Nature truly is the best medicine. Science can tell us why?

Nature truly is the best medicine. Science can tell us why.

Usually, doctors don't advise their patients to spend time in nature, but they should.

A substantial body of studies demonstrates the health benefits of being in green areas, such as parks, forests, mountains, and the like, for people's physical and emotional well-being. The benefits of spending time near lakes, rivers, and oceans are less widely understood.

According to a World Health Organization paper titled Green and Blue Spaces Mental Health, spending time in nature—including urban and peri-urban areas - improves emotions, mindsets, and mental health. Exposure to forests, parks, gardens, or the seashore has been shown to even lessen the psychological effects of climate change, boost physical exercise, offer chances for social connection, and serve as locations "to relax and leave daily stress behind for a while."

According to Patricia Hasbach, a psychotherapist and ecopsychologist in Eugene, Oregon, "If you think about our relationship to nature, it reminds us that we are embedded in the natural world, as a species." "When we enter blue or green spaces, it feels like we're coming home. It encourages a sense of belonging to something greater than oneself.

Nature is good for our mental and physical well-being in various ways. People who live in greener or seaside places reported higher overall positive well-being, according to a recent study that polled more than 16,000 people in 18 nations. Additionally, people who frequently went for recreational purposes to green or blue regions (inland or near the shore) felt better and experienced less mental distress.

Another study that was published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine last year discovered that people who spend more time in nature—at least five times per week—use much fewer psychiatric, antihypertensive, and asthma drugs than people who spend less time outside.

The advantages for the mind and body continue.

Restoring components

There is plenty of research to back up the advantages of both environments for mental health, even if researchers haven't directly compared the advantages of green versus blue areas. For instance, studies have revealed that the Japanese practice of "forest bathing" (also known as shinrin- yoku), which entails strolling slowly through a forest and breathing in the fragrant gasses released by trees, lowers blood pressure, lessens depressive symptoms, and enhances mental health.

In Korea, hikers stop for a rest in the forest. While in a forest, breathing in natural substances like limonene and pinene can reduce mental tiredness, promote relaxation, and enhance mood and cognitive function.

According to a study conducted last year with participants from 18 different nations, persons who report having spent time playing in and around inland and coastal waters as youngsters are more likely to have better mental health. An earlier study discovered that residents of Wellington, New Zealand, residences with views of blue space experienced less psychological disturbance than residents of homes with views of green space.

The advantages of exposure to green or blue natural surroundings may be mediated by various biological pathways. According to Marc Berman, an environmental neuroscientist and associate professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, one explanation for these advantages is that they probably result from the so-called attention restoration theory, which contends that exposure to nature helps reduce mental fatigue and enhances the capacity for concentration. Involuntary attention is instinctively drawn to intriguing objects in the surroundings and is not fatigable. Directed attention is what we utilize at work and is the form of attention that can get exhausted or depleted.

Indeed, children performed better on a series of attention-related tests after taking a 30-minute walk in a natural setting with rolling grass fields, farmland, and forests than they did after taking a similar walk through an urban area, according to a study published in a 2019 issue of the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Spending time in nature can cause "soft fascination," which is defined as a pleasant experience that is engaging but doesn't demand all of your focus. This is in addition to grabbing your involuntary attention. With this approach, "your mind can wander and you can think about things at the same time," according to Berman. People frequently reflect on spiritual and life-related issues when they are in nature.

The biophilia hypothesis, which contends that people have an inbuilt yearning to interact with nature and other life forms, is another theory explaining why nature has an almost therapeutic effect on the mind and body.

Our senses are calmed by smells, sights, and noises.

The shapes of objects can also be calming in a natural setting, according to Berman, not simply the blue and green hues.