5. Why Nature Heals Part 1: The Science Behind Stress, Sunlight, and Stillness

In this restorative and research-packed episode of Nourished with Dr. Anikó explores the essential role of nature in regulating our nervous system and enhancing our overall well-being. 

With warmth and scientific insight, Dr. Anikó reminds us that we are nature and that reconnecting with the natural world isn’t just beneficial, it’s vital to our health.

Drawing from her background as a double board-certified Integrative Pediatrician and Postpartum Specialist, Dr. Anikó dives into the biology behind why green spaces reduce stress, how chronic overstimulation affects digestion, and what centuries of healing practices have taught us about rest and rhythm.

Whether you’re a parent, a health-conscious professional, or simply someone craving more calm, this episode offers powerful reasons and practical encouragement to step outside, breathe deeply, and return to your roots.

Episode Highlights:

• What the nervous system has to do with nature and how green spaces affect vagal tone
• The difference between the sympathetic ("fight or flight") and parasympathetic ("rest and digest") systems
• Why chronic stress from modern life disrupts our natural rhythms
• The healing power of exposure to green spaces versus blue spaces 
• What an ‘80s gallbladder recovery study revealed about hospital room views
• The connection between sunlight, vitamin D, and immune health
• How to tune into your own body’s wisdom and feel the effects of nature

This episode is a gentle but urgent reminder: when we spend time in nature, we’re not escaping life we’re returning to it. Let this be your nudge to take a walk in the woods, or simply sit under a tree.

Connect with Dr. Anikó:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.aniko/

Website: https://www.draniko.com/

Thank you for listening to Nourished with Dr. Anikó!

It would mean the world if you would take one minute to follow, leave a 5 star review and share with those you love!

Your presence is truly felt and deeply appreciated.

Disclaimer:
The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you heard on this podcast.

Transcript

Dr. Anikó: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to Nourished. Today I wanted to talk about nature. Not just the importance of nature, but a little bit about the nervous system and how nature affects our nervous system, and also about some of the research because there actually is a lot of research that shows how important and beneficial being in nature is for us and for our families, so adults and kids [00:01:00] alike.

And being in nature is a little bit of a misnomer in my opinion, because we are a part of nature, so we are not separate from nature. We evolved as part of the natural world and as much as we sometimes live in pretty synthetic, non-natural and environments. We are still beings of nature inside, and that is one of the reasons that being disconnected from the natural world can have real consequences.

It can have mental health consequences, physical health consequences, and when we disconnect from our natural rhythms. We're actually going against our own nature. So in so many ways, when we go out into nature again, we're able to reconnect with our own rhythms, through our connection with nature. So let's dive in.

So first I'd like to talk a little bit about the nervous system [00:02:00] in general. So when we think of fight or flight systems, that is going to be the sympathetic nervous system and then the complimentary system to that.

The partner to that sympathetic system is the rest in digestive. And that's the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is the one that is really guided and ruled by the vagal nerve, the vagus nerve. And the reason I said vagal is because vagal tone has become a pretty well known term at this point, and vagal tone just means the activity of the vagus nerve.

And the reason that this is significant is because many of us are stuck in a sympathetic overdrive. Basically, we experience chronic stress. So when I talk about stress. Stress is not necessarily a bad thing, right? Stress creates tension that allows us [00:03:00] to grow, but when you get to the point where you're never not in a situation of stress, that is when we run into problems.

So the sympathetic nervous system sometimes kind of gets a bad rap. We absolutely need the sympathetic nervous system. It is what kicks our body into overdrive When we are in a crisis situation, it's what allows us to run to. Freeze to fight back, to do whatever we need to do to survive and protect ourselves in nature.

 But in nature, when we encounter a stressor, it is, it happens and then it's over. Whereas in our day-to-day lives between our phones pinging and our screens going, and our nonstop scheduling and are working at night in bed and being exposed to nighttime light And all of that kind of thing, we end up in a more chronic stress experience, and that is not what our bodies were built to experience.

And so cortisol is [00:04:00] what our body makes in response to the sympathetic nervous system being activated. So being stressed. And that's why in many studies we wanna see an objective marker of. Stress levels. Then we measure salivary cortisol, so that's just, you take a sample of saliva and you look at how much cortisol is in there, and it gives you information about how stressed the person is or the animal is that we're studying.

 The partner system to the sympathetic nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous system, and that is also known as the rest and digest system. So it is well named because that is the system that is activated when you rest and it allows you to digest. So when you just think about it logically, when you're having to run from.

A lion or fight off a lion or something like that, your blood flow is mostly going to go to your muscles because that's what's [00:05:00] being activated. That's not the time that you're going to be digesting anything because that's not what your body is needing to prioritize in that moment. But when you get a moment to rest, calm down, relax, the tiger or lion or whatever the stressor is, is gone.

That's when your body is able to start digesting and doing all of the other functions that it needs to do that are unrelated to running from an enemy or in a crisis situation, or fighting back in a crisis situation. So you start to see where I'm going with this. Right. So when we are in a state of chronic stress because of our lifestyle and just the modern world, really we start to experience issues with our digestion very often and through studies and not just studies, I think many of us have a really intuitive knowing that when we are in nature, we feel calmed.

We feel rested, we can feel [00:06:00] restored. So you don't necessarily need a study to tell you how you feel in nature. In fact, you don't need to study at all. All you need to do is pay attention to your body. So really be embodied and feel the difference in when you get out into nature.

And after you spend some time in nature, usually people report that they feel more focused, they feel more relaxed, they feel less stressed, and they feel restored. AndThis is perhaps unsurprisingly exactly what the research shows.

So when people look at. Exposure to green space, and it really is green space, which I find interesting. So they don't find the same results. When you look at water, which researchers call blue space, which I feel very calm when I'm around water, but when people look at it in studies, it really shows that the greenness, the plant life is very, [00:07:00] very important.

But exposure to more green space is associated with better mental health. Outcomes in kids, adolescents and adults. So there was a well-known study at the time that was done in the eighties that looked at people that had had their gallbladders removed and they looked at through going over hospital records. What the nurse's notes were about them, what kind of medications they took, and also how long their recovery was.

And they compared these two groups of patients. They all had the same surgery. One group was in a hospital room that had a view of a natural space outside, so a natural setting outside. And the other group had a window that was looking onto a brick wall. Take a guess which group did better, right? We know it intuitively that nature is healing, but it is pretty powerful that in this study, the group that had the [00:08:00] view of the natural setting had a shorter hospital stay, so they had a faster recovery time.

They took fewer potent painkillers like opiates, and even the nurse's notes about them had fewer negative comments or fewer negative notes. So fewer things went wrong. In short and back in the day, and you'll see this in older hospitals and hospitals in other countries, for example. They were set up as a bunch of different buildings with a lot of green space.

So if you go to a hospital in central Europe, for example, you'll see a bunch of different buildings and then almost a park-like area around it with benches and trees and places where people were intended to spend time in nature because we knew, we've always known that nature is healing. And when you go back in history and you look at the way that illnesses were treated [00:09:00] before, we had effective antibiotics, for example.

So when you think of tuberculosis, sanatoriums, which were. Essentially hospitals that were designed for recovery because people weren't necessarily getting active treatment because there wasn't, you know, an antibiotic regimen you could use at the time. But they would get rest. They would get fresh air, a nutritious diet, and they would of course need to be isolated from the rest of the community.

So they don't spread the illness to anybody else. And part of the actual treatment plan was time outside, specifically time in the sun. And when we look at studies today that examined that there is evidence to show that UV light is helpful in mounting a response to tuberculosis and infections, and they surmise, that's because it creates vitamin D.

Your body produces vitamin D in response to sunlight. And that [00:10:00] helps your immune system fight off illnesses more effectively. Now because I'm a scientist, I obviously love all these studies and I love that my intuitive knowing is being explained on a molecular level. I know that I feel better when I get sunlight.

I know that I feel even better when I get early morning sunlight, which we know from other studies is really important for your circadian rhythms, which we'll talk about in depth in another episode, but. You don't really need these studies to know what's going on in your body, which is that when you get fresh air, you're in a natural environment.

Your mental health improves. Your overall health improves. You don't get sick as often 'cause your immune system is working better rather, and your overall wellbeing improves. But it is pretty cool that when we look at it in studies, those studies show the exact same thing. So that is where I'll stop for today.

This feels like [00:11:00] a big enough bite out of the nervous system and talking about some research and talking about just how important, not just important, but vital. It is. For us to be in natural spaces because we are a part of nature. I hope this inspires you to get outside, get some sunshine, get into some green space, and next time we'll talk about more details about how great nature is for us and why, and also how to really soak nature in and feel restored and revitalized when we experience it. [00:12:00]