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Napoleon’s revenge, beerisitis, sore footsies, vague fluish symptoms... All kinds of physical ailments seem to creep up on backpackers, sometimes all at once. Most backpackers who go for more than 3 weeks seem to be able to count on getting sick at least once. Here's how to avoid the worst:

1) Vitamins: bring a bottle of vitamins and be sure to take them. Travelling stress depletes you B-complex vitamins, which weakens your immune system.
I took a supply of Echinacea, definitely came in handy, and I took B complex, a multi and brought some ginger root capsules for nausea.

2) Bottled water. Always carry some. Most backpackers get much more exercise than they would at home. Replace that water!

3) Yoghurt, try and eat some local yoghurt when you get to a new place. It will help your stomach get acquainted with the new kinds of microorganisms in your travel area.

4) Emergency pharmacy - many smaller towns in Europe have different business hours than what we're used to in the US. However, they always have a pharmacy designated as the EMERGENCY pharmacy where you can get medicine 24/7. In many towns the pharmacies switch off and one is open late/Sundays one week, another pharmacy does it the following week. If you aren't feeling so great when you pull into town, try to find out from your hostel where the nearest emergency pharmacy is BEFORE you really need to go there.

5) Medication - If you have a prescription you have to take on a regular basis, bring it AND a copy of your prescription. If you lose your medicine, or it gets ruined in transit, the copy of your prescription will help you get replacements.

6) Over the counter drugs, write down the names of the generic ingredients for cold & flu drugs you take at home. For example, ibuprofen is in Advil & Motrin, naproxen is in Alleve, guafenisine is the ingredient in cough & cold tablets that help you de-phlegm your lungs. If you are in a town where the pharmacist doesn't speak English, if you know the generic name of the drug you want and you can show it to the pharmacist written down, s/he can probably help you with the Euro equivalent of something to help you feel better.

7) Rest days! Try to schedule a day or two where you don't have to see anything or do anything. Travelling is like accelerated living and your body needs the rest more than anything. This is also a great time to catch up on your journal, reorganize your stuff and generally recoup yourself so that you can continue to organize your trip. It also helps to have planned downtime in case something goes wrong and you need that time to go to the embassy and replace your passport

8) Eat right - including plenty of vegetables and fruit. These help to clean out your system, and eliminate any toxins you may encounter from drinking too much or eating too much rich food.

9) Always avoid greasy foods before and right after you arrive.

You really don't want a lot of grease and other gunk in your system when you're also going to be adding jet lag, tiredness, and nervousness/adrenaline/etc. It can make one sick pretty easily.

10) A caveat: in places where public health issues exist, eating locally grown fruits and vegetables (which is probably what they'll be) can pose a health risk unless you have some means of disinfecting the produce, which usually means having some amount of bleach that you add in small quantities to water that you use for washing the produce. Otherwise, it's called oral-fecal route of contamination. Shouldn't be a problem in Europe and other regions where farmers can afford to buy petroleum-based fertilizers instead of using faeces.

Since I'm still in the mindset of European travellers that was the audience for whom my above advice was intended. In areas where sanitation is sketchy I would definitely advise excessive caution in terms of eating any kind of fruit or vegetable that does not require cooking, peeling or both.

DON'T EAT SALAD IN RESTAURANTS IN 3rd WORLD NATIONS! I don't care how nice the place looks. I've seen what it can happen, and it's not pretty. You can disinfect your own fruits and vegetables, but it's a pain in the ass, esp. on a trip of shorter duration. Personally, I think it's easier to forgo vegetables except the cooked to death kind, and only eat peelable fruit.

11) Don't forget sunscreen! Worst sunburn of my life came from hiking in the Swiss Alps - dummy me didn't realize the higher elevation led to stronger sun exposure. It was so cool out it didn't occur to me. A backpack is unbearable when your back is flaming red and blistered!

12) Bug repellent!

13) Take along some Imodium, its generic equivalent, or some other anti-diarrhoea drug. These tablets are packaged in foil-sealed panels that weigh nothing and take up hardly any space, and if you need it at 2 a.m., you'll be ever so glad you brought it along.

14) A friend of mine visits saunas whenever she can. You can almost always find a cheap one (under 10 EUR) and it does wonders for the mind + soul!