Taking Vacations Linked With Longer Life Expectancy Study Says
By RJ Johnson - @rickerthewriter
August 28, 2018
Giving yourself a break away from the office could extend your life expectancy research suggests. The study was based on the results of a 40-year scientific study published by the University of Helsinki this week.
Scientists say men who took fewer than three weeks of annual vacation were found to be 37 percent more likely of dying compared to those who took three weeks or more.
The study examined more than 1,200 men born between 1919 and 1934 and recruited for the study between 1974 and 1975. The participants in the study had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease and were observed for the next 40 years. Half of the subjects were assigned a health program, while the other half were not given any instructions on their fitness levels.
What they found was startling - scientists say that even if you try to stay healthy through exercise and eating healthy, that doesn't compensate for not getting away from the day-to-day stress of the office.
“Don’t think having an otherwise healthy lifestyle will compensate for working too hard and not taking holidays,” said Professor Timo Strandberg, of the University of Helsinki, Finland. “Vacations can be a good way to relieve stress.”
Strandberg says the length of your vacation matters. Strandberg says the harm of an intensive lifestyle regime was concentrated in a subgroup of men with shorter annual yearly vacation time.
“In our study, men with shorter vacations worked more and slept less than those who took longer vacations," Strandberg said. "This stressful lifestyle may have overruled any benefit of the intervention. We think the intervention itself may also have had an adverse psychological effect on these men by adding stress to their lives.”
Those who don't take regular vacations tend to work longer hours, get fewer hours of sleep and don't eat as well, Professor Strandberg said. Even if the participants knew about the risk and tried to mitigate it with exercise and diet, Strandberg says that a person should focus on reducing their day-to-day stress.
He concluded: “Our results do not indicate that health education is harmful. Rather, they suggest that stress reduction is an essential part of programmes aimed at reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Lifestyle advice should be wisely combined with modern drug treatment to prevent cardiovascular events in high-risk individuals.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up to 76 percent of private industry workers receive paid vacation days. After at least one year of employment, workers were granted on average 10 days of paid vacation.
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