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Forest Therapy from Asia - How Trees Can Warn People
Forest hiking strengthens health. The fresh forest air sets the circulation in motion, and the encounter with nature eases psychological conflicts. But forests also protect directly against diseases.
forest medicine
Japanese scientists from Nippon Medical School in Tokyo found that people living in forest areas are significantly less likely to develop cancer than those without rich trees in their environment. Studies in the US suggest that the more trees grow in people's living conditions, the better overall health.
The human immune system understands the message of the trees - without magic (Photo Dr. Utz Anhalt) The immune system benefits
Studies have shown that a long and regular stay in the forest increases immune cells by 40%.
forest therapy
The Japanese doctor Prof. Li developed a "forest therapy" and tested the direct impact of forests on the immune system. Conclusion: After two days in the forest, the immune cells of the participants had doubled and remained at this high level for a whole month. The physician suspected substances in the forest air as a cause.
What are the substances??
Plants emit so-called terpenes, which are messengers that warn other plants of pests. These terpenes breathe in humans as they move in the forest, and they could be a key to why our immune cells multiply.
People communicate with trees
The biologist Clemens G. Arvay writes: "Our immune system communicates with the forest! We can decrypt terpenes. The forest not only increases the number of important immune cells in our body, it also makes them more active. "
No esoteric fantasy
It is not a supernatural contact with nature spirits, but biochemical processes: our organism understands the information of the terpenes and reacts like the trees that warn the terpenes against pests. He upgrades the immune system.
A big organism
Arvay writes, "We can think of the forest as a single, vast and communicating organism. Trees, bushes and other plant inhabitants inform each other, for example, about pests that are moving in
are. This allows everyone to work together to activate their immune system and collectively protect themselves. "
Forest air in the laboratory
Li and his staff isolated the main terpenes and let them flow into locked hotel rooms. The next morning subjects who had slept with terpenes in the room had significantly higher levels of immunity than those in "normal rooms".
Forest therapy established
This proves that the terpenes in the forest air really strengthen the immune system. As a result, forest therapy has become established in Japan and is now an official method of strengthening health and supplementing medical treatment.
Action against civilization diseases
The research of the forest air on the human organism is at the beginning. But already there is a reasonable suspicion that the stay in the forest has a positive effect on cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure.
International healing method
Researchers in South Korea, the US, Russia, New Zealand and Germany are working on forest therapies. In Germany, two specialist societies, which focus on applied forest medicine, were established with "Mensch & Wald" and the "German Society for Natural Therapy, Forest Medicine and Green Care".
Qualified education
"Forest therapists" work in Germany with proven methods: "Full member of the" German Society for Nature Therapy, Forest Therapy / Forest Medicine and Green Care "(DGN eV) can be, who is a training and further education in methods of natural therapies according to the standards of DGN eV and / or is active in clinical, curative, sociotherapeutic, preventive and personality-forming areas with funds from the new natural therapies for more than three years and has a corresponding academic education. By way of derogation from this rule, equivalence may be recognized in the presence of comparable qualifications. "
successes
Forest therapy is a new natural therapy. So far, success has been shown, especially in depression, stress and psychosomatic illnesses.
Terpene in cancer medicine?
Studies suggest that among the terpenes especially the limonene and pinene promote the defense of tumors. They are found in conifers and other evergreens. This could be a great opportunity for chemotherapy.
No wilderness education
The forest therapy is neither wilderness education nor survivaltraining.
Civilization weakens the immune system
Arvay concludes, "Contact with ecosystems on material and mental
Level leads to a rebalancing of our organ functions and our immune system. We humans are natural beings and this fact must be a medicine of the future. "
Naturopathy: The medicine from the rainforest
The rainforest is the largest pharmacy on earth, and it may hide much more powerful substances to defeat disease than the terpenes of temperate climates.
Shamanism: the original form of medicine
Shamans among so-called primitive peoples believe that plants have spirits that people can connect to. Although chemical messengers have no consciousness, the shamanic image was and is right. The biochemistry of humans and plants communicates really real.
Regular forest walks
The consequence of the communication between the human immune system and the message of the trees is simple: the more we walk in the forest, the stronger our immune system becomes, and the more stable it remains at a high level. "(Utz Anhalt, Utz)