Scientists have also arrived, while common sense has always known spontaneously, without any need for education: contact with the earth, with the soil, improves mood.
The elderly, in order to enter happily and peacefully into old age, have always needed daily contact with the vegetable garden and the land .
But this is not just a daily ritual, a routine designed to combat boredom and laziness: a recent study, published in Neuroscience in March of this year, demonstrates the well-identified presence of bacteria capable of provoking a response serotonergic in the human being, with an unquestionable effect on the so-called "emotional behavior".
Antidepressant microorganisms in the earth: how they work
Contrary to what is claimed by the whole of the hygienic current, which sees invisible monsters in microbes and bacteria from which to escape or shield itself, a new vision of the matter takes more and more credit, given by the discovery of numerous microorganisms in the earth with which it comes into contact (bacteria, algae, yeasts, pollens, etc.) with positive effects : many of them train and keep the immune system functioning well, others stimulate some apparatuses, but never before had the presence of microbes capable of fighting depression been demonstrated acting on serotonin receptors .
An excess of hygiene would therefore produce an opposite effect from that desired. Once again we find ourselves in the position of having to admit that natural remedies (and what is more natural than earth?) Are always the best.
Save the planet starting from the garden and the garden
Effects on mood of antidepressant microorganisms
One of these precious bacteria, called Mycobacterium vaccae, is found in the fur of domestic animals free to run around and directly into the soil : its antidepressant effect is undeniable and some doses of this bacterium have been administered to terminally ill liver cancer patients who have relief relief, with also a decrease in nausea and pain .
It is a field yet to be discovered: the British researchers, authors of the discovery, believe that this bacterium stimulates and strengthens the immune system, pushing cells to produce cytokines, a series of protein products able to act on receptors of the nervous system in a way positive, like real " mood improver ", or mood enhancers .
Many symptoms of serious diseases such as cancer have shown a decreasing tendency after these treatments and positive symptoms usually linked with healing principles such as vitality, development of cognitive abilities, and emotional improvement. If you want to enjoy these improvements then take care of the soil and keep it healthy!
Orthotherapy: the benefits of contact with the earth
Orthotherapy is a serious matter: working and moving the soil raises Mycobacterium vaccae in the air, and it is enough to breathe and talk during horticultural work to benefit.
But not only: walking in nature, in the woods, in uncultivated meadows, generates the same effect: if walking does not raise the same number of bacteria in relation to working the land, it must be said that the humic soil of the woods and places wild is extremely rich in percentage.
Many times, the sense of depressing alienation that one lives in the big cities and the need to return even for a while to breathe the country life comes from these bonds invisible to the human eye with mother earth.
When you quietly work on your garden, or walk in a park or in a forest, or practice healthy gardening, or have a picnic with your children, watch and listen: that feeling of anxiety that goes away and that well-being that infects every part of being is not just a sensation, it is a biochemical reality : getting dirty with the earth would amount to a vaccine against depression . Seeing is believing.
