Vitamin N?
It’s what Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods”, and “The Nature Principle” , refers to as the therapeutic agent we call Nature. It’s a clever idea, as is his diagnosis of “Nature-deficit Disorder” which he claims is widespread in our urbanised societies.
He writes about how exposure to nature is healing and mentions that in Japan “Forest Medicine” and “Forest Bathing” are becoming recognised medical treatments.
He even has his own definition of nature – ” human beings exist in nature anywhere they experience meaningful kinship with other species”
A 2008 study published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the greener the neighborhood, the lower the body mass index of children. “Our new study of over 3,800 inner-city children revealed that living in areas with green space has a long-term positive impact on children’s weight and thus health,” according to senior author Gilbert C. Liu, MD
And….
A study of 260 people in twenty-four sites across Japan found that among people who gazed on forest scenery for twenty minutes, the average concentration of salivary cortisol, a stress hormone, was 13.4 percent lower than that of people in urban settings.6 “Humans . . . lived in nature for 5 million years. We were made to fit a natural environment. . . . When we are exposed to nature, our bodies go back to how they should be,” explained Yoshifumi Miyazaki, who conducted the study that reported the salivary cortisol connection. Miyazaki is director of the Center for Environment Health and Field Sciences at Chiba University and Japan’s leading scholar on “forest medicine,” an accepted health care concept in Japan, where it is sometimes called “forest bathing.” In other research, Li Qing, a senior assistant professor of forest medicine at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, found green exercise—physical movement in a natural setting—can increase the activity of natural killer (NK) cells. This effect can be maintained for as long as thirty days.7 “When NK activity increases, immune strength is enhanced, which boosts resistance against stress,”
I like these ideas – a lot! You can read more here and here.
Our hospital, the NHS Centre for Integrative Care at Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, is built around a beautiful garden, and patients frequently comment about the increase in well-being they feel gazing out into, or wandering around in, the garden.
My recent trip up to Crarae Gardens gave me a similar experience. Don’t you feel better after spending some time in natural environments? Which ones are especially good for you?
Heroes Not Zombies 
‘N’ has always been my drug of choice …
Physically all my activities hinge around being outside, this influences what I focus on with photography .
Nature influences my reading . Perhaps this was influenced by English at school where I love the poems of Ted Hughes . I want to do something next year at the pain and philosophy conference on River by Ted Hughes for example.
Recently , I discovered Kathleen Jamie (who teaches at Stirling University) and have read her book Findings ..its beautiful and I have the latest on order. Her observation of nature is deeply moving.http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/jul/23/featuresreviews.guardianreview5
Have you read any Robert Macflarlane ? Here is a lovely review of his latest book on walking http://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/robert-macfarlane-walks-the-south-downs/
from that I read this ….http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/may/23/richard-long-photography-tate-britain
and hear the words of Andy Goldsworthy for a few minutes …..all add up to vitamin N being a panacea for a great many ‘ailments’…..
Bob,
I think there is a great wisdom in advocating the N-way. I despair of my children’s love of electronic gadgets and screens and have delighted recently with their shift towards getting out and about on bikes and scooters. Fresh rosy glows and a sense of achievement as they grasp a wee bit of independence going up to the park. Wonderful!
Mary
[…] third of these is about connections – our connections with Nature, and with each […]
[…] Secondly, how do we create the conditions to foster resilience? That’s a question that crosses the boundaries from the personal to the social and political. There are environmental, societal and economic aspects to that question. Is a polluted environment going to be conducive of resilience? What about an unsafe community? And what about the increasing inequality in income distribution? At a personal level, what about emotional intelligence? What about food? What about exercise? What about Nature? […]
[…] Richard Louv wrote a book about the importance of Nature for our health – he coined the idea of “vitamin N” (N for Nature) and he postulated that many of us are suffering from a disease – “Nature Deficit Disorder” – for which the cure is, of course, enough doses of Nature! […]
[…] Richard Louv once coined the expressing “Nature Deficit Disorder”, arising from not spending enough time in Nature and proposed a treatment – “Vitamin N” – a dose of Nature. In Japanese research there have been discoveries showing positive chemical changes in the human body in relation to the immune system and a settling of inflammation when practising “forest bathing”, which consists of spending some time in a forest. […]
[…] the Japanese art of forest bathing, to Richard Louv’s claim that we are suffering from “Nature-deficit disorder” which can be treated with a good dose of “Vitamin N” (Nature), to […]
[…] describes many and recommends thinking of time in natural environments as supplying us with “Vitamin N” (or “vitamin Nature”). He even claimed that an insufficient amount of time spent […]