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Day 13: A tree a day will keep the doctor away
I'm an accountant by day, so i should probably start this blog with a bit of a disclaimer. Statistics can be used sometimes to manipulate data or convince you that if something happened in the past it is sure to happen again....Now that my disclaimer is out of the way, I wanted to share with you a study done by Roger Ulrich. Back in the 80's, Ulrich studied the recovery of patients who had received cholecystectomy. He matched up patients with similar attributes so that the only variable was if their window looked out at a brick wall or at a tree. The following is the summary from the study:
...in comparison with the wall-view group, the patients with the tree view had shorter postoperative
hospital stays, had fewer negative evaluative comments from nurses, took fewer moderate and strong
analgesic doses, and had slightly lower scores for minor postsurgical complications.
Back to my disclaimer. If you are sick, looking at a tree isn't going to make you better, but it may help aid in your recovery. That is what I love about the tree I planted today. It was an American Elm "Princeton" (Ulmus americana) that I put at Hooverwood. Hooverwood is a nursing home on the North side of Indianapolis. The tree was planted at the entry way where the residents often enjoy an afternoon of kibitzing. When my wife's grandmother used to live there we would affectionately refer to the people outside as the welcoming committee. This tree will provide them some shade, some beauty, and hopefully aid in their mental and physical health.
That is it for this post. I'm hoping to get a second one out today because I recorded the entire tree planting. If I can figure out how to edit it down, you will see a new post later tonight....oh and if you want to read the whole study, here it is.
