Your Brain on Nature: A Book Review of “The Nature Fix”

“The Nature Fix” by Florence Williams, published by W.W. Norton & Company in 2017, provides the most compelling argument to date for people to spend more time outdoors in nature, based on an increasing amount of biological, psychological and medicinal scientific evidence.

Photo courtesy of “The Nature Fix” publisher

Over the years, efforts have been made to quantify nature’s impact on mood, well being, ability to think (remember, plan, create) and sociability. The “biophilic” hypothesis involves lowering human stress, boosting mental health, restoring attention, empathy, and cognitive clarity.

Nature also affects a social component, like the feeling that is shared among people who spend time together outdoors, or people who perform exceeding acts of kindness in the aftermath of a severe environmental event such as a tornado, earthquake, or firestorm.

The recommended prescription for getting outdoors in a “nature pyramid” includes both quick doses and longer spells in wild places. Specifically, humans should:

• Get out in nature nearby on a daily basis for some minutes to de-stress, find focus, and lighten mental fatigue

• Spend weekly outings at parks or waterways for an hour or so, and

• Go on monthly weekend excursions to natural areas to bolster immune systems

The top of the pyramid includes annual or biyearly multi-day wilderness trips. More significantly, such wilderness experiences are invaluable for adolescents or those who are in grief or suffering trauma.

Family snowshoeing at Smuggler’s Notch, courtesy of Smuggs

The author traveled the world to investigate and experience research on nature’s impact on humans. In Japan, she saw “forest bathing” on a sensory walk in the woods, which was on one of the 48 forest therapy trails in the country. In Scotland, they call it “eco therapy.” In Korea, she met with a professor of “social forestry” who introduced her to the world’s only college degree for forest healing. In South Korea from 2010-2013, visits to the forest increased from 9.4 million to 12.7 million, Nowhile in the USA there was a decline of 25% during the same time period.

The evidence (20 pages of cited notes and credits) about nature impact involves details with cortisol levels, sympathetic nerve activity, heart rate decline, and hemoglobin in the brain’s prefrontal cortex.  The book is replete with that type of information, which may be news to most people who may not be familiar with such neurological details.

Noted in the book, one of nature’s benefits are delivered through sound—a bubbling brook, bird tweets in the early morning, the leaves moving in the wind, and so on. But the U.S. Park Service claims that 83% of land in the lower 48 states sits within 3,500 feet of a road and that within 20 years, 90 percent of the population will be close enough to hear at least one of the projected 30,000 airplane flights per day.

Lupine photo in the White Mountains, courtesy of Roger Lohr

In Finland, 95 percent of the population spends time recreating outdoors and 50 percent ride bicycles. It is easy to access forests because 74 percent of the country is covered by trees, and there are two million summer cottages for a population of two million Finns, who claim the focus on nature correlates to reduced health care costs and mental and physical fitness.

The author, Florence Williams, visited Singapore, where 70 percent of the population lives within 400 meters of green space. The government in Singapore allocates 0.6 percent of the national budget to develop scenery and greenery.

There are successful nature programs to help people who suffer with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Outward Bound did a study on a therapeutic adventure program showing the improvement of 9-19 percent of participating veterans who had PTSD. Williams includes a discussion about ADHD programs where 6.4 million kids are diagnosed and half of them are taking medication for the malady.

Isn’t it about time that more therapists, doctors, teachers, and parents prescribe getting outdoors more often?

To learn more about “The Nature Fix” and the author Florence Williams, visit her website at http://www.florencewilliams.com/the-nature-fix/.