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Want to boost your health? Travel!

If laughter is the best medicine, travelling could not be that far behind. When’s the last time you travelled? No, no, no. Not business travels. Let’s talk about the type where you literally disconnect from your work and get away from life’s vicious cycle called, “routine”. Now, if you can combine travelling and laughter, then you’re a winner. Let’s look at some health benefits travelling can give you.

Travelling makes you healthier.

Experts say that travelling is good for your health. This is according to the Global Commission on Aging and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, in partnership with the U.S. Travel Association. They conducted a research and concluded that travelling has a wide array of health benefits. Something that would rival mental exercises such as puzzles, in terms of physical and cognitive development. According to the study, the benefits are both immediate and long term.

  1. After only a day or two, 89% of respondents saw significant drops in stress.
  2. Women who vacationed every six years or less had a significantly higher risk of developing a heart attack or coronary death compared with women who vacationed at least twice a year.
  3. Men who did not take an annual vacation were shown to have a 20% higher risk of death and about a 30% greater risk of death from heart disease.

To level the playing field, the researchers did consider and factored in conditions pertaining to income levels and the participants’ overall health.

Travelling is a stress buster

With the hassles of travelling set aside, a well-planned and well executed itinerary, will prove to be one of the best things you’ve ever done. A poll conducted by the U.S. Travel Association discovered that travel, prevents dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The study also found that 86% of those who travel are more satisfied with their outlook on life, compared to the 75% who do not travel. Not only does traveling enrich your brain power, it also strengthens your heart health. The Framingham Heart Study found that those who didn’t take a vacation for several years were more likely to suffer from heart attacks, than those who traveled annually. Once you get away from your work and usual daily routine, stress and anxiety typically goes down, which in turn, decreases the strain on your heart and brain. The outcome is a rested mind, body and an overall better mood, which can linger for a few weeks post-travel, according to one study.

Travel is exercise

If you’re travelling with that world food expo as your main motivation, that may be a different story. But in general, travelling is far better than trying to burn calories while sitting on your office chair. Travelling will force you to walk, run or even engage yourself in paddle boarding, hiking and cycling. A trip to a theme park may require you to walk a few thousand steps or a beach activity can rack you up a sweat. Bottomline, you have more physical activity while travelling than switching your “couch potato” mode on while working in the office. So there you go, travelling has proven benefits for your physical, mental and even spiritual wellbeing. You can gain a lot from switching off that computer, disconnecting from your email and basically turning off your phone and head off to a place you’ve never been to.

If in case you have health or wellness questions you need to address while preparing yourself for that much awaited adventure, remember that you have Medgate doctors at your disposal, 24 hours a day. Just text or call 0917-5362156; 0998-9907540; 0925-7147794.