health benefits of gardening
So what are the health benefits of gardening?
An introduction to the Health Benefits of Gardening.
Gardening has been proven to boost mental and physical well-being and create a sense of belonging and connection. There are so many well recognized health benefits of gardening. From enjoying an outdoor picnic with your family to sharing your green haven with friends online. Gardening offers us a chance to pause, reflect, and celebrate the season, a healthy life and happy living.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, as lockdowns put millions out of work, anxious South Africans picked up their rakes and spades, and tried their hand at gardening. As it turns out, the impulse to garden is actually a great idea. Gardening is one of the healthiest hobbies you can develop.
Lets take a look at 5 amazing health benefits of gardening, for you and your community.
One of the health benefits of gardening is that you fight disease by gardening outdoors.
There are many similarities between you and a plant. Photosynthesis is a process by which plants produce their own food with the help of sunlight.
One of the nutrients your body needs is vitamin D, which is made by your skin when it is exposed to sunlight. Many body functions are dependent on vitamin D. Everything from bone strength to immunity depends on vitamin D. It is more likely that you will develop psoriasis flares, metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, and dementia if your vitamin D levels are low. There is, of course, a balance to be struck between these factors and the risk of skin cancer from overexposure to the sun’s rays. However, the science is clear: Your body benefits greatly from a little sunshine.
You can maintain a healthy weight and build strength by gardening. Grass cutting and raking might qualify as light to moderate exercise, while shoveling, digging, and chopping wood may qualify as vigorous exercise. In either case, gardening uses every major muscle group in the body. If you’ve ever woken up sore after a day of yard work, you won’t be surprised by this fact.
Enhance and protect your memory with gardening.
Exercise has also been known to improve brain function for some time. There is some debate over whether gardening alone is enough to influence cognitive skills like memory. New research suggests that gardening activities can spur the growth of memory-related neurons in the brain.
An inpatient dementia facility in Korea provided 20-minute gardening activities to patients. The research found that both males and females had increased amounts of brain nerve growth factors associated with memory after they raked and planted vegetable gardens.
In Norway and the Netherlands, for example, people with dementia often participate in groundbreaking Greencare programs, where they spend part of their day working on farms and in gardens.
Grow for life – Health tip:
3 Health benefits of gardening:
Gardening creates a sense of responsibility.
Gardening reduces the risk of stroke.
Gardening relieves stress.
Gardening is a mood booster.
Gardening enhances your mood and boosts your self-esteem, according to research conducted in the United States and overseas. Spending time in a garden reduces anxiety and makes individuals feel less miserable.
People suffering from depression took part in a 12-week gardening intervention in a multi-year research project published in 2011. Following that, researchers assessed numerous elements of their mental health, including depressive symptoms, and discovered that they had all dramatically improved. And the benefits continued for months after the study was completed.
Researchers in the 2011 study subjected study participants to a stressful activity. Then they instructed half of the group to read quietly while the other half went gardening.
Researchers discovered that the gardening group recovered from stress better than the reading group when they assessed the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their bodies. The gardening group also stated that their emotions had improved, while fewer of the readers had.
Gardening can foster feelings of connection.
There are school gardens, family gardens, and community gardens cropping up all around. The fact that these little local gardens are prospering may be due to human contact as much as it is to the food.
In one research project, children who engaged in school gardens took photographs of their labor and shared their experiences. Students expressed a sense of personal well-being as a result of the skills they learnt and the relationships they built.
Working in a garden with individuals of all ages, talents, and backgrounds is a great opportunity to broaden your knowledge and meet new people.
Gardening can offer you a feeling of ownership and empowerment.
The most obvious advantage of a garden is fresh produce, as evidenced by ripe red vine-tomatoes and wavy-leaved heads of lettuce bursting from the earth after weeks of committed hard labor and attention. However, gardening itself is extremely healthy to the mind, body, and spirit. Gardening may help lift your spirits and confidence, promote self-care, increase your self-esteem, and inspire routes to self-growth and self-determination.
It’s a humbling reward to be able to look at the plants you helped propagate and say, “I helped do that!” Gardening may provide you with a sense of success and pride, reminding you of the positive and vital contributions you make to your family and community. Gardening for freedom is one strategy to achieve self-sufficiency and self-determination. However, gardening to discover who you are and who you want to be might help you on your path to self-determination.
A conclusion to the amazing health Benefits of gardening
We hope you found these 5 amazing health benefits of gardening, and inspires you to make gardening a part of your life. At Plantinfo we firmly believe gardening makes life happier healthier and more stress free, so be a green superhero, plant something and lets grow for life.
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