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Pain

Toward an understanding of how and why nature exposure is associated with reduced self-reported pain

Although lifestyle-based interventions show promise for pain reduction, how factors such as nature exposure affect pain is still unclear. A systematic review and meta-analysis now shows that nature exposure is related to reductions in self-reported pain across various nature-based interventions.

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Fig. 1: Potential mechanisms that link nature exposure to improved pain outcomes.

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Acknowledgements

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number UM1TR005296 to the University at Buffalo. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

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Correspondence to Andrew H. Rogers.

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Rogers, A.H., Lackner, J.M. Toward an understanding of how and why nature exposure is associated with reduced self-reported pain. Nat. Mental Health (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-026-00588-7

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