Get Healthy, Walk in a Park or Woods

We hear so much these days about what makes us healthy or unhealthy. But now comes solid scientific information about a behavior rather easily adopted and costing nothing. It comes to this: spending time in the outdoors, in nature and, particularly in parks and wooded areas, has been found to make you healthier. As someone who walks in such areas for about 75 minutes a day this was terrific news. Now doing something that helps me keep my weight and stress down and my heart healthy also has been shown to have even more benefits.

Besides calming people down and providing pleasure, exposure to plants and trees produces increased immune function. That is both amazing and incredibly good medical news.

Scientists have discovered that this benefit is caused by exposure to phytoncides, the airborne chemicals that plants emit to protect them from rotting and insects and which also seem to benefit humans. More than 5,000 of these volatile organic substances defend the surrounding plants from bacteria, fungi and insects. Various spices, onion, and garlic also give off such chemicals. They have also been called wood essential oils.

One study obtained data on 280 healthy people in Japan, where visiting nature parks for therapeutic effect has become a popular practice called "forest bathing," which is also practiced in South Korea and Taiwan. On one day, the researchers had some people walk through a forest or wooded area for a few hours, while others walked through a city area. On the second day, they traded places. The scientists found that being among plants produced "lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure," among other things.

Cortisol is also known as hydrocortisone, which is produced by the adrenal gland. It is released in response to stress and it increases blood sugar and blood pressure, and it suppresses the immune system. Even worse, it increases abdominal fat, which is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body. Some of the health problems associated with increased stomach fat are heart attacks, strokes, the development of metabolic syndrome, higher levels of "bad" cholesterol (LDL) and lower levels of "good" cholesterol (HDL), which can lead to other health problems!

In other words, cortisol is bad, and spending time in a natural setting reduces it and makes you healthier.

Other studies have found that visiting parks and forests seems to raise levels of white blood cells, including one in 2007 in which men who took two-hour walks in a forest over two days had a 50-percent spike in levels of natural killer cells. Other research found an increase in white blood cells that lasted a week in women exposed to phytoncides in forest air.

Whether you walk, run, bicycle or play is up to you, but the bottom line is that you have every good reason to spend substantial time in parks or wooded areas. Breathe in the air and appreciate that in addition to muscular and cardio activity you are getting another healthy benefit. Get into forest bathing!

Also note that having all kinds of indoor plants and small trees is also likely to provide some health benefits. Ditto for spending time in your backyard or doing gardening. Maybe we should speak of nature bathing.