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DOCTORS will today be urged to prescribe their patients a walk in a wood.

A meeting of health professionals and charities today will hear how Wales’ woodlands could provide a natural treatment for a range of physical and mental health conditions.

The meeting, organised by Forestry Commission Wales, is being hailed as the first step towards creating a natural health service.

The organisation wants to encourage GPs to prescribe a woodland walk for some of their patients instead of referring them to their local gym.

The Forestry Commission believes walks in local woodland can help people live longer, healthier lives as a result of the natural environment’s ability to improve health and wellbeing by reducing stress and providing opportunities for exercise.

Ceredigion’s GP referral coordinator, members of Mind, Ceredigion Active Communities, Ymlaen Ceredigion, Communities First, Age Cymru and other health networks will attend the meeting in Coed Geufron woods, near Aberystwyth today.

The meeting will be followed by a five-week pilot programme in two Welsh woodlands in the new year.

Richard Davies, the Forestry Commission Wales’ policy and programme adviser, who will outline how woodlands can improve the physical and mental health of chronically ill people, said: “Currently, health professionals tend to refer people to indoor activities, such as gyms, rather than to the outdoors.

“This is generally because of a lack of awareness of the additional benefits exercising in the outdoors – especially in woodland – can deliver.

“Woodlands are especially useful environments in which to promote health and wellbeing to a broad section of the population as they provide inexpensive places to visit.”

Mr Davies said there is strong medical evidence of the link between physical activity and lower rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes, as well as reductions in the incidence of some cancers, greater mobility and fewer injuries associated with ageing in the elderly.

More than half of adults in Wales are now classed as obese or overweight and one in five has a body mass index that in the obese category.

One in five children is also obese – obesity in childhood increases the risk of obesity in adulthood.

GPs are currently being encouraged to prescribe patients a 16-week course of gym-based exercise as part of the all-Wales exercise referral scheme. Patients with heart disease and some mental health problems are eligible for the scheme.

An analysis of the scheme by Cardiff and Bangor universities said it is a cost-effective way of reducing the long-term risk of ill health and can alleviate depression and anxiety.

But Mr Davies said: “Studies have shown that looking at greenery causes a rapid reduction in stress – blood pressure, muscle tension pulse rate – usually within minutes of exposure, and is most obvious when the body is already stressed.

“Studies have also found that people with access to nearby nature are generally healthier than those without.

“It has been suggested mental health is generally better in rural areas than urban areas and that people in urban areas with gardens and green space have fewer medical problems.”

As well as treating a range of physical and mental conditions, the Forestry Commission Wales also believes connecting people with woodlands could also strengthen communities by curbing anti-social behaviour in youngsters through exposure to the natural environment.

“Unlike many urban areas with limited space, our woods have plenty of room where people can recalibrate their lives and regain their health in wonderful surroundings. This is an important factor when considering social inclusion problems,” Mr Davies added.

The Forestry Commission Wales has contracted Coed Lleol, an organisation which helps more people enjoy and care for woodlands in Wales, to carry out a five-week pilot scheme in the new year. The scheme will deliver a course of woodland activity aimed at increasing physical activity, mobility and generating an interest and link between local people and their woodlands.

It will take place in two of the Assembly Government’s regeneration areas – Aberystwyth and Treherbert, South Wales.