We performed a physio-psychological research on the mental, physical relaxation and health-keeping effect of Shinrin-yoku (forest walking) in Kawaba village. Eleven male and 8 female healthy elderly residents in Kawaba village, whose average age was 74.0±3.5 years old for male and 74.9±2.9 years old for females volunteered for this experiment. All members walked for one hour in the Kawaba Forest on August 17 under cloudy skies, 30-32°C temperature, 58-60% humidity, and, 0-2m/sec wind condition and walked again for another one hour in a non-forest rural agricultural area on August 21 under almost the same weather conditions. Phytoncides in the air, Profile of Mood State (POMS) test, blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), fasting levels of serum natural killer cell activity (NK), plasma catecholamine (adrenaline, noradrenalin and dopamine), plasma cortisol, and serum adiponectin were measured before and after walking. Phytoncides were detected in the forest and non-forest, all members showed a decrease of POMS total scale, BP, adrenalin and serum cortisol. Six (3 male and 3 female subjects) of them expressed an increase of serum NK cell activity after the forest-walking. One female showed a high serum NK cell activity after both forest and non-forest rural walking.
Our experiment on the forest-walking in Kawaba village indicated that its relaxation and health-keeping effects, probably due to walking in the fresh forest air.