Youth help out at the 2014 4-H University Community Service Day at Wilmot Gardens. Photo: UF/IFAS, Tyler Jones

JULY 29, 2024 – Therapeutic horticulture may offer noticeable benefits to patients with chronic lower back pain, according to a recent study from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and the UF College of Medicine.

The interdisciplinary study encouraged chronic lower back pain sufferers to participate in a one-hour therapeutic horticulture session at the Wilmot Botanical Gardens at UF/IFAS, during which trained therapists helped the participants reach, stretch and bend to gather plant clippings. Researchers noted a pronounced improvement in the participants’ well-being after the session. Most substantially, the experience reduced the amount of anxiety that participants felt about movement and exercise as it related to their lower back pain.

“It’s important because gardening is a way to get someone with low back pain moving and interacting and not isolating themselves for fear of pain, in a safe way,” said Leah Diehl, the director of therapeutic horticulture at Wilmot Botanical Gardens and a study author. “Also, could prescribed gardening activities be an alternative to needing to take pain medication for some patients? This preliminary study encourages us to explore that possibility.”

The two-part study, funded by the UF Health Sports Performance Center and published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, consisted of a survey of 170 patients and a pilot experimental group of nine patients. Most of the people surveyed expressed an interest in therapeutic horticulture and believed it could improve their mood and muscle strength, as well as lower their stress levels, increase their movement and enable them to perform self-care activities with less pain.

The results of the study were promising, Diehl said. In the pilot session, 44% of patients reported using pain medication to manage their lower back pain, and 66% believed that gardening could provide pain relief. After the horticulture session, many participants experienced improvements in anxiety, spine bending and spine rotation to the left.

All participants believed that gardening improved their overall health and spine motion while reducing their lower back pain.

For more information and interviews, please contact me at rodriguezl@ufl.edu

or Meredith Bauer at meredithbauer@ufl.edu.