All The Ways Traveling Benefits Your Heart Health

BRB, booking a flight.

If you’re trying to keep your heart young, you might be adding fast intervals to your walk, incorporating high-antioxidant spices into your dinner recipes or moderating your alcohol consumption.

Heart-healthy habits can be fun and exciting too, though. Case in point: According to a 2019 study in Psychology & Health, travel — yep, going on vacation — is another way to greatly reduce your risk of heart problems.

In that study, 63 workers took approximately five vacations over the course of 12 months. They got their blood drawn, too, since the study was measuring metabolic syndrome (aka conditions associated with cardiovascular disease) and metabolic symptoms such as high blood pressure.

The research found that as people spent more time on vacation, their metabolic syndrome incidence and number of metabolic symptoms decreased. In other words, more vacation days may mean fewer heart-related issues.

According to experts, this correlation makes sense. “If done properly, travel can be very beneficial for your cardiac health,” said Dr. Bradley Serwer, an interventional cardiologist and chief medical officer at Vital Solution.