Dirty secrets to health
ALLERGIES DOWN: Mental balance benef it
FOR the first time scientists have found that kids playing in the dirt is as important for mental health as building up immunity.
Mix worms, mud and add some hair of the dog and you have the recipe for busting stress, a study by the University of Colorado Boulder has found.
Children raised in a rural environment, surrounded by animals and bacteria, grow up to have more stress-resilient immune systems and are likely be at lower risk of mental illness than pet-free city dwellers, according to the paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“It has already been very well documented that exposure to pets and rural environments during development is beneficial in terms of reducing risk of asthma and allergies later in life,” said co-author Chris- topher Lowry, a professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“This study moves the conversation forward by showing for the first time in humans that these same exposures are likely to be important for mental health.
“If you are not exposed to these types of organisms, then your immune system doesn’t develop a balance between inflammatory and antiinflammatory forces and you can develop a chronic, lowgrade inflammation and exaggerated immune reactivity that makes you vulnerable to allergy, auto-immune disease and, we propose, psychiatric disorders.”
More than 50 per cent of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, so fewer people are exposed to these microorganisms.
Hyahno Moser, program manager for Nature Play Queensland, makes sure his son, Ralphie, 2, gets dirty.
“We’re learning more and more about the benefits of kids playing outside,” Mr Moser said. “Nature is a wonder product that has many physical, psychological and emotional benefits.”