What is Natural Health?

Someone said: “Nature does not respect what we do without her.”

These words are full of meaning… and truth. Ignoring the laws of nature can be risky, even dangerous.

Nature in all life processes

I believe that nature is at the centre of all life processes. To access what it has to offer, we must respect its laws and act in accordance with it. But we live in an age of immediacy. We want everything. We want it immediately.

The search for beauty and the desire to regain one’s youth are no exception. Acids, scalpels, greasy creams and surgeries: can so many aggressions really be beneficial for our health, for our skin? In the short term, the results may convince some. But sooner or later, we will have to start again, and again and again. Not to mention that surgeries, burns and the use of irritating creams all carry their share of risk.

Let’s remember that an organ – for example the skin – that is not used will atrophy. How can the skin regenerate itself, preserve its beauty, nourish itself, if we make it lazy, if we do not train it?

Medicinal plants, thermal waters, animal therapy, gardening… Nature has always been used to heal humans throughout the world. Recently, access to nature has even become a service or a good that can be sold! Explanations.

Is natural health something new?

Nature has always treated people all over the world. They use the medicinal plants specific to the environment in which they live, according to the know-how specific to their culture. Contact with nature reduces stress. For example, since ancient times, lavender has been known for its calming and digestive properties. Genepi is appreciated by mountain dwellers to combat fatigue during physical efforts at altitude.

Naturopathy is one of the world’s traditional medicines and can be defined as a set of care methods aimed at strengthening the body’s defences by means considered to be natural and biological. It is one of the traditional medicine practices that also includes phytotherapy, aromatherapy or herbal medicine, for example.

Does this conception of nature work everywhere on the globe?

It has been noted that studies on the positive effects of nature are rarely conducted, but are often conducted in a natural context favourable to well-being. So what about their validity?

The effects of nature are present, without differentiating the type of nature. Whether it is green or not, whether the weather is good or not, whether there are water elements or not, we observe positive effects of nature.

Nature: an effective remedy

Establishing contact with nature is a real benefit for the body and the soul. Numerous studies prove that these outdoor activities reduce the stress of our city lives, improve our physical condition, boost our self-esteem and make us more sociable. Nature is a remedy available to everyone and has no side effects, so let’s not deprive ourselves! This is the premise of ecotherapy, a movement from across the Atlantic that is beginning to be emulated in Europe…

Therapies in their own right

Some therapies are based on contact with nature. There is horticultural therapy, care through gardening. There are therapeutic gardens, integrated into care institutions. These gardens offer access to the outdoors, bring well-being and comfort and are an opportunity for patients to take care of the living.

The garden is an essential geographical space, a symbolic place of good nature, a reduction of the world.

Sylvotherapy, called shinrin-yoku in Japan, has been recognised as a preventive medicine in that country since 1982. We know about forest baths, sensory immersions in contact with trees. Doctor Qing Li, author of Shinrin Yoku, the art and science of forest bathing, explains its benefits following research he carried out over eight years: strengthening of the immune system, reduction of blood pressure, lowering of blood sugar levels, improvement of concentration and memory, etc.

Contact with animals is also beneficial for mental health and can sometimes be integrated into a therapeutic approach.

Bacteria necessary for the body

On a biological level, contact with nature strengthens the immune system through exposure to environmental bacteria, such as when walking in the forest or gardening with your hands in the soil. This is the conclusion of several Japanese studies, in particular the work on forest bathing by Dr Qing Li and the work of Dr Christopher Lowry on the Mycobacterium vaccae bacterium.

Walking in the open air

Walking can also be curative and healing! Walking in the open air combines contact with nature and physical activity. “Walking is the best medicine for man”, Hippocrates said 2000 years ago. Since then, articles have been published on the subject and all agree that walking has a positive impact on health, both physically and mentally.

Ecospychology: taking care of oneself and taking care of the Earth

Ecopsychology is a little-known movement that seeks to understand the relationship between the psyche and Nature. It invites us to question the influence of our relationship with Nature and, more broadly, our relationship with the environment on our psychological functioning. It postulates that “the planet, the human community as well as our inner lives suffer from our loss of link with the living” say M. Romanens and P. Guérin, authors of a resource site on ecopsychology. A long historical process has brought about this separation between humans and Nature, which today leads humans to destroy their own home. The inner ecology proposed by ecopsychology implies recognising the suffering that the technological society generates in us by giving a place to our sensations and emotions, in particular to reconnect with our archaic part.