Have you planned your summer vacation yet? If not - maybe you should start planning - doctors orders! We don't need studies to tell us vacations are a welcome reprieve from the everyday grind and help decrease our stress level.

There are many times when we see patients who come into our clinic under extraordinary stress - feeling burnt out, and at the end of their rope. In the absence of depression, in these cases, a short period away from work can do wonders for their psyche.

But what does the medical data tell us about vacations? It confirms all of the above. In addition, we are finding out that vacations may lead to decreased heart attacks and longer lives. That's right - you will live longer if you take regular vacations.

Sounds like an overstatement? Here are some compelling data:

Using data from a Framingham heart study, researchers found that women who took a vacation once every six years or less were almost eight times more likely to develop heart disease or have a heart attack than those who took at least two vacations a year.

Similarly, a study of more than 700 women studied between the ages of 45 and 65 through 64 revealed that frequent vacations cut the risk of death among all women by half.

A 2000 study by the State University of New York at Oswego looked at about 12,000 men ages 35 to 57 and found that men who took yearly vacations reduced their overall risk of death by about 20 percent, and their risk of death from heart disease by as much as 30 percent.

Other studies have shown that vacations help improve marital intimacy, improve sleep, improve mood and decrease physical complaints as well as decrease fatigue.

Why does this happen? Probably for many reasons. One could be the beneficial effect that vacations have on reducing stress. We know by now that chronic stress is a trigger for many physical ailments and diseases. Another reason could be that we usually engage in healthy activities on vacation - improved rest, better sleep and more physical exertion. And maybe there is a Catch-22 - those who are less likely to go on vacation are also more likely to be more stressed and/or engage in unhealthy habits that may lead to early heart disease.

With all this data, you'd think we Americans would place a premium on adequate vacations. But think again. Americans take less vacation time than most Europeans, about two weeks a year compared to their three to four weeks a year.

Learning point? Plan a getaway for your health's sake - and you may live longer. Having said that, maybe the two of us should start planning our vacation for the summer.

___

Drs. Kay Judge and Maxine Barish-Wreden are medical directors of Sutter Downtown Integrative Medicine program. Have a question related to alternative medicine? E-mail adrenaline@sacbee.com.