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Living Near Trees Is Good For Your Health, Study Reveals

Tree Human Health

A study from the University of Chicago has revealed that living near trees could provide some health benefits.

Researchers studied the city of Toronto’s 530,000 public trees and the health records of more than 30,000 residents.

The study, which is published on Nature.com, concluded that the people whom were studied that lived in areas of the city that had more trees had a better perception of their overall health and had a decreased risk for cardiovascular health problems such as heart disease and hypertension.

The study also put a monetary value on the benefits, stating that 11 extra trees planted on a street had the same psychological effect on a person as having a $20,000 salary increase.

Marc Berman, a psychologist at the University of Chicago who took part in the study, was quoted by the Washington Post as saying that public trees, not trees in forests had the greatest impact on people.

Controlling for income, age and education, we found a significant independent effect of trees on the street on health, (…) It seemed like the effect was strongest for the public (trees). Not to say the other trees don’t have an impact, but we found stronger effects for the trees on the street.

According to Newsweek, their reasoning was based on two theories. The first theory is that trees improve air quality by removing pollutants from the air. The second reason is that plant life provides a pleasing mental effect which results in feeling better psychically and leads to people taking part in physical activities.

Berman backed the mental effect theory by implying that people might not be able to notice the difference in air quality but they psychologically feel better when they are around trees and also implied that people are starting to take notice of the “psychological benefits of the environment”.

People have sort of neglected the psychological benefits of the environment, (…) And I think that’s sort of gotten reinvigorated now, with these kinds of studies.

So what do you think about trees potentially improving your health?

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