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Walks Along Beaches and Lakes Builds Mental Health: Research

Walks Along Beaches and Lakes Builds Mental Health: Research

Short and frequent walks along blue spaces that have water such as beaches, lakes, rivers, and fountains can boost mental health, according to a new study published in the journal, Environmental Research.

The study conducted by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health aimed at studying the psychological and cardiovascular responses to exposure to “blue spaces”—an urban design term for visible water such as harbors, rivers, canals, lakes, and fountains. The study was based on data from 59 healthy office workers in Barcelona, Spain.

“We saw a significant improvement in the participants’ well-being and mood immediately after they went for a walk in the blue space, compared with walking in an urban environment or resting,” said Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Director of the Urban Planning, Environment, and Health Initiative at ISGlobal and coordinator of the study, in a statement on July 6.

Nieuwenhuijsen said 55 percent of the world’s population lives in cities and that blue spaces can help create more sustainable and liveable cities. Cristina Vert, a leading researcher of the study, said since urbanization is increasing, the study can help urban planners design cities that nurture people’s health and happiness.

During one week of the study, each participant spent 20 minutes walking in a blue space while during a different week they spent the same time walking in an urban environment. During another week, the participants rested indoors.

Walks Along Beaches and Lakes Builds Mental Health: Research A woman walking on the beach. (Free Photos/Pixabay)

The blue space route was along Barcelona’s seafront and out to the breakwater in front of the Somorrostro beach and the urban route was along city streets. The findings are based on data accessed through a questionnaire that analyzed the well-being and mood of each participant and this was based on everyone’s blood pressure and heart rate measured after each activity.

“Specifically, after taking a short walk on the beach in Barcelona, participants reported improvements in their mood, vitality, and mental health,” said the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.

The research, however, didn’t find any evidence for psychological markers like stress and relaxation as predicted, according to BlueHealth’s statement.

As per the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, the study also didn’t find any cardiovascular health benefits, although they said it could be due to the design of the study.

“We assessed the immediate effects of taking a short walk along a blue space,” said Vert. “Continuous, long-lasting exposure to these spaces might have positive effects on cardiovascular health that we were not able to observe in this study.”

Many studies have already indicated the benefits of green spaces, such as parks and community gardens. Another new research published in Environmental International’s current edition said that living close to natural green spaces helps formula-fed infants.

“Not every infant can be breastfed,” said Anita Kozyrskyj, a pediatrics professor at the University of Alberta and one of the researchers of the study said in a statement.

“This is one of the first pieces of evidence for a nature-related intervention that could possibly help promote healthy gut microbial composition in infants who are not breastfed.”

This research is based on data from 355 four-month-old Canadian babies and their postal codes were cross-referenced for green natural spaces around them such as natural forest, grasslands, wetlands, lakes, rivers, and ravines.

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