The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marksissons

and is narrated by Brock Armstrong

16 Ways Green Space Improves Your Life

Most people like being surrounded by nature.

Even if it's just a walk through a suburban city park or puttering around in the backyard

garden, we are drawn to green spaces filled with grass, trees, and leafy vegetation.

They make us feel better.

But the way we describe the effects of green space is all very amorphous and abstract

and general, isn't it?

We feel good sitting on the grass.

It's nice to take a walk along a forest path.

The office doesn't feel right without a potted plant on the desk.

Those sorts of benefits are great on a subjective level for the people experiencing them,

but they aren't very persuasive to others.

If you want your ambivalent spouse to help grow the big garden you've always wanted,

or your skeptical friends to start going on hikes with you, more specific and measurable reasons

might be just the ticket. So let's dig deeper. Let's explore the specific ways in which green spaces

improve our lives. Green spaces improve immune function. A Japanese therapy called forest bathing involves spending deliberate time in nature, usually

forests, hence the name, and actually boosts immune function.

Natural killer cells are critical to proper function in the innate immune system.

One of the most important functions is to eliminate tumors.

And just a single day trip to a forest park can increase natural killer cell number and activity,

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