Effect of Gardening on Your Mental and Physical Health

Effect of Gardening on Your Mental and Physical Health

When you look at your garden or hold a bouquet of fresh flowers in your hands, how do you feel? Do you feel joyful or stressful? If so, you may agree that green plants have the healing energy.

Science has shown interacting with plants to be beneficial for physical and mental health, whether indoors and outdoors. The best way to interact with plants and shrubs is gardening and nourishing them to grow. So let us check out some of the best benefits of gardening on your health.

Boost air quality

Indoor plants look beautiful in any office, classroom or home and help in cleaning the air as well. Most people living in cities spend their time indoors, where air pollution can be several times greater than outdoors, according to an article released in “Water, Air and Soil Pollution.” Indoor air pollution can lead to sick building syndrome with symptoms such as headache, dizziness, concentrating loss and irritation of the throat.

Plants improve the air quality by absorbing the carbon dioxide and other harmful agents in the indoor areas. They release oxygen for us and clean the air inside homes, offices and other areas.

Reduce stress and anxiety

The easy act of spending time in green spaces outside promotes the brain to release serotonin, a chemical that regulates our moods. According to scientific studies, sunlight exposure has been shown to increase the absorption of vitamin D by the body.

Meanwhile, plant cultivation offers our more nurturing impulses –not to mention a rewarding feeling of enjoyment and accomplishment when they thrive. All this combined demonstrates a powerful force against anxiety and depression!

Gardening helps burn calories

It might seem awkward, but gardening can help you burn calories. The ‘Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ says that a person can burn upto 330 calories by doing light yard work and gardening activities. Yard work can help you burn more calories than in a gym in the same amount of time.

Also, if you work in a garden for three to four hours, you could quickly burn as many calories as you would in the gym for one hour. The ‘National Institute of Health’ recommends 30-45 minutes of gardening for three to five times a week. Gardening can be the perfect solution for those who don’t want to go to a gym.

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Heart health

As gardening and yard work helps you to burn more calories, it can reduce the amount of fat in your body. Gardening can also benefit people with heart problems as shown in a Stockholm study. The study shows that landscaping can reduce the heart and stroke risk up to 30 percent in patients above the age of 60.

Moreover, exposure to the sun in a garden can help produce vitamin D in the body that is good for heart health. However, people should not use sunscreen on their arms or legs to get the direct exposure from the sun. Vitamin D also helps the absorption of calcium in the body that is essential for teeth and bone health.

Strength

As we age, the strength in our body decreases. Gardening offers a good exercise to your hands and arms and increases their strength. People who use lawn mower get a great workout for their entire body that also increases body strength. It means people don’t need to go to the gym and spend a few minutes working in their garden to increase strength in their body.

Hand strength and coordination

Effect of Gardening on Your Mental and Physical Health

A powerful grip is more essential than just climbing the rocks or intimidating underlings at the job. Hand strength, coordination, and flexibility are essential for day-to-day tasks such as opening jars, carrying packages and picking up children.

Gardening is the perfect way to improve your fine motor skills, and muscles as per the study published in HortScience. Spending some time in the garden may even help you compensate for some strain created by repeated activities like typing and phone swiping.

Boosts immunity

People used to think of dirt under the fingernails as sign of poor hygiene, but now the scientists consider it a sign of good health. According to studies published in Science, gardening can enhance your immune system thanks to beneficial bacteria in the soil.

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These bacteria help fight off infections and reduce the risk of getting sick. Working in the garden, according to distinct research by the University of Copenhagen, can also assist you to avoid certain allergies and reduce the seriousness of a response.

Grow your food

Planting fruits and vegetables in your garden can offer you a fresh supply of food. These fresh fruits and vegetables can offer many health benefits that you cannot get from the market foods.

The act of maintaining plants may also help improve your mood. The 2017 meta-analysis also connected gardening with an increase in quality of life and a reduction in mood disturbance. This might change your perspective about plants and gardening.

Source of Community

Effect of Gardening on Your Mental and Physical Health

You don’t need to work alone in your garden. You can join others to work in an allotment garden. According to a study in Journal of Public health, people who work in allotment gardens have better moods, self-esteem, and overall health than those who don’t work in a yard. Moreover, working in allotment gardens offer them a chance to interact with each other. It reduces loneliness for elderly adults and spends good time with others.

Final Words

These are some mental and physical health benefits of gardening. The best advantage of yard work is that you get some time to spend with yourself and your plants. Most people don’t have time for themselves as they have busy work schedules. Gardening helps you spend time with yourself as well as nature.

Landscaping Bulimba suggests learning some gardening before making any changes in your garden. The health benefits of gardening are many. But people need to do it with a good intention to reap them as much as possible.

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