Bacteria in the soil help reduce anxiety

A bacterium in the soil can increase people's thinking ability, while reducing the level of anxiety.

Mycobacterium vaccae bacteria in the soil increase thinking ability and reduce anxiety in animals. Photo: Science Daily.

'Mycobacterium vaccae is a naturally occurring bacterium in the soil. Humans are very susceptible to inhaling this bacterium when we go to the outside environment , 'Dorothy Matthews, a scientist at Sage University, USA, told Science Daily.

Many previous studies when Mycobacterium vaccae invaded mice, they stimulated the development of certain types of neurons involved in reducing stress levels and serotonin levels - a transmitter nerve.

'Since serotonin plays an important role in learning activities in animals, we want to find out if the Mycobacterium vaccae increases the learning ability of mice , ' Matthews said.

Science Daily said that Matthews and his colleagues gave some mice to eat M. vaccae and release them into a labyrinth. They then compared their orientation in the maze compared to mice that ate food without bacteria.

'We found that the mice that ate the bacteria found their way into the labyrinth twice as fast as the others. In addition, their anxiety levels are lower, ' Matthews said.

In the second experiment, the team fed both groups of mice eating food without bacteria and dropping them into the labyrinth. They found that the children who ate food with bacteria were oriented slower than the previous experiment, but if averaged, their escape time from the maze was still shorter than that of the other mice.

Three weeks later experts performed the final test. This time the rats used to eat food with bacteria still tracing the path faster than the other group, but the speed dropped. This shows that the impact of bacteria is only temporary. In order for that effect to persist, people must regularly interact with them.

'This study shows that M. vaccae can increase thinking and reduce stress levels in animals,' concludes Matthews.