http://historyguide.org/europe/madman.html

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Parable of the Madman (1882)

THE MADMAN
Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!" -- As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated? -- Thus they yelled and laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him -- you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. 

"How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us -- for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto." 

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars -- and yet they have done it themselves. 

It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?" 

[Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882, 1887) para. 125; Walter Kaufmann ed. (New York: Vintage, 1974), pp.181-82.] 

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Coca-Cola: Who Was Dr. Joseph Jacobs?

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/jacobs-pharmacy/

Who Was Dr. Joseph Jacobs?

In my 19 years in the Coca-Cola Archives, I must have said the line: “Coca-Cola was first served on May 8, 1886 at Jacobs’ Pharmacy” thousands of times as I have discussed the history of the drink. 

With the constant repetition, Jacobs’s Pharmacy had become a “thing” rather than a place or store run by a family. This year, for our 130^th birthday, I wanted to go a little deeper and introduce you to Dr. Joseph Jacobs, the man who founded Jacobs’ Pharmacy.

Dr. Joseph Jacobs. Credit: Atlanta History Center

A native of Jefferson, Ga., Jacobs studied under Dr. Crawford W. Long, the Jefferson doctor who discovered the use of ether as an anesthetic. Long was instrumental in ensuring Jacobs' acceptance to the University of Georgia. After graduation, Jacobs continued his education at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science before returning to Athens, Ga. to open the Athens Pharmaceutical Company. The growth of Atlanta lured Jacobs to the city, and he moved there in January 1884 and purchased Taylor Pharmacy at Five Points in downtown Atlanta.  

In 1929, Dr. Jacobs wrote an article for Drug Topics, an industry magazine for the pharmacy trade, called “How I Won and Lost an Interest in Coca-Cola.” In this article, Jacobs described the soda fountain in his building.

“On the right-hand side of the entrance was a soda fountain conducted by Willis Venable, who was assisted by his brother, John Venable, and his son Edward Venable, (now one of the leading restaurant keepers in Atlanta.) The fountain enjoyed a wonderful reputation and did a large business. It averaged fully $150.00 a day from the various drinks.” As was the custom of the day, the fountains were often set up on space that was rented from the pharmacy owners. This is the case with Venable and Jacobs.

It's important to keep in mind what pharmacies were like in 1886. They were more like general stores that also dispensed medicine. Open to men and woman, pharmacies were often gathering spaces for people to get the news of the day, pick up their items and enjoy a moment at the fountain. Jacobs’ Pharmacy was one of the leading pharmacies in Atlanta.

Part of the reason for its popularity was Dr. Jacobs’ innovative business practices. Jacobs was one of the first Atlanta retailers to discount his goods. In an interesting story, the smallest currency used in Atlanta after the Civil War was the nickel. Jacobs saw an opportunity and purchased $300 worth of pennies from the mint in Washington and began to discount items from $1 to .98 cents so he could provide change. The discounts attracted customers but angered competitors to the point that he became the target of threats and lawsuits. Jacobs stuck to his strategy and, as the anger simmered, the penny had come to stay in Atlanta.

As Jacobs’ wrote in his 1929 article, he was once a co-owner of The Coca-Cola Company for a short time. Willis Venable had purchased a share of ownership from Dr. John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola. With that purchase, Pemberton retained a share but also received a royalty per gallon from Venable. Venable became strapped for cash because he was building a home in Atlanta’s West End. To raise funds, Venable sold his portion of the formula to Jacobs in return for a cash advance. 

At this point, Asa Candler enters the story. Jacobs and Candler were well acquainted as two of Atlanta’s leading pharmacists. Asa even arranged for his son, Charles Howard Candler to work in Jacobs’ Pharmacy so he could learn the trade. Candler expressed an interest in getting out of the pharmacy business, and Jacobs has told him he knew little of Coca-Cola and wished to dispose of his interest in the product. The two struck a deal where Candler gave Jacobs an interest in a glass factory in exchange for his share of Coca-Cola. Candler, in turn, purchased Pemberton’s portion and soon took total control of the company.

Jacobs Drug Store at the junction of Peachtree Street and Roswell Road in the heart of Buckhead, circa 1944. 

"Ater disposing of my Coca-Cola stock to Mr. Candler, I never owned any more of it, which evidences my poor judgement," Jacobs wrote. But that does not due full justice to his success as a business leader. From his single store at Five Points, Jacobs continued to expand his business and became the leading drug store owner in the city. At the time of his death in September 1929, Jacobs owned eight stores in Atlanta. His son, Sinclair Jacobs, also a pharmacist, continued to grow the chain until there were 21 stores in the South. Sinclair sold the chain to Revco Drugs after World War II.

Joseph Jacobs was a member of The Temple and well respected in the community. His son Sinclair was president of The Temple during the 1940s. The family owned a 40-acre estate on Roswell Road north of Buckhead. Sinclair died in 1977 and was survived by his son, Tory, who moved to Miami until his death in 2011.

While the original Jacobs’ Pharmacy location at Five Points is long gone, you can still get a sense of the family by visiting Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta to see the Jacobs’ Mausoleum, one of the first and finest in the city.

So the next time you read or hear the phrase, “Coca-Cola was first served on May 8^th at Jacobs’ Pharmacy,” I hope you have a fuller sense of the man.

Ted Ryan is director of heritage communications at The Coca-Cola Company.

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http://www.alternet.org/education/cruel-and-pointless-push-get-preschoolers-college-and-career-ready

The Cruel and Pointless Push to Get Preschoolers 'College and Career Ready'

In case you missed it, April 21 was officially Kindergarten Day. This obscure holiday honors the birth of Friedrich Frobel, who started the first Children’s Garden in Germany in 1837. Of course, life has changed tremendously in the 179 years since Frobel created his play-based, socialization program to transition young children from home to school — and so, too, has school itself. But what hasn’t changed in all this time, not one iota, is the developmental trajectory of the preschoolers Frobel was thinking about when he created what we now call kindergarten.

Frobel, a German teacher, strongly believed that children learn through play and by using open-ended materials like blocks, which he called “gifts.” His approach was a radical departure from the way children were viewed and taught at the time. Prior to Frobel, children were thought of as mini-adults who were educated through lectures and rote recitation. How ironic that today kindergarteners, and even preschoolers, are once again being subjected to these inappropriate methods of instruction. This despite all we have learned about child development in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Through research, we now have a clear understanding of how young children learn best. According to child psychologist Alissa Levy Chung (who happens to be my daughter):

“Preschoolers learn through the language of play and through movement and active participation. When children play, they integrate cognitive, social, and emotional gains. They build their language skills by communicating their ideas with their peers and then challenge themselves cognitively to integrate others' ideas with their own. In play, they also have to regulate their excitement, anger, frustration, and sadness through the course of their games and interactions. All the while, they are building their social skills by learning what kinds of behaviors attract friends and keep others in the game and what kinds of behaviors upset others or push them away. In self-directed play, children learn that their towers stay up better when they put the bigger blocks on the bottom. When they are in teacher-directed activities, children learn better when they can tie their knowledge to their real lives, to things they can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. They may be young scientists, learning about plants by putting seeds into the ground and taking care of them, seeing what happens with water and sunlight. While reading books with adults, they are encouraged to ask questions about the stories, to predict what might happen next, and to make connections to their own lives. They learn how to tell their own stories, the seeds of future writing projects. All of these foundational skills are critical for later learning. It may look like they are "just playing," but it is the critical work of childhood. Numbers, letters, and seatwork come later, but without these foundations for how to ask questions, how to integrate ideas, how to be part of a community, and how to regulate emotions in a social context, learning will only be superficial.”

I recently received a heartbreaking example of how backward we are now getting early education from a source of educational materials I greatly respect: Handwriting Without Tears. Its spring 2016 catalog announces a new pre-K curriculum called Get Set for School. Sadly, a company I greatly admire for its approach to teaching children how to print their letters, designed for occupational therapists to use with children who are developmentally delayed and for elementary school educators, appears to have now drunk the Kool-Aid on early childhood education.

For the record, there are many wonderful materials in this new catalog. I greatly appreciate the Handwriting Without Tears approach to learning cursive writing and even bought a workbook for my granddaughter when her school stopped teaching this skill. The keyboarding curriculum for grades kindergarten through five teaches a very necessary skill for today’s elementary school students. Many of the math materials are wonderful and inspired by Froebel’s hands-on approach that featured blocks for children to manipulate. But the workbooks and worksheets in the Get Set for School curriculum are just plain wrong for preschoolers.

My First School Book and Kick Start Kindergarten, targeted to the preschool population, are in fact workbooks more suitable for late kindergarten or the beginning of first grade. They ask children under the age of five to trace and copy letters, write neatly on lines, and discriminate between upper- and lower-case letters. Most preschoolers lack the fine motor coordination to accomplish these tasks. And as cute as the illustrations are, these are still passive learning materials that require too much sitting and rote instruction for young children.

Just out of curiosity, I downloaded some sample pages from the book to see what three- and four-year-olds were being asked to do. The first one was a worksheet with an orange crayon on top and a row of three objects: a pumpkin, traffic cone and carrot. I guess a preschooler is expected to learn that these things are orange and color them as such. (But I also know allowing the child to explore, touch and play with a real pumpkin, traffic cone and carrot would teach far more than the color “orange.”) In the next row, a circle, a triangle and a rectangle appear below the pumpkin, the traffic cone and the carrot. I guess the pumpkin corresponds to the circle, but the traffic cone drawing consists of a triangular shape on top of a square. And in what universe is a carrot shaped like a rectangle?

The other pages ask very young children to trace and then write the letter “v” (upper and lower case) for “van,” and to trace and correctly form a lower-case “p” (both on and below the line) for “puppy.” Again, this is a good exercise for a child several years older than a preschooler.

The final sample asks the young child to write her name in “title case.” This means that first the teacher will demonstrate how to do this, using a capital first and lower case for the rest of the name. All of this will fit in a box (for the capital first letter), and between the two lines (for the rest of the name). To ask this of a 3-year-old is heartbreaking. Some children at this age simply cannot print their names yet. Others write their names backward or flowing all over the page. Critically, this is a normal part of development, as many kids this age lack the fine motor control to do otherwise. Yet these exercises set them up for failure by making demands that many cannot meet.

Even more distressing, in order to attempt these tasks a preschooler needs to a) sit at a table for a long period of time; b) grip a pencil properly; and c) copy a model created by an adult. This expectation does not seem too different from the early 19th century view that play had no purpose in learning and children needed to be molded to fit society’s expectations. The very model that more than a century of research has told us is wrong.

I’m guessing this wonderful company decided to adapt its approach to give the people who determine our preschool curricula what they seem to want these days: materials to prepare kids for the “college and careers” trajectory. I just wish Handwriting Without Tears had resisted the temptation to cash in on this Race to the Top version of early childhood education. Froebel, who believed so deeply in the idea that children are naturally creative and imaginative and learn best through play, would have hated watching preschoolers struggling to complete developmentally inappropriate worksheets. We should all be similarly aghast.

In Froebel’s vision of kindergarten, he describes play as, “the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.” Surely, before preschoolers even arrive at the start of their formal education, play-based learning should be what they receive. To do otherwise, by pushing down on them educational approaches meant for children three or four years older, represents a fundamental misunderstanding of child development and the way preschoolers learn. Stop the madness.

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https://lifereimagined.aarp.org/stories/41961-How-Running-and-Meditation-Change-the-Brains-of-the-Depressed?cmp=SN-FCBK-LR-POST-2016#prclt-RvcI1P1c

How Running and Meditation Change the Brains of the Depressed

Getty Images

In 2007, writer Jen A. Miller went through a terrible breakup. (Her ex’s parting words: “I’ll keep you in the top eight of my Myspace friends.”) Soon afterward, her grandfather died. Soon after that, she bought a house and signed the paperwork just months before the recession hit. “I did not handle this well,” Miller wrote in a widely-shared 2014 column headlined “Running As Therapy” for the New York Times. “As I was helping my mother pack up her parents’ house, I found myself too drained to move and lay down on the floor and sobbed. My mother suggested I try therapy. I signed up for a 10-mile race instead.”

That column could be seen as an early draft of Miller’s memoir, Running: A Love Story, which is out this week. In it, she details her lifelong relationship with the sport, and how the simple act of putting one foot in front of another over 10, 15, or 26.2 miles brought back her mental clarity. In her book, Miller distances herself from the Times headline, writing that she “probably should have sought professional help,” and that she doesn’t mean to suggest self-care is an adequate treatment for the depressed. And it’s true that many severely depressed people are so ill that physical activity becomes impossible; it is also true that seeking professional help is crucial for those who struggle with mental-health issues.

But it is also true that for many people who are depressed, physical activity, and running in particular, helps tremendously. Now, an intriguing line of research is suggesting that for some, a combination of physical and mental training — called MAP training — may provide substantial help to those with major depressive disorder. Studies have already suggested that physical activity can play a powerful role in reducing depression; newer, separate research is showing that meditation does, too. Now, some exercise scientists and neuroscientists believe that there may be a uniquely powerful benefit in combining the two. In one study, published last week in the Nature journal Translational Psychiatry, a team led by Brandon Alderman at Rutgers University found that MAP training reduced depressive symptoms in a group of young people with major depressive disorder, and by an impressive margin — 40 percent on average, their data show.

The reason why this works is not yet clear. But Alderman and his colleagues have a hunch, taken from the neurogenesis theory of depression. Not long ago, scientists believed that by adulthood, your brain had already produced all the neurons it ever would. Recent research, however, has shown that some regions, including the hippocampus, generate brand-new neurons throughout the lifespan. But in some — not all, but some — depressed people, the hippocampus generates fewer new neurons than in non-depressed people. This may be one of the reasons that antidepressants work: In addition to increasing serotonin production, the medications may also increase neurogenesis. (This, by the way, is one of the weirder facts of pharmaceutical research — many drugs work even though their inventors are not totally sure why they work.)

And yet antidepressants are likely not the only way of increasing the birth of these new neurons — though this is where things get a little theoretical. Increased neurogenesis has not yet been observed in humans; the technology does not yet exist for that. But animal studies have suggested that aerobic exercise — in particular, running — can double the amount of new neurons produced in the brains of mice. The problem is that these newborn neurons don’t stick around for very long. “Even under ‘healthy’ conditions, many of these new cells can die within several weeks of being born, often before differentiating into mature neurons,” Alderman and his colleagues write in their paper.

Enter meditation. Those newly-generated brain cells can be “rescued from death by new learning experiences,” the researchers write. For instance, research has shown that “aerobic exercise increases the production of new neurons in the adult brain, while effortful mental-training experiences keep a significant number of those cells alive.” So what would happen if the two were paired?

To test this, Alderman and his colleagues recruited 52 young adults, 22 of whom had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and referred by a university counseling clinic. (The rest of the participants were “typically healthy” individuals.) Once a week for eight weeks, all of the study volunteers reported to the lab for two MAP training sessions, during which they spent 30 minutes in “focused-attention meditation” and 30 minutes running on a treadmill. At the start of the study, they all took surveys measuring their depression symptoms, as well as a test designed to measure their cognitive control — that is, their ability to harness their own attention. They repeated these tasks at the study’s conclusion, and the researchers’ analysis shows a decrease in self-reported depressive symptoms for both groups — but especially for the group with major depressive disorder. Both groups improved their performance on the cognitive-control test, too.

Again, the why factor here is not so clear. But here’s the theory: The hippocampus is associated with both learning and memory — short-term episodic memory, specifically. You can think back to your last birthday because it was an episode in your life, and the hippocampus is thought to help you do that. In focused-attention meditation, the person learns how to focus her thoughts on one steady thing, often her own breath. If her thoughts drift, she acknowledges the change, and simply returns her attention back to her breath. “With practice, the person learns to recognize deviations of attention,” Alderman and his colleagues write, “thereby acquiring new skills that can help direct attention to the present moment, not only during meditation but also in everyday life.” Maybe, they argue, the newborn neurons in the hippocampus — brought forth by running and nurtured by meditation — helped the study participants do this.

Then again, maybe not. These researchers didn’t test the reason why this change in depressive symptoms might be happening; they simply noted that it happened. But it’s the second such study to point to the power of running and meditation when paired together. In a smaller, earlier study, Alderman and a team of scientists did a version of this very same research project, only with a much more troubled population: Recently homeless young mothers, most of whom had a history not only of depression, but of addiction and sexual or physical abuse, too. In that study, the young women’s depression symptoms dropped nearly in half.

For some people, then, there may indeed be considerable power in combining a simultaneous focus on the body and the mind. In her book, Miller mostly sticks to her personal narrative, but she also considers the sometimes transformative nature of her sport. She quotes Katharine Jefferts Schori, the 26th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, who also happens to be a marathoner, as saying, “Runners begin to understand the blessing that comes with putting the body to work and emptying the mind.” Miller adds, “She was referring to prayer, but I had stopped going to church in college. Those long runs were the closest I came to going back.”

This article was written by Melissa Dahl from New York Magazine and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

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http://illinoisfamily.org/faith/jesus-the-intolerant-bigot/#.VyiVATpQ7HE.facebook

Jesus the ‘Intolerant Bigot’

“The Gospel of Christ doesn’t care about ‘tolerance.’ It cares about truth.”

These words caused me to look up from my Bible Gateway app where I was reading along with selected scriptures. Matt Short, missions pastor at One Community Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, had just uttered from the pulpit a profound reality that, regrettably, we hear far too infrequently from this millennial generation (or any generation for that matter).

After several weeks of having worshiped with this young church body, I’ve been repeatedly shocked, and pleasantly so, that, under the headship of lead pastor Paul Dudley and, clearly, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this group of faithful 20 and 30-somethings does not sidestep truth, in love, as concerns transcendent issues that in today’s politically correct and postmodern culture (to include much of Christianity) are considered highly controversial.

Pastor Short judiciously stacked his words – words that blossomed from the very Vine of Truth Himself – upon that elusive sweet spot in the tense continuum between truth and grace: two central features of Christ’s nature that are neither mutually exclusive nor at odds with one another.

“There is nothing new under the sun,” we are reminded in Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Indeed, by today’s secular-progressive standards – and, more vexing yet, by the standards of lukewarm Christians and ministries that, under the intense thaw of postmodern paganism, fall away from the berg like vast chunks of ice – Christ Jesus Himself would, like so many of his followers today, be slandered as an “intolerant bigot” and crucified all over again.

To be sure, under the contemporary misconception of “tolerance,” which supposes that one must not only tolerate sin of every stripe, but refuse to call it even that, Christ was (and is) intolerant indeed. Rather than admonishing the adulterous woman to, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (see John 8:11), postmodernism, to include the moral relativist yeast that leavens the body of Christ, demands, at once, that our never-changing Lord change the unchangeable: “Go now and continue your life of sin.”

This is not true grace.

It is cheap grace.

And it is apostasy.

While it is true that none of us is without sin (I’m the first to drop my stone in the sand for this reason), we are nonetheless commanded to repent of our sins: “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will likewise perish (Luke 13:3).”

The first step to repentance is recognizing sin for what it is and rejecting deceptive attempts to sanitize it by calling it something else (i.e., “choice,” “sexual orientation,” “she’s not my wife, but we’re soul mates” and the like). Alas, ’tis true: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).

Indeed, far too many “seeker friendly” and mainline Christian denominations do just that. They call evil good. They intentionally omit the central “repent and go and sin no more” elements of the good news (or otherwise affirm sin altogether) for fear of driving away would-be fish in the net – those slippery little buggers (aren’t we all?) who prefer whirling about in a toxic sea of temptation, rather than surrendering to the ultimate Fisher of Men.

Pastor Short, to his credit, did no such thing. In fact, he went on to address Paul’s rebuke of the church in Galatia. Much like today’s “nicer than Jesus” set, they, too, for different reasons perhaps, adopted a false gospel that, in their eyes, made them more “relevant” and palatable to the world around them.

Sound familiar?

Wrote Paul: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you,let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:6-8)

Not very tolerant.

But grace, tempered with truth, nonetheless.

“As we have already said,” Paul continued, “so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:9-10).

And so, according to Paul, those who shrink from the “full counsel of God,” are not only out of line, they are under “God’s curse.” The fall he took on the road to Damascus clearly knocked free his ability to skate the thin ice of political correctness.

Still, like the Galatians, far too many in today’s church are more concerned with not offending others, most especially those who are without Christ, and, rather than being fearless “servants of Christ,” instead have busied themselves with “trying to please people.”

And, like the Galatians, they have created a false gospel to that end.

Pleasing the world is not taking up your cross and suffering for Christ. Pleasing the world is a cakewalk. “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:19).

Does the world hate you?

It should.

We can’t belong to the world and to Christ.

We must choose.

(Note: Let’s help our young brothers and sisters continue speaking Christ’s truth, in love. I urge you to give to the powerful ministry of One Community Church.)

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http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm

Antidepressant Microbes In Soil: How Dirt Makes You Happy

By Bonnie L. Grant

Prozac may not be the only way to get rid of your serious blues. Soil microbes have been found to have similar effects on the brain and are without side effects and chemical dependency potential. Learn how to harness the natural antidepressant in soil and make yourself happier and healthier. Read on to see how dirt makes you happy.

Natural remedies have been around for untold centuries. These natural remedies included cures for almost any physical ailment as well as mental and emotional afflictions. Ancient healers may not have known why something worked but simply that it did. Modern scientists have unraveled the why of many medicinal plants and practices but only recently are they finding remedies that were previously unknown and yet, still a part of the natural life cycle. Soil microbes and human health now have a positive link which has been studied and found to be verifiable.

Soil Microbes and Human Health

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Did you know that there’s a natural antidepressant in soil? It’s true. Mycobacterium vaccae is the substance under study and has indeed been found to mirror the effect on neurons that drugs like Prozac provide. The bacterium is found in soil and may stimulate serotonin production, which makes you relaxed and happier. Studies were conducted on cancer patients and they reported a better quality of life and less stress.

Lack of serotonin has been linked to depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar problems. The bacterium appears to be a natural antidepressant in soil and has no adverse health effects. These antidepressant microbes in soil may be as easy to use as just playing in the dirt.

Most avid gardeners will tell you that their landscape is their “happy place” and the actual physical act of gardening is a stress reducer and mood lifter. The fact that there is some science behind it adds additional credibility to these garden addicts’ claims. The presence of a soil bacteria antidepressant is not a surprise to many of us who have experienced the phenomenon ourselves. Backing it up with science is fascinating, but not shocking, to the happy gardener.

Mycobacterium antidepressant microbes in soil are also being investigated for improving cognitive function, Crohn’s disease and even rheumatoid arthritis.

How Dirt Makes You Happy

Antidepressant microbes in soil cause cytokine levels to rise, which results in the production of higher levels of serotonin. The bacterium was tested both by injection and ingestion on rats and the results were increased cognitive ability, lower stress and better concentration to tasks than a control group.

Gardeners inhale the bacteria, have topical contact with it and get it into their bloodstreams when there is a cut or other pathway for infection. The natural effects of the soil bacteria antidepressant can be felt for up to 3 weeks if the experiments with rats are any indication. So get out and play in the dirt and improve your mood and your life.

Watch this video about how gardening makes you happy:

Resources:
“Identification of an Immune-Responsive Mesolimbocortical Serotonergic System: Potential Role in Regulation of Emotional Behavior,” by Christopher Lowry et al., published online on March 28, 2007 in Neuroscience.
http://www.sage.edu/newsevents/news/?story_id=240785
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/sites/default/files/images/gg607.pdf (pg 12)
Mind & Brain/Depression and Happiness – Raw Data “Is Dirt the New Prozac?” by Josie Glausiusz, Discover Magazine, July 2007 Issue. http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/raw-data-is-dirt-the-new-prozac

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http://m.imgur.com/gallery/ygq7RK8

Advice from some old people

1. The most important person in your life is the person who agreed to share their life with you. Treat them as such. 2. You might live a long life, or you might live a short one — who knows. But either way, trust me when I say that you’re going to wish you took better care of yourself in your youth. 3. Stuff is just stuff. Don’t hold onto material objects, hold onto time and experiences instead. 4. Jealousy destroys relationships. Trust your significant other, because who else are you supposed to trust? 5. People always say, ’’Make sure you get a job doing what you love!’’ But that isn’t the best advice. The right job is the job you love some days, can tolerate most days, and still pays the bills. Almost nobody has a job they love every day. 6. If you’re getting overwhelmed by life, just return to the immediate present moment and savour all that is beautiful and comforting. Take a deep breath, relax. 7. Years go by in the blink of an eye. Don’t marry young. Live your life. Go places. Do things. If you have the means or not. Pack a bag and go wherever you can afford to go. While you have no dependents, don’t buy stuff. Any stuff. See the world. Look through travel magazines and pick a spot. GO! 8. Don’t take life so seriously. Even if things seem dark and hopeless, try to laugh at how ridiculous life is. 9. A true friend will come running if you call them at 2am. Everyone else is just an acquaintance. 10. Children grow up way too fast. Make the most of the time you have with them. 11. Nobody ever dies wishing they had worked more. Work hard, but don’t prioritize work over family, friends, or even yourself. 12. Eat and exercise like you’re a diabetic heart patient with a stroke — so you never actually become one. 13. Maybe this one isn’t as profound as the others, but I think it’s important… Floss regularly, dental problems are awful. 14. Don’t take anyone else’s advice as gospel. You can ask for advice from someone you respect, then take your situation into consideration and make your own decision. Essentially, take your own advice is my advice… 15. The joints you damage today will get their revenge later. Even if you think they’ve recovered completely. TRUST ME! 16. We have one time on this earth. Don’t wake up and realize that you are 60 years old and haven’t done the things you dreamed about. 17. Appreciate the small things and to be present in the moment. What do I mean? Well, it seems today like younger people are all about immediate gratification. Instead, why not appreciate every small moment? We don’t get to stay on this crazy/wonderful planet forever and the greatest pleasure can be found in the most mundane of activities. Instead of sending a text, pick up the phone and call someone. Call your mother, have a conversation about nothing in particular. Those are the moments to hold onto. 18. Pay your bills and stay the hell out of debt. If I could have paid myself all the money I’ve paid out in interest over the years, I’d be retired already. 19. If you have a dream of being or doing something that seems impossible, try for it anyway. It will only become more impossible as you age and become responsible for other people. 20. When you meet someone for the first time, stop and realize that you really know nothing about them. You see race, gender, age, clothes. Forget it all. You know nothing. Those biased assumptions that pop into your head because of the way your brain likes categories, are limiting your life, and other people’s lives.

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