170 the rice diet renewal
scenery versus urban settings had a 13 percent lower blood con-
centration of the stress hormone cortisol. Forest walking versus
city walking boosted the activity of T cells, which are immune cells
that fi ght cancer. These scientists also reported that people living
near forested areas, when compared to those not living near forests,
had lower mortality rates for cancers of the prostate, breast, lung,
uterus, kidney, and colon.
Jennifer Ackerman has written a beautiful article titled “ Breathing
Trees, ” available through the Wilderness Society ( http://www.wilderness
.org ). I urge you to visit this Web site, subscribe to the newsletter, and
request the back issue featuring Ackerman ’ s article. Her won-
derful article and gracious referral to this research were another
healing - at - the - roots experience. She wrote about researchers who
analyzed air samples in the Sierra forest and could identify only
70 of the 120 compounds they found. While the Japanese research-
ers believe that inhaling phytoncides, essential wood oils emitted
by plants, is partly responsible for the boosted activity of the T cells
and that two other woody compounds, alpha - pinene and borneol,
likely help us reduce our fatigue, these are but a fraction of the
many reasons for us to be grateful for trees.
I love how Jennifer Ackerman intimately described our symbi-
otic relationship with plants: “ When we inhale forest air, some of
these molecules ride the currents into our lungs and there pass into
our bloodstream to affect our cells.... I love this notion that plant
molecules speak to human cells, revealing as it does that deep
common kinship of living things long known by poets. ” She quoted
George Herbert, who wrote, “ Herbs gladly cure our fl esh, because
that they / Find their acquaintance there. ”
I also felt a kinship with Ackerman when she expressed her con-
cern for our ignorance of the unseen components of forest ecology
and “ the range of interlocking links in ecological webs that make
predicting the effects of habitat destruction such a tricky business.
When I think that we are losing forests at a rate of seven million
hectares a year, and with them, who knows how many pinenes
and phytoncides, known and unknown, with potential to ease our
stress and heal our bodies, I feel a black wave of despair. ” She, too,