Beach Wellness
The Abundant Benefits of Coastal Living
By Steve Hanf
Stroll among the booths at every craft show, browse the aisles of any beach store, or heck, walk into just about any house on the Outer Banks, and you’re sure to see a sign espousing the virtues of beach living.
Sunshine is the best medicine.
Sky above, sand below, peace within.
An ocean breeze puts a mind at ease.
Let the ocean wash away your worries.
The sentiment goes all the way back to the Greek philosopher Plato, who is credited with the phrase, “The sea cures all ailments of man.”
Granted, we still need medical professionals to help us out with a wide variety of ailments and maladies, but the notion that living in a beach community makes for a happier and healthier life is more than just Etsy-inspired pseudo-psychology. There’s actual science to back it up.

Coastal life comes with plenty of health benefits. “You can’t write a pill for the beach,” says Dr. Georgia Drumheller, an Outer Banks resident and board certified pediatrician. Photo courtesy of Leah Woolridge, Nurse Practitioner at Beach Medical.
“The biggest thing for the Outer Banks when I think about the health of my patients is it draws you to outside activities,” says Dr. Christina Bowen, the medical director for the Center for Healthy Living at the Outer Banks Hospital and the Chief Well-being Officer for ECU Health. “The beach. Nags Head Woods. Walking up Jockey’s Ridge, the Wright Brothers. It really draws you to being active and being outside.”
Sound too good to be true? Your local doctors beg to differ.
Dr. Georgia Drumheller, a board-certified pediatrician on the beach, did a 30-month Integrative Medicine Fellowship with Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona, who pioneered the concept of integrative medicine.
So, what exactly does that term mean?
As the Cleveland Clinic puts it, integrative medicine uses an evidence-based approach to treat the whole person – mind, body and soul – using a combination of conventional treatments and complementary therapies.
Or, as Drumheller puts it: “This is all of the things that medicine is without it being medicine. You can’t write a pill for the beach, and that’s what integrative medicine is: What are we fixing that we’re not fixing with a pill?”

Leah Woolridge, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse/Family Nurse Practitioner at Beach Medical in Kitty Hawk. Leah moved to the beach in 2007 having been drawn in by the allure of the ocean–“waking up every day being able to smell the salt air and hear the seagulls fly,” she says. Photo courtesy of Leah Woolridge, Nurse Practitioner at Beach Medical.
Leah Woolridge, who works as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse/Family Nurse Practitioner at Beach Medical in Kitty Hawk, laughs when asked if she’s ever pulled out a prescription pad and sent someone outside rather than to the drug store.
“I’ve never been that dramatic with the prescription pad,” she says. “But I have definitely been very blunt and said, ‘No, I’m not going to do this today, but for the next two weeks, I want you to go outside.’ Anything we can do holistically to try and improve ourselves naturally is always going to be a better route than throwing a pill at something.”
Woolridge reminds her patients that being outside can mean anything from sitting on the front porch to visiting a local park to taking that traditional stroll through the sand. Woolridge specifically moved to the beach in 2007 because of the allure of the ocean – “waking up every day being able to smell the salt air and hear the seagulls fly,” she says – but also loves the bike paths and places like Sandy Run Park in Kitty Hawk with its skatepark and playground and walking trails.
When she tells patients she wants them to take a more holistic, integrative approach to their health, Woolridge estimates that about 60 percent are eager to give it a try, 20 percent fall into the “just give me a pill for it” category, and another 20 percent are willing to consider the alternative.
Similarly, Bowen also has “prescribed in quotation marks” being outside for 20 minutes a day, or walking outside for 10 minutes a day.
“ ‘Really, Dr. Bowen?’ ” her patient will ask.
“Really. Just try it for a couple of weeks and let me know how you feel.”

Dr. Christina Bowen, the medical director for the Center for Healthy Living at the Outer Banks Hospital and the Chief Well-being Officer for ECU Health.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Christina Bowen
Bowen started visiting the Outer Banks at her grandparents’ cottage when she was 5, and she and her husband also sought out a beach community that would promote an active lifestyle for their family. Watching sunsets over the sound, exploring Nags Head Woods, and even visiting the weekly holiday and summer markets are some of her favorite activities.
“Raleigh has a farmers market, and it’s fantastic and I love going to it, but it’s inside this huge warehouse building,” she says. “When we have a market, it’s at Soundside, it’s in Wanchese, it’s outside. So even our community events, we get that benefit of being outside and we get that benefit of socialization, which we know is so important.”
Bowen loves being a physician on the OBX because she can tell her patients all the great ways to get outside and be active that are free and don’t require a gym membership. And while the ocean is always going to be the area’s biggest draw, the health benefits of our maritime forests can’t be overlooked, either.
Drumheller felt so strongly about being on the coast that she only looked at medical school residencies within a 50-mile radius of the beach. That’s how she ended up at ECU before eventually settling here 17 years ago and starting to share the benefits of beach living with her patients.
“It’s two-fold – our environment of ocean and forest,” she says. “The benefits of breathing salt air are profound. The other half of this is forest bathing, which is a translation of the Japanese ‘Shinrin-yoku,’ as a relief for people who are stressed or anxious to go out into the forest and bathe in the forest.”
To be clear, you’re not jumping into one of the algae-covered ponds in Nags Head Woods. This is bathing in a figurative sense: being still, being quiet, engaging the senses and soaking in what you hear and see and smell and feel.
Drumheller says scientific studies have shown that just 20 minutes in the forest can decrease blood pressure and cortisol levels as the stress melts away. And, side note, this can be done in any green space or under a few trees in your neighborhood, not just in the woods.

Many folks who have lived here for years know the tricks of the trade in stealing quick moments away or finding low-cost relaxation. Dr. Drumheller tells it best, “It’s not about your circles or your steps,” she says. “It’s air. It’s sun. It’s rain. It’s being outside.” Photo courtesy of Leah Woolridge, Nurse Practitioner at Beach Medical.
“We have the biggest maritime forest on the East Coast here and we have the ocean, so you couldn’t have a healthier environment, in my mind,” Drumheller says.
Not to overlook the physical benefits of living here, but the mental health aspects of beach life can’t be stressed enough.
Dr. Andrea Facci, who offers counseling services out of her Kill Devil Hills office, says the combination of being able to access nature and live in this “low conflict” environment works wonders for people. She’s been here 26 years after experiencing other calming communities such as the mountains of Asheville and the beaches of Southern California.
“It’s the accessibility that really makes the difference, and the context of the nature,” Facci explains. “It’s a relatively stress-free environment – maybe not in summer – compared to, say, stepping out of an apartment in Chicago, where you have nature in Lake Michigan, but you also have four million people, lots of traffic and congestion.”
Facci adds that people can find peace anywhere – “if you are paying attention and you want to find it.”
On the other hand, those of us who call this place home also can find stressors everywhere. Housing insecurity. Financial instability with seasonal work. Frustrations with crowds during the tourism season. Working multiple jobs to make ends meet… “I’ve heard people say they never even go to the beach because they’re so busy working,” Bowen says.
Many folks who have lived here for years know the tricks of the trade in stealing quick moments away or finding low-cost relaxation: picnics on the beach, the disc golf course in Kill Devil Hills, walks around Pea Island, the ferry to Ocracoke.
Drumheller ditches the shoes every chance she gets to build connection with the earth, and her house employs a “no car” rule on the weekend – “unless we’re going to Lowe’s,” she admits with a laugh – that forces her family onto their bikes.

Dr. Andrea Facci, who offers counseling services locally, says the combination of being able to access nature and live in this “low conflict” environment works wonders for people. Facci adds that people can find peace anywhere – “if you are paying attention and you want to find it.” Photo courtesy of Dr Andrea Facci.
“It’s not about your circles or your steps,” Drumheller adds. “It’s air. It’s sun. It’s rain. It’s being outside.”
Facci loves her beach access in Southern Shores, but also losing herself in the library and local bookstores.
“The key, of course, is reminding people to access these things, because if their wrist phone is going off, and that is going off, and they allow themselves to be programmed into that rhythm, then they forget how easy the access is,” Facci says.
And, as Woolridge puts it, so much of enjoying healthy living on the Outer Banks is about mindset.
Hmm. There’s probably a few signs about “mind over matter” and other similar sayings decorating our homes as well.
“Watch the sunrise. Watch the sunset. There’s a lot to be said about connecting to the earth again,” Woolridge says. “To be barefoot and just walk along the beach, inhaling the salt air and hearing the birds fly by, watching the dolphins out in the surf. This is a great place to do it.”