Rx for better health: Outdoor exercise
Community parks – or the more dramatic national parks – offer people beauty as well as recreation, but can they also offer better health?
An enthusiastic number of people across the country think so, and they're creating programs that team their parks' resources with healthcare providers.
The idea isn't as unusual as it sounds. A number of national and international studies have established links suggesting that exposure to nature and outdoor exercise has significant health benefits, such as improved wellness and mental health, reduced stress and lower blood pressure.
One of the programs promoting parks for health is San Francisco-based Park Prescriptions. Led by the Institute at the Golden Gate (IGG), a program of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the National Park Service and the American Recreation Coalition, it was conceived to "create a healthier population by strengthening the connection between the healthcare system and public lands across the country."
The program's goal is have medical professionals prescribe outdoor physical activity to treat or prevent health problems and encourage park stewardship.
In many cases, when first presented with the parks idea, health professionals pause. Such was the case with Charm Lindblad, executive director of New Mexico Health Care Takes on Diabetes.
"I deal with diabetes," she said. "What am I going to be doing at the table with the Smokey the Bear crowd?"
It turned out that the Smokey the Bear crowd had a lot to offer. Lindblad said she saw the benefits of Park Prescriptions, and now her organization manages New Mexico's Prescription Trails program, which identifies parks and trails that meet specific criteria developed by the program. It partners with healthcare providers by giving them with the tools they need to "prescribe" outdoor activity.
"When a doctor gives you a prescription and writes down that pill amount, 40 milligrams of whatever, he knows exactly what he's getting. When that physician or health professional looks at our walking guide and sees grade level 1, 2, 3, they know exactly what they're getting," said Lindblad. "They know and they can tailor that type of prescription to their patient's medical condition."
Programs like Park Prescriptions haven't yet tracked the effectiveness of their prescriptions because they haven't had the funding to do so and the programs are just getting started. Anecdotally, Lindblad said, they are seeing results.
"We have to get them going before we can measure it," said Katherine English, spokesperson for IGG. "I think that we can safely say, however, that this preventative initiative is likely to create long-term healthcare savings by getting people outside exercising and connecting with nature."
Challenges in getting the program to work include getting health professionals on board and sometimes providing training because they may not be sure how to prescribe physical activity or how to get patients motivated.
"More than any new drug, therapy or health insurance plan, we need a way to inspire and support the general populace in giving up their tobacco, eating properly and being active," said Charlotte Tenney, project coordinator for the Healthier Living/Chronic Disease Self Management Program in San Diego County, Calif. "So ... national parks? Sure. It will work – if we can get people to do it."
