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Love Your Health? Hug a Tree
You just need to stand by one for your body to be better
Yikes, the weather is hot — quick, go stand in the shade of a tree!
Shade, climbing, and tree houses are what many people think of as the best benefits of nearby trees. What we don’t realize is that some of the relaxation we feel is because trees affect our mood, our sense of the future, our cognitive function, and help with many chronic diseases.
Maybe it’s because trees and green plants emit an energy humans need to feel whole, and maybe it’s because trees and shrubs planted close together near a noise source help block and reduce its noise pollution.
Assistant professor Peter James in Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Heath, Department of Environmental Health says trees are essential to long-term changes in depression and anxiety, cognitive health and decline, and incidences of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Need more proof? Researchers found that being in nature or just having green space near you improves cognitive function, brain activity, blood pressure, mental health, physical activity, and sleep.
Oh, those trees — they’re good for just about everything.
Making trees a part of our everyday lives creates greater community health.
Planting more trees and developing more parks in populated areas benefits humans by reducing stress and uplifting spirits; it benefits Mother Nature by providing homes and food to animals; and it builds better cities by reducing urban heat islands.
Those gorgeous trees you’re jogging past are cooling the air and reducing peak summer high temps by 2–9°F, helping cool both inside and outside air temperatures. Tree leaves absorb about 70–90% of a scorching mid-day sun’s energy or reflect it back into the atmosphere. Given that most skin cancer is caused by sun exposure, reading a book as you sit under a shady tree is a lot healthier than reading it baking in the sun on the beach.
Trees are super-heroes for removing particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides, carbon monoxide, and ground-level…
