Microbiome

As many Peachlander’s begin to get outside and sip in the spring air while working in the yard, pruning and raking and tilling the garden soil, we may not realize how integral this is to our overall health and digestion.

It goes without saying that being in nature has many benefits to our wellbeing. Taking your exercise or work projects into the great outdoors increases oxygen intake, builds on balance and stability from unstable surfaces, improves reaction time, stimulates our reasoning and other mental abilities by increasing a “pleasure response”, boosts our creativity and problem-solving abilities. Studies also indicate that being in nature reduces cortisol (stress hormone), lowers heart rate, blood pressure, can increase Vitamin D absorption (with moderate sun exposure), improves sleep, reduces depression as well as improves vision. The list can go on and on and studies from WebMD, Healthline, U.S. Frorest Service, American Psychological Association can back up all of these claims.

What is emerging in research as well, is that being in nature and dirt exposes us to a very unique annual community of Microbiome that begins to emerge this time of year for our gut. While we’re outside getting all of the above mentioned benefits from being in nature, the microbes in the soil, under the leaves, in the garden dirt, forest floor and shores along the lake are waiting for you to breathe them in and wear them on your skin. Every spring, a new ecology of microbes are essentially hatching. This microbial surge for 2025 helps to build a seasonal gut flora like seed planting in our body. What’s happening in the dirt around us is then married with the culture within us. That is, if we are getting some time in nature. When you’re outside and absorbing your “local dirt” you are inoculating your digestive tract with a stable new season of microbes and preparing your gut for the foods that you eat that season. Our modern diet includes a plethora of imported foods, where our gut hasn’t the microbial association. Therefore, we’re not as “familiar” with the food’s microbes from international foods and it taxes our digestion which is trying to organize the “files”…so to speak. Familiar microbes that are on the locally sourced arugula, radishes and other spring vegetables that we eat, out of our garden, are basically giving hugs to the ones waiting in our belly. It’s a marriage made in “belly heaven” that starts now when we get outside breathing particles in the air from the dirt. The Human Microbiome Project, that started in 2007, has been exploring the role of soil and our intestinal community as it relates to human health and disease. Their studies also reflect how this affects our immunity by reducing the stress on our digestion. Since we were hunter gatherers, our microbiome biodiversity has decreased significantly because we’ve become more urbanized and able to import a variety of foods not native to our lands or our intestinal environment. Many of us are aware of how bee’s play a role in this as well. When ingesting local bee pollen and honey, we can help our immune system to manage seasonal allergies because the pollen is local.

If there can be one take away regarding nature as a healing modality, let it be that “dirt” ain’t so bad. Especially if it’s “local dirt”. And pretty soon our local farmers markets as well as fruit & vegetable stands will be selling produce for the gardeners and non gardeners. We live in a biodiverse & rural community surrounded by all that nature can offer. Whether we forage, garden or support local farmers, each supplies us with what our gut needs. Get outside, open up our windows and breath in the fresh air. It’s good for your belly and so much more. Happy Spring.