(Family Features) - Everyone loves receiving a gift of flowers, and research indicates having flowers around truly can lift the spirits. But did you know that you may get even more pleasure out of growing them because it appears that getting your hands in the soil is good for your mood, too.
Researcher Nancy Etcoff from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a behavioral study to determine the effect flowers have on people's moods. She studied 54 people between the ages of 25 and 60 for one week. Each person was given a self-reporting questionnaire to determine his or her activities during the day -- whom they were with and what they were doing when they experienced a strong emotion. One-half of the participants had flowers consistently in their home environment, and the control group had no flowers.
The results indicated that flowers in the home influenced moods such as compassion and worry. The participants who had flowers were more compassionate, less negative, more likely to feel happy, and likely to have more enthusiasm and energy at work.
In another study, researchers from Bristol University and University College London found that naturally occurring "friendly" bacteria found in soil may affect the brain in a similar way as antidepressant drugs. Researchers first became interested in Mycobacterium vaccae bacteria after hearing that cancer patients treated with the bacteria reported increased vitality and cognitive function and a decrease in pain. The scientists theorized that Mycobacterium vaccae might stimulate serotonin production. Low levels of serotonin are linked with a number of disorders including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bipolar disorder. When they treated mice with Mycobacterium vaccae, the researchers found that it did stimulate the part of the brain that produces serotonin.
Consider these research studies your excuse for spending more time in your flower garden, and give a bouquet to someone you love.
