For your next adventure, imagine being knee-deep in muddy waters, sponging down an elephant during its bath time in Chiang Mai, Thailand. What about spending a whole day wandering around the Marché aux Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen? Exploring the entire island of Barbados all in one day, from the vantage point of an open-air Jeep, doesn’t sound too bad either. Travel is more than just a time for fun, rest, and relaxation. Turns out, travel can offer long-term health benefits and positively impact our lifespan and health span.
Exposure to new places and experiences can encourage metabolic balance, which can promote longevity. A recent study conducted by researchers at Australia’s Edith Cowan University (ECU) suggests that travel may help halt premature aging. “While [aging] can’t be stopped,” explains PhD candidate Fangli Hu, “it can be slowed down”—and venturing beyond your backyard to explore the world may help with that (2024).
Vacation Fosters a Low-Entropy State
Viewing travel through the lens of entropy—which is defined as “the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder”—researchers at ECU found that “…positive travel experiences may help the body sustain a low-entropy state by modulating its four major systems” (2024). In other words, a good vacation has the potential to make us feel less existential and more balanced.
Back in November 2022, I was feeling the hum of internal chaos. I was bored, burnt out, and weighed down by not only the macrocosm of anxiety that was the pandemic but the cycle of the 9-to-5 life I was living—and it showed in my physical and mental health. Instead of seeking a quick serotonin boost by shopping or simply scheduling a mini-vacay, my boyfriend and I quit our jobs, put our worldly possessions in a storage unit, and boarded a plane with a loose plan and no return ticket. Our goal in spending a few seasons abroad was simple: to reset and experience novelty. The result? We came back refreshed, expanded, more resilient, and with a new perspective on what life could be.
Seek Out Novelty for Your Health
While the level of comfortability and familiarity we experience day to day supplies us with its own health benefits, it can become stale and boring for our body and mind. Newness is what keeps us feeling vital, and travel is an easy way to be thrust into new surroundings to do new activities, experience new cultures, and meet new people. As Hu points out, “…novel settings can stimulate stress responses and elevate metabolic rates, positively influencing metabolic activities and the body’s self-organising capabilities. These contexts may also trigger an adaptive immune system response,” which is why travel can do wonders for our health (2024).
The Full-Body Benefits of Traveling
As noted on a fact sheet compiled by the U.S. Travel Association on the physical, cognitive, and social benefits of travel: “People who are physically active have lower rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, cancers, lower risk of falling, and better cognitive function”, while other studies found that women and men, respectively, had a higher risk of developing heart-related health issues when they did not vacation (Destination Healthy Aging). When we travel, we are invited to physically and mentally adapt and remain actively engaged, and such exposure to newness in so many ways “…improves the body’s ability to perceive and defend itself against external threats” (Destination Healthy Aging).
Beyond the physiological benefits, travel can create a positive domino effect in our daily lives and future livelihoods by promoting education and influencing positive choices later in life. Of course, not everyone can hop on a plane for their health. From financial to physical limitations, travel is not always readily accessible. One recent Chinese study examined the nonlinear relationships between the well-being of people in China and factors associated with travel and health. They found that the willingness to venture out ultimately depended on accessibility to public places and transportation, among other factors (Zhu et al., 2023).
Explore for Your Well-being
So, whether travel means taking a day trip to explore a nearby town by bus, planning a road trip for a long weekend getaway, or booking a two-week vacation overseas, use this new year to explore. The benefits of traveling will not only improve your quality of life in the moment but also your health and longevity in the long run. Keep novelty a top priority, use that PTO, and plan your next adventure.
References
Destination Healthy Aging: The Physical, Cognitive and Social Benefits of Travel. https://www.ustravel.org/sites/default/files/media_root/5.2015_Healthy_FactSheet.pdf
Edith Cowan University. (2024, September 5). Travel could be the best defense against aging. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 25, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/09/240905121025.htm.
Zhu, Y., Zhu, Q., Ma, Y., Chen, S., Meng, H., & Zubair, M. (2023). Identify travel and health factors influencing well-being of the older adults-a case study in China. Frontiers in public health, 11, 1213499. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1213499
Yes travel is ( mostly) great. However it’s time to temper the promotion of vacation travel with the environmental impacts, which are significant. And “ carbon credits” are no solution.
You bring up an important consideration, Sharon. Being mindful of why, where, and how we are choosing to travel is certainly important. One way I’ve tried to lower my carbon footprint when traveling is to slow travel (or stay in one place for a month+ at a time) instead of taking a quick week-long vacation, but even this solution doesn’t have a net-zero environmental impact.