IN MY VIEW... WE NEED MORE TIME OUTSIDE

DOCTORS can prescribe medicine, tell patients to lose weight and suggest that they exercise more, but how often do we tell them to spend more time outside? Probably not nearly as frequently as we should.

In this month’s Clinical Medicine journal of the Royal College of Physicians, Sir Richard Thompson, the past president, writes of the increasing evidence that plants, green spaces and gardening benefit mental and physical health.

I would go a step further: spending time among nature can be transformative.

Sir Richard points to a Japanese study, which found that looking at plants alters electrocardiogram readings (which check the electrical activity of the heart), improves mood and reduces pulse rate, muscle tension and blood pressure. I cannot think of a drug taken in isolation that could achieve this.

Green medicine — offering time in a horticultural environment, supervised by an occupational therapist — can be prescribed in certain areas.

But if faced with a depressed patient who wants a quick fix, the temptation may be to give them antidepressants, rather than a spell at an allotment.

And, sometimes, it takes time to be convinced of the benefits of such things.

As a young man about to start my medical studies, I stayed in Paris. Each morning, I would walk past gardens where people practised tai chi. Being ill-educated, I recall thinking it odd that the participants always took the trouble to go to the gardens, come rain or shine.

Recently, I have learnt the term ‘forest bathing’, a translation of the Japanese phrase

shinrin-yoku. It refers to being in nature to ease stress, boost energy and improve wellbeing. This is why those tai chi enthusiasts were in the park under the trees.

In his article, Sir Richard uses a statement I have come to paraphrase: if you want to be happy for a month, fall in love; if you want to be happy for a year, get married — but if you want to be happy for life, tend a garden.