I’m so excited to write this free article for you today, because I really feel we need some uplifting and encouraging health news right now, and that’s my entire goal in writing my blog — to provide you with encouraging and free holistic health care information that you can actually use and apply in your daily life.
So much of healthcare, especially in the United States, is pay-to-play — the more money you have to spend, the better your health is. It’s sickening. That’s just one of the many reasons I’m so passionate about grounding — because it puts one of the most powerful healing modalities possible right in your own hands, freely, and you really just have to be aware of grounding in order to implement it and reap head-to-toe health benefits. So I see it as a free healing modality that is empowering to all of humanity, regardless of age, race, sex, income, mental or physical health constraints — it’s a constant, freely available source of support that you can 100% count on.
Today’s medical studies add another layer to this — finding that the healing support from the earth is so powerful it actually helps dissolve the inequality to healthcare access we have. At least partially. Published in The Lancet, researchers found that the disparity in lifespan between income levels was lowest in areas that had access to green spaces. Especially for mortality rates that were related to circulatory diseases (heart attack, stroke, etc…) the larger the available green spaces, the less income mattered — mortality rates were much lower across the board regardless of how much money one could spend. They found “populations that are exposed to the greenest environments also have lowest levels of health inequality related to income deprivation.”
Another study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health, found that the larger greenspace area in a living environment was associated with over all improved health, and that access to green spaces should not be considered a luxury but a health care necessity. Populations that typically are under served — such as the elderly, children, and those in lower socioeconomic groups — benefitted the most from the presence of green areas.
So if having access to a natural area boosts health so much that it helps improve health outcomes and remove health care inequalities, how big does the green area have to be? Not big at all, it turns out.
This study, published in Science Advances in October 2020, suggests that adding even a very small greenspace to an urban setting boosts immune function in a measurable and meaningful way — quickly! Researchers found that by adding a small green play area to urban playgrounds, they boosted the immunity of the children using the play area in less than a month.
Researchers in Finland added a very small, low cost green area in the corner of existing playgrounds in several different urban daycare centers. They added a little grass patch, some small plants and a planter box with garden crops the kids could tend to.
This is what one of the modifications looked like:
After just 28 days, not only did the children who played in this urban greenspace have boosted immune markers in their blood (like boosted T cells) they also had an improved microbiota (both on the skin and in their gut biome) similar to children that lived and played in rural areas with large greenspaces and forests. These changes were statistically significant compared both to controls and to their own baseline measurements.
This study is just one example of how you don’t need to live in the country to experience improved health from nature. In fact, in my book The Earth Prescription, I go into great detail about how you can get grounded in urban settings through sidewalks, through touching a metal signpost, through simply touching a leaf on a bush or a tree — even one growing in a downtown city street — that’s all it takes to get grounded from head to toe and experience all of these health benefits.
You can also watch my video right here on how to get grounded even in a city:
@laurakonivermd There is something that can ground you on every city block #grounding #earthing #groundingtechique #holistichealth #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician #conductivehealth #urbanlandscape #citylife
Hopefully this is all the encouragement you might need to find a greenspace near you to visit routinely. A small park with a bench or a walking path, or possibly a community garden if you are lucky enough to have access to one, is enough to significantly improve your well being.
Honestly it’s so healing just to be around plants of any kind — for example, just seeing a plant through a window or adding a potted plant to a workspace can provide measurable health benefits. Let’s go over all the ways visiting a green space — even a small urban one — can improve your health:
8 Benefits From Visiting A Green Space:
1. Gives You A Healthier Brain
Every minute you spend out in a greenspace is brain protective… so much so, that having gardening as a hobby actually lowers your risk of dementia! A study published in 2006 in the Medical Journal of Australia found that daily gardening decreased dementia risk by in incredible 36%. A follow up study, published in 2019 in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that gardening actually increased levels of brain nerve growth factors.
Another incredibly interesting study, recently published in January 2020 in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that a gardening intervention program significantly boosted levels of the brain neurotransmitters tryptophan and serotonin, which are necessary for healthy sleep patterns and mood stabilization.
2. Gives You Boosted Mental Health
Multiple studies have found that having access to a greenspace decreases depression rates, anxiety rates, and dramatically reduces stress. One study, called the MIND study (conducted in 2007) found that simply walking through a garden or greenway significantly improved mental health, while walking through areas without greenery (such as a shopping mall) significantly decreased mental health.
If simply walking through a green space impacts mental health so much, you can probably guess that hand’s on gardening (which means the body is grounded!) would boost mental health even more. And you would be right. After an extensive systemic review of 22 studies looking at the health impact of gardening, the results of this meta-anylsis (published in Preventive Medicine Reports in 2016) found that gardening significantly reduced anxiety levels, anger levels and depression rates, decreased tension, stress levels and boosted mood… all while simultaneously improving life satisfaction and boosting over all quality of life. It’s absolutely incredible that simply tending to a garden can offer such a transformative life make-over, but it’s true!
3. Lowers Your Blood Pressure
Even indoor plants can positively impact on your well being, so don’t discount the power of a windowsill garden or a simple house plant to support your health. An exciting study published in 2015 in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology, showed that simply adding plants to an indoor computer room not only boosted the worker’s productivity, it also significantly decreased their blood pressure.
Another study, published in 2007 in the American Society for Horticultural Science found that workers with potted plants in close proximity to them while working took less sick leave off from work and enjoyed increase productivity.
4. Helps You Recover Your Health Faster
Being physically near plants is so impactful to our mental and physical health that it turns out, even just seeing a plant can significantly impact our recovery from stressful health events. We have such an innate need to be submersed in a world with foliage and plants around us that a study (published in 1984 in Science) found that patients who simply had a view of plants through a window while recovering from surgery had better moods, used less pain medications, had less surgical post-op complications, and even decreased their length of stay in the hospital. Less pain during recovery and getting to go home sooner after surgery just by looking at plants? That’s an awesome health strategy that I wish more hospital and clinics would take into account when designing their architecture.
5. Decreases Your Body’s Inflammation
One of my biggest passions as a holistic physician is encouraging people to touch the earth to decrease inflammation in their body, a healing practice known as grounding. A study on grounding, published in the Journal Of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine in 2010, found that subjects who were grounded while exercising had 40% lower levels of creatinine kinase (a marker of muscle inflammation) and less soreness after exertion than non-grounded subjects. They also had lower pain levels, significantly lower blood cortisol levels, and even lower white blood cell counts.
When you are grounded to the earth, as you are during gardening while touching the ground in any way, including touching any plants, soil, dirt, rocks and water that is on the earth, you are supporting your health in so many ways. For more information on the whole body benefits of grounding, see any of these articles I’ve got waiting for you on my Grounding Medical Studies page here or read my book The Earth Prescription right here.
6. Gives You Better Sleep
There is a beautiful relationship between our sleep cycle and mother earth. Most people believe that our circadian (day/night) rhythm is dependent on sunlight to set that pattern for us, but scientists feel that the earth’s energy field has as much, if not more, to do with our sleep/wake pattern than even the sun, and they have known this since a pioneering study conducted back in 1970. Published in Life Sciences in Space Research, researchers discovered just how influential the earth is to our sleep patterns.
Looking at several hundred test subjects that lived for a two month period of time in a bunker that was blocked from sunlight but still had the earth’s electromagnetic field surrounding them, scientist discovered that they kept sleep/wake patterns that were close to a 24 hour rhythm.Meanwhile, test subject that lived in a bunker that was completely shielded from the earth’s energies became completely desynchronized and experienced significantly longer, and much more irregular, sleep/wake rhythms. Researchers then experimented with introducing different electrical and magnetic fields into the shielded bunker, and only one frequency was able to restore normal sleep/wake patterns… the frequency of Mother Earth’s natural energy, the Schumann frequency.
From this the researchers postulated that it is actually the frequency of the earth that regulates our natural biorhythms. Based off of this understanding, it’s easy to understand how directly connecting to the earth through gardening daily can help enhance restorative sleep at night and boost daytime wakefulness.
I created a video to walk you through this, what the medical literature has to say about grounding and circadian rhythm, I hope you enjoy it and don’t let one day of this upcoming winter go by where you are not fixing your sleep deficit and deeply restoring your health.
Grounding & Circadian Rhythm:
Grounding & Circadian Rhythm (click to watch on YouTube)
7. Increases Your Longevity
A study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine in 2016 found that people who stayed indoors and avoided sun exposure actually had a shorter life span than those who spent time outside. Participants who avoided the sun had higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and pulmonary disease than those who had daily sun exposure. And the results were dose-specific… meaning that the benefits of increased life expectancy went up directly in correlation to the amount of sun exposure. Longer time in the sun = longer life span. That simple! Gardening is a fantastic way to routinely be inspired to go outside and get that sunshine and fresh air, two of natures best holistic health treatments.
Another reason that spending time in a greenspace might improve lifespan is the increase in activity level. A fabulous study (published in 2019 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine) found that replacing just 30 minutes of sitting each day with light physical activity — like walking through a greenspace — was enough to significantly decrease mortality rates. And again, here’s the clincher: the health benefit of replacing sedentary time with light physical activity was actually even stronger if you were older than 75 years old. So light activity decreased mortality rates in adults older than 75 years old even more than it decreased mortality rates in younger age groups. In other words, the older you are, the more that activity of any kind increases your lifespan.
And then as we talked about at the very start of this article, there were the studies that found a lower risk of death, regardless of income level and health care inequality, when you have access to a green space. Especially for cardiovascular causes of death, having a green space near you significantly levels the playing field, so to speak. Find a green space near you and spend time in it. Please. Look at the trees, plants, bushes (better yet, touch them and get grounded!) and see if you can find any birds or squirrels to watch, or simply look up and watch a cloud or two go by. Something as simple and peaceful as that can literally improve your health, not doctor’s visit required.
8. Boosts Your Immune System
As I talk about at the beginning of this blog post, this amazing medical study found that after only one month of playing on a small playground that had an area converted to a greenspace, the children’s immune systems got a significant boost. Markers of immunity in the blood, like TGF-β1 levels, regulatory T cells and the plasma IL-10:IL-17A ratio, all increased after just 28 days of playing in these small urban greenspaces.
All it took to get these improvements to their immunity was a small patch of grass to play on, one that included a small planter with garden crops and some berry bushes.
No matter how big or small your space is, whether you have a windowsill garden, a potted houseplant or two, a few herbs grown on your porch, access to a community vegetable garden or pick-your-own orchard or berry farm, or are even blessed enough to have your own land, spending time around plants is one of the most rewarding, most pleasurable activities that I can recommend.
It’s never too late to lengthen your lifespan and boost your health by finding a little piece of nature near to where you live — even a very small playground counts — and spending some time routinely there. From reaping huge mental health benefits, longevity benefits, grounding benefits, immune benefits and more, you would be hard pressed to find another activity that supports your health from so many different angles and in so many ways.
xoxox, Laura Koniver MD
P.S. Want another easy way to boost your health through an increased exposure to nature, even while living in a city? Hop over here to read why just listening to bird and increasing your exposure to birds boosts your mental health and happiness. Even from a city highrise, you can get birds to visit your window bird feeder, as I show you in this article:
