After weeks—or even months—of anticipation, you have finally made it to your destination and are ready to enjoy a few days of sun, sand, and sangria. Wait, is that something in your throat or nose?
It’s not uncommon to catch a cold during your vacation. Though it can be unpleasant and even unfair, this is not unusual. It’s possible to get a cold on a plane, or by eating something that upsets your stomach. But sometimes your immune system simply decides to take a break right along with the rest of you—and that’s not necessarily a coincidence.
Leisure sickness is a term for this phenomenon. You can prevent this before you go on your next vacation by learning what causes it.
Why do we get ill on vacation?
Ad VingerhoetsThe term was first coined in the Netherlands by a psychologist, professor emeritus at Tilburg University. leisure sickness In the early 2000s, he noticed that he was often sick during his vacation and decided to do a study about the phenomenon. His research The study found that high-achieving and high-stress people are more likely get sick after a break. These individuals report illnesses like headaches or muscle aches.
Why? What do you do? Before you begin, please read the following: How you feel can be affected by taking a break. You can also read about our other services. The trip. “Before a vacation people are already stretching themselves—working overtime, not sleeping well, not eating properly—so the body is already in a vulnerable state,” says Meena Malhotra, MD, is a board-certified intern medicine physician and founder of Heal n Cure. “When you finally slow down the body lets go and symptoms appear.” The vacation did not cause the illness. It was the body that had already been run down. Now it can express itself.
It is not difficult to understand why this might be happening, according to scientists Steven Goldberg, MD, MBAA Kentucky-based primary and urgent care physician. The amount of cortisol in your body is what matters. This stress hormone is important for controlling inflammation and keeping your immune system in line. “Think of cortisol as the lid to a boiling pan,” says Dr. Ayers. While you are rushing to meet a deadline, or coping with a busy week before a trip, cortisol keeps things together. As soon as you begin to decompress, your cortisol level drops. Once your immune system is back in action, you will notice a noticeable improvement. Dr. Goldberg states that symptoms may appear as inflammation increases. For example, many cold symptoms are caused by inflammation, so when that’s suppressed by high cortisol levels, you might not even realize you’re sick—that is, until you finally unwind and your cortisol drops.
Stressed-out people may be more vulnerable. Cortisol, which remains elevated for a long time, weakens the immune system. It does this by decreasing the production of cells that fight infection and by dampening important immunity responses. Goldberg and GuerreroWooley agree. Goldberg warns that when you add other vacation-related factors, such as exposure to pathogens, disruption of sleep, and changes in diet that may affect the gut’s microbiome, an illness is likely to occur.
Goldberg explains, “The cruel irony was that your body didn’t protect you from illness when the stress occurred.” “It just delayed the inevitable.”
Dr. Malhotra states that pre-travel stress can trigger viruses or conditions that are susceptible to stress. As an example, shingles is caused by varicella/zoster virus. This is the same virus that causes chickenpox. Stress can reawaken the virus that has lain dormant for years in our nerves after chickenpox. Stress can trigger other conditions such as eczema or autoimmune diseases.
