Getting out into the world for as little as five minutes can boost mood, self-esteem and mental health.
Published in Environmental Science and Technology, the study examined the effects on well being of what they call “green” exercise or activity in the presence of nature. While previous studies have supported the health benefits of green exercise, Drs. Jo Barton and Jules Pretty wanted to see what the optimum “dose” of green exercise was.
The study drew on a pool of data involving 1,252 participants of different age, gender and mental health status from 10 previous studies in the United Kingdom that covered green activities like gardening, walking, cycling, boating, fishing and even farming. In their analysis, they looked at the intensity and duration of the activity and subsequent scores on mood and self-esteem. When the analysis was complete, the pair found the duration of green exercise that had the best positive effect was a mere five minutes. That effect was amplified if participants were in the presence of water, like a lake or pond.
Broken down by age, the youngest participants showed the greatest improvement in self-esteem, which subsequently diminished with age. When it came to mood, positive changes were observed in both young and old participants. Those who were already diagnosed as mentally ill experienced the biggest change in self-esteem. Men and women experienced similar increases in self-esteem but men showed a higher boost in their mood.
The authors concluded the report calling for planning authorities to give more thought to green spaces and that green exercise be considered as part of therapy.
An act as simple as blinking can show that an individual’s mind is wandering from the task or conversation at hand, according to research out of the University of Waterloo.
Cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Smilek decided to investigate the link after brain research showed that, when the mind wanders, the parts of the brain that deal with regulating external movement become less active. He hypothesized that in so doing, the body would start to “do things to prevent the brain from receiving external information,” such as blinking and creating a physical barrier between the individual and the outside world.
For the study, Smilek recruited 15 volunteers who all read a passage from a book on a computer. A sensor tracked their eye movements while they read. At random intervals a beep sounded, at which point the volunteers were asked whether or not they were paying attention to the text or if their minds were wandering.
The results showed that participants blinked more when their minds wandered than when they were paying attention to the passage. “What we suggest is that when you start to mind-wander, you start to gate the information even at the sensory endings — you basically close your eyelid so there’s less information coming into the brain,” Smilek said.
The study is published in the journal Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
An analysis of data conducted by the United States’ Army and supplemented by figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has concluded most American youth are too obese to serve in the military and that it poses a threat to national security.
Retired army generals John M. Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton wrote a piece in the Washington Post last week that stated, according to national data available in 2005, 27 per cent of Americans aged 17 to 24 — approximately nine million people — are too overweight to serve in any branch of the military. Furthermore, the pair argued those numbers have not changed in the last five years.
Obesity has become the number one reason why recruits are rejected for military service, the pair states. They referenced data from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which demonstrated that, over the last 15 years, the proportion of potential recruits who have not passed their physical exam because of being overweight has increased 70 per cent.
The generals laid the blame at the feet of schools that provide too many calorically dense junk foods at cafeterias across the country. They argue that making changes to what foods are offered at school could lead to a change of habits among American youth, thereby boosting the supply of available and combat-ready recruits.
They also noted if the trend isn’t reversed soon, the United States will face such a severe shortage of recruits by 2030 that it will affect national security.
