Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Spruce Up Your Immune System


Or in our case, OAK up your immune system...

From this month's Men's Health magazine:

You may finally have a legitimate reason to hug a tree: A hike in the woods can boost your immunity, say Japanese researchers. They found that men who walked through a forest for a total of six hours over 2 days experienced a 46 percent spike in their blood levels of natural killer cells, which are part of your body's SWAT team against invading viruses. Apparently, all trees release airborne chemicals called phytoncides that not only protect their foliage from microbes, but also help stimulate our own immune systems.

Presumably this works for the womenfolk too.

2 comments:

Naomi Van Tol said...

Does this mean all of my past tree hugging has been illegitimate?

That tree in the photo, by the way, is the biggest damn pawpaw I've ever hugged.

Anonymous said...

Mmmmm...pawpaws.