Does Earthing Actually Help?

There Is an Explosion of Chronic Disease

Despite trillions of dollars spent on health care every year and billions spent on medical research, chronic diseases are running rampant. For the past 10 years, life expectancy in the United States has been decreasing. Cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke) is still the number one killer. In the United States, dementia has moved into the number two spot, and diabetes and cancer round out the top 10 causes of death.

Where are we going wrong? Why are we not making more progress with chronic disease? And what about complex chronic diseases like myalgic encephalomyelitis, fibromyalgia, environmental sensitivities, chronic Lyme disease, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, long COVID, chronic pain, inflammation and more? How will we possibly find the resources to research and solve these less well-funded diseases? Is there any hope for those who are suffering?

The answer is YES, and here’s why.

Why Are Chronic Diseases More Common Today?

More and more evidence points to our modern lifestyle as a major contributor to the explosion in chronic diseases. Even though each chronic disease has different symptoms, there may be some common, upstream root causes. When exposed to these causes, each of us succumbs in different ways depending on our vulnerabilities, including things like genetic makeup, our previous experiences and our environmental exposures.

Our modern lifestyle may be the most important of these common, upstream causes of chronic disease. Over the past few hundred years, we have lived increasingly separated from nature and the environment we evolved to thrive in. Here is what our lifestyle will look like in 2024.

• indoor living with lack of exposure to sunlight—in 2001, the average American spent 86% of their time inside a residence and 6% of their time inside an enclosed vehicle (Klepeis et al., 2001). It may well be more than that now that smart devices are ubiquitous.
• constant exposure to non-native electromagnetic frequencies from electricity and wifi,
• temperature-controlled living,
• a diet heavy in processed food and deficient in natural fiber,
• insufficient movement,
• exposure to man-made toxins like glyphosate, microplastics, heavy metals and >350,000 other registered chemicals worldwide.

The good news in this apparently bleak story is that many of these lifestyle habits can be changed at no-to-low-cost by making a few simple modifications to our daily routines. I teach how to do this in my subscription-based membership, Live! with Dr. Stein.

Earthing, The Simple Lifestyle Hack You May Not Have Heard Of

There is one environmental/lifestyle behavior that most people aren’t aware of—earthing. We evolved over millions of years, walking, sitting and sleeping on the Earth 24/7. So, other than getting dirty, how did this constant contact with the Earth affect us?

It turns out that sunlight splits air in the upper atmosphere into positive and negative ions. Electrons from the negative ions are transferred to the Earth every time there is a lightning strike. This makes the Earth negatively charged. When we touch our bare skin to the Earth, electrons are transferred to our bodies.

Like the Earth, we need to be slightly negatively charged to function well. The Earth charges us just like electricity charges a battery. This charge can be measured and is often referred to as body voltage.

When our body voltage is at healthy levels, the interior of every cell and the lining of our blood vessels are negatively charged. And we have ample electrons to power the electron transport chain, enabling mitochondria to make cellular energy in the form of ATP.

According to a review, exposure to electrons from the Earth has many positive effects including (Chevalier, Sinatra, Oschman, Sokal, & Sokal, 2012)

• decreased inflammation and pain
• improved blood flow
• improved immune function
• improved sleep and energy
• decreased stress
• increased protection from non-native electromagnetic radiation (electricity and wifi)

How Can We Increase Body Voltage (Electrons)

Where do electrons come from, and how do we ensure we maintain enough electrons in our bodies to stay healthy? One way or another, we need to be connected with the Earth. This is often called earthing or grounding. These terms are often used interchangeably, and I find the terminology confusing. So, rather than trying to define these terms and possibly getting them wrong, I will explain how to do it—earthing/grounding.

How Do You Do Earthing Outside?

• Touch the ground, water, sand, grass or trees with your bare skin.
• Soft, wet surfaces, such as wet grass and sand, transmit more electrons than dry, hard surfaces because water is a good electrical conductor.
• Salt water transmits more electrons than fresh water because of the higher ion content.
• Connecting to cement (fine aggregate of sand and gravel), natural stone patios and natural slab basements resting on the Earth will work.
• Touching things that are not living, like a wood deck or asphalt (made of petroleum products), won’t send electrons into your body.

Activities like walking barefoot or in shoes with natural fiber soles, gardening, lying down on the grass, and wading in water are all good choices.

How Long Should You Ground Every Day?

I found some mixed opinions about how long it takes to earth/ground effectively outside:

• When you connect to the Earth itself or living plants (trees) connected to the Earth, electrons start flowing into your body right away.
• Within a few seconds, enough electrons flow into the body to begin neutralizing the free radicals that cause inflammation.
• Within 5 – 10 minutes, you reestablish the zeta potential of RBCs, a halo of electrons around every cell to make them flow better. Since negative charges repel, if everything has a coat of electrons, it flows more easily. This benefits cardiovascular function.
• 40 minutes of continuous earthing on a regular basis decreases a subjective sense of inflammation and pain from injuries or arthritis.
• Daily earthing/grounding for a month leads to some of the positive changes mentioned above, like improved sleep and energy and decreased stress and inflammation.
• The Earthing Institute recommends earthing outside for 20 – 30 minutes daily.

How to Ground Yourself Indoors

Connecting to the Earth outside is the easiest, least expensive, and most beneficial way to increase electron flow into our bodies. But for most of us, the reality is that we spend most of our time indoors, insulated from the Earth. Luckily, earthing/grounding can be done inside by connecting ourselves to a conductive device like a band or pad, which itself is connected to the Earth either through the ground (the round receptacle) on an electrical plug or via a connection to a metal stake in the ground outside. This connection allows electrons to transfer from the Earth outside to your bare skin connected to the conductive device. Be aware that not all three-prong outlets are properly grounded, so make sure you test yours before you plug conductive devices into an outlet.

Many devices are available to help people gather electrons while they go about their daily lives. They include

• mats and pads
• sheets
• bands and patches
• socks and shoes

How Moving Generates Negative Charge

When we move and exert force, certain tissues like bone, tendons, and some types of collagen produce small electric charges. This is called piezoelectricity. The connective tissue transmits this electrical signal around the body. This is considered an essential form of communication within the body and may explain why an injury or tension in one part of the body often spreads. These tiny piezoelectric charges are unlikely to impact our overall body voltage, but they are thought to affect bone remodeling and healing. This is yet another reason regular movement is helpful for health.

Conclusions

Earthing/grounding is one of the most overlooked health strategies we can employ to lessen the negative impact of our modern lifestyle.  When the weather is good, it is as easy as sitting or walking outside in bare feet for 20 minutes a day. Although research is limited, evidence is emerging that earthing/grounding may benefit health and decrease chronic disease.

References

Chevalier, G., Sinatra, S. T., Oschman, J. L., Sokal, K., & Sokal, P. (2012). Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth′s Surface Electrons. Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2012(1), 291541. doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/291541

Klepeis, N. E., Nelson, W. C., Ott, W. R., Robinson, J. P., Tsang, A. M., Switzer, P., . . . Engelmann, W. H. (2001). The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 11(3), 231-252. doi:10.1038/sj.jea.7500165

This video accompanies this blog post for anyone wishing to watch/listen versus read.