Sunday, November 23, 2008

Are the green spaces of Intown Bham an answer to ADHD and obesity?


Maybe. If we take advantage of what we have available to us. According to the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and reported in Birmingham News last week, the amount of open spaces in a neighborhood has a correlation to the amount of body fat, hyperactivity and cognitive ability. So move to Norwood, Bush Hills or around Highland Avenue or near one of the many parks of Intown and your children will all grow up to be hot-bodied, well adjusted, 1600-SAT achieving teenagers! Go Intown!

If only it were so easy. Food is so good. TV is so comfortable. Video games are so addictive. "Excercise" kinda sucks. This article is good news though. The linear and street bordered parks of Norwood Blvd, Bush Blvd and Highland Avenue were designed in tandem as gems in a dreamed of city of parks and open spaces. I still get excited about that idea. Perhaps if we can find more social reasons to draw people out into our many open spaces we can actualize the health potential of our parks?

For the technical out there you can read the actual Journal article here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So true! But many do exercise in the upscale areas. Why not us?

Lonnie Hannon said...

Hey,

What a great article. I have reached the same conclusion in some of my research. Increasing the amount of green spaces improves neighborhood quality by promoting healthy lifestyle practices, reducing crime (broken windows theory), and through beautification. Again, this is an inspiring article. Let's continue to work on manifesting this idea.

Peace