National Post

Why business travel may be hazardous to your health
The Hollywood films Up In the Air and Planes, Trains and Automobiles provide two different portraits of the business traveller. The second movie has the John Candy character of Del Griffiths, a beer-swilling chain-smoking shower curtain ring salesman who doesn’t have a home for the holidays. The first movie has George Clooney’s Ryan Bingham, who brags about the 320 days per year he spends on the road, and the 350,000 air miles the trips accumulated for him.

Clooney’s character seems healthy; Candy’s was a mess. Which one better reflects the reality of the business traveller? I have seen both types of business travellers in my practice. Results from two recent studies present an apparent paradox on the health effects of business travel. To investigate the paradox, a colleague and I visited Boston last week to announce a new study on the health of business travellers at the International Society of Travel Medicine Scientific Meeting. (Illustration: Andrew Barr)