In this episode of my Hungry for More series, I talk about the benefits of hanging out with nature, or treating yourself to a walk in the greenery, for your health. I also share with you the different proven effects of nature on our physical and mental well-being and the difference between constantly being in an urban setting for work and giving yourself some time with nature once in a while.
Highlights:
- How is nature more than just what we see
- Breaking out of the urban: Why exposing yourself to green space is needed for your productivity and work
- Why is our health so affected by nature and how can we use it to make ourselves better
If you haven’t listened to previous episodes in my Hungry for More series, go back and check them out to deepen your understanding of hunger:
Episode 1: The Anatomy of Hunger: How Your Body Signals Hunger
Episode 2: The Science Behind Emotional Eating
Episode 3: Why Mindset Matters
Episode 4: Self-Compassion: The Importance of Cultivating Kindness and Care Toward Yourself
Episode 5: The Five Pillars of Nourishment and Nutrition (Part One)
Episode 6: The Five Pillars of Nourishment and Nutrition (Part Two)
Episode 7: 10 Practical Tips for Weight Loss
Episode 8: Can Exercise and Weight Loss Get a Divorce: Why Movement is a Spiritual Experience
Episode 9: Journaling: A Gateway to Awareness, Self-healing, and Transformative Change
Connect with Dr. Adrienne Youdim
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Transcript
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Health Bite, the podcast created to give you small actionable bites to support you in your path towards greater physical, mental, and emotional well-being. I'm your host, Dr. Adrienne, and I am so happy to be here with you today. And I want to thank you for being here with me and spending a small part of your day. Time is our most precious resource, and I'm grateful that you are giving some of it to me.
The Magic of Green: How Nature has Helped Emily’s Physical and Mental Well-being
So today I was out on my usual morning run. It was dewy out and I passed through a favorite spot where there are abundant eucalyptus trees. And I took a deep breath and felt this immediate sense of ease that I feel every time I hit that spot in my run. And it got me thinking about nature therapy. In fact, I researched the impact of nature on our health and well-being for my book, Hungry for More.
And I share the story of a patient named Emily, who had grown up in the Utah mountains and was now in Los Angeles working in a corporate office, under the bright fluorescent lights, you know how- some of you know how that goes.
Things were going really well for Emily, personally and professionally. She was doing great in her job until she developed, kind of, this constellation of, somewhat, random symptoms. She had weight change- weight loss, actually. She had gastrointestinal upset, nausea, reflux, headaches. She started to see different doctors who gave her different prescriptions and different pills, none of which really helped. And by the time she came to see me, it was so unclear as to what was going on. What was the root cause of all these symptoms? Were there multiple things going on? Or was there one thing going on?
And what about the pills? How much of what her symptoms were related to side effects from these medications? So Emily and I began on this journey of peeling back the layers and realize that at the core of her struggle was a longing for nature. So she had been raised, like I mentioned, in the mountains. Her jobs, you know, summer jobs and winter jobs during high school and college were always in the mountains. She was a ski instructor. She went hiking. And so she had really been raised amongst nature and was not used to being sedentary and under fluorescent lights. Nature does have an impact not only on our physical well-being but in the case of Emily, for example, on our emotional and spiritual well-being as well.
Looking Through the Screen: The Amazing Effects of Videos of Nature Towards a Person’s Health and Mind
In fact, in one study individuals were examined while watching nature videos. In this particular study, they were looking at the physical impact of nature. And really, this was not even real nature, but just videos of nature. And the study showed that while people were viewing these videos, that multiple markers of physiologic stress were reduced, including the heart rate of the participants had dropped. Blood pressure was reduced. Muscle temperature- I'm sorry, muscle tension, rather, and skin temperature were both reduced while watching this video. And heart rate variability, which is a marker of the health of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is again our rest and relaxation part of our nervous system, had gone up. So this study showed that merely watching a video about nature or of nature, reduced all of these variables of the sympathetic nervous system in very concrete kind of tangible ways.
Take a Walk in the Park: How does Nature Affect Us Psychologically
Studies have, of course, have shown that spending time in nature has psychological benefits as I started to say. Greater interactions with nature are associated with a reduced incidence of depression, anxiety, psychological stress, and being exposed to nature has also been shown to enhance cognition, focus, productivity, and leads to better attention and better work output in general. There was a study that looked at children who had ADHD. And it showed that those who took a 20-minute walk in nature perform better on cognitive testing, as compared to those who walked in urban settings that were filled with buildings, for example. And in another study, college students were given a range of cognitive tests before and after a 15-minute walk either in a park or in an urban setting. And they found that those students who took a walk in the park had significant improvement in the scores of their cognitive testing, as compared to those who walked in the urban setting. So just like the ADHD study, it showed that walking in a setting of nature, improved focus and cognition as compared to walking in an urban setting. And we know already that exercise and activity, for example, improves mood, improves cognition. And so in these studies, they're actually taking out that variable of activity because both groups are walking or exercising, but they're showing that just the place in which they walk has an impact on cognitive function. It's pretty impressive. And finally, to get back to the kind of physical effects of being in nature, and these studies, for me, are really mind-blowing.
What’s In It For Me: Why should I care more about Nature?
Spending time in nature has been shown to reduce cardiometabolic disease, cardiometabolic mortality, and overall mortality as well. So in one large meta-analysis, people who had greater green space exposure so like, they're exposed to more greenery, had lower blood pressure in general. They had a reduced incidence of diabetes. And they had reduced cardiovascular and, all-cause mortality. The study also found that stroke, hypertension, asthma, and again, heart disease were reduced in all subjects who had greater exposure to nature. I mean, what?! I prescribed aspirin and statins in my medical practice, and antihypertensives, or blood pressure medication for this kind of outcome, and now we have data to support that nature therapy really can result in the same or similar hard endpoints. Taken together, these studies clearly demonstrate the far-reaching and positive impact of nature on all aspects of our physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.
So today's Health Bite or prescription is, take time in nature. It is healing. It is therapeutic. And for my patient, Emily, and as the literature supports, it can be life-saving.
I hope you've enjoyed this quick episode of Health Bite. If you feel that it is a value, please share it with your friends and family and also subscribe for future episodes. I encourage you to go back to past episodes so that you can learn everything and anything on weight and weight loss, well-being, hormones, mindset, and all that good stuff. I believe wholeheartedly that knowledge is power and I have created many spaces to uplift and empower you. You can find me at dradrienneyoudim where you can sign up for my weekly newsletter, as well as, get information on my recent book, Hungry for More: Stories in Science to Inspire Weight Loss from the Inside Out. You can also find links to my blog, as well as, my 30-day journaling course to explore your hunger. And last but not least, please follow me on Instagram (@dradrienneyoudim) where I leave daily musings and inspo. I hope you have a wonderful week and I look forward to seeing you again next time! Until then.