Inflammation is the driving factor of many chronic illnesses, including heart disease and diabetes.

Since 2018, Green heart movil Louisville has been conducting a study to prove the connection between tree coverage and inflammation levels.

Yesterday, they announced their groundbreaking findings.

What This Means for the Future of Heart Health.

In tonight's medical news.

You all see those beautiful trees that are behind me?

Well, they are more than beautiful.

They are medicine.

The University of Louisville Cucina Lee Brown Environments.

Researchers began by gathering health data from the residents of this and surrounding neighborhoods in South Louisville.

One of these health data was a biomarker that measures inflammation in the body.

The research scientists directed the planting of many trees and shrubs that you see behind me and thousands more in the treatment area.

They found that the people living in the area with the trees were added well.

Their inflammation marked biomarkers were indeed lower after the trees were planted, meaning their risk of heart attack and other chronic diseases had been reduced.

So this study is telling us that indeed trees mean healthier people and healthier cities.

Trees are indeed medicine right now.

In Louisville, Kentucky, only 37% of our city is covered by trees and that number is decreasing by 54,000 trees each year.

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in Jefferson County, and black communities are dying from heart disease at rates higher than any other racial or ethnic community.

We rank in the top five cities in the United States for the highest rates of emergency department visits for asthma and twice as many black children in Louisville end up in the emergency room due to asthma as white children.

All of this is staggering and that's why the Green Heart Project is so important.

It's the first study, the very first study to assess the impact of green spaces on air quality and human health in urban environments.

If we are better able to understand this connection, we're in a much, much better place to tackle the problem.

When you see something at the local level and then you go to Washington, you think about how you can make it available for everybody.

This this can become a national model, a green print, if you will, for the way we tackle community health and environmental justice at the state, local and, yes, the federal level.

It's a huge undertaking, but I have no doubt that we can do it.

And thanks to the people here today, I think it will happen.

Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health awarded $4.6 million to Green Heart Louisville to continue its research for the next five years.