There is so much research coming out of why it’s beneficial to spend time outside that we wanted to share it with you. Once a month we’ll share a collection of some of the best tidbits along with other park prescription success stories.

Congress Could Help Every American Buy Your Products
By 2020, healthcare spending will increase to $1 trillion, and, by conservative projections, 75 million Americans will invest $135 billion in health savings accounts. A bill introduced to the U.S. House and Senate late last year would potentially turn more Americans onto outdoor activity by allowing them to use those pre-tax medical dollars for sports and fitness expenditures.

What’s the Outdoor Industry’s Role in Healthcare Reform?
The evidence is crystal clear: There’s no pill with as many positive effects as a dose of the outdoors. 
People who regularly get outside have lower rates of conditions ranging from diabetes to depression, and are more likely to seek treatment and follow through with it.

We Know Nature Makes Us Happier. Now Science Says It Makes Us Kinder Too
New studies show being in nature may increase your willingness to be generous, trusting, and helpful toward others.

We Are Wired To Be Outside
As Florence Williams shows in her new book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, modern technology is now revealing what goes on in our brains when we step outdoors—and why nature is so good for us.

Episode 5 of ReProgram Your Health
A Prescription for the Outdoors : the Bellingham Parkscriptions Program with April Claxton

Physicians in SF are prescribing park time to patients
San Francisco launched a two-year pilot initiative called Healthy Parks, Healthy People in July 2012 at the Southeast Health Center in the Bayview, becoming the nation’s first city to implement the program through its health system.

April Claxton

April is a co-founder and former co-Executive Director for Recreation Northwest. She has a passion for place and loves exploring, experiencing and sharing the beauty of the pacific northwest.  She is currently working with Ocean Conservancy to protect our oceans, specifically the Arctic.