Were You Aware:
Gardening & Outdoor Plants
The benefits of your garden and the plants in them.
- Can reduce risk of dementia by 36%!
- Stress reliever
- Excellent for improving physical fitness and mental health
- Grow your own fresh food!
Being an active gardener is an excellent way to keep fit. In fact, just seeding a lawn or applying fertiliser can burn up to 150 calories an hour, as well as improving your mobility and improving cardiovascular health. A large Stockholm study showed that regular gardening cuts stroke and heart attack risk by up to 30% for those over 60.
After all the physical activity of growing, you can use the fruits (and vegetables) of your labour to nourish your body, knowing that the food is fresh and chemical and additive free. A much healthier and environmentally friendly way to feed yourself, family and friends.
On top of the obvious physical benefits, gardening has some not-so-obvious benefits for mental health. Besides being beautiful and calming to look at and satisfying to grow plants – by taking an active gardening role you’ll be exposed to soil which has natural antidepressant properties and reduces cortisol (the stress hormone).
One long-term study followed nearly 3000 older adults for 16 years, tracking incidence of all kinds of dementia. Researchers found daily gardening to represent the single biggest risk reduction for dementia, reducing by 36%.
