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Here's a shocker- nature is good for you: "Happy by Nature: Fondness for Plants And Animals May Be Hard-wired, Healthy."
I've added 'biophilia' to my interests, and the one other person with that interest as a friend. Biophilia. *nod* It explains a lot about my personality- I want to have the blinds open if the windows look out on trees. My aquarium. Wicca. Plants in my office. Nature! Gimme more!
Happy by Nature
Fondness for Plants And Animals May Be Hard-wired, Healthy
By Beth Baker
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, June 4, 2002; Page HE01
Intuitively, we know something in us responds to nature, even as most of us live our workaday lives further and further removed from flora and fauna.
Why else are adolescents with depression, substance abuse, attention deficit disorder and other behavioral and psychological problems referred to more than three dozen "wilderness therapy" programs around the country?
Why, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, did authorities put "comfort" dogs on the boat ferrying victims' families and rescue workers to the World Trade Center site?
And why did the Bank of America create a rooftop garden in 1994 for its San Francisco employees, who used to see green only on their computer screen savers?
Now a growing body of research suggests that this human affinity to nature -- plants, animals and landscapes -- is something hard-wired into us. Scientists call it "biophilia."
Credit for the idea properly goes to eminent sociobiologist E.O. Wilson, who popularized the term in his 1984 book "Biophilia: The Human Bond With Other Species" (Harvard University Press), defining it as "the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life."
"Our existence depends on this propensity," he wrote. "Our spirit is woven from it, hopes rise on its currents." Biophilia, Wilson says, may explain why millions of us have pets, fill our homes with plants and flock to zoos and national parks when we're away from work.
Wilson was by no means the first to observe that we draw comfort and sustenance from the natural world: The ancient Egyptians created gardens to restore the spirit; Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau wrote memorably of the serenity that comes from being in nature.
But in recent years the focus has turned from the poetic to the scientific. Contact with animals, plants and nature may be a potent antidote to stress, credible research suggests, distracting us from worrisome thoughts, reducing anxiety and lowering blood pressure.
"We should pay attention to the access people have to the sight of trees and open space and recognize that this is not merely recreational," says Aaron Katcher, associate professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a biophilia researcher. "It may be contributing to our well-being."
Sensory Download
Before science entered the picture, the notion of nature as the ultimate tonic rested largely on belief and subjective experience. Some of that persists.
"There's something so grounding and reassuring about going out in the woods," says nature guide Charles Cook of Pomona, N.Y., who has led more than 1,000 nature walks. "It's the equivalent of the best therapy in the world."
Cook maintains that people who spend most of their time in noisy cities and "synthetic suburbs" subject their senses to constant assault from high-decibel noise, harsh lighting and noxious fumes. By periodically immersing ourselves in nature, says Cook, we give our senses a chance to heal.
"Nature invites us in," he says. "Almost all the sensory input is so pleasant. To sit by a lake or waterfall or on a hilltop with a totally natural vista -- it really does remove us from our worries. For people who really need to de-stress, anything we do in nature is helpful."
This belief is the foundation for a wide array of nature-based retreats and therapeutic programs aimed at comforting those suffering from cancer, bereavement, post-traumatic stress syndrome and other ills.
But an emerging body of research supports this notion, too.
In an analysis of biophilia-related literature published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Howard Frumkin, chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University in Atlanta, found evidence that contact with the natural world -- including animals, plants, landscapes and wilderness -- may offer health benefits. While he acknowledged that many of the studies lacked scientific rigor, Frumkin says, "I became convinced it's an important and researchable area."
Among results from what researchers judge to be some of the more credible studies:
• In experiments conducted at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., participants experienced a clinically significant decline in blood pressure after gazing at fish in an aquarium for 20 minutes. Other studies have found that aquarium-watching reduces stress and anxiety for patients awaiting dental surgery.
• Researchers in Japan compared brain wave activity for a group of participants who viewed a hedge of greenery and then a concrete fence. While watching the hedge, the subjects had a higher relaxation response while the concrete provoked a stressful effect. In another study, similar brain wave patterns occurred when subjects watched a pot filled with flowers, then an empty pot.
• In a study of children with autism and other pervasive development disorders, University of Washington researchers found that including a dog in therapy sessions led children to be more verbal and more engaged with therapists.
Some of the most consistent findings link companion animals with enhanced physical, mental and emotional well-being. One of the first such studies, conducted in 1977 at the University of Maryland, followed 92 patients with heart disease for a year. Patients with pets outlived their counterparts without pets.
The finding stunned the researchers, says Alan Beck, director of the Center for Applied Ethology and Human-Animal Interaction at Purdue University and a pioneer in companion animal research. Even after they eliminated dogs from the study -- to ensure that exercise from dog-walking wasn't skewing the results -- patients who owned iguanas, fish and gerbils had the same survival advantage. Subsequent studies found that pet owners tended to have lower cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure than their petless peers.
Pet Care Trust, a foundation funded by the pet industry, is now supporting clinical research on possible benefits of including dogs in hospital visits to heart patients; watching aquarium fish on the mood and food intake of Alzheimer's patients; and using animal therapy with children who have been severely abused.
Integrating Nature
Is there a place for nature in the modern world of high-rise offices and apartments, institutional schools and hospitals, and super highways?
Yes, says Roger Ulrich, director of the Center for Health Systems and Design at Texas A&M University in College Station, who has conducted some of the most solid research in this area. "I think we'll find [biophilia] has substantial societal importance tied directly and indirectly to public health." Everything from health care facilities, nursing homes, schools, workplaces and prisons to highway landscaping and urban neighborhoods could be enhanced by integrating nature into the design, he says.
Take a typical commute to work. Ulrich designed experiments that compared simulated commutes -- those that passed "jumbled-up strip malls" vs. those marked by parks. People who "drove" through the more natural setting not only were less stressed, but were able to perform tasks more accurately and quickly once they got to their laboratory workstation.
Even the grim world of prisons might benefit from a healthy dose of nature. At the correctional facility that the District operated in Lorton until last year, birds, fish and small mammals were given to prisoners. Not only were their spirits reportedly improved, but their blood pressure dropped when they talked to their pets, and those with pets showed a small decrease in the number of offenses.
Prison wardens and architects might also consider the salutary effects of a cell with a view. A 1981 University of Michigan study found that prisoners with a view of rolling hills and trees had fewer sickroom visits than those whose cells faced the prison yard.
"I would have expected the opposite -- that if they saw the countryside, they would feel so frustrated," says Frumkin. "But it turns out that wasn't the case."
Ulrich found similar results in a hospital setting. In a 1984 study, he found that in 23 pairs of surgery patients who were matched for diagnosis, sex, age, smoking habits, weight -- even the color of their hospital rooms -- those in rooms with a view of trees had shorter hospital stays and took fewer painkillers than those whose rooms faced a brick wall.
Some health care players aren't waiting for further evidence before putting theory into practice. Hospitals are incorporating atriums, flower beds, greenhouses, and even "healing gardens" for patients and their families. Hundreds of nursing homes around the country have embraced biophilia through an approach called the Eden Alternative, which gives frail residents the chance to do some gardening or pet a cat.
"We're attempting to find out what it's like to live day to day with your life woven into the fabric of the living world," says Harvard-trained physician William H. Thomas, creator of the approach. "There's a rejuvenation that comes from that kind of contact."
The strategy appears to be producing results. In a two-year review of five Eden Alternative nursing homes in Texas in 1996-98, researchers at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos found that cumulatively the facilities had a 57 percent decrease in bedsores, an 18 percent decrease in the number of patients who had to be restrained, a 60 percent decrease in behavioral incidents and a 48 percent decrease in staff absenteeism after converting to the Eden approach.
If the apparent health benefits of biophilia hold up under further scrutiny, Frumkin sees a big payoff for medical care. The costs of nature-based treatments would likely be slight compared with those for drugs and surgery, he says. There might also be spinoff benefits for society in terms of preserving green space. "Now we need to generate more clinical evidence," he says.
There's just one problem: Given the industry-based funding of much of medical research, support may be slim. Notes Frumkin: "No one is going to make money from recommending that patients have contact with trees and animals."
Beth Baker is a regular contributor to the Health section.
Learning to Nurture Your Biophilia
Bringing more nature into your life, say biophilia researchers, can increase energy, reduce stress and lift spirits. Here are some of their suggestions on where to start.
• Schedule time for nature. Stealing even a few minutes to look out a window at any natural form can be restorative, say biophilia experts. They recommend taking workday breaks in a park or reading some paperwork outdoors. Aim for a minimum of an hour a workday in the natural world, longer on weekends.
• Bring nature indoors. Consider a small desktop aquarium -- or a collection of shells, stones or dried leaves on top of your file cabinet. Full-spectrum light bulbs are pricey but most closely approximate sunlight. CDs often used for stress reduction can mimic the sound of natural environments -- mountain streams, rain forests and ocean waves -- while photos and paintings evoke landscapes.
• Use nature to give yourself a sensory treat. Some nature enthusiasts suggest touching moss, smelling lilacs, listening to bird songs or watching a sunset. They also recommend keeping a journal of your discoveries and reflections.
• Create a wildlife habitat in your yard, community garden or even on an apartment balcony. Plant wildflowers and grasses that attract birds and butterflies.
• Learn what's in your own back yard. Sign up for a bird-watching course or guided nature walk. Take a tree tour of your neighborhood. The more you learn, say nature lovers, the more you will appreciate your surroundings.
Adapted from "Awakening to Nature: Renewing Your Life by Connecting with the Natural World," by Charles Cook, Contemporary Books, 2001.
I've added 'biophilia' to my interests, and the one other person with that interest as a friend. Biophilia. *nod* It explains a lot about my personality- I want to have the blinds open if the windows look out on trees. My aquarium. Wicca. Plants in my office. Nature! Gimme more!
Happy by Nature
Fondness for Plants And Animals May Be Hard-wired, Healthy
By Beth Baker
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, June 4, 2002; Page HE01
Intuitively, we know something in us responds to nature, even as most of us live our workaday lives further and further removed from flora and fauna.
Why else are adolescents with depression, substance abuse, attention deficit disorder and other behavioral and psychological problems referred to more than three dozen "wilderness therapy" programs around the country?
Why, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, did authorities put "comfort" dogs on the boat ferrying victims' families and rescue workers to the World Trade Center site?
And why did the Bank of America create a rooftop garden in 1994 for its San Francisco employees, who used to see green only on their computer screen savers?
Now a growing body of research suggests that this human affinity to nature -- plants, animals and landscapes -- is something hard-wired into us. Scientists call it "biophilia."
Credit for the idea properly goes to eminent sociobiologist E.O. Wilson, who popularized the term in his 1984 book "Biophilia: The Human Bond With Other Species" (Harvard University Press), defining it as "the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life."
"Our existence depends on this propensity," he wrote. "Our spirit is woven from it, hopes rise on its currents." Biophilia, Wilson says, may explain why millions of us have pets, fill our homes with plants and flock to zoos and national parks when we're away from work.
Wilson was by no means the first to observe that we draw comfort and sustenance from the natural world: The ancient Egyptians created gardens to restore the spirit; Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau wrote memorably of the serenity that comes from being in nature.
But in recent years the focus has turned from the poetic to the scientific. Contact with animals, plants and nature may be a potent antidote to stress, credible research suggests, distracting us from worrisome thoughts, reducing anxiety and lowering blood pressure.
"We should pay attention to the access people have to the sight of trees and open space and recognize that this is not merely recreational," says Aaron Katcher, associate professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a biophilia researcher. "It may be contributing to our well-being."
Sensory Download
Before science entered the picture, the notion of nature as the ultimate tonic rested largely on belief and subjective experience. Some of that persists.
"There's something so grounding and reassuring about going out in the woods," says nature guide Charles Cook of Pomona, N.Y., who has led more than 1,000 nature walks. "It's the equivalent of the best therapy in the world."
Cook maintains that people who spend most of their time in noisy cities and "synthetic suburbs" subject their senses to constant assault from high-decibel noise, harsh lighting and noxious fumes. By periodically immersing ourselves in nature, says Cook, we give our senses a chance to heal.
"Nature invites us in," he says. "Almost all the sensory input is so pleasant. To sit by a lake or waterfall or on a hilltop with a totally natural vista -- it really does remove us from our worries. For people who really need to de-stress, anything we do in nature is helpful."
This belief is the foundation for a wide array of nature-based retreats and therapeutic programs aimed at comforting those suffering from cancer, bereavement, post-traumatic stress syndrome and other ills.
But an emerging body of research supports this notion, too.
In an analysis of biophilia-related literature published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Howard Frumkin, chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University in Atlanta, found evidence that contact with the natural world -- including animals, plants, landscapes and wilderness -- may offer health benefits. While he acknowledged that many of the studies lacked scientific rigor, Frumkin says, "I became convinced it's an important and researchable area."
Among results from what researchers judge to be some of the more credible studies:
• In experiments conducted at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., participants experienced a clinically significant decline in blood pressure after gazing at fish in an aquarium for 20 minutes. Other studies have found that aquarium-watching reduces stress and anxiety for patients awaiting dental surgery.
• Researchers in Japan compared brain wave activity for a group of participants who viewed a hedge of greenery and then a concrete fence. While watching the hedge, the subjects had a higher relaxation response while the concrete provoked a stressful effect. In another study, similar brain wave patterns occurred when subjects watched a pot filled with flowers, then an empty pot.
• In a study of children with autism and other pervasive development disorders, University of Washington researchers found that including a dog in therapy sessions led children to be more verbal and more engaged with therapists.
Some of the most consistent findings link companion animals with enhanced physical, mental and emotional well-being. One of the first such studies, conducted in 1977 at the University of Maryland, followed 92 patients with heart disease for a year. Patients with pets outlived their counterparts without pets.
The finding stunned the researchers, says Alan Beck, director of the Center for Applied Ethology and Human-Animal Interaction at Purdue University and a pioneer in companion animal research. Even after they eliminated dogs from the study -- to ensure that exercise from dog-walking wasn't skewing the results -- patients who owned iguanas, fish and gerbils had the same survival advantage. Subsequent studies found that pet owners tended to have lower cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure than their petless peers.
Pet Care Trust, a foundation funded by the pet industry, is now supporting clinical research on possible benefits of including dogs in hospital visits to heart patients; watching aquarium fish on the mood and food intake of Alzheimer's patients; and using animal therapy with children who have been severely abused.
Integrating Nature
Is there a place for nature in the modern world of high-rise offices and apartments, institutional schools and hospitals, and super highways?
Yes, says Roger Ulrich, director of the Center for Health Systems and Design at Texas A&M University in College Station, who has conducted some of the most solid research in this area. "I think we'll find [biophilia] has substantial societal importance tied directly and indirectly to public health." Everything from health care facilities, nursing homes, schools, workplaces and prisons to highway landscaping and urban neighborhoods could be enhanced by integrating nature into the design, he says.
Take a typical commute to work. Ulrich designed experiments that compared simulated commutes -- those that passed "jumbled-up strip malls" vs. those marked by parks. People who "drove" through the more natural setting not only were less stressed, but were able to perform tasks more accurately and quickly once they got to their laboratory workstation.
Even the grim world of prisons might benefit from a healthy dose of nature. At the correctional facility that the District operated in Lorton until last year, birds, fish and small mammals were given to prisoners. Not only were their spirits reportedly improved, but their blood pressure dropped when they talked to their pets, and those with pets showed a small decrease in the number of offenses.
Prison wardens and architects might also consider the salutary effects of a cell with a view. A 1981 University of Michigan study found that prisoners with a view of rolling hills and trees had fewer sickroom visits than those whose cells faced the prison yard.
"I would have expected the opposite -- that if they saw the countryside, they would feel so frustrated," says Frumkin. "But it turns out that wasn't the case."
Ulrich found similar results in a hospital setting. In a 1984 study, he found that in 23 pairs of surgery patients who were matched for diagnosis, sex, age, smoking habits, weight -- even the color of their hospital rooms -- those in rooms with a view of trees had shorter hospital stays and took fewer painkillers than those whose rooms faced a brick wall.
Some health care players aren't waiting for further evidence before putting theory into practice. Hospitals are incorporating atriums, flower beds, greenhouses, and even "healing gardens" for patients and their families. Hundreds of nursing homes around the country have embraced biophilia through an approach called the Eden Alternative, which gives frail residents the chance to do some gardening or pet a cat.
"We're attempting to find out what it's like to live day to day with your life woven into the fabric of the living world," says Harvard-trained physician William H. Thomas, creator of the approach. "There's a rejuvenation that comes from that kind of contact."
The strategy appears to be producing results. In a two-year review of five Eden Alternative nursing homes in Texas in 1996-98, researchers at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos found that cumulatively the facilities had a 57 percent decrease in bedsores, an 18 percent decrease in the number of patients who had to be restrained, a 60 percent decrease in behavioral incidents and a 48 percent decrease in staff absenteeism after converting to the Eden approach.
If the apparent health benefits of biophilia hold up under further scrutiny, Frumkin sees a big payoff for medical care. The costs of nature-based treatments would likely be slight compared with those for drugs and surgery, he says. There might also be spinoff benefits for society in terms of preserving green space. "Now we need to generate more clinical evidence," he says.
There's just one problem: Given the industry-based funding of much of medical research, support may be slim. Notes Frumkin: "No one is going to make money from recommending that patients have contact with trees and animals."
Beth Baker is a regular contributor to the Health section.
Learning to Nurture Your Biophilia
Bringing more nature into your life, say biophilia researchers, can increase energy, reduce stress and lift spirits. Here are some of their suggestions on where to start.
• Schedule time for nature. Stealing even a few minutes to look out a window at any natural form can be restorative, say biophilia experts. They recommend taking workday breaks in a park or reading some paperwork outdoors. Aim for a minimum of an hour a workday in the natural world, longer on weekends.
• Bring nature indoors. Consider a small desktop aquarium -- or a collection of shells, stones or dried leaves on top of your file cabinet. Full-spectrum light bulbs are pricey but most closely approximate sunlight. CDs often used for stress reduction can mimic the sound of natural environments -- mountain streams, rain forests and ocean waves -- while photos and paintings evoke landscapes.
• Use nature to give yourself a sensory treat. Some nature enthusiasts suggest touching moss, smelling lilacs, listening to bird songs or watching a sunset. They also recommend keeping a journal of your discoveries and reflections.
• Create a wildlife habitat in your yard, community garden or even on an apartment balcony. Plant wildflowers and grasses that attract birds and butterflies.
• Learn what's in your own back yard. Sign up for a bird-watching course or guided nature walk. Take a tree tour of your neighborhood. The more you learn, say nature lovers, the more you will appreciate your surroundings.
Adapted from "Awakening to Nature: Renewing Your Life by Connecting with the Natural World," by Charles Cook, Contemporary Books, 2001.
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More
Date: Jun. 10th, 2002 11:58 am (UTC)From:Much more (http://www.imageevent.com/moyva)
Re: More
Date: Jun. 10th, 2002 02:17 pm (UTC)From: