Walking in the forest is more effective in promoting health than walking in the city...It's 35% lower in negative mood and high in antioxidant effect
Jul 09, 2025
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Researchers at the National Forest Research Institute of the Korea Forest Service analyzed the typical health effects of walking on forest roads and found that when walking for about 30 minutes on a 2-kilometer forest road, negative mood conditions were 35.0% lower on average than walking in the city.
In addition, as a result of 10 weeks of exercise of the same intensity on forest roads and indoors for middle-aged women in their 40s and 60s, SuperOxid Dismutase (SOD) that inhibits aging when exercising on forest roads increased further.
According to the researchers, Korean forest roads are classified into five grades from 'very easy' to 'very difficult' based on the slope, length, road width, and presence or absence of information signs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends more than 150 minutes of aerobic activity and twice-weekly strength training as exercise guidelines for health, and it has been shown that walking a forest road rated 'difficulty' or 'difficulty' could satisfy it by just three hours a week.
Lee Hyun-jin, a researcher at the Forest Human Services Department at the Korea Forest Research Institute, analyzed the related research to inform the health-promoting effects of walking on forest roads"We will continue our research so that walking on forest roads can become a healthy habit in the daily lives of the people."," he said.
Earlier, a study found that walking on forest roads has the effect of lowering systolic and diastolic blood pressure more than walking in cities, significantly reducing blood sugar and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), and significantly increasing red blood cells (RBC) and hemoglobin (Hb). In addition, studies have shown that immunity has improved and clinical symptoms of bronchial inflammation and atopic dermatitis have also improved.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
