Gardening = nature’s Prozac

Here’s something gardeners have known all along: working in the garden makes you feel good.

There may be a scientific explanation. Researchers in England exposed mice to a bacteria normally found in soil and found the mice acted similarly to those given an anti-depressant.

The bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, helps activate a group of neurons that produce the feel-good brain chemical serotonin, researchers said.

And not just in mice. Interest in the project arose after human cancer patients being treated with the bacteria unexpectedly reported increases in their quality of life.

The lead author said the results left him and his colleagues wondering “if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt.”