Spending time outdoors, especially in green spaces, is one of the fastest ways to improve your health and happiness. It can lower stress, blood pressure and heart rate. Doctors are increasingly taking these findings seriously and using them to their patients.
Now, a new study published in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research adds to the evidence and shows just how little time it takes to get the benefits of being outside.Spending just 20 minutes in a park—even if you don't exercise while you're there—is enough to improve well-being, according to the research.
For the study, researchers surveyed 94 adults who visited one of three urban parks over the summer and fall. They were given fitness trackers to measure physical activity but were not told what to do in the park or how long to stay. Each person also answered questions about their life satisfaction and mood—which were used to calculate a subjective well-being score, with a maximum value of 55—before and after their park visit.
The average park visit lasted 32 minutes, and 30% of people engaged in at least moderate-intensity(中等强度) physical activity while there. Well-being scores rose during the park visit in 60% of people, with an average increase of about 1.5 points (from about 37 to 39). For many people in the study, simply being in green space seemed to be enough to make a change.
The medical community is increasingly viewing green space as a place for their patients to gain physical and mental health benefits. Some physicians, like Dr. Robert Zarr, are even writing prescriptions(处方) for it.
By writing nature prescriptions, physicians are encouraging their patients to get outdoors and take advantage of what many view to be free medicine.
