Getting out and exploring green spaces boosts your health

Keeping children confined to their own homes and gardens damages their health throughout their lives, the conference was told.

Their freedom to roam is increasingly limited, said Dr William Bird, strategic health adviser for Natural England.

While grandparents might have been able to play within a three-mile radius from home, and parents for half a mile, some children today are allowed to go just 300 metres, as parents believe they will be criticised if they let their children stray too far.

Yet ‘there seems to be a lot of evidence that the natural environment for children is very important’. A study in the U.S. found children in deprived communities who had no green spaces nearby weighed 6.1 kilos more, on average, than their peers in equally deprived areas.

And that applies to adults too. Even among people ‘who do have access to the natural environment, those who live nearest live longer’, he explained.

Lack of access to the natural world is related to health problems such as stress, for instance, with raised levels of inflammatory markers in the blood that are a known risk to health.

‘Many people in care homes are destined never to see the natural environment again,’ he warned. Being ‘stuck in the TV room makes for a lot of aggression’ among care home residents, he said.

In deprived areas, having access to green space can even blunt the impact of health inequalities. ‘People live longer and their mental health is higher’ if they can get out into the natural world.

Children who can play among fields and trees are ‘more able to cope with the stress of bullying’ or other childhood problems’ Dr Bird claimed.

His fellow speaker, Ruth Tucker, a health facilitator said a project she had run with Natural England had boosted patients’ activity levels, reduced Body Mass Index scores and blood pressure and helped people to eat a healthier diet.

Patients were offered regular sessions with Ms Tucker at the Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health in Devon. They encouraged people to set their own goals and start walking, cycling, swimming or join a gym.

Dr Bird said: ‘If we are going to have a healthy nation, we are going to have to look at children not getting out into the natural environment.’

The problem is so severe, in one town many children who lived just a mile from the beach had never seen the sea.

In response, Natural England is to launch a ‘natural health service’ supporting community initiatives ‘to get people connected to their natural environment’, Dr Bird outlined.

It includes the ‘Walking the way to health’ scheme, which aims to get sedentary people out on short local walks and supports a network of more than 525 groups across England.

Eight green exercise pilots are exploring ways to get people outside, from gardening, cycling and walking in urban green areas, to kite flying and conservation projects in the countryside.

And the Physical Activity Care Pathway and NHS Alliance pilots are identifying ways in which doctors' practices and primary care trusts can use outdoor activities such as walking and Green Exercise as part of an exercise referral scheme.