The natural root of wellness: Science is catching up to the healing benefits of time spent outdoors

Photo: Unsplash/Angelika Agibalova

Maria Verdicchio’s job is to connect people to the proven mental and physical health benefits of time in nature. So there’s irony and perfection in that her lightbulb moment came in a doctor’s office.  

Flipping through a magazine, under the fluorescent light of an optometrist’s waiting room, she read an article about forest bathing. She paused. For decades, Verdicchio had guided people outdoors. On horseback in Jasper National Park and walking tours in Italy, through forests in Tasmania and deserts in New Mexico, she always tried to share the positive attributes of being outdoors. 

Verdicchio knew about the proven physical health benefits of vigorous and sustained exercise and the mental health benefits of nature-based therapy, especially to treat youth-at-risk and people suffering with PTSD. But forest bathing hinted that the health benefits of outdoor recreation could be even bigger. 

“As a guide, I was always trying to connect clients to the world around them,” Verdicchio says. “It was while reading the article that I realized forest bathing would give me the structure to help people connect with nature and themselves in a more meaningful way.”

Forest bathing is the literal translation of shinrin-yoku, a Japanese practice of a healing forest walk. It is often interpreted as going for a nature hike, but shinrin-yoku is more purposeful. It's about walking very slowly, breathing exercises and other activities designed to slow the mind, engage all the senses and create a more emotional connection to nature. Scientific studies have shown forest bathing reduces stress, increases energy and improves mood and symptoms of depression. There is also evidence it boosts the immune system and lowers blood pressure and heart rate. 

Intrigued Verdicchio became an Association of Nature and Forest Therapy certified guide and now leads corporate groups and individuals through the forest bathing ritual around Victoria. It can be hard to convince people to pay for a guided walk in the forest–especially one that can take three hours to travel less than one kilometre–but she has seen the power of the snail-paced experience.

“The right trail, the right space, and a skilled guide create an opportunity to slow down and be so much more than a walk in the woods,” she says.

That’s not to say less structured or faster paced outdoor recreation isn’t good for you as well. An analysis of 143 studies investigating the benefits of any time in green space found a long list, everything from lower stress and better mental health to reduced rates of stroke, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. 

The benefits weren’t just from the physical activity. One study they examined compared nature hikers to urban walkers and treadmill users. It found the green space striders had lower blood pressure, heart rate, body fat, cholesterol and incidents of depression than the other walkers. There were no adverse side effects. 

A more local example involved a group of cancer survivors who met weekly for a hike in the woods near Chilliwack. After eight weeks all the participants reported a drop in anxiety and stress. The sessions were organized by a University of the Fraser Valley researcher who says the results are likely a combination of time in nature, exercise and the social support of the group. 

Results like that are shifting thinking in public planning. A recent University of Oregon study examined the impact of park closures during COVID-19 pandemic and found what many experienced for themselves: that outdoor recreation was an important protective factor for mental health during the crisis. 

“Our research shows that outdoor recreation isn’t some kind of bonus, it’s a public health necessity,” said Xiangyou Shen, the lead researcher. “Policymakers who want to improve population mental health and advance health equity should prioritize outdoor recreation access with the same urgency they apply to other essential health services.”

All the research points in the same direction: trails, parks and natural areas harbour huge potential cost and resource savings for the provincial health care system. 

To motivate more people to use the free medicine, the BC Parks Foundation created PaRx, or Park Prescriptions. Launched in B.C. and now available across the country, the program enables health-care professionals to prescribe their patients time in nature and provides patients with free or discounted passes to national parks, botanical gardens, zoos, museums and more. 

About 17 percent of B.C. physicians take part in the program and they have written more than 400,000 nature prescriptions.

“It’s been really effective,” says Laura Hergott, manager of the Foundation's Healthy by Nature department. “People tell us they are more likely to spend time in nature if a doctor tells them to.”

“For some patients, it has been life changing. "

“After a PTSD diagnosis several years ago it was very hard to leave my house,” reads one anonymous testimonial. “This access pass has encouraged me to get out, even if not to one of the parks, to be in the outdoors…It has really helped in my recovery.“

No one is entirely sure why nature is so healing, but people like Pat Bavin, another forest bathing certified guide, say phytoncides play an important role. 

Bavin, a retired recreation planner and artist based in the Invermere area, designed the only forest bathing certified trail in B.C. at Radius Retreat, an ecotourism centre near Radium. (A certified “bathing” trail is wide, smooth and designed for the requirements of shinrin-yoku.) Like most forest bathing trails it passes through a grove of coniferous trees, which emit antimicrobial compounds, or phytoncides, to fight off pests. There is evidence that breathing them in lowers stress hormones and increases cancer fighting proteins and immune function. 

Breath work is an important part of the forest bathing ritual, notes Bavin. It is how he moves people out of their busy, task-focused thinking brain and into a more present place. It’s how Bavin helped executives at Kicking Horse Coffee be more creative, ski racers hone their mental focus and many regular folks slow down. 

A testimonial on Bavin’s website sums up a typical response to the forest bathing experience.

“While I spend a few hours every day outside, I’ve never spent time being mindful like that. It was life changing.” 

But the explanation of nature’s healing may be even more basic than that. Forests are where humans evolved, Bavin points out, which is probably why spending time in them feels so good. 

“All our ancestors started in the forest,” he says. “It is the root of who we are.”