Travel Is The Best Medicine

Traveling keeps you young. Or at least healthier.

That’s the finding of a new study linking travel to decreased risks of heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and cancers. Travelling cures depression and loneliness which in turn reduces the risk of Alzheimer.

The Global Commission on Aging and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, has released research that shows travel offers healthy aging – boosting physical, cognitive and social benefits. According to the study:

• Women who vacationed every six years or more had a significantly higher risk of developing a heart attack or coronary death compared with women who vacationed at least twice a year
• 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.
• After being on vacation for only a day or two, 89 percent of people are able to leave the stress behind and relax.

No matter how old are you, include traveling into your 60, 70, 80s and beyond !

7 Tips for Planning Your Journey to Healthy Aging.

While planning for retirement corpus, factor in savings for travel. Make a list of all the places you've wanted to see and create an annual budget for each trip, including costs for transportation, lodging, food and activities.

Travelling can be one of your big purchases during retirement. But do not hesitate to spend that money. It is worth looking at travel as an investment that can improve your health and well-being, which can ultimately lead to a more enjoyable and fulfilling retirement.

Travel does not have to be exotic and expensive every time. Even a day trip or 2-3 day vacation to a nearby sea-beach or national park can help you stay active.

Plan small group travel with your friends and families, to share the cost and strengthen bonding. Be flexible for off-season travel and plan in advance which can lead to significant savings on airfare, accommodations and attractions.

Think of some of your hobbies that you can accomplish through travel e.g. wild-life photography, sketching foreign city squares or busy cafes, antique collection.

Do you have any special skill that can fund your travel ? Have you thought of writing travel blog, volunteering in Africa or Combodia, stock photography ? Explore it and start connecting with such groups.

In order to protect your health while travel, make sure you are up-to-date on all of your routine and country-specific vaccinations, and be sure to schedule a consultation with a Travel Medicine Specialist before you travel.