The Surprising Health Benefits of Grounding: How Earthing Can Improve Your Well-Being
IF Insider No. 67
In our last issue (IF Insider No. 67), we took a look at SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and how to choose a full spectrum light to help you through the winter months. Today, we are going to jump from the sun to the earth, and take a closer look at the popular practice of grounding or “earthing” as it is sometimes called. Is earthing just marketing hype or is there really something to it?
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Health Benefits of Grounding: How Earthing Can Improve Your Well-Being
Grounding, also known as “earthing” means making contact with our bodies directly with the earth. That could be standing barefoot in the grass, walking barefoot on the beach, or even lying down on the earth.
There have been a lot of claims about the supposed health benefits of grounding, but in reality there has not been a lot of study on this topic. But let’s remember the majority of scientific research that gets funded today is based on whether or not a monetizaable product can come from that research. So these so-called alternative therapies are not very likely to have much science behind them, not because there is no benefit in them, but because there is no money to be made.
If we look back at ancient medical traditions, such as traditional Chinese medicine, grounding is not one of the pillars of this system. But if you think about it, people who lived then, before we were separated from the earth, with non-conductive shoes and houses with floors which were raised off the ground, these people practiced grounding without having to think about it…they slept on the ground, sat on the ground and walked on the ground without the benefit of rubber-soled shoes insulating them from the earth. So they were just naturally grounded all the time.
People in our modern Western culture no longer sleep on the ground. We rarely go barefoot. And we walk around in shoes with soles that completely insulate us from the earth. Most people’s day to day lives consist of getting up, get dressed, go to the garage and get in the car, go to work all day in an office and come back home, go inside, eat dinner and go to bed. If there is any outside time at all it’s likely to be on the weekends and even then most people remain completely isolated from contact with the earth.
So before we look some at the research that does exist, let’s look at the concept behind grounding:
Our atmosphere is filled with positive ions which are just molecules that have a positive electrical charge. The earth’s surface, on the other hand, is filled with negative ions. These electrically negatively charged particles come from lightning strikes as well as solar radiation.
When you come into direct contact with the earth’s surface, your body can absorb these negative ions.
The negative ions act to stabilize damaging free radicals in our bodies just like anti-oxidants from food and supplements do. Free radicals are nothing more than unstable molecules looking for an extra electron and they can cause damage to our cells in their quest for those electrons.
Cell processes naturally create free radicals but if you have poor lifestyle choices these can greatly increase and get out of balance. Anti-oxidants in food can help to neutralize them as well as exercise and supplements.
And with grounding we absorb negative electrons and these electrons pacify these free radicals…this leads to less cell damage and decreases inflammation in the body.
There was an excellent review article of all the research done to date on earthing, which was published in the May-June issue of the journal Explore. Here’s a quote from that publication:
“The research findings have supported the hypothesis that Earthing facilitates a significant transfer of free electrons into the body, a transfer resulting in rapid, sometimes instant, physiological changes.”
These thermal images, of a patient with pain in the area of both knees, were taken a half-hour apart − before (left) and after Earthing (right). Tissue damage generates heat, represented by the hot colors on the left. The difference shows a clear and rapid resolution of inflammation.
These thermal pictures show significant reduction in inflammation, and accompanying rapid pain relief, for an 85-year-old male after sleeping grounded. The left image shows intense areas of inflammation and pain, identified by the arrows. The right image was taken after two nights of grounded sleep.
The patient had complained of intense chronic left low back pain and right shoulder pain that interfered with sleep, and waking stiff and sore in the previous four months. Prolonged medical treatment had not been successful. After two nights of Earthing, he reported 50% less pain, 80% reduction in pain interfering with sleep, and 75% reduction in waking stiff and sore. After four weeks, he said his pain was totally gone with only occasional mild stiffness. He commented: “I have my life back.
This research review documented many, many beneficial changes in the body as a result of earthing, including improvement in appearance, circulation and mood, slows free radical damage associated with aging, balances the autonomic nervous system, reduces stress and improves sleep, enhances immune responses and speeds wound healing and many more, all of which are listed in the complete article in Explore.
You can also purchase various products, such as grounding mats or pads, which have silver wires in them that are conductive. They plug into a grounded outlet, using your home's grounded electrical system to ground your body to the earth. The mat itself is not electrified. But there are some people who say they are not a good idea and it’s better to go with the natural way to do it if you can by getting your feet onto the earth itself.
So take off your shoes, go outside and get grounded!
Reference
Wendy Menigoz, Tracy T. Latz, Robin A. Ely, Cimone Kamei, Gregory Melvin, Drew Sinatra, Integrative and lifestyle medicine strategies should include Earthing (grounding): Review of research evidence and clinical observations, EXPLORE, Volume 16, Issue 3, 2020, Pages 152-160, ISSN 1550-8307
Why It Matters
“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
~ Wendell Berry (b. 1934) An American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer, Wendell Erdman Berry makes his home in rural Kentucky.
What We Are Reading 📚
Denise - For the past week, I’ve been listening to a 5-part interview and discussion with the Dalai Lama on Ten Percent Happier podcast. And participating in the 10 day Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness meditation. I love starting my morning with a short video lesson from an interview Dan Harris did with the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala in the Fall of 2022.
Ellen - I am relishing the 25th anniversary edition of David Suzuki’s The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place In Nature, with a new forward from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the New York Times-bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, and and with an afterword from Bill McKibben.
The Sacred Balance is just that, a spellbinding balance of science and spirituality, that draws the reader in with engaging language, stories, philosophy, spirituality, and Indigenous knowledge.
In 2002, David Suzuki hosted a four-part documentary series by the same title, in which he traveled six continents to meet philosophers, priests and indigenous elders, plus scientists E.O. Wilson, Ary Goldberger, Brian Goodwin, Wade Davis, Stephen Lansing, Elaine Ingham, and James Lovelock. Through these disparate voices “…we are reminded of who we are: creatures of the Earth, biological beings totally dependent upon the planet’s life support systems.” Here is an excerpt from the series, in which David Suzuki and Wade Davis visit Peru:
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The Surprising Health Benefits of Grounding: How Earthing Can Improve Your Well-Being
Such an important topic, and I agree there is incredible research coming out about grounding/earthing. For example, grounded incubators could help preemies and sick newborns get better faster: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28601861/
I Love Grounding! Been a bare foot person all my life and tho it's a challenge living in the cactus and goat-head-filled southwest, I persist. Loved that research, too — hadn't seen it.