November 2025 - Magazine - Page 93
November 2025
The evidence for the benefits of spending time in nature is compelling enough that
some areas have trailed so called green social prescribing connecting people with nature to improve their physical and mental health, with a positive impact on happiness
and wellbeing.
2. Your hormones reboot
Your body's hormonal system also joins in the relaxation act.
Willis says that spending time outdoors lowers levels of cortisol and adrenaline - the hormones that surge when you're stressed or anxious.
"A study found that people in a hotel room for three days who were breathing in Hinoki
(Japanese cypress) oil saw a big drop in the adrenaline hormone and a big increase in
natural killer cells."
Natural killer cells are cells that tackle viruses in the body. The participants in the study
still had elevated natural killer cells in their body two weeks after inhaling the smell.
Essentially nature "calms what needs calming and strengthens what needs strengthening," is how Prof Ming Kuo from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, summed
it up to the BBC.
"A three-day weekend in nature has a huge impact on our virus fighting apparatus and
even a month later it can be 24% above baseline."
Studies also show smaller but still persistent effects from shorter periods spent in nature,
she says.
3. Smell is a powerful sense
Smelling nature is just as powerful as seeing and hearing it.
The scent of trees and soil is full of organic compounds released by plants and "when
you breathe them in, some molecules pass into the bloodstream."
Willis says pine is a good example of this as the smell of a pine forest can make you
calmer within just 20 seconds and that effect lasts for about 10 minutes.
You may think that the relaxing effect of nature is all in your mind, but another study
found that even very young babies with no memory associated with particular smells,
still calmed down when a pine scent was diffused into the room they were in.
4. Gets good bacteria into your gut
