Vacations – Heart Disease Prevention
Heart Disease Prevention – Vacations are fun and relaxing.
The more you relax…the healthier you are! Like you needed a reason for another vacation though, right?
Vacations – Heart Disease Prevention – Get away from work!
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh analyzed data on more than 12,000 middle-aged men from the Framingham Heart Study and found that those who took regular vacations sliced their risk of death from heart disease by a third.
Vacations – Heart Disease Prevention – Sleep in on vacation!
A Harvard study of 70,000 women found that those who got less than seven hours of sleep had a slightly higher risk of heart disease.
Vacations – Heart Disease Prevention – Connect with friends and family!
Women especially benefit from emotional connections like the kind you deepen over the relaxed fun of a trip! But, everyone can increase their wellbeing with friends! Spend time getting to know each other with shared experiences. Research from the the University of North Carolina indicates,
“…better friendship groups can help tackle abdominal obesity, inflammation, and high blood pressure – three health problems that increase the risk of heart disease, cancer and strokes.
Make friends, strengthen bonds, connect with friends! Harvard’s research indicates social isolation and loneliness can be as deadly as smoking.
Vacations – Heart Disease Prevention – Laughter!
Create inside jokes and laugh on vacation! According to a study from the University of Maryland Medical Center laughter can protect your heart! Dr. Miller, director of Center for Preventative Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center says,
“We don’t know yet why laughing protects the heart, but we know that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This can cause a series of inflammatory reactions that lead to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries and ultimately to a heart attack.”
Vacations benefit the whole family in so many ways!
Read these related posts for more information about vacations are valuable for heart health and family bonds!
How to Live Healthy! Vacations protect your heart health.
Health benefits from Vacations!
Strong Family Bonds are Created during Vacations
Fill that healthy heart with love and laughter. Let The Educational Tourist plan YOUR next fun adventure!
Happy and heart prevention travels,
Natalie, The Educational Tourist
It’s really just an extension of that simple philosophy, ‘Life is for living!’
I see no better excuse than that, even if your vacation is only for a weekend!
So very true! Breaks – even short ones make such a difference. Thanks for stopping by!
That´s is so true!!
My husband and I have been travelling for almost one year and a half [yes, full time travellers]… And my stress level never being so low. Even changing places constantly, packing and planning destinations… Everything is happier and easier now, the travel mood makes a big difference in our lives!
Let’s keep travelling,,
Nat
Yeah for you guys! Stress is just a horrible part of our lives and eats away at you. Even if you can only take breaks now and again it helps!1 Thanks for stopping by!
Vacations… we all should have more than we actually get! Haha.Great post.
I couldn’t agree with you more!! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
This is a great post Natalie – couldn’t’ agree more. In fact, I may well email it over to my boss right now… lets hope she feels the same ;).
If vacations make you this healthy – think what full time travel can do?! We’ll all be invincible. Great post.
Gabby
I’d love to find out! 😉 Let me know what your boss says… LOL! Thanks for stopping by!
There’s more and more evidence that people are finding more happiness in an experiential lifestyle as compared to a consumption-fuelled lifestyle. Yet, habits take time to change, but maybe one day we will start seeing societies chasing experiences, instead of hoarding commodities many of us don’t even require 🙂
That is very interesting and I guess we are leading the way, right? Trail blazers! Thanks for stopping by!
It’s really true that when you make the effort to get away, your life slows down. You can relax, connect with loved ones, and savor the beauty of your surroundings. All so good for your physical and emotional health!
Love the way you describe it! Ah…..sounds so peaceful! Thanks for stopping by!
Well if vacations protect against heart disease then that’s another excuse to book a trip right now lol. I use travel as a way of recovering from a illness and find it very therapeutic and it helped build my strength up so would encourage everyone to go on a vacation right now!!
Laughter really is the best medicine, isn’t it!
It is the most fun medicine, too, right?
Heart disease runs in my family so I guess I have an excuse to book fifteen million vacations now!
That makes TOTAL sense to me!! There are worse ways to stay healthy, right? 😉
That’s why, in our sixties, we bought timeshare. We will be forced to go on vacays even during retirement!
That is the perfect way to vacation! Yeah you! What destination did you choose for your time share? After traveling all over..I’m curious where you chose to put roots!
If science says how can we argue? I completely agree that taking a relaxing vacation is one of the best ways to stay healthy.
That’s right! Just what the dr ordered!!
There are so many pschologic as well as physical benefits for traveling. Just more reasons to get out and hit the road!
Like we needed more reasons though, right? 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
Vacations certainly do wonders for body, soul and mind. You point out many good things to keep in mind when we think of why we want to travel.
Any reason to travel more is a good one, right? Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
I wonder if more people would make travel a priority if they knew it would make them healthier and could potentially extend their living years? I’m not surprised by these studies at all – travel has so many benefits on so many different levels!
You are right! A holiday is great for your health. It relaxes both the body and mind!
But we didn’t really need another reason for a holiday, right? 😉
I find this post fascinating. Out of 12,000 middle-aged men those who took regular vacations sliced their risk of death from heart disease by a third! That is incredible and totally makes sense. But now I wonder what is considered a vacation. Sitting on a beach doing nothing? I move around a lot when I travel and worrying about missing flights and catching trains can be stressful. I wonder if that matters.
I know – isn’t that incredible? I wondered the same thing and after reading other articles about it I think the protection is having a breather from stress. For some, relaxing on a beach is the best way to do that (I would be bored to death!) and for others more active vacations are a great way to do that. Certainly vacations have their worries and air travel is certainly stressful at times, but over all I think it is a lesser stress environment for most.