Playing in the dirt to keep healthy

[Gloria]

Remember the old sci-fi movies where the aliens would invade earth only to be undone by our wide world of microorganisms.

Getting Dirty for Good Health - National Wildlife Federation

Yet physicians, medical researchers and public health officials do not think like ecologists. Even if they did, there is another problem: While we have spent much of the past century studying and trying to control species that are bad for us, scientists have invested little time or effort attempting to identify, much less favor, species that benefit our health.

Take the example of my own home. Recently, as part of my lab’s Your Wild Life project, I attempted to catalog all of the species on my body and in and around my house. I came up with a list of more than 2,000, yet neither I nor any other scientist can identify most of these species. The majority, particularly microbes, do not yet have scientific names. But even insects—species visible to the naked eye as they run across the carpet or hang out on window screens—are more often than not essentially unknown. Which ones should I favor? Nobody has a clue.

Meanwhile, like everyone else, I am left to figure out on my own how to stay healthy and, more importantly, how to keep my children healthy. As a scientist, I work to identify and study the diversity of species on the planet. But as a father, I am left to more primitive magic: I take my kids to the hill near our house, where we bury our fingers in mud and leaves in the hope that the good life will creep up on us.

[Gloria]

Dirt and play makes for happy children and maybe even healthier children.

[Gloria]

A public play area that encourages playing in the dirt and picking up the sticks and splashing the water...hallelujah!!!

http://www.chicagowilderness.org/New...ark/#more-1776

[Equilibrium]

Don't forget swimming in untreated water like clean lakes and ponds!!! I've read where that can make for happy and maybe even healthier kids too. Here's some really great natural ponds that sure beat out swimming in highly chlorinated public pools, Natural Pools or Swimming Ponds.