BEST MEDICINE
Johanna Basford had been plagued by migraines since she was a teenager. “They got particularly bad a few years ago and could wipe me out for several days on end,” remembers the best-selling illustrator, 33, who received an OBE as part of this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
She tried medication and cutting things from her diet, but three years ago, Johanna also decided to enforce a daily dose of outdoor time, around the beautiful environment where she lives in rural Aberdeenshire with her husband James and daughter Evie, two.
“I used to go for runs and ride my bike, but later, after I had my baby, dabbling in the sweet peas or looking for ladybugs in the sunflowers in our garden was more achievable,” she remembers.
Though she still gets the odd migraine, they are nothing like as frequent, something the gardening evangelist puts down to her outside time. “I think taking my gaze away from the screen, allowing myself time to connect with nature and most importantly getting some sunlight and fresh air have made all the difference.”
Few would deny that spending time outside, surrounded by natural beauty, is an instant mood booster. But increasingly, research is showing that the great outdoors can be great for our health.
Planting a seed
A new report by the King’s Fund, commissioned by the National Gardens Scheme, extols the physical and psychological benefits of gardening, as demonstrated in various clinical trials, and says doctors should recommend it to patients.
“Gardening encourages those who have had a stroke with paralysis for example, to use their disabled limb,” says Sir Richard Thompson, former president of the Royal Society of Physicians, Trustee of the National Gardens Scheme and patron of the charity Thrive, who offer horticultural therapy. “There’s also good evidence for arthritis; all the twisting and turning and weeding is beneficial for the pain.”
Research by Thrive has also found that gardening has a positive impact on the wellbeing, cognition and mood of those with dementia and that it can also improve social interaction among those with social disabilities. In fact, GPs are now beginning to prescribe horticultural
Walking outside releases endorphins and hormones that promote better mood such as oxytocin, the feel good hormone.” Dr Valerie Gladwell, senior lecturer in sport and exercise science at the University of Essex
therapy to their patients, for illness recovery as well as anxiety and depression and in some areas, community gardening schemes are available.
“Many patients are frightened to use their bodies after heart attacks and strokes, or if they have arthritis,” says Sir Richard. “Gardening helps take their minds off the pain because the focus needs to be on the weeds and plants.”
How the outdoors heal
Tammy Parsons got her allotment 18 years ago just so she could grow wildflowers that her children could pick. But no one could have foreseen the crucial role that patch of land played in getting her through the breakdown of her first marriage eight years later and breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2010.
“I live in Bristol but the allotment is high on a hill with a view of the city and up there the air is so clean, it’s like being in the countryside,” says Tammy, 57.
Those who went for a 15-20 minute walk in nature at lunchtime could relax more easily at night, which improved the quality of their sleep.
“Being up there during those tough times taught me patience in seeing things grow and gave me peace and time to reflect on things when I felt I couldn’t cope.
“During my chemotherapy I would go up there and sort of hide away, because I had lost all my hair. I loved being outside. Something about the space and physicality of being near the plants, along with the feel of the cold soil in my hands, the sunlight on my skin was very healing for me.”
Tammy though still on medication, has been cancer free since 2011 and met her second husband, Ian, a gardener at Bristol University on an adjoining allotment.
That inexplicable sense of wellbeing that Tammy experienced is not only about gardening. Being outdoors has been shown repeatedly to boost health, says Dr Valerie Gladwell, senior lecturer in sport and exercise science at the University of Essex, where research in 2010 found that just five minutes a day in nature was enough to improve mood and self-esteem. “We think that walking outside releases endorphins and hormones that promote better mood such as oxytocin, the feel good hormone,” says Dr Gladwell.
But even if you can’t get outside, simply looking at nature could help. “MRI studies assessing the brain activity of people looking at nature compared to those looking at built images has shown that in the former groups, the pleasure centres were more likely to light up,” says Dr Gladwell.
A more recent study from the University of Essex also found that those who went for a 15-20 minute walk in nature at lunchtime could relax more easily at night, which improved the quality of their sleep.
Experts say highly focused, stressful work stimulates our sympathetic nervous system and when that remains in overdrive, it can lead to a “tired but wired” feeling. Nature stimulates our parasympathetic
When Margaret McMichael became a freelance business consultant at the start of this year, having worked in the health service for 37 years, she missed the social environment of her previous role.
“I love being outside and I wanted to do something with people,” says Margaret, 58, who lives in Twickenham with her husband Bruce and children John, 20 and Jeremiah, 16. Searching online she came across a scheme called Green Gym in her local area — an initiative that clears and tends environment projects all over Britain as a form of exercise for volunteers.
“The first time I went, I felt like I was in the country,” says Margaret. “The environment was friendly — with ages from twentysomething student right through to sprightly 70-year-olds — and the work was challenging, with a great spirit among the group. I was hooked immediately.”
Margaret’s group have two plots, a tiny orchard and some allotments along the Duke of Northumberland River and they meet every Wednesday for three and a quarter hours. “We do a 15-minute warm-up, some stretches and then almost three hours of digging, clipping, raking, staking, maintenance and then 15 minutes of stretching to help us wind down. I have even learnt to use power tools!”
Though she was fit before as a regular cyclist and swimmer, since doing Green Gym, Margaret says she has discovered muscles she didn’t know she had.
“I get really sore, especially in my thighs, after a session and I think it has really built up the strength in all different muscles all over my body, especially my upper inner thighs. But the best part of it is that in the past exercise was a solitary pursuit for me — now I have managed to get fitter but also feel a part of my local community — it’s sociable but without being contrived.”
Research carried out by Oxford Brookes University found that while gym memberships across the country continue to plummet, retention rates for Green Gym are high with 70 per cent of participants still active after six months, something the researchers put down to the motivating factors of working as a team and achieving something worthwhile.
“You get great pride from having cleared what was once dense forest; a real sense of ownership from the sheer work of it,” says Margaret.
Anna Magee is the editor of healthista.com