Miyazaki Yoshifumi, Lee Juyoung, Park Bum-Jin, Tsunetsugu Yuko, Matsunaga Keiko
Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences, Chiba University, Japan.
Nihon Eiseigaku Zasshi. 2011 Sep;66(4):651-6. doi: 10.1265/jjh.66.651.
Five million years has passed since a subset of primates recognizably became human. Because we have already spent more than 99.99% of our evolutionary history in natural environments, it is thought that we are essentially adaptive to nature. However, we live in a society characterized by urbanization and artificiality, despite our physiological functions still being adapted to nature. We conducted experiments involving 420 subjects at 35 different forests throughout Japan. As a result, these subjects sitting in natural surroundings showed decreases in the following physiological indices compared with the urban control group: 12.4% decrease in cortisol level, 7.0% decrease in sympathetic nervous activity, 1.4% decrease in systolic blood pressure, and 5.8% decrease in heart rate. This shows that stressful states can be relieved by forest therapy. It should also be noted that parasympathetic nerve activity increased by 55.0%, indicating a relaxed state. The results of walking experiments were also similar. Li et al. demonstrated that immune functions are enhanced by forest therapy. Middle-aged employees volunteered to participate in these experiments. NK (natural killer cells) activity, as an indicator of immune function, increased by 56% on the second day and returned to normal levels. A significant increase of 23% was maintained for 1 month even after these subjects returned to urban life, clearly illustrating the preventive medical effects of nature therapy. We expect nature therapy to play an increasingly important role in preventive medicine in the future.
自从一部分灵长类动物明显进化为人类以来，已经过去了五百万年。由于我们在自然环境中度过了超过99.99%的进化史，所以人们认为我们本质上适应自然。然而，尽管我们的生理功能仍然适应自然，但我们生活在一个以城市化和人工化特征的社会中。我们在日本各地的35个不同森林中对420名受试者进行了实验。结果，与城市对照组相比，这些置身于自然环境中的受试者的以下生理指标有所下降：皮质醇水平下降12.4%，交感神经活动下降7.0%，收缩压下降1.4%，心率下降5.8%。这表明森林疗法可以缓解压力状态。还应注意的是，副交感神经活动增加了55.0%，表明处于放松状态。步行实验的结果也类似。李等人证明森林疗法可增强免疫功能。中年员工自愿参加了这些实验。作为免疫功能指标的NK（自然杀伤细胞）活性在第二天增加了56%，并恢复到正常水平。即使这些受试者回到城市生活后，仍显著提高23%并维持了1个月，清楚地说明了自然疗法的预防医学效果。我们期望自然疗法在未来的预防医学中发挥越来越重要的作用。
