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Around the world, more and more people are living in cities, while our contact with natural biodiversity and soil is declining. At the same time, we have seen a rapid rise in rates of allergies, auto-immune and chronic inflammatory diseases. Now researchers are finding accumulating evidence that these two major trends may be linked, in a new paper published in .

A possible explanation for the modern pandemic of immune-related disease is that, put simply, our immune systems are losing their fitness. From evolution, our bodies are designed to cope with exposure to diverse environmental microbiomes coming from biodiverse plants, animals and soils.ÌýEnvironmental microbiomes areÌýbelieved to help supplement the protective human microbiomeÌýinhabitingÌýour skin, airway and gut, and they may also play a role in immune signalling, for example, helping to build tolerance to normally harmless substances.

Microbes are everywhere in nature, and modern science tells us that the vast majority of microbes don't cause illness. With the possibility that some types of environmental microbiomes may actually benefit our health, this represents a potentially important connection between people and nature. If we can build knowledge of such a connection, it may be possible to reduce our rising population health costs through new approaches to nature-based public health programs and better designs for urban green space. The thinking is thatÌýgreater exposure to biodiverse green space and soils may build diversity in the human microbiome, which inÌýturn is linked to improvedÌýimmune function and health.

In recent research, led by PhD Student in Ìýa team from the Environment Institute tested the idea that soil exposures may benefit human health at the population-level. The paper included Environment Institute researchers, ProfessorÌý, ProfessorÌý, DrÌý, and n.