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EINEIEE� =1 if 1' CA .1 0 �� 1. 10d M 0/1 �1 I "JIV, l 'i' D F P'R1'," S S N A,, �`4, D A N X V E] 1111,111 Not surprisingly, urban dwellers are far more likely to have anxiety and mood disorders than people who live in rural areas. That's the bad news, since about 80% of Americans live in cities. The good news is that a small 2015 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people who walked for 90 minutes in a natural setting, such as a forest or a nature park, were less likely to ruminate—a hallmark of depression and anxiety—and had lower activity in an area of the brain linked to depression than people who walked in an urban area. "Accessible natural areas may be vital for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world," the study authors write. The exact mechanism of how nature helps mood disorders is unclear, but researchers agree that at the very least, time in nature tends to lift spirits. "When you have a short blast of nature exposure, people's moods go up," says Ming Kuo, an environment and behavior scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Another possigility is that the air near moving water, forests and mountains contains high levels of negative ions, which are thought to potentially reduce depression symptoms, according to a study in Frontiers in Psychology. An April 2016 study published in thejournal Environmental Health Perspectives reported that Before you start planning your escape to the women living in areas with a lot of vegetation had a 12% countryside, consider this: "There is plenty of lower risk of death from all causes compared with people in evidence that you will get a range of benefits even the least green places. That could be thanks to cleaner air, if all you can manage is putting a plant in your room or looking at trees through your window at home," but nature may also offer its own medicine. Li's research says the University of Queensland's Shanahan. at Nippon Medical School shows that when people walk Research shows that even if they're artificial, through a forest, they inhale phytoncides that increase their the images, sounds and smells of nature can have number of natural killer (NK) cells—a type of white blood cell positive health effects. Listening to nature sounds that supports the immune system and is associated with over headphones, for instance, has been shown a lower risk of cancer. NK cells are also thought to have a to help people recover faster from stress—which role in combating infections and autoimmune disorders and might explain why so many spas employ nature tamping down inflammation, which contributes to a wide sounds in their treatment rooms. range of ailments, including heart disease and diabetes. In a 2010 study, researchers found that people who Several studies have also shown that having took two long walks through forests on consecutive days a window view can improve attention, reduce increased their NK cells by 50% and the activity of these cells by 56%. Those activity levels remained 23% higher than usual for the month following the walks. In another study, Li and his co-authors found that infusing people's hotel rooms with phytoncides had some of the same anti-cancer-cell effects as those seen among people walking through forests. V it W fJ'H, /ir, ,v D S$N'Aflf, i'T V` 'Vf,, S Small studies in kids with attention - deficit /hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have suggested that nature walks could be a potential natural treatment to improve attention. In one study, a team led by Kuo of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had kids with ADHD take three 20-minute walks, without their medication, in different locations: a park, a neighborhood and an urban area. When the researchers tested the children afterward, they found that after a park walk, the kids were able to concentrate substantially better than after a walk in the other settings. In a separate 2011 study, Kuo and her colleagues found that children who regularly played in outdoor areas had milder ADHD symptoms, according to their parents, than children who played indoors or in areas with less nature access. "Nature gives the part of the brain that's used in effortful concentration a rest," says Kuo. "If you spend time doing something mentally relaxing, you feel rejuvenated." People without ADHD symptoms can also improve their attention and concentration by interacting with nature, evidence suggests. One University of Michigan study found that people improved their short-term memory by 20% after a nature walk but had no changes after walking through city streets. 26 TIME July 25,20i6 9116 0 I Before you start planning your escape to the IE V countryside, consider this: "There is plenty of evidence that you will get a range of benefits even if all you can manage is putting a plant in your room or looking at trees through your window at home," says the University of Queensland's Shanahan. Research shows that even if they're artificial, the images, sounds and smells of nature can have positive health effects. Listening to nature sounds over headphones, for instance, has been shown to help people recover faster from stress—which might explain why so many spas employ nature sounds in their treatment rooms. Several studies have also shown that having a window view can improve attention, reduce stress and even help people in hospitals heal after operations. One widely cited study of people recovering from abdominal surgery found that those with tree-lined views were released faster from the hospital, experienced fewer complications and required less pain medication than people whose rooms faced a brick wall.