Pack your bags to supercharge healthy ageing
Research reveals that boosting your metabolism could just be a train or plane ticket away.
Have you ever wondered why you feel “different”, perhaps more expansive, when you travel?
The effect may wear off quickly once you’re back at home pouring over the bills, but for the period of holiday time, joy and challenge seem to nourish a special, timeless part of you.
Now a study at Edith Cowan University (ECU) has confirmed that travel is not only restorative of the mind and the soul but could also be the best way to slow down metabolic ageing.
The researchers concluded that while ageing, as a process, is irreversible, it can be slowed down.
Positive travel experiences enhance physical and mental wellness by exposing us to:
Novel environments
Engagement in physical activities and social interaction
Positive emotions.
“Tourism isn’t just about leisure and recreation. It could also contribute to people’s physical and mental health,” ECU doctoral candidate Fangli Hu said.
Any traveller can tell you that tourism enables you to experience new surroundings and relaxing activities. What the researchers found was that novel settings can stimulate stress responses and elevate metabolic rates, positively influencing metabolic activities, and the body’s self-organising capabilities.
In turn, these experiences may also trigger an adaptive immune system response.
Ms Hu said this reaction improves the body’s ability to perceive and defend itself against external threats.
“Put simply, the self-defence system becomes more resilient. Hormones conducive to tissue repair and regeneration may be released and promote the self-healing system’s functioning.”
Even better, leisurely travel activities can:
Help alleviate chronic stress
Dampen overactivation of the immune system
Encourage normal functioning of the self-defence system.
Travel recreation potentially releases tension and fatigue in the muscles and joints, which Ms Hu says can help maintain the body’s metabolic balance and increases the anti–wear-and-tear system’s effectiveness.
And that is good news for slowing down the ageing of our organs and tissues.
Travel can encompass activities such as hiking, climbing, walking, and cycling. This physical exertion can boost metabolism, energy expenditure, and material transformation, all of which help coordinate self-organising systems.
Physical exercise may also improve blood circulation, expedite nutrient transport, and aid waste elimination to collectively maintain an active self-healing system.
Moderate exercise is beneficial to the bones, muscles, and joints in addition to supporting the body’s anti–wear-and-tear system.
But there is some bad news.
The researchers caution that travellers could face challenges such as infectious diseases, accidents, injuries, violence, water and food safety issues, and what they describe as “concerns related to inappropriate tourism engagement”.
Unfortunately, there is always the risk that travel experiences will contribute to stress as well as rejuvenation.
