Vitamin N-for a better life...
Time spent in the natural world can help build our physical,
emotional, and family fitness. The mind/body connection, of course, is a
familiar concept, but research and common sense suggest a new
container: the mind/body/nature connection.Over two thousand years ago, Chinese Taoists created gardens and greenhouses to improve human health. In 1699, the book English Gardener advised the reader to spend “spare time in the g
arden, either digging, setting out, or weeding; there is no better way to preserve your health.” And a century ago, John Muir observed that: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”
Today, the long-held belief that nature has a direct positive impact on human health is making the transition from theory to evidence and from evidence to action. Certain findings have become so convincing that some mainstream health care providers and organizations have begun to promote nature therapy for an array of illnesses and for disease prevention. And many of us, without having a name for it, are using the nature tonic. We are, in essence, self-medicating with an inexpensive and unusually convenient drug substitute. Let’s call it vitamin N — for Nature.
New research supports the contention that nature therapy helps control pain and negative stress; and for people with heart disease, dementia, and other health issues, the nature prescription has benefits that may go beyond the predictable results of outdoor exercise. The restorative power of the natural world can help us heal, even at a relative distance. On the surgical floors of a two-hundred-bed suburban Pennsylvania hospital, some rooms faced a stand of deciduous trees, while others faced a brown brick wall. Researchers found that, compared to patients with brick views, patients in rooms with tree views had shorter hospitalizations (on average, by almost one full day), less need for pain medications, and fewer negative comments in the nurses’ notes. In another study, patients undergoing bronchoscopy (a procedure that involves inserting a fiber-optic tube into the lungs) were randomly assigned to receive either sedation, or sedation plus nature contact — in this case, a mural of a mountain stream in a spring meadow and a continuous tape of complementary nature sounds (e.g., water in a stream or birds chirping). The patients with nature contact had substantially better pain control.
Very Constructive..
ReplyDelete