Everything you dig, plant and weed burns calories and strengthens your heart. First of all, being in nature makes you happier.
Gardening
has also been shown to improve mood, stabilize feelings of anxiety and depression, and generally reduce feelings of stress and stress incidents. Gardening can fill a person with a sense of purpose and accomplishment, and it's a very high reward.In addition, being in nature, we tend to feel more of a connection with our spirituality. Not only can gardening be an effective way to exercise, it can also benefit your mental health. Spending Time Away Can Help Reduce Depression, Anger, and Stress. In addition, gardening is good for you, as it can help reduce the risk of diseases such as strokes and osteoporosis, as well as improve your immune system.
Why does gardening seem to be so beneficial to health? Combines physical activity with social interaction and exposure to nature and sunlight. Sunlight lowers blood pressure and increases vitamin D levels in summer,42 and the fruits and vegetables that are produced have a positive impact on the diet. Working in the garden restores dexterity and strength, and the aerobic exercise involved can easily consume the same amount of calories as would be spent in a gym. Digging, raking, and mowing lawns are particularly calorie-intensive; 43 there's a gym outside many windows.
Social interaction provided by community and therapeutic garden projects for people with learning disabilities and poor mental health can counteract social isolation. In addition, it has also been reported that the social benefits of these projects may delay symptoms of dementia44 (an effect that could be partly due to the beneficial effects of exercise). Patients recovering from myocardial infarction or stroke find that exercising in a garden, using paretic limb restriction therapy, for example45 is more effective, enjoyable and sustainable than therapy in formal exercise settings. For some patients, gardening can even lead to employment.
There are also successful plans involving volunteers to help seniors who cannot manage their gardens, and both the volunteer and the owner benefit from social interaction and products and a shared interest. You know that plants need sunlight, but did you know that your body needs it too? Like other outdoor leisure activities, gardening can provide a double dose of healthy exercise and sun exposure. A moderate amount of time in the sun is the most effective way to get vitamin D, which influences more than 1000 different genes and almost every tissue in the body and impacts everything from metabolism to the immune system. Vitamin D Linked to Positive Effects in Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, Bone Health, and Depression.
The gut can also feel the benefits, because vitamin D is thought to help regulate gastrointestinal distress. Of course, it's important to remember to take precautions to safely spend time in the sun. Growing fruits and vegetables in your garden may be good for you, as you can include their products in your diet. There is growing evidence that exposure to plants and green spaces, and particularly to gardening, is beneficial to mental and physical health and could therefore reduce pressure on NHS services.
For the millennium, a small central garden was created between the buildings of St Thomas Hospital; another at St George's Hospital was successfully commissioned by Harold Lambert (FRCP). But did you know that you can add your backyard garden to that list? Gardens provide a vital green space to reduce greenhouse gases, decrease the need to buy things, allow you to recycle kitchen waste and many other positive aspects for our planet, according to a report by the National Wildlife Federation. Meta-analytical estimates showed a significant positive effect of gardening on health outcomes for both all studies and subgroup sets, while effect sizes differed between eight subgroups. The author is a trustee of the National Garden Scheme and a former trustee, now patron, of the charity Thrive.
That's right, the scientists responsible for launching humans into space have discovered that gardening can keep astronauts sane and happy in the harsh environment of outer space. Just breathe in the fresh air, pay attention to your garden and forget about any worries you may have. Combine all of these beautiful health benefits and you could definitely argue that gardening is in fact good for the soul. Perhaps on the simplest level, gardening is a practical hobby that gives you something to look forward to.
Few complementary therapies have been convincingly proven to be effective, but gardening and nature, which are alternative therapies, offer a proven, inexpensive and almost universally available means of improving the nation's health. This can be achieved through basic gardening tasks, such as raking leaves, mowing lawns, or trimming hedges. . .
