You can exercise very hard and eat super healthy, but there is an even simpler solution to slow down aging: go into nature. In fact, it is so healthy that doctors prescribe it as a medicine.
Surrounding yourself with greenery does wonders for your body. It improves your psychological health, it is good for your heart and it strengthens your immune system. Researchers have now found a possible explanation for all these great benefits: people who live in nature have a lower biological age on average.
Longer telomeres
“This study was an attempt to quantify the benefits of nature at the cellular level and determine the extent to which green space can help offset environmental damage,” says ecologist Aaron Hipp of North Carolina State University.
The researchers studied almost 8,000 people and their living environment. It showed that people who lived in a place with more parks, gardens, trees and other plants had longer telomeres. “That was regardless of race, economic status and whether people smoked or drank,” Hipp said.
Type of shoelaces
Telomeres are the ends of our chromosomes and prevent them from wearing out quickly. They are therefore compared to the plastic tops of shoelaces. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres become slightly shorter, until the cell can no longer share its genetic material and dies. “That’s why telomeres are important markers of our biological age or how worn out our cells are,” explains Scott Ogletree from the University of Edinburgh. “We know that all kinds of variables, such as stress, can influence the speed at which our telomeres shorten.”
Back to the green space. This is known to reduce stress. Plants protect us from our environment in many ways. In this way, they ensure that it remains a few degrees cooler during a heat wave and reduce air and noise pollution. Green space also encourages us to exercise more and leads to more social interaction.
Further removed from nature
Although we know more and more how good nature is for us, we are getting further and further away from it. More and more people live in overcrowded, busy cities, work in large concrete buildings and hardly see daylight in winter. And that is harmful to our health. “According to our research, green space can shave 2.2 to 2.6 years off your biological age,” Ogletree and colleagues calculated.
Side notes
Although there are some snags to this conclusion, because corrected for a risk factor such as air pollution, the positive effect largely disappeared. White people also lived in the greenest areas with less ethnic diversity. In general, the life expectancy of white Americans is higher than that of blacks. The effect was also not so clear when only women were looked at. Diseases or stress may play a greater role for them than a green environment.
“Green space is extremely valuable, but it is not enough to compensate for systemic racism, the consequences of economic inequality and a lack of climate justice,” Hipp explains.
Look around you
“The most important conclusion of this study is that it is important to create green space in districts and neighborhoods, but it is even more important to reduce the damage caused by other environmental factors.”
In any case, it is good for everyone to live in the green or to explore nature. You really don’t have to live in the forest for that. Start a garden on your balcony or take a good look around you when you walk through the park, there are countless ways to feel connected to nature again. Your telomeres will thank you.
2023-12-19 07:46:30
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