'Forest Bathing' Considered Healthful 252
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that although allergies and the promise of air-conditioning tend to drive people indoors at this time of year, when people spend time in more natural surroundings — forests, parks, and other places with plenty of trees — they experience increased immune function. A study of 280 healthy people in Japan, where visiting nature parks for therapeutic effect has become a popular practice called 'Shinrin-yoku,' or 'forest bathing,' found that being among plants produced 'lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure,' among other things. Another study in 2007 showed that men who took two-hour walks in a forest over two days had a 50-percent spike in levels of natural killer cells, and a third study found an increase in white blood cells that lasted for a week in women exposed to phytoncides in forest air."
Am I the only one? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I think that was the idea. A sort of weird Dijkstra parody.
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Re:Am I the only one? (Score:4, Funny)
Bathing forest dyslexia cures?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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I would prefer a horny Naiad, but that's just me.
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Re:Am I the only one? (Score:5, Funny)
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And working out in the exclusive East Bank Club here in Chicago might be dangerous if the pilates instructor turned out to be a serial killer and cut your throat.
So what's your point? That if you go outside your house there's a chance that something bad mig
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No. I even re-read the summary about 10 times in a row, trying to figure out what exactly was harmful about forest bathing.
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Am I the only one that read the title as "'Forest Bathing' Considered Harmful"?
It's a kdawson article, what do you expect? The moron decided to change the title from the original submission of "'Forest Bathing' is Good for Your Health" that pickens submitted it as to this garbage.
Also, I read it as the same thing.
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What this article really says.... (Score:5, Insightful)
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What this article really seems to be saying is that living in towns and cities is harmful and that hanging out in parks and forests temporarily alleviates the symptoms.
I'd like to keep the towns and cities, but reduce the things that make them harmful. We already have lots of parks and trees here in London (something which surprises lots of visitors), but there could be a lot more. We also have lots of cars and aircraft.
I work in one of the least polluted parts of London -- next to the river and a very large park. I live about 200m from one of the large commons. The change in pollution is very noticeable whenever I'm not in either of these places. However, even in a park
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:4, Informative)
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He didn't say it wasn't UK English, only that it wasn't a word he recognised as UK English. Which would be because everyone uses "healthy" or "good for you" instead.
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Actually, I read the headline as "Forget Bathing, it's Considered Harmful". Considering it was published by kdawson I assume he was just announcing to the world something we all already suspected.
Increasing exposure leads to stronger immune sys. (Score:2, Insightful)
Increasing exposure to foreign elements leads to a stronger immune system? ASTOUNDING.
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I think it is astounding. I just shows how little we understand about the immune system still.
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Not really, I remember reading similar (but more generic) findings nearly 10 years ago - in general, more exposure to foreign things tends to lead to a stronger immune system. This follows pretty directly from that, I think.
Re:Increasing exposure leads to stronger immune sy (Score:4, Insightful)
All this article affirms is that reducing chronic stress makes people healthier.
Stress evolved to be an acute reaction to a specific stimuli. When your stress reaction becomes chronic your health suffers.
Ergo anything that reduces your stress response will improve your health.
I expect that people who had some type of forest phobia would not receive the same benefit.
Breaking news (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Breaking news (Score:4, Insightful)
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I think you'll find this to be a controversial statement around these parts.
Re:Breaking news (Score:4, Interesting)
Also helps allergies:
I've read several studies in Science News that show exposing allergic bodies to the outdoors "trains" the immune system to ignore things like pollen, dust, and so on as simply part of the natural environment.
Re:Breaking news (Score:5, Funny)
Also helps allergies:
I've read several studies in Science News that show exposing allergic bodies to the outdoors "trains" the immune system to ignore things like pollen, dust, and so on as simply part of the natural environment.
I've also read studies that picking your nose and eating your boogers increases your immune system. Seems plausible since your nose filters out pollen, dust, and other things your body shouldn't be absorbing.
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>>>eating your boogers increases your immune system.
No not really. The stomach acid dissolves the mucus which means the immune system never gets to "see" the pollen and dust that was being held in suspension.
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No, but it keeps everyone around you away, and that in turn decreases you exposure to communicable diseases. :)
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Awesome! I am superman!!
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Ya know it seems kind of wacky but I think I've been losing my cat allergy. Before we got married my wife always had cats, I said "Them or me" and the cats were gone. Then a few years later she missed them and wanted one badly so I gave in with the rule that it had to stay out of the bedroom.
Now months later the cat sleeps by my pillow and I don't break out like I used to and my eyes don't water. I still find myself avoiding other cats by habit but I wonder if I'm still allergic to them at all.
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I think it might depend whether the cat has been out getting pollen on its fur. My hay fever doesn't seem as bad as it used to be either though, at least I don't get itchy eyes like I used to.
I've found out recently I get rashes on my arms/shoulders if they come into contact with grass, though my hands are fine with it.
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It's not so wacky; I've noticed the same effect with my wife's dog (though the ultimatum went the other way in our case; keeping the dog was non-negotiable). With prolonged exposure to the allergen, your reaction to it will be reduced. I think it's something to do with the immune system being overly sensitive to the allergen, but "learning" over time to not react so strongly (but that's basically speculation on my part). You should note though that your allergy may not be entirely gone. I no longer get alle
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I've noticed this effect myself, I'll sneeze for the first week or two that i'm around a new furry critter until I get acclimated.
However, it turns out you may be wrong [webmd.com] about the nuts part at least. I had heard about this from a nanny friend of mine.
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>And it goes without saying that this doesn't apply at all to anaphylactic reactions like allergies to bee stings, shellfish, nuts, or things like that.
Indeed, those go the other way entirely. I've been allergic to bee stings my whole life. As a child the symptoms were about as benign as they could be: delayed swelling (by about 12 hours). With each subsequent sting however, the allergy got worse and worse. The last time I got stung I ended up in hospital needing antihistamine injections and an tube down
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I have experienced this personally as I used to have gluten and dairy allergies but over time they disappeared (my allergies weren't very sever though so I had little bits of dairy and gluten every now and then which probably helped).
My sister had a similar experience to your self, she used to be mildly allergic to cats but over time living with them she stopped showing symptoms.
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I know I've lost mine. Used to have bad runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, etc. Then I lived with a cat, and then two cats. It went away. I still keep the "no cats in the bedroom" rule despite my wife's protests, but that's personal preference--I don't want them in my bed, I don't want their shed hair in my bed, and I don't want them walking on/poking/laying on me while I'm sleeping--that tends to wake me up in a loud and violent manner.
More cats don't bother me; the in-laws have six and I don't have a
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Another study in 2007 showed that men who took two-hour walks in a forest over two days had a 50-percent spike in levels of natural killer cells, and a third study found an increase in white blood cells that lasted for a week in women exposed to phytoncides in forest air."
What they're describing here in this second study is an heightened immune response. Now when I don't have allergies, such an immune response is fine, it's probably healthy too. That being said, when I have allergies, I certainly don't want more killer cells or white blood cells, during those times I already have way too many of those!!!!
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Re:Breaking news (Score:5, Informative)
Both groups "got off their ass" and "went outside". The comparison was between walking in a city area, and walking in a forest.
Did you even open the article?
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Re:Breaking news (Score:4, Informative)
Did you even read the summary? It's not just taking a walk outside, it's walking through the woods. This study has nothing to do with exersize or being sedentary, it's about breathing woodland air. AFAIK exersize has never been shown to boost the immune system (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).
I read about another study that showed that children who live in spotlessly clean homes are more prone to allergies and athsma than kids whose moms are slobs. This may be related somehow, I don't know.
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I read about another study that showed that children who live in spotlessly clean homes are more prone to allergies and athsma than kids whose moms are slobs. This may be related somehow, I don't know.
That may be because the kids in the spotless homes don't get enough germs in their body to build up antibodies. These are the same kids who probably weren't allowed to play in the dirt, compared to ones who live in homes that aren't as well maintained.
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Is that what stops you getting plus-size?
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No, that's what happens when you don't have enough coffee to be able to spell a simple word properly, let alone take into consideration the proximity of S and Z on a keyboard.
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Remember also that many of us (e.g. all Europeans) are descendants of forest people, evolved to live in that environment. 50% of land used to be covered in trees, but we've cut most of them down in the last 2000 years.
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But regardless of where we lived, we were around a lot more Natural Stuff. Building materials in relatively raw form, draft animals and their effluvient, street vermin (rats, roaches, etc) and their parasites, basic unprocessed foods complete with whatever contaminants nature (or manure fertilizer) saw fit to distribute.
I expect a similar finding would result from examining people who spend a lot of time out in any fairly natural environment, exposed to Natural Stuff that in one way or another acts as an im
Re:Breaking news (Score:5, Insightful)
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Unless one has a mortgage and should really be out looking for a job or solving the other real problems that cause stressful things.
I, personally, would be thinking "why the heck am I walking around this hot sticky forest risking skin cancer and rabies instead of trying to deal with my problems."
It's good for people who can just let these things slip their mind I guess.
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Duh (Score:5, Interesting)
I grew up on a farm, and the only people who had air conditioning were living in town. I didn't even know what allergies were; none of my friends or anyone in their family had them, until I started making friends with people who lived in town and had air conditioning and super clean houses. THEY had allergies.
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Sounds like my hatred for concrete hell (the city) is justified. We'd all be doing ourselves a favor if, instead of fearing the ongoing city depopulation, we embraced it.
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Yes, urban sprawl is much better for humanity and the environment than living in a city.
Why, when I was a kid and went to Jacksonville Beach, I could drive for miles along the coastal highway and not see a house or a condo. Thank goodness the developers were so forward thinking that they plopped huge condo developments and beautiful beach houses all along the highway so that the water can't even be seen any more!
And look at all those nasty forests that have been clearcut to bare earth, razed, paved, and pip
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>>>Yes, urban sprawl is much better for humanity and the environment than living in a city.
Actually - you're correct. Converting stripped farmland to suburbs has created an increase in the number of trees over the last 100 years.
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It has increased a monoculture of trees in the form of stripped native forests that have been replanted with pulpwood trash pines.
DAGS on the American Chestnut tree to see what can happen to a monoculture.
Sure more trees is better than fewer trees, but a 5 year old slash pine isn't nearly as useful to the environment as a 150 year old oak.
Maybe in the Midwest there's plenty of farmland or pastures available for developing, but in everywhere I've lived in the southern US most new housing development have com
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Be careful, if you start embracing city dwellers, they multiply
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The body's immune system has nothing to fight off, so instead it starts attacking even the most benign invaders
It's the same reason why researchers going to civilizations with no contact with the outside world have to be careful about spreading germs -- they have had no contact with bacteria and virus' that develop in large civilizations so they are very susceptible to infection.
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I grew up in a smallish town with lots of nature around and was in a forest every day - except in the winter. I live in a village now and am still almost every day in a forest. My home never was sterile. I've got urticaria since 2004 forcing me to take histamine antagonists every single day, and sometimes, when they not help, even corticosteroids.
Please do not oversimplify things.
Bullshit (Score:5, Interesting)
I grew up on a farm, and the only people who had air conditioning were living in town. I didn't even know what allergies were; none of my friends or anyone in their family had them, until I started making friends with people who lived in town and had air conditioning and super clean houses. THEY had allergies.
Your unscientific anecdote is negated by my own equally unscientific anecdote:
I grew up in a small farming village, a tiny population in a state with one of the lowest levels of air pollution, with no air conditioning whatsoever. I had absolutely terrible allergies, up to and including asthma, eyes glued shut due to "sleep" (secretions), and the need for serious medicine that didn't really help much.
The best thing I ever did was move to a city, get air conditioning, and stay the fuck away from the grass, trees, and other foliage that made my life a living hell. I didn't get allergies from living in the city as you so erroneously imply, I got them from being exposed to pollen in the first place, and short of paving the planet, a large city with relatively little green space is in my experience an ideal environment for those who suffer from Hay Fever, pollution notwithstanding.
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Moving from a hyper-clean environment into a natural one will of course expose you to many things which cause an immune response upon first contact: Fungus and pine spores, dust mites, pollens, bacteria and protozoa, all of which will cause an immune response which is far mo
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
My wife grew up surrounded by animals and has extremely bad allergies. She didn't know what it was like to breathe normally until she moved into her first apartment that had always been animal-free.
Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.
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Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems that your allergies are making your posting finger twitchy - or there's a glitch in Slashdot.
My great-grandmother grew up in a farming village. There was a group of people who would always get colds around harvest-time; they were widely suspected of being malingerers, but she realized much later that they just had seasonal allergies.
The Happening? (Score:2)
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They're cultivating us, just to eat us fat in the end...
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"How to cook FORTY humans"
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Thank the Ents. Without them we'd have all been dead a long time ago!
Different types of forests (Score:4, Interesting)
.I wonder if they have to worry about ticks, with all the fun stuff they carry, as well over there on that island. I'm thinking the plant life just might be different. I grew up playing in a greenbelt full of poison ivy and ragweed, along with scrub trees that put off that layer of pollen that will cover your car, so after RTA, I can't say which side of the coin I prefer I'm afraid.
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Depends on what part of the country you're from.
Here in NJ (also in NY, CT, and some other states) Lyme disease is super common. I've had it four times, the second time as a kid I got no bullseye rash and it went undiagnosed for two years... I have some paralysis on the left side of my face (Bell's P
Good news (Score:3, Insightful)
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what a horrible book. The guy is a cultural racist. There was more redneck bashing going on than talks about his failed walk. About the middle of the story he gets really concerned about the environment and is critical of other people damaging it. But he didn't care when he littered half his pack down the trail.
I used his book to light my grill a couple times last summer. Quite possibly the worst book i've ever read. But if you don't ever go camping and you enjoy looking down your nose at everyone.. y
Vitamin D deficiency? (Score:2, Interesting)
Vitamin D is a very potent vitamin which the body only can produce in direct exposure of sunlight and is stored in the fat of the body.
It also exist in a small range of foods.
The problem is when you don't get any exposure of sunlight and you don't eat any food which contain vitamin D.
Vitamin D deficiency has been seen to result in a wide range of consequences such as Osteomalacia, Rickets, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease, depression and low immun
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Interesting but not really relevant.
The article is not about being outside in the sunlight but about being in a forest (i.e. "in nature") as opposed to a city.
3 week intelligence buff as well (Score:2, Informative)
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Anedcotal evidence (Score:2)
I used to get allergies (hay fever) all the time. I worked at a scout camp where we slept in canvas tents, so we were outside 100% of the time. The first year I worked there I benadryl-ed myself up all the time until I ran out, and the trading post ran out. I had to suffer with only facial tissues... but after a day they went away. And didn't come back for 2 weeks. 2 weeks later, I had allergies, but this time did not medicate. Then I went another 2 weeks... so I just learned to suffer a day and have 2 week
Thank you geocaching (Score:3, Interesting)
While going for a walk in the woods for its own sake is great, it's hard to convince the family and friends, sometimes, that what they really want to do is put down the remote and go for a long nature hike. This is where geocaching is so great; the kids think of it as "searching for treasure", and my friends have taken up the various challenges with excitement ("how are we going to cross the river?" "How are we going to get down from this ciff", etc. Whereas I could never convince them to go before, once there's a challenge, something to find, out there, they're all for it.
My personal satisfaction came from the fact that two of my friends were so angry about being left behind, or just struggling to keep up in general, that they both quit smoking.
Yes but... (Score:2)
What about the downsides? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What about the downsides? (Score:4, Funny)
I grew up in a small bear-farming village, a tiny population in a state with one of the lowest levels of bears, with no bear repellent whatsoever. I had absolutely terrible bear attacks, up to and including death, eyes glued shut due to "blood" (secretions), and the need for serious surgery that didn't really help much.
The best thing I ever did was move to a city, get bear repellent, and stay the fuck away from the bears, bears, and other bears that made my life a living hell. I didn't get bear attacks from living in the city as you so erroneously imply, I got them from being exposed to bears in the first place, and short of paving the planet, a large city with relatively few bears is in my experience an ideal environment for those who suffer from bear attacks, Manbearpig notwithstanding.
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Growing up in Europe and America - Kids Outdoors! (Score:3, Interesting)
Eastern Europe - Outdoor Active Lifestyle
I grew up in a very polluted coal mining and burning part of eastern Europe and all of us kids spend their entire time outside, except for a few hours of sleeping, parents calling us to come in for dinner, which we would promptly eat and then leave again to play with friends, and the few hours a day that we would be required to be in school, but even then we would have two breaks and lunch which we would spend outside playing. Even during cold and rainy days we would be outside doing stuff with out friends, meeting up under various try spots that we knew outside. There was no air conditioning and I didn't see anyone suffering from any type of allergies or asthma that I remember but I do remember a few sickly kids that would spend their time indoors.
Our apartment complex in the big city was covered with busy roads and tons cars and commercial traffic, we even had an actual a coal burning plant which would create the hot water for the entire housing compound right in the middle of the apartment complex and we even occasionally venture next to it to play war around there among the dumped burned off toxic leftover coke byproduct of coal burning. However, at the same time our apartment complex was next to a huge park, a farm, and with tons of trees littering the paths between the apartment buildings and throughout the city between every single street. You could walk large parts of the city during light rain and hardly get any wet just by walking under the trees!
During each 2-month Summer vacation and 3-week or longer Winter vacation my mother would always arrange for me to go on the company sponsored camping and I would then spend weeks at a time away in the mountain and forest areas playing outdoors even more with kids and then go on hikes and outdoor tent camping events on top of being outside. We never did any indoor activities unless it was raining and even then we would find excuses to run outside and get soaking we just for fun. I spend more time getting dirty among nature as a kid then I care to remember.
United States - Sedentary Indoor Lifestyle
When I came to the United States later I found that most kids stayed in-doors most of the time and hardly went outside. Being an immigrant child I kept to my roots and hung out with my own kid friends spending our entire summers outside in the parks and going away on lake and camping trips on the weekends with family. The Summer and Winter camps here turned out to cost a lot more money and since they were not sponsored by my mother's work I couldn't afford to go. I tried to spend a much time as possible outside in the summer playing basketball and football with whatever friends were left in the city but since many of them went away I became sedentary and gained weight, then started spending a lot more time at the computer than I should have which in turn decreased my ability to go outside and enjoy myself.
Now that I move out to another part of the country where there is a lot more outdoor activities I am getting myself involved in outdoor type events so that I can get back to being in nature. Airsoft has become my newest outdoor hobby and I just love the idea of literally crawling through thick woods with a replica gun just to shoot at people and have fun outside while hugging and blending in with the nature. I came out filthy as a dog from that weekend excursion but I was hooked!
When I have kids I will guarantee that they spend their entire time outside doing activities and go away every Summer and Winter vacation to camps, no matter what I have to sacrifice for myself to afford the cost. I want my kids to be familiar with nature and be comfortable being in the woods like I was.
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You grew up as a NORMAL kid, as did I. This coccooned-child thing in the U.S. has only been around for the last 20-25 years, and I agree entirely, it is a bad thing. Kids need to go outside, get dirty, and learn to create their own entertainment, instead of having it thrust upon them.
And on that note, I recall research about how kids learn: seems learning isn't absorbed and processed during the "work" periods, but rather only during the "idle" periods, when kids are just being kids. So this "go outside, roo
Re: 'Forest Bathing' Considered Healthful (Score:2)
Forest bathing? Not on my watch! (Score:2)
scientizing Japanese folk medicine (Score:3, Interesting)
Truth via anecdotal: (Score:3, Interesting)
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