If you're reading this, you likely know firsthand that going for a hike or walk in nature has a positive impact on your mood and health. You just feel better after being active outdoors, better than if you'd hit the treadmill or stairmaster at the gym.

Exercise, particularly exercise outdoors, lowers stress levels and blood pressure, helps us maintain a healthy weight, and improves concentration and well-being, among many other mental and physical health benefits. It also connects us with nature.

As the positive nature-health connection gains support in medical studies, some doctors have started writing prescriptions to take a walk, hike, bicycle, or kayak in a national or local park.

National parks (like Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area), local organizations, and healthcare providers have launched Park Prescriptions, a health-promotion program in which providers prescribe contact with nature as a treatment for various conditions and encourage patients to take advantage of their parks.

Who among us wouldn't love a prescription from our doctor to go hiking? No word yet on whether insurance companies have gotten on board.

More Info:

• Park Prescriptions: Prescribing Public Lands for Health from the Institute at the Golden Gate
• Park Prescriptions 44-page booklet (PDF) from the Institute at the Golden Gate
• "Head Out for a Daily Dose of Green Space" from the 2010 New York Times
• Dr. Daphne Miller's "Take a hike and call me in the morning" 2009 editorial in the Washington Post.