Boost Your Health: Spend Time in the Forest

Ethan Rotberg

After the pandemic interrupted our regular connection with other humans, many of us discovered a helpful new connection with nature.

This connection came in the form of walks, time in the garden, visits to city parks, or roughing it in the woods. What started as just an excuse to leave the house turned into a useful insight: green space can benefit our physical and mental health.

And the lesson is well timed. The pandemic has taken a toll on our mental health.

In a 2021 study from the Canadian Mental Health Association and the University of British Columbia, 40 per cent of respondents reported that their mental health has deteriorated during the pandemic. Those surveyed reported worrying about getting the virus, separation from family and friends, job loss, and even the threat of domestic violence.

After the past year, our need for nature to boost physical and mental health has never felt as strong. Here’s how science backs up those feelings.

The mood boost

“Have you tried going for a walk?”

There’s a reason people sing this tune. It works. A walk can improve your mood, reduce anxiety, increase energy and help you sleep. But the grocery store is not the ideal destination.

“There is mounting evidence, from dozens and dozens of researchers, that nature has benefits for both physical and psychological human well¬being,” says Lisa Nisbet, PhD, a psychologist at Trent University. “You can boost your mood just by walking in nature, even in urban nature.”

Doctors have even begun to write prescriptions for nature walks.Parks Prescriptions, offered through a new program called PaRx, assists pre-registered Ontario health-care providers with instructions on how to prescribe and log nature prescriptions for patients. A doctor may, for example, prescribe someone struggling with depression 20 minutes of daily nature outings in addition to other therapies.

Dr. Melissa Lem, a family physician and director of PaRx, has called on governments to designate parks an essential part of the healthcare system.

The benefits of spending time among trees go beyond improving your mood.

It begins with air pollution’s role as a risk factor for disease. A report from Forests Ontario connects outdoor air pollution to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, diabetes, asthma and other health issues.

Our forests fight on our behalf. Trees help reduce pollution in urban areas and filter harmful pollutants. A study from Environmental Science & Technology found birch trees especially capable of trapping toxic particles such as those emitted from vehicles.

Even on a physiological level, time spent close to trees helps us.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture credits a tree-produced chemical called phytoncide — which plants use to defend themselves against insects, bacteria or fungi — for boosting our immune system by increasing natural killer cell activity. Those benefits remain even a month after we visit a forest.

Numerous studies show that exposure to trees can reduce blood pressure. The American Psychological Association (APA) says interacting with nature has cognitive benefits, like improving memory, cognitive flexibility and attentional control.

According to one study, just 20 minutes a day in nature can pay off.

To top it off, simply looking at trees boosts our health. A 1980s study from environmental psychologist Roger Ulrich found that patients recovering from surgery whose bedside windows looked out on leafy trees healed, on average, a day faster, needed significantly less pain medication and had fewer complications than patients who instead saw a brick wall.

Getting back to nature

The Forests Ontario report describes how our rural and urban forests face jeopardy due to displacement by other land uses, climate change, invasive species and pollution. The organization is leading the effort to make Ontario's forests greener in order to sustain biodiversity, healthy people, and a healthy economy.

That connection you feel to the great outdoors? American biologist E. O. Wilson noted that our connection to nature is actually hardwired into our DNA. Something to remember the next time you stare into the great forest.

Ethan Rotberg is a writer based in Toronto.