Fasting, travel and medicine planning
Content date: 14 November 2026
Plan with your team before Ramadan or travel. Fitness to fast, dose timing and storage depend on your condition and treatment.
Your next step
Write down your medicine schedule, food and fluid plan, reasons to stop fasting or seek help, and treatment arrangements during travel with your team.
Get urgent help: Stop fasting and go to the emergency department immediately for fainting or confusion, significant bleeding, severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting preventing drinking, or severe dehydration with markedly reduced urine. Do not wait until sunset or for a message reply.
Is fasting suitable for me?
- You need an individual assessment; this page is not general clearance to fast. Tell your doctor about disease activity, diarrhea or vomiting, weight loss, kidney disease or diabetes, and all your medicines. Active IBD, dehydration or poor nutrition may mean postponing fasting.
- With cirrhosis, especially ascites, confusion or muscle loss, prolonged fasting may worsen nutrition or fluid balance. After liver transplantation, do not change anti-rejection medicine timing or skip a dose to fast. Your team will advise what is suitable for you.
Before Ramadan: get a written schedule
- Review your plan well before Ramadan. Ask for each medicine’s timing, its relationship to meals, and instructions for missed doses or illness. Do not squeeze daytime doses into the hours between iftar and suhoor or alter intervals yourself.
- If your team supports fasting, spread permitted food and fluids through the non-fasting hours. Eat moderate meals and avoid lying down immediately after eating if you have reflux. Fluid and fiber advice must fit your condition, particularly bowel narrowing or fluid restriction.
Before travel: arrange treatment and follow-up
- Arrange a review about 4–6 weeks before departure if possible, earlier for vaccinations or complex plans. Check infusion, injection and blood-test dates, and get a written dosing schedule for changes in time zone.
- Carry a diagnosis and medicine list with generic names and allergies, plus prescriptions or a letter for injections and equipment. Check medicine entry rules at your destination and transit countries. Pack enough supplies with extra for delays, and identify local medical care and insurance coverage.
How should I transport medicines?
- Keep medicines in your hand luggage in their original labeled packaging. Ask a pharmacist about your exact product’s refrigeration requirements and permitted time outside the refrigerator. Keep injections away from direct ice contact and hot cars. Check with a pharmacist before using medicine that has frozen or exceeded its permitted temperature.
Travel vaccines and infections
- Tell the travel clinic if you take an immunosuppressant or have had a transplant. Some live vaccines, such as yellow fever vaccine, may be unsuitable; your treatment and destination need individual review. Do not stop treatment yourself to receive a vaccine.
- Use safe food and water and wash your hands. New fever or diarrhea, especially with blood or after travel, may be an infection rather than only an IBD flare. Do not start antibiotics, steroids or antidiarrheal medicine without an appropriate plan.
Getting help while traveling
- For appointments, results and questions about your treatment plan, use your healthcare facility’s official contact channel shown in your appointment message or visit report. Seek prompt assessment for urgent problems; if timely assessment is unavailable, go to emergency care. In an emergency, go to the emergency department immediately and do not wait for a message reply.
When to get help
Stop fasting and go to the emergency department immediately for fainting or confusion, significant bleeding, severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting preventing drinking, or severe dehydration with markedly reduced urine. Do not wait until sunset or for a message reply.
Increasing diarrhea or vomiting, recurrent dizziness, difficulty taking medicines, or fever while immunosuppressed need same-day assessment at the clinic if promptly available; otherwise attend the emergency department. Do not continue fasting while your condition worsens pending assessment.
Related guides
Care after liver transplantation
My treatment and follow-up plan
Sources
Crohn’s & Colitis UK: Food and fasting
Saudi Ministry of Health: Digestive symptoms during Ramadan
Saudi Ministry of Health: Dehydration during Ramadan
CDC Yellow Book 2026: Immunocompromised travelers
CDC Yellow Book: Travelers with chronic illnesses
CDC: Traveling abroad with medicine