Hospitals and Healthcare

Being outdoors in nature is an important factor in staying healthy. Learn more from Mayo Clinic about benefits of being nature.

Three years after the black summer fires, Snowy Valleys council launched a nature trail to help residents work through grief

The benefits of getting out in nature have been known at least since the 1850s, but not nearly enough Australians are getting out into the greenery.

Between 1972 and 1981 Roger Ulrich investigated the records of 46 patients recovering from gallbladder surgery. Patients’ rooms on one side of the hospital looked out onto deciduous trees. The others looked out onto a brick wall. Ulrich, who believed his view of a pine tree aided in his recovery from kidney disease as a teenager, wanted to find out whether those with natural scenery might enjoy greater restorative benefits than those without.

The results spoke for themselves — and went on to influence a generation of nature research. Patients with the tree view enjoyed shorter postoperative stays, had fewer negative evaluative comments from nurses, took fewer moderate and strong analgesic doses, and had slightly lower scores for minor post-surgical complications. Even from a distance, the earth’s flora impacted the patients profoundly.

Small, tranquil moments like wind rustling through trees; Panoramas only accessible from mountaintops; Fewer of us are experiencing such events than ever before. But as it turns out, taking a forest bath in a nature-rich title such as Red Dead Redemption 2 might just stimulate our brains in similar ways. According to scientific researchers across the world, virtual nature could provide psychological and physiological benefits comparable to the real thing.

It's become a buzzword, but what is NDD?

Birds are a way to connect with nature, which is associated with better body and brain health, research shows.

The garden forever carries the seasons in the soul. Painters and poets have walked among its flowering, and in autumn drawn forth on it.

Kevin Kemp-Smith is an Assistant Professor of Physiotherapy at the Bond Institute of Health and Sport.Have you ever watched someone rush down the beach and plunge into the chilly water at dawn on a freezing winter’s day and thought to yourself, ‘they need their head read’?

Incarcerated men and women watch nature videos on a loop in a mental health program.

As people spend more time indoors, ecotherapy is emerging as a way to help rebuild our relationships with nature—and improve mental and physical health. James Hamblin visits San Francisco to learn more.

Evidence-based medical care needs evidence-based design.