Trees: A Natural Pharmacy

See trees with new eyes.  The unexpected health benefits of trees are waiting for you. Tree air is loaded with beneficial bacteria, essential oils, and disease preventing phytoncides (oils that trees give off to protect themselves from germs and insects).   Diana Beresford-Kroeger in “Arboretum Borealis ” say

Tree aerosols are anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibiotic,  antifungal, antiseptic and analgesic.   Trees are a natural pharmacy.  Healthy air floats away from tree tops. 

 

 Disclaimer: When you purchase a product after clicking on a link that takes you to Amazon, I receive a small percentage of the sale for referring you. This is at no cost to you. 

In her latest book, The Sweetness of the Simple Life, Beresford-Kroger, a visionary biochemist,  and medical researcher talks further about the medicinal features of trees.  She knows, understands, and works in medical research.  Her work is university peer-reviewed.

Florence Williams, a journalist and contributing editor for Outside  magazine, says that:

one of the biggest variables for how happy we are is not who you’re with, or what you are doing. It is where you are.

Williams references  a “Mappiness Project” . This young University of Sussex economist studied what made 23,000 study participants happy. He found that:

on average people are happier outdoors.

Williams says in  her book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier and Healthier and More Creative 

We spend on average 93% of our time indoors.
 

We have lots to do indoors: working, cooking, cleaning, being close to family, and watching Netflicks.  It seems we all underestimate how good we will feel when we go outside.

In an article published in Outside magazine called “Take Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call Me in the Morning” Florence Williams cites the Japanese Shinrin Yoku or “forest bathing”.  She says the Japanese go crazy for this practice and that some physicians in Japan are trained in forest medicine. As a nurse, this all makes sense to me.

Immune System Health Increases in Forests

Japanese officials spent about $4 million dollars studying the physiological and psychological effects of forest bathing. Qing Li, a professor at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, measured the activity of human  natural killer (NK) cells (these are good cells) in the immune system before and after exposure to the woods.

NK cells help our immune system by going after viruses and tumors in cells. NK cells are key to immune system health and cancer prevention. In a 2009 study Li’s subjects showed significant increases in NK cell activity in the week after a forest visit, and positive effects lasted a month following each weekend in the woods.

This  NK cell activity is due to various essential oils,  called phytoncide, which trees give off  to protect themselves from germs and insects. Forest air doesn’t just feel fresher and betterinhaling phytoncide seems to actually improve immune system function.

Immune System Theory Tested In a Hotel Room with Hinoki Cypress Oil

Can we replicate this NK cell activity without going into forests? These same Japanese researchers tried to find out. They used hinoki cypress oil with a humidifier/diffuser in the hotel room.

They took blood and urine samples every day. They measured concentrations of phytoncides in the hotel room air. The results showed that the Hinoki Cypress Oil significantly increased phytoncides in the hotel room.  Phytoncide exposure significantly increased NK activity. The Hinoki Cypress Oil significantly decreased the percentage of T cells, (bad cells) and the concentrations of adrenaline and noradrenaline in urine (stress indicators).

The results showed that the Hinoki Cypress Oil significantly increased phytoncides in the hotel room.  Phytoncide exposure significantly increased NK activity. The Hinoki Cypress Oil significantly decreased the percentage of T cells, (bad cells) and the concentrations of adrenaline and noradrenaline in urine (stress indicators).

So far this is the only research I have found on immune systems. We know tree oil is only one aspect of forest air. Forest air is everything – all together: beneficial bacteria, essential oils, negatively charged ions, and more.

Forest Bathing

Experiments on forest bathing conducted by the Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences in Japan’s Chiba University measured the subjects’ salivary cortisol (which increases with stress), blood pressure, pulse rate, and heart rate variability during a day in the city and compared those to the same biometrics taken during a day with a 30-minute forest visit.

“Forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity,”  the study concluded.

In other words, Japanese research on forest bathing shows that trees trigger the autonomic nervous system:  the rest and digest one.  Trees send to you a calm place.

Trees air makes your breathing slow.  Tree air makes your  breathing  deep and even. This breathing empties the lower parts of your lungs of the stale air.  New alive tree air replaces the dead air in your lung bases.

 

Your Lungs Are Designed  for Inhaling Tree Aerosols

Your lungs are perfect for tree air/aerosol administration. This method of drug delivery, in nursing, is called inhaled therapeutics. It is now considered superior to other methods of drug delivery because inhaled therapeutics are fast acting. Inhaled therapeutics work well if delivered when a patient is in a relaxed state (while forest bathing). Medication inhaled into the lungs works. Think asthma puffers. The effect is instant. You breathe in tiny aerosols of tree medicine by just being close to trees.

 Your Nose Makes You Happy  
You breathe in the healthy tree aerosols in through your nose and lungs.  Your nose is the shortest path to the brain. Recent research shows that microscopic particles in aerosols go through the blood-brain barrier to the brain.   The healthy aerosols get to your brain and you feel happy.
Go Outside and Play Near Trees

The effect of medicinal air into your nose and lungs is direct and immediate.   We are happier when we are outside near trees.  We  get healthier with the natural tree aerosol pharmacy. Indications are that trees and forests  improve our immune systems and prevent cancer.

So let’s start feeling that it is our responsiblity to go outside to play. 
Go On A Medicine Walk 
Free from the pharmacy of nature, tree air medicine is yours. If you have a chronic disease like Lupus, trees will help mend you. It’s treesmendus! If you are healthy trees will prevent disease. Trees are your shield of health.
 
See this website’s  tree air action plan for the smallest dosages and intervals of tree air required for your health and happiness. What all of this evidence suggests is we don’t seem to need a lot of exposure to gain from trees —but regular contact appears to improve our immune system function and our wellbeing.
 
My last blog,  See The Forest and The Trees. It is about city trees. The Toronto study showed that each tree makes a difference. Researchers measured the impact of 10 more trees on a city block. They found that: time with trees increased each person’s health, happiness, and net worth.
 
 Until next time, breathe in deeply and go on a medicine walk in the  trees, Verla

Credit picture: Phil Hallford

22 comments on “Trees: A Natural Pharmacy

  1. How interesting! I’ve never heard of forest bathing before, but I definitely know how good I feel after being outside for a while. Guess I need to get out for some more tree time!

  2. Oh I love the idea of forest bathing! We spend and average of two hours playing outside each day because nature and exercise is such an important part of life I want to teach my kids. I’ll have to look for more tree rich places.

  3. Love this! Another affirmation that we live in the right place. This is a great motivator for me to get out there and snowshoe in the woods! My goal is 2x weekly this year. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.

  4. Wow! What a scary statistic “93% of our time indoors”! I will definitely be making even more of an effort to get outdoors in 2018. Time to extend my morning walks!

  5. I had no idea this was a thing but it makes so much sense. No wonder we get sick when we are trapped inside all winter long!

  6. What an interesting post. I always try to get outside for a bit each day mainly to get some vitamin D and I’ve never considered the trees. And I’ve never heard of forest bathing before. My only issue is I live in Miami and it’s always oppressively hot or raining so I can’t get out as much as I’d like to.

  7. 93% indoors is such a high percentage. Life should be spent more outdoors on adventures than in. I love breathing in fresh air. Something about it is so relaxing. Even in the cold months it’s a joy. Not 15 degrees though. Another month or two I hope we can do a family hike.

  8. I enjoy it when I come across your posts. I am going to share this one at my health coach Twitter page. You write about such interesting and beneficial things. Thank you.

  9. Ooh, forest bathing! We had to cut down a couple of old dying cedars by our house last month, it already felt empty there and reading this makes me sad about that all over again.

  10. It’s so depressing that we spend so more time indoors. God created such a lovely planet- we need to go out and explore it more! 🙂

  11. This was very informative! I love taking long walks down by the lake and walking trail and just smelling the trees. They are so therapeutic. We spend way too much time indoors. I love winter time but I wish it was a little warmer so I could take those walks now but I have to wait to late March/early April when it gets warm again.

  12. The scientific facts behind the benefits of being around nature are astounding. I currently need a nature fix, but it is currently 5 degrees, a bit brisk.

  13. Interesting read! I know I definitely feel better both mentally and physically when I’m outside. Even in the Minnesota winter I go for hikes every week. I’ll have to check out the nature fix, thanks for recommending it!

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