Can Nature Protect Us from Dementia? The Science (and the Madness) of It All
When will dementia science become reliable and whole person focused?
Over the last few years, the evidence that exposure to nature reduces the risk of dementia has gone from promising to downright compelling. And if you’ve been following the research, you know it’s not just about a few nice walks in the park—it’s about rethinking the environments in which we live, age, and heal.
There’s something ancient—primal, even—about the relationship between the human brain and the natural world. And the more we understand about neurodegeneration, the more obvious it becomes that our current indoor, sedentary, toxic, screen-saturated lives are literally eroding our minds. But if the science on nature is so strong, why isn’t it part of our standard of care for cognitive health? Why isn’t your neurologist writing prescriptions for forest walks and community gardens?
Well, like so much of the dementia conversation, it comes down to the quality of the science—and the culture that allows bad science to persist.
The Evidence is There: Nature Reduces Dementia Risk
Let’s start with the good stuff: the data.
In our deep dive earlier this week on the link between nature exposure and dementia, we reviewed a growing body of studies that point to real, measurable cognitive benefits from spending time in green spaces. Some highlights:
A 2022 meta-analysis showed that individuals with higher exposure to green space had a significantly lower risk of developing cognitive decline and dementia.
Multiple studies have found associations between neighborhood greenness and slower cognitive decline, particularly in older adults.
Nature exposure has been linked with lower inflammation markers, better sleep, reduced stress hormones, and enhanced mood—all of which are independently associated with better brain function.
Even views of greenery from a window or virtual nature experiences have shown beneficial effects on cognitive performance and psychological well-being.
And yet, these findings remain at the margins of mainstream medicine.
Why?
Because Dementia Science Is Still a Mess
Enter the latest bizarre twist in the narrative: a March article from Scientific American questioning whether too much nature might be… a bad thing?
Yes, you read that right.
And on a recent episode of the DarkHorse Podcast, evolutionary biologists Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying took the article apart—piece by piece. As they explain, the idea that nature exposure could somehow be harmful in the context of cognitive decline flies in the face of both logic and biology.
These are the same fields of medicine, remember, that spent two decades chasing the beta-amyloid hypothesis, pouring billions into drug trials that failed, based on research that has since been revealed to be fraudulent or manipulated. So when Scientific American tries to cast doubt on a low-risk, low-cost, evolutionarily aligned intervention like nature exposure—it’s more than just annoying. It’s infuriating.
As Weinstein and Heying point out, there’s no plausible mechanism by which being exposed to trees and sunshine could degrade cognitive performance. The idea is so biologically backwards it’s almost laughable. But it also underscores the bigger issue: we are still tolerating terrible science in the dementia space.
The Problem Isn’t Just the Science—It’s the System
One of the most maddening realities about cognitive decline is how long it takes common sense to become clinical guidance. We now know that movement, social connection, diet, sleep, and purpose all impact brain health. And yet, they’re barely addressed in most neurology visits.
Likewise, access to nature—as fundamental to human health as oxygen—is treated as an afterthought. Why? Because there’s no drug to sell. No patent to file. No blockbuster study funded by a billion-dollar pharmaceutical company.
In other words: the data is clear, but the incentives are wrong.
How TruNeura Is Closing the Loop
At TruNeura, we’re not just interested in promising theories—we’re building the infrastructure to test and track what works.
Inside our software, practitioners can prescribe personalized actions across the eight pillars of brain health. Three of those pillars—Connect, Reflect, and Grow—are psychosocial in nature. That means providers can prescribe connection with nature as a core intervention.
Better still, we don’t stop at prescribing—we track whether patients actually do it.
Did the patient spend 30 minutes in the park as recommended?
Did they start walking outside every morning instead of staying in?
Did their stress scores, HRV, or sleep metrics improve afterward?
We can know that. And we do.
TruNeura closes the loop between recommendation, adherence, and outcome. It doesn’t just empower the doctor—it empowers the entire care team and, most importantly, the patient. Over time, this structured data becomes a living dataset, capable of answering questions the medical system has so far ignored:
Does nature reduce dementia risk in real-world populations?
How much exposure is optimal?
Which kinds of nature (green space, blue space, forest, sun) are most impactful?
We’re not relying on retrospective studies or grant-funded hypotheses. We’re building real-time evidence from real-world care.
The Future of Cognitive Health Is Natural—and Structured
It’s counterintuitive to think there’s such a thing as too much nature, just like it’s counterintuitive to think that a patient can reverse cognitive decline with drugs alone.
But that’s the paradigm we’re moving away from.
At TruNeura, we’re building a new one—rooted in data, but aligned with nature. Our platform is designed to combine the best of modern precision medicine with the timeless wisdom of natural healing. And unlike the beta-amyloid debacle or the over-engineered drug trials of the past, this approach is working—clinically, practically, and in the lives of patients every day.
Let’s Stop Tolerating Bad Science
Nature heals. Connection matters. Movement counts. And we need to stop waiting for outdated institutions to catch up.
If you’re a practitioner who believes in combining data, lifestyle, and biology to reverse cognitive decline, TruNeura is your platform. And if you're a patient—or someone who loves one—ask your provider how to get started.
Because in the end, the answer may be as simple as a walk in the woods.
When we walk in nature, we are often walking into a storm of mycellium that are aerosolized...and we are breathing in through our nose which then goes directly into the brain! When we breath forest and nature air, we are breathing in air that is ALIVE! These nanodoses of fungal matter feeds our brains and enables further neural plasticity!