Daycares in Finland Built a 'Forest Floor', And It Changed Children's Immune Systems:
Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest's undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child's immune system, according to a small new experiment.
When daycare workers in Finland rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth such as dwarf heather and blueberries, and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.
Compared to other city kids who play in standard urban daycares with yards of pavement, tile and gravel, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at these greened-up daycare centres in Finland showed increased T-cells and other important immune markers in their blood within 28 days.
"We also found that the intestinal microbiota of children who received greenery was similar to the intestinal microbiota of children visiting the forest every day," says environmental scientist Marja Roslund from the University of Helsinki.
Prior research has shown early exposure to green space is somehow linked to a well-functioning immune system, but it's still not clear whether that relationship is causal or not.
The experiment in Finland is the first to explicitly manipulate a child's urban environment and then test for changes in their micriobiome and, in turn, a child's immune system.
While the findings don't hold all the answers, they do support a leading idea - namely that a change in environmental microbes can relatively easily affect a well-established microbiome in children, giving their immune system a helping hand in the process.
Journal References:
- Marja I. Roslund, Riikka Puhakka, Mira Grönroos, et al. Biodiversity intervention enhances immune regulation and health-associated commensal microbiota among daycare children [open], Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba2578)
- Payam Dadvand, et. al., The Association between Lifelong Greenspace Exposure and 3-Dimensional Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Barcelona Schoolchildren, Environmental Health Perspectives (DOI: 10.1289/EHP1876)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @11:38AM (4 children)
But in California, the children of H1Bs would be shitting on the planter boxes.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @11:58AM (1 child)
They'll be doing you the favor of boosting your immunity. The more of them, the higher your immunity. It may even be they are a, nay, the cure for Covid.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 29 2020, @01:09PM
Montezuma's revenge doesn't strike the locals.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 29 2020, @03:43PM
I think the word you were looking for is "fertilizing".
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2020, @12:25AM
Yeeesssss, feeeeed me your fears! Feed me the hate! The barrier between worlds grows thin, soon I shall join you and grant you the ultimate freedom from oppressive tyranny.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by legont on Thursday October 29 2020, @12:22PM (23 children)
Children don't even get a floor of any kind - they sit in front of a TV and watch Disney all day long.
Children need to play with their hands and with their peers. They need to get dirty. They need to chew bugs. They need to test their social relationshis, including fighting each other and checking private parts. All of this is stolen from American children and substituted by drugs.
Zero tolerance is the worst that ever happened to children.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @12:26PM (16 children)
have you considered that your social bubble is not very permeable to other parts of society?
the things you're describing are valid for an admittedly loud as far as media representation is concerned, but relatively small percentage of the US population.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 29 2020, @01:04PM (11 children)
His descriptions pretty well match what is expected / demanded in schools. A relatively high percentage of the US population does attend schools and is expected to demonstrate all these "values" in the school setting, same for all young adults in University classrooms.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @01:27PM (10 children)
I was thinking that most kids are too poor to be very well insulated from bacteria.
but I guess cockroaches and other inner city stuff is not the same as a forest floor.
when we lived in baltimore though, I saw plenty of crawling kids explore the relatively natural growth around the playground, and most people actually lived in houses with lawns (where kids would play).
and I'm under the impression baltimore is pretty bad as far as "large inner city population" goes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 29 2020, @04:57PM (9 children)
I'd say that there is a pretty drastic difference between inner city scum and forest floor - both are filled with active beasties, and the city scum will take you down in a hurry if you're not immune to it. Case in point: I cut my hand while mountain biking 100km East of Dusseldorf. I didn't have proper first aid, but it wasn't a problem for several days... until I rode into town. 6 hours after arriving in Dusseldorf I was in the ER with blood poisoning spreading rapidly up from my hand through my elbow before it got treated. The city biome tried to kill me, but that's why they have hospitals.
Get into a forest floor and there's all manner of leaf-rot worm guts bear crap and other stuff you just don't get in the city, but most of humanity probably did evolve with until ~5000 years ago.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday October 29 2020, @05:34PM (5 children)
I sincerely doubt that a "city biome" was responsible. You were probably almost immediately infected after injury, if not then it was during the several days you went untreated before reaching the city. There is no way an infection like that comes about within 6 hours, it just happened to escalate from festering to serious after you arrived there.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 29 2020, @06:06PM (4 children)
I seriously doubt that you were there.
No sign of serious infection for ~48 hours after injury. Arrived at a youth hostel, took a shower, laid down for a nap, 30 minutes later the red stripe appears on the wrist and starts spreading up at a rate of about an inch an hour.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2020, @12:52AM (3 children)
Your problem was probably the gross youth hostel. Fast spreading rashes are usually the result of irritants, allergies, or serious systemic issues. Since you are still here, it is probably one of the first two.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2020, @12:58AM (2 children)
Oops, missed the sepsis part of that story earlier. There is no way that kicks in that quickly in an otherwise healthy individual if it wasn't picked up from the youth hostel.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 30 2020, @01:14AM (1 child)
Exactly, the shower in the youth hostel had ... something ... that got in through the scab which was loosened by the water. Whatever it was, it responded to antibiotics almost immediately, and the German ER didn't bankrupt me which was nice.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2020, @01:50AM
That is a nice feature of other health care systems. But the infection you are describing is the hostel's problem not the "city biome" problem. The hostel and any short-term hospitality facility can get straight up disgusting if not cleaned frequently enough, which they often aren't especially the "wet" areas and sheets. That sort of thing is largely caused by that unique set of circumstances present and not its "city" status per se.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 29 2020, @09:55PM
I'm going with Joe Desertrat on that. Whatever caused your infection was picked up at the time you were injured, or soon after. It's highly unlikely that you wandered around for days, only to be attacked by some random germs after you entered the city. Whichever germs or bacteria caused your infection required a couple days or more to be fruitful and multiply to the point that you became aware of them.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday October 30 2020, @07:08PM (1 child)
Yes, because as we all know the moment a single bacterium get's into your cut it immediately presents symptoms. It definitely does not take, say a day or two, to reproduce into a large enough population to cause you harm.
Excellent anecdote!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 30 2020, @07:31PM
Shitty tip of the day: if you ever see a red line spreading up from your wrist toward your elbow - just chill out man, that's nothin' to worry about. /s
The open cut was washed in a youth hostel shower (no soap available) about 3 hours after entering the city, the red line started showing up about an hour later - I suspect it entirely started from something washed in in the shower, but I could have picked something up while working on the bike on the way in. The ER doc called it blood poisioning, but Lymphangitis is a more precise description - I first noticed the tender red stripe when it was less than 1cm long, but within the hour it took to get to the ER it had grown to about 12cm long.
But, sure, it could have been bacteria picked up several days earlier - I'm sure your perspective on it is much more informed than mine. /s
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 29 2020, @03:43PM (3 children)
You've heard the term "helicopter parents". People who constantly worry about EVERYTHING child related.
Fact is, you simply don't see hordes of children running around the country side, like we saw as children. You don't see kids wandering the neighborhoods in the suburbs.
There was a rather memorable story of the police being called to investigate a youngish child who was seen walking to a playground. This isn't the same story I had in mind, but it makes the point: kids DO NOT get out and about anymore.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/parents-under-investigation-for-neglect-after-108180228512.html [yahoo.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by hemocyanin on Thursday October 29 2020, @09:36PM
On my drive home through the countryside, I will see kids sometimes riding bikes on the road, but if they are off through fields and forests and you can't see what is out there. In my childhood I was rarely near the road but usually out in the field or woods out back. The amount of joy a 2nd grader gets with a pack of firecrackers and field dotted with cowpies is unmeasurable. Anyway, I suspect the country has fewer helicopter parents but I also don't have any hard data to back that up. Just saying that you aren't likely to be able to see the free ranging country kids from the road most of the time.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday October 29 2020, @11:58PM (1 child)
Once upon a time in a country near you children would go to schools with rifles. They'd put their rifles into the principal office and take them back after the classes so they could get a rabbit on the way back home. Did I mention they were hiking through the forest?
My own father even though we was born across an ocean on the other side of the planet did exactly this. He would take his shotgun to the school, leave it with the janitor, and try to get a rabbit on the way back home.He was 13 when his father died and he inherited the shotgun. I still own this shotgun totally illegal and unregistered in that part of the planet. I keep it in top condition and test it regularly. I learned how to use it as the same age - 13 - and I learned it well
Modern American children are so poor...
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday October 30 2020, @12:13AM
On that shotgun there is a mark - a damage - on the wood. My father did not know how to disassemble it for cleaning so he tried to force it and broke some. He did not have his father to teach him, but he did taught me. Every time I take my shotgun in my hands I see this mark an I remember and appreciate that I did have my father when I needed him and I cry that my father did not.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @12:27PM (2 children)
And guns, don't forget guns.
And thoughts and prayers after.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @06:21PM (1 child)
no doubt a haughty European that is letting Jews bring in invaders to have their teachers' heads cut off for showing pictures of a fucking sand nigger war lord, while their daughters are passed around as sex toys, and their pigs knock on whitey's door for a first degree daring-to-whine on Slavebook charge. Brainwashed slaves should wake the fuck up. They will wish they had the basic human right to self defense in a few years. Many, with dead/raped/beat relatives already do.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @10:45PM
Right. Let those sand niggers have guns too, it will be hell of a party.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Thursday October 29 2020, @01:11PM (2 children)
Medical schools are already finding that many incoming students lack the fine motor skills necessary to learn surgery. They need lots of remedial training to get to a minimum acceptable level before they can even start the applied studies. Similar for kindergarten, many incoming kids don't have the rough motor skills to participate in many activities, including drawing with crayons or fat pencils. There are articles around on both situations.
Stamina and strength are also things of the past. Anecdotally I have heard about kids that can't even travel a block without getting winded. That comes from multiple hours per day curved into a C-shape over a tiny screen, either a smartphone or a tablet. That comes in part from "engagement" over usability and effciency. Smartphone applications are written for addictiveness and "engagement" to occupy attention fully while maximizing the time spent interacting with the program, rather than getting the job done quickly and without though. Despite that, smartphones are given to very small kids as pacifiers and babysitters. That's something I see everywhere. One part which I suspect but have not seen hard documentation for, yet, is that the techniques which the smartphones applications and services use to achieve addictiveness are also cultivating ADHD on top of the lack of motor skills. Even videos are heading that way, a long take in a Tiktok style video is measured in tenths of a second. That's not entertainment, that's just plain fucking with cognitive abilities. Society requires participation, the prerequisites for that are being mined away from the younger and youngest generations in circulation.
Oh, well. While we won't be the first civilization to have collapsed completely but, having pulled the ladder up after us, we will be the last.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by helel on Thursday October 29 2020, @02:10PM (1 child)
There are definitely problems with "smartphone parenting" starting, I think, with parents being addicted to their screens before they even give them to their children. A recurrent phenomenon I've experienced when taking my kid to the park or library is that other kids we don't know attach themselves to us because I'm the one parent actually interacting with my child. The edges of the park/kids area will be lined with adults staring at their phones and I'll have one to three of their children wanting me to "watch this" or help with that.
On the other side of things, I very much agree that "designed for addiction" is an even bigger problem for children than adults but I don't think the cut of the videos is really an issue. There's a very small list of youtube videos I download for my child - they never see the app or webpage. What's really interested me about the video is that our neighbors kid, who watched allot more "kids content" than mine, can't follow the fast-cut youtube videos. They just get lost. On the flip side tho I set them up with My Neighbor Totoro one day and the neighbor couldn't keep interest in it while my kid loved the whole 90 minutes. It was just too slow, compared to modern Disney.
It's hard to identify variables in an anecdote, obviously, but somewhere between the less overall video time, the learning videos as distinct files rather than an endless flow on an app, and the much much more reading* my child is better able to follow both fast, high information density, youtube and slow emotional classics in a way that the neighbor with Disney+ and Netflix can't.
*A 90 minute movie is incredibly short when compared with spending a few months working through all the Little House books [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 29 2020, @04:35PM
Our kids have been suffering from screen addiction since the pandemic began. We finally confiscated everything and instituted family reading time. Everyone lays on sofas and chairs in the living room together and reads something for an hour. They had severe withdrawal at first, but now enjoy it. Their behavior has been noticeably improving, too.
It's interesting to see our societies developing a sort of social vitamin deficiency now that they have been deprived of essential human interactions for long periods of time. We do need to correct it immediately before we do permanent damage to our kids.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @01:05PM
Yes, there's evidence that it's better to give human immune systems something to do but that part has been done by other research, not by this.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @01:36PM (1 child)
These are very profound results. We can have have healthy upbringing without necessity of living in a forest.
(Score: 5, Funny) by etherscythe on Thursday October 29 2020, @02:00PM
Note, however, this is not an excuse to have a stick up your butt.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2020, @08:29PM
god! it used to be forest, forest, creek, meadow, forest, "oh fire!", creek, "oh! tabletable stone", more grasshoppers and then the 2400 baud modem showed up ^_^