Date: 2004-08-26
To: Here's Why
Miles today: 0.0

From the hanging gardens of Babylon to the introduction of gardens aboard the MIR space station, humankind has always looked to nature to calm our stresses and heal our inner wounds. Only now, however, are researchers finally solving the mysteries of how and why. A pioneer in the field is Roger Ulrich, a professor of landscape and architecture at Texas A&M University. After studies that included a comparison of the brain-wave patterns of people shown scenes of vegetation, water and urban life, Ulrich theorizes that the combined sense of alertness and calm that nature provides likely gave our ancestors ¢a survival benefit¢ after stressful events like hunting or attacks by wild animals. If so, nature could provide a similar antidote today.Until recently, theories like Ulrich¢s were difficult to support with hard numbers. Even as ¢horticulture therapy¢ has become popular for the treatment of ailments like Alzheimer¢s disease and other restrictive disabilities, the proof of its benefits had been largely anecdotal. (¢Gardening, more than most rehab activities, has the ability to be very distracting,¢ notes Teresia Hazen, a manager of horticulture therapy for Legacy Health Systems in Portland, Oregon.) But a growing body of research now supports this common sense.In June, the Journal of Environmental Psychology published a finding that people exposed to nature after stressful events¢for example, driving through heavy traffic¢returned to normal blood pressure and an improved mood more quickly than those who had no natural contact. Further, the positive effects could be measured within minutes of exposure. The study, by the University of California at Irvine, also found that hospitalized patients whose windows looked out onto natural landscapes recovered from surgery more quickly than those who didn¢t have such views.To Ulrich, the evidence now suggests that humans are hard-wired not only to enjoy the pleasant surrounds of nature, but to actually exploit them like a drug to relax and refresh ourselves. If so, today¢s urban environment¢with its rare traces of a wilder kingdom¢is steeping us all in collective withdrawal.¢If a researcher had seriously proposed two decades ago that gardens could improve medical outcomes, the position would have been met with scepticism by most behavioral scientists, and with derision by most physicians,¢ Ulrich says. ¢We now have studies showing that psychological and environmental factors can affect physiological systems and health status.¢ In this hyperactive age, the last laugh seems to go to the tree huggers.Timothy Querengesser, Adbusters: Journal of the Mental Environment, January/February 2004, No. 51.More random quotes from the same issue of Adbusters:For 20,000 generations we lived in nature. Only one generation have we lived in digital code.People prefer to be in natural environments, and especially in savanna or parklike habitats. They like a long depth of view across a relatively smooth, grassy ground surface dotted with trees and copses. They want to be near a body of water, whether ocean, lake, river, or stream.When you cut off arterial blood to an organ, the organ dies. When you cut the flow of nature into people¢s lives, their spirit dies. It¢s as simple as that.