From crystal-blue lakes to snow-capped mountains and thousand-year-old trees, Canada’s nature is highly praised around the world. Now it might also be just what the doctor ordered.

An ambitious new programme allows doctors to write prescriptions for free annual passes to Canada’s national parks, encouraging their patients to improve their health-both mental and physical-by taking a stroll in nature.

The prescriptions are provided by PaRX, in partnership with Parks Canada. The first passes were handed out last month, giving holders access to more than 80 national parks, historic sites and nature reserves.

PaRX, a health initiative launched in 2019 by the British Columbia Parks Foundation, notes on its website that spending time in nature can lead to longer lives, increased energy, reduced stress and anxiety, improved heart health, less pain and better mood. Vitamin D from the sun’s rays has proven health benefits. The organisation also hopes that the prescriptions will boost investment in conservation in Canada.

The initial provision covers four Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Manitoba. Participating doctors have only 100 annual passes to hand out for now, but PaRX hopes that the programme will be expanded. Because economic factors can affect access to nature, doctors using the pass programme have been urged to prioritize patients who might not otherwise be able to afford the passes, the Washington Post reported.

Medical research now clearly shows the positive health benefits of connecting with nature. Steven Guilbeault, the environment minister said, “I am confident this programme will quickly show its enormous value to the wellbeing of patients as it continues to expand throughout the country.”

Canada’s physicians are already in the habit of prescribing “nature therapy” as a treatment for anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, immune function and insomnia (失眠症). Previously, though, they would write more general prescriptions, such as spending time in nature twice a week, for at least 20 minutes at a time. This is the first time that they have been able to equip their patients with tickets. Certain doctors in the United States are also prescribing time outdoors, reflecting a more holistic (整体疗法的) approach to public health, as are those in Belgium and the Shetland Islands.

When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ran to my mom for help —but instead of taking me to a doctor, my mom set my hand on fire. After wrapping my hand with several layers of cotton, then soaking it in wine, she put a chopstick into my mouth, and ignited the cotton. Heat quickly penetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand. The pain made me want to scream, but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my hand burn —one minute, then two minutes— until mom put out the fire.

You see, the part of China I grew up in was a rural village, and at that time preindustrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, and even no running water. And we certainly didn’t have access to modern medical resources. There was no doctor my mother could bring me to see about my spider bite.

For those who study biology, you may have grasped the science behind my mom’s cure: heat deactivates(使失去活性) proteins, and a spider’s venom (毒液) is simply a form of protein. It’s cool how that folk remedy actually incorporates basic biochemistry, isn’t it? But I am a PhD student in biochemistry at Harvard, I now know that better, less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’t help but ask myself why I didn’t receive one at the time.

Fifteen years have passed since that incident I am happy to report that my hand is fine. But this question lingers, and I continue to be troubled by it. We have learned to edit the human genome(基因组) and unlock many secrets of how cancer progresses. We can control neuronal activity literally with the switch of a light. Each year brings more advances in biomedical research—exciting, transformative accomplishments. Yet, despite the knowledge we have accumulated, we haven’ t been so successful in distributing it to where it’s needed most. According to the World Bank, twelve percent of the world’s population lives on less than $ 2 a day. Malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. Three hundred million people are suffering malaria globally. All over the world, we constantly see these problems of poverty, illness, and lack of resources preventing the flow of scientific information. Life-saving knowledge we take for granted in the modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions. And in far too many places, people are still essentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire.