#011 I am prescribing you nature. Get out there.
When was the last time you were out in nature? Did you go for a bush walk, or to a local park, or do you relish the chance to do a spot of gardening?
How did you feel when you did it? Did you intentionally spend time in nature? Did you feel connected to nature? Did you notice the moisture in the soil or the moss growing between the crevices of a rock? Or were you speed pulling out weeds in the hope that you could get the job done and go back inside for a hot cuppa?
This week I was at a conference on the Gold Coast hosted by the Australian Institute for Social Prescribing Research and Education on social and nature prescribing. I will tell you all about the social prescribing side in another post, but first – nature!
Nature prescribing (or green social prescribing) involves a health professional recommending nature-based activities to patients, building on the established benefit of natural environments for human health. According to some research:
It may be useful for the prevention of and therapy for chronic physical and mental health conditions. Contact with nature may constitute a preventative “upstream health promotion intervention for populations”.
In other words, nature is good for us and can help to improve our health and wellbeing, as well as reduce the growing burden on primary health care.
And this healthcare burden is growing, and growing fast.
In Australia, the chronic disease burden is enormous. In 2017-18 more than 47 per cent of Australia’s population had one or more of the 10 most common chronic conditions (including diabetes, mental health conditions, cardiovascular disease, cancer, asthma, arthritis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Throw our ageing population, poor nutrition and couch/desk bound lifestyles into the mix, and you can see how these numbers have the potential to keep increasing in the future.
Research published in the Lancet shows that COVID-19 may have led to an additional 53.2 million cases of major depressive disorders and 76.2 million anxiety disorders globally.
The number of people with diabetes globally is predicted to rise to 1.31 billion by 2050 (up from 529 million in 2021), and cases of dementia will almost triple to 152.8 million in 2050 (from 57.4 million in 2019).
Can a nature prescription help?
In many cases, yes!
Research shows that a two-hour ‘dose’ of nature a week can significantly boost health and wellbeing, happiness and resilience, and reduce social isolation.
Research has shown other benefits, including:
· Reduced blood pressure
· Lower levels of cardiovascular and respiratory problems
· Slower cognitive decline
· Reduced risk of diabetes and obesity.
Seems like a no brainer to get outside among the trees, right?
Think back over the past week – how much time you spent outside in a green space – did you get a two-hour dose?
Most Australian adults don’t meet this recommendation.
Studies have shown that 1 in 3 Australians spend less than 2 hours per week in any natural environment.
This statistic, on the surface, is shocking!
But when you think about how much time you intentionally spend in a green space, it becomes a little easier to see how it is possible.
I think back to my time working in an office environment (rather than working from home, which I have done for the last 18 months), there would definitely be days where I would have stayed inside all day, maybe ducking outside to grab a coffee (concrete jungle, definitely not a green space). On the weekends I might have gone to the gym (inside) or a yoga class (inside), maybe met friends for a coffee (inside, or sitting in the sun, still not in nature), or sat on the couch and read a book. Since having children, the inside activities would have been tempered with trips to the park or the zoo (green space!), but would have just cracked 2 hours a week.
In the UK, the idea of nature prescriptions is much more advanced than in Australia. The UK Government has read the research and recognised the potential for nature prescriptions to bring down healthcare costs and boost citizen happiness and wellbeing. Win-win!
Sir James Bevan, head of the UK Government’s Environment Agency has said:
Investing in a healthy environment is about the smartest thing we can do. It makes medical sense, because it will mean better health for all and less strain on the NHS. It makes economic sense, because it will save the NHS billions of pounds: the NHS could save an estimated £2.1bn every year in treatment costs if everyone in England had access to good quality green space.
Because I am not a healthcare professional, the below suggestions are some ideas picked up from the conference as ways for the general population to both improve their everyday contact with nature, or use nature-based health promotion activities to help prevent disease. These health promotion activities include:
· Outdoor recreation and education
· Active travel
· Gardening and community gardening
· Conservation
· Volunteering
· Outdoor clubs
· Nature play
· ParkRun
Experiments in Modern Wellbeing
My natural inclination is to curl up on the couch with a book if I have free time, rather than to go for a bush walk, go to a park, or drive to a wide-open space (especially during Canberra’s winter!). I feel like I am a nature-based activity ‘aspirational’ kinda gal, rather than someone who craves the outdoors. But I want to change that. Given all of the research, it seems like a no-brainer to commit to at least 2 hours a week in the great outdoors to improve my health and wellbeing.
So, I am going to include some of the above activities into my weekly rhythm to boost my time in nature, and mix up the time I spend outside with others (bonus points for pro-social wellbeing) as well as time alone (which can help with those needing more contemplative time or solitude).
But I want you to think about how you spend your time outside. Are you connecting with the natural world, or is it just another space you are checking social media or talking on the phone (which, according to research, erases most of the benefits of being outside).
Some of us have forgotten to connect with nature – it can be as simple as being outside and walking through the grass barefoot, or looking in awe at a freshly spun spider web, or appreciating the fragrance of a flower or a pine tree.
Let me know if you take up this nature prescription and if you notice any improvements in your health and wellbeing.
If you want to read more on nature prescribing and the benefits of nature, there are a tonne of books and articles on the benefits of shinrin-yoku or ‘forest bathing’ out there.
The Art and Science of Forest-Bathing
Shinrin-yoku: the Japanese way of Forest Bathing
Be well
Alicia