Does travel benefit my health? It is summer travel times, and since I am a “traveling
doctor” seeing patients in different states, this question came to mind and I thought to
share my thoughts. I summarize it below into 3 main benefits. Also I will mention some
business travel benefits from health care professional standpoint for who is interested to
know.
Imam Al-Shafi’I -one of greatest Muslim scholars- said about travel: “abolish your
hometowns to seek knowledge /growth, and travel as in travels there are 5 benefits:
getting rid of your worries, gaining prosperity (making living), knowledge, good manners,
and good companions”.
Travel will help
1- decrease your anxiety/stress as you break from the routine, meet
people/converse more social human interactions, and go digital detoxications.
2- increase your activity from packing your bags, walking in airport, using hotel
gyms and so on.
3- expose to new cultures and becomes more open minded; Mark Twain had said:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness”. Travel is medicine
to get rids of all those negative feedback thoughts.
For the doctors who would like to know what are some benefits of business travel for
doctors, here’s some points I can share from my personal experience: comparison you
gain experience in working in different environment/clinics with each has its unique
different workflow and different patients’ presentations and diseases from different
patients’ ethnicities and so on. Also comparison financially comparing the
production/compensation between companies, you gain more solid knowledge of the
business aspect of medicine by talking and negotiating with different
administrators/corporates and learning more of US healthcare system business, you
meet new colleagues/doctors, you learn working on and comparing different EMR
systems, you get outside of your routine office space into work instead in different new
offices/places, don’t’ forget the hotel points to use later for free nights..….
So maybe next time when you meet your employer ask for a 2-3 days a month of
business travels as your doctor prescribed Travel Therapy!
Hani Habal, MD
Doctor Habal Rheumatology Hub
www.dhrh.care
July 2025
