The week's April showers are over, and public health officials want Tennesseans to take advantage and improve their health by visiting parks and other outdoor recreation spaces during National ParkRx Day on Sunday.
"Our Tennessee State Parks are some of the best in the country and wonderful places to be mindful of ourselves, our loved ones and the creation that surrounds us," Dr. John Dreyzehner, Tennessee Department of Health commissioner, said in a news release. "Turning off or ignoring our electronic devices and being outdoors to tune into the conversations of nature all around us can greatly improve our well-being, so get out and have some nature."
Limited exercise is linked to health problems including an increased risk for developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
Although Chattanooga is known for its outdoors scene, 28 percent of adults age 20 and over reported no leisure-time physical activities last year, according to the County Health Rankings report released in March.
Healthy Parks Healthy Person Tennessee, an initiative of Tennessee State Parks with support from the Tennessee Department of Health, works with health care providers to promote the outdoors as a means of improving the health of Tennesseans.
Dr. Jeffrey Colburn, a family medicine physician at CHI Memorial Internal Medicine Associates, said "getting started is always the hardest part," so participating in fun outdoor activities with friends and family members is a great way to kick-start an exercise routine.
"An initiative like this where you can get more people out will hopefully lower your risk of diabetes, stroke, high cholesterol," he said. "Especially for people that are getting older, it's important to get regular physical exercise to keep their bones strong, which also includes a healthy amount of sunlight - not overdoing it - but at least getting some Vitamin D production."
The program, a component of Healthy Parks Healthy Person Tennessee, is a way for nurses, physicians and other health care professionals to assess the physical activity of their patients, counsel patients on the importance of physical activity and prescribe outdoor activity as part of their health or treatment plans, according to a news release.
The park prescriptions come as a tear-off pad, just like regular prescriptions, and patients can use the web-based phone application to log outdoor experiences and earn rewards at Tennessee State Parks, the release states.
National ParkRx Day is celebrated across the United States to promote the growing movement of prescribing time spent in parks and nature to improve health.
Contact staff writer Elizabeth Fite at efite@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.