According to a study by Spanish researchers, walking by the water is good for our mental health.
- Walking by the water is beneficial to mood, vitality and mental health.
- In the long term, walks in the direct vicinity of a water source would have benefits for our cardiovascular health.
Summer is here and, for many French people, it rhymes with time spent by the water, whether at the beach, near a lake, a river or a canal. A wise choice for health according to a new study carried out by the Barcelona Institute, as part of the BlueHealth project, which concludes that walking by a water point is good for our health. The researchers published their findings in the journal Environmental Research.
An instant improvement in our mental health
To conclude on the benefits of a walk by the water, the researchers analyzed the behavior of 59 adults by measuring their blood pressure and heart rate before and after each activity. The latter also had to complete a questionnaire assessing their well-being and their mood. The first week, the volunteers spent 20 minutes each day walking along a beach in Barcelona. The following week, they walked for the same amount of time on a city street, far from the sea. The third week, they rested.
The results of these analyzes led the researchers to conclude on the benefits of the walk by the water, both on the mood, vitality and mental health of the participants. “We saw a significant improvement in participants’ well-being and mood immediately after their blue space walk, compared to walking in an urban environment or at rest.”, said Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Director of Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative at ISGlobal and coordinator of the study.
Possible positive long-term cardiovascular effects
For this study, the researchers only evaluated the benefits of a walk by a water point in the short term. This may well have other long-term positive effects. “We evaluated the immediate effects of a short walk along a blue spacereported ISGlobal researcher Cristina Vert, lead author of the study. Continuous and long-lasting exposure to these spaces could have positive effects on cardiovascular health that we were not able to observe in this study. Our results show that the psychological benefits of physical activity vary depending on the type of environment where it is practiced and that blue spaces are better than urban spaces in this regard..”
These results have led researchers to argue for the development of spaces near water or green spaces. Previous studies have shown the benefits of green spaces on our mental health and that these are maintained over several years. Another study showed that growing up in green spaces can promote brain development in children.
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