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Full Podcast Transcript at treesmendus.com Books written by podcast host Verla Fortier:Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress  Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness Dr. Patrycja Matusik is a physician-radiologist at University Hospital, Kraków, Poland. She completed her medicine degree and PhD at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In her work she focuses primarily on cardiovascular imaging, lung diseases and neuroimaging. In her scientific work, one of the main directions is heart rate variability (HRV). She went to the Cardiovascular Division at the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on two occasions. There she completed internships in the field of advanced methods of ECG analysis under the mentorship of Prof. Phyllis K. Stein in the Heart Rate Variability Laboratory.   She is the co-author of several scientific papers published in peer-reviewed international journals, including the European Heart Journal.  1.    Please tell us a little more about your personal - why you are interested in lupus erythematosus.    First, I want to say thank you for inviting me to your podcast. As you said I’m a physician radiologist from Poland. Privately, I’m a mother of 3-year-old Julia. My husband, Paweł Matusik, is also a doctor – a cardiologist, and together we combine our passion for scientific research.    I was inspired by lupus for the first time on my internship at the Heart Rate Variability Laboratory led by Prof. Phyllis K. Stein at Washington University in St. Louis. During the course of lupus, involvement of multiple organ systems, including the cardiovascular and autonomic nervous system, occurs. Therefore, we decided to bring together and summarize current knowledge about the scientific findings and potential clinical utility of heart rate variability measures in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.  2.     Please tell us what lupus erythematosus is and what can happen during the disease process as it relates to your publication “ Heart Rate Variability in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review and methodological considerations.”    Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic autoimmune disorder of the connective tissue that can involve joints, kidneys, skin, lungs, nervous system and heart. Cardiac involvement is of major concern in the clinical management of lupus patients. People with lupus may have chest pain due to inflammation of the sac around the heart (pericarditis). More serious but rare effects on the heart include inflammation of the walls of the coronary arteries (coronary artery vasculitis), which can lead to angina, and inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis), which can lead to heart failure.      Transcript at treesmendus.com

 For the full show notes of this episode visit website https://treesmendus.comVerla's new book Optimize Your Heart Rate: BalanceYour Mind and Body With Green Space.  Verla's previous book Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness Dr. Tselios is an Assistant Professor of Medicine with the Division of Rheumatology at McMaster University since 2021. He completed his basic training and PhD in Greece and came to Canada in 2014 where he worked as a post-doc fellow with the University of Toronto Lupus Clinic. His main clinical and research interest is the field of autoimmunity and systemic lupus erythematosus, particularly the cardiovascular complications of the disease. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is currently developing the McMaster Lupus Clinic and Lupus Ontario/Anne Matheson Lupus Biobank in Hamilton. Time Stamps in minutes of our conversation: 2:00 I started looking after lupus patients in 2008 in Greece, and was offered an opportunity to do a PhD in lupus to become the medical director the lupus clinic ...and there, I fell in love with lupus patients and the process of the lupus disease.  4:21 My published research caught the attention of the Toronto Lupus Clinic run by  doctors Touma   and  Gladman who were collecting data on lupus patients since 1971. This clinic at the Toronto Western Hospital at the University Health Network is one of the largest lupus clinic in the world, was a great environment for me to gain expertise in lupus. I worked there since  2014 and it was a great experience. I stayed there for 6  years. 5:00 I stayed there for 6  years as a post doc. Then I was hired at McMaster University in the Division of Rheumatology at Hamilton Health Sciences. My main goal is to develop a new Lupus Clinic for south western Ontario and this Biobank, if we want to talk about it further is about collecting samples for further lupus research.  6:00 Heart involvement and lupus: In the past lupus has been so agressive that it leads to often leads to death. But most people do significantly better now. So our patients will survive but the arteries can stiffen as the years go by (atherosclerosis) and as we get older. 8:00  Lupus patients are 50% more likely to have a heart attack than people without lupus. 8:22 I started investigating this in my research with the Toronto Lupus Clinic cohort. As you dig deeper into research sometimes you find things that you would never expect.  8:60 The heart conduction system is about the heart pumping blood to every part of the body: the skin, the muscles, the organs. 9:36 There is a neural network through the body that controls the heart rate rate. We call this neural network that controls the heart rate, whether that are is 60, 70, 80 or 30.. we call this the heart conduction system of the heart.  10:14 We have identified 2 nodes for this the sinus node and the AV atrial ventricular nodes for this in the heart.  All the nerves that connect one node to the other give the muscle contraction of the heart to work as a pump.  Continued on https://treesmenus.com

Host Verla FortierVerla's website https://treesmendus.comVerla's new book Optimize Your Heart Rate: BalanceYour Mind and Body With Green Space.  Verla's previous book Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic IllnessTime stamp: 03:00 My lupus diagnosis04:00 Green space research changed everything04:48 Sudden cardiac death of my best friend05:40 Take 3 minutes outside in green space06:27 HRV not captured on bedside heart monitors06:50 What is HRV07:24 Episode #30 Optimize Your Heart Rate is about  resting heart rate 08:11 High HRV08:18 How HRV08:39 Why researchers love HRV09:30 HRV measures fitness of your heart and your entire autonomic nervous system in one metric. 10:16 One HRV metric captures how much stress you are under - physiologically and psychologically11:29 HRV study in 2013 of 22K people without heart disease showed low HRV is indicative of first heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest  (by 40 percent) 13:19 Low HRV early  warning system for heart malfunction and accompanies a range of diseases 14:15 Marsuik research showed lupus patients  may have low HRV as a result of cytokines, not disease process15:07 Covid and HRV research/Cancer and HRV16:10 I use a chest strap for one minute every morning with my free HRV app18:20 Greenspace balances nervous system19:10 HRV let's me know what is going on - have my own surveillance system  and treatment plan19:59 What happened to my HRV this summer. Didn't bounce back20:52 My GP ordered a 48  hour halter monitor test21:42 Revolution in personalized medicine22:15 Toronto Lupus Clinic, University Health Network looked at prolonged antimalarial treatment effects. Link: 23: 49 Can pick up heart conduction damage in EKG24:11 Your own personal data is power24:38 Reducing my medication with my GP and Specialist26:37 Know your own HRV baseline26:52 Time spent in green space balances HRV and resting heart rate28:48  Be co-custodian of your own health by using HRV and greenspace. 

Host Verla FortierVerla's website https://treesmendus.comVerla's new book Optimize Your Heart Rate: BalanceYour Mind and Body With Green Space.  Verla's previous book Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic IllnessMichelle Schuman's book: The Understory: A Female Environmentalist in the Land of the Midnight SunMichelle Schuman's website: https://meschumancom.wordpress.com Your Outside  Mindset Podcast episode #36 Time Stamp (minutes: seconds) 1:31 Michelle Schuman is an environmental scientist with over four decades of experience in Alaska working for the federal government, state government, and the private sector. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Biology and Range Science, a minor in Soil Science and a Master’s in Environmental Policy and Wetland Restoration. Schuman is a certified Senior Ecologist and Professional Certified Wetland Scientist Schuman is credited with writing hundreds of technical documents, including the Wetland Functional Assessment Guide for Alaska. But her greatest and hardest, accomplishment was a first responder on the Exxon Oil Spill analyzing one of the most devastating and long-term human caused disaster in North America. She resigned from federal service in 1987, expanding her professional career into private consulting and state government in wetland science and oil spill response. In October 2020, she began writing her memoir, The Understory: A Female Environmentalist in the Land of the Midnight Sun. A year later, she signed an option agreement with HTWIP Productions for a screenplay. 4:26 I am 66 now.  I was born in a small, rural town in eastern Washington, where I was free to explore the basalt cliffs and sagebrush fields. After receiving my undergraduate degree in wildlife biology, range management, and soil science, I married my soulmate, whom I met working in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. 4:44 Our adventure took us to California, where my husband was a mechanical engineer; and Nevada, where I tracked wild horses. And then, I was offered a position in Alaska, working with reindeer and muskox. We thought it destiny, as his company also had a position in the same state and the same city, Anchorage. Early on in our Alaskan dream, my husband Rick was killed in a traffic accident. 5:01I was working in the bush at the time and found out through a one way radio  what happened. I  sat on the ground for about 6 hours. That is all in my book ... 5:19 This led me down this path of realizing how short life can be -- and to try to never regret and look back.  See the complete transcript at Treesmendus.com 

Host Verla FortierVerla's website https://treesmendus.comVerla's new book Optimize Your Heart Rate: BalanceYour Mind and Body With Green Space.  Verla's previous book Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness Guest Ernesto Rodriguez, Executive Director Nature In  The Classroom (tree mural ceilings) and in hospitals Sereneview (nature  mural hospital curtains).Shownote  Timeline3:45 Ernesto grew up in Cuba, grandfather a renown muralist6:30  Visited  his friend in hospital (got the creeps). Then went to assignment in the Redwood Forest. As  he  was waiting for the light to come through the trees (about  an hour) was thinking of his friend  in the hospital.  Ernesto felt so good  there and  wondered why hospitals can't feel  like this? Research  on scientist Roger Ulrich in the 80s.10:11 Brain reacts so quickly to nature. 11:36 Story  of Asia: emotional soothing with nature  curtain.14:27 Professor Richard Taylor's definition of fractals17:17 Hôspital curtains for veterans, National Parks18:26 10 days in National Parks22:11 Attention Restoration Theory (ART): nature helps to calm, focus, and learn. Nature gives brain a break. 24:00 Pilot Project to put tree mural ceilings in school.25:18 One of the drawbacks of introducing something new: only 2% off the population is going  to get it. It takes 18% before it goes mainstream. 31:07 Images of nature has to be life-like. Canopy has blue sky, see branches, see leaves, camera on a  tripod combined with software. 12 by 12 foot  squares  or 16 foot squares. 37:07 Tip: go outside -there is no substitute for that.38:11 Tip: We don't recognize your own anxiety until we see nature or get outside40:03 Follow Ernesto's work Nature in the Classroom on Facebook and Instagramand Sereneview.com

Michelle Olson, PhD, LCAT, ATR-BC, ACC/MC Founder, Executive Director www.evergreenminds.org  Verla's website https://treesmendus.comVerla's new book Optimize Your Heart Rate: BalanceYour Mind and Body With Green Space.  Verla's previous book Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness 1:19 Michelle Olson is a social gerontologist, who started as a creative arts therapist with WWII vets who had serious mental health and dementia. Expressive arts include visual arts, music,  dance and drama. 05:15 What makes the difference is the ability of people who are experiencing mental difficulties to communicate in different ways.  6:21 Michelle Olson: "When people lose the ability to talk... they can still move their bodies and use their senses -- as ways to connect and feel better." 7:19 Michelle Olson: "to do this as a family member -- we sometimes make it harder than we need to make it. It is the simple things sometimes the activity might be -- being together outdoors. Here we might spend time noticing the leaves or the light, the shadows, the textures.... 7:38 Maybe its the smell in the air  7:49 Sometimes I do forest therapy with clients and we turn around and notice things in different directions. Eg what does this acorn feel like? Maybe you can make a nature sculpture - something that will recreate this time together.  8:47 Maybe a person does want to make a painting - then I focus on the process - maybe that product is interesting. Or maybe they want to make a poem - it might rhyme or it might not. It is the whole process of connecting that matters.  09:58 As a social gerontologist I am interested in where we live and what we do across out whole lives....how we eat, how we move, how we socialize, how we interact with the world, do we feel safe.. 10:17 When I was an arts therapist that is when the light really went on...I wanted to know more about aging. In social gerontology we look at the person holistically over the course of their lives. The field of gerontology is growing, there are financial gerontologists, environmental gerontologists... we need to know all these perspectives.14:00 We often  don't think about environment when we think of aging.  United Nations just declared access to a healthy environment a human  right.  We  don't question why  we keep  patients and older people inside.     Dr Allen Power says balance the risk of safety and keeping people away from natural spaces. We can ask  staff  - to honour these  older people with dementia the option to go out everyday.   Paul Falkowski  PhD says  It  is  matter of changing behaviour and involving volunteers. 24:11 Evergreen Minds  Foundation - brings people together through expressive arts and green space -  helps educate staff and society.  Interview  show notes continued on Verla's  website

Dr. Bing Zhao  is a geriatric doctor in the first university of science and technology of China. This hospital is in  Hefei, a city located in the east China with a population of more than 9 million. She completed her medicine degree in China and PhD in University of Tasmania in Australia. Then she went to Duke University in the US as a research scholar. Her PhD research interest is air pollution and cardiovascular diseases. She is recognized for her presentations at the youth section of annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology, the largest cardiology congress in the world. She has published several papers and one of them was published in the Lancet planetary health.Please go to my website for the link to her paper. In my new book Optimize Your Heart Rate I tell the story of my close friend Leslie, aged 64 and apparently healthy with no diagnosis of heart disease,  who died of sudden cardiac arrest after  2 days on a road trip. Time line of my interview with Dr. Bing Zhao3:29 Breathing polluted air threatens our hearts4:19 The consequences of PM2.5 particulate  matter is dramatic5:03 PM 2.5 is a mix of solid and liquid - very thin- less than the size of a strand hair -goes right to lungs and heart7:22  Study in Japan nation wide - Out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) - compared # of OHCA with air pollution over 3 days.7:58 1/4 million cases over 2 years -  65 years of age increased incidence8:30 Japan has air quality stations all over the world9:01 Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops pumping = major medical emergency9:42 Study finding: Short term exposure to PM2.5  up to 3 days associated  with increased risk      of OHCA -- men and women over 65 more susceptible 10:24 Gases in traffic emissions -  nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide11:02 What surprised Dr Zhao the most?  People assume that air quality is safe at levels at levels below WHO levels. There are no safe levels of PM 2.5 air pollution for our hearts. 11:35 Current air pollution policy has to be changed12:28 We  need new health care responses to air pollutionChose public transportation over cars, use air purifiers indoors, and access green space in day to day activity.14:49 Acute exposure to air pollution increases risk of sudden cardiac arrest in less  than 3 days. 18:43 Time line and more info on my website https://treesmendus.comFor the story of my life long friend Leslie who died of a sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 63 on day 3 of her road trip see my new book Optimize Your Heart Rate: BalanceYour Mind and Body With Green Space.    

Time stamp interview notes continued on my website: https://treesmendus.com My new book Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body  With Green Space1:19 Professor Andy Jones is a public health academic who holds the position of professorial fellow in Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia in the UK. He has wide ranging interests including the pragmatic evaluation of public health interventions, the role of the environment as a determinant of health and related behaviours, and the impact of access to services on health outcomes. He has a strong focus on policy and delivery in his work and collaborates with several key organisations working in this field, including the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Cancer Research UK.Interview timeline:2:20  childhood, mother took him outside along the Suffolk coastline. Studied environmental science and always interested in health. Nature and health relationship - advocate for both.4:36  definition and history  of green space, UK companies like Cadbury recognized that if  you wanted productive workers, you needed healthy workers  --  so developed new settlements that integrated green space - 6:47 everyone had a garden7:31 green space in UK has been an urban centric movement eg massive Hyde Park09:37  “The health benefits of the great outdoors: a systematic review and meta-analysis of green space exposure and health outcomes.” Published in the Journal Environmental Research, 2018. What did you want to know? The  process?   Individual studies may not offer a strong case for causality but when you combine individual  studies in a way that allows for more broad conclusions. According  to 290 million people  in 140 studies (96% of studies from last 10 years – illustrating the rapid growth in green space and health). Living close to green space and spending time outside has significant and wide ranging benefits. Time in green space reduces risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature death, stress, high blood pressure. 10:02 Review of the literature, systematic, so that somebody else can some along and do the same thing - and would get the same thing. 10:53 Why  did do review? Take stock, let's try and cut through all the noise and get the signal. Find out what is common. 11:57  looked at everything except mental health 12:34 Health outcomes that we can measure - heart rate, heart rate variability HRV, mortality, cortisol levels13: 26 143 studies - signal, explosion of interest 14:41 Populations in green space had better health outcome, particularly stress outcomes 1)  heart rate and 2) heart rate variability HRV 3) cardiac mortality15:56 Results: 20% reduction in bad things, if we had a pill that would do that we would take it. 17:07  The most surprising thing was the consistency of the findings and size of differences in populations with more green space and those with the least access to green space. 18:08 Threw out some studies and only kept the highest quality  studies and got the same result. Still consistent. 19:36 Interesting unanswered questions on quality  of green space. Do we have to use it or is it enough to just look at it? 

Ben Rawlence The Treeline Ben Rawlence City of Thorns Ben Rawlence Radio Congo Ben Rawlence on TwitterBlack Mountains College  websiteBlack Mountains College on TwitterVerla Fortier Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mind and Body With Green Space Verla Fortier Take Back Your Outside MindsetVerla Fortier Take Back Your Outside Mindset Workbook Interview with Ben  Rawlence: Recording  Time Stamps5:00  Radical hope and clear eyed awareness.2 degrees means awful things  but also opportunity  to reconsider  our  ways, and embrace our roles as guardians of nature - re- entangle with nature.8:12 New  ways of looking and seeing. Ancient and some modern with  huge datasets  re  future impacts. Biochemical research on trees, we have characterized so few.9:15  See forest as a garden and laboratory, change in perspective, "timber is the least valuable thing in the forest." Travel writing, Adventures with Characters.Seven Chapters, Seven Species, Seven Stops Around the World in the Boreal 10:15  Wales The Yew Tree in Ben's back yard. Simple questions: Why is that tree in that place?How long has it been here?Ice Age, reminders of the patterns vegetation on earth and time scale of 2000 or 8000 years. Long time scales. 13:43  Scotland story here is deforestation. Treeless landscape.  Aventure to find small patch of old pines. 15:34 Norway - Finmark, top of Europe. Different story  of "afforestation." Birch used to be in the valleys, now it is zooming up into the tundra. Lapland nomads way of life hunting reindeer disappearing as trees move in -- taking over grassland, lichen, and trapping snow to produce soil. 18:21 Russia - immense forest, half of the boreal forest is in Siberia. Most northernly forest in the world. Larch is frozen 260 days a year. Prevents injury to itself in the freezing process by freezing solid like glass. Here trees are not moving at all. 21:00 Alaska -  Spruce trees are galloping north. Species that live off the trees, the beaver....Continued on Treesmendus.com

My new book is here on Amazon: Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance  Your  Mind and Body With Green  Space Amazon.com  Amazon.ca Amazon.co.ukComplete show notes: https://treesmendus.comYou might think that diet and exercise are the best ways to avoid a heart attack.  And yes that research is well understood. But this another way.  This is to be aware of the environments that can either help or harm your heart.  Do you know that your heart is under attack every day by hidden threats that you cannot see  in your environment?  This is what my new  book Optimize Your Heart Rate is all about. In it I tell the story of my life-long friend Leslie’s sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 63. I want you to know what Leslie didn’t know. By the end of the book you will know how to use green space and your own heart rate numbers to:  avoid these hidden threats, protect your heart, know when your heart is in danger and what to do about it. I wrote this book so that what happened to Leslie does not happen to you—so that you can live your best life possible. 9:09     Why nurses use resting  heart rates 10:59   What low and high  resting heart rates  mean for you13:00   Is heart  rate data from wearables reliable?14:00   U of C smart phone heart rate apps compared  to gold standard ECG.15:15  A  patient care revolution 17:00 Stanford study, Dr. Snyder,  resting  heart rate, your  early warning system18:31  Your resting  heart rate in  green space

https://treesmendus.com for  transcript of this episode.  For more evidence- based research and tips please check out my book and workbook Take Back Your  Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness.    University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute https://enviromeinstitute.com/ Follow @UofLEnvirome on Twitter https://twitter.com/UofLEnvirome Pick up “Environmental Cardiology: Pollution and Heart Disease (Issues in Toxicology)” by Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar on Amazon https://amazon.com  Ambitious Louisville study seeks to understand impact of trees on our health. (2019, December 12). PBS NewsHour; PBS NewsHour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ambitious-louisville-study-seeks-to-understand-impact-of-trees-on-our-health  ‌Wood, J. (2019, November 21). Re-greening: can Louisville plant its way out of a heat emergency? The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/nov/21/re-greening-can-louisville-plant-its-way-out-of-a-heat-emergency  Aruni Bhatnagar on Google Scholar https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=riRJqrYAAAAJ&hl=en University of Louisville faculty bio https://louisville.edu/medicine/departments/medicine/divisions/environmental-medicine/faculty/bhatnagar-aruni Dr. Bhatnagar is Professor of Medicine and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He is the Director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and Co-Director at the American Heart Association.  He was the Deputy Editor of Circulation Research for 10 years.  Dr. Bhatnagar a leading expert on the mechanisms by which environmental exposures such as air pollution affect cardiovascular disease risk. His studies at University of Louisville have led to the development of the new field of Environmental Cardiology. Dr. Bhatnagar has published 389 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 25 book chapters and reviews and over 200 abstracts.  Will you please tell us a little more about you and how you became the  pioneer of  environmental cardiology?  2:47  The true causes of heart  disease: Environmental  Cardiology As a junior investigator studying the electrical activity of the heart in cardiovascular function anddisease I came to understand that  we really have not found that the  true causes of the  effects of heart disease. Most people believe that heart disease is caused by malfunction the heart, changes in electrical activity, blocked blood  vessels, or high blood pressure. These are the net effects of  a larger set of wider causes that  are mostly external  to us.  

Anna Cooper Reid tells us that PaRx is breaking ground as Canada's first national, evidence-based nature prescription program. Two hours a week is all it takes. The following notes the minute mark for points in our conversation:6  minute mark:  PaRx program what it is.  Evidence based and national (Canada) 9  minute mark:  How evidence will help further research: unique provider code & prescription pad compatible with electronic patient record in that province. 12 minute mark: Will be able to evaluate  how well it works14 minute mark:  What prescription looks like is up to the patient (a meaningful connection with nature is individual). Time required in green space: 2 hours/week at 20 minute intervals 20 minute mark: climate/covid. People who are connected to nature are more likely to protect it. We can thank the planet when we get out in nature. 23 minute mark: the future is exciting, providers are excited, patients are involved, PaRx will launch in other provinces, and will be available for use in licensed health care providers (nurses, social work, pharmacy, physicians, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy) undergraduate course content. 28 minute mark: one thing listeners can take away, have a conversation with your health care provider. If you want to iand  my  website nform your provider go to the website: www.parkprescriptions.caHere you will find a tab for patients and a tab for prescribers. Also  organized according to older and younger   age groups,  heart health,  respiratory heath. Graphics and easy to  understand. 31 minute mark: Everything  on  the website is linked to research. All the  evidence in there. You can explore the studies. If you want to reach out to Anna or ask questions you  can do on the website (ask for Anna). 33 minute mark:Wrap up with Verla. Please check out my  book and workbook Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Stress Less, and Control Your Chronic Illness and  my website treesmendus.com for more practical tips, information and resources. As we know getting  outside does not require a trip to the pharmacy, but to your local green  space where you can  soak in the positive and overlapping benefits of green space.

 I was thrown for a loop this summer by a diagnosis of breast cancer. Here is my story: I felt a lump in my breast, it was surgically removed. When  we got the pathology report back it showed that I  had a form  of cancer called  Ductal Carcioma In Situ (DCIS) which means the cancer is contained in ducts in the breast. Just the  word cancer scares everyone. And in a split second, I  had to make the decision about starting radiation therapy immediately. When  my mind started to spin, I knew from my past lupus diagnosis experience with green space – that I  needed the help of nature to ease the ruminations of “what if” and “if only.” My boys said “read your book mom.” Since I know that time in green space goes right to our physiology, mentally and physically, I knew I was not only helping myself to think clearly, but I was putting my entire body into a less stressed state. Green space not only  calmed  the landscape in my mind, but allowed me to reach out to others immediately  who helped me feel comfortable with my treatment decision. I opted not to have radiation at this  time and instead use “active surveillance”  option to see if the cancer was spreading. In November 2021, my mammogram was all clear of cancer. Relief for me and my loved  ones, but I became doubly aware of the  profound  impact of a cancer diagnosis on the person, their loved ones,  and  their community.  As I planned I did spend the summer with my loved ones outside swimming, walking, cycling, golfing, and gardening – and we enjoyed the black bears that passed through and sometimes stayed for days in my back yard in Pine Falls, Manitoba. It was a wonderful summer in  spite of the cancer uncertainty. I am so excited to share with you a synopsis of my up coming book. It has been part of my life for a long time – 3 years now. It is about my friend who I love, who died suddenly. Their were a lot of challenges in writing this book: I struggled with the fact that the love of Leslie’s life Bill would be reading it, that her family and friends who also loved her, all live in our small town of Pine Falls, Manitoba.I worried that Leslie was hiding something from us – maybe she knew something we didn’t about her heart and her health? I had no access to Leslie’s medical records, but I did know all I had to know: Leslie was on no heart medication, (so no heart dx) and was not referred out to a heart specialist (so nothing wrong with her heart that would warrant a specialist referral). So in writing this I had to get the balance right between the love of my friend and the peer reviewed science of heart and environment. I am so proud of getting it  done, especially in light of these challenges. The book is close to finished and will  be out in the New  Year. For transcript please visit https://treesmendus.comBook: Take Back Your Outside Mindset

This time instead of a podcast guest,  I  am going to  talk  about my own situation. I have not even tried to book any more podcast guests. My body and my mind have been telling me that I need to take a break and it is time for me  to  listen. When I started this podcast a year ago, I was in the middle of writing a book about my best friend Leslie who died suddenly. I wanted to know if there was something I could have done to help save Leslie. This is what started me on the journey of writing the book.  The book is with my editor now. At this point I am not even sure that I have the energy to take it across the finish line. Where my  first book, Take Back Your Outside Mindset, just poured out of me, this book  about the death of my best friend was harder to write. I kept wanting to check in with Leslie to see what she thought. And Leslie would tell us.  She had no trouble expressing her opinions  - and her clear assessment of the situation.  I can’t wait to talk to you about Leslie, what she was like, why her death was such a shock, and what I knew as a  nurse at the time she died.  If you knew Leslie, you would know that she would have a great and entertaining story to tell you of what happened to her. And one thing I  know for sure is that while she was telling her side of things, she’d expect me to be there giving the medical/nursing/health administration inside scoop of how the health care system really  works.  So that is what I try to do this in the book. I do what Leslie would have expected me to  do -- become a nursing detective on  why she died like she did. The detective tools that I end up using are heart rate and heart rate variability to help me to figure out why Leslie died so suddenly – when she was fine two days before she died.  I combine  these two tools with rock solid green space research to discover the culprits and silent assailants on  Leslie’s two day road trip. Ultimately this book is about your heart, and the world the surrounds your heart – and how to protect your heart to make sure what happened to Leslie does not happen to you.  I know if  Leslie were here right now,  she would tell me to take my own  advice.  If she were still here she would tell me to take a break - step away for a while – “be good to yourself.” she’d say something like “if you want my story to help others, you better  put the oxygen mask on yourself  first.” Verla Fortier's transcript of this episode visit   treesmendus.com.Verla Fortier's  book and workbook: Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Prevent Dementia, and Control Your Chronic Illness

Professor Rachel Buxton is  a conservation scientist at Carleton University.  Website: https://rachelbuxton.wordpress.comTwitter: @buxton_rachel Verla Fortier's transcript of this episode visit   treesmendus.com.Verla Fortier's  book and workbook: Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Prevent Dementia, and Control Your Chronic IllnessRachel Buxton:  For me what was the most striking was the level of benefit that we get. So we found overall an over 180% improvement in groups that listened to natural sounds – we also found large decreases in stress and annoyance in groups that were listening to natural sounds. And then just the breath of different health outcomes, so everything from improving our mood, improving our cognitive abilities – so our ability to do complex tasks, decrease in our pain, and decrease in our levels of stress. So really a remarkable set of benefits just from listening to the  sounds  of nature. You’ve talked about the benefits, what can you say about what sound does to our body? Sound is such an important sense. It is one of the first senses that form in humans. Babies can hear from 20 weeks in the womb. It’s a very primal sense. It is very under appreciated. There is no such thing as ear lids. We can’t close out ears, so we are constantly taking in information through our ears. Even when you are sleeping you are still hearing and you have reflective capacity for sound. It is such an important sense, and one that often gets ignored because are these visual creatures. So when you go out into nature you think about these beautiful vistas that you see – looking over from a mountain top – yes that is very important, but the sounds that you are experiencing in nature are also really fundamental. You can think of the impact  of sound from  an evolutionary perspective. So humans  are really good at  paying attention to signals of danger and signals of safety. A sound environment that is full  of sounds of nature, birds, water is a pretty good indicator of a safe environment. So what that allows us to do is let down our guard,  it allows for mental recuperation, and relaxation. Whereas an acoustic environment that is empty --  so either it has no natural sounds – the birds have stopped singing – or it has very few  natural sounds, that’s a  pretty good indicator that something has gone wrong. It might be an indicator of danger. And so what happens is we become vigilant. We are on the look out for what might be wrong. That does  not allow for mental recuperation and can actually lead to stress.

Paula Frizzell   IG and Facebook:  paulacfrizzell We met on IG  when you tagged me on your beautiful IG post of a bird saying you’d read my book. I was delighted. Please tell us your story.  Well  my story is a long one but a positive one about what  trees,  nature, and mindfulness can do in  our lives.   Your book, Take Back Your Outside Mindset  spoke to me and I devoured it, then ordered more to share with those who I love that are suffering.  And I am getting lots of great feedback from them. They tease me about going forest bathing with their husbands. So this gets my mind away from things and you never know what you might see if you are noticing. So taking the photo relaxes me.   This morning I was doing that. My husband brought me some daffodils, narcissus and I shot deep into the flower. That was my meditation time to look deep into the flower to see what I could see. I use a macro setting to get deeper and deeper into the flower.   That  is where the gratitude comes in. To see if through the lens of a camera, upload those photos to a computer or ipad, to see the infinite detail and creation inside that bulb is amazing. It is like a dove sitting outside here in my courtyard, it has purple and pink – it has so many colors. If you are just driving by, you will see a mourning dove as just a grey bird. But they are not grey at all. Their eye is black but it is ringed with turquoise. So that is where I am grateful for that extra eye  -- that extra vision of all that is out here. For the spring and winter I focus on birds. For the summer and fall I focus on  plants, bugs, and butterflies.  I do waterfowl in the winter time because that is when the ducks and the other water birds are out and about in our area.For a complete transcript of our conversation please visit: treesmendus.comThank you to our podcast listeners in now 26 countries and 309 cities around the world. I would love hear your comments on this episode and others – just go to my website treesmendus.com. (all one word) Please check out my book and workbook Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Prevent Dementia, and Control Your Chronic Illness.    Listeners if you like, think about Paula Frizzell practice of using  your photo taking process while out in nature as your own kind of gratitude process– that you can use to share to help others. Maybe notice and practice your breathing as you take your shot like Paula does. And when you do, we know that  you will feel  better about yourself and your world around you – and this is a  good thing, because we all need a little more of Your Outside Mindset.    

Episode #23  Patricia Pearsell <journeytobetterhealth1@gmail.comPatricia Pearsell on Facebook Episode transcript: https://treesmendus.comMy dear friend Stacy had given me a copy of Take Back Your Outside Mindset for Christmas in 2019. She always puts quite a bit of thought into what she chooses to give as gifts. She knows how much I enjoy being outside in my yard, or camping, or hiking.  The title intrigued me and I began reading it right away and I immediately felt a realization that I needed to do this - to get outside again and often.  Your story and your book truly touched my soul at a time when I was feeling extremely overwhelmed and full of negative ruminations. I honestly feel that it has changed the quality of my life, and my family's.  The best part though is how the effect has rippled through the communities of women that I am connected with, and how my sharing your book with them or encouraging them to get outside more often has helped them too. I fully believe that returning to our outside mindset is crucial to our overall self-care as women and as caregivers.   I decided that I had to meet you and reached out to you online but we have not been able to meet in person....yet.  When I read about negative rumination in your book, Take Back Your Outside Mindset, that is one of the biggest ahah moments that I had. I didn’t realize that that was what I was doing to myself – was perpetuating that cycle of negative rumination until I read about it in your work. And I think it is something a lot of people do and just don’t realize it. And it does take a little bit of realization to help get yourself out of it. So for me, one of the best examples I can give you is, it was keeping me awake at night worrying about the decisions we made for our son’s care and how that was going to affect his future. Of course no one can predict the future, we don’t have crystal balls, and I was spending a lot of time and energy worrying about what was going to develop, how he was going to develop… what is his future going to be like? Who is going to help him down the road? All these things that at the time did not serve me or my family in any good way.Before I ask you how you and your son are doing. In the introduction we learned that you were diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion after your son was diagnosed with cancer. And that you had negative rumination. Can you tell us a little about that please? Before you do, I will remind our listeners that negative rumination is that kind of thinking that starts with what if, if only, I can’t, I am ….       

 Episode # 22 Dr. Ellen Langer is a professor in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. Her numerous academic honors include four Distinguished Scientist Awards and The Liberty Science Genius Award. Her books written for academic and popular readers include:  Mindfulness Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and The Power of Possibility  On Becoming An Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity The Power of Mindful Learning  Dr. Langer your  work changed my life at at  time in my sixties, when I needed it most. I based  my book  and workbook, Take Back Your Outside Mindset on your mindfulness and  mindset studies.   What is your definition of Mindfulness?  Mindfulness as we study it, is the simple process of actively noticing new things. That’s all it is. It is amazingly simple, but the consequences of this are enormous. So when you are noticing new things, that puts you in the present, makes you aware of context, and that active noticing is the essence of engagement. So we find that when people are actively noticing, they become more energized, and this active noticing is literally and  figuratively enlivening. Many people think  when  they hear the  word mindfulness, that  it  is meditation. Meditation, while fine, is not mindfulness. Meditation is a process that you go through to achieve post meditative mindfulness. Mindfulness as we  study it is much more  direct – not better or worse – just more direct. We have done research on this active noticing for over forty  years and we find that it is, as I said literally and figuratively enlivening, that when  you are actively noticing and being mindful, people find you more attractive, see you as charismatic, see you as trust worthy, the products that you produce bear this imprint of mindfulness ….so it’s good for your health and  your relationships. Forty years is a long time, so there are very few outcomes that we haven’t assessed. It is amazing because it is so simple.   Transcript: Treesmendus.com 

Episode #21 Ceremonies to our people has always been important because ceremony is an act of gratitude to the Spirit .. and an  act of gratitude to the Land. Because everything we do and receive, we recognize we have to reciprocate by offering a simple word and prayer of gratitude  … and say "thank you Creator,  that you have given me this breath of life here on earth again today” “thank you mother earth that you have provided the sustenance ---the food that I have been able to eat, and the water, and the medicines that I need in order to stay healthy.” When I reflect on the questions that you had like “what is the single most important thing to do help us to connect more deeply with nature whether we live near the bush or in the city ?”  and I have been asked that question many many times. And the answer is very very simple – and that is to make that journey to the Land  -- to go to be near a lake, a river, falls, rapids – and be within the environment of the beauty of nature itself. Go and find a tree that you are attracted to. Go and sit by that tree. Talk to that tree. And allow yourself to be open to the messages that nature brings. There may be a bird that will visit you and want to sing you a song. What is the message that that bird is bringing you – because you are reaching out – wanting to feel that life through nature itself. Nature is the ultimate healer because within nature comes the medicines and the teachings that we need on how to heal.So Listeners to hear more Elder Dave’s voice and messages of Elders visit Turtle Lodge website: Turtlelodge.orglinks in show notes. On the Turtlelodge website Elder Dr. David Courchene introduces a new book by the Knowledge Keepers from the Turtle Lodge - "Wahbanung - The Resurgence of a People: Clearing the Path for Our Survival". You Tube Beautiful and uplifting videos. Indigenous Teachings for Uncertain Times. http://www.turtlelodge.org/wahbanung/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oBPNlu0LxI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7oW9HgIRsI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bgMcBNOoHY&t=277s  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qktLJ4EUn7w For  full transcription of this episode please go to my website Treesmendus.com. If you have not yet left a review of this podcast please consider.  Please check out my book and workbook: Take Back Your Outside Mindset: Live Longer, Prevent Dementia, and Control Your Chronic Illness.     

Episode #20   An Officer of the Order of Canada, Lorna Crozier has been acknowledged for her contributions to Canadian literature, her teaching and her mentoring with five honorary doctorates, most recently from McGill and Simon Fraser Universities. Her books have received numerous national awards, including the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry. The Globe and Mail declared The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things one of its Top 100 Books of the Year, and Amazon chose her memoir as one of the 100 books you should read in your lifetime. A Professor Emerita at the University of Victoria, she has performed for Queen Elizabeth II and has read her poetry, which has been translated into several languages, on every continent except Antarctica. Her book, What the Soul Doesn't Want, was nominated for the 2017 Governor General's Award for Poetry. In 2018, Lorna Crozier received the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award. Steven Price called Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats), her latest nonfiction book, “one of the great love stories of our time.” Lorna Crozier lives on Vancouver Island.  1) Please tell us your story and reasons why nature runs through all your work.    I think one of the mistakes we make is as a human species, is that we talk about going for a walk “in” nature or we are going outside “to” nature.  We separate ourselves from it. We are part of nature like every other species like robins, earthworms, fish, and hawks. It is interesting that we have put this glass bell around ourselves and pretend that we are separate, and I think at our own peril. So ever since I was a kid, I have been outdoors. And it may be because I was part of that lucky generation whose mothers said, “get out and play and don’t come back until suppertime.” And we’d run outside.   I lived in small city, not in a forest or in a meadow, but we lived in the alleys. We’d build trenches for the water to come down the alley. And we collected sticks to come down in them. We caught frogs and bumble bees in mason jars and let them go.  We examined ants as they made their way across our sidewalks. We were 100% involved and I think that instilled in me that idea my skin should not separate me from other creatures. When I feel happiest and when I feel most spiritual, is when I can shuck off the boundaries of what it means to be human and enter into the world of wind and sunlight and an animal with its eyes on me, as  I want to put my eyes on it. In your first memoirSmall Beneath the Sky this comes through. You were born  in Swft Current, Saskatchewan. The names of the chapters in this book are: light, dust, wind,  rain, and snow as you weave in the story of your tough  but fun childhood.  .... I said, “I am not going to write about me.... I am going to write about what effect landscape has on the development of character. I have always been fascinated by that.Transcript: Treesmendus.com See: lornacrozier.ca