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March 3, 2026- by Steven Greer, MD
Today was an example of how it is so good for your health to interact with the outdoors and wildlife.
This morning, I was doom-scrolling through Twitter, getting up to speed on this terrible Middle East stuff. It was very depressing and I was in a dark mood.
I then went outside and saw this (video above). There is a quite unusual freshwater otter on the lake. I have only seen it once and made a rare appearance, chomping away on a catfish for breakfast. The other birds are very cool too. A Great Blue Heron also made a rare appearance.
When I walked inside, I felt like a completely different person. My mood was lifted. I could physically feel the relief of stress.
Physiologically, your brain controls numerous hormones, which can be harmful. The stress hormones, like cortisol, literally impair your immune system causing cancer, high blood pressure, etc.
Knock on wood, I am quite pleased with my health. I just turned 58 and I am freakishly healthy. My blood pressure is 118 over 70. Heart rate is in the 50s. I have no arthritis or back problems. My muscle mass is as good as I want it to be right now.
Contrast that to the span from January 2022 to around the end of 2023. That was when I was going through very stressful problems related to my parents and family. I had such elevated stress hormones that I developed sleep problems that physically injured my face. My muscle mass was low. My abdominal fat was high. I looked like crap. I looked old. It was in my face.
I was also living at the time in small quarters like long-term stay hotels or a townhome in Jupiter that had no view. I was not cooking my own food. Now, I have this nice lake and outdoors to go out to several times a day. I cook all of my own food. The results are quite pleasing.
What I am not doing is anything extremely unusual with diet or exercise. I am not taking any peptides, Ozempic, hormone replacement, or doing exceptional exercise. My workout routine is so short that I joke about it, but it works.
I prescribe all of the above to certain patients who are just getting started on their path to health. But really, once one learns to do the basics, like eat well and have a good frame of mind, one does not need external medication.
Health and wellness can be viewed in many ways. I break it down into the mind, diet, and exercise. The brain is the most important. Without a good mood and outlook, the harmful hormones kick in and cause bad dietary intake and lack of exercise.
For that “mind” component of health, nothing is better than getting outdoors, with feet in the grass or swimming, receiving sunlight, and interacting with wildlife or pets. I prefer wildlife because it is more interesting to me. Animals can put on displays more interesting than the Super Bowl.
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Update: I wrote this essay not knowing that today was World Wildlife Day. That can’t be a coincidence. Surreal.
