An interesting process happens with trees and forests. Trees emit chemicals called phytoncides. When we breathe it in, it goes into the bloodstream and has remarkable effects on our bodies and health - phytoncide activates our immune system to produce more white blood cells of the natural killer (NK) variety. These can hunt down stress hormones, destroy virus-infected cells, and go after cancer cells in tumors!
Scientists have measured around a 50% increase in anti-cancer proteins after just a few hours hiking and being in forests, and this increase lasts nearly one month. Forest air lowers cortisol, blood pressure, and helps one de-stress by helping activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Fascinating! Again and again, we find Nature provides everything we need for good health, if we just recognize and accept it, and take advantage of the cycles that exist today through evolution. Life evolved that best fits into the natural environment and ecosystems that exist on earth, and forests are a big part of this.
For research, the first thought that I had with this information is to do studies of cancer rates (overall and specific types) dependent on where people live - rural vs suburban vs urban. And break it down to longtime residents near or in forest compared to longtime residents living in desert environments and urban environments, etc. Are there statistically significant differences between cancer rates, blood pressure conditions, stress related issues, and so on? This is a challenging study to do since there are SO MANY possible factors that affect health that need to be considered - we would need to learn how statistics helps do this for complex systems and studies, but it could also help guide health policy and recommendations for different regions of the country.
Just putting this out there! Physical experiments can also be done on any variety of plants, investigating what chemicals are released to their surroundings and if any of them are beneficial to human health.
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