The University of Wyoming and two local gardening groups are conducting a study on the health benefits of gardening. vWith the help of a $5 million USDA grant, they were able to find 14 volunteers with significant medical issues to start growing food in their own backyards. The goal of the project is to see if gardening improves health.
“We get people gardens, we put them in, we work with the people who have them and then measure whether there’s a health effect on them. So all the people involved have some sort of health challenge,” said Gayle Woodsum.
Woodsum is in charge of a group called Feeding Laramie Valley. Feeding Laramie Valley is a local group that collects fruit and vegetable donations around town and proceeds to distribute the contributions to soup kitchens and other organizations.
The health challenges of the participants in the study range are very different and range from arthritis all the way to diabetes, Woodsum said. All the participants come from different socio-economic backgrounds and consist of different age groups.
At the beginning of the study the participants were asked to take extensive tests in order to recover substantial data about their medical heath. The data was carefully recorded and at the end of the gardening session, the same tests will be conducted to assess whether they are healthier.
Two volunteers, Tera Nichols and her son Jason, now spend most of their mornings gardening together.
When discussing her heath issues Tera said she has a lot of chronic, but not acute conditions.
“Osteoarthritis which has gotten really bad,” Nichols said. “Heart condition, diabetes and asthma-not the least to say anxiety disorder and depression.”
Since participating in the study, Nichols said both her and her son have been eating a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables and are getting more exercise because of the manual labor involved in gardening. Jason said he has been feeling healthier.
“I managed to keep off four pounds and my blood sugar has stabilized for the first time in a long, long time. So that’s what it’s done for me,” Jason said.
The study was conceived by Dr. Christine Porter, the assistant professor of public health at UW. Porter said she believes that gardening works because it gives people some control over their health. According to Porter, there are a lot of observational tests on the health effects of gardening but this is the first and only study that collects scientific data.
“Our goal here is ultimately to do a randomized control trial so you can be sure that the benefits that are being attributed to gardens are true,” Porter said. “And can prove those benefits, which include not only access to food, increased fruits and vegetable consumption, but increased activity, lowered stress, increased social networks. Even with home gardens, interestingly.”
The study is being done in Laramie and on Wind River Indian Reservation. It will track a wide variety of health problems including blood glucose, blood pressure and stress levels. Porter said that on the reservation alone, diabetes is so prevalent that life expectancy is only 59.
Jim Sutter, who works for Blue Mountain Associates, the Wind River Reservation group partnering the study, says he’s already seeing positive results.
“I’ve seen the gardeners that have been already utilizing the produce from their gardens,” Sutter said. “And, you know, they’re happier and just look healthier than when we started this.”
