2023-11-03 04:00:00
Rather than a pill, a Saguenay doctor now prescribes 20-minute nature outings to her patients to help them reduce their stress.
“It’s easy, there are no side effects, it’s proven for a long time how beneficial it is, so why would we do without it?”, says emergency doctor Isabelle Bradette, also ambassador of Prescri-Nature, the first Quebec program for prescriptions for exposure to nature.
Various studies have shown that following just 20 minutes in the fresh air, the level of cortisol, the stress hormone, drops.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DRE BRADETTE
In addition to a feeling of calm, exposure to nature also leads to lower blood pressure and heart rate, among other things.
“It doesn’t have to be complicated for it to be beneficial or linked to physical activity,” explains the doctor. So there is no need to drive two hours to get to a provincial park.
No phone
Sit in a park, garden on your land or balcony, expose yourself to natural light or even look at nature photos, she lists.
“Be careful, it must be a distraction-free 20 minutes. No phone!”, warns the Dre Bradette.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DRE BRADETTE
The goal is that with a prescription from a proper doctor, patients take the instruction seriously, no matter how simple it may be.
This is why the doctors who participate in Prescri-Nature submit their advice on green paper. The recommended dose of nature is 20 minutes at a time, two hours per week.
Surprised patients
“The patients are surprised, that’s the right description,” says the general practitioner, also a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sherbrooke, with a laugh.
Quietly, she integrated the idea into her teaching and discussed it with her medical colleagues.
“For most of my colleagues, it confirms their own sense of well-being when they go outside. And that now gives them a scientific vocabulary, to talk regarding it to patients,” she says.
The doctor does not reject the importance of medicines in treating illnesses. However, she believes that “complementary approaches to pharmacology” should not be underestimated.
The Prescri-Nature program has also been deployed in several other Canadian provinces.
The Dre Bradette hopes that the health benefits provided by nature also highlight the importance of protecting it.
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