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Walking in a forest can boost your immune system [1]

['Ruben Bolling']

Date: 2025-07-29

A hike in a forest can feel great: it's beautiful, fragrant, invigorating, even spiritual. But it may be even more than that. It may chemically boost your immune system, helping to protect you from diseases, including cancer.

Trees produce and release into the air chemicals called phytoncides. These compounds help the tree fight off parasites and bacterial and fungal infections. When humans breathe them in while spending time in a forest, our bodies increase the production of a type of white blood cell called "natural killer" cells, which attack cells that have been infected by viruses or have become tumor cells. Phytoncides have also been shown to decrease the production of stress hormones.

The benefits of just one or two hours of "forest bathing," or shinrin-yoku, as the popular practice is called in Japan, can last for days.

If you'd like more information in the form of a Instagram-style video, here is one:

And if you'd like more information in the form of an NIH scientific study paper, here is a link.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/07/29/walking-in-a-forest-can-boost-your-immune-system.html

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