Seeing Nature, Eating Healthy
Powerful positive effects
Powerful positive effects
A study conducted at the Mayo Clinic confirms the benefits of workstations that support standing, walking, or cycling while working. A team lead by Lopez-Jimenez learned “that active workstations incorporating a walking pad, bike, stepper and/or standing desk are successful strategies for reducing sedentary time and improving mental cognition at work without reducing job performance. . . . Researchers analyzed participants' neurocognitive function based on 11 assessments that evaluated reasoning, short-term memory and concentration. . . .
Wu and colleagues investigated links between being continuously exposed to residential bright artificial outdoor light at night (LAN) and air pollution (PM2.5; PM10 , nitrogen oxide) and the risk of cerebrovascular disease (CeVD). They found that “Levels of exposure to outdoor LAN and air pollution were positively associated with the risk of CeVD.
Rodriguez-Labajos investigated the design of adult mental health inpatient facilities and their effects on patient outcomes via a literature review. They report that “several factors emerged as vital for the therapeutic environment in mental health inpatient facilities.
Health-elevating choices
Martin and colleagues found that people sleep better in homes with more surrounding greenspace and bluespace. The researchers report that data collected via surveys in 18 countries from adults indicated that “nature visible from home (streetscape greenery, blue views) and recreational visits to green and blue spaces were each associated with less insufficient sleep [(<6 h vs. 7–10 h per day]. Significant nature-sleep associations were mediated, to varying degrees, by better mental wellbeing, but not self-reported physical activity.
Zhu and teammates link hearing nature sounds to better health. They found that “Listening to natural sounds, both live and recorded, in either a natural or built environment is considered natural sound exposure (NSE). . . . Fifteen studies . . . were selected for [a] meta-analysis. . . . results indicate that NSE has certain positive effects: (a) In terms of emotional changes, NSE significantly reduces anxiety. . . . (b) In terms of physiological reaction, NSE resulted in reduced heart rate (HR) . . . systolic blood pressure . . . diastolic blood pressure . . .
Nguyen and colleagues investigated the effects of sitting and standing at work on worker health; their findings are relevant when furniture is being selected, for example. The researchers report that their “research evaluated the cost-effectiveness of three hypothetical SB interventions: behavioural (BI), environmental (EI) and multi-component intervention (MI). . . . The effectiveness of the modelled interventions in reducing daily sitting time (informed by published meta-analyses) was modelled for the Australian working population aged 20-65 years. . . .
Affecting health, wellbeing, performance
Joye and colleagues’ work confirms how significantly what we see influences what we eat. They “tested if savoring (visual) beauty could satiate consumers, such that they would no longer feel the need to satisfy themselves via actual eating. In two studies, participants had to watch photos of aesthetically appealing (versus unappealing) natural scenes/phenomena, after which we assessed their impatience and desire to eat their favorite food. Results show that experiencing natural beauty decreased food impatience and desire in low BMI individuals.