New study finds variety of health benefits to 'forest bathing'

CATHY WURZER: As Minnesotans, many of us have taken a walk through the woods to relieve some stress. But what about forest therapy? There is a new study from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. And it found that forest therapy, also called forest bathing, had significant health and well-being benefits for kids with mental health challenges. For more on what we can learn from this new research, we're joined by a Minnesota forest bathing practitioner. Leigha Horton is the co-founder and program director of Silvae Spiritus. Leah, welcome.

LEIGHA HORTON: Thanks, Cathy. It's such a pleasure to be here.

CATHY WURZER: Well, likewise. I'm glad you could take some time. For folks who are not at all familiar, this sounds pretty simple. Forest bathing might feel a little odd, though, in terms of a term. How would you describe what this is?

LEIGHA HORTON: Sure. So forest bathing is-- it can be looked at much like one looks at sunbathing. So when we sunbathe, we are taking in the sun and the environment with all of our senses. Much is the same for forest bathing. It is spending time in nature and taking in that forest atmosphere with all of our senses, bathing in that experience.

CATHY WURZER: Which is different from a normal walk in the woods?

LEIGHA HORTON: Yeah. Well, oftentimes, people look at a walk in the woods, or a hike, for example, and that is a relationship in a way of conquest. It's getting from here to another place. And you might be having these healthful benefits along the way. But you're not really taking slow, mindful bodyful time to get there. You're getting from one place to another place, whereas forest bathing, the goal of which is to get here, now, in this moment, fully embodied, and in relation to all the other beings who call that particular forest or just natural landscape home.

CATHY WURZER: So to be present, then, really, among what you what you're experiencing, as you say, the animals, the trees, the plants, the atmosphere.

LEIGHA HORTON: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Here's the thing, is that as humans, we have evolved for 99.9999% of our existence in deep relationship with nature. And then around the industrial revolution, humans started removing themselves from that relationship and considering nature to be other.

The thing is, though, is that we are-- as humans, we are nature. We are human beings, just as trees are tree beings and plant beings and fungi beings, insect beings. The list goes on and on and on. And together, we create this thing called nature. And so it turns out that there's just a load of scientific benefits, both physiological and psychological, that support our mindful bodyful presence in nature.

CATHY WURZER: So then it must not be a surprise to you in this study of kids, 9 to 14-year-olds, were taken to two forest therapy sessions. And evidently after two sessions, their anxiety and depression and fatigue and all the bad stuff decreased. Do you see that in your practice too?

LEIGHA HORTON: Yes, on a regular basis, with all age groups. It's one of those things that oftentimes studies that focus on children are every bit as applicable to adults as well. And some of the physiological things that we have seen and/or read studies about include a decrease in cortisol levels, so our stress hormones, a decrease in fatigue, an increase in relaxation, a decrease in blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic, an increase in our heart rate variability.

So our heart rate should be responsive to the environment around us. If it's like a metronome all the time, usually that's a symptom of low grade chronic stress. Your heart rate should be different when you're napping, versus when you're out for a brisk walk, an increase in our white blood cells, our NK cells specifically, which are natural killer cells that seek out and eradicate cancerous or precancerous cells before they have an opportunity to flourish.

And then, of course, there's all the mood states that come in. We see a decrease in ADHD symptoms, a decrease in spiraling and rumination, an increase in better sleep, an increase in creativity, a sense of connection, a sense of well-being, a sense of attention. Oftentimes, people talk about how spending time in nature feels good. And the truth is, it does feel good. It feels good for a number of reasons. And the science backs that up.

CATHY WURZER: In terms of the science, I wonder what mechanisms are at play. As you mentioned, heart rate goes down. Blood pressure goes down. All the other good stuff happens to your body when you're in nature. I wonder what the interplay is. You know what I'm trying to say?

LEIGHA HORTON: Yeah. Yeah. So there's a number of factors that are at play. Of course, there's the fresh air. But also there's a chemical compound that all trees and plants to varying degrees and dependent on temperature release into the atmosphere. And they're called phytoncides, P-H-Y-T-O-N-C-I-D-E-S, phytoncides.

And these phytoncides are meant as a communication method between trees and plants to say any number of things. Oftentimes, it's like, hey, I'm being beset by predators. Everybody up your defenses, so that we don't have our entire forest wiped out by emerald ash borer or pine bark beetle. Well, it turns out that the human body responds beautifully to exposure to phytoncides.

Additionally, there's this theory called attention restoration theory that talks about the human brain response to fractal patterns, which is increasing repeating patterns or decreasing repeating patterns, which we see passively when we're in a forest atmosphere. You think about a tree that starts as a trunk, and then it branches, and then it branches again, and it branches again. That is a fractal pattern that we are passively taking in when we're in nature. And that calms the brain.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. So kids and adults, as you mentioned-- and a lot of us are pretty disconnected from nature. And I would assume there could be some public health implications to a study like this, reasons to get out and unplug and get outside and experience some of this goodness.

LEIGHA HORTON: Yes, absolutely. And I'd like to preface this by saying that Indigenous cultures worldwide have practiced nature relation and carried nature relation forward for millennia. And it was the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries who sort of formalized the practice, as we do it now here in the United States, in the mid-1980s. And that was their governmental response to a national health epidemic.

And so having opportunities for nature relation and nature connection are not only good for human health interventions, both adults and children, it's also a beautiful first step in effective conservation. You think of the author Robin Wall Kimmerer, and she wrote Braiding Sweetgrass, which is this seminal work.

And she talks about how we talk about our grandmothers. Say our grandmother is doing dishes at the sink. And you would never say, ask it to move. You would say, ask her to move. You're honoring her beingness. And it's the exact same thing with nature. What is it like to honor the beingness of trees and plants and various nature beings that you can interact with, that you can step into community with?

And so it also addresses issues of personal connection and community relation and addressing isolation as well, which also has, of course, expounding mental health and public health ramifications.

CATHY WURZER: So what if you're not near a forest or a prairie or something similar, if you're, say, a middle of the city? What would you need to do to experience some of this?

LEIGHA HORTON: That's a great question. And Minneapolis-Saint Paul in particular are exceptionally green cities. And you could quite literally look at the weeds that are growing up in between the sidewalk panels. That is nature. Those beings are growing and thriving in that place. You could look at an abandoned lot at the end of your city block. And if you were to spend 15, 20 minutes literally just sitting there and simply noticing what's in motion, who's moving around, you'd be shocked at the diversity and abundance of life that exists all around us. And we're just not paying attention.

CATHY WURZER: Interesting. I appreciate this. Sounds fascinating. And I hope you have a good rest of the day. Thank you so much, Leigha.

LEIGHA HORTON: Thank you, Cathy. Have a good one.

CATHY WURZER: You too. Leigha Horton is a forest bathing practitioner and the program director of the nature retreat Silvae Spiritus based between the Twin Cities and Duluth.