Question

Leïf Rot

Day guards in Finland built "forest roads" and changed children's immune systems.
Within 30 days of playing in forest soil and leaf litter, Finnish preschoolers had increased the number of T-cells and much more varied gut bacteria.
In a fascinating experiment, Finnish researchers have recreated the environment on a forest floor on the playgrounds in four urban nurseries.
They covered the playgrounds with forest soil, moss, meadow grass, dwarf heather, blueberries and crowberries and installed planting boxes for annual garden crops.
Childcare workers instructed the preschool-age children to play in the greenery and the soil for an hour and a half a day for a month.
Their gut and skin microbes were analyzed before and after the experiment and compared to children from normal urban nurseries with regular sterile playgrounds.
After just 28 days, the diversity of their gut and skin bacteria increased dramatically, as did their T-cell numbers and other important immune markers in the blood.
It supports the hypothesis of biodiversity and the concept that low biological diversity in the modern living environment can lead to an uneducated immune system and thus increase the incidence of immune-borne diseases.

#environment #children

tinkercreek 8

Answer 1

Mud pies for all!

Answer 2

Makes sense, urban life is stressful and dirty

Answer 3

I’d decided to give up gardening. Seems that may have been an ill-advised decision.

Answer 4

I seems just common sense. Today’s mania for sterilising and disinfecting (I’m not talking about recent measures to inhibit the transmission of Covid19, but the general trend in western nations for decades to shield us from all known germs as much as possible) has left our immune systems unable to built a natural defence mechanism to fight against disease. My father used to maintain it was healthy to let children get grubby playing in the garden and woodlands, and digging in the soil…”he called it good clean dirt”.

Answer 5

Great to read that someone has got round to proving something that I have believed in for 60 years.


Author	Author:
Type of abuse	I think this violates the community guidelines. Chat or rant, adult content, spam, insulting other members I think this is illegal. Harm to minors, violence or threats, harassment or privacy invasion, impersonation or misrepresentation, fraud or phishing, etc.
Additional Details If Needed

Chat room is open

Post a comment Author doesn't reply Reply Author doesn't reply Add Photo

Enjoy being online again!

5 comments

Recent Visitors 24

Photos 5,418 More

Members 1,541Top

Moderator

Related GroupsMore