Nature therapy and green exercise as remedies for emerging civilization diseases
Arnulf Hartl, Paracelsus Medical University of Salzburg (AT)
In the last few hundred years, there has been an extraordinary disengagement of humans from the natural environment: For the first time in human history, more of the world's population now lives in urban instead of rural Areas. The gap in natural exposure between our early evolutionary environments and modern life is growing tremendously. This physical disconnection from the environments in which we evolved has a diametric impact on our health and emotional well-being. A growing amount of health science studies show a significant correlation between increased urbanization and poor physiological and psychological health. Outdoor recreation in protected Areas is well on the way to becoming an important element of a healthy living and a remedy against the deficiencies of a modern life separated from nature. The present talk will give an overview on our own data on the potentials of nature-based interventions for the prevention and therapy of osteoporosis, chronic low back pain and cardiorespiratory fitness.