<\/p>\n
\n Story at a glance:
\n • Forest bathing has psychological and
\nphysiological effects;
\n • Trees emit compounds that boost the
\nimmune system and provide relaxation;
\n • 60% of medicines contain tree
\ncompounds;
\n • Soil contains bacteria that work
\nsimilarly to antidepressants;
\n • Native forests are disappearing due
\nto deforestation and tree farming;
\n • Native forests are crucial to land,
\nair, oceans and marine life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Most of us have experienced the beneficial
\nresults of immersing ourselves in nature and being enveloped by trees. We experience
\nan immediate relaxation, an ability to forget our problems and often a profound awe
\nat nature’s secrets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The documentary Call Of The Forest –
\nThe Forgotten Wisdom of Trees adds to the scientifically supported
\npsychological and physiological effects associated with spending time in the woods.
\nIt shows how trees and forests intricately affect the land, sea and air around them
\nand are essential to flora and fauna.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Experts included in the documentary postulate
\nthat trees were the very beginning of life on earth, which was nothing but a
\n“rock” until the appearance of trees and the organic matter called
\nhumus.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But Call Of The Forest also shows the
\ndevastating effects of deforestation, removal of native trees, “tree
\nfarming” (in which trees are made into monoculture crops) and the lumber
\nindustry. Luckily, some people like Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a classical botanist,
\nmedical biochemist and author who has studied rare tree species for more than 40
\nyears, are committed to stopping these dangerous trends and instilling in the public
\na greater awareness and respect for forests.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trees have formidable and healing <\/p>\n “We have missed the essentials of what <\/p>\n Tree bathers avail themselves of medicinal <\/p>\n The bottom line, says Beresford-Kroeger as she <\/p>\n At home on the farm<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beresford-Kroeger, who is originally from <\/p>\n Showcasing the globe-like fruit of the walnut <\/p>\n As the author of books like To Speak for the <\/p>\n Native forests are irreplaceable but Professor Akira Miyawaki, who lives in Tokyo, has <\/p>\n In the past, Japan cut down mass expanses of <\/p>\n It is “fulvic acid which attracts and <\/p>\n Native forests affect the land, oceans <\/p>\n In addition to their land and marine benefits, <\/p>\n “A redwood is the largest carbon- <\/p>\n To convey their immensity, Beresford-Kroeger says <\/p>\n Nature produces a natural <\/p>\n The soil of the forest also has healing powers, <\/p>\n Chalquist is not the only scientist noting this <\/p>\n “We have found that peripheral immune The effects of immune activation were <\/p>\n More soil benefits <\/p>\n In 2017, it was reported in the same journal that <\/p>\n “In this preliminary research, we show <\/p>\n Research in Annals of Oncology even <\/p>\n “In this non-placebo controlled trial, <\/p>\n Exposure to trees may have other health The widely observed calming effects of trees may <\/p>\n “We show in healthy participants that a <\/p>\n In other studies, the sgPFC has been <\/p>\n Recovery from gallbladder surgery was even <\/p>\n “Records on recovery after <\/p>\n Twenty-three surgical patients assigned to <\/p>\n A prescription for parks?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n With all the benefits of trees and natural <\/p>\n Zarr is part of a small but growing group of <\/p>\n The Washington program was one of the first in <\/p>\n yogaesoteric<\/strong><\/p>\n March 16, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Story at a glance: • Forest bathing has psychological and physiological effects; • Trees emit compounds that boost the immune system and provide relaxation; • 60% of medicines contain tree compounds; • Soil contains bacteria that work similarly to antidepressants; • Native forests are disappearing due to deforestation and tree farming; • Native forests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parapsychology-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\npowers<\/strong><\/p>\n
\na tree is all about,” says Beresford-Kroeger at the beginning of the
\ndocumentary, which brings viewers to Japan, Ireland and the Redwood forests in the
\nUnited States, as well as the Boreal forest of Canada. Beresford-Kroeger says that
\nin Japan, “forest bathing,” also known as Shinrin-yoku, is a
\nrevered and long-standing tradition. It means taking in the forest through our
\nsenses.<\/p>\n
\nproperties, says Beresford-Kroeger, as 60% of all medicines use tree elements.
\nLimonene, produced by trees, is an anticancer compound used in chemotherapy.
\nLinolenic acids are “essential acids for development and functioning of
\nthe brain” and pinenes are an antibiotic compound. Trees also emit
\nalpha-Pinene, beta-Pinene, bornyl acetate and camphor compounds, according to the
\ndocumentary.<\/p>\n
\nforest bathes herself, is that the tree compounds “are giving me a
\nslightly narcotic effect” boosting the immune system and relaxing the
\nbody. All those positive chemicals “are now in my lungs” she
\ntells viewers as birds chirp and leaves rustle during her forest bath.<\/p>\n
\nIreland, keeps a farm in Ontario, Canada, which displays the results of her
\nsteadfast and dedicated devotion to native and rare plants and reforestation. In the
\ndocumentary she shows viewers a black walnut tree, known by the genus Juglaus
\nNigra, which she says she planted 30 years ago as a seed. It is now
\ntowering.<\/p>\n
\ntree (which she points out is actually a nut), Beresford-Kroeger says the nut
\npossesses minerals and other valuable substances “that are scarce in our
\nfood these days.” The compounds protect the myelin sheaths in human cells
\nand people should eat them three or four times a day, she advises. “These
\nnuts are better than any beef on the market,” she remarks.<\/p>\n
\nTrees: My Life’s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the
\nForest, and The Global Forest: Forty Ways Trees Can Save Us,
\nBeresford-Kroeger sees the development of native species as a crucial tool against
\nenvironmental degradation challenges. Native forests are “our cheapest and
\nbest defense against climate change,” she asserts.<\/p>\n
\ndisappearing<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nspent 50 years planting and restoring native species forest systems. Building small
\ncity forests is important to offset the effects of the built environment with its
\nexpanses of concrete and pavement, he says. But less than 1% of native forests now
\nremain in Japan so the battle is far from won.<\/p>\n
\ntrees to make farmland, only to find devastation produced a barren desert where
\nnothing could or would grow. According to the documentary, the decimation of trees,
\nwhich has occurred in many developed countries, disregards the intricate mineral
\ninterplay that exists between natural forests and the rest of the environment since
\niron is the foundation of the food chain.<\/p>\n
\nlocks in the iron molecules,” explains professor Katsuhiko Matsunaga, a
\nmarine chemist featured in Call Of The Forest. And where does fulvic acid
\ncome from? Decaying leaves, he says. Moreover, marine life needs and depends on
\nminerals emitted by natural forests as well as nitrogen. Without forests there are
\nliterally no fish, he warns.<\/p>\n
\nand air<\/strong><\/p>\n
\ntrees also function as “condenser units,” says Beresford-
\nKroeger – collecting and preserving potable water. For example, redwood trees,
\nthe tallest conifers on the planet, participate in a crucial environmental cycle
\nwith the Pacific Ocean: They trap mist from the ocean, pull moisture up from the
\naquifer (rock which holds groundwater) and then replenish the aquifer with
\ncondensation from ocean mist.<\/p>\n
\nbearing living organism on earth,” says Professor Emeritus Bill Libby, a
\ngeneticist at UC Berkeley who was featured in the documentary. “They are
\ngrowing faster than they ever have in their life,” yet the ones we see
\ntoday are actually smaller and less robust than the redwoods our ancestors cut
\ndown.<\/p>\n
\nit would take an entire town of 13,000 people to balance the weight of a redwood
\ntree if it were put on a scale.<\/p>\n
\nantidepressant<\/strong><\/p>\n
\naccording to a report in The Atlantic: “‘If you hold moist
\nsoil for 20 minutes,’ says Craig Chalquist, chair of the East-West Psychology
\nDepartment at the California Institute of Integral Studies, ‘the soil bacteria
\nbegin elevating your mood. You have all the antidepressant you need in the
\nground’.”<\/p>\n
\nadditional benefit of forests and trees. A 2007 article in the journal
\nNeuroscience found soil bacteria called Mycobacterium vaccae can
\nincrease serotonin, so soil works in a similar fashion to an antidepressant:<\/p>\n
\nactivation with antigens derived from the nonpathogenic, saprophytic bacterium,
\nMycobacterium vaccae, activated a specific subset of serotonergic neurons in the
\ninterfascicular part of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRI) of mice, as measured by
\nquantification of c-Fos expression following intratracheal (12 h) or s.c. (6 h)
\nadministration of heat-killed, ultrasonically disrupted M. vaccae, or heat-killed,
\nintact M. vaccae, respectively …<\/p>\n
\nassociated with increases in serotonin metabolism within the ventromedial prefrontal
\ncortex, consistent with an effect of immune activation on mesolimbocortical
\nserotonergic systems.”<\/p>\n
\nhypothesized<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nwhen mice ingested Mycobacterium vaccae it also reduced anxiety:<\/p>\n
\nthat mice fed live M. vaccae prior to and during a maze learning task demonstrated a
\nreduction in anxiety- related behaviors and maze completion time, when tested at
\nthree maze difficulty levels over 12 trials for four weeks. Treated mice given M.
\nvaccae in their reward completed the maze twice as fast as controls, and with
\nreduced anxiety-related behaviors.In a consecutive set of 12 maze trials without M.
\nvaccae exposure, treated mice continued to run the maze faster for the first three
\ntrials, and with fewer errors overall, suggesting a treatment persistence of about
\none week.”<\/p>\n
\nsuggests the soil component may be useful in treating cancer:<\/p>\n
\nSRL172 when added to standard cancer chemotherapy significantly improved patient
\nquality of life without affecting overall survival times.”<\/p>\n
\nbenefits<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nalso have a biological component, according to research published in 2015 in the
\nProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
\nAmerica:<\/p>\n
\nbrief nature experience, a 90-min walk in a natural setting, decreases both self-
\nreported rumination and neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex (sgPFC),
\nwhereas a 90-min walk in an urban setting has no such effects on self-reported
\nrumination or neural activity.<\/p>\n
\nassociated with a self-focused behavioral withdrawal linked to rumination in both
\ndepressed and healthy individuals. This study reveals a pathway by which nature
\nexperience may improve mental well-being and suggests that accessible natural areas
\nwithin urban contexts may be a critical resource for mental health in our rapidly
\nurbanizing world.”<\/p>\n
\nhastened when patients viewed trees, according to research in the journal
\nScience:<\/p>\n
\ncholecystectomy of patients in a suburban Pennsylvania hospital between 1972 and
\n1981 were examined to determine whether assignment to a room with a window view of a
\nnatural setting might have restorative influences.<\/p>\n
\nrooms with windows looking out on a natural scene had shorter postoperative hospital
\nstays, received fewer negative evaluative comments in nurses’ notes, and took
\nfewer potent analgesics than 23 matched patients in similar rooms with windows
\nfacing a brick building wall.”<\/p>\n
\nforests will doctors soon be prescribing parks to their patients? It is already
\nhappening, according to a report in The Atlantic. Dr. Robert Zarr, a
\npediatrician in Washington, D.C., actually writes prescriptions for parks: He pulls
\nout a prescription pad and scribbles instructions – which park his obese or
\ndiabetic or anxious or depressed patient should visit, on which days, and for how
\nlong – just as though he were prescribing medication…<\/p>\n
\nhealth-care professionals who are essentially medicalizing nature. He relies on a
\ncompendium of 382 local parks – the product of meticulous mapping and rating
\nof green spaces, based on accessibility, safety, and amenities – that he
\nhelped create for DC Park Rx, a community-health initiative. <\/p>\n
\nthe United States; there are now at least 150 others. Park prescriptions are a low-
\nrisk, low-cost intervention that, in Zarr’s experience, people are quick to
\naccept. And sure, people are more likely to move around in a park than they are when
\nwatching TV, but there may be more to it than that. Researchers in the United
\nKingdom found that when people did physical activities in natural settings instead
\nof “synthetic environments,” they experienced less anger,
\nfatigue, and sadness. A 2015 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of
\nSciences reported that walking in a park reduced blood flow to a part of the
\nbrain that the researchers claimed was typically associated with brooding.<\/p>\n