A pioneering study analyzes forest chemistry and its impact on human health



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The therapeutic potential of forests depends not only on the well-being that a walk in the forest can produce, but also on the possible interaction of the chemical components that generate much of the vegetation with our health. These compounds have, among other effects, a bactericidal action.

That is why specialists from the Institute of Sciences and Technologies of the Environment of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) and the Center for Ecological Research and Applications Forestières (CREAF) They started a study on the effects of forests on human health.

The research is part of the project "Healthy Forests for a Healthy Society" and aims to provide scientific evidence on the effects of a forest walk on emotional health and physics, the UAB said in a statement

The other participating institutions are the "La Caixa" Banking Foundation, the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, the Sant Celoni Hospital and the Duet Group, which will support the effect potential of the microbiology of the forest on people.

The project was born from the social and scientific interest on the benefits that the contact with the natural environment has for human health, both physiological and psychological and emotional.

There are investigations that report possible physiological effects such as strengthening the immune system, improving heart rate and blood pressure, or balancing cortisol levels, related to levels.

However, according to the statement, the evidence to date does not provide a solid enough basis for talking about a single, direct physico-chemical effect.

] For the experimental study, scientists have the collaboration of a group of volunteers (healthy people between 20 and 40 years) and they are conducted in Mediterranean forests of oaks, oaks – Corks, pines and beeches. Montseny Biosphere Reserve

In these locations, air samples are taken to analyze and characterize chemical substances in the atmosphere. Forest area, and how their concentrations vary with the effect of different variables such as species composition or forest management.

The experimental phase that began last Friday, July 20, in the San Bernardo Holm oak forest (Sant Celoni Montseny), will determine how these substances are incorporated and metabolized in the human body after a walk in the forest and what they can affect our body.

Throughout the day, volunteers were invited to walk in the forest and samples of saliva, oropharynx, and blood were collected at different times of the day

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