How to Support Brain Health in Later Life With Gardening

Episode Description

In this episode of The Evergreen Thumb host Erin Hoover joins Cognitive Aging researcher Catherine “Katie” Luna to discover how gardening can nurture more than just plants—it’s a powerful tool for supporting brain health as we age.

Katie explores her research about the psychological and emotional benefits of gardening for aging adults, as well as reminding listeners that caring for their physical health also supports their brain health. From reducing stress and improving mood to fostering a sense of purpose, she explains the ways that gardening enhances mental well-being. Tune in to hear how gardening can help us cultivate calm, connection, and resilience throughout life’s later stages.

Katie is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at WSU. She has worked in cognitive aging research for over ten years, and currently works in the WSU Neuropsychology and Aging Laboratory. Katie enjoys discussing activities that everyone can do to maintain a healthy brain, including gardening. In her free time, Katie has always enjoyed gardening, though she keeps to hardy herbs and succulents that are more forgiving these days.

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Transcript of Gardening for Brain Health

[00:00:00] Erin Hoover: Welcome to The Evergreen Thumb, your go-to podcast for up-to-date research-based horticulture and environmental stewardship knowledge to help you grow and manage your garden. Produced by Washington State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteers and brought to you by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

[00:00:16] I’m your host, Erin Hoover, a WSU Extension Master Gardener since 2015 and a certified permaculture designer and modern homesteader.

WSU Master Gardener volunteers are university-trained community educators who have been cultivating plants, people, and communities since 1973. Are you ready to grow? Let’s dig into today’s episode.

[00:00:44] Welcome to The Evergreen Thumb, episode 38.

My guest today is Catherine Luna. Katie is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at WSU. She has worked in Cognitive Aging Research for over 10 years and currently works in the WSU Neuropsychology and Aging Laboratory.

Katie enjoys discussing activities that everyone can do to maintain a healthy brain, including gardening.

[00:01:07] In her free time, Katie has always enjoyed gardening, though she keeps to hearty herbs and succulents that are more forgiving.

Katie, thanks for joining me today. Welcome to the show.

Katie Luna: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.

Erin Hoover: You’re here today to talk to us a little bit about gardening and mental health, especially in aging populations.

Katie’s Work at WSU

[00:01:25] So can you tell us a little bit about the work that you’re doing for your doctorate with WSU?

[00:01:30]Katie Luna: Yes, so I have over 10 years of experience now working with cognitive aging. That’s specifically looking at how your thinking abilities and your memory abilities, um, naturally decline with age or sometimes unnatural decline such as with mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

[00:01:51] And so, right now, what I’m doing is I work with the Neuropsychology and Aging Laboratory at WSU. Where I’ve been a research assistant for five years now. And there, uh, we do lots of different research studies to try and see how we can optimize technology to really increase people’s, uh, functional independence and allow them to age in place longer, even with cognitive decline.

[00:02:18] So we work with lots of people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

The Relationship Between Gardening and Brain Health

[00:02:23] Erin Hoover: Can you tell us a little bit about the relationship between, uh, Gardening and mental health and cognitive decline?

[00:02:29] Katie Luna: Gardening is great for you. Um, whenever we think about, like, brain health, there’s a couple of different assets that we look at.

[00:02:41] The first one that we like to talk about is physical activity; and, uh, really like what is good for your heart is good for your brain. You think about how your brain is being fed oxygen through the blood vessels all the time. So that physical activity, especially the cardio and, uh, the strength training that’s just innately involved in gardening is so beneficial for you.

[00:03:09] That low-intensity cardio is good, but then also thinking about, uh, just the amount of times that you have to squat or bend over to get things. That’s some built-in strength training as well.

We also know that keeping a positive mood is really, uh, helpful for you as you age, and, uh, getting vitamin D if you’re gardening outside is wonderful for that.

[00:03:32] I know it’s hard in the northwest right now, uh, but whenever we can, we want to get it. Also, there’s lots of research that shows just being in nature, even subconsciously, can increase our mood, and we can talk more about that later.

Specific Benefits that Gardening Provides for Older Adults

[00:03:48] Erin Hoover: What specific benefits have you found that gardening can provide? You kind of touched on some but for older adults in particular.

[00:03:56] Katie Luna: Yeah, so, uh, with older adults, we definitely want to have that, uh, increased physical activity, um, and so that’s very beneficial.

There’s also mental activity, uh, that’s helpful, especially if you’re retired and, uh, you’re not used to getting that cognitive stimulation that you, uh, normally would at work every day, learning how to do a new gardening technique or how to plant a new plant, I guess, um, that new learning is wonderful for your brain.

[00:04:34] And so, anytime that we can do that, that’s going to really boost our cognition. It actually increases some neural connections for us. Then even with the social component of this, like, community that you have, and even a community garden, uh, those are really great ways that we can increase social connectedness, and especially in the aging community, uh, social isolation is a really big area that we want to guard against.

[00:05:07] And so, uh, being able to be a part of this podcast community and then also, uh, local gardening groups is really beneficial for that.

Gardening and Nature’s Effect on Mental Health

[00:05:17] Erin Hoover: Does gardening help reduce symptoms of, well, you mentioned loneliness and social isolation, but also depression, anxiety, some of those other, um, problems?

[00:05:28] Katie Luna: Yeah, definitely. So there’s actually been quite a few research studies that have shown that as humans in general, uh, we can tend to underestimate the power of being connected to nature and that it just like gets at this core part of us.

[00:05:50] Um, and I think, a lot of people can probably draw on their own experiences anecdotally that being able to just like step outside into, uh, your nature space where you can feel, uh, connected and where you can feel, uh, connected and, um, also feel like it’s an escape, uh, for you, uh, that really can hit home, uh, with our soul.

[00:06:18] And so it’s like a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively. So, uh, we do see continuously that across the lifespan, uh, being engaged in nature and gardening is, uh, good for your mental health. It decreases anxiety and it decreases depression symptoms.

How Can Gardening Help with Stress from Age-Related Life Changes?

[00:06:43] Erin Hoover: So, how might gardening help with issues like stress management or I guess just stress in general, especially with age-related life changes?

[00:06:54] Katie Luna: So actually, there’s a theory called the stress reduction theory that just generally states that being out in nature, uh, subconsciously reduces our stress. And there have been studies that have shown that even just 15 minutes outside, uh, can reduce your stress level. Uh, so that is really beneficial.

[00:07:26] We also know that stress kills our immune system, and it is, uh, just not good for your physical or mental health. A little bit of stress can like motivate you, but we usually take a lot on at a time and not just in the little quantities. So being able to be outside taking that little escape, uh, from the walls of urban society, uh, can really help to, uh, reduce stress for all of us.

[00:07:59] Um, and also the physical activity is a stress reducer as well.

Neuropsychological Effects of Gardening on Brain Health

[00:08:05] Erin Hoover: So can you explain some of the neuropsychological effects that gardening might have on the brain, especially in terms of memory and cognitive function?

[00:08:15] Katie Luna: So one aspect is that there’s the attention restoration theory that states that cognitively, whenever we’re in our normal everyday life, lots of things are pulling for our attention and that can really bog down our focus, and our concentration and just leaves it really tired.

[00:08:39] And so if we are doing things in nature, like gardening, then that gives our brain space to restore itself and that’s at a neurological level to be able to heal a little bit, and be as burdened. Um, and so, uh, that’s really helpful.

We do see with aging that processing speed naturally declines as we age.

[00:09:11] And that’s just how quickly you can, uh, take in information and then also, uh, use that information for lots of tasks in life, uh, you know, like with gardening, uh, that doesn’t really affect your ability to function as much, um, if you’re going to plant something, but just allowing your brain to take those, uh, little breaks, uh, can be really beneficial.

[00:09:39] And so it can be, uh, having a balance of “Hey, that new learning is wonderful for your brain and, um, we can get new neural connections that way”, but then also this restorative aspect of brain health as well.

How Might Regular Gardening Impact the Progression of Degenerative Brain Conditions?

[00:09:55] Erin Hoover: So how might regular gardening activities impact the progression of degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia?

[00:10:06] Katie Luna: So, once you have dementia, there’s currently no process that can really undo what has been lost. So, the use it or lose it principle always applies throughout your lifespan. But it’s especially important with cognitive decline if we don’t want to lose any more than what we already have lost.

And so, there’s all the interventions that we start to engage with are trying to maintain the cognitive functioning that you have for as long as possible.

[00:10:46] Unfortunately with things like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia. Then we have this insidious degeneration that is going to happen, but we can slow it down. And so, one thing that we really want to do is to increase physical activity and then also increase heart-healthy diet as well, increasing that mental stimulation also.

[00:11:19] Um, so, especially if you have a vegetable garden, then you’ve got your physical activity and your heart-healthy diet happening together there, and that’s, um, a wonderful way to go ahead and. implement some behavioral interventions for that, uh, whether you’re trying to postpone your own decline, if maybe you haven’t even seen it yet, or if you maybe have already started some decline and you’re trying to maintain what you have, uh, those are two of the, uh, front running preventions and, uh, interventions that we want to implement.

Cognitively Stimulating Gardening Tasks

[00:11:59] Erin Hoover: So, can you think of specific gardening tasks or types of gardening that might be more cognitively stimulating than others?

[00:12:07] Katie Luna: Really, that’s going to depend on your own area of expertise. So there’s a balance of building on the knowledge base that you already have, and also finding things that are interesting to you.

[00:12:26] So I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying that there’s one type of gardening that’s better than another. If you find it personally interesting, then you are going to be invested in it. Learn new things about it and go down all the rabbit trails, uh, with it, then that’s wonderful. If you can then start to teach other people about these new components that you’re learning about with, uh, your garden then teaching is one of the best ways to learn, I’ve found.

[00:13:02] So, uh, yeah. That is another great way. So whether it’s the flower garden in, uh, your backyard or a vegetable garden, it can be really beneficial, uh, if it’s interesting to you.

[00:13:18] Erin Hoover: Uh, that just makes me think how, you know, many Master Gardeners are above retirement age. A lot of them still stay very, very active, um, because they are teaching, and they are learning.

[00:13:29] You know, I mean, Master Gardeners are always learning, and we always learn from each other.

So, um, and that, like you said, there’s the social aspect and it avoids the social isolation. So, you know, I mean, being a Master Gardener sounds like the perfect way to stave off cognitive decline to me.

[00:13:44] Katie Luna: Absolutely. I mean, especially, after people retire, I think a common thing that people talk about is I can’t wait to be able to rest after retirement, which is totally understandable, but you need to have something that still one, gives your life purpose and then also that you can still have a sense of mastery with, and being, actually that sense of mastery and the purpose, um, are big ways to stave off depression, especially.

[00:14:24] So, uh, we see that doing things like, uh, all the skills that you’re saying that the Master Gardeners are implementing on a daily basis, that’s wonderful, uh, and the social connection, um, is key.

People underestimate the power of social connection, uh, we all need some quality relationships in our lives.

What are Some Areas of Research Around Cognitive Function that are Growing?

[00:14:47] Erin Hoover: Are there areas of research that you see growing in the future relating to, um, older adults and, and cognitive function?

[00:14:56] Katie Luna: Um, I do see with gardening and nature in particular that we’ve got more and more of a focus coming, especially on the impact of air pollution and in the most recent 2024 report on dementia prevention, uh, by The Lancet, um, air pollution is one of the three late life, modifiable factors for dementia.

[00:15:27] And I see that Master Gardeners and backyard gardeners like myself, uh, can join together to hopefully step into that space. Maybe we can figure out some ways to help to decrease some of that air pollution, but also it can have that immediate beneficial effect for the person who is actively gardening also and creating that more enriching space in your own home and your own community as well.

[00:16:04] So I do see that there’s been a lot of research on the beneficial effects of nature across the lifespan. I think within the past couple of years, we’re getting more and more, uh, studies that are looking at that relationship with cognitive decline also, and how we can continue on to, um, use gardening, even as an intervention for cognitive decline.

Final Thoughts on Gardening and Cognitive Function in Older Adults

[00:16:34] Erin Hoover: Do you have any final thoughts that you’d like to share about gardening and, and cognitive function in older adults?

[00:16:41] Katie Luna: One thing that I really appreciated that came into the public sphere a year or two ago was the Blue Zones documentary series on Netflix. I don’t know if you watch that, but they also talk about the beneficial impact of gardening in late life.

[00:17:03] And, I appreciated the Blue Zones, putting out to the public a lot of brain health strategies that we have always known but they’ve made it really easily accessible so there’s a great documentary on Netflix that you can look up for that.

An additional thing that I’d like to say is that I personally enjoy gardening, although I did not inherit a green thumb, so it’s something that I have to work at.

[00:17:35] Uh, and I’ve got a couple of aloe and jade plants that are my sturdy ones that are hanging on. Uh, but, uh, I laugh, uh, with my husband. He continually says that he thinks that it needs to be something that I invest more time in, in retirement, uh, because I’m not there just yet.

Um, but it is, uh, especially, like we’ve talked about, what’s good for, uh, your heart and your just emotional well-being is overall good for your brain as well, and that interest that you have in, uh, gardening is going to feed to your soul and that sense of purpose and connectedness that you can get from gardening truly does have, um, on a neurological level, beneficial impacts for your brain.

So that optimism that can be shared there, too, is going to be beneficial for your cognitive health as we all continue to age.

[00:18:51] Erin Hoover: It’s funny you say optimism. Gardeners are very optimistic. They think everything is going to live.

[00:18:54] Katie Luna: Yeah, yeah. And, um, I like to say that the three steps to aging well are to be active, be positive, and be social. And I think that a master gardener has all three of those working for them.

Erin Hoover: Any other final thoughts?

[00:19:16] Katie Luna: Be cognizant of heat exposure and sun exposure, they can have some detrimental aspects on your cognitive health. And so, keeping that in mind. Additionally, if you’re using tools while gardening, then wanting to keep safety in mind as well. Fall risk is a component that we really want to keep an eye on, especially, uh, with aging adults.

[00:19:46] And so taking advantage of ways that you can modify your routine if needed so that you can continue to do this thing that you love, and that’s so great for you.

Um, and if you have to modify something, it’s worth it because then you can continue on, um, being completely, uh, engrossed in your garden. So, we want to take care of our physical health and that also has those repercussions for our cognitive health.

[00:20:18] Erin Hoover: Yes, I know there are a lot of tools out there for adapting gardening to make it more accessible, um, especially for, for older adults, you know, may not have the same grip strength or, you know, things like that.

So, thanks for joining me today, Katie. That was very informative, and I hope people will learn a lot from it.

[00:20:37] Katie Luna: Thank you so much, Erin. I really appreciated the time.

Erin Hoover: Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Evergreen Thumb, brought to you by the WSU Extension Master Gardener Program volunteers and sponsored by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

We hope that today’s discussion has inspired and equipped you with valuable insights to nurture your garden.

The Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State is a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is to provide unifying support and advocacy for WSU Extension Master Gardener programs throughout Washington State.

[00:21:15] To support the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State, visit www.mastergardenerfoundation.org/donate.

Whether you’re an experienced Master Gardener or just starting out, the WSU Extension Master Gardener program is here to support you every step of the way. WSU Extension Master Gardeners empower and sustain diverse communities with relevant, unbiased, research-based horticulture education.

Reach out to your local WSU Extension office to connect with master gardeners and tap into a wealth of resources that can help you achieve gardening success. To learn more about the program or how to become a Master Gardener, visit mastergardener.wsu.edu/get-involved.

[00:21:54] If you enjoyed today’s episode and want to stay connected with us, be sure to subscribe to future episodes filled with expert tips, fascinating stories, and practical advice.

Don’t forget to leave a review and share it with fellow gardeners to spread the joy of gardening.

Questions or comments to be addressed in future episodes can be sent to hello@theevergreenthumb.org.

[00:22:14] The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own and do not imply endorsement by Washington State University or the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.