Various studies have shown the value of being exposed to dirt. People who grow up on farms have lower rates of Crohn’s disease, asthma and allergies than those who live elsewhere. In a Finnish experiment, children attending a day care center where the surrounding yard was a “forest floor” had stronger immune systems and a healthier microbiome than those whose daycare yard consisted of gravel. What’s more, the forest floor children continued to harbor beneficial gut and skin bacteria two years later.
Scientists
are increasingly discovering how broad a role dirt microbes play in our mental
and physical health. One soil-dwelling bacterium, called Mycobacterium vaccae,
has an anti-inflammatory effect on our brains, possibly both lowering stress
and improving our immune response to it. When we’re touching soil or even just
out in nature, “we’re breathing in a tremendous amount of microbial diversity,”
according to one scientist.
In a 2016 blogpost I mention other health benefits of dirt. Some pregnant women crave it and
eat it. For one thing, it strengthens both the mother's and child's immune systems. It is also supplies the minerals needed to fulfill a pregnant woman's increased demands. (This is particularly true for a white clay called kaolin.) Clay absorbs toxins and contains
the same antacid compounds found in Maalox and Rolaids.
A company called AOBiome sells a spray-on tonic that contains billions of cultivated Nitrosomonas eutropha, an ammonia-oxidizing bacteria that is commonly found in dirt. They act as a built-in cleanser, deodorant, anti-inflammatory and immune booster. It once lived happily on us too before we started washing it away with soap and shampoo.
It’s easy enough to be exposed to dirt. If you want to eat
it, you can order kaolin clay from the internet. Enjoy!
For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.
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