Gardening can be a relaxing activity, especially for the elderly, and it can help to boost mental and physical health. Surrounded by plants and flowers, gardening sessions can be therapeutic. Here’s why you should pick up gardening as a hobby.
Improves Bone Health
Gardening naturally comes with more exposure to the sun, and hence more Vitamin D to help the body absorb calcium. Good bone health and balance can prevent slips, falls, and other accidents due to poor balance and lack of flexibility.
Slows Memory Loss
Many elderly suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s, and gardening can help with the cognitive decline that comes with these health conditions. Working in the garden requires critical thinking skills and short-term memory, which helps to keep the brain active.
Improves Heart Health
The elderly may have circulatory issues which can lead to cardiovascular diseases. Light physical activity like gardening actually helps to boost blood and oxygen flow and reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The physical side of gardening can also offer better coordination and flexibility.
Increases Socialization
Gardening is a good bonding activity that the elderly can enjoy with their family members, such as spending an afternoon gardening with their grandchildren. Working in the garden with a loved one provides social interaction for them, and it improves their mood too. Socialization helps to mitigate health issues such as memory loss, heart disease, depression, and obesity.
Mitigates Joint Pain
Keeping the elderly active in their later years help to reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis, and other joint aches and muscle tension that arise as we age. Gardening can help to keep people active and reduce joint pain – it takes their mind off the aches, and also reduces stress, and helps them relax.
Encourages Healthy Eating
Growing your own vegetables and fruits in the garden encourages individuals to add healthy foods to their diets, and form good eating habits. They can choose the fruits and vegetables they wish to grow, and they don’t have to worry about pesticides – it’s all organic. Homegrown food tastes better and is more rewarding — just think of all the time and effort it took to grow and harvest.
Gardening and growing produce is a simple way to encourage individuals to get the nutrients they need for physical and mental health, through a fun and engaging activity.
Boosts Mood
We usually feel happier and more optimistic in surroundings with plenty of plants and nature, so working in a garden is a perfect mood booster – more so than just a bouquet of flowers or a potted plant on the windowsill.
Gardening even releases feel-good chemicals in the brain such as serotonin and dopamine, which help to stave off depression, lifts moods, and reduce anxiety and stress. Simply interacting with plants can help us reduce psychological stress.
