What is Nature-Based Medicine and What Does It Do?

Abstract

One's personal health and well-being can improve with activity in natural environments or decline without it. Many chronic illnesses to which personal nature deficiency contributes-including anxiety, depression, attention deficit, diabetes, hypertension, myopia, and obesity-have been exacerbated with the pandemic. That those illnesses may be preventable, treatable, and even reversible with an added nature-based approach may seem novel, but it is not. Though the field of nature-based medicine is just emerging in the U.S., it has been taught and practiced in Asia and the EU for decades. As the prescriptive, evidence-based use of natural settings and nature-based interventions, it aims to prevent and treat disease and improve well-being. Nature-based medicine blends particular activity in nature with the science of medicine to attempt to empower self-care safely, effectively, and happily. Its vision is to be readily available to all, regardless of proximity to blue (water-related) or green (land-related) space. The common sense of nature-based medicine belies its scientific evidence base, which is growing but not well-known, so it may seem unfamiliar to prescribe nature to patients. It will take education, training and practice to help patients access nature-based medicine and to help clinicians prescribe it.

Keywords: awe; blue care; ecomedicine; ecotherapy; green care; nature deficiency; nature therapy; nature-based; wilderness medicine.