While mental health experts warn about depression as a global
epidemic, other researchers are discovering ways we trigger our natural
production of happy chemicals that keep depression at bay, with
surprising results. All you need to do is get your fingers dirty and
harvest your own food.
In recent years I’ve come across two completely independent bits of
research that identified key environmental triggers for two important
chemicals that boost our immune system and keep us happy - serotonin and
dopamine. What fascinated me as a permaculturist and gardener were that
the environmental triggers happen in the garden when you handle the
soil and harvest your crops.
Getting down and dirty is the best ‘upper’ – Serotonin
Getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin
levels – contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium
vaccae, triggers the release of serotonin in our brain according to
research. Serotonin is a happy chemical, a natural anti-depressant and
strengthens the immune system. Lack of serotonin in the brain causes
depression.
Ironically, in the face of our hyper-hygienic, germicidal, protective
clothing, obsessive health-and-safety society, there's been a lot of
interesting research emerging in recent years regarding how good dirt is
for us, and dirt-deficiency in childhood is implicated in contributing
to quite a spectrum of illnesses including allergies, asthma and mental
disorders.
At least now I have a new insight into why I compulsively garden
without gloves and have always loved the feeling of getting my bare
hands into the dirt and compost heap.
Harvest 'High' - Dopamine
Another interesting bit of research relates to the release of
dopamine in the brain when we harvest products from the garden. The
researchers hypothesise that this response evolved over nearly 200,000
years of hunter gathering, that when food was found (gathered or hunted)
a flush of dopamine released in the reward centre of brain triggered a
state of bliss or mild euphoria. The dopamine release can be triggered
by sight (seeing a fruit or berry) and smell as well as by the action of
actually plucking the fruit.
The contemporary transference of this brain function and dopamine
high has now been recognised as the biological process at play in
consumers addiction or compulsive shopping disorder. Of course the big
retail corporations are using the findings to increase sales by
provoking dopamine triggers in their environments and advertising.
I
have often remarked on the great joy I feel when I forage in the
garden, especially when I discover and harvest the ‘first of the
season’, the first luscious strawberry to ripen or emergence of the
first tender asparagus shoot. (and yes, the photo is my hand plucking a
deliciously sweet strawberry in my garden) I have also often wondered
why I had a degree of inherent immunity to the retail-therapy urges that
afflict some of my friends and acquaintances. Maybe as a long-term
gardener I’ve been getting a constant base-load dopamine high which has
reduced the need to seek other ways to appease this primal instinct.
Though, I must admit with the benefit of hindsight, I now have another
perspective on my occasional ‘shopping sprees’ at local markets buying
plants for the garden.
Of course dopamine responses are triggered by many other things and
is linked with addictive and impulsive behaviour. I suppose the trick is
to rewire our brains to crave the dopamine hit from the garden and
other more sustainable pursuits and activities. As a comment on
PlanetDrum stated, “all addiction pathways are the same no matter what
the chemical. As long as you feel rewarded you reinforce the behavior to
get the reward.”
So in other words it all comes down to the fact that we can’t change
our craving nature but we CAN change the nature of what we crave.
Strengthening the Case for Organic
Glyphosate residues deplete your Serotonin and Dopamine levels
Of course, for all of the above to work effectively and maintain
those happy levels of serotonin and dopamine, there’s another
prerequisite according to another interesting bit of research I found.
It appears it will all work much better with organic soil and crops
that haven’t been contaminated with Roundup or Glyphosate-based
herbicides. This proviso also extends to what you eat, so ideally you’ll
avoid consuming non-organic foods that have been grown in farmland
using glyphosates.
A recent study in 2008 discovered that glyphosate, the active
ingredient of Roundup, depletes serotonin and dopamine levels in
mammals. Contrary to Monsanto claims, glyphosate and other Roundup
ingredients do perpetuate in the environment, in soil, water, plants and
in the cells and organs of animals. One study found glyphosate
residues in cotton fabric made from Roundup-ready GM cotton can absorb
into the skin and into our nervous and circulatory systems.
No wonder there’s so much depression around, and stress, and all the
addictions and compulsive disorders in the pursuit of feeling good. I
think back on when I moved to Sydney in 1984 for a few years and was
contacting community centres in the inner west to see if there was
interest in permaculture or gardening classes. A very terse social
worker snapped at me “listen dear, we don’t need gardening classes, we
need stress therapy classes”, and promptly hung up on me with a
resounding “Huh!” when I replied that gardening was the best stress
therapy I knew.
Written by Robyn Francis.
Thanks for reading! What do you think?
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I agree with this post that gardening really does help with depression! helped my mom a lot and she got better fast with gardening
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