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Getting your hands dirty is good for you

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Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#151

Post by cortesoft »

goda90 wrote: post #58

I have gotten weird rashes on my hands after working in the garden, so maybe it's not all good all the time.

Yeah, as someone who fairly recently discovered that the reason I always feel so uncomfortable out in nature is because I am severely allergic to almost all grasses and most trees, I think we need to put some caveats on these statements.

I grew up playing outside in the dirt a lot, but as I got older I liked it less and less because I always felt so itchy when i would go outside, and my nose would get stuffy and my eyes would water.

I am doing weekly shots trying to make it better, but I always get frustrated whenever everyone acts like I should just go out and 'touch grass'

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#152

Post by naishoya »

notaigenerated wrote: post #134
stevekemp wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made the mistake of looking at /r/sauna on Reddit once or twice recently, and there was a lot of people doing very similar things. "I take my preworkout, do my exercise, then I sit for 12 minutes at 90 degrees in sauna, before three minutes in the cold plunge-pool at 8 degrees, before going to sauna again for 19 minutes and I finish with a seven minute warm shower". Just the thought of looking at a watch in a sauna…

If it's 90 degrees Celcius, I don't think you could sit there for an hour. If it's 90 american degrees, what kind of sauna is that?

weird huh, in neither system does 90 degrees make for a useful sauna. that's either lukewarm, or cooking temp.

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#153

Post by balfirevic »

throwatdem12311 wrote: post #70
matroxmemories wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a certain style of trolling that isn’t as obvious to older people.

I mean it was so ridiculous that I do think it was trolling. But more like…what if this is actually true.

Well, what if it is? Hanging out with a whimsical premise? Oh the horror!

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#154

Post by tredre3 »

cortesoft wrote: post #150
nomadpenguin wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get most of the benefits of walking barefoot without the hookworm by wearing a good pair of barefoot shoes. I personally love my Xero Prios. If you want the full experience at the expense of looking like a freak, you can get those Vibram Five Fingers toe shoes.

Why would that give you the benefits of walking barefoot? If the point is to pick up bacteria, shoes are shoes. It doesn't matter if the toes are separated or not.

GP said the benefits of walking barefoot are "feels good, increases your connection to your surroundings, and slows you down."

In that context it seems like barefoot shoes would still work. They are essentially foot condoms, so you get most of the same sensation without the potential ickiness.

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#155

Post by saalweachter »

scottLobster wrote: post #115
LiamPowell wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that all of the authors of this paper work for a company that sells this snake oil. This entire idea of charging or discharging your body for some physiological effect is fundamentally flawed. It is indeed true that touching the ground will change your electrical potential to that of the ground, however that's as far as it goes, the rest is just nonsensical. Let's start with the very first part of that, specific…

To play devil's advocate, as a species we've spent the vast majority of our existence sleeping on the literal ground. It seems plausible there may be some adaptation to the electrical properties of being at the surface vs ensconced in synthetic materials above it. Granted there's no evidence for that as of yet, but there was a time when fiber in food was reasonably seen as just inefficient waste that couldn't be dige…

To play devil's prosecutor, charge resides on the surface of an object, and the electric field inside is zero.

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#156

Post by moron4hire »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #135
jacobrast wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know that walking barefoot in the Southern US was how most people contracted hookworm? At is height an estimated 40% of the population in certain regions had the parasite which was know to cause a "mental haze". Some historians attribute the disease (again, contracted by walking barefoot outdoors) to have caused the stereotype of the "lazy slow southerner" [1]. Do you feel walking barefoot is worth the risk o…

Those people were walking barefoot near an unsanitary latrine. Is there a lot of human feces where you might walk barefoot? If not, you don't really have to worry about hook worm. How did the southern US solve this issue? They just started building their latrines deeper.

I don't live in San Francisco, but I've heard stories...

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#157

Post by whatthe12899 »

dd8601fn wrote: post #118
PowerElectronix wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, getting the immune system to tone down the responses is probably the best one can do for oneself health. Our body didn't get the memo that for the last 200 years water and food are clean now and bacteria is fought with antibiotics. Getting the immune system to not freak out at everything it detects via just touching grass is the best news I've read today.

The next fad… microdosing immunosuppressants? We could get in early. Nevermind. Just saw people are already doing it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#158

Post by pknomad »

PowerElectronix wrote: post #56
Tepix wrote: post #28

> Those using the microbially-diverse soil saw an increase in the diversity of bacteria on their skin, and on the number of anti-inflammatory cytokines in their blood – while the other group didn't. That's really remarkable.

Yeah, getting the immune system to tone down the responses is probably the best one can do for oneself health. Our body didn't get the memo that for the last 200 years water and food are clean now and bacteria is fought with antibiotics. Getting the immune system to not freak out at everything it detects via just touching grass is the best news I've read today.

It's more of "getting the immune system to respond appropriately" and it's difficult to achieve that balance. The immune system isn't a one-size fits all monolithic entity. For example, inflammation in appropriate levels is beneficial for you because it allows your body to heal; long term sustained inflammation is not.

Too often there is this black-white level of thinking (not pointed at you) in health that causes people to act against their self-interest.

edit: the fact that this type of paper is coming from an ecologically-focused study, rather than a medical journal-based study gives me pause, too.

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#159

Post by infecto »

jacobrast wrote: post #95
CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #85

Not just your hands. Walking barefoot, over all manner of surfaces, feels good, increases your connection to your surroundings, and slows you down. I've done it lots, both in the countryside and in the city. You have to watch out for spiky plants and fox shit in the country, and in the city you soon learn which surface textures require more care :-) "Where would I find enough leather to cover the entire surface of th…

Did you know that walking barefoot in the Southern US was how most people contracted hookworm? At is height an estimated 40% of the population in certain regions had the parasite which was know to cause a "mental haze". Some historians attribute the disease (again, contracted by walking barefoot outdoors) to have caused the stereotype of the "lazy slow southerner" [1]. Do you feel walking barefoot is worth the risk o…

Are you walking on human feces a lot? Hook work was a problem because of a huge lack of sanitary conditions. Less about being barefoot. Would I walk around barefoot in my yard? Absolutely.

Re: Getting your hands dirty is good for you

#160

Post by hansvm »

moron4hire wrote: post #156
IncreasePosts wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those people were walking barefoot near an unsanitary latrine. Is there a lot of human feces where you might walk barefoot? If not, you don't really have to worry about hook worm. How did the southern US solve this issue? They just started building their latrines deeper.

I don't live in San Francisco, but I've heard stories...

The streets are power washed often enough that it's usually fine, at least if you're careful where you step.
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