Can Travel Keep You Young?
The Natural Exposures 2011 Costa Rica group enjoying the benefits of travel.
Travel can be stressful, think flight delays, expense, figuring out how to function in a different culture. But it turns out that travel can also keep you young, decrease cardiac issues, and help your brain grow and become healthier.
Dr. Paul Nussbaum from the Brain Health Center Inc. said in Costco Connection (May 2014), “Travel is good medicine. It is important to participate in behaviors that promote brain health and build brain resilience across the life span.”
Freddy having fun on our swim down the gin clear water of the Salobra River. Brazil.
When you expose the brain to new situations and environments, as you do while traveling, it grows and makes new connections.
If cognitive development and brain growth isn’t enough (we could all use that, right?) studies show that travel has physical and social benefits that lead to a healthier aging process, according to the US Travel Association.
An article in Forbes Life states, “Surveys from the Global Coalition on Aging (GCA) show that group travel builds social ties, which studies suggest help nurtures interest in life-long learning. And small groups are especially able to deliver personal interactions; whether enjoying a picnic lunch by a vista, or encounters with local families during home-hosted lunches and dinners.”
Michael Hodin, director of the GCA said, “Taking into account socio-economic difference, our research found women who vacationed at least twice a year had significantly lower risk for heart issues and death than women who vacation every six years. Men who took annual vacations lowered their risk of death from heart disease by 30 percent over the non-vacationing group.”
Sounds like a good excuse to take a trip, doesn’t it?