This is how a green living environment affects your life expectancy

Between buildings, roads and asphalt, it is easy to forget that sometimes the tree on the street corner, the small garden under the house or the shady path can be a matter of life and death. A new Israeli study reveals that a green living environment is not only pleasing to the eye and soul, but may actually save lives. Among cancer survivors and heart patients, exposure to nature reduces the risk of mortality. The data paint a surprising and hopeful picture according to which the road to recovery sometimes simply begins with the surrounding greenery.

A green environment has Many virtues Like reducing stress, improving mood, reducing the risk of getting sick in cancerreducing symptoms Post-trauma and more. On top of that, recent studies show that going out into nature contributes for the health of the elderly public in Israel and its proximity to nature has a positive effect on satisfaction from the place of residence. now, research New finds a positive relationship between a green living environment and reducing the risk of mortality. In other words, the tree outside your house can still extend your life.

Heart disease has many risk factors, some of which are easily modifiable and others for which it is more complicated. “We cannot easily change age, genetics, and marital status; smoking and physical activity – yes,” explains Sa’ar Ashri, a doctoral student in the MD track in epidemiology from the Gray Faculty of Medical Sciences at Tel Aviv University, who conducted the study under the guidance of Prof. Yariv Gerber and other partners. According to him, sometimes exposure to green areas requires a change in our living environment, which can be done but not easily. Therefore, the research team examined the effect of a green environment on Mortality risk.

“We investigated the relationship between exposure to green areas in the residential environment and mortality in a special group: the cardio-oncology population. These are those who survived cancer and then underwent coronary catheterization. Cancer survivors are at a much higher risk of coronary heart disease, mortality from coronary disease, and mortality in general,” he explains. The idea behind the research is that precisely this risk group, which is in double danger, will be able to benefit from being in a green environment and improve their health and their chances of survival.

The study followed approximately 1,300 cancer survivors who underwent catheterization at the Rabin Medical Center between 2004 and 2014, in the cardiac unit under the management of Prof. Ran Kornovsky. The research team checked how green the patients’ living environment was, in the months of February to April, with the help of satellite image analysis and the use of the Vegetation Density Index (NDVI). Ashri explains that the index in the heart of Gush Dan, for example in the center of Ramat Gan, hovers around 0.1; North of there, in Sharon cities like Kfar Saba, it reaches 0.12-0.15; And in a rural area, such as a vineyard from the Harel south of Carmel, it stands at 0.24. “One of the innovations in our methodology is the use of satellite images to measure the green areas,” he adds.

The results of the study showed that, in accordance with expectations, a relationship was found between a green living environment and reducing the risk of mortality among the subjects. That is, the more the cancer survivors who underwent catheterization lived in a greener area, the lower their mortality chances. An improvement of one standard deviation unit in the NDVI index, a change similar to the difference between Kfar Saba and Ramat Gan, increased the chances of survival by about 7 percent. Asheri emphasizes that the decrease in the risk of mortality appears in death resulting from cardiopulmonary diseases. “The results highlight the potential of exposure to green areas as a rehabilitation tool in this population.”

Interestingly, when looking at the findings broken down by income, it turns out that a green residential environment “takes care” better of subjects from a lower socioeconomic status. “The strength of the relationship we found was stronger among subjects from the lower third who live in neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic status,” says Ashari. According to him, this finding fits a theory called equigenesis (Equigenesis), according to which the environment can ease the health burden among a population with reduced access to health services. In this way, nature helps to reduce socio-economic gaps.

According to Asheri, exposure to green spaces helps the body through various mechanisms. The first, avoiding exposure to risk factors. “Exposure to green areas is associated with low exposure to pollutants such as nitrogen oxides that are emitted from vehicles,” he says. Similarly, green space reduces exposure to heat. “It does not have concrete and asphalt that absorb heat, store it and slowly release it into the air and heat the environment.” With effects heat loads These include: impairment of cognitive ability, respiratory diseases, irritability, anxiety and exhaustion. In extreme cases, heat stress can cause heat stroke and even death. The combination with heart disease is a risk multiplier. A second mechanism is encouraging physical activity and meeting people. “These mechanisms are of great importance among those recovering from cancer and a heart attack,” says Ashri. This study reminds us that health is affected not only by drugs and tests, but also by the trees, the paths and the green corner next to the house.