Slashdot Mirror
'Forest Bathing' Considered Healthful
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that although allergies and the promise of air-conditioning tend to drive people indoors at this time of year, when people spend time in more natural surroundings — forests, parks, and other places with plenty of trees — they experience increased immune function. A study of 280 healthy people in Japan, where visiting nature parks for therapeutic effect has become a popular practice called 'Shinrin-yoku,' or 'forest bathing,' found that being among plants produced 'lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, and lower blood pressure,' among other things. Another study in 2007 showed that men who took two-hour walks in a forest over two days had a 50-percent spike in levels of natural killer cells, and a third study found an increase in white blood cells that lasted for a week in women exposed to phytoncides in forest air."
Nope, same here. Perhaps I haven't been Forest Bathing enough recently.
I must admit that the title immediately got me thinking about opalescent pools of water surrounded by trees and then wondering if it would be so healthy if said pool contained an overly territorial venomous water snake or an alligator having a bad day...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Also helps allergies:
I've read several studies in Science News that show exposing allergic bodies to the outdoors "trains" the immune system to ignore things like pollen, dust, and so on as simply part of the natural environment.
I've also read studies that picking your nose and eating your boogers increases your immune system. Seems plausible since your nose filters out pollen, dust, and other things your body shouldn't be absorbing.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
I read: "Forced Bathing Considered Harmful", and thought: 'Well duhh, every little boy will agree'. :-)
They're cultivating us, just to eat us fat in the end...
Just watch out for people playing banjos.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
This article assumes of course, that one does not become subject to a bear attack.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
Bathing forest dyslexia cures?
Free Martian Whores!
Ahem, please adhere to correct terminology: WOOOOOSH! 2x combo!!!
I would prefer a horny Naiad, but that's just me.
Yes, just like "winningest", "mostest" and "druther" - it reminds me of my childhood, when I was 4 or 5 years old.
Todd: I hope it proves as delicious as the farmers that grew them
What's that? Some sort of toad?
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
As long as it's not a candirú fish.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Pacific Northwest Temperate Rain Forest reporting in, all other forests can suck our Douglas Firs.
Quit hatin on kdawson he does a good job.
I must admit that the title immediately got me thinking about opalescent pools of water surrounded by trees and then wondering if it would be so healthy if said pool contained an overly territorial venomous water snake or an alligator having a bad day...
Funny, it immediately got me thinking about opalescent pools of water surrounded by trees and filled with water nymph's splashing about and laughing. With, of course, no clothes on.
I am not interested in trading fantasies with you, good sir.