Science Proves What You Already Knew

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Medical and scientific research can help reveal amazing and shocking discoveries. For example, learning that Human Papilloma Virus infections can lead to cervical cancer can lead to vaccines and a reduction in that form of cancer. Research can also make people say, "yeah, duh, we know." (Journal of the American Medical Association: electric fans can help you feel cool on hot days)

Sometimes proving what is already "known" can be helpful because having data to actually back up a belief makes it easier to make recommendations, whether that's on a patient level or more broadly as it pertains to national policy. I mean, science has proven that cigarette smoking is bad, so we've completely gotten rid of... oh, well, maybe that's a bad example, because money can always be used to combat data. 

But I digress.

My goal today is to show some of the vast amount of data that has proven what you and I already knew; that being outdoors is good for the body and the brain. 

You CAN scan through these articles, a mere sampling of some that I've found, but you could just do what I'm about to do; head outside to gather data on your own.

• https://www.snexplores.org/article/spending-time-green-spaces-nature-health-benefits
• Associations of Greenness, Parks, and Blue Space With Neurodegenerative Disease Hospitalizations Among Older US Adults (Journal of the American Medical Association, December, 2022)
• Mechanisms underlying childhood exposure to blue spaces and adult subjective well-being: An 18-country analysis (Journal of Environmental Psychology, December, 2022)
• Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing (Nature, June 2019)
• A comparative study of the physiological and psychological effects of forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku) on working age people with and without depressive tendencies (Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine / PubMed Central, June 2019)
• Association between urban green space and the risk of cardiovascular disease: A longitudinal study in seven Korean metropolitan areas (Environmental International / ScienceDirect. April, 2019)
• Gardening on a psychiatric inpatient unit: Cultivating recovery (Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, October, 2018)
• The importance of greenspace for mental health ( BJ Psych International / PubMed Central, November, 2017)
• Health benefits of green spaces in the living environment: A systematic review of epidemiological studies - Urban Forestry & Urban Greening / ScienceDirect, 2015)
• Exposure to neighborhood green space and mental health: evidence from the survey of the health of Wisconsin  (International Journal of Res Public Health / PubMed March, 2014)
• The association between neighborhood greenness and cardiovascular disease: an observational study (BMC Public Health, June, 2012)
• The health benefits of urban green spaces: a review of the evidence (Journal of Public Health | Oxford Academ, June, 2011)
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