THE Healthiest thing you can do is GET DIRTY!

Did you know that soil has a microbiome? And that the Healthiest Thing You Can Do Today is to Get Dirty!

 

I'm sure you're aware that complex relationships between pretty much all human disease conditions and our microbiome compositions (definitely in the gut, but also other micrbiomes found in different areas of the body) exist, and are constantly being explored more...

 

And particularly over the last few years science knows that correlations can be drawn between human health, soil health, and the contact time we have in nature.

 

We need mother earth ♡

 

Unsurprisingly, research shows that soil microbial life is becoming less and less diverse all over the world because of over use of farm animal antibiotics, chemical fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides and other modern agricultural practices such as low crop rotation and lack of remineralisation, as well as the barrage of other industrial toxic chemicals now pervasive in the air, in our homes, our fabrics, and in our diets.

 

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This is a BIG problem, as it leads to low quality crops and low quality food ... AND low diversity of soil microbiome.

 

The microbes in humans, and in animals, are related to soil microbes because of the constant exchange via food ingestion, as well as through lung and skin exposure. This is known as the soil food web.

 

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Every time you enter nature, particularly those beautiful wild spaces further out in the country that flourish with biodiversity and breathe the fresh air, microbes wafting through the ecosystem literally become part of you.

 

They join the many billions already living in your microbiome, to become an important part of the (hopefully) diverse community of symbiotic micro-organisms found inside you.

 

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It is known that country dwellers have more diverse microbiomes, whereas in city folk the diversity is much, much less. A lack of microbe diversity is noted in all people who suffer inflammatory diseases.

 

Although we can’t reverse urbanisation, we can bring some of nature's best ecosystem benefits back to our cities with specific soil rebuilding programs.

 

This seems to make much more sense to me than just looking at injecting people with specific soil microbiome populations (a measure being studied for depression and PTSD).

 

According to The Human Urban Microbiome Initiative (HUMI) rebuilding healthy soil only takes 6-10 years!

 

And just consider - simply by getting YOUR hands dirty planting trees, pulling weeds, or even building soil erosion control structures you are conserving and contributing to biodiversity, as well as gifting yourself with microbes that you yourself may need!

 

The positive community and social aspects also have far reaching effects on our health, and our microbiome health 🥰💕

 

I discuss this, and much much MUCH more Holistic Digestive Intensive course!