
Impact of spending time in nature on long-term well-being: study - walterbell
https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/-/it-s-official-spending-time-outside-is-good-for-you
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tmoertel
Important to note: The underlying meta analysis included interventional
studies and might reflect a real causal link:

"""We included 103 observational and 40 interventional studies investigating
~100 health outcomes."""

Later in the paper the authors say that the interventional studies were mainly
about forest bathing in Japan, where the control group did equivalent
activities in an urban setting:

"""Within the 143 studies, 40 were interventional and the remainder
observational. Out of the 40 interventional studies, 27 were investigating the
association between shinrin-yoku and various health outcomes. Shinrin yoku, or
“forest bathing” is a popular practice in Japan and neighbouring countries,
and is defined as “taking in the atmosphere of the forest” (Park et al.,
2010). It is said to have health-promoting properties and to reduce stress
(Park et al., 2010). Participants of shinrin-yoku spend time in the forest
either sitting or lying down, or walking through the forest. In studies
investigating forest bathing, a control group carried out the same activity in
an urban environment. These studies typically had small numbers of
participants (between 9 and 280 participants)."""

So there is some small reason to believe that there might be a real,
exploitable link here.

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pssflops
Shinrin-yoku is a term that means "taking in the forest atmosphere" or "forest
bathing." It was developed in Japan during the 1980s and has become a
cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. [0]
Researchers primarily in Japan and South Korea have established a robust body
of scientific literature on the health benefits of spending time under the
canopy of a living forest. Now their research is helping to establish shinrin-
yoku and forest therapy throughout the world.

[0][http://www.shinrin-yoku.org](http://www.shinrin-yoku.org)

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rundigen12
"You can just hang outside in the sun all day tossing a ball around. Or you
can sit at your computer and do something that matters." \-- Eric Cartman

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dualogy
> _" You can just hang outside in the sun all day tossing a ball around. Or
> you can sit at your computer and do something that matters"_

Or, you can sit at your computer and do the things that are currently
collectively imagined to "matter". (Good enough for most of us, most of the
time, including myself there.) Such perceptions of course are ever-shifting
and what "matters" never lasts all that long in the form that is current & en-
vogue at time _t_ , except for such timeless intrinsics as shelter, food,
hydration, good company and.. hanging outside in nature. =)

~~~
jackfoxy
In case you don't know who Eric Cartman is...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cartman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cartman)

I think this was intended as sarcasm.

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agumonkey
Last time I walked in the forest nearby, I almost lost balance because my
brain started to fizzle. For some reason the sky / high trees / green
surrounding / ground soil turns my neurons on too. I'm not doubting how nearby
forests can massage your brain. That said, far-from-home nature has a very
different impact.

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abhiminator
Soothing read.

I could sense my mood improving as scanned through the article, which begs an
important question: does picturing a greenery of a forest up in the head have
a similar effect -- on the brain, at least -- as spending time in an _actual_
forest? (of course, picturing for sure won't expose the human subject to other
holistic benefits the article talks about)

Here's an interesting piece from National Geographic Magazine on the subject
from over a couple years ago. [0]

[0] [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/01/call-
to-...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/01/call-to-wild/)

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guessmyname
> _A new report published today…_

And where is the link to such report?

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walterbell
[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.06.030](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.06.030)

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marmot777
A day hiking makes me feel good for a week. The outdoors is truly outstanding
therapy.

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amelius
Curious what would change when using VR goggles with "outdoor" media running
on it.

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agumonkey
I'm sure that would be frustrating to have a beautiful sight tricking your
visual system but not smelling, feeling the wind, be able to touch etc

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dylan604
Use some of the fragrances from these guys while you're in the goggles:
[https://juniperridge.com/](https://juniperridge.com/)

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Pimpus
It's nice that we have studies to confirm this, but I always thought this was
common sense. Just the difference in air quality, compared to a city, is worth
being in a pristine location -- every breath becomes pure pleasure. As a
remote worker I take advantage of my ability to work anywhere in the world and
venture with my laptop into nature as often as possible.

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yjftsjthsd-h
We need studies precisely because common sense is 1. not common, 2. sometimes
inaccurate.

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ianai
And common sense is not authoritative. “I need to move somewhere green” is
much more credible with a study backing it up.

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bwang29
The impact to well-being necessary for affording spending more time in nature
could be large too. E.x. the extra few million dollars of price tag of living
among trees in the Bay Area.

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znpy
spoiler alert: there is life and civilization outside the "Bay Area"

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repsilat
And inside the Bay Area you can get a car or a bicycle for less than a million
dollars too.

