ONE WITH NATURE
Exposure to natural environment is linked to improved mental health, researchers confirm
When Henry David Thoreau and John Muir wrote about their outdoor experiences more than a century ago, they frequently touted the benefits of nature for their mental health, but they didn’t have proof.
Modern researchers, measuring brain activity, heart rate and other factors, have confirmed it: Nature is good for you. Exercise is good for you. Exercising in nature is even better.
“We can see changes in the brain,” said David Strayer, cognitive psychologist at the University of Utah.
Exposure to nature improves concentration and problem-solving. It reduces stress and increases feelings of empathy. One study found that hospital patients with bedside views of trees recovered faster, needed
Navajo guide Ben Henry Jr. leads a hike in Canyon del Muerto at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, a National Park Service site on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. DAVID WALLACE/THE REPUBLIC
less pain medication and had fewer complications after surgery. Even simple things such as gardening, hiking, jogging or walking the dog are good for our mental and physical health.
In a test of creative reasoning, researchers found that people score 50 percent higher on creativity and problemsolving tests after unplugging and spending four days outside.
“When you’re in nature, you’re in the here and now,” said Strayer, one of the study’s authors. The findings come as distractions of daily life keep mounting.
Researchers in a variety of fields are re-examining humans’ relationship with nature. Only a handful of studies examined that relationship in the 1970s. Then, in 1984, Pulitzer Prize-winning entomologist Edward O. Wilson wrote that humans have a genetic bond to nature called biophilia, a connection formed during about 2 million years of hunting and gathering.
“Snakes mattered. The smell of water, the hum of a bee, the directional bend of a plant stalk mattered . ... Although the evidence is far from all in, the brain appears to have kept its old capacities, its channeled quickness. We stay alert and alive in the vanished forests of the world,” Wilson wrote. More scientists took up the line of inquiry, some using brain-scanning software and other tools, and today, there is a much larger body of work. Eva M. Selhub and Alan C. Logan addressed some of the studies in a book, “Your Brain on Nature: The Science of Nature’s Influence on Your Health, Happiness and Vitality.”
Tests show that natural settings fire up opioid receptors connected to the brain’s dopamine-reward system. In other words, “nature is like a little drop of morphine for the brain,” Selhub and Logan write. Opioid receptors inhibit pain, but they are also good for stress relief, emotional bonds and positive thinking.
Thoreau was right. Muir was onto something when he wrote that people need “beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.”
While Muir talked about beauty and listening to trees, some physicians and psychiatrists recommended outdoor activity for a variety of ills. But their views were frequently dismissed as unscientific. The medical community focused on surgical and pharmaceutical solutions to problems. In the age of science and reason, there was little patience for anything else.
Science eventually produced telephones, televisions and computers, each new invention more impressive than the last, until futurists proclaimed that technology would cut the workweek to 20 hours and lead humans to utopia.
Those forecasts haven’t “quite worked out as planned,” Selhub and Logan write. “In fact, the opposite may be true, as it could easily be argued that many of us have become slaves to our screens.” Researchers estimate that many of us spend 12 hours a day in front of phones, laptops and desktops.
The results, they say, can be seen in rising mental-health problems, childhood learning and behavioral disorders, sleepless nights, declines in IQ, stress, burnout and unhappiness. American and Canadian consumers purchase more than 12 tons of anti-anxiety medication, 7 tons of sleeping pills and 150 tons of antidepressants a year.
“Our everyday urban environment tends to stress us out,” Strayer said. The stress of urban life can deplete the prefrontal cortex, he said. That’s the part of the brain that takes in outside stimuli.
“Everybody talks about multitasking, but we don’t really multitask. We switch tasks,” said Paul Atchley, psychology professor at the University of Kansas. Taking in a constant flow of information makes it tough to concentrate. Research has found that driving and using a cellphone is as dangerous as driving drunk — “and that’s not counting texting,” Strayer said.
Why do we keep Googling, emailing and browsing until our eyes cross and our prefrontal cortex is exhausted? We are hard-wired to take in information. We crave it, and you “can blame it all on dopamine,” Selhub and Logan write. Information activates the dopamine-reward system. So does telling people how we feel, which is easy to do with a text, email, post or tweet.
“There’s evidence that some of this technology may be addictive,” Strayer said. “Every time your phone rings, you want to see who it is. … It activates a social rewards circuit.” The Pew Research Center reports that 67 percent of cellphone owners check for calls or messages even when their phone isn’t ringing or vibrating.
No one is suggesting that people toss their computers or cellphones. Some wonder if the human brain will adapt to all this technology use over time. Atchley said he’s open to the possibility.
But that would take a while. In the meantime, he recommends balance. Architects, urban planners, mental-health professionals and others are noting the benefits of green space, arboretums and other natural settings. Cities with green spaces have higher levels of resident satisfaction, which can guide development choices. “I think that one thing we can do is really embrace the urban-development movement to make sure we have more green space,” Atchley said. We can also embrace parks, which provide green space, red rocks, the sound of water and other natural settings.
“It certainly confirms what many of us have known for a long time: that getting outside is beneficial to mind and body,” said Kevin Dahl, Arizona’s senior program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “I don’t think it hurts to remind ourselves that this is an important thing to do. … We pile our lives full of errands. And maybe that’s the biggest barrier to getting outside and enjoying nature.”
After years of isolation from nature, some people lack the confidence to explore it safely, Dahl said, but parks, with ranger-led programs and visitor-friendly experiences, can help people learn. So can Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and groups that teach kids how to hunt or fish. You don’t need extensive skills or expensive gear to enjoy the outdoors.
“Some of the most deep philosophical discussions I’ve ever had have been around a campfire,” Dahl said.