Nature Heals: Four Evidence Backed Eco-Therapies We Can Thank Our Earth For

Earth Day. A day where many of us reflect or bring awareness to the many impacts the human race has on the health of our planet - the one and only home we've ever known. Don't get me wrong, these consequences are of insurmountable importance, but I'd like to take this time highlight a different perspective...how the Earth impacts our health.

Never before have we been so far removed from our natural environment; the one we evolved to live in for the majority of our 5 million-year history. Statistics show that more than 50% of people now live in urban areas, and by 2050, this percentage will be 70%. Unsurprisingly, as we continue to remove ourselves from nature, the precedence of both mental and physical disease remains on the rise. That in mind, environmental medicine research has turned its focus, highlighting the healing power of the plant-people interaction, forest bathing, viewing fractals in nature, and grounding...

I. How Forest Bathing Heals

Although “cities” in their most basic definition have been around since the Mesopotamian era, urbanized megacities housing more than 10 million people are a relatively new occurrence in the total span of human history. Now that such overcrowded cities are officially considered the main habitat of Homo Sapiens – the human race – these urban conditions have subsequently placed human health at risk, correlating to the continual rise in both mental and physical disease. This is why the concept of forest bathing, the act of immersing oneself in nature for an extended period of time, has been the focus of environmental medicine as researchers attempt to determine if we can reverse such detrimental effects in making our return to nature.

Researchers in Japan to study this potential therapeutic effect in 24 different forests around the country, measuring any changes in cortisol levels, pulse rate, blood pressure, and both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity following forest bathing. Concentrating on the stress response specifically, this study found that immersing oneself in nature lowers circulating concentrations of cortisol, our stress hormone, which corresponds to our fight-or-flight mode. Knowing that high cortisol levels correspond to diminished natural killer cell activity - cells involved in the immune response – foresting bathing was shown to have a direct impact on the human immune system as well. The healing benefits don't stop there. This decreased stress response was also made manifest in these participants as lower pulse rates, lower blood pressures, and greater "rest-and-digest" or parasympathetic nervous system activity as well.

To highlight the psychological benefits of forest bathing, 90 minutes of forest bathing was shown to decrease individuals' self-reports of rumination. Rumination is a prolonged and often detrimental self-relational focus placed on the causes and consequences of emotions; an incessant worry or thinking placed on how one's emotions and behaviors may impact future outcomes. Not only is this way of thinking associated with decreased working memory capacity, but it also predicts the onset of depressive episodes. This reported reduction in ruminative thoughts was not limited to the perception of the study participants, but was mirrored in their physiology as well. Following this 90 minute forest bathing session, these individuals were shown to have decreased sgpFC activity. sgPFC is a region of the brain that is linked to self-focused behavioral withdrawal, and thus rumination, in both healthy and depressed individuals. Given this association between risk for depression and ruminative thinking, this decrease in sgPFC activity that results from forest bathing highlights a potential explanation as to why the rampant urbanization of our surroundings is linked to mental illness.

II. How Fractals in Nature Heal

I think we can all agree that being surrounded by and viewing nature has its benefits in mental health, but did you know that simply looking at nature has the power to heal your biology as well? Science has found that an individual's physiological condition can be positively influence when viewing certain types of fractals found in nature. Fractals at their core are extremely hard to wrap your head around, but in their most basic definition, they are essentially geometric or curved figures formed by repeating mathematical equations. Think of the structure of a snowflake, the spiraled shape of galaxies, or even the fluffy appearance of clouds - all of these naturally-occurring objects have something in common...their shapes are characterized as fractal patterns. To understand the benefits of these patterns, we must first learn how mathematicians and scientists group them, knowing that the structure of a snowflake is very different from that of a cloud. To do this, researchers give these figures a D value based on their complexity. Fractals with low D values constitute those with a very smooth, sparse shape similar to what you would see viewing a coastline from an airplane. Fractals with a large D value, on the other hand, are more complex, they are those shapes full of intricate fine details like the branching pattern you'd see on the back of a leaf formed by their "veins".

It makes sense that our visual systems are hardwired, thanks to evolution, to understand and interpret these fractal patterns as we were completely immersed by them during our hunter-gatherer past. In this way, our brains subconsciously decipher fractal patterns in our environment to determine whether we are safe or not based off of the complexity of these structures. The more complex they are, the harder it is for our brain's processing system to comprehend them, leading to feelings of overwhelm and stress. Let's translate this to our modern world - the scene created by a city intersection is more complex, has a higher D value than the natural world that we have evolved alongside of. This, in turn, overwhelms our visual processing system carried out by the visual cortex of the brain, leading to both a conscious and subconscious perception of stress.

On the other end of the spectrum, viewing fractal structures more similar to the fractal patterns of our eye triggers a stress reduction response. Looking at the fractals formed by the retinal vessels pictured, think of some shapes found in nature that look similar to it. Tree branches, waterways viewed from afar, cracks in dry ground - all of these mirror the structure of our eye.

This feeling of stress relief we experience when viewing fractal patterns in nature is not just limited to our brains; it triggers widespread physiological changes in our body's as well. Viewing cumulus clouds, those characterized by a middle complexity D-range value, have been shown to increase concentration and focus in humans. Researchers concluded such benefit after measuring the electrical activity of peoples' hearts while they were viewing both natural and computer-generated fractal patterns. Quantified using an EEG, the alpha frequencies of the human heart is associated with a wakefully relaxed state, while beta responses indicate an attentive, focused state. When study participants viewed the most prevalent fractal patterns found in nature, their beta responses increased suggesting that such natural repeating patterns heighten our ability to concentrate by increasing our visual processing capabilities. Better yet, these positive biological responses were lessened when these natural fractal images were morphed into their respective computer-generated version. Taking a step back, it makes sense that our heart and visual processing system feel the safest and most "at home" among the common natural patterns we have originally evolved to function in. So, while our technology-obsessed society continues to translate natural phenomenon into computerized versions, science goes to show that nothing truly matches the healing power of Mother Nature.

III. How Touching Nature Heals

While some of you nature-lovers may take frequent walks outside, I ask you, do you make it a point to physically touch the nature you are surrounded by? If not, after reading about the healing benefits of the people-plant interaction, you may want to start doing so. A study examining physiological reactions following tactile stimulation found that touching vegetation or plants can meaningfully change blood flow in human brains. The cerebral cortex is the part of your brain that integrates all of the information from your central nervous system, and therefore, plays a major role in awareness, perception, attention, thought, and memory. Thus, by quantifying any changes to blood flow in this area of the brain, researchers are able to measure central nervous system activity - a function commonly associated with the stress response. In this particular study, scientists discovered that touching plants reduced the amount of blood flow in the cerebral cortex, thereby translating to a decreased stress response. So next time you're on a hike in the woods, make a conscious effort to touch some of the vegetation surrounding you...just make sure its not poison ivy!

IIII. How Grounding Heals

Ever heard of houses or buildings being grounded? The purpose of grounding electrical systems to the Earth is to protect our appliances, our homes, and everyone in it from surges in electricity, like that which would occur if it were to be hit by a lightning strike. Rather than fry the building, the negative energy emitted from a lightning strike travels through this grounding technology, instead depositing it into the Earth’s surface. As a result of the unimaginable number of lightning strikes that have occurred over millennia, in addition to solar radiation, the surface of our planet possesses a slightly negative electric charge which - flashback to your high school chemistry class - is in the form of free electrons. In the same way that the stability and safety of buildings are maintained through grounding, this electrical potential of the Earth can be used to effectively equalize the normal functioning of all of the body’s organ systems. Through direct contact with the ground, our bodies are able to absorb these free electrons, the concept behind the nature-based therapy known as “earthing”. By definition, earthing is the act of making contact with the Earth’s surface electrons - by walking barefoot outside or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors connected to conductive systems - to transfer this energy from the ground into the body.

Putting this into an evolutionary perspective, we as a species have cut ourselves off from this endless supply of free electrons now more than ever before. We no longer sleep outside on the ground like our ancestors, and thanks to the invention of rubber-soled shoes in the 1960's, we rarely walk barefoot through nature. As more and more research has focused on the benefits of earthing, scientists have come to agree that reconnecting to this virtually limitless and continuously-renewed supply of subatomic particles may serve as a seemingly invisible yet potent natural remedy for the alarming rise in chronic, inflammatory diseases we are experiencing today. In fact, scientists working in collaboration from the United States and Poland have recently discovered that earthing functions as a natural, universal regulating factor, strongly influencing the bioelectrical, bioenergetic, and biochemical processes taking place in the human body. Taking a look at the immune and pain responses specifically, researchers have found that grounding techniques dampen the peak stage of delayed onset muscle soreness. What does this mean exactly? Individuals that grounded their body experienced a less dramatic increase in white blood cells during the peak stage of muscle recovery that is normally the most painful. As a result, their perception or experience of pain was diminished, allowing participants to recover more quickly and with less discomfort as compared to those individuals who were not grounded.

Similar to its ability to regulate the immune system, changes in the intensity of the Earth’s electrical potential effectively calibrates or rebalances our biological clocks. While you most likely know of our circadian rhythm - that which governs our wake and sleep patterns - and its relationship to the sleep hormone melatonin, its often a lesser known fact that cortisol, our stress hormone, plays a governing role in this cycle as well. Individuals who experience anxiety, depression, irritability, and sleep disturbance – all common manifestations of our modern lifestyle - often exhibit distorted day-to-night secretion of this stress hormone. A pilot study of stressed participants found that earthing successfully recalibrated this abnormal cortisol fluctuation pattern, ultimately leading to decreased sleep disturbances and improvements in their ability to fall asleep. Even more surprisingly, grounding during just a single night of sleep resulted in statistically significant changes in the concentrations of minerals and electrolytes in the blood; iron, ionized calcium, inorganic phosphorus, sodium, potassium, and magnesium to name a few. Grounded sleep can effectively increase your body’s ability to absorb and utilize vitamins and minerals!

---

Since the late 20th century, chronic degenerative disease have overtaken infectious disease as the major causes of death. That being said, in order to increase human survival we must find interventions that inhibit the development and progression of such lifestyle-driven diseases. Now knowing what you know about the healing power of Mother Nature and our Earth, is it crazy to think that such interventions may be located right underneath our feet and outside of our windows?