Can a community be designed to be healthier? Is there a link between our health and the way our communities are created? If you’ve visited The Pinehills or live at The Pinehills then you know the answer to both of these questions. “Yes.” Great care and thought has been put into the design of The Pinehills and that may be good news for the health of our residents. Recently Richard Jackson, MD, MPH, professor and chair of environmental health science at the UCLA School of Public Health, visited The Pinehills to talk about how well-designed communities can improve both physical and mental health.
According to Dr. Jackson, “If you look at places where people have much more walking and bicycling capability, they are more fit. You look at the places where people live longest, it’s a mix of the physical environment they’re in and what they’re eating, it’s not that they’re genetically different from one place to another.”
As Dr. Jackson explained, “we have known for years, that when people are suffering from depression, they needed to revitalize. They created baths, they created spas and they created green places with water features that enabled people to have the repose and connection. People who get more physical exercise have substantially lower rates of depression. If you have physical exercise in an environment that is green, that has plants, that has nature contact, there is even more substantial improvement in mental status over that time.” At The Pinehills two thirds of the land at will remain as open space.
The Pinehills residents can jump on their bikes and follow miles of trails, pick up a paddle and kayak, hike the hills or play golf at one of the award winning courses. Add to that The Market at The Pinehills, Plymouth’s first Healthy Market, with fresh, local healthy choices and periodic visits from Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital dietician, Marcia Richards we would venture to guess that residents of The Pinehills are on their way to enjoying healthy lifestyle – by design.
