RE: Plants Help People Tolerate Pain

H* A*

Comrades,

Re the findings of the good folks of Washington State University: I banged
my thumb with a hammer last Saturday while working in the garden and  cursed
a blue streak. The garden was in full end of season gorgeousness. My hand
hurt like hell. Could it have been worse had I banged my hand in less sylvan
surroundings?  I'm not planning on trying this experiment out any time soon.
I personally prefer brandy and a warm bath, but my wife - an RN - is no fan
of self indulgent men with boo-boos.

However, persons with AIDs, seniors and folks with all sorts of chronic
ailments use the Clinton Community Garden to recreate themselves, relax and
breathe. We have a club house residence for persons with mental problems a
few doors down. Both staff and clients say nice things about the garden,
draw pictures, walk about and the more together clients like to volunteer (
often more "sanely" than most of us.) Our volunteer bed gardeners try to
keep a multi-season visual show going for our 2000 + neighborhood key
holders ( many of whom will never get to the excellent NY Botanic or
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.)
Once I had wrapped up my thumb, I continued tinkering, pruning,
gardening....

Happy Gardening,

Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Laura Berman [SMTP:laura@foodshare.net]
> Sent:	Tuesday, October 10, 2000 9:56 PM
> To:	ACGA listserve
> Subject:	[cg] Plants Help People Tolerate Pain
> 
> Hi Everyone,
> Here's something to ponder.  Adam, surely you should have something to say
> about this.
> 
> Plants Help People Tolerate Pain
> 
> Results of a study which were published earlier this year in the journal
> Horttechology, says that people in rooms with houseplants can tolerate
> more
> physical pain than those in surroundings without any plants, according to
> the study conducted at Washington State University.
> 
> In the study each participant was asked to put a hand in a bowl of ice
> water
> and keep it there for as long as possible, up to 5 minutes. The control
> group of 67 people completed the experiment while in a windowless room
> without plants or decorative items.
> 
> Another group of 69 people went through the routine in the same room with
> several houseplants, such as lipstick plant, philodendron and bamboo palm.
> The remaining 62 participants took part in the experiment in the room
> without the plants but with the addition of colorful posters, a table lamp
> and other visually pleasing objects.
> 
> Participants in the room with plants could tolerate more pain by keeping
> their hands in the ice water longer than either of the other groups,
> according to Virginia Lohr, horticulture professor, and research
> technician
> Caroline Pearson-Mims
> 
> 
> =====================================
> Laura Berman
> Community Garden Programme Coordinator
> FoodShare Toronto
> 238 Queen St. West
> Toronto, Ontario M5V 1Z7
> Phone:   (416) 392-1668
> Fax:        (416) 392-6650
> email: laura@foodshare.net
>             cgnetwork@foodshare.net
> web:    www.foodshare.net
> 
>  
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> community_garden maillist  -  community_garden@mallorn.com
> https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden

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