Discover the Health Benefits of Forest Therapy
There are an abundance of physical, cognitive and mental health benefits to participation in a forest therapy session.
Forest therapy brings us to the present and helps us slow things down, by doing so it allows our bodies to rest and our minds to wander. For some people this can bring on unexpected feelings or emotions, that they have given themselves the space to notice. For others a general sense of calm and a feeling like they can focus. Each person's experience will be different and can differ for the person depending on the day.
Come along to a session if you would like to find out more on how forest therapy can improve your health and wellbeing.
Even better, the effects of a 2 hour immersion in nature on our immune system can last for up to 30 days!
Lifestyle Related Diseases
Lifestyle related diseases cause the equivalent of 71% of all deaths globally per year. These include cardiovascular disease, hypertension, gastrointestinal ulcers, stroke, obesity, alcoholism, panic disorder, eating disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, respiratory diseases, diabetes and depression.
Studies have shown forest therapy can have improvements in physical health measures including reduced blood pressure, promoting cardiac function, increased immunity and reduced inflammation.
There are findings that being in nature evokes preventative effects on health conditions including diabetes, hypertension, respiratory condition, cancer, anxiety and depression.
Stress
Chronic stress can play a part in inducing or exacerbating many of the lifestyle related diseases that people experience.
Forest therapy can reduce hormone levels that contribute to stress such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol.
Therefore potentially having a preventative effect on lifestyle related diseases by supporting people to better manage hormones related to stress. Forest therapy has also found to have a positive impact on memory function, resilience and mood.
Immunity
Studies have found that forest therapy can increase natural killer (NK) cells and increase anticancer proteins. Some of the benefits to the immune system can be found in the substances found in the forest, for example phytoncides produced by trees and negative air ions created in the natural environment.
Reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines is a key component in supporting immunity. Although the purpose of pro-inflammatory cytokines is to eradicate harmful stimuli (such as pathogens) to protect the body and support acute inflammation, chronic inflammation can damage normal cells reducing immunity and increasing risks of obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, depression and dementia
Nervous system
Modern day life can keep us operating in our sympathetic nervous system - fight, flight or freeze! This is an active state, which for some activities is beneficial but we can often get stuck in this mode from constant pressure to do or things demanding our time and attention.
It is important to be able to consciously shift ourselves into our parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes our rest and digest functions in our body. Our brains and bodies need this recovery time to be able to function in the sympathetic nervous system when task demands require this. Chronic stress over a prolonged time period can increase the risk of the parasympathetic nervous system collapsing.