Dirt Makes You Happy

This just in: Researchers at the University of Bristol have discovered a beneficial bacteria in soil that may increase serotonin levels in the brain.  Anybody surprised?

Interest in the project arose after human cancer patients being treated with the bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae unexpectedly reported increases in their quality of life. Lowry and his colleagues reasoned that this effect could be caused by activation of neurons in the brain that contained serotonin.

When the team looked closely at the brains of mice, they found that treatment with M. vaccae activated a group of neurons that produce the brain chemical serotonin. The lack of serotonin in the brain is thought to cause depression in people, thus M. vaccae's effects on the behavior of mice may be due to increasing the release of serotonin in parts of the brain that regulate mood.

via Apartment Therapy

Comments

[Michele Owens]

Wow! I knew it had to be true, but had no idea until now how the happiness factor worked.

[CommonWeeder]

The thing I love about Garden Rant is that it proves my point that gardeners can talk about Everything! I have a weekly garden column in The Recorder in Greenfield, MA, and I love that freedom to wander in many fields and disciplines. And now I have just inaugurated my CommonWeeder blog on Blogger. You ladies have inspired me. Thank you.

[Gardener of La Mancha]

Biodiversity makes you happy too. Check it out:

http://science-community.sciam.com/thread.jspa?threadID=300004540

[Xris (Flatbush Gardener)]

Likes dirt.

[Lisa]

Don't go getting too excited about dirt as an antidepressant medication. I lived and gardened in an area of the country rich in Mycobacteria-laden soil. While gardening helped somewhat, it couldn't ward off my first lapse into clinical depression. That one landed me in the hospital. And not all the dirt on this planet could have prevented my second severe episode, one so severe I even experienced psychotic depression.

I'm not saying anyone should avoid gardening, or even that it doesn't feel good. It's simply not the miracle cure one might hope for. My own experiences (gardening and military) leave me deeply ambivalent about the potential success of a program in the UK (website gardeningleave.org) for horticultural therapy for soldiers with Combat Stress (a better description, I think, than PTSD).

I am typing all this with fingernails still slightly begrimed from one last afternoon of bulb-planting before the snow and true winter arrive tonight. I think I'd garden even in a straightjacket.

[vindya]

thanks for the info. Gardening is a great stress reliever.

[Curtis]

Doesn't surprise me at all the hear this. Gardening and being outside with nature is good for ones soul.

[Michele Owens]

Sorry, Lisa, to hear of your struggles. I don't think any of us thinks gardening alone makes people happy. It's just an important contributing factor.