By Elizabeth Herman | Posted: October 01, 2019
When you think of a doctor’s typical prescription, images of pharmaceuticals, surgery, and diets may come to mind first. But a new form of prescription is taking hold in the U.S.! Doctors can now instruct patients to spend time in the great outdoors, for the sake of good health.
Health care in the U.S. may be mired in political controversy, but creative approaches to medicine can address two problems at once: “killing two birds with one stone,” so to speak. Also known as Park Rx, the park prescription movement encourages doctors to use outdoor time in nature as a healing application for patients. This supports our national park system and prevents illness, making expensive remedies less necessary and health risks less of a burden on the economy.
Free passes to national parks
From Baltimore to Albuquerque, San Francisco to rural South Dakota and Vermont, locations across the country are offering free passes to parks, which health care providers prescribe and give to their patients. The patients, who need outdoor exercise for a variety of ailments, take advantage of the free pass in order to improve their health, and help sustain the park system at the same time.
The Park Rx America website states, “Spending time in natural environments increases physical activity and stimulates the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system, hence decreasing the risk of developing chronic disease. Park Rx America is a low-cost intervention that utilizes a known, generally trusted, and accessible resource, parks, to influence positive health outcomes. To date, Park Rx America has incorporated nearly 10,000 parks into its prescribing platform in 46 states and Mexico, with nearly 500 registered "prescribers" nationwide.”
Each official prescription, known as a Park Rx, has a serial number on it so that the patients can register online once they have fulfilled the prescription by doing outdoor exercise as instructed.
Once a prescription is completed by a patient, the website notifies the health care provider automatically, and tangible, extrinsic rewards are also available through the website.
Doctors’ perspectives
From the point of view of doctors, challenges to implementing this program include their lack of awareness about where to send patients for physical activity, their limited time with patients, their lack of training about available outdoor resources and how to talk to patients about them, their focus on patients’ other health care needs, and their uncertainty about whether patients can comply with such prescriptions on a regular basis.
Health care providers who identified these challenges in a study also made recommendations on how to meet challenges and make park prescriptions more frequent and effective. They recommended physical activity goal-setting with patients and following up on their progress toward these goals, having staff at the doctors’ offices or parks follow up with patients, and individualizing discussion of outdoor physical activity with each patient, with a focus on each patient’s barriers and how to overcome them.
Track Rx hiking trails for kids
Designed specifically for children, the Track Rx Kids in Parks program has many locations throughout the country where families can hike with children and complete nature-focused activities. Prizes are offered for kids who register and follow the instructions on brochures that they pick up at the doctor’s office. The brochures can also be downloaded from the website.
As the program describes, “Doctors and other health-care providers are beginning to see the side-effects that result from sedentary lifestyles, and understand the benefits children receive from being active outdoors. Kids in Parks is partnering with these doctors and health-care providers to get our program’s materials in the hands of their patients. Our partnering doctors are on the cutting edge of a national movement to prescribe outdoor activity to their patients called Park Rx, or Park Prescriptions.”
The closest Track hiking trail to the Art of Living Retreat Center in western North Carolina is along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Julian Price Park. It covers a 1 mile portion of the Boone Fork Trail, which is a 5.5 mile loop if you walk the whole thing. I have walked this entire trail twice myself, and the Track portion, progressing through meadows and along the edge of a river, has many added educational markers that guide hikers’ attention to natural points of interest.
Dr. Chloe Turner, M.D., a pediatrician, says, “As a doctor I prescribe parks because it’s one of the best things for the health of the children and families that I get to take care of.”
Benefits of nature
Park Prescriptions outlines the following health benefits, showing how being outside in nature does the following:
Improves cognitive development
Decreases anxiety and negative thinking
Lowers depression and stress
Increases physical activity
Stimulates the immune system
Decreases the risk of chronic disease
Lower stress and anxiety are linked with lower rates of dementia, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, among other major health problems.
Consider this an invitation to do what’s good for you, and easy on your budget. Ask your doctor to start prescribing parks if you still need added motivation and guidance on where to find an appropriate setting for your individual health needs.
Visit a natural area today and preserve your own health and well-being while having fun in the process!
This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Elizabeth Herman writes, offers writing support to clients, teaches, and volunteers for a better world. She has a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition and Literature.
