Contact with nature reduces inflammation.
The inflammation of the organism is related to a long list of diseases. A diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods, exercising regularly, reducing stress, not smoking, and sleeping well are well-known healthy lifestyle habits that are key to reducing inflammation. But there are other factors that are not so, at least in the West, and that are part of the anti-inflammatory puzzle that we should all put into practice to live longer in health. We refer to the Vitamin N.
María Real Capellpharmacist, nutritionist and psychoneuroendocrine, explains in her book “When the body rebels. Learn how to live fully with an autoimmune disease” (Grijalbo) that the “Vitamin N is the vitamin that health professionals have invented to describe the benefits of being in contact with nature”. The author explains that in Japan there is a name for this vitamin: shinrin-yokuwhich means forest bath.
the effect of pollution on health
give yourself a forest bath it would cause the body just the opposite of what pollution does. Let’s not forget that the WHO already considers pollution a cardiovascular risk factor as serious as obesity, tobacco, a sedentary lifestyle or a poor diet.
María Real explains in her book that the pollution negatively affects the endothelium (the inner lining of blood vessels), which increases the risk of arterial hypertension and blood clot formation.
In addition, it also generates oxidative stress since it increases the production of free oxygen radicals that are harmful to the entire body.
Finally, María Real points out, contamination increases the response inflammatorysomething that should be avoided at all costs in autoimmune diseases.
The benefits of vitamin N
The best antidote to offset the effects of pollution They are the getaways to natural environments to “breathe” vitamin N, that clean air of toxic substances that reduces inflammation.
María Real explains the effects of a walk in the woods on health:
- decrease the cortisol levels and therefore stress.
- It comes down to blood pressure.
- Improve the cheer up and decreases anxiety and the risk of depression.
- Increases cell concentration natural killers, “those who kill the bad ones”affirms the psychoneuroendocrine.
Scientific endorsement of this “vitamin”
There are many studies that support the health benefits of walking through green areas or on the beach.
And study of the Hospital del Mar Institute for Medical Research (IMIM) and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) suggests that Living less than 300 meters from green areas reduces the risk of suffering an ischemic stroke by 16%.
Other study also from ISGlobal showed that children living in greener and less polluted areas they have a 50% less risk of developing ADHD.
He mar it also has a very beneficial effect on the body: walking in environments where there is water, such as the beach, a lake or a river, has a positive impact on mental health according to another investigation.
