You might want to make that dream of living in the woods a reality ASAP.
According to a new study published in Environmental Health Perspectives,
American women who live in homes surrounded by more vegetation have
significantly lower mortality rates than women who live in areas with
less greenery.
Researchers with the Harvard
T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital used
data from 108,630 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study across the
United States from 2000 to 2008, comparing the women's risk of mortality
with the level of vegetation surrounding their homes (based on
satellite imagery from different seasons and various years).
They found that women who lived in the greenest
surroundings had a 12 percent lower overall mortality rate versus those
living in the least green areas. The associations were strongest when it
came to deaths related to cancer and respiratory diseases: Women living
in areas with the most vegetation had a 34 percent lower rate of
respiratory-related deaths and a 13 percent lower rate of cancer deaths
compared with those who had the least vegetation around their homes.
[post_ads]So
what's the association between greenery and mortality? Of course women
living in green, natural environments aren't experiencing the full
negative health effects of air pollution, noise, and extreme heat, but
researchers also theorize that areas with more vegetation also offer
increased opportunities for physical activity and social interaction,
and therefore lower stress levels. In fact, improved mental health,
measured through lower levels of depression, was estimated to explain
nearly 30 percent of the benefit from living around more trees, the
authors of the study said.
"We were surprised to
observe such strong associations between increased exposure to greenness
and lower mortality rates," said Peter James, research associate in the
Harvard Chan School Department of Epidemiology. "We were even more
surprised to find evidence that a large proportion of the benefit from
high levels of vegetation seems to be connected with improved mental
health." We'll take it!
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