Can Travel Benefit Your Health Part 1
There is a bit of homespun wisdom that tells us taking a vacation is good for our health. It has even been documented by medical professionals that having a vacation is good for your cardiovascular health. According to studies, both men and women are more prone to heart disease when they don’t take vacations. Men who take yearly vacations reduce their risk of having a heart attack by 32%. For women, not taking a vacation is a significant factor in heart disease.
It’s a sad fact that at least one fourth of all Americans do not have paid vacations. Not only that, but Europeans have seven to eight weeks of paid vacation time per year compared with an average of one week for workers in the United States. Nor is vacation time mandated in the United States.
Even workers who have paid vacations don’t always use their vacation days. Many cite pressures of work as the reason they don’t use vacation days. They feel they have too much work to take time away and that their boss does not support their vacation time.
Forestalling vacation time often means an employee works overtime, eventually becoming ill and missing work or taking unscheduled this. This puts stress on other employees who have to pick up the slack. Part 2 of this article presents a case for vacation travel.
