Why GARDENING is the best fitness for elderly women

Gardening is the best form of exercise for elderly women, a new study claims. Just two sessions a week drives weight loss, improves stamina, and reduces depression.

Most pensioners spend 80% of their day sat down. But new research shows just two 50-minute sessions of potting plants and watering flowers dramatically improves endurance, dexterity, and brain function.

After just seven weeks, all of the participants in the study by the American Society for Horticultural Science had lost weight around their middle.  

Over that same period, elderly women who did not garden regularly experienced significant declines in their mental and physical health. 

To investigate benefits of engaging in gardening, the researchers studied 24 elderly women at an old people's home who participated in the 15-session gardening intervention.

An additional 26 elderly women at another senior community center (the control group) did not participate in any gardening during the study. 

Health assessments were done for both groups before and after the gardening intervention, which involved twice-weekly sessions for an average duration of 50 minutes per session.

Intervention participants did gardening tasks such as garden design and planning, making furrows in the plots, making name tags for garden plots, planting transplants, garden maintenance (e.g., fertilizing, weeding, watering, harvesting), and other activities such as flower arrangement and garden parties.

Activities were selected for the study to represent low- to moderate-intensity physical activities that would yield similar health improvements or maintenance.

Following the 15-week program, women in the gardening intervention group exhibited a significant decrease in waist circumference, while the waist circumference of women in the control group showed a tendency to slightly increase. 

Women in the gardening intervention group maintained their lean mass, but women in control group lost lean mass over the period.

Women's aerobic endurance was also affected; the intervention group showed increased scores in an aerobic endurance test; the control group showed no improvement in a step test for aerobic endurance. Women in the intervention group also demonstrated improvements in hand dexterity.

The women in the gardening intervention experienced benefits to cognitive and psychological functions as well. 

Assessments revealed that women in the intervention group showed 'significant improvement' in cognitive function. 

Interestingly, women in the control group exhibited a 'significant increase' in scores for depression, with symptoms progressing from normal before the intervention period to moderate depression symptom at the end of the study. 

'Meanwhile, the depression scores of elderly women in the gardening intervention group did not change during this period,' the authors said.

The researchers said their results demonstrate that the gardening intervention improved the physical and psychological health conditions of the elderly women who participated. 

'Moreover, satisfaction with the gardening intervention as a leisure time physical activity for health conditions of elderly women was very high,' they said.

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Doctors explain how hiking actually changes our brains

While it may seem obvious that a good hike through a forest or up a mountain can cleanse your mind, body, and soul, science is now discovering that hiking can actually change your brain… for the better!

Hiking in nature can stop negative, obsessive thoughts

Aside from the almost instant feeling of calm and contentment that accompanies time outdoors, hiking in nature can reduce rumination. Many of us often find ourselves consumed by negative thoughts, which takes us out of the enjoyment of the moment at best and leads us down a path to depression and anxiety at worst. But a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that spending time in nature decreases these obsessive, negative thoughts by a significant margin.

To conduct this study, researchers compared the reported rumination of participants who hiked through either an urban or a natural environment. They found those who walked for 90 minutes in a natural environment reported lower levels of rumination and they also had reduced neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain related to mental illness. Those who walked through the urban environment, however, did not report decreased rumination.

The researchers noted that increased urbanization closely correlates with increased instances of depression and other mental illness. Taking the time to regularly remove ourselves from urban settings and spend more time in nature can greatly benefit our psychological (and physical) well-being.

Hiking while disconnected from technology boosts creative problem solving

A study conducted by psychologists Ruth Ann Atchley and David L. Strayer found that creative problem solving can be drastically improved by both disconnecting from technology and reconnecting with nature. Participants in this study went backpacking through nature for about 4 days, during which time they were not allowed to use any technology whatsoever. They were asked to perform tasks which required creative thinking and complex problem solving, and researchers found that performance on problem solving tasks improved by 50% for those who took part in this tech-free hiking excursion.

The researchers of this study noted that both technology and urban noise are incredibly disruptive, constantly demanding our attention and preventing us from focusing, all of which can be taxing to our cognitive functions. A nice long hike, sans technology, can reduce mental fatigue, soothe the mind, and boost creative thinking.

Hiking outdoors can improve ADHD in children

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is becoming more and more common among children. Children who have ADHD have a difficult time with impulse control and staying focused, they get distracted easily, and exhibit excessive hyperactivity.

While raising children who have ADHD can be difficult for parents, the usual solution — opting for prescription medication — may be doing more harm than good, particularly when natural solutions can work just as well. A study conducted by Frances E Kup, PhD, and Andrea Faber Taylor, PhD, found that exposing children with ADHD to “green outdoor activities” reduces symptoms significantly. The results of this study suggest nature exposure can benefit anyone who has a difficult time paying attention and/or exhibits impulsive behavior.

Hiking in nature is great exercise and therefore boosts brainpower

We already know that exercising is fantastic for our overall well-being. Hiking is an excellent way to burn between 400 – 700 calories per hour, depending on your size and the hike difficulty, and it is easier on the joints than other activities like running. It has also been proven that people who exercise outside are more likely to keep at it and stick to their programs, making hiking an excellent choice for those wishing to become more active on a regular basis.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that aerobic exercise increases hippocampal volume — the part of the brain associated with spatial and episodic memory — in women over the age of 70. Such exercise not only improves memory loss, but helps prevent it as well. Researchers also found that it can also reduce stress and anxiety, boost self esteem, and release endorphins. Many people take medication to solve each and every one of these issues, but the solution to these ills may be a lot simpler than you think!

How can you begin to start hiking?

Luckily, hiking is one of the easiest and least expensive sports to get involved in, and it can have great benefits for the whole family, including grandma! Start out small and test your abilities. Do what works for you — if that means just walking through trails in a park, that’s fine. Any exercise outdoors is better than none. You can easily find maps of trails around your home online, and there are plenty of smartphone apps to map them out, too. I recommend turning off your signal and your phone while hiking though, so you can reap the most benefits of the hike (though it may be wise to at least carry it with you in case of emergency).

Make sure you have some good sturdy hiking shoes, a hat, and a water bottle, and be sure to layer your clothing so you can take things on or off easily as you warm up and cool down. You may want to consider using trekking poles as well, which can increase your speed and take some of the pressure off your knees. Now, can you just do one thing for me?

Go take a hike!

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Having access to green places 'helps people live longer'

Having access to a garden, living near a park or within reach of the countryside helps people live longer, suggests a new study. 

Conducted by Harvard University, the research explored the link between higher amounts of vegetation and mortality rates. 

Published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, it studied the well-being of 108,630 women and adds further weight to the suggestion urban living takes a greater physical toll.

Specifically, researchers found those who live in the urban jungle had a 12 per cent higher death rate than those with access to green spaces. In addition, they also had higher chances of developing cancer or respiratory illnesses.

Those in the greenest areas had a 34 per cent lower rate of respiratory disease-related mortality and a 13 per cent lower rate of cancer mortality.

The increased opportunity to get out and be active, along with breathing in less air pollution or suffering noise pollution were factors in reducing death rates. 

Green spaces also reduced depression and boosted mental well-being by making it easier for isolated people to meet others, exercise and generally get away from it all.

Research associate Dr Peter James said: 'We were surprised to observe such strong associations between increased exposure to greenness and lower mortality rates.

'We were even more surprised to find evidence that a large proportion of the benefit from high levels of vegetation seems to be connected with improved mental health.'

While small localised studies had suggested exposure to vegetation was linked to lower death rates the study was the first to take a nationwide look at the link between greenness and mortality over a period of several years. 

Dr James added: 'We know that planting vegetation can help the environment by reducing wastewater loads, sequestering carbon, and mitigating the effects of climate change.

'Our new findings suggest a potential co-benefit - improving health - that presents planners, landscape architects, and policy makers with an actionable tool to grow healthier places.'


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