Outdoors and Your Health

     An Australian study of 1496 6-year-old children found that those who had the most physical activity in the outdoors had wider retinal arteriolar diameter than those who were sedentary.
     This may mean that outdoor activity may reduce hypertension because retinal arteriolar narrowing is a marker of hypertension in both children and adults and it has been shown in previous studies to be related to cardiovascular disease.
     This is probably not a surprise to many people as it is simply further evidence that physical activity helps control problems of obesity and high blood pressure.
     More information on this study can be found at "Eyes May Be a Mirror of the Heart" by Todd Neale in MedPage Today on April 22, 2011.

Looking for a group to Kayak or Canoe with?

     Check out Southeast Texas Kayak and Canoe Group's Web site: http://outdoorstudies.com/kayak
     You can view some of their recent trips and sign up for their email list.
     Also, visit FaceBook: "Discovering the Outdoors" for new of Outdoor Happenings.

How to Raise a Wild Child

   Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods identifies a problem that should concern everyone--"nature deficit" in today's children. Most children do not get enough contact unless their parents help them build a bridge to the natural world.
   Many schools in the United States are even eliminating physical education from their curriculum leaving children sitting at their desks at school all day and in front of the television or computer at home at night.
   David Sobel has written a new book, Wild Play, that provides some solutions to this problem. The new memoir he has written tells a personal story of how he tried to raise his own children with an appreciation for nature from their earliest years to young adulthood.