Doctors prescribing time in nature to recover from covid

Quebec - Recovering from the physical and mental-health effects of COVID-19 will take more than regular medicine alone.

This is why doctors around the world are giving patients ‘green prescriptions’ to spend more

time in nature.

Five hours a month in nature is the minimum dose in Finland, but a walk in a city park can help too.

For many people, a visit to the doctor often ends with a medication prescription. But what if your doctor prescribed a walk in the park instead of conventional medicine? Canada has become the latest nation where GPs are doing just that.

Doctors in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario are now prescribing time spent in nature and even providing patients with a pass giving a year’s access to the country’s national parks, marine conservation areas and historic sites.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes nature as  the greatest source of health and wellbeing and says enhancing biodiversity is critical to recovery from the covid pandemic.

Although the mental health benefits of getting out into the great outdoors have long been recognised, so-called green prescriptions are now being widely used to treat physical conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes and lung diseases.

Scientists say the health value of spending time in nature goes beyond the psychological. Research suggests contact with microbes in the environment can train immune systems and reinforce the microbial communities on our skin, in our airways and guts.

Researchers say that venturing out into nature has been shown to improve sleep, reduce stress and boost happiness, as well as increase attention, memory and creativity, according to the New Scientist magazine.

Doctors in New Zealand were among the first to issue green prescriptions in the late nineties, and it’s become an established part of the government’s health offering. Kiwis can even self-refer to gain a range of free health benefits.

In 2020, the UK government committed £4 million to a two-year green-prescription pilot as part of its post-covid recovery plan. Spending time by water was the most highly-rated activity in nature for improving people’s mental health in a 2021 survey.

Clinicians in Japan have been recommending shinrin yoku, or forest bathing since 1982, advising patients to get out and use the country’s woodland walks.  Medical research has proven the health and wellbeing benefits of time in nature.