著者

池井 晴美 李 宙営 宋 チョロン 小松 実紗子 日諸 恵利 宮崎 良文

出版者

日本生理人類学会

雑誌

日本生理人類学会誌 (ISSN:13423215)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.18, no.3, pp.97-103, 2013-08-25 (Released:2017-07-28)

被引用文献数

3

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This study aims at clarifying the physiological relaxing effect which pink rose brings about for 55 high school students. The stimulation was made by 30 pink roses with non-scent arranged in a vase while the control had no flower for 4 minutes. The physiological indices were the heart rate variability and pulse rate which employed fingertip accelerated plethysmography, and the psychological indicators were the SD method and the shortened version of profile of mood states (POMS). The results as follow: (1) HF were significantly higher, and LF/HF were significantly lower, (2) "comfortable", "natural", and "relaxed" feelings and the mood state were significantly better, while viewing fresh rose flowers than control.

著者

宮崎 良文 宋 チョロン 池井 晴美

出版者

日本生理人類学会

雑誌

日本生理人類学会誌 (ISSN:13423215)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, no.1, pp.19-32, 2015-02-25 (Released:2017-07-28)

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Several million years have passed since a subset of primates became humans. Because we spent more than 99.99% of our evolutionary history in natural environment, it is considered that we are essentially adaptive to nature. However, we live in a society characterized by urbanization and artificiality despite our physiological functions still being adapted to a natural environment. According to the concept of evidence-based medicine, we reviewed preventive medical effects of nature therapy, which comprised forest, park, wood, and flower therapy. We collected scientific data from field and laboratory experiments using physiological indicators. We expect nature therapy to play an increasingly important role in preventive medicine in the future.

著者

宮崎 良文 池井 晴美 宋 チョロン

出版者

日本衛生学会

雑誌

日本衛生学雑誌 (ISSN:00215082)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.69, no.2, pp.122-135, 2014 (Released:2014-05-24)

参考文献数

46

被引用文献数

4 23

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There has been growing attention on the effects of forest on physiological relaxation and immune recovery, particularly in forest medicine research, from a perspective of preventive medicine. Japan is a world leader in the accumulation of scientific data on forest medicine research. In this review, we summarize the research that has been conducted in this area since 1992. We conducted field experiment, involving 420 subjects at 35 different forests throughout Japan. After sitting in natural surroundings, these subjects showed decrease in the following physiological parameters compared with those in an urban control group: 12.4% decrease in the cortisol level, 7.0% decrease in sympathetic nervous activity, 1.4% decrease in systolic blood pressure, and 5.8% decrease in heart rate. This demonstrates that stressful states can be relieved by forest therapy. In addition, it should be noted that parasympathetic nervous activity was enhanced by 55.0%, indicating a relaxed state. The results of walking experiments provided similar results. Li et al. demonstrated that immune function was enhanced by forest therapy in middle-aged employees who volunteered to participate in these experiments. Natural killer cell activity, an indicator of immune function, was enhanced by 56% on the second day and returned to normal levels. A significant increase of 23% was maintained for 1 month even after returning to urban life, clearly illustrating the preventive benefits of forest therapy. In an indoor room experiment, we conducted tests with the following: 1) olfactory stimulation using wood smell, 2) tactile stimulation using wood, and 3) auditory stimulation using forest sounds. These indoor stimulations also decreased the blood pressure and pulse rate, and induced a physiological relaxation effect. We anticipate that forest medicine will play an increasingly important role in preventive medicine in the future.