While the term “blue health” might be new to some, the concept is one that La Jollans participate in daily.
Blue health is the idea that living near a body of water imparts advantages for mental and physical health, and here in La Jolla, we treasure our adjacency to the Pacific Ocean.
“A body of water is a natural setting [and] people who spend more time … in natural settings gain a whole host of benefits,” said Annie Nguyen, a public and mental health researcher and faculty member at UC San Diego’s Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science.
Some of these benefits are organic mechanisms, Nguyen said. “The more you’re out in nature, you’re probably doing something active. You’re probably on a hiking trail or a walking trail or biking. That in and of itself, just having more opportunities for physical activity, is great. It’s good for health in so many ways.”
Additionally, engaging in such physical activity is conducive to social connection, she said, as many water-based activities are done in pairs or groups.
“Think about when … you see groups of people together enjoying time on the beach,” Nguyen said. “That social interaction is also really important for promoting health.”
These benefits, plus the fact that spending more time in cleaner, less polluted air is good for you, “would be sustained if you live by a body of water” like we do in La Jolla, she said.
But even those who live in urban environments without constant access to nature and visit La Jolla regularly can take advantage of blue health, Nguyen added, citing research “that’s looked at our exposure as humans to natural settings.”
Simply living near a body of water “is not going to necessarily be healthy,” however, she said, pointing to infrastructure decisions and policies that promote our ability to take advantage of blue health, from having parks built near the shore and shops and restaurants close by to encourage proximity to the sea.
And if you live near the ocean, you must take advantage of the opportunity and not take it for granted, as the inherent proximity doesn’t necessarily “create those mechanisms that help us engage in these behaviors we know are good for us.”
To promote these advantages, we need to ensure access for all, from paths designed to accommodate wheelchairs and strollers to bathrooms available for anyone.
“In La Jolla, a lot of the parks that we have do have facilities,” Nguyen said, “so I would think about how [the city of San Diego] has invested in these infrastructures to create better access or equitable access … so that everyone can go out and enjoy being by the water.”
She also encouraged La Jollans to work towards keeping the ocean clean.
“We have a great resource, but we’ve got to make sure that it’s protected in a way that we actually can use it for recreation,” Nguyen said. “We don’t want to get to a point where we’ve got this great body of water, but it’s just not usable.”
