Okay, Chelsea, instead of doing somewhat doom
and gloom, I actually have a good idea. I'm going
to do a follow -up on a way long ago episode.
It's not really a follow -up. It's just following
in the trajectory of that episode. We're going
to talk about that negative impact of lawns in
a weird roundabout way. And an article that actually
came out on January 21st, 2026 from UC Davis
Health, written by Lisa Howard, article title,
trees, not grass and other greenery associated
with lower heart disease risk in cities. Really?
New research analyzing 350 million street view
images finds urban tree canopies may reduce cardiovascular
disease while grassy areas may increase it. Multi
-institutional study led by the University of
California, Davis finds that living in urban
areas with a higher percentage of visible trees
associated with a 4 % decrease in cardiovascular
disease. By comparison, living in an urban urban
area with a higher percentage of grass was associated
with a 6 % increase in cardiovascular disease.
Likewise, a higher rate of other types of green
space like bushes or shrubs were associated with
a 3 % increase in cardiovascular disease. Quote,
our findings suggest public health interventions
should prioritize the preservation and planting
of tree canopies in neighborhoods. End quote,
said Peter James. First author of the study,
James is an associate professor at UC Davis Department
of Public Health Sciences and director of the
Center for Occupational and Environmental Health.
Quote, urban forestry initiatives and policies
that protect mature trees are likely to yield
greater cardiovascular health benefits and compared
to investments in grass planting. End quote,
James said. In 2023, more than 900 ,000 people
died from cardiovascular disease in the U .S.
That's the equivalent of one in every three deaths,
according to the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention. Oh man, from a time you could trust
them. Cardiovascular diseases are serious conditions
that affect the heart and blood vessels. This
includes problems with the heart, such as arrhythmia,
heart valve disease, and heart failure. And problems
with blood vessels like blood clots, including
strokes, and peripheral artery disease. Previous
research using satellite imagery has shown that
urban green spaces can be beneficial to public
health, but satellite imagery can classify a
wide range of vegetation as green space. Quote,
satellite imagery has allowed for important new
understandings about how the landscapes built
and natural can influence human health. But because
the view is from above, far, far above, and lumps
all types of vegetation into one category, it
can mask differences that may be significant,
end quote, James explained. James is a prominent
researcher known for innovative use of street
-level imagery and satellite imagery in environmental
health research. Street -level imagery, most
commonly derived from the platform Google Street
View, captures neighborhood environments photographed
from the vantage point of what a pedestrian would
see and has been increasingly used in public
health research. The new study was among the
first to create a street level assessment of
how trees grasses and other green spaces would
impact cardiovascular health the researchers
used deep learning to analyze more than 350 million
trees street view images to estimate how much
of each neighborhood was covered by trees grass
or other green space they then linked those findings
to nearly 89 000 women in the ongoing nurses
health study they determined that the type and
percentage of greenery trees grass or other green
spaces within about 500 meters of each person
Interesting. Interesting. such as population
density, census region, air pollution, and neighborhood
socioeconomic status. The researchers were surprised
by the potentially harmful association with grass
and other green spaces, but the surprise findings
highlighted the importance of disaggregated green
space data to better understand cardiovascular
effects. The authors suggest that there may be
multiple reasons for the unexpected negative
association, including an increased use of pesticides,
air quality impacted from mowing, lower cooling
capacity compared to trees, and low capacity
to filter noise and air pollution additional
additional research may help identify the unique
environmental factors that can adversely impact
cardiovascular risk the study had several limitations
first the cohort is all female and primarily
white which limits generalizability due to the
relatively homogenous racial and socioeconomic
backgrounds of participants also researchers
use the nurses residential addresses which don't
capture how they spent their time for example,
at work, or how they interacted with other green
spaces, when street view images only represent
a snapshot in time and cannot see private green
spaces that may influence health, such as the
backyard gardens. Despite these limitations,
the findings offer significant insights. Quote,
the research opens a promising new avenue improving
cardiovascular health through community -level
environmental changes rather than relying solely
on individual lifestyle choices. End quote. Said
Erica Rimm, co -author of the study. Rim is professor
of medicine at Harvard Medical School and of
epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T .H.
Chan School of Public Health. Quote, heart disease
has such an enormous impact on the Western world
that even moving the needle slightly towards
earlier prevention can make meaningful difference.
End quote, Rim said. That's the end of the article.
Chelsea, what do you think? Does that mean that
doctors should be like when you can tell that
there's some cardiovascular? I'm not a doctor,
so don't rate my eloquence of putting. this do
you live near trees well i would they might be
saying like what do you have planted in your
yard or what's your community look like yeah
if not we're gonna and they might even say we're
gonna have to be pulling this out you're at risk
of heart attack we need you to pull out all that
grass And plant some trees and have them grow
real quick. It's super interesting. It really
is. And like, really think about that. Like a
4 % decrease versus a 6 % increase. Yeah. So
we're talking about 900 ,000 people a year that
this impacts. That's a 10 % swing or 90 ,000
people. Yeah. It seems like a lot and doesn't
even make sense to me. But that's a crazy correlation.
Like grass versus trees. Thank goodness I have
some trees. outside of my house. Yeah, but they
did point out like there's some interesting parts
of it. I do also think it'd be interesting to
compare that to somebody who lives with like
a lack of green, whether or not that has a difference
too. But we've seen it too with like golf courses
impacting the local water supply when it's groundwater
that you're getting. Yeah. The pesticides, we
don't really know the full impact on the human
life that it has. The lawnmowers, they have CO2.
Maybe there's going to be an impact with batteries
doing this now, but you're also potentially having
your own exercise be every other week mowing
the grass and like they said like stressors include
noise pollution which trees can block yeah so
maybe you just have a less stressed lifestyle
but maybe also this doesn't impact men at all
and actually it is one of those very gendered
stereotypes is men are the ones who take care
of the yard so maybe they're actually getting
the health benefit of having the yard not looked
at because it's the women that are in this long
toodle study so many implications yeah and Hey,
you guys got 48 hours. Think of more. And email
these guys. Maybe they'd like that. I don't know.
Maybe email us. Tell them we sent you. We have
got no emails. Yeah, we were just talking about
that. Send us some. Okay. Yeah. Anyhow, bye.
Bye.