Abstract
There has been increasing attention on the therapeutic effects of the forest environment. However, evidence-based research that clarifies the physiological effects of the forest environment on hypertensive individuals is lacking. This study provides scientific evidence suggesting that a brief forest walk affects autonomic nervous system activity in middle-aged hypertensive individuals. Twenty participants (58.0 ± 10.6 years) were instructed to walk predetermined courses in forest and urban environments (as control). Course length (17-min walk), walking speed, and energy expenditure were equal between the forest and urban environments to clarify the effects of each environment. Heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate were used to quantify physiological responses. The modified semantic differential method and Profile of Mood States were used to determine psychological responses. The natural logarithm of the high-frequency component of HRV was significantly higher and heart rate was significantly lower when participants walked in the forest than when they walked in the urban environment. The questionnaire results indicated that, compared with the urban environment, walking in the forest increased “comfortable”, “relaxed”, “natural” and “vigorous” feelings and decreased “tension-anxiety,” “depression,” “anxiety-hostility,” “fatigue” and “confusion”. A brief walk in the forest elicited physiological and psychological relaxation effects on middle-aged hypertensive individuals.
Highlights
During the seven-million-year history of humans [1], they have lived in natural environments; they experienced a drastic change when they began living in urban environments
In the 1-min segment analysis, most ln(HF) values were higher when participants walked in the forest than when they walked in the urban area, except during the first 4-min period (Figure 2A)
The mean ln (HF) over the entire walking period was significantly higher in forest walking than in urban walking
Summary
During the seven-million-year history of humans [1], they have lived in natural environments; they experienced a drastic change when they began living in urban environments. Rapid urbanization and artificialization have affected the environment by increasing traffic along with air and water pollution, while decreasing the amount of available agricultural land and open spaces [2]. These environmental changes, especially climate changes, threaten human health and quality of life (QOL) [2,3,4,5]. Brod describes as “technostress” [6], a modern disease of adaptation caused by unhealthy coping mechanisms for dealing with new computer technologies When combined, these factors can severely affect humans. Several studies have reported that urban environments are stressful [7,8,9] and are associated with increasing mortality rates [10]
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