Only, plants have ability to combine solar energy with air and water to create nutritive and plethora of other products for living beings. Plants not only provide us with food, clothing, shelter and oxygen to live but also play a key role in improving mood and reduce the likelihood of stress-related depression. Some therapists use gardening to help treat depression and other psychiatric conditions. A number of studies have proven that plants keep us healthier and happier, offering both physical as well as mental health benefits that include:
Reduced anxiety and stress
Research studies have shown that, increased access to the land covered with grass, trees, shrubs, or other vegetation reduces psychological distress, depression symptoms, clinical anxiety, and mood disorders. In addition, plants also decrease anxiety, lower heart rates, skin conductance recovery, lower concentrates of cortisol, and positive changes in nerve activity. Stress reduction and mental restoration occur when individuals live near green areas, have a view of plants, or spend time in natural settings. The amount of green space in the neighborhood, and in particular access to a garden, is significant predictors of stress. In fact, the amount of green space in residential areas is positively related to resident overall health also found that individuals have both lower mental distress and higher well-being when living in urban areas with more plants.
Attention Deficit Recovery
Natural landscapes including forests, parks, and mountains reduce attention deficit disorders. Research studies proved that walking in nature on regular basis improves preschooler spatial working memory and cognitive functioning. Children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders concentrated better after a walk in a park than after a downtown neighborhood walk. It has also been observed that children who play in greenspace for 30 minutes had increased sustained mental ability and found greenspace to be restorative.
Decreased Depression
Garden walking and reflective journaling decrease depression scores in older adults. According to studies, with patients who have major depressive disorder, those who walked in nature exhibited significant increases in memory span after the nature walk relative to the urban walk. Wolf and Housley (2014) compared household medical records and natural amenities, those residents with only 10% green space within about half a mile had a 25% greater risk of depression and a 30% greater risk of anxiety disorders versus those with the highest degree of green space near the home. In a Korean study involving patients with moderate to severe depression, participants were assigned to cognitive-behavioral therapy in either a hospital setting or a forest setting (arboretum), while a third group acted as a control and were treated using standard outpatient care in the community. Overall, depressive symptoms were reduced most significantly in the forest group, and the odds of complete remission were 20-30% higher than typically observed from medication alone. Moreover, the forest therapy group had more pronounced reductions in physiological markers of stress, including lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and improvements in heart rate variability, a marker of adequate circulatory system response to stress.
Enhanced Memory Retention
A 2012 experiment in Michigan found that people were better able to perform a test of working memory (which measures one's ability to focus or concentrate) after walking through a green arboretum, compared to those who walked on traffic-heavy urban streets. People who walked through the arboretum had a 20% improvement in working memory. Another study determined that people who went for a 50-minute walk in nature, compared to those who went for a similar length walk in an urban environment, experienced less anxiety and rumination, along with increased working memory performance. Being in nature and greenspace can also help improve memory retention of patients suffering from strokes and dementia. In children, nature exposure can influence cognitive development through improved working memory and a reduction in inattentiveness.
Life Satisfaction
Interacting with nature can increase self-esteem and mood, reduce anger, and improve general psychological well-being with positive effects on emotions or behavior. It was observed that, moving to homes with greener areas positively influences mental health even after three years post-move. Moving to a less-green area significantly worsens mental health within one year post-move, but returns to pre-move mental health status thereafter. Similarly, studies in Perth, Australia found that people in neighborhoods with high-quality public open spaces had better mental health than those with low-quality public open space. Features that made an open space “high quality” included irrigated lawns, walking paths, lighting, water features, playgrounds, and birdlife. Mental health was assessed based on symptoms of psychological distress such as nervousness and feelings of hopelessness. Pro-environmental behavior and subjective well-being are positively associated. Those who are more connected to nature and exhibit environmentally-conscious behaviors tend to experience more positive vitality and life satisfaction compared to those less connected to nature. Results from a meta-analysis in Toronto, Canada suggest that people who live in neighborhoods with a higher density of trees on their streets report significantly less cardio-metabolic conditions. According to a study by Park et al. (2017), when people observed plants, Oxy-Hb (oxyhemoglobin) concentrations in the right prefrontal cortex were significantly lower, indicating a physiological state of relaxation. People also reported more positive emotions (feeling more comfortable and relaxed) when viewing foliage plants.
Mitigation of post-traumatic stress
People with post-traumatic stress treated with Nature Adventure Rehabilitation (NAR) experienced an improvement in emotional and social quality of life, post-traumatic cognitive inventory, and hope and functioning. NAR seems to work through a process of behavioral activation, desensitization, gradual exposure to anxiety evoking situations, and gaining control over symptomatology. When victims of natural disasters, who are at a high risk of post-traumatic stress, participated in horticulture therapy programs, they showed an increase in regional gray matter volume of the left subgenual anterior cingulate cortex and left superior frontal gyrus compared with the stress education group. They showed greater salivary cortisol and alpha amylase levels, which are all significantly reduced in individuals experiencing post-traumatic stress. People identified themselves with plant growth and gaining a chance to be happy once more.
Increased Creativity
Some studies also found a link between landscape plants and creativity and considered how this may reflect the potential for cultural diversity and thus sustainable community development. Taking short walks in attractive green environments can boost creativity and vitality.
Enhanced Productivity and Attention
Biophilic workplaces with views of nature and daylight can lead to higher productivity and attention with employees. Workers in offices with poor light quality and views used more sick leave hours and this effect contributes as much as 6.5% to sick leave use. Moisture released into the air by plants helps with a dry atmosphere, reducing headaches and improving concentration. Visible greenery, both indoors and out, reduces stress and increases the ability to concentrate. In one such concentration test, employees who had a view of plants completed the test 19% faster than employees in a room without a view of plants. Offices in the Netherlands and Great Britain experienced a 15% increase in worker productivity when plants were included in office space. The Heschong-Mahone Group studied productivity at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District Call Center where employees were either seated with views of vegetation through large windows or were excluded from the vegetation view. Employees who had a vegetation view made 6-7% more calls per hour than those with no view. The initial investment of installing the windows was recovered in 4 months by improved productivity. When asked about plants in the workplace, 97% of employees would like to have more plants because they perceive plants provide a sense of relaxation, make the work environment more similar to space at home, cheer up the image of the office, give a sense of relief, and improve work motivations. Employees without an outdoor view from their desk are five times more likely to put a plant in their office than those with an outdoor view. Office employees with an outdoor green view were happier and had positively associated higher productivity and job satisfaction levels. In elementary-level classrooms, green walls can provide restorative impacts to school children. Results show that children in classrooms where a green wall was placed scored better on tests for selective attention
Reduced effects of dementia
Participants in outside horticultural therapy activities such as gardening or landscaping are more actively engaged, have reduced incidents of aggressive behavior, and improved cognitive capacity.
Improved Self-Esteem
Natural green space has long been used in the promotion of human well-being through green exercise for improvements on mental health and self-esteem. A multi-study analysis assessed the best regime of green exercise that is needed to improve self-esteem and mood. Dose responses for both intensity and duration showed large benefits from short engagements in green exercise, and then diminishing but still positive returns.
SOURCE
Hall, C. and Kunth, M. 2019. An Update of the Literature Supporting the Well-Being Benefits of Plants: A Review of the Emotional and Mental Health Benefits of Plants. Journal of Environmental Horticulture (2019) 37 (1): 30–38. https://doi.org/10.24266/0738-2898-37.1.30