Guest Blog | The 5 Health Benefits of Greening Your Home

Overview

Indoor houseplants can add immense beauty, style and comfort to a home and office. But the benefits of greenwalls and indoor plants go far beyond the superficial. For years, the medical industry has been finding correlations between our health and our proximity to plants.

But as more time is spent indoors due to work hours, urbanized living, and inclement weather, securing these benefits has become more of a struggle, causing indoor plants to increase in popularity. By greening a home through biophilic design more oxygen is released into a space and carbon dioxide levels are reduced. Here we will go over 5 health benefits of greening your home.

1. Decreased Recovery Time

You might have thought that the act of bringing someone a plant or flowers after surgery or if someone gets sick is just symbolic. But multiple studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between recovery time and exposure to plants. Even just seeing and being near plants can increase the speed of recovery and healing. There has even been a specific type of therapy developed centering around patients physically interacting with plants, called horticulture therapy.

2. Fewer Pollutants in the Air

Many houseplants and greenery capture poisonous compounds present in man-made products that go into the air in your home, such as formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene. Furthermore, the air will have less carbon and nitrogen. These pollutants have been linked to breathing problems and to an increased risk of cancer. When these are removed from the air, the risks and health problems caused from these man-made air pollutants are greatly reduced.

Not only that, but indoor plants can also reduce dust particles up to 20%. This lowers the risk of having inflamed airways, a runny nose, and irritated eyes.

3. Reduced Stress

As the pollutants in your home are reduced from your greenwalls and indoor plants, breath in several deep cleansing breaths. Studies have proven that increased oxygenation and interaction with indoor plants stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system in a way that helps to reduce stress and improve sleep.

Researchers who studied brain scans found that people exposed to the mere image of nature would have a shift in their brain to a more relaxed state. Now imagine what greening your home could do. With reduced stress, other physical ailments are also improved. This can include blood pressure and heart rate. Additionally, it can reduce your risk of heart attacks, strengthen a weakened immune system, and improve insomnia.

4. Improved Mood

People feel more positively when around plants. In a study from a group of San Francisco hospitals, 19% of people felt more positive when being surrounded by greenery and 79% said they felt calmer.

Biophilia, the idea that people have an innate need to seek connection with natural things, has been growing in popularity for home and office design. This is based on the strong correlation between plants and an improved feeling of well-being, creativity, and happiness. 

5. Improved Mental Capacity

According to studies, plants help increase focus by 70%. The study was originally based on the theory that people concentrate better after spending time outside in nature. Exposure to plants can help increase children and adults’ capacity to learn and retain information when learned in a space that contains some sort of greenery. This means that productivity at work would also improve. This can be a natural way to address issues such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

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