Shinrin-yoku, immersing oneself in nature using one’s senses, has been receiving increased attention internationally. While most of the existing studies have focused on physical health, this ...systematic review and meta-analysis examined the mental health impacts of shinrin-yoku, using the PRISMA guidelines (PROSPERO registry: BLINDED). Of 497 articles retrieved on databases including PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Science Direct and Google Scholar, twenty met the inclusion criteria. All studies were conducted in Asia and Europe, and used a variety of different bathing approaches (e.g. breathing, walking, yoga). While noting a need for more rigorous research and extensive follow-up assessments, the findings indicate that shinrin-yoku can be effective in reducing mental health symptoms in the short term, particularly anxiety. More careful examination of shinrin-yoku practices is needed; longer follow-up with participants from a range of countries along with greater examination of potential mechanisms is needed for shinrin-yoku to be accepted into mainstream interventions.
Forest bathing is a traditional practice characterized by visiting a forest and breathing its air. This review aims to investigate the effects of forest bathing on levels of salivary or serum ...cortisol as a stress biomarker in order to understand whether forest bathing can reduce stress. Medline/PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar were systematically searched for relevant articles. The quality of included trials was assessed following the criteria of the NIH dedicated tools. Afterwards, a qualitative and quantitative synthesis of retrieved evidence was performed. A total of 971 articles were screened; 22 of them were included in the systematic review and 8 in the meta-analysis. In all but two included studies, cortisol levels were significantly lower after intervention in forest groups if compared with control/comparison groups, or a significant pre-post reduction of cortisol levels was reported in the forest groups. The main results of the meta-analysis showed that salivary cortisol levels were significantly lower in the forest groups compared with the urban groups both before (MD = − 0.08 μg/dl 95% CI − 0.11 to − 0.05 μg/dl;
p
< 0.01;
I
2
= 46%) and after intervention (MD = − 0.05 μg/dl 95% CI − 0.06 to − 0.04 μg/dl;
p
< 0.01;
I
2
= 88%). Overall, forest bathing can significantly influence cortisol levels on a short term in such a way as to reduce stress, and anticipated placebo effects can play an important role in it. Further research is advised because of the limited available data.
Current literature supports the comprehensive health benefits of exposure to nature and green environments on human systems. The aim of this state-of-the-art review is to elucidate empirical research ...conducted on the physiological and psychological effects of Shinrin-Yoku (or Forest Bathing) in transcontinental Japan and China. Furthermore, we aim to encourage healthcare professionals to conduct longitudinal research in Western cultures regarding the clinically therapeutic effects of Shinrin-Yoku and, for healthcare providers/students to consider practicing Shinrin-Yoku to decrease undue stress and potential burnout.
A thorough review was conducted to identify research published with an initial open date range and then narrowing the collection to include papers published from 2007 to 2017. Electronic databases (PubMed, PubMed Central, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Scopus) and snowball references were used to cull papers that evaluated the use of Shinrin-Yoku for various populations in diverse settings.
From the 127 papers initially culled using the Boolean phrases: "Shinrin-yoku" AND/OR "forest bathing" AND/OR "nature therapy", 64 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this summary review and then divided into "physiological," "psychological," "sensory metrics" and "frameworks" sub-groups.
Human health benefits associated with the immersion in nature continue to be currently researched. Longitudinal research, conducted worldwide, is needed to produce new evidence of the relationships associated with Shinrin-Yoku and clinical therapeutic effects. Nature therapy as a health-promotion method and potential universal health model is implicated for the reduction of reported modern-day "stress-state" and "technostress.".
Forest bathing as a mindful tourism practice Farkic, Jelena; Isailovic, Gorana; Taylor, Steve
Annals of tourism research empirical insights,
11/2021, Volume:
2, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
In the troubled times in which we currently live, the tourism industry has called into question a need for more responsible social practices and more mindful utilisation of natural environments. The ...Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, has not only become a new wellness trend, but also a great potential for deeply immersive tourist experiences. While there is a wealth of studies examining the positive effects of forest bathing focussing principally on its medical benefits, this qualitative study extends these debates through documenting lived experiences of forest bathers. In so doing forest bathing suggests its latent potential to offer a profoundly mindful experience, and aims to situate this practice more prominently within the tourism discourse.
•Conceptualises forest bathing as a mindful tourism practice.•Utilises ethnographic approach to interrogate the tourism experience of the forest bathing.•Extends the extant literature on forest-based wellbeing tourism.
The aim of this systematic review of systematic reviews was to identify, summarise, and synthesise the available evidence of systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) on the preventative and ...therapeutic psychological and physical effects of forest-based interventions.
Both bibliographic databases and grey literature sources were searched for SRs and MAs published until May 2020. Eight databases were searched for relevant articles: MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PsycInfo, CiNii, EBSCO, and Scopus. Grey literature was sourced from Google Scholar and other web-based search tools. SRs and MAs that included randomised controlled (RCT), non-randomised controlled (NRCT), and non-controlled trials (NCT) on health-related effects of forest-based interventions were eligible if they had searched at least two databases. The methodological quality of eligible reviews was assessed by AMSTAR-2.
We evaluated 11 systematic reviews covering 131 different primary intervention studies, mostly from Asian countries, three of which included supplementary meta-analyses. The quality assessment resulted in moderate confidence in the results of two reviews, low confidence in six, and critically low confidence in three. The results of the eight moderate and low-rated reviews indicated that forest-based interventions are beneficial to the cardiovascular system, immune system, and mental health (in the areas of stress, depression, anxiety, and negative emotions). Evidence for the effectiveness of forest-based interventions on metabolic parameters in adults, the severity of atopic dermatitis in children and adolescents, and social skills and sociality in healthy primary school children was weak.
Evidence suggests beneficial therapeutic effects of forest-based interventions on hypertension, stress, and mental-health disorders, such as depression and anxiety. Changes in immunological and inflammatory parameters after forest therapy should be verified in bio-geographically native forests. In the future, more attention should be paid to careful planning, implementation, and reporting of primary studies and to systematic reviews on the effects of forest-based interventions.
The aim of this review was to outline the most relevant benefits of forest bathing for well-being promotion. This study was designed as an umbrella literature review. Medline (via PubMed), EMBASE, ...Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL and the DOAJ were systematically searched for relevant reviews up to February 2021. After article selection, 16 systematic reviews met inclusion criteria. Overall, the best available evidence supports the use of forest bathing as a complementary practice for the promotion of psychophysical well-being, whereas evidence for its use as a therapeutic practice for the improvement of organic diseases needs to grow before clear and specific clinical indications can be formulated. The positive impact of forest bathing on individual quality of life, along with its favorable cost-effectiveness profile, may justify its possible adoption for public health strategies of well-being promotion. Further investigations on the topic are advised.
In Japan, a forest bathing trip, called "Shinrinyoku" in Japanese, is a short, leisurely visit to a forest; it is regarded as being similar to natural aromatherapy. This review focuses on the effects ...of forest bathing trips on human immune function. Beginning in 2005, adult Japanese individuals, both male and female, participated in a series of studies aimed at investigating the effect of forest bathing trips on human immune function. The subjects experienced a 3-day/2-night trip to forest areas, and blood and urine were sampled on days 2 (the first sampling during each trip) and 3 (the second sampling during each trip), and on days 7 and 30 after the trips. Natural killer (NK) activity, the numbers of NK, granulysin-, perforin-, and granzymes A/B-expressing lymphocytes in the blood, and the concentration of urinary adrenaline were measured. The same measurements were made before the trips on a normal working day as a control. The mean values of NK activity and the numbers of NK, granulysin-, perforin-, and granzymes A/B-expressing cells on forest bathing days were significantly higher than those on the control days, whereas the mean values of the concentration of urinary adrenaline on forest bathing days were significantly lower than that on the control days in both male and female subjects. The increased NK activity lasted for more than 30 days after the trip, suggesting that a forest bathing trip once a month would enable individuals to maintain a higher level of NK activity. In contrast, a visit to the city as a tourist did not increase NK activity, the numbers of NK cells, or the level of intracellular granulysin, perforin, and granzymes A/B. These findings indicate that forest bathing trips resulted in an increase in NK activity, which was mediated by increases in the number of NK cells and the levels of intracellular granulysin, perforin, and granzymes A/B.
Urban life has generally resulted in lifestyles characterised by high stress and anxiety, all which has increased the pervasiveness of mental disorders. University students, a group highly vulnerable ...to these problems, are likely to develop mental pathologies associated with anxiety and substance abuse. Forest bathing is one nature-oriented intervention aimed at improving physical as well as psychological well-being by reducing anxious symptomatology and stress. Here we evaluated the healing impact of forest bathing on the stress and anxiety of undergraduate students at one local university. We also included others key aspects of psychological mental health that have received scarce attention in forest bathing research like mindfulness, wellbeing and self-regulated learning. Twenty-one students belonging to the Universidad Austral de Chile were randomly assigned to the city or forest groups and took part in an intervention consisting in a low-impact 30 minute walk and a 15-minute contemplation afterwards. Five instruments to evaluate overall mental health (and blood pressure) were applied before and after the intervention. Our results showed that a rather short session of forest bathing is enough to reduce anxiety in undergraduate university students. The other measures of psychological or physiological health showed no statistical differences before and after the intervention (between city and forest) or time effects (within the forest or city treatment). A potential reason for this might be related to the short duration of the intervention itself. Our results are encouraging regarding mental health therapy, as this type of intervention could easily be implemented on campus.
It is well accepted that particulate matter (PM) can affect human health detrimentally. Chronic and prolonged exposures to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ranging between 2.5 and 10 ...microns (PM
10
), 0.1 and 2.5 microns (PM
2.5
) and less than 0.1 microns in size (UFPM), have been associated with cardiopulmonary diseases. PM is ubiquitously present in urban settings, while primarily absent in forest environments primarily due to the direct interception of airborne pollution particles by trees. Both short- and long-term exposure to trees in forested environments is associated with lower blood pressure and inflammation, as well as enhanced immune function. Additionally, exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) actively released by trees is associated with improved health through enhanced natural killer cell activity, reduced inflammatory responses, and reduced psychological stress. This article presents the results of a literature review on the harmful health effects of air pollution in urban environments, and the potential of forested environments to promote health and disease prevention.
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