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   son of sam harris (sam_harris@gigaohm.bio)'s status on Friday, 30-May-2025 04:22:40 JST son of sam harris
   Is dirt bathing a thing? I noticed every mammal or bird on Earth likes to roll around in dirt occasionally except for us human saps. It's supposed to help manage parasites I think but I think it's more likely to do with increasing native phage exposure. Something like ten million phages in every gram of dirt which you wouldn't typically have access to unless you roll around in it for a bit.
   
   same for skinny dipping. Hundreds of millions of phages in every millilitre of water which you get totally immersed in. When I was a kid it always amazed me how all the scuffs, scrapes and cuts would magically just heal after spending a hour or two in the sea.
   
   Obviously take a shower afterwards or before you put your clothes back on. Can you also maybe buy special forest dirt you can rub yourself down with if you're in a city.
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     Zardoz (zardoz@gigaohm.bio)'s status on Friday, 30-May-2025 04:22:39 JST Zardoz

     in reply to
     I have noticed that if I keep my skin clean and exfoliate, my health improves. i have no “allergies,“ and I never medicate for them, but I can have allergy attacks. If I overload on allergens, allergy attack can then become “a cold” Where I feel legitimately sick.
     
     If I go to bed covered with dirt or plant bits (say from weed waking or pollen, sawdust from tree work ) I will have allergy attack (snot, itchy throat) in the middle of the night. I don’t believe that I am “Allergic”, but I think one can care for the immune system by caring for one’s skin.
     
     The common idea is that the skin reveals inner health, and while I think it is true to an extent, I think that caring for skin is the easiest way to care for the immune system. I have healed a multi-decade skin issue this last year by focusing on:
     
     1) sun exposure….
     
     2) no more seed oil, only animal fats
     
     3) one year disciplined carnivore diet.
     
     4) full body coconut oil multiple times a week with 2x daily on affected areas.
     
     semi-related counter example that supports your idea (and not mine):
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     CatherineOrganic (catherineorganic1@gigaohm.bio)'s status on Friday, 30-May-2025 04:23:12 JST CatherineOrganic

     in reply to

     • Zardoz
     • CatherineOrganic
     beware of glyphosate, or other pesticide doused soils of course
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     CatherineOrganic (catherineorganic1@gigaohm.bio)'s status on Friday, 30-May-2025 04:23:14 JST CatherineOrganic

     in reply to

     • Zardoz
     One of my favourite memories from last year was getting an 'earth sauna' as part of the final soil, woodchip, oats Indigenous Micro Organisms (IMO) ferment of a korean natural farming intensive. Yup buried in hot clean compost pile 🤣
     
     I haven't followed up on bacteriophage benefits, can ye point me to papers in the area? Of course I know of them and their early deployment in microbiology but plasmids ended up easier to manipulate, once you can get them in the cell.
     
     But understanding the benefits of soil microbes has a solid scientific standing, the healing power of working with good earth, the immune building power of Farmacology as I have posted before. Now one microbe is getting alot of press; mycobacterium vaccae, to the point they are apparently are making a vaccine of it (🤬)
     General intro article here
     https://blog.nwf.org/2011/03/its-in-the-dirt-bacteria-in-soil-may-make-us-happier-smarter/
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     son of sam harris (sam_harris@gigaohm.bio)'s status on Friday, 30-May-2025 04:23:15 JST son of sam harris

     in reply to

     • Zardoz
     Look at hippos and elephants. They really love to roll around in mud and dirt. Is that because they benefit from all the phages in that dirt? I think they do so now wondering why we aren't doing it.
     
     It's only for a few minutes and then you wash it off. Phages go right through the gut barrier and the skin barrier probably also lets a few in too. They'll easily get into all your pores for instance.
     
     If this all sounds a bit too nutty just remember there are trillions and trillions of phages inside all of us. There's more of them inside us than any other biological lifeform by quite some margin. They are not harmful and getting a bit more fresh variety from your locale every and then can't be a bad thing.
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     son of sam harris (sam_harris@gigaohm.bio)'s status on Friday, 30-May-2025 04:23:16 JST son of sam harris

     in reply to

     • Zardoz
     The main idea is really about rolling around in dense populations of phages. They can be found in huge quantities in dirt and seawater. For seawater you're probably going to get mostly fish phages and the like but dirt from the ground are going to give close exposure to a very wide range of different phage types.
     
     So it's not about getting dirty so much as going directly to where all the main phage action is. You're not typically going to get a lot of this if you're stuck indoors all day etc.
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     Zardoz (zardoz@gigaohm.bio)'s status on Friday, 30-May-2025 04:24:24 JST Zardoz

     in reply to

     • CatherineOrganic
     I basically believe in this philosophy— being dirty and being around animals is a benefit to health and resiliance.
     
     Likewise, much like we treat a horse with a bath and a comb after a hard day (or else they get sick!)—as people a bath and an oiling is proper handling.
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     Zardoz (zardoz@gigaohm.bio)'s status on Friday, 30-May-2025 04:24:55 JST Zardoz

     in reply to
     This is my thinking too. Human skin is so soft and porous, perhaps facilitating easy phage passage. Rather than wallowing in dirt, for us, just the dust floating in the air is enough, and so maintaining our membrane (made easier by lack of fur) is necessary.
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