Health

Written by: Assistant Professor Yau Ka Yin (Katherine), School of Nursing, Tung Wah College

 
"Forest bathing" (FB) or "Shinrin-Yoku" is a Japanese wellness practice in which individuals leisurely stroll through natural or forest environments with the intention of mindfully engaging all five senses, including touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste, to deeply immerse themselves in the natural surroundings. This technique is believed to help people relax and feel calm. The Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese governments have recently promoted forest bathing as a non-pharmacological approach for their urban citizens to promote physical and mental health wellbeing.
 
Living in urban cities like Hong Kong often expose individuals to various stressors, and prolonged exposure to stress can cause a consistent elevation of blood pressure, which contributes to hypertension. Stress reduction is an effective strategy for controlling hypertension. Stress is a specific complex response of the body to any stimuli that exceed its capacity. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis plays a pivotal system involved in the body's stress response. The central body component of the stress response is the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the stress hormones from the HPA axis. SNS provides the fight or flight response while the stress hormones, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol provide several direct or indirect physiologic effects that mediate the stress response. When faced with stressful situations, our bodies activate the SNS nervous system and release stress hormones into the bloodstream, causing an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.

The Attention Restoration Theory (ART) proposed by Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan, Wilson's Biophilia Hypothesis, proposed by Edward O. Wilson, as well as the Psycho-evolutionary Stress Reduction Theory (PET) put forth by Roger S. Ulrich, suggest that when we are exposed to natural environments through our senses, it directly triggers the parasympathetic nervous system. This activation helps people to restore attention, improve cognitive function and emotions, reduce mental fatigue and stress. Literature reviews have reported that practicing forest bathing could cause a state of relaxation and decrease stress hormones secretion by increasing parasympathetic nervous activity and reducing sympathetic nervous activity. Practicing forest bathing has shown the potential lowering effects in stress levels, heart rate, and blood pressure among middle-aged individuals with high blood pressure.
 
Our research team, granted by The Health and Medical Research Fund in 2022 (project no. 05200188), has been conducting a health promotion study on promoting cardiac and mental health among hypertensive middle-aged adults in Hong Kong. The study aimed to compare the physiological and psychological relaxation effect of three interventions, including forest bathing (FB), diaphragmatic deep breathing exercise (DDBE) and usual-care control. We temporarily analyzed the data from 219 participants who completed the study between August 2022 and July 2023. The preliminary findings showed that the forest bathing group, which involved four 2-hour FB sessions on 4-consecutive weekends, experienced a significant decrease in systolic blood pressure by 8.4 mmHg (p=0.00) compared to the usual care group. Additionally, the forest bathing group showed significant improvements in various psychological measures, including state and trait anxiety, tension-anxiety, depression, fatigue, anger, confusion, and total mood states, after the four weeks of intervention. It suggests that the potential of nature-based interventions, such as forest bathing, in promoting physical and mental health among hypertensive middle-aged adults.
 
The potential applications of multi-sensory extended reality (XR) immersive forest experiences are based on the health benefits of forest bathing. This technology aims to replicate the forest environment through virtual reality (VR) and enhance these effects using a CAVE™ system and multi-sensory technologies (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, etc.). Multi-sensory XR immersive forest experiences can serve as an indoor health promoting activity, particularly valuable for individuals who are unable to access natural forest environments such as those with physical disabilities or cognitive impairments. The elderly, who may face mobility challenges, can also benefit. For example, individuals with physical disabilities may require wheelchairs or other assistive devices, Individuals with cognitive impairments may face difficulties with navigation and spatial orientation, preventing them from independently finding and accessing forest bathing locations. The elderly population may feel unequipped to travel long distances or walk on uneven terrain, limiting their ability to participate in forest bathing. In these situations, multi-sensory XR immersive forest experiences allow these individuals to experience similar effects of forest bathing indoors, thereby gaining comparable health benefits while overcoming their mobility and environmental constraints. By incorporating multi-sensory XR immersive forest experiences into health promoting programs, relaxation, stress reduction, and overall well-being can be enhanced. It provides individuals with a means to obtain forest bathing-like benefits in their daily lives while offering a sustainable and customizable health solution. Multi-sensory XR immersive forest experiences can also be used for educational and promotional purposes. They provide a virtual natural experience that enables people to better understand and appreciate the value of the natural environment indoor, thereby promoting awareness and action towards environmental conservation. However, further research and empirical evidence are needed to validate the effects and long-term impacts of multi-sensory XR immersive forest experiences. Additionally, we need to consider the availability and the cost of the technology to ensure widespread application and sustainability.
 

Forum on Elderly-Centered Care: Holistic Body, Soul and Spirit with Gerontechnology with Exhibition of selected gerontechnology

Date:  15/3/2024
Time:  2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Venue:HKPC Building SME Foyer  
 

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Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material/event (or by members of the project team) do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Innovation and Technology Commission or the Vetting Committee of the General Support Programme of the Innovation and Technology Fund.