If you need yet another good reason to convince yourself or your
kids to go outside and get your hands in the dirt, here it is:
new research reveals that a bacterium in the soil not only
lowers depression and anxiety but also can make you smarter!
Science Daily reports that "exposure to specific bacteria in the
environment, already believed to have antidepressant qualities,
could increase learning behavior." The new research was
presented at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society
for Microbiology in San Diego. "Mycobacterium vaccae is a
natural soil bacterium which people likely ingest or breathe in
when they spend time in nature," says Dorothy Matthews of The
Sage Colleges in Troy, New York, who conducted the research with
her colleague Susan Jenks. Previous research studies on M.
vaccae showed that heat-killed bacteria injected into mice
stimulated growth of some neurons in the brain that resulted in
increased levels of serotonin and decreased anxiety... "This
research suggests that M. vaccae may