Nature: our best health ally?

La Lipomerie | Nature: our best health ally?

When it comes to doing oneself good, don't we say "take a breath of fresh air", "go green", "air our heads or our minds"? We still speak of "secret gardens" and aspire to "recharge our batteries" or even "rediscover our roots". Our everyday language reflects our need for nature. Above all, it expresses the intimate link between our physical and mental health and the environment.

Benefits known since time immemorial

Science did not wait until the modern era to demonstrate the link between our well-being and regular visits to natural areas. As early as the end of the 19th century, doctors were already prescribing seaside holidays for patients suffering from neurasthenia, asthma or tuberculosis; the sea air was said to have numerous therapeutic virtues. The benefits of the forest on the body are also well known, particularly among the Japanese, who began studying them in the 1980s and recommend "shinrin-yoku" (forest baths) as a reaction to the violence of the world (particularly the workplace).

Combating stress

It's now accepted that living in the city increases the risk of developing psychiatric illnesses, mood disorders and anxiety. Stress is the great troublemaker, raising our blood pressure, speeding up our heart rate and disproportionately affecting inflammation; over time, it disrupts the secretion of cortisol, a hormone designed to balance our immune defenses, leading to a whole series of disturbances.

A multi-sensory experience

Nature helps us regain our balance, and this can be explained scientifically, through the (chemical) effects it produces on our senses:

    • First of all, it's good for your eyesight: the poets were right when they stressed the importance of contemplation. Marvelling at a landscape, a flower, or simply being able to look further than the sidewalk opposite, all these actions have beneficial effects on our brain, not to mention the colors, particularly blue, which may explain at least in part the better mental health of coastal people (the "blue health" phenomenon has been studied on several continents).
    • On hearing: the devastating effects of noise are now well known, so much so that it is referred to as pollution, and its impact on the most exposed populations is being assessed (and this is measured in years of life lost...); silence, on the other hand, or the soothing rhythm of the waves, are conducive to relaxation.
    • On the sense of smell: certain molecules (known as "phytoncides") emitted by trees develop pleasant odours that have long-lasting effects on the immune system (they are also used by plants to protect themselves from bacteria and fungi).
    • Taste and touch: who could resist the pleasure of lying down in the grass or biting into a piece of fruit just plucked from the tree? 

    The multi-sensory experience of nature is not just pleasant: it can also be highly beneficial, as it helps activate our parasympathetic nervous system, whose soothing effect on the body combats stress. Some researchers even speak of "vitamin G" for "green", and it's not uncommon to present nature and its products as "cures" for our ailments.

    Caring for our bodies and minds

    Nature can help us get through a depressive episode, chase away rumination, even find inspiration and even solutions to our problems, all the more so when it's associated with action and movement; walking is therefore highly valued, and all the more so if it's done alone and in silence ("in mindfulness", as in meditation centers).

    This is hardly surprising, since nature is actually within us, in the complex microbiota that populate our bodies. To be cut off from it is to be cut off from a part of ourselves. 

    That's why it's essential to change our relationship with nature, to see it not just as a source of food or a place for leisure, but as an extension of ourselves that deserves to be protected, and to which we need to connect regularly in order to stay healthy.

    Photo : Freepik