Healthy nature : forest recipe

There are actually medical professionals who would like to prescribe stays in the forest by recipe. That fresh air is healthy or other, more diffuse theses are not your Argument. They cite studies that suggest that walking in the woods to stimulate the immune system, the self-awareness, depression, and cancer defense, promote. These studies, mainly from Japan and South Korea.

Soothing Warnsubstanz

The forest air plays but it seems to really matter. Plants use terpenes for communication. With these from the leaves and needles flowing substances, they warn each other against leaf-eating insects. The importance of terpenes has been researched by a team of researchers led by Qing Li from the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo in twelve subjects. Six stayed in a room without knowing that there terpenes have been initiated. The other half slept in a room without Terpenzufuhr. Blood tests documented that inhaled terpenes enter the blood stream and into the brain. They seem to influence the production of neurotransmitters, which can lower blood sugar levels, blood pressure and stress hormone levels.

in addition to chemical Stimuli, the visual appears to play a role. Already the sight of a real forest you can leave the stress hormone levels by an average of 13.4 percent decline, according to Weis, Yoshifumi Miyazaki of Chiba University. The fits to the observations of Swedish physicians to Roger Ulrich. Their patients need after surgery, less pain medication, when before the window the Green grew. The study also showed that the view on a wall in a House was associated with more complications. She made it in 1984 to the science magazine "Science". For a follow-up study, Ulrich was on an intensive care unit, hanging pictures, and compared the healing processes of 160 cardiac patients. Those who saw a photo with a loosely wooded Bank of the river, required in the means is less medication and genasen faster than patients, the paintings are abstract, or only the wall saw.

Reduced Stress by reducing stress hormones

Meanwhile, there are also studies about 2018 by Matthew White of the University of Exeter and his colleagues published that show that virtual nature has positive effects. White writes, however, "the real-world nature" is preferable. The but does not have to be wild and beyond the city walls. A 2015 study published by a group of researchers from Chicago to Omid Kardan showed that in living in the canadian metropolis of Toronto areas where many trees were at risk of developing Diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disorders was significantly reduced.

Ten trees in a block of flats, so one of your conclusions, rejuvenate the health status of the inhabitants of statistically seven years. Also, studies from South Korea and Japan to show that it is not the walk alone, will help: One hour Walk in the forest led to a city-walk to lower blood pressure and a significant reduction in heart rate. A first in this week study published at the University of Michigan comes to the conclusion that just 20 minutes of reduce Cortisol levels significantly.

the forest seems to be can also help the immune system: A Team led by Qing Li showed in 2009 in people who were made within a period of three days, six hours, walks in the forest, an increased number and activity of "Natural killer cells". Came here, too, that the stress hormone-decreased concentrations significantly.

the effect on the immune cells was maintained for up to seven days. Since natural killer cells attack tumor cells, Li, currently President of the Japanese society for forest medicine, is the Thesis that regular walks in the woods cancers could be prevented. He recommends per month two full days to spend in a forest.

forest chemistry, forest optics, forest acoustics

Li is the "forest recipe" in Japan, no medicine-outsider. There in the forest, visits to health care facilities. "Shinrin-yoku" , which translates to "forest bathing", is funded by the health system. And the Japanese Doctors from actually Shinrin-yoku-recipes. The first German forest since 2017, close to the Baltic sea resort of Heringsdorf. The 180 acres there are but so far none of the cash paid to regulation.

Insook Lee's research group at Seoul National University in 2017, evaluated the results of 28 studies on the effectiveness of Forest treatments for depression. In 21 of the 28 trials, they improved significantly in depressive States. Walks alone seem not to be enough. The authors recommend that the forest rather than part of individualized therapy concepts.

But the forest seems to be far more than the sum of its trees – so all the optical stimuli and human mucous membranes recorded messengers. Researchers at the University of Exeter and the British Trust for Ornithology and the University of Queensland have found evidence that people's perceptions of themselves, the happier, the more birds you see and hear, the more trees and bushes you perceive. Already the rippling of a stream or the waves of a lake could lighten the mood. In addition to natural chemical and optical Stimuli, the acoustic plays its role.

E. O. Wilson's "Biophilia"

With the outdoors – and specifically the forest – connected man in the history of evolution so closely that this relationship is formally written in the genome, is convinced of the evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University. He calls these genetically fixed propensity to all that is alive "Biophilia".

the Problem is that most of the studies were conducted with rather few subjects, and often without control groups. Angela Schuh is a Professor of Medical climatology at the Munich Ludwig-Maximilians-University, also warns of other reasons, too fast, or euphoric conclusions. Since the findings are based predominantly on results from Japan and Korea, it is possible that native forests may impact on indigenous people is somewhat different.

the German medicine is now reached in the forest. The Bavarian spas Association, for example, has started a healing forests-project. And the chair of naturopathy at the Rostock University offers forest therapy as a course. The apparently necessary in-depth further studies are there, but so far, as far as is known, not planned.

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Jane Goodall 85 is the one with The monkey

The author lived describes his own experiences with the healing power of nature in the book "Wild life on the great river. My Uckermark year“ (Ehm Welk, 2019)