A little dirt is good: Gardening has a beneficial side effect on your mental health

    A little dirt is good: Gardening has a beneficial side effect on your mental health

    Did you know that there is a bacterium that can make us happier and more peaceful? It is found ... in the dung of the cows!

    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    . The natural antidepressants found in the soil can improve your mood, making you more relaxed and happier





    "Nobody ever died of dirt”Our grandmothers said - and it's true. But there's more: living in contact with dirt would even make you happier and less stressed. But beware of the type of dirt, of course: we don't have to move to a landfill to live a more fulfilling life! What we must do to cultivate and increase our psychic well-being is rather to regain contact with nature, with the countryside - also made up of contact with the ground, with animals, with the fresh air of the countryside.

    We know that spending too much time closed within the four walls of your home can be very negative effects on our psyche, and these years of pandemic have taught us this well: insomnia, depression, anxiety and relationship problems are the evils of our times - accompanied, of course, by the Coronavirus pandemic that still claims victims. Furthermore, the pandemic we are experiencing has led to an extreme intensification of hygiene and cleaning practices (personal and environments), a form of contrast to the spread of the epidemic suggested by scientists all over the world: hand sanitizer gel , sanitizers for clothes and surfaces, deep and frequent cleaning of everything we touch, sanitizing of environments - everything we touch can be a potential vehicle for the virus, and therefore it is right to sanitize and disinfect it.

    But let's forget for a moment the pandemic and the terror infused by the Coronavirus and let's go back to when, as children, we loved messing with our hands in the ground or in the sand, rolling around without fear of getting dirty, looking for pleasant tactile sensations, in that form of childhood experience of the world in which every little thing is a discovery. We had fun, and even a lot ... but is there a scientific explanation for this phenomenon or are it just childhood memories sweetened by the filter of the time that has passed? In reality, there is a scientific foundation in that pleasant and beneficial sensation: there is in fact a microbe, present in the soil, which has beneficial effects on our mood as it stimulates the release of serotonin, the hormone of happiness.



    It is Mycobacterium vaccae, so called because it was isolated for the first time in the dung of a cow. A study conducted by researchers from Bristol a few years ago showed how this has positive effects on the human brain, leading us to be happier and more relaxed, and to suffer less from stress: the effects of this microbe on cancer patients were analyzed, which they generally reported a better quality of life and a lower tendency to stress and nervousness. In short, this tiny bacterium would seem like a natural antidepressant, without side effects but which would cause - just like the antidepressants produced in the laboratory - a sort of "addiction". This is one of the reasons why being outdoors and in contact with animals makes us feel so good from a psychological point of view, and why people who tend a vegetable garden or a garden tend to be happier: breathing this microbe or coming to contact with the hands, stimulate the release of serotonin.

    How can we also take advantage of this scientific discovery? We escape into nature whenever we can: even a walk in the park or in a forest is enough to start appreciating the benefits of this microbe. Alternatively, we organize holidays in contact with nature and roll around in the ground, hug the cows and collect fruit from the trees with our bare hands: we will be happier and more relaxed, and we will also take this wonderful sensation home, to the city, of Mycobacterium vaccae remain up to three weeks after exposure to nature.

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    Font: NCBI

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