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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
The Health Benefits of Gardening
From VOA Learning1 English, this is the Health & Lifestyle Report.
As spring comes to half the world, many people can enjoy the new growth that comes with warmer weather. This is a great time to get outside and get dirty!
Gardening is popular in many parts of the world. This outdoor activity gives us beautiful plants, pleasant smelling flowers and fresh fruits and vegetables.
But it also gives us many health benefits.
Reduces loneliness
Gardening connects people. When you are gardening, you are outdoors. So it is a perfect time to socialize with your neighbors.
Most people love to talk about their hobbies, and gardeners are no different. They usually enjoy showing people what they are growing. And most enjoy sharing advice and stories about their gardens almost as much as sharing herbs, flowers and vegetables from their gardens.
Gardening can greatly widen2 a person’s community.
Some people may not have the resources to have their own garden. So, many cities and towns have community gardens. You can either volunteer or just visit to learn more.
Check what resources are available to you in your area. If there are no community gardens near you, there may be government money available to help you start one.
Healthy activity for children
Gardening is a great activity to do with children. It gets families outdoors and off computers, televisions and other electronics3.
Gardening can be a great teacher.
Children can learn about nature and wildlife. Gardening can teach a child about where food comes from and healthy eating. It can also help them to understand the limits of natural resources and the importance of using them carefully.
Vitamin D
When you are in your garden, you might feel the sunshine on your skin. This means you are getting Vitamin D.
Vitamin D helps our bodies use calcium5. That is necessary to keep bones strong. Vitamin D also helps us fight diseases6.
Exercise
Also, when you garden you must move around. All the different movements needed for gardening -- bending, twisting, stretching and lifting -- work small muscles in the body.
And you can easily get a good work out when you are digging holes or pulling weeds.
Stress
Gardening may also help you to feel calm and happy.
A study by researchers in the Netherlands found that gardening may reduce the stress hormone7 cortisol in the brain.
Scientists say that high levels of cortisol in the body interfere8 with learning and memory. It can also increase a person’s weight, blood pressure and cholesterol9 levels. Chronic10, high levels of cortisol increase the risk for depression, mental illness and lower life expectancy11.
In the study, the researchers gave 30 gardeners a difficult, stressful task. After completing the task, researchers measured their cortisol levels. The gardeners self-reported on their mood, or how they felt emotionally13.
Then the gardeners were asked to recover by either gardening outdoors or reading indoors14 for 30 minutes.
Both activities led to lower cortisol levels. However, the decreases were stronger in the gardening group. Also, those who gardened reported that their good moods returned fully4. The readers found that their bad moods only got worse.
Dementia and brain health
Gardening may help your brain stay young.
In another study in 2006, researchers looked at more than 2,800 people over the age of 60. They studied their lifestyle habits, activities and health over a 16-year period. They found that gardening could lower risk of future dementia by 36 percent.
Activities such as gardening uses many repeated actions, such as weeding or dead-heading (removing dying15 flowers from a plant). These actions have a calming effect on the brain. The brain is still active but not in the same way that it is, say, when we use computers.
In our technology-filled lives, gardening offers a chance to unplug. You cannot hold a phone or other electronic devices16 when your hands are filled with dirt.
Gardening can also give you the feeling that you have done something good.
A flower and herb garden can help feed bees and butterflies. Growing herbs and flowers, even in a of couple of pots at your city home, connects you to nature and pleases all of your senses.
What you grow in a garden usually looks, smells, feels and tastes really good.
And that's the Health & Lifestyle report. I'm Anna Matteo.
Words in This Story
garden – n. an area of ground where plants (such as flowers or vegetables) are grown; gardening – n. the activity of tending and cultivating17 a garden, especially as a pastime18
hobby – n. an interest or activity engaged in for pleasure
lonely – adj. sad from being apart from other people : loneliness – n. the state of feeling lonely
bend – v. to move your body so that it is not straight
twist – v. to turn a part of your body around
stress – n. a state of mental tension19 and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.
hormone – n. a natural substance that is produced in the body and that influences the way the body grows or develops
chronic – adj. medical : continuing or occurring again and again for a long time
mood – n. the way someone feels : a person's emotional12 state
dementia –? n. a mental illness that causes someone to be unable to think clearly or to understand what is real and what is not real
1 learning | |
n.学问,学识,学习;动词learn的现在分词 | |
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2 widen | |
v.(使)扩大;(使)变宽 | |
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3 electronics | |
n.电子器件,电子学,电子技术 | |
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4 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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5 calcium | |
n.钙(化学符号Ca) | |
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6 diseases | |
n.疾病( disease的名词复数 );弊端;恶疾;痼疾 | |
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7 hormone | |
n.荷尔蒙,激素,内分泌 | |
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8 interfere | |
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰 | |
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9 cholesterol | |
n.(U)胆固醇 | |
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10 chronic | |
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的 | |
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11 expectancy | |
n.期望,预期,(根据概率统计求得)预期数额 | |
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12 emotional | |
adj.令人动情的;易动感情的;感情(上)的 | |
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13 emotionally | |
adv.感情上,情绪上,冲动地 | |
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14 indoors | |
adv.(在)室内,(在)户内 | |
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15 dying | |
adj.垂死的,临终的 | |
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16 devices | |
n.设备;装置( device的名词复数 );花招;(为实现某种目的的)计划;手段 | |
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17 cultivating | |
v.耕( cultivate的现在分词 );建立(友谊);种植;陶冶思想[感情] | |
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18 pastime | |
n.消遣,娱乐 | |
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19 tension | |
n.(紧张)状态;拉(绷)紧;张力,拉力 | |
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