Got Sick Kids? Send Them Outdoors!

Benjamin Franklin once wrote to the French physician Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, “I rise early almost every morning and sit in my chamber, without any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to season, either reading or writing.” Why? Franklin believed that daily baths of fresh air were good for one’s health. He must have known what he was doing because the old guy lived to the ripe old age of 84.

I’m calling it sage advice. Truman is still recovering from step throat and he has a bad case of cabin fever. He just left his cocoon of blankets and pillows on the couch and wormed himself into my lap, here in my office. He doesn’t have his usual energy, which makes catching up on work a little easier for me. But he is bored to tears. Literally. I decided it was time for us to get out of the house and enjoy some of that healing fresh air.

Romping around outdoors when sick goes against conventional wisdom. My MIL, for one, frowns on the practice, but there are good arguments touting benefits of getting outdoors. First, there is Sick Building Syndrome, often associated with workplaces, where people cooped up in a building together begin to suffer from “acute health and comfort effects,” according to The Daily Green. The cause is poor indoor air quality that allows the building’s occupants to suck up each other’s germs floating in the air, chemicals from cleaning products used in the building, ozone from photocopiers, pesticides from the exterminator, fumes from new carpets, and secondhand cigarette smoke drifting in from outdoors. The thought alone makes me want to run outside.

The great outdoors also exposes you to generous amounts of sunlight, which produces vitamin D in the body. Vitamin D is found in few foods but is essential for promoting calcium absorption which aides in bone growth and strengthening. Without sufficient vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle or misshapen. A vitamin D deficiency could lead to liver or kidney disorders, bone softening diseases such as rickets in children, osteomalacia in adults, and osteoperosis in older adults.

So, come and join us. Get outside, take a deep breath, and enjoy the healing powers of fresh air.

Photos, JWJourney