Indoor Plants & Their Health Benefits

Amidst the trend setting culture of social media platforms indoor plants have become a craze for interior decor everywhere but knowing what indoor plants are right for you and understanding how to care for them is incredibly important. 

Most people love living and working in greenspaces, and having beautiful plants around rejuvenates them. But there is a lot more to it.

Science of Health Benefits From Indoor Plants

1. Reduced Stress Levels

Physiological studies have discovered that indoor plants or plants in general in your environment, in your home or office can make you feel more comfortable, soothed, and connected with nature. 

Plants can affect the stress levels in humans got incurred by making the participants for the study perform two different kinds of tasks. One set was given the job of repotting a houseplant or and another was asked to complete a short computer-based task. After each task, researchers measured the biological factors associated with stress, including heart rate and blood pressure. 

Researchers found that the indoor gardening task lowered the stress response in participants. Where as the computer task, caused a spike in heart rate and blood pressure, even though the participants selected for both sets of this study were young men, who were well-accustomed to computerized work. 

They then concluded that working with plants could reduce both physiological and psychological stress, thus providing the biggest health benefits of all to us. Stress causes the secretion of Cortisol hormone which is the root cause of most auto immune disorder.  

2. Enhanced Attention Span

Researchers conducted another study with plastic plants and real indoor plants and the brain scans of the participants in both the sets showed difference in results doing the same tasks. The students who studied alongside real, live plants in the classroom were not only more attentive but also better with their concentrating abilities in comparison to the other group of students that dealt with plastic or artificial plants. 

3. Therapeutic Experience

As we discussed above the impact of plants or nature on human mind’s attention span & concentration and stress reduction is maverick, similarly, for people experiencing the symptoms of any kind of mental illness, indoor plants or rather indoor gardening can be extremely helpful. 

To increase the feeling of well-being and calmness in people suffering with depression, anxiety, dementia and other mental illnesses, researchers used horticultural therapy. 

Although horticultural therapy has existed for centuries now, modern doctors & clinics, especially the ones in parts of Europe are now prescribing plotted indoor plants to patients diagnosed with symptoms of mental illnesses such as depresion or anxiety. 

4. Speeding Up The Recovery Process 

Yes! You read that right! Indoor plants or just greenery in general can speed up the recovery process of any injuries one may have. Another study condusted showed that people who were looking a greenery or flowers or indoor plants of any kind tend to recover faster even after several kinds of surgeries and required way less pain killers as compared to those who did not connect with nature during recovery. 

Isn’t that wonderful. Nature could help an individual not only recover faster from their injuries but also make the process less painful and bareable.

5. Improved Indoor Air Quality

Phytoremediation, a process in which plants scrub contaminants from the air, as per a NASA study conducted around 1980s. Researchers that time were looking into the ways air quality in a sealed aircraft can be improved and the concluded that when it comes to indoor plants, their roots & soil significantly reduced airborne volatile organic compounds, i.e. VOCs. 

Having said that, we also need to understand that one will have to shelter a large number of indoor plants to equal the air purification efficiency as other moder technologies & biofilters provide in the modern times. 

Here are some indoor plants’ list to which will have the best health benefits: 

• Areca and Bamboo palms
• Boston fern
• spider plant
• Ficus tree

The Takeaway

Now that we’ve understood the huge impact nature has on all of us, we need to be more mindful of keeping nature around us. And what is the best way to do this than fill your homes with beautiful, air purifying and soothing indoor plants. Get all the health benefits you need simply by placing your indoor plants order with Milkbasket. 

In the era of modern technology filled in our homes and adding unseen stressing elements into our systems, lets use technology for the better. Utilize our grocery delivery app and its services to receive immense health benefits with our indoor plants range.