Blackmores Institute

The study of 155 participants (aged 19 – 59 years) investigated the physiological and psychological effects of ‘forest bathing’ (shinrin-yoku) on people of a working age with and without depressive tendencies, and found significant positive effects on mental health particularly in those with depressive tendencies.
 
 Participants were placed into groups of either four or five people for forest bathing, which involved slowly walking around the forest for approximately two hours, initially with one or two guides.
 
 “We conducted physiological measurements and psychological surveys before and after forest bathing with subjects who participated in day-long sessions of forest bathing, at a forest therapy base located in Hiroshima Prefecture,” the authors explained.
 
 “In addition to explaining the natural environment of the forest, the guides demonstrated breathing methods, yoga, hammock experiences, etc. at each point, encouraging communication among the participants throughout the forest bathing session.”
 
 Forest bathing originated in Japan in the 1980s with the Forestry Agency promoting it as a form of recreation by walking and inhaling the fragrant substances released by trees and as such, the act of forest bathing has been regarded as a natural remedy to improve human physical and mental health.
 
 “Studies have reported relaxation and the effects on organisms arising from terpene components such as phytoncide, which are emitted from trees. Forest bathing has been demonstrated to improve negative mood using the profile of mood states (POMS) mood scale as well as improvements in depressive symptoms, but the lack of high-quality studies limits the strength of results, rendering the evidence insufficient to establish clinical practice guidelines for its use,” the authors said.
 
 Results of the study showed that the POMS scores for all participants in the five negative subscales decreased significantly after forest bathing, namely; tension-anxiety; depression-dejection; anger-hostility; fatigue; and confusion (p = 0.001 to p &lt; 0.001), with the total mood disturbance recording a negative mood state at 5.8 ± 12.7 before forest bathing, changing to a positive mood state at − 4.6 ± 6.3 after forest bathing (p &lt; 0.001). In addition, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure showed a significant decrease in both groups after forest bathing, and only those with depressive tendencies showed a significant rise in pulse rate.“In this study, the improvement of mental health was statistically significant, especially in the participants with depressive tendencies. Changes were sufficiently large to be clinically meaningful. However, it will be necessary to conduct further studies to validate the efficacy of forest bathing for working age people with depressive tendencies, since other outcomes, such as autonomic functions, did not change significantly,” the authors concluded.
 
 Source:
 Environ Health Prev Med. 2019. DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12199-019-0800-1 ">10.1186/s12199-019-0800-1</a>

With growing concerns on the increases in mental health issues during the current pandemic, the age-old advice to take time out in nature (lock-down restrictions permitting) could be more relevant than ever with a new study from Japan, showing that communing with nature has positive effects.

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