The many benefits of ecotherapy
If you’ve spent more time tending to your garden or taking long walks outside during the pandemic, you’re not the only one. When COVID-19 shutdowns forced the closure of restaurants, bars and movie theaters, people instead flocked to parks, community gardens, beaches and hiking trails. A study by researchers at the University of Vermont found significant increases in outdoor activity during the early pandemic days of May 2020, especially among women. Getting outdoors has helped many people cope with the anxiety and uncertainty of the pandemic, but it has additional scientifically validated benefits as well.
Allegheny Health Network and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield are aiming to educate more people about those benefits through a new “ecotherapy” trail at North Park in Hampton, McCandless and Pine. Ecotherapy refers to the practice of interacting with nature to improve health and wellness. Unveiled in May, the trail is meant to help people relax and recharge by connecting to nature in meaningful ways.
“Parks have been really critical during COVID when you couldn’t really go anywhere else,” said Dr. Allan Klapper, president of AHN’s Wexford Hospital. “We’ve got great parks in Allegheny County and they’re so central to everybody who lives here. They’re a tremendous resource that help us decompress from our day-to-day hectic lives.”
The idea for the project came from the recognition that time spent in nature can have many positive effects on a person’s overall health and well-being, he said.
The trail, which opened last month, involves 10 ecotherapy signs around the park designed to educate visitors about the health benefits of spending time in nature. Those benefits include lowering stress levels, decreasing blood pressure and stroke risk, increasing energy levels, boosting the immune system, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, and improving concentration, memory and cognition.
“At each of these stations, you have an opportunity to learn a little bit about what’s around you and interact in a way that helps you decompress and reduce stress in your day-to-day life,” Dr. Klapper said. “It’s meant to enhance your normal interactions you have with the park.”
Visitors can access a map of all 10 locations by using their smartphones to scan a QR code at any of the ecotherapy signs.
Science-backed benefits
We all know that getting outside is good for us, but there’s now plenty of scientific evidence to back up our individual experiences.
“Being in nature has always been beneficial, but now we have the means to actually study and measure the ways that nature can actually make us feel better, both mentally and physically,” said Catherine Massey, a psychology professor at Slippery Rock University.
Of course, spending time outside can help get our bodies moving, which is good for our physical health. But ecotherapy has surprising biological effects as well.
For instance, research has shown spending time outdoors lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol. When your cortisol levels are high, you can feel
anxious, depressed or irritable and you may have high blood pressure.
In one study from 2019 by researchers at the University of Michigan, participants were asked to spend 10 minutes or more in nature at least three times a week over an eight-week period. Researchers then measured levels of cortisol from saliva samples that participants took before and after these nature sessions. They found cortisol levels dropped the most when participants spent at least 20 minutes outside.
Research has also shown exposure to sunshine is linked to lower blood pressure. A study from 2020 published in the Journal of the AmericanHeart Association that included more than 342,000 patients at dialysis clinics across the United States over three years found exposure to ultraviolet radiation from spending time in sunlight corresponded with lower blood pressure readings.
Our immune system also seems to change when we’re outdoors. When we’re outside, we breathe in phytoncides, which are airborne chemicals that plants emit to fight disease and protect themselves from insects. These chemicals have natural antimicrobial properties and also seem to be beneficial to people. When we breathe in these chemicals, our bodies respond by increasing the number and activity of natural killer cells, a type of immune cell. These cells protect us from cancer and invading pathogens.
Researchers in Japan found when people did “forest bathing” trips — a method of mindfulness among trees — the activity of those natural killer cells remained elevated for up to a month after a three-day excursion into a forested area.
You can even reap the benefits of nature just by looking at it while indoors. One classic study published in 1984 looked at the effect of nature on patients recovering from gallbladder surgery. One group of patients was assigned to rooms with windows looking out at nature while the other group had similar rooms with windows facing a brick wall. The study found the patients with the view of nature had shorter hospital stays than the group without the view.
Today, many hospitals and health care facilities have incorporated natural elements or green spaces to promote healing among patients.
“Ecotherapy can actually give you a deeper insight into our own minds or habits, things that maybe bother us or really get us down. It can give us more of a sense of self-awareness about what’s going on inside ourselves,” Ms. Massey said.
How to practice ecotherapy
Spending time outdoors doesn’t have to mean doing an extreme sport like mountain biking or whitewater rafting. It can mean any kind of outside exercise as well as gardening and horticulture, animal-assisted therapy, outdoor meditation and yoga, and nature arts and crafts.
And you can benefit from ecotherapy even if you live in the city.
“You don’t necessarily have to be in the woods to get the benefits of ecotherapy,” Ms. Massey said.
Pittsburgh’s nearly 3,800 acres of parks provide plenty of green spaces to residents, but Ms. Massey said just taking a walk in your urban neighborhood or even sitting near a sunny window can have positive effects on your mental health. Skin exposure to natural sunlight on your arms, hands and face releases a hormone in the brain called serotonin, a mood stabilizer that can help you feel calm and focused.
If you don’t have your own green space or don’t have easy access to one, Ms. Massey recommended bringing nature inside with houseplants, flowers, terrariums or even artwork of the outdoors.
Dr. Robert Zarr, a Washington, D.C.-based pediatrician, said it’s important to choose an activity you know you will enjoy and consider how you’ll fit nature into your daily routine. Dr. Zarr is the founder of Park Rx America, an initiative that prescribes spending time in parks to prevent and treat chronic disease and promote wellness.
“There’s no one-size-fitsall prescription,” he said. “But if it’s seen as burdensome, and if it’s an extra something that they just don’t have time to do, most people won’t do it.”
He asks four important questions to patients when prescribing the outdoors: Where do you feel safe and comfortable? What do you like to do or what do you imagine doing outside? How many times a week can you commit to doing it? How long can you commit to it?
Calculating the dose
So, what’s the ideal dose of nature? A 2019 study published in Scientific Reports found spending just two hours outside a week is associated with health benefits. That time could be spent in a single visit or spread out throughout the week.
The study used data from nearly 20,000 people in England and found those who spent at least 120 minutes in nature a week were significantly more likely to report good health and higher psychological well-being than those who don’t visit nature at all during an average week.
For those who are hesitant to get outdoors, Dr. Zarr said to start out with short visits and try to gradually increase your time spent outside.
“It’s important to remind people that nature is not something that is outside, but that we’re part of nature,” said Dr. Zarr. “We evolved outdoors for millions of years, and it’s only been in the last few decades that we’re now spending upwards of 90% of our time indoors. That’s a very recent phenomenon.”