Windowsill gardens boost immune strength and cool inflammation

By Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D. on Jun 25, 2024

About 40% of Americans live in buildings with five or more residences -- and for most folks, that means they're cut off from outdoor green spaces where they can grow veggies. That's both a culinary loss (what tastes better than lettuce or tomatoes that you grew yourself?) and it short-changes your health.

But it does not have to. Many folks can grow a variety of fresh vegetables and herbs on their windowsills! And according to a new study in Environment International, being an indoor gardener not only provides organic goodies year-round and lets you gain the emotional and mental benefits that come from interacting with nature, in just a month, it also increases the bacterial diversity of your skin biome -- your first line of defense against infection. And those skin biome changes then help diversify your intestinal biome. Indoor gardening also boosts the level of inflammation-fighting signaling proteins in your blood.

The researchers also say they planted beans, peas, mustard greens and salad greens using a microbe-rich soil (not a peat-based soil) and the resulting microbe-mediated immunoregulation is especially important for city-dwellers who are cut off from health-sustaining interaction with the beneficial microbes that thrive in natural settings. However, they do caution indoor farmers not to dig in soil if they have open cuts on their hands and not to breathe in air filled with soil particles.

For more ideas on how to improve your immunity, check out iHerb.com's blog "Immunity 101 -- How it Works + Practices to Bolster our Body's Defenses."

Dr. Mike Roizen is the founder of www.longevityplaybook.com, and Dr. Mehmet Oz is global advisor to www.iHerb.com, the world's leading online health store. Roizen and Oz are chief wellness officer emeritus at Cleveland Clinic and professor emeritus at Columbia University, respectively. Together they have written 11 New York Times bestsellers (four No. 1's).

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.