Let Your Kids (or Yourself) Play in the Dirt More Often

I wanna talk about why your kids need to be playing in the dirt more often , but not really the dirt , the actual soil .

Let's talk about the difference between dirt and soil .

Dirt basically is dead .

You have sand , rocks , and clay .

Soil is actually alive because it has microbial life .

It has bacteria , fungus , and the bacteria and the fungus make the nutrients available .

So I probably should have named it why your kids should be playing in the soil .

Alright .

So here's the reason .

You have 2 parts of your immune system .

You have the innate part , which you're born with .

Your mother has given you this immunity from her being exposed to microbes and all those antibodies , but then you have this other part of your immune system called the acquired .

And this is the part of your immune system that it learns from being in your environment .

And so if your child gets sick , the best thing to do is to let them get sick and go through the infection and make sure they have all the key nutrients .

Allow the fever to be there to kill off the pathogen , and allow them to build up their antibodies .

That's the best thing you can do as compared to shut off the immune system right away , suppress the fever .

Because what you're gonna find out is they're not gonna develop your immune system as well , and they probably are gonna get sick more often .

And when they're sick , the duration of infection is gonna be longer .

Now there's a huge connection between your brain and your gut .

And in your gut , you have all these microbes , which play a very important part in your immune system .

It's the different microbes working together synergistically to help pathogens from invading into the body .

And so I wanna emphasize the importance of your child being outside than being inside .

Unfortunately , recently , many children , are spending way too much time inside .

They don't get that exposure to the germs in the soil that can actually help greatly improve the immune system later in life .

There's some interesting studies , I'm gonna put them down below , that demonstrates that if a child is outside more than inside , they have a decreased risk in asthma , allergies , and even autoimmune diseases , which is quite fascinating .

Children that are outside more in nature have much less inflammation and respiratory illnesses , have a much improved mental health status too , both in cognitive function as well as mood .

And so it's not just about having your children play in the dirt or the soil .

It's about having them outdoors , in the woods , in nature , on a farm .

In one study , it was interesting .

It showed that , children that are raised in a farm are actually much healthier than their city counterparts .

And there's an additional study , which I'll put down below , that shows there's much less depression in children that are exposed more to nature , being exposed to environments that , involve trees , grass , parks , rivers , lakes , and even the ocean .

And then you have the topic of forest bathing , which I've done other videos on that supports the immune system .

Apparently , there's a certain phytochemical that is released from a pine tree that can greatly support your immune system .

And there's a link between an improved immune system as well as improved cognitive and mood function as well .

And one last study I wanna mention that was quite interesting .

There was even , an improvement in IQ , with children that spent more time outside in the environment with more space , more parks , more trees , more grass , versus children that were living in the cities where they didn't have that much exposure to nature .

So anyway , I wanted to create this video on the importance of getting your children outside the house , having them play in nature .

Also , please comment down below on how much time did you spend outside when you were a child .

Hey .

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