Gardening enthusiasts adamantly tout the long list of benefits include stress reduction and mood improvement. But, why stop there? Could tending to a garden, breathing in fresh air and exposure to Vitamin D sunshine rays help those suffering with depression? The votes are in and experts say “yes.”

The answer lies in the actual antidepressant microorganisms in the soil.

Antidepressant Microbes in the Soil

Mycobacterium vaccae (M. vaccae) in dirt and soil naturally activate the release of serotonin and dopamine in the brain.

Together, these neurotransmitters send chemical messages to the brain: dopamine affects your emotions via sensations of pleasure and pain, while serotonin regulates our mood, social behavior, libido, memory and sleep.

When gardening, these microorganisms absorb into your skin and are inhaled with each breath. Upon entering your bloodstream and respiratory system, they quickly get to work – boosting your mood and subsiding your pain.

The connection between these soil microbes and mood elevation, funnily, were discovered by accident. Originally administered as an immune booster for lung cancer patients, M. vaccae surpassed oncologist Dr. Mary O’Brien’s expectations.

 According to O’Brien, not only did the vaccae microbial bacteria improve their immune system, but patients also demonstrated a sizeable boost in their happiness, vitality and pain relief.

Study: Soil Organisms and Performed Behaviour

According to a study conducted by neuroscientists Dorothy Matthews and Susan Jenks, published in the Behavioural Processes Journal, “eating, touching and breathing a soil organism may be tied to the development of our immune system and nervous system.” Continue reading →

 If you’re always unlucky in love, constantly bickering with your partner, or find that you tend to lose the initial spark in relationships much faster than most other couples, it could be down to an incompatibility between your star signs.

Though the zodiac calendar has existed for many thousands of years, it really splits opinion around the world as to its accuracy and effectiveness as a tool for understanding people’s personalities. However, once past the surface level, there are actually a lot of parallels we can draw between psychology and astrology. The two coexist within the human psyche – the development of our personalities and how our thoughts and actions are influenced by these are key examples.

Most importantly, however, they can give a real insight into why we interact with one another in certain ways, and why some pairings between signs work so beautifully, while others will fall apart. 

Here we will take a look at 4 surprising links between psychology and astrology, to show you how you can better acknowledge and understand your relationship dynamics based on astrology, but from a psychological perspective.

 Astrology Used in Teaching Research Methods

At the University of Cincinnati, astrology is a key component in the introductory classes for students of psychology.

They use astrology as the lens through which they teach students in these introductory classes, and use it to show how to develop and test hypotheses.

This advances the students’ psychological and analytical skills, taking into account thoughts on human behavior, probability, and statistical significance.

The use of this  framework as the initial introduction to various psychological concepts proves a strong link between the two schools of thought. Continue reading →

Musical preferences can be a polarizing. Some people like the Beatles while others are die-hard Led Zeppelin fans. Who’s to say what’s more pleasing, catchy or rhythmic?

A new study conducted by ethnomusicologists believe they’ve pinned down the answer. When it comes to music taste and preference, they argue that it isn’t a matter of biology or our natural makeup…it’s a cocktail of learned factors, like upbringing, exposure and social circles. This study isn’t without its skeptics and musical rivals. Let’s break down and settle this debate, once and for all.

The Nature Versus Nurture Debate

The nature versus nurture debate is never-ending – and the musical realm is no exception. With music present in every culture, the degree to which it is biological remains to be a highly contested issue.

Scientists are equally adamant in each camp, arguing that musical preferences of consonance and dissonance are either innately biological, or socially learned.

Those arguing that they are biologically bound hold that the mathematics of consonant intervals and rhythmic pattern regularities are naturally appealing to humans.

Continue reading →

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a highly contested medical disorder due to its complicated characterization of extreme fatigue that cannot be explained by any related underlying medical condition. Its most troubling attribute: it doesn’t improve with rest.

While there is currently no single cause for chronic fatigue, it’s believed to be a syndrome triggered by a holistic combination of factors like viral infections, immune system problems or hormonal imbalances.

Symptoms of chronic fatigue affect several body parts and include:

• Fatigue

• Loss of memory or concentration

• Sore throat

• Enlarged lymph nodes in your neck or armpits

• Unexplained muscle pain

• Moving joint pain, with no inflammation or redness

• Headaches that you’re not used to

• Unrefreshing sleep

• Unexplained depression (leading to social isolation)

• Feeling exhausted long after exercising or experiencing mental stress

Treating Chronic Fatigue with Meridian Lines

Meridian lines originate in ancient Chinese medicine. Known as “energy highways” or “energy pathways,” in the human body these meridian lines host “Qi” (chi) energy flows. Meridians can be mapped and span over the entire human body; flowing within the body, corresponding to specific acupuncture points along its path. Continue reading →

Alcohol plays such an integral part in most of our social lives that we drink it without truly considering the health consequences.

We’ve been told about the dangers of excessive drinking but regular low-level drinking isn’t generally considered an issue. Now a new study Otago University in New Zealand has discovered credible evidence that even drinking smaller amounts of alcohol directly causes seven different forms of cancer.

Research published in the journal Addiction shows a clear correlation between alcohol and cancer of the oropharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon, rectum and breast.

The findings were made after a thorough review of ten years worth of research assembled by the World Cancer Research Fund. These findings also suggested that alcohol also increased the likelihood of skin, prostate, and pancreatic cancer as well – although this link would need to be explored further.

One of the key findings of the study was the link between regular consumption of alcohol and cancer, rather than just excessive consumption.

Professor Jennie Connor, who headed up the research at Otago University, suggests that regular low-level consumption is a significant health concern – ‘the highest risks are associated with the heaviest drinking but a considerable burden is experienced by drinkers with low to moderate consumption, due to the distribution of drinking in the population.’

Continue reading →

As we gain a greater awareness of the previously unknown depths of animal psychology the practice of battery farming and unethical treatment of farmed animals is being proven increasingly barbaric. Multi-national meat and dairy companies have overlooked animal welfare in order to increase profit for decades.

Recent scientific research shows that this short-sighted and cruel way of operating has negatively affected the nutrition of the milk they’ve been selling. The study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison used serotonin (the compound responsible for happiness in humans and cows) injections to test if the boost would increase calcium output.

Over the course of the study 12 Jersey cows were injected and the results were conclusive that the level of calcium in each cow was increased, which leads to healthier milk. The findings also showed that the calcium levels were maintained across the whole lactation period. In fact the calcium levels increased every day until the 30th day of the study, ensuring nutritious milk was produced consistently.

This isn’t the first time a study has shown that increasing the happiness of cows increases the quality of the milk they produce. In 2001 the University of Leicester, England, found that playing slow music to cows relieved the animals’ stress levels and caused them to produce 3% more milk than the average cow. This milk production increase is evidence that improving animal welfare can also increase the profitability of a farming enterprise. Continue reading →