vacations and heart attacks?

[LottomagicZ4941]

Prevention mag reported on a report that those who take an annual vacation have a 40% lower chance of having a heart attack.

Sorry I don't know the issue I was just reading it at the Dr office.

Anyway, my old stastics professor always use to say "correlation does not mean casuation"

It could be that those who can afford to take a vacation have less heart attacks due to better employment, better income, better education, and better acess to health care. But just incase I better start taking more vacations.

"Vacation all I ever wanted. Vacation all I ever needed" The Go Goes

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[Jack Sprat]

Originally Posted by LottomagicZ4941

It could be that those who can afford to take a vacation have less heart attacks due to better employment, better income, better education, and better acess to health care. But just incase I better start taking more vacations.

There is a is 100% absolutely positive relationship between the chance that perhaps annual vacations may have some relationship to health. Or perhaps not. I try to go on three away-from-home vacations a year (yes, I'm retired), one a cruise, one an extended family visit, and one to a resort or to a foreign country. I actually find the planning and anticipation of the trips more relaxing than the vacations themselves. Certainly the week after returning from being away is filled with anxiety.
I'm always quite concerned about the separation-anxiety problems my cats have when I'm away, so can not fully relax during these times.

[koan]

I think you nailed to corelation.

I'm not in a position to be able to physically "vacate" on a regular basis so I vacate everyday for at least half an hour. I go off to my happy place and return quite refreshed. Another good option is to laugh so hard that you fall down. I used to do this every day but I can only afford it about once a week lately.

Haven't had any heart problems yet, just a couple of bruises.

[persephone]

Isn't it said that vacations are just as stressful as moving house?

The last vacation I took was with a few of my classmates and we went on a mini cruise to Spain... It was the best holiday I've ever had

We're planning another for January 2006, when we qualify, just to unwind before we start working full time again.

[Jack Sprat]

Originally Posted by letha

Isn't it said that vacations are just as stressful as moving house?

Wow, I hope not. We've lived here for 16 years now and I swear there are still things we haven't unpacked. When my father moved from his retirement house to a retirement community in 1990 he lived with us for three weeks while the new house was getting ready. He started moving things from his old house into our basement four months prior to the move and the last was not out for more than two years after. I can't imagine how difficult it was for him.

I have taken 3 lengthy vacations since 1998: Alaska (17 days), circumnavigation of South America (21 days), Tahiti (17 days). The planning of each was a breeze since we took Princess Cruise Lines each time and they did all the work (easier than using a travel agent). The first two trips were fantastic; we had studied the area in advance, knew what to expect, and both exceeded our expectations. In both cases we returned refreshed and relaxed and desirous to travel more. Our cats had different ideas though, and made us feel guilty.

Tahiti was horrible. We got there two days in advance to "enjoy" the island. The four-star hotel was isolated, had a filthy beach, it rained both days. The neighborhood was dirty, rundown, and there were strange unidentifiable things floating in the waters offshore. The smell was simply nasty. The cruise was delightful, but all the ports were dirty. The people were not friendly and the places we visited were not worth the effort and certainly not the price. On the fourth day one woman died on a snorkel expedition and while all the passengers knew about it none of the ship's crew would admit it. At least five others were injured.

The airport in Tahiti is small and not air-conditioned. The night we left, we were transported there in an overcrowded, old, noisy bus. Five planes would be leaving within a thirty-minute window, so almost 1,000 passengers from two cruise ships arrived at the airport at nearly the same time. We had no problem going through since my wife is disabled and had a wheelchair. Only two other disabled passengers received similar treatment, though, everyone else had to stand in one line stretching down and around the block in 93 degree, 60 percent humidity. The officials had only two custom lines operating and they inspected everything, taking around 3 to 4 minutes per passenger. Around a half hour after we arrived, one woman fainted (I'd call her elderly but at 56 I was one of the youngest people there), hit her head on the pavement and had to be removed to the hospital, her husband and those around her hysterical. At that point they opened a third customs line and stopped checking everything so carefully. Even so, it took more than two hours, with corresponding plane delays, to check the passengers through for the first flight. We were on the second and got going three hours late. The fourth plane, scheduled to depart 20 minutes after us, had been delayed incoming and there was talk, as we were embarking, that those 200+ passengers would have to remain in the airport because there was no hotel space available and one of the cruise ships had already departed on its next voyage.

It took several weeks to recover from that and we decided not to travel like that any more. It was not the cruise company's fault, rather the government of Tahiti just did not have any concerns about they visitors. Hopefully our next trip will be in October or November, 2005, on a Windjammer sailing ship. Small, few passengers, and not a seven-hour flight back to the US.

[Paula]

I cannot agree more, we have not had a break in (3) years, time away. WOW, and we feel it, we are completely consumed with work, We look at others our age who have an easier lifetyle and we look better than them? How do you figure that? The mind and body doesn't stop, would that mean if we did, we would rust? I do not what to find out, but, i am feeling the strain.