Research Shows What Digging In The Dirt Can Do For Our Health

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Research Shows What Digging In The Dirt Can Do For Our Health
Alanna Ketler March 17, 2018



For the most part, hygiene and being “clean” is something that most people aim to have and to be. Everywhere you go there is a bottle of hand sanitizer and a man or a lady holding a bottle ready to disinfect you, you dirty human, you. While this can obviously be beneficial in regards to killing bacteria that could potentially lead to illness, it is also contributing to the problem of superbugs. Which are bacteria that are becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Aside from this issue, somewhere along the path of becoming more hygienic, we began to fear being “dirty,” and thus developed a fear of the dirt itself. But what we didn’t realize is just how important the dirt is for our health. There is just something about connecting directly to the Earth that is essential for our health and well being. By now, you may have heard of the benefits and seen the science of grounding or Earthing, which, essentially is just walking barefoot on the ground. More research is emerging proving just how beneficial this simple practice can be for our health. Multiple studies have shown how playing in the dirt can have a drastic impact on our mental health as well.

Could The Dirt Be As Effective As Anti-Depressants?

Sometimes the solutions to our problems are a lot more simple than we think and getting back to the basics can be just what we need. Perhaps instead of prescribing anti-depressant medication to try and treat a symptom, we should look at what might be causing those symptoms in the first place. Soil microbes have been found to have similar effects on the brain as Prozac and can actually increase your mental health and essentially make you happy. Perhaps it is simply our lack of connection with the earth that has contributed to this problem in the first place.

Mycobacterium vaccae is a substance found in the soil that is being studied for its antidepressant properties. This bacterium may stimulate serotonin production, which is the “happy hormone.” This can make you more relaxed and happy.
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul...the-new-prozac

A lack of serotonin production in the brain has been linked to depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder and unfortunately all of these mental health issues generally come along with a prescription for pharmaceutical drugs that can cause dependency issues or cause further damage to the brain. To gain the effects from these natural antidepressant microbes that are found in the soil one simply has to play in the dirt. Sounds a lot better than taking heavy duty chemical prescription medications, wouldn’t you say?

If you know any regular gardeners, you may have heard them tell you that the garden is their happy place, gardening itself is a stress reducer and mood lifter. Perhaps those with the green thumbs were right about this all along as science has now started to prove this idea.

How Does It Work?

The microbes that are found in the soil actually cause cytokine levels to rise which results in higher serotonin production in the brain. The bacterium was tested using rats – ingestion and injection. Remarkably, the results showed an increase in cognitive ability, lower stress and better concentration on tasks than that from a control group of rats.

M. vaccae bacterium was also injected directly into lung cancer patients, they reported a better quality of life and less pain.

Final Thoughts

This is simply another example of how much nature can improve our mental and physical health. We all know how disconnected we are, but it doesn’t have to be this way at all. Hopefully this serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of getting out there, getting outside, connecting with the Earth, playing and most importantly disconnecting from our phones and other technologies once in a while.

So, get out there, in the dirt, play, weed your garden – start a garden, whatever it is! This could be a key to improving your mental health and quite possibly your life. If not now, when?

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A study conducted by Frances E. Kup, PhD, and Andrea Faber Taylor, PhD, found that exposing children with ADHD to “green outdoor activities” reduces symptoms significantly. The results of this study suggest nature exposure can benefit anyone who has a difficult time paying attention and/or exhibits impulsive behaviour.

A child of any behaviour can also increase their immunity significantly by being outdoors and playing in the dirt. When a child is exposed to germs, you are increasing their chances of building a strong immune system. You can read more about that in our article, ‘Dirt is Good’: Why Children Need More Exposure To Germs.

As adults, we naturally want to protect our children from anything that could hurt them, but what we may not realize is that, by trying so hard to protect them, we could actually be hindering their ability to develop a strong immune system. When we rush to wipe their hands and faces after playing outdoors, or block the affectionate licks of our pets, we prevent germs from working their magic.

Gilbert references the way life used to be, explaining that “we would have eaten a lot more fermented foods, which contain bacterial products and bacteria. We would have allowed our children to be exposed to animals and plants and soil on a much more regular basis.” Today we are so careful to ensure anything on them or around them is sterile, when in fact, that lack of exposure and over-sterilization creates a hyper-sensitized immune system:

”You have these little soldier cells in your body called neutrophils, and when they spend too long going around looking for something to do, they become grumpy and pro-inflammatory. And so when they finally see something that’s foreign, like a piece of pollen, they become explosively inflammatory. They go crazy. That’s what triggers asthma and eczema and often times, food allergies.”

By allowing your child to play out in the dirt and remain relatively “dirty,” you are increasing their chances of building a strong immune system. One main crime most parents are guilty of, despite the good intentions behind the behaviour, is over-sterilizing their environment. Gilbert specifically mentions how using hot or even warm soapy water is fine for washing your child’s hands, and much healthier than using a hand sanitizer.

Gilbert also debunks the “5 Second Rule” myth, explaining it takes “milliseconds for microbes to attach themselves to a sticky piece of jammy toast, for example. But it makes no difference. Unless you dropped it in an area where you think they could be a high risk of extremely dangerous pathogens, which in every modern American home is virtually impossible, then there’s no risk to your child.”

This is definitely something every parent thinks about the moment the pacifier drops from their infant or toddler’s mouth. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that most people can’t help but have. Yet Gilbert offers some controversial advice for how to respond in this situation, recommending that, when this happens, parents should lick it rather than wash it. One study showed that for “parents who licked the pacifier and put it back in — their kids developed less allergies, less asthma, less eczema. Overall, their health was stronger and more robust.”

We’ve written before about the amazing benefits dirt has for us, even as adults. Soil microbes, specifically mycobacterium vaccae, are considered a natural antidepressent that mirrors the effect on neurons that drugs like Prozac provide. You can read more about that here.

Being outdoors in general presents enormous benefits to our physical and psychological well-being. One practice in particular, known as “Earthing,” or “grounding,” even encourages you to go barefoot in the grass. The logic behind grounding is based on the intense negative charge carried by the Earth. This charge is electron-rich, theoretically serving as a good supply of antioxidants and free-radical destroying electrons. Walking barefoot on the ground enhances our health and promotes feelings of well-being — a concept that can be found in the literature and practices of various cultures throughout the world.

There is a tremendous amount of science behind this, and a lot of published research, so for more information on that, the studies, and how you can get grounded, please refer to our article, How To Absorb Earth’s Free Flowing Electrons Through The Soles of Your Feet.

What about bathing? “Over-washing can actually damage the skin and lead them to have a higher likelihood of infections and over-inflammatory reactions like eczema.” Children under the age of six months and infants up to about 18 months can safely go a few days without bathing — using a warm wash cloth is enough.

All this information inspired Kevin to co-author Dirt is Good: The Advantage of Germs for Your Child’s Developing Immune System, a Q&A- based guide that helps parents to better understand what they need to know when it comes to their children and germs.

This book cuts through all the internet noise and gives you science-backed research to help you better raise your child.

“The internet is rife with speculation and misinformation about the risks and benefits of what most parents think of as simply germs, but which scientists now call the microbiome: the combined activity of all the tiny organisms inside our bodies and the surrounding environment that have an enormous impact on our health and well-being.”

Technology undoubtedly has its benefits, and while I do think it’s important and valuable that children today are learning their ways around technology as it can help them with future endeavours, its natural functions exposes children and adults to a number of physical health risks. In addition to these findings, other shocking statistics have shown that children are outside less than prison inmates. Children naturally thrive when they are exposed to the outdoors. They exercise their creativity and their physical bodies.