A greener neighborhood can be good for your health People living in places with more trees and shrubs had lower levels of inflammation Inflammation increases risk of heart attack, diabetes and some cancers WEDNESDAY, Aug. 28, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The trees and shrubs in your neighborhood could be giving you a big health boost, a new study finds. People have lower levels of inflammation in neighborhoods where the number of trees and shrubs is more than doubled compared to other nearby locales, University of Louisville researchers this week at the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology annual meeting in Santiago, Chile.
“Trees are beautiful, but these results show that the trees around us are also beneficial to individual and community health,” said University of Louisville President . For the study, researchers added more than 8,000 large trees and shrubs to some neighborhoods in Louisville, Ken., but not others.
The plantings occurred from 2019 through 2022 within a four-square-mile section of south Louisville, in low- to middle-income neighborhoods. The team then compared 745 residents’ health data, to see how more greenery might have improved their overall well-being. Results show that residents in the greener neighborhoods had 13% to 20% lower levels of a biomarker associated with inflammation called high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP).
Higher levels of this marker are strongly associated with heart risks, and can be an even stronger indicat.