Play in the Dirt for Health

[TheCrazyPlantLady]

Me too. I'm kind of a hippie artist type and I don't even like to wear shoes. I'm usually barefoot and not wearing gloves when I take care of my plants.

The only thing that makes me sick is when my daughter brings home the flu or colds from school. Whenever there's a bug making the rounds at school, I end up with it.

Oh, I'm a barefoot girl myself, ACSAPA!

I've hardly been ill since the kids left school.

Last thing I remember getting bad was Swine Flu, thats going back a few years now.

When your kids are small it's a nightmare - they and you get everything that is going! Now that I've only one in high school, we rarely every get "school bugs". But both my husband and I work in office buildings downtown, with recycled air and artificial lights and no open windows. My building, in particular, is very old and breeds the nastiest viruses, which are shared by all.

 

[TheBrit]

I can always remember as a small child playing in the back garden. I must have been feeling a bit peckish because I decided to start chewing on a slug I picked up. I guess the taste wasn't to good so I ran into my mother who stuck her fingers in my mouth to remove said slug and made me rinse my mouth with water. Job done, no panick attack, no dailing 999, back out I went to play.
In this day and age peoples natural immunity is not allowed to function properly because of all the cleaners used that advertise "kills 99% of all known germs" etc. As soon as a youngster comes into contact with some form of bacteria major dramas. We all have immune systems and like the rest of our bodies they need to be working to stay good shape.
A little bit of bacteria does you good.

 

[Annetteb]

I like playing in the dirt, but I will wear gloves when I have to handle my rose bush. I kept getting stuck by the thorns. I just got tired of bloody hands so I started using gloves for that. I just use my hands whenever I am in the dirt

 

[Elizabeth]

I do not usually use gloves, I feel like without them I just get a better feel of what I'm doing. I also have heard that dirt to skin contact can actually replenish the skin and it makes your skin soft

 

[Annetteb]

Yeah I have heard that too. I would like to replenish my skin because we have to constantly wash our hands at work and my hands are always dry and ashy. I don't think that this constant hand washing is good but I have been looking for better ways to help my hands. If playing in the dirt is helpful then I will be playing In the dirt a lot more often now.

 

[Pat]

Its true, nothing wrong with a bit of dirt. Used to drink spring water that if you looked at it under the microscope, there would be things waving back at you with there flagellums.

That is funny. I don't mind getting my hands dirty but I don't think I could drink the water. I would be thinking about what's in the water. I don't wear gloves while gardening unless the stuff my hands need to go into is slimey and greasy.

 

[zigs]

Tasted far better than the tapwater where I used to live

 

[ACSAPA]

Tasted far better than the tapwater where I used to live

I actually love my local tap water. I'm drinking some right now. Our local tap water is actually bottled and sold elsewhere. I saw on TV that some bottled water is just tap water from other cities. The news camera zoomed in on a bottle of water that said the source was a 'municipal water supply". And people pay good money ,thinking that it's from a spring.

 

[zigs]

Ours had been thru about 7 different kidneys and had a load of Fluorine & Aluminium Sulphate lobbed in it before it was put back into the taps.

Seen a bloke from the water treatment plant drink water filtered from sewage

 

[claudine]

Sewage? Yuck, it sounds crazy!
Personally, I prefer to stay away from tap water. I never drink it. I think I'd rather drink water from a lake. My house is very old, so who knows what hides in pipes

 

[Trellum]

Trellum, thank you for your support. I've been suffering from OCD for many years now and unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that I'll never get rid of it. But I learned how to live with it, so it's okay. I just have to wear gloves when I'm working in my garden, it's not very inconvenient
Jewell, yes, we need healthy bacterias, I just prefer not to look for them on my own

You are welcome! I believe that living a happy life with OCD is possible, as long as we work very hard not to let the disease interfere in any way with our daily life or interpersonal relationships (I drove one of my exes crazy with my obsession with cleaning). Best of luck to you

 

[Trellum]

I do not usually use gloves, I feel like without them I just get a better feel of what I'm doing. I also have heard that dirt to skin contact can actually replenish the skin and it makes your skin soft

That sounds like another good reason not to wear gloves while gardening I might not use gloves while gardening in the future, because just like you, I love to feel what I am actually doing! Plus all that dirt can't be all that bad

 

[gata montes]

Although I don't wear gloves when handling delicate plants or something that requires being able to feel what I'm doing - I always wear well fitting leather gloves for anything that involves contact with the soil - and not just because I'm worried about the amount of bacteria that might be living in the soil either - but because we have have some incredibly nasty creatures that live in and around the soil where I live - like scorpions and giant centipedes and just one nip from the latter - will have you making a hasty visit to the nearest ER.

 

[Becky]

Although I don't wear gloves when handling delicate plants or something that requires being able to feel what I'm doing - I always wear well fitting leather gloves for anything that involves contact with the soil - and not just because I'm worried about the amount of bacteria that might be living in the soil either - but because we have have some incredibly nasty creatures that live in and around the soil where I live - like scorpions and giant centipedes and just one nip from the latter - will have you making a hasty visit to the nearest ER.

EEK! I'm glad we don't need to worry about those kind of things here!

 

[Colene]

We are discovering more and more about healthy bacteria. Are you helping build up your immune system and your families by getting those hands dirty? http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Outdoors/Archives/2013/Getting Dirty for Good Health.aspx

That is a great point. I think that people are so busy killing bacteria and germs that they forget that some are actually healthy for you. Thanks for sharing that article!