From leisure sickness to heart attacks, ailments can curtail your
holiday schedule.
By
Richard Lovett, published on July 01, 2004 - last reviewed on May 14, 2008
If you're stuck in your cubicle most of the summer, look on the
bright side: A host of stress-related ailments can crop up during
vacation, ranging from leisure sickness to heart attacks.
Leisure sickness is a cluster of cold- and flu-like symptoms that
only strike on weekends or vacations. The
syndrome commonly afflicts overachievers who feel guilty about taking
time off, Dutch researcher Ad J.J.M. Vingerhoets found. Caffeine
withdrawal may also play a role among those who skip their normal
java.
Vigorous vacationing can also be hard on the heart. The beginning
of a holiday involves unaccustomed physical and emotional stress. In a
2003 report in Psychosomatic Medicine, a team of Dutch and U.S.
researchers warned people with heart conditions to be wary of
unaccustomed exercise, extreme temperatures, heavy meals and foul-weather
driving. Other cardiac stressors include arguments with travel companions
and the lack of privacy in shared accommodations.
And if a flurry of catch-up work is waiting, long vacations can
make returning to the job especially painful. In a 2002 study, Gerhard
Strauss-Blasche of the University of Vienna found that high post-vacation
workloads can quickly undo the stress-reduction benefits of a holiday. He
suggests easing the transition so that you're not immediately back at
full-throttle: Build into your vacation a few half-days of work before
you return to the grind full time.
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