Spending Time Outdoors Is Good for Your Health

Last week, how many hours did you spend outside? If you answered "less than two hours," you should probably go for a walk and enjoy the health advantages.

Researchers found that people's health and happiness improved when they spent even two hours each week in outside natural environments like beaches, forests, state parks, and local parks.

"How is your health in general?" was one of the questions asked of study participants in this 2019 publication of Scientific Reports. in addition to "How content are you with your life at the moment?"

The study's principal investigator, senior scientist and health and environmental psychologist Mathew White, PhD, of Austria's University of Vienna, believes that these questions are typically very helpful predictors of health and wellbeing. Doctors' assessments of patients' health and other objective measures of happiness are highly correlated with the responses people provide to these questions.

1. Exercising Outdoors Can Amp Up Your Workout

Although researchers acknowledge that some of the evidence comes from lower-quality data, a previous meta-analysis of eleven studies found that, compared to indoor exercise, participants reported feeling more energized and willing to exercise again after exercising outdoors. In addition, research comparing indoor and outdoor cycling and walking has shown that people are more inclined to work out harder when they are outside, even when they don't feel as much effort.

2. Time in Nature Can Help Reduce Stress

Although some of the evidence comes from lower-quality data, a previous meta-analysis of eleven studies found that people reported higher energy and a greater desire to exercise outdoors after exercising than after exercising indoors. Both the indoor cycling study and the outdoor walking study indicated that people were more likely to work out intensely while they were outside, even though they didn't feel like they were working out more.

3. Green Space Access May Help Reduce Cognitive Decline

Research published in January 2018 in Social Science & Medicine found that those who had access to public parks had a lower risk of cognitive decline and a healthier cognitive aging process. The longitudinal study compared the participants' periodic Moray House Test scores, which measure intelligence, with their lifetime proximity to parks and green spaces. This allowed the researchers to examine cognitive decline and its correlation with access to green space. The data was based on available park information and residential addresses from 11 to 70 and 70 to 76, respectively.

Outdoor park access was found to have a particularly robust protective effect among women, individuals with hereditary risk factors for cognitive decline, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, according to the researchers.

4. Access to Green Areas Can Help Purify Air and Contribute to Better Lung Function

Lung function at age 24 was better in children whose lifetime "residential greenness" (as measured by satellite imagery and residential addresses) and proximity to green spaces (such as parks, forests, and agricultural land) was higher in a different longitudinal study published in 2020 in Environment International. The results showed that having access to green areas may improve lifetime lung function, and they were independent of air pollution, urbanization, and socio-economic status.

One possible explanation is that parks and other heavily vegetated places have naturally lower levels of air pollution due to the presence of flora such as trees, lichen, and shrubs.

5. Time in the Sun Can Boost Vitamin D Levels

You may increase your body's vitamin D stores by going outside on a sunny day. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements states that this vitamin aids in the function of your immune system, muscles, and nerves, and that it is crucial for helping you absorb calcium, which in turn builds stronger bones.

"The sunshine vitamin" isn't getting nearly enough of a dose for nearly half of the population, according to studies. According to the NIH, your body produces vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, however this process is hindered when the sunlight is filtered by a window.