A Little Dirt is Good For You!

Being a gardener you probably already knew but now we have scientific proof! The NY Times recently published this article in their health section. I've posted a few interesting tidbits, click the link below for the full article.

"In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system. ...

 “What a child is doing when he puts things in his mouth is allowing his immune response to explore his environment,” Mary Ruebush, a microbiology and immunology instructor, wrote in her new book, “Why Dirt Is Good” (Kaplan). “Not only does this allow for ‘practice’ of immune responses, which will be necessary for protection, but it also plays a critical role in teaching the immature immune response what is best ignored.”

“The typical human probably harbors some 90 trillion microbes,” she wrote. “The very fact that you have so many microbes of so many different kinds is what keeps you healthy most of the time.”

Babies Know:  A Little Dirt is Good for You

Moral of the Story: Bring your kids to the garden and let them get their hands dirty -- it's healthy!