, wash the site with soap and water to further prevent the chance of illness.

16. Immediately washing a wound caused by an animal bite or scratch with soap and warm water is the single best way to prevent rabies. Detergents kill the rabies virus, and water flushes this truly insidious germ from the wound. You are still wise, however, to visit a physician as soon as possible after receiving a wound from a wild animal.

17. Stay slightly cold while hiking in cold weather in order to stay warm. Evaporation of sweat sends body heat rushing into the environment, and slightly cold people don't sweat as much. You can stay slightly cold by opening your clothing, taking off outer layers, and maintaining a slower pace.

18. Avoid a lightning strike by taking precautions before the storm reaches you. Most strikes hit people from one mile up to as many as seven miles in front of clouds and rain. Remember, five seconds between the flash and the thunder means the storm is only one mile away. Leave metal objects behind and move out of open spaces, away from shorelines, and into uniform cover, such as trees that are all approximately the same height.

19. Frequent munching is more important on the trail than big meals in camp. A snack approximately every two hours, especially a high carbohydrate snack, keeps your muscle glycogen high. Glycogen is converted into sugar in order to fuel muscular work and to liberate heat for inner body warmth on a cold day.

20. Avoid sickness by practicing camp hygiene. Germs are more often carried into the wilderness by people than are they found already waiting there for them. Don't share personal kitchen gear, water bottles, etc. If you share a bag of gorp, pour the snack into your hand rather than reaching your grime-ridden paw into the food. Wash your hands after defecation and before food preparation.

21. Use a hiking staff – a "third leg" – while backpacking to prevent injuries. You're trudging along under a load, atop rough terrain when, oops, your foot turns, your balance is lost, and down you go. Hiking staffs not only help you maintain balance on dry ground, they aid in stream crossings and are useful in fighting off snarling pumas.

22. Hike around or step over – not on – rocks, roots, and logs to reduce your chance of injury. And, as a bonus, stepping over something requires less energy than stepping up onto something.

23. Visit a dentist for check-up before embarking on an extended backpacking trip. Most problems that cause dental pain – the kind of pain that can destroy a wilderness venture – can be discovered and repaired before the pain begins.

24. Keep dry and/or lubricate body areas that tend to chafe. You know those places, where moist skin rubs against moist skin, creating a mechanical and painful rash. Apply a talc powder three or four times a day to keep chafe-prone skin dry. Layers of clothing, cotton preferably, serve as "lubrication" between places that chafe. Long cotton pants, for instance, usually prevent chafed thighs. If that doesn't work, you'll have to resort to using a lubricating jelly.

25. Take a wilderness medicine course. In addition to learning how to recognize and treat major and minor backpacking emergencies, you'll learn how to prevent problems.