Have you ever thought about why you love the smell of fresh Christmas trees? - conifers produce oils that are highly beneficial to breathe in. We evolved in nature, amid the trees, fresh air, soil and sea - these elements promoted our well being. Did you know that many trees emit immune responses into the air when attacked by insects and other animals? Humans have adapted over millions of years to benefit from these 'phytoncydes,' too. There is a vast amount of scientific study showing that all of these things reduce our stress hormones and blood pressure, elevate our internal disease-defeating processes, stimulate the body to fight off toxins, excite the happy centers of the brain and subdue the negative reflexes in the brain. After reading The Nature Fix, I know why. It has always calmed me down, perked me up, made my worries and pressures feel like nothing. I've always loved to stand beneath trees, to linger at the edge of the sea, to touch the cool water of streams, to walk upon soft leaves instead of pavement. What made the experience of listening to The Nature Fix the most enjoyable? Bottom line: a good work and well worth the time to read but perhaps not to listen to. I needed to take frequent breaks from listening, during which I wondered if buying the print version of Nature Fix would not have been a better choice. The result leaves the reader unsure of what to take seriously, what is a joke or what is between the two? The narrator's forced joviality and unnecessary excursions up and down the sonic scale seriously detracted from the substance of the work.

But the author, abetted by a way too chirpy, sing-song narrator, struggled to cover her lack of science street cred with cringeworthy puns and swipes clothed in condescending asides at more fringe views of our relation with nature. The arguments, backed at times with a blizzard of statistics, plowed through various scientific and academic circles to present an argument that intuitively seems correct: we evolved outdoors and our increasingly indoor, screen-obsessed culture is wreaking an awful toll on us, and particularly on our children. The sheer breadth and depth of information presented in this well-organized work was impressive.

The nature fix book review