This time of year, Japan’s Akasawa
Natural Recreation Forest is a hot spot for people to experience Shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing.”
This practice, which involves walking through a forest and breathing in its moist, earthy air, has been touted as effective preventive medicine in Japan since 1982, and new research suggests why?
Forest
bathing not only reduces stress and blood pressure but also increases the activity of the immune system’s powerful cancer-fighting natural killer (NK) cells.
Researchers attribute many of the benefits to woodland aromatherapy—that is, breathing in phytoncides (essential oils) produced by plants and trees to fight off insects and rot. —Stephanie Eckelkamp
J
