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Feeling Stressed? Try Nature Therapy

Richmond Springs at Backbone State Park

Many of us turn to nature for peace, recreation, and inspiration, and research is starting to support how interaction with the natural world can improve health and decrease stress.

Dr. Suzanne Bartlett is an Integrative Medicine Specialist at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids. When she started practicing medicine, she worked as an obstetrician. Today, she’s incorporating what she calls nature therapy into her new integrative medicine practice.

She says when she started to question some of the conventional methods she’d been taught, it changed the way she thought about treating patients.

“All of these things coincided and completely changed the way I practice medicine. I used to write 100-150 prescriptions per week, and now I write 2-3 per year. That’s not an exaggeration,” she says.

During this hour of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with Bartlett. Amos Clifford, Founder and Director of the Association of Forest Therapy Guides and Programs also joins the conversation. 

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Lindsey Moon is IPR's Senior Digital Producer
Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa