~Soil Makes You Happy

We are inextricably linked with soil, we need to play in soil and let our children get some in their systems. The obsession with antibacterial soap and cleanliness is not good for our immune systems which need to come in contact with microbes to build up our immunity. So perhaps we should be telling children not to wash their hands before they eat. I remember reading about a doctor who went to work in India and he took a small amount of water from the waterway each day and gave it to his children to build their immunity. "It's called the hygiene hypothesis”, says Mary Ruebush PhD, author of ‘Why Dirt Is Good: 5 Ways to Make Germs  Your Friends.’ “It’s been around since 1989. It's not new information. But, absolutely, the failure to expose your children to normal environmental things causes the immune response to turn inward on itself. So the development of allergies and what we call auto-immune disease is clearly related to the increase in cleanliness in our society."
So a little bit of dirt is definitely good for you, difficult to know where to draw the line, but just washing with normal soap and water is fine. Now research has shown that there’s a natural antidepressant in soil, it’s called Mycobacterium vaccae, and has been found to mirror the effect on neurons that drugs like Prozac provide. The bacterium may stimulate serotonin production, which makes you relaxed and happier. Studies were conducted on cancer patients and they reported a better quality of life and less stress. Serotonin has been linked to such problems as depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar problems. The bacterium appears to be a natural antidepressant in soil and has no adverse health effects. These antidepressant microbes in soil may be as easy to use as just playing in the dirt. See http://discovermagazine. com/2007/jul/raw-data-is-dirt-the- new-Prozac