Do you want to feel younger? Just add a few trees. In a single city block, 10 extra trees can make you feel 7 years younger, or like you have an extra $10,000 a year. Pretty good, right?
Trees for life
You probably instinctively know that having trees and plants around is good for you – there’s a reason so many people go for a walk in the park to relax. Being around trees can lower cortisol, stress, and mental fatigue; increase creativity, empathy, and altruism; and improve recovery times. And that’s true even for indoor plants!
Nobody is totally sure why. But basically, it seems like we’re wired to feel at home – and safe in – nature. So being in it lets us relax more. That helps to decrease stress – and makes us feel better overall. (It’s not just perception – in some places, health outcomes actually improve with more trees!) And when you feel better, it’s not surprising you would feel younger.
Trees can lower cortisol, stress, and mental fatigue; increase creativity, empathy, and altruism; and improve recovery times.
(By the way, that’s not all trees do. They filter pollution, improve air quality, moderate temperatures and reduce energy needs, help stop flooding by controlling water flow, and much more. We’ve talked about these, and their financial benefits, in a couple of our other stories.)
Feel younger with trees
So, with more trees around, people feel better. That’s why those 10 extra trees per city block make people feel well enough that they could be seven years younger. Or, they feel as good as people who have an extra $10,000 or so in annual and neighbourhood income.
Someone living in a lower-income area with more trees might feel as healthy as someone in a higher-income area with less trees.
As for specific health issues like heart or metabolic conditions, people seem to feel better about those too. Having more trees means having less of these conditions – enough to make up for a difference of around $20,000 in household and neighbourhood income.
Of course, things like income, education, stress levels, diet, etc. also directly affect health and health perception. But that’s exactly where the trees come in. Another way of putting this is that (street) trees can make up for some of these other factors. So someone living in a lower-income area with more trees might feel as healthy as someone in a higher-income area with less trees. Which may not be a magic elixir, but is pretty close.