Plant trees and feel less pain!

Gungormus and colleagues link planting trees to experiencing less pain: “Sensory stimulation has shown the capacity to modulate pain mechanisms. . . . A single-group, pretest-posttest clinical trial was used. . . . healthy adults performed an afforestation activity for 90 minutes. . . . results showed significant reductions in the cold pain intensity at the moment of detection . . . mechanical pain sensitivity . . . and increases in the thresholds of pressure pain detection . . . and tolerance. . . . Afforestation activities serve as an environmental strategy to transform barren landscapes into thriving forest ecosystems. . . . [It] involves human-led interventions such as planting, intentional seeding, and encouraging natural seed sources within a designated timeframe. . . .  The intervention comprised tillage and transplantation activities—from pot to ground—at several locations in the campus green space.”

Dogukan Gungormus, Laura Sanchez-Bermejo, and Jose Perez-Marmol.  2024. “Effects of an Afforestation Activity on Thermal and Mechanical Pain Mechanisms:  A Clinical Trial.”  Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 93, 102196, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102196