Is a lack of nature making you ill? - With Kathy Willis
The Liz Earle Wellbeing Show
Liz Earle
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you manage to get out in nature every day for just 20 minutes? Biodiversity professor Kathy Willis joins Liz on this podcast to question whether not spending enough time outdoors is making us sick.
Kathy reveals the links between the amount of green space in our lives and better health, mood and longevity, and shares practical advice on how we can get more nature into our homes to reap these benefits, too.
Plus, Kathy and Liz discuss whether a lack of trees may be causing certain health conditions, how plants can enhance our lives (even helping us to fight cancer!), and why you might want to swap your carpets for wooden floors in your home.
Links mentioned in the episode:
- Purchase Good Nature by Kathy Willis
- Purchase A Better Second Half by Liz Earle
- Email us your questions at [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The cedars and the cypresses, this particular sort of compound they give out, when you inhale |
| 0:05.8 | that, not only will it lower your adrenaline hormone, but also it elevates the natural killer |
| 0:11.6 | cells in your blood. Now, the natural killer cells are the cells in your blood that are the |
| 0:16.4 | ones we all want lots of because they're the ones that attack your virus and cancer cells in your |
| 0:21.5 | blood. Cathy Willis is a professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford. She wonders if |
| 0:29.5 | the reason your health is suffering is because you're not spending enough time outside. This is the |
| 0:35.3 | Lizelle Well-Being Show, podcast, helping us all have a better second |
| 0:39.5 | half. I'm Liz Earl and I love nothing more than finding ways for all of us to thrive in later |
| 0:45.4 | life by investing in our health and our well-being today. I actually spent the last few years |
| 0:50.7 | researching so many areas of wellness for my latest book, about a second half, |
| 0:55.9 | and included in this are the benefits of being in nature in general, and connecting to the |
| 1:01.7 | earth specifically with a bit of grounding or walking barefoot on the ground. Something, |
| 1:07.3 | frankly, I used to think was all a bit woo-woo, but I found is actually rooted in some pretty sound medical evidence, particularly when it comes to things like improve wound healing and lowering levels of inflammation in the body. |
| 1:19.7 | Well, 15 years ago, Cathy Willis also read a study that radically changed her view of our relationship to the natural world. |
| 1:26.8 | The study proved that patients recovering |
| 1:28.9 | from surgery in hospital improved three times faster when they looked out of their windows |
| 1:34.6 | at trees. Three times faster. My goodness. Well, Professor Willis has since dedicated her |
| 1:42.1 | research to proving this link between the amount of green space in our lives and our better health, mood and longevity. |
| 1:50.3 | Her new book, Good Nature, brings together all the tangible benefits to our health that she and other scientists have discovered, |
| 1:58.5 | things like cedar enhancing cancer fighting cells in our immune |
| 2:02.3 | systems and smelling pine trees making our hearts beat more slowly and calmly. I have to say |
| 2:09.1 | anecdotally, I certainly feel better for my morning strolls in the park or slipping off my shoes |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Liz Earle, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Liz Earle and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.