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Visits to parks, community gardens and other urban green spaces may lower city dwellers’ use of drugs for anxiety, insomnia, depression, high blood pressure, and asthma, research has found.

Researchers in Finland found that visiting such areas three to four times a week cuts people’s chances of turning to drugs for mental health problems or high blood pressure by a third, and for asthma by about a quarter.

Moreover, the positive effects of visiting green spaces were stronger among those reporting the lowest annual household income, the researchers found.

The findings correlate with a growing body of evidence that a lack of access to green spaces is linked to a range of health problems. Access tends to be unequal, with poorer communities having fewer opportunities to be in nature.

To investigate the link, researchers from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare drew on the responses of 16,000 randomly selected residents of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa – three cities that make up the largest urban area in Finland – to the Helsinki capital region environmental health survey in 2015-16.

The survey gathered information on how city dwellers aged at least 25 experienced residential green and blue spaces within a 1km (0.62-mile) radius of their homes. Green areas included forests, gardens, parks, castle parks, cemeteries, zoos, natural grasslands, moors and wetlands; and blue areas included sea, lakes, and rivers.

Respondents were asked to report their use of prescribed drugs for anxiety, insomnia and depression, and for high blood pressure and asthma. They were then asked how often they spent time or exercised outdoors in green spaces, during May and September, with options ranging from never to five or more times a week.

The researchers chose prescription drugs as a proxy for ill health. They picked those for anxiety, insomnia and depression, and high blood pressure and asthma in particular because they are used to treat common but potentially serious health issues.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/17/visiting-green-spaces-deters-mental-health-drug-use-researchers-find

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I’m glad that they are building the evidence to support this but I do feel a bit sad that it isn’t just obvious to all that “people happier and more relaxed when they have access to nature”.

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Why were the effects stronger on those with less income?

I grew up in poverty and I can tell you why: it's because we learn young not to spend money for anything because we don't know when we'll get more. I'll bet that had something to do with the results.

The parks in my city are where the drugs are being sold.

Sounds more like it to me that they need to get the he'll out of a city

Sadly that is where a lot of poor folks live, in my city.

Interesting. I tend to enjoy cannabis more when in a park or forest

Everyone who played Sim City once knows this.

The even sadder part is that this has always been reflected in higher vs lower income neighborhoods. Houses near parks sell for far more and therefore the parks become less accessible for lower income folks. On top of that the amount spent on the park is often a reflection of property taxes in the area as if we all don't deserve natural spaces.

There's been studies that an increased density of trees in a neighborhood increases the happiness of its resident and the value of the homes by an average of $10,000.