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To Improve Your Gut Microbiome, Spend More Time in Nature
Microbes found in green spaces can transfer into your body, increasing bacterial diversity and potentially boosting the strength of the immune system.
She mentioned a Finnish research project that showed how letting kindergarten-aged children play in a yard that contained “dirt” from the forest floor resulted in a significant positive impact on their gut microbiome. Similarly, Anirudra Parajuli and colleagues, also from the University of Helsinki, found in a study involving 48 elderly Finnish participants that the stool samples of those that lived in urban apartment houses with little surrounding vegetation showed much lower abundance and diversity of “healthy” gut microbiota compared to those in accommodation with gardens within 200 meters. Even though such studies involve only small numbers of participants and must therefore be treated as preliminary, they certainly start to suggest that when we interact in naturally biodiverse landscapes, our bodies adopt the microbial signature of the surrounding environment.
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