Ever heard of leisure sickness?

OKAY, so now I have heard it all – studies have shown that more people get sick during the holidays than any other time of the year. What’s more this condition has a name – it’s called leisure sickness.

The studies have revealed that the body produces cortisol when we are stressed and this hormone allows the body to postpone any necessary healing.  As soon as we rest, or go on holiday, and our stress comes down, cortisol production also slows down and all the delayed healing which was stored in the “pending tray’ is now attended to by the body… hence symptoms of healing take place – this we call “leisure sickness”.

Additionally, a change in habits during the holidays, including less sleep, overindulgence in unhealthy foods and alcohol, change of routine and a new, unfamiliar environment can be related to “leisure sickness”.

According to Wikipedia, the phrase ‘leisure sickness’ was coined by Dutch psychologists Ad Vingerhoets and Maaike van Huijgevoort, who presented a paper titled “Leisure sickness: An explorative study” at a meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society on March 7, 2001. Symptoms include headaches (even migraines), fatigue, muscular aches and pains, and illnesses such as colds and flus.

Sufferers (and for about three per cent of the population, this occurs every weekend), typically have, according to the authors, an “inability to transition from the work to the non-work environment, a high need for achievement and a high sense of responsibility.”