>From: "Tfpc" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Wall Street Journal says Grow Your Greens for Good MentalHealth >Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 17:04:04 -0500 > >From the Wall Street Journal > >The Leafy Green Road >To Good Mental Health > >New Science Points to Benefits >Of Weeding, Watering Gardens > >By MICHAEL WALDHOLZ >Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL > >Stuck in an emotional funk after a personal loss, Janice Mawhinney couldn't >muster the enthusiasm to tend her backyard garden in Toronto for three >years. Then, inexplicably, one day this past spring, she found herself >vigorously weeding again, her spirits slowly blossoming along with a >long-concealed blue lupine, a pink and white bleeding heart, several Shasta >daisies, and a host of other recovered plants. > >As Ms. Mawhinney restored the garden, it in turn helped restore her. Now, >"every morning I rush to look out at all the color through my bathroom >window," says Ms. Mawhinney, a 58-year-old reporter at the Toronto Star. >"In >just a few minutes I feel refreshed." > >Common sense and experience tell us that hiking in the wild or working in a >garden can be emotionally restorative. Now, scientists are beginning to >understand why: Gardening -- or simply observing a lush landscape -- holds >a >powerful ability to promote measurable improvements in mental and even >physical health. > >Vertical gardening methods like this at the Chicago Botanic Garden's >Buehler >Enabling Garden not only promote easy tending but also clearly outline >planting areas for people with low vision. > >Building on the science, a new practice of horticulture therapy is >sprouting. Increasingly, hospitals are using the insights of environmental >psychologists to build small but elaborate gardens for patients, visitors >and even stressed-out doctors. Some urban botanical gardens and >health-rehabilitation centers are creating so-called healing gardens with >horticultural-therapy programs that teach patients and the public about the >recuperative effect the natural world has on the human psyche. > >"If a researcher had seriously proposed two decades ago that gardens could >improve medical outcomes, the position would have been met with skepticism >by most behavioral scientists, and with derision by most physicians," says >Roger Ulrich, a Texas A&M University professor and a leading researcher in >the effects of environment on behavior. "We now have studies showing that >psychological and environmental factors can affect physiological systems >and >health status." > >One study published in June found that people who were exposed to nature >recovered from stress more quickly than others who weren't; what's more, >the >positive effects took hold within just a few minutes. Dr. Ulrich's research >has showed that hospitalized patients whose windows looked out at landscape >scenery recovered from surgery more quickly than those without such access. >Other studies have found that simply viewing a garden or another natural >vista can quickly reduce blood pressure and pulse rate and can even >increase >brain activity that controls mood-lifting feelings. > >A growing body of evidence suggests that humans are hard-wired not just to >enjoy a pleasant view of nature, but to actually exploit it, much like a >drug, to relax and refresh after a stressful experience. Our earliest >ancestors, Dr. Ulrich theorizes, likely needed a way to swiftly recover >from >a traumatic experience such as a hunt, a battle or an attack from a wild >animal. "You can imagine that those who could look out at the open >savannah, >seeing its safety and tranquility, and quickly feel calm but also alert to >their environment would likely have a survival benefit over others," Dr. >Ulrich says. > >Scientists have documented this restorative effect in a number of >controlled >experiments. In the study published in the June issue of the Journal of >Environmental Psychology, Terry Hartig and colleagues at the University of >California at Irvine measured markedly different physiological, attentional >and mood changes in test subjects exposed to natural or urban settings. > >In the experiment, 112 young adults were assigned a variety of stressful >tasks, including driving to a site they hadn't visited before. Afterward, >the people who sat in a room with tree views and then walked through a >nature preserve showed declining blood pressure and substantially more >positive change in their feelings than those who sat in a windowless room >and then walked in an area of medium-density urban development. > >Some of the changes could be measured within minutes of being exposed to >the >natural settings, says Dr. Hartig, now at Uppsala University in Gavle, >Sweden. He provides advice to several European cities whose planners are >considering expanding so-called urban forests. > >'Immediate Calming Effect' > >James Raimes, 64 years old and retired from publishing, experiences an >effect like this when he returns to his modest country home in Chatham, >N.Y. >"The sounds, the smells, and the sights have an immediate calming effect as >soon as I step out of the car," Mr. Raimes says. > >Many gardeners say they lose track of time while weeding, planting or >mulching. "I can and often do garden from sunup to sundown, to the >exclusion >of many other things in my life," Mr. Raimes admits. Indeed, as people who >move to fecund environments like Florida's can attest, the biological draw >of gardening can be powerfully addictive -- though it's clearly a much >safer >outlet than other addictions. > >Many cultures have long understood the harmonizing influences of flora. >Henry Thoreau, the early American naturalist, wrote persuasively about the >impact of nature on human well-being in his book, "Walden." The pioneering >landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, "understood the need for >fatigued urban dwellers to recover their capacity to focus in the context >of >nature," says Stephen Kaplan, who, along with his wife, Rachel, at the >University of Michigan have helped found the field of environmental >psychology. In the 1860s, Mr. Olmsted employed his insights in designing >New >York City's Central Park, with its acres of rambling walks and natural >vistas, as well as a host of other city parks modeled after it. > >"The gardens of the ancient Egyptian nobility, the walled gardens of >Persian >settlements in Mesopotamia, and the gardens of merchants in medieval >Chinese >cities indicate that early urban peoples went to considerable lengths to >maintain contact with nature," according to Texas A&M's Dr. Ulrich. More >recently, Harvard zoologist Edward O. Wilson has written extensively on >this >natural affinity, which he calls "biophilia" and defines as a partly >genetic >tendency by humans to respond positively to nature. > >The latest research and writings are serving as the intellectual basis for >the relatively new practice of horticultural therapy. Practitioners say >their experience shows that gardening can have an especially beneficial >mental-health impact because it provides a sense of control, a >psychological >counter to stress and anxiety. This is especially important for patients >who >are recovering from stroke or other traumas or are learning to live with a >physical or mental disability, says Teresia Hazen, who oversees >horticulture-therapy programs for Legacy Health System in Portland, Ore. > >"For patients who find themselves restricted by a disability, even the >simplest gardening experience, such as growing a potted plant from a >cutting, gives them a feeling of control," says Ms. Hazen. "Gardening , >more >than most rehab activities, has the ability to be very distracting," she >adds, noting that simply taking people's minds off their problems >alleviates >pain and depression. > >'A Source of Relief' > >Ms. Hazen recently helped design an award-winning garden in Legacy's Good >Samaritan Hospital that has a dual purpose. Rehab patients receive therapy >in it, she says, but also "many doctors and nurses just come by and sit or >stroll or just stand and gaze, maybe just for a few moments. It's easy to >see it draws them and is a source of relief." > >Now, several city-run botanical gardens are hiring horticulture therapists >to run public programs to expose city dwellers to nature's therapeutic >benefits. Chicago's Botanic Garden provides a range of >horticultural-therapy >services -- including planting, weeding, cultivating, watering and >harvesting -- both to private health agencies that treat the handicapped >and >to people who come in off the street. > >Even some prisons are looking to gardens for relief. The New York >Horticultural Society directs one such program, called the Greenhouse >Project, at New York's Riker's Island facility. Inmates work in the garden, >but some have also been allowed out to build gardens in public spaces >throughout the city. > >Several schools of architecture now have academics on staff who specialize >in studying what kinds of gardens are most likely to attract users. "Some >hospitals just throw in a few bushes and trees and hope they are >accomplishing the wanted effect," says Clare Cooper Marcus, a professor at >University of California, Berkeley, who has traveled the world analyzing >gardens in health-care settings. A better garden, she says, "allows people >to interact with the natural setting." > >Write to Michael Waldholz at [log in to unmask] > >**************************************************************** > > >The Toronto Food Policy Council manages this information service for people >working on food issues with community organizations, >social agencies, public health units, educational institutions and >municipal governments. If you would like >to share information on community gardens, urban agriculture, farmers >markets, >local food systems or educational and anti-hunger initiatives in your area, >please send them to Wayne Roberts at [log in to unmask] Opinions >expressed in >items carried through this information service do not, unless explicitly >stated, reflect the views of either the Toronto Food Policy Council or >Toronto Public Health. > >If you would like to view the TFPC's website, please visit us at: >http://www.toronto.ca/health/tfpc_index.htm >If you know someone who would like to receive these mailings, have them >e-mail their name and address to: [log in to unmask] >If you would like to unsubscribe, please let us know at: [log in to unmask] _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. 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