Vactations---it's what's good for you

Just in case anyone ever feels guilty about taking a vacation, there is some data that supports the benefits.

When you are self employed like physicians, you sometimes wonder if vacations are financially worth the cost. After all, when you are not in the office seeing patients, there is no revenue being generated but the overhead of the employees, rent, utilities etc. are ongoing.

The vacation cost then becomes the actual amount paid for the trip plus the amount of lost revenue from not being in the office. It typically does not financially make sense if you look at it purely in a dollars perspective.

But the data now reveals that if we are middle-aged men and what's ailing us is a high risk for heart disease than a vacation certainly makes sense.

Researchers from the State University of New York at Oswego conducted a survey of more than 12,000 men ages 35 to 57 who had participated in a large heart disease prevention trial. The results suggest that men who take vacations every year reduce their overall risk of death by about 20 percent, and their risk of death from heart disease by as much as 30 percent.

Rather than these men being rewarded for their dedication to the job, they suffered the highest overall death rate and highest incidence of heart disease of any of the participants.

What was surprising to some of the researchers was the fact that some of the men surveyed didn't take any vacation time over the five years surveyed.

Stress is thought to influence heart disease in several different ways. Many individuals will self-medicate their stress with smoking and drinking alcohol and they are less likely to participate in leisure activities, hobbies, or get adequate amounts of sleep and exercise.

Vacations tend to counteract these risk factors, even if just temporarily because people tend to pack in more hours of sleep and exercise, as well as spend more time with family and friends while on vacation. All of these are good for the “ol’ ticker”.

Skipping vacations may actually be dangerous to your health and it appears that Vacations have a protective effect because they help you reduce your load of stress, or at least allow you to take a break from the everyday stressors of the workplace.

Luckily, the next generation may be learning from our mistakes as the participants most likely to take regular time off also turned out to be the youngest.

All this said, I am taking my own advice and taking some time off on a much needed vacation.
I’ll begin blogging again in a week or so.