The level of stress hormones in your body is lowered substantially by just 20 minutes of contact with nature, a recent study discovered. Although people knew for a long time that nature heals, how much time do you need to spend the get such an effect wasn’t quite clear.

20 minutes of nature reduces stress levels

Imagine coming to a doctor complaining of health problems and getting a prescription to spend 30 minutes per day outdoors, eat your vegetables and exercise.

This may happen sooner than you think, with health researchers constantly checking results of such prescriptions in test groups and returning overwhelmingly positive results.

In fact, exercise has been dubbed “the billion-dollar secret to a longer life“. It is the most effective “pill” available to humans who wish to remain healthy and live longer.

The recent study into the effect of non-medical interventions demonstrated that as little as 20 minutes spent wandering in the woods or a place that makes you feel close to nature is enough to substantially lower the levels of stress hormones in a human body.

Doctors should start prescribing this “nature pill” to their overstressed patients! Its effectiveness is measurable, researchers confirm.

“Our study shows that for the greatest payoff, in terms of efficiently lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, you should spend 20 to 30 minutes sitting or walking in a place that provides you with a sense of nature”, the lead author of the study MaryCarol Hunter pointed out. Hunter is an associate professor at the University of Michigan.

The best things in life are free, and spending time in a beautiful natural environment with a naturally gorgeous woman could be even a better proposition than just a walk in a park. After all, it’s also been scientifically proven that happy people live longer.

How much nature is enough?

A walk in a park is a great healthcare option for people who are glued to screens for the most time of the day. But how much nature is enough?

In the experiment, participants were required to take the “nature pill” by way of spending time outdoors at least 3 times a week. People were instructed to leave out social media, phone or Internet for the duration of the time in nature. They also were not supposed to do any aerobic exercise, to ensure clarity of the results, and do it only during the day light.

The researchers allowed people to self-regulate the time they were spending in the natural environments. The experiment lasted 8 weeks.

The results were impressive.

Even 20 minutes outdoors in a place where participants felt connected to nature was enough to see a significant drop in cortisol levels. The greatest drop was in the group where people were doing it for 20-30 minutes per day.

Additional time outdoors provided further de-stressing benefits, but at a much slower rate.

So, if you can do it, go for a 45-minute stroll or even hang outdoors for hours, it won’t hurt. But if finding time is hard, 20-30 minutes of daily dose of vitamin “N” will do you a lot of good.

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