Why a Canadian doctor is telling her patients to touch grass

By Global News

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Dr. Melissa Lem has become a global leader in nature prescribing after experiencing the first-hand impacts of living with a nature deficit. She moved from a rural community to downtown Toronto and noticed she was left feeling edgy and irritable. That experience led her to explore the health benefits of spending time in nature and eventually to a partnership with the BC Parks Foundation called PaRx. “A nature prescription happens when a health professional issues a written recommendation to a patient to spend intentional time in nature in an evidence-based way to improve their mental and physical health,” says Dr. Lem. “Right now over 20,000 regulated health professionals across Canada are engaging in this practice and they have issued more than two million nature prescriptions to date.” Since launching the program, there are now more than 10,000 studies showing better blood pressure, better cholesterol, lower rates of diabetes and better birth outcomes. Dr. Lem says the list of ben

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