Trees: The New Miracle Drug for Heart Disease

 

Science is hot on trees. Connections between trees and health are growing. Trees are the new drug.

Trees might be more effective than statins in preventing heart disease and stroke.

Aruni Bhatnagar, is a medical professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. He is leading the Green Heart Project. Eight thousand trees (8,000 big trees!) will be planted in this $14.5 million research project is in Louisville. Members of the Green Heart Project team “instead of giving someone a pill, we are giving them greeness.”

The transplanted trees will be the largest size possible.”The trees will need to be large enough to make a difference right away. That means some could be as tall as 30 feet.”

The researchers will study cardiovascular heath. They will also track changes in crime, stress, economics, and social-psychological outcomes.

In my first blog , “The Health Benefits of Urban Trees” the research showed individual trees make you healthy, happy, live longer, and feel richer.

 
 

Mother Trees Get the Axe

If we think about trees twenty feet tall being used in the medical study above and go into the forest, we see big trees.

Big trees that have been around a long time are in demand. Let’s hope the ones in the research study come from a tree nursery. Let’s hope they did not come from old growth forests.

There are few pockets of old growth trees and forest, left untouched. These are the Northern Boreal forests. They have been “shielded by luck” as David George Haskell would say in his book ” The Unseen Forest.”


 He says old growth forests are messy. Rotting logs are food for birds, animals, fungi and microbes.
 

” The biggest, healthiest mother trees learned the tricks of the trade for survival…. and they carry the best medicinal tools geared to last centuries.”

 Diana Beresford-Kroeger says this in her book, “The Global Forest: 40 Ways Trees Can Save Us.” She says mother trees of the highest calibre produce offspring of a similar rating.


Amazon Canada link:

 And as Kroeger says ” it is the mother trees that get the axe.”

 Kroeger says that trees are not considered warm blooded animals, but they are in fact.

 

Kroeger says mother trees work high up above the ground. These trees can defend themselves by “rapidly moving carbon cells that flash out spreading into the atmosphere…. from the tree.

The cells move out in the airways around the trees.”

She also says trees carbon swap under ground. Trees care for their children. And they look after others too. Suzanne Simard, forester turned scientist, discovered that Douglas Firs provide carbon to baby firs. She also found that mother trees change their root structure to make room for baby trees.

 

Simard helped identify something called a hub tree, or “mother tree”.

Mother trees are the largest trees in forests. They act as central hubs for vast below fungi networks.

A mother tree supports seedlings by giving them fungi. This gives them the nutrients they need to grow. 

 “Visit the elder trees often, watching a year circle past, be quiet and keep disturbance to a minimum.” says Haskell in  “The Forest Unseen.”

 

 
 

What to Wear On Your Feet in the Forest 

Manitobah Mukluks are what you want if you want your feet to feel warm and cosy.   With these mukluks  you can sneak up on the fox.


 

Mukluk is an indigenous word for ‘winter boot’. Manitoba Muluks , now waterproof, are what they say:

“The original winter boot of North America. The warmest, most comfortable footwear in the world.”

The fur lining makes them feel like slippers. Forest feet. 

 

The soul is rubber for soggy days. On cold days the souls grip the ice. When you are  padding around the forest, these are amazing. You will  feel the forest floor. They are light. You can lift your feet over fallen trees with ease. You can be quiet in them. You can hear creaking trees. You will visit mother trees without disturbing them.

 

Get some Manitobah Mukluks, join the movie stars who love them. See a beaver lodge like this one under the snow. Notice the biggest tree in the landscape. Say hello to the mother, grandmother, grandfather, elder tree. Thank that tree for giving you health, happiness, wealth, and a long life. Thank the tree, the  symbol of immortality. 

And if you feel really crazy. Give a mother tree a hug. Here are my tell tale footprints of my first tree hug. I made sure no one was around. And gave it the requisite 20 second hug. I felt a little risqué. But it felt so good. I will do it again.

 

Visit elder trees often.

And say it with me: Healthy Tree, Healthy Me,

 Verla


10 comments on “Trees: The New Miracle Drug for Heart Disease

  1. This is very interesting! Makes me want to move to Louisville! There was an elder tree near a place where I used to ride my bike. I called it my “grandmother tree”. It was a very special oak and I used to rest there in her shade. That tree helped me in many ways. I know that you can understand this!

  2. Hi Verla, my cards and pendulum agree with your powerful post. As isolated spirits, we need extra support and energy. Create a way to be together with loved ones through a walk in the woods. This will re-energize you.

    Thanks for the visit to the bush recently, Verla.. Let’s dance around a tree next time ox

  3. The Green Heart Project sounds very interesting! Decreasing the levels of environmental pollutants and promoting physical activity and social cohesion are all benefits that the forest brings.

    I will click your link when making purchases through Amazon from now on!

  4. Interesting. I do believe that more research needs to explore natural remedies for illness, utilizing the things are provided to us naturally.

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