People experience therapeutic benefits when immersed in nature. Research shows that spending significant time in nature can lead to better immunity, reduced anger, better mood, good sleep, and increased energy. Spending time in nature also reduces blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. In partnership with the East Bay Regional Park District, the Primary Care Clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland became one of the first in the nation to refer patients to the outdoors for health. The program is called Stay Healthy In Nature Everyday (SHINE).
There are now many doctors prescribing Nature for its health benefits. Ask your doctor about it!
(Picture from Outdoor Afro)
Listen to todays show on KPFA 94.1FM (10/22)
Guests:
Nooshin Razani, MD, MPH, is a pediatric clinical scientist and Nature Champion. She serves as director of the Center for Nature and Health at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, and she founded the Stay Healthy In Nature Everyday (SHINE) program. She is leading a team of clinicians conducting a randomized clinical trial to examine how to operationalize a park prescription program in a low-income setting. Since 2014, Dr. Razani has prescribed time outdoors to her pediatric patients and their families as preventive medicine. The results of the first study showed reduced stress in the parents of pediatric patients at a clinic serving low-income families. The randomized clinical trial is the first of its kind. It compared the effect of supported park outings versus independent park prescriptions with the goal of learning how to operationalize a park prescription program in a low-income setting. She was trained as a Nature Champion by the National Environmental Education Fund and Bureau of Fish and Wildlife in 2010. Dr. Razani is an attending physician UCSF Benioff Oakland’s Ambulatory Department and Assistant Clinical Scientist at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI).She attended medical school at University of California San Francisco, completed a pediatric residency at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, and has a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Daphne Miller, MD founded WholeFamily MD, San Francisco’s first integrative primary care medical practice. Her mission was to reclaim the heart of medicine by focusing on her patients rather than on the business and red tape of medical practice. Dr. Miller welcomes the challenge of medical mysteries and enjoys helping patients tackle complex health problems. She feels her most important role is to help patients discover their “inner doctor,” so that they may develop the skills they need to manage their health. Dr. Miller is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Medical School and completed her family medicine residency and an NIH-funded primary care research fellowship at UCSF. She is also a Bravewell Fellow with the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine. Dr. Miller is an Associate Professor at UCSF where she teaches nutrition and integrative medicine. When she is not seeing patients or teaching, Dr. Miller writes books and articles related to food, farming, the environment, and health. She has authored two best-selling books: The Jungle Effect: The Healthiest Diets from Around the World, Why They Work and How to Make Them Work for You and Farmacology: Total Health from the Ground Up.
