Posted on 12/29/2021 5:26:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
You probably didn’t hear this in medical school, but the next time you write a prescription, maybe you can make it for “nature.” Pediatrician Robert Zarr, MD, MPH, founded Park Rx America and is its medical director.
The nonprofit’s official mission is to decrease the burden of chronic disease, increase health and happiness, and foster environmental stewardship, by virtue of prescribing nature during the routine delivery of healthcare by a diverse group of healthcare professionals.
[ Watch: Video: Timeline for Residents and Fellows ]
The website has a plethora of free, downloadable resources for those professionals—pediatricians appear to be the predominant users of ParkRx—and for park and land management.
A favorite resource is their poster, which lists 12 powerful reasons why getting outside and getting active are good for everyone, and great reminders to share with patients:
For example:
Being obese puts a person at greater risk for chronic illness, including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and reproductive problems.
Obesity costs the United States $190 billion each year.
Spending time in nature is associated with better cognitive development in schoolchildren.
The closer we are to green space, the less we suffer from cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, mental health, respiratory, neurological, and digestive diseases.
Spending time in nature helps to decrease high blood pressure.
Easily Find a Park
The ParkRx site also includes a database that prescribers can log into to find nearby parks for their patients. More than 1,200 are registered now, and there’s no charge. When you set up your account, there’s also a section that answers questions about liability incurred by using the platform, and ParkRx says it has taken substantial steps to ensure patient confidentiality.
[ Read: 5 Residency Questions Doctors Wish They'd Asked ]
There are also great suggestions about how to work a ParkRx prescription into a patient visit, along with questions to help “strike up a conversation” with patients about time in nature.
“Doctors, nurses, physician assistants, health educators, therapists, educators, and other providers can all write prescriptions,” the site explains.
More than 100 Programs The Institute at Golden Gate, as part of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in San Francisco, seeks to “advance the health and nature movement.” It started its own ParkRx Census in 2018, and its latest 2020 Census reveals that “a universal ParkRx model has not emerged across ParkRx programs.”
[ Read: The Growing Physician Shortage ]
“Program activities (ranging from self-guided meditation to park ranger–led walks), types of health benefit (either specific health goals or general wellness), and how data is collected (by a healthcare provider, at a park, or both) vary from program to program,” it says. And it estimates that there may be more than 100 ParkRx programs across the country.
Need and Appreciation for Parks Increases As The Trust for Public Land revealed in a white paper, “the data indicates that not everyone has equal access to the cooling benefits of parkland. One hundred million people, or more than one in three Americans, do not have a park within a 10-minute walk of home.”
The trust has committed to more access to the benefits of nature, healthy, and climate-smart communities.
A June 2020 review in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health acknowledged that although nature prescription programs are increasing here and abroad, “research and evaluation” are lacking. But the small number of studies have established a foundation for future research in this burgeoning area.
If pages of scientific evidence haven’t yet been accrued, anecdotal evidence lends strong support for such a positive, commonsensical idea. As the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported, an overweight Washington State resident with asthma received a prescription of regular hikes in the woods from her physician. She has lost 30 pounds since April 2020.
Combined with fishing, hunting, and volunteering to cut brush along snowmobile and ATV trails, etc., this could be a good thing.
Ping
Thanks. Currently snowshoeing here in Idaho. Looking forward to getting back to the South Bay in a week!
"Now, I know some hospitals where you get the patients lying around in bed. Sleeping, resting, recuperating, convalescing. Well, that's not the way we do things here, right! No, you won't be loafing about in bed wasting the doctors' time. You - you horrible little cripple. What's the matter with you?
Patient Fractured tibia, sergeant.
First Doctor 'Fractured tibia, sergeant'? 'Fractured tibia, sergeant'? Ooh. Proper little mummy's boy, aren't we? Well, I'll tell you something, my fine friend, if you fracture a tibia here you keep quiet about it! Look at him! (looks more closely) He's broken both his arms and he don't go shouting about it, do he? No! 'Cos he's a man - he's a woman, you see, so don't come that broken tibia talk with me. Get on at the double. One, two, three, pick that crutch up, pick that crutch right up.
I heard there was a lot of snow.
Yeah, it’s one heck of a start to winter! It keeps coming and coming. Right now the snow is taking a break for the arctic cold! High of 12 today.
Rock Castle Creek gorge Virginia images
Look at the photos, imagine the sound of a quiet babbling brook,
the rustling of the breeze in the trees, the chirping of the birds.
Or better yet - GO THERE - and relax. There is a campground
there - that is frequently partially or completely deserted.
Pitch a tent, roll out the sleeping bag, and relax with the food
and drink you have packed. Spend a day and a half -
sleep overnight - alone if your significant other is a part of
of your stress - and that stress will be gone.
My point is: Find your own personal wilderness Rock Castle Creek -
and relax and destress. It is wonderful, easy and simple.
It worked for me during periods of super duper work related stress.
Or you can choose to ignore my advice - and head off into your
future heart attack. But don't say that nobody suggested an
possible alternative course of action. Okay?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.