‘Nature Prescriptions’ Could Be the Next Health Revolution – And Washington Is an Early Adopter

Wilson Criscione · Inlander · June 05, 2019

Featuring Kathleen Wolf, Nature and Health researcher

Kathleen Wolf, a research social scientist at the University of Washington, says there’s value to more research on nature prescriptions. Two decades of research has shown that time in nature is good for you, for a variety of reasons. But more evidence is important, she says, because it can teach us about things like dosage — how to optimize the benefit of going outside. The University of Washington has launched a study, with a $1 million grant from REI, to answer many of those questions.

Wolf says two decades ago, she was called a “tree hugger” for being interested in those questions. That has started to change.

“I think we’re seeing greater attention to the importance of being in nature,” she says.

Imagine going back hundreds of years in the past, before computers, before heating or air conditioning, before our lives were lived primarily indoors, and telling the humans of that time that in the future, doctors would be prescribing time outside.