Is Being Near Trees Beneficial to a Human’s Health?

It seems like nowadays, the only things trees are good for are shade, watching the leaves fall, and a source of paper. The other day, I was thinking, “there must be another benefit for trees besides using them for paper and shade.” I decided to Google this topic and in fact, trees could possibly have another benefit to humans. Scientists say that forests and urban areas filled with trees are beneficial to a human’s health.

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There have been multiple studies done on this topic. The first study I am going to talk about was published in February 2013 by  researcher Geoffrey H. Donovan and other scientists. Donovan set out to find whether a major change in the environment has effected mortality rates in people with cardiovascular diseases. The change in the environment that was tested was the loss of 100 million trees due to the Emerald ash borer, a forest pest that has the ability to attack and kill ash trees. To test his hypothesis, Donovan and his team did an experiment where they collected ash tree data from 1990-2007 from counties in 15 states in the U.S where Emerald ash borers were found. They also collected mortality data from people with cardiovascular diseases from the National Center for Health Statistics. The results of the data collected found that mortality rates were increased in people with cardiovascular diseases in counties where the Emerald ash borer was attacking and killing trees. Therefore, the loss of trees in these counties were killing people, and the presence of trees has major health benefits.

Although this study has clear and correct results, there could be criticism of it. The main one being, are there any third variables that could have effected the results? The higher mortality rates could have something to do with the temperature of the county that the trees were lost, or it could have something to do with the amount of exercising of the people in the counties studied. Another criticism of this study is, how do we or the scientists know that the presence of the Emerald ash borer alone did or did not effect the mortality rates? Possibly, the borer may carry a virus that could cause higher mortality rates.

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The second study I am going to talk about was published in April 2007 by a team of scientists in Tokyo, Japan. In this study, the scientists set out to measure the effects of being in a forest on the human immune functions. The scientists specifically focused on the natural killer (NK) cells in the human immune system. These cells reject tumors and virally infected cells in the human body. Twelve adult males were selected to spend a 3 day trip in 3 different forests. On the first day, the twelve males walked in a forest for 2 hours in the afternoon. On the next day, the subjects walked in a forest for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. After the trip, the scientists measured the subjects blood, and found that 11 out of the 12 subjects showed higher activity in NK cells then before the subjects went on the forest trip. This is yet another study that proves being in an environment where trees are prevalent has positive effects on a human’s health.

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These two studies that I mentioned are just two of thousands of different studies done by scientists around the world. In fact, there have been so many studies done that prove being near trees have health benefits to humans, that it is becoming common knowledge of humans all across the globe. In these multiple studies, the overwhelming evidence and results suggest that being near trees does have health benefits to humans, and there have been little studies that disprove it.

 

 

Sources:

Washington Post

http://www.emeraldashborer.info/faq.cfm#q3

http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/ruwit/gdonovan.html

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379712008045

http://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/natural_killer_cell.htm

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3049369/trees-are-good-for-your-health-and-this-tool-shows-exactly-where-cities-should-plant-them

http://www.earthtimes.org/newsimage/rising-temperatures-affect-forests-carbon-storage-role-study_265.jpg

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “Is Being Near Trees Beneficial to a Human’s Health?

  1. Buanafina Maia

    I knew that trees transformed CO2 to O2 but I didn’t know that they had other effects on our bodies. I find it interesting that the first study chose to study the effects of reduction of trees in an area to cardiovascular disease. To me, there is no connection and the study, in my eyes, seems to have thrown these two things together and measured some stuff. They could have possibly measured many things and decided on going with cardiovascular disease due to the Texas Sharpshooter problem, but then again I don’t have all of the facts pertaining to the study. Do you think this could be the case or is that off the table?

  2. Yu Zhang

    I think I can help you further substantiate the point by explaining the mechanism of the process. Trees and other green plants have two kinds of activities: photosynthesis which is during the day when there is sunlight, and respiration which is during both day and night. In the process of photosynthesis, the plant gives out oxygen and take in carbon dioxide while during respiration, it’s the reverse– giving out carbon dioxide and take in oxygen. You may ask: the time of respiration is longer than photosynthesis, which means giving out carbon dioxide and taking in oxygen in general, so why do you say plants benefit us? This is because during photosynthesis, the plant make saccharides which are like energies for it to keep on living while during respiration, it decomposes the saccharides. Thus, in general, the plant must have more photosynthesis than respiration to stay alive, and this means net oxygen giving out and net carbon dioxide taking in.

    Like we talked about in class, we don’t need to know the mechanism all the time and some breakthroughs in science are made before the scientists know the mechanism. However, it will help us understand the problem better and further prove our viewpoints.

  3. Giana Shan Yu Han

    Since I was little, I have always found that going out to sit in my tree or among the trees had a calming influence on me. I often used to climb my tree when I was upset. Apparently, trees have a positive effect on more than my mental health. This makes sense because trees are known for their ability to clean the air of CO2 and converting it to oxygen. When more oxygen enters the bloodstream, the immune system works better, or at least, that is what my doctor told me (and I know most doctors aren’t scientists). I wonder to what extent do trees improve physical health beyond the results of the studies you found. The findings would be good evidence for environmentalists campaigns to save the forests.

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