Gardening is good for your health! You have heard this before but take a look at the scientific facts that are available today.
When you sit at a desk all day, there’s something about literally putting your hands in the dirt, digging and actually creating something that’s really beautiful. There’s something about just being out there in the outdoors that feels kind of elemental. In addition to being a source of fresh, healthy produce, gardening can ease stress, keep you limber, and even improve your mood. Look at the beauty of nature and the array of colorful flowers and shrubs.
Here are just a few of the ways gardening that can benefit your physical and mental health, and how you can start harvesting those benefits for you and your family.
Stress Relief
A recent study in the Netherlands suggests that gardening can fight stress even better than other relaxing leisure activities. After completing a stressful task, two groups of people were instructed to either read indoors or garden for 30 minutes. Afterward, the group that gardened reported being in a better mood than the reading group, and they also had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. According to Andrea Faber Taylor, Ph.D., humans have a finite capacity for the kind of directed attention required by cell phones, email and the like and when that capacity gets used up we tend to become irritable, error-prone, distractible, and stressed out. Trading your BlackBerry for blackberry bushes is an excellent way to fight stress and attention fatigue, as the rhythms of the natural environment and the repetitive, soothing nature of many gardening tasks are all sources of effortless mental attention.
Better Mental Health
In a study conducted in Norway, people who had been diagnosed with depression, persistent low mood, or “bipolar II disorder” spent six hours a week growing flowers and vegetables. After three months, half of the participants had experienced a measurable improvement in their depression symptoms. What’s more, their mood continued to be better for three months after the gardening program ended. The researchers suggest that the novelty of gardening may have been enough to jolt some of the participants out of their doldrums, but some experts have a much more radical explanation for how gardening might ease depression.
Improved Immune Systems
Christopher Lowry, Ph.D. determined, after some research that a harmless bacteria commonly found in soil, increases the release and metabolism of serotonin in parts of the brain that control cognitive function and mood -- much like serotonin-boosting antidepressant drugs do. Digging in the dirt isn’t the same as taking Prozac, of course, but Lowry argues that because humans evolved along with the bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae, and a host of other friendly bugs, the relative lack of these “old friends” in our current environment has thrown our immune systems out of whack. This can lead to inflammation, which is implicated in a host of modern ills, from heart disease to diabetes to depression. By reintroducing these bacteria in the environment, that may help to alleviate some of these problems, Lowry says.
There are more benefits from gardening and not least of which is the challenge of growing beautiful plants to enjoy while helping our pollinator friends. While we are gardening let’s remember these beautiful creations and enjoy the tranquility they provide.
Gardening with you for over 32 years,
Meadow View Growers
www.meadowview.com
