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Earthing/Grounding

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
Have any of you heard of the concept of earthing or grounding? The basic premise sounds insane but the theory is that being barefoot in nature is healthy and that our lack of connection is causing increased disease.

There are a few big proponents of grounding and some scientific studies to back up the claims. Dr. Oz, Dr. Mercola and others have backed up the need for "Vitamin G" or our connection with the ground. They aren't sure why but they believe the Earth provides an electrical charge that we need.

Proponents of Earthing claim all kinds of benefits from reduced pain, less stress to increased energy. One of the reasons I was drawn to it is due to the supposed marked inflammation reduction.

There are Earthing kits to get grounded in the home. I purchased one and haven't noticed a difference but my feet do tingle and it can't hurt. I am now making more of an effort to go barefoot outside. It's a great way to connect with nature and again no side effects.

I am not endorsing the concept or products but was wondering what others think. Quack therapy to capitalize on sick people or possible unknown health benefit. After all we didn't know the sun provides vitamin D till recently in history. There may be much more we don't understand.

http://www.earthinginstitute.net/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/29/james-oschman-on-earthing.aspx
 
Location
Ontario
I go barefoot outside, or wear my vibram five fingers, but not for these reasons. I do it to develop my stabilizer muscles. Not sure about it preventing disease, pretty sure we weren't meant to walk barefoot when it's -40 outside. If you want to see what happens when people are extreme about the barefoot thing, google Barefoot Rick
 

rygon

Moderator
I used minimalist trainers as well, but my feet arent hard enough to go barefoot (especially with all the stones and twigs around).

I cant believe it myself, there is a lot of magnetism around us and anything from power lines to solar winds will change what voltage we and the earth is in that area. Although our daily limit will be mvolts comapred to the ground (think of static discharge when we touch something), birds that perch on the power lines will be at a charge of 400 thousand volts. This doesnt seem to effect them in any way.

Just to clarify, electricity and magentism are much interchangeable (i.e you wont get one without the other, the same as light and heat).

I see it as one of those scams like magnetic bracelets and that magnet you put in your cars fuel line to make all the atoms line up

Also it seems Vit G was reclassified to vit B2 a while back, and apart from that doesnt exist in any other form
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
I have tried the mat which I plugged into a grounded outlet. I haven't noticed a difference by doing that. Reading reviews on Amazon though people seem to really like it. Placebo maybe?

Most of the studies showing benefit have been done on people grounding outside not with these mats or bed sheets.

All I know is I feel amazing walking barefoot on the beach, it's a nice foot massage. We live in buildings and a cement society and maybe there is something to it. Either way I think it's healthy to get back to nature to de-stress whether this provides any other benefit or not.
 
I've read of earthing before, but never tried it myself. Seems a bit different, but who knows. Placebo or not, if it helps, is safe and cheap, so much the better.

Along similar lines, recall talking with some auto painters. They were mentioning how easy it is to absorbed materials through our skin. As an example they pointed out how when going through training, they were required to stand on diced up garlic. After a few seconds/minutes (don't recall) of doing this they all said they could taste garlic in their mouth. Possibly the garlic worked its way through the skin, or simply the garlic smell made them taste garlic in their mouth.

Hmm... wonder if Italian grape wine stompers taste grape in their mouth for days afterwards.
 

rygon

Moderator
definately a placebo effect. We are talking about such a small difference in volts you do not even realise it. Things like computers and other highly accurate equipment can be damaged by it due to having such a low resistance, but our skin is quite highly resistive that any electricity stored will not have enough charge to flow even barefooted on a day to day situation (if it did you would feel an electric shock).

Most of the time you do get an electric shock (doors, cars etc) it is because they are in fact the one with the electrical charge, and it is flowing through you to the ground, not the other way around
 
Um, I suppose perhaps the weather is nicer here, but I think we call it lying in the grass and looking at the dappled sunshine?

Or fishing in knee deep water?

Or snow angels? (Not here - it's too warm for snow - but when we visit somewhere cold enough)

Unless there is an allocated time per day you are supposed to achieve it?
 
I grew up on the beach in So. Cal. I spent most of my days without shoes until I was in my mid 20's. I also ran track barefoot in high school. Today I must wear shoes. My feet, ankles and legs ache if I go barefoot. I have issues with my knees too. I attribute this to not wear shoes for a significant part of my life. Throughout history, humans have been shoeless. People are living longer today and I believe that the negative effects aren't felt until you get older. Just my opinion, I might be wrong.
 
definately a placebo effect. We are talking about such a small difference in volts you do not even realise it. Things like computers and other highly accurate equipment can be damaged by it due to having such a low resistance, but our skin is quite highly resistive that any electricity stored will not have enough charge to flow even barefooted on a day to day situation (if it did you would feel an electric shock).

Most of the time you do get an electric shock (doors, cars etc) it is because they are in fact the one with the electrical charge, and it is flowing through you to the ground, not the other way around
That would be my main guess too, about a placebo effect. On the way back in the car I heard it was Earth Day today. I suppose we should thank our lucky stars that any green grass remains on the earth for us to walk our feet across. I can recall my grade school teachers showing us young students a scary film each year about how all the grass would be dead, and the earths surface to polluted to live on, by around this year. Glad that prediction didn't come to pass. It's a nice day, think I'll have to take a walk around the park at some point. I've found light exercise to be a nice way to relieve stress.
 

Cat-a-Tonic

Super Moderator
I wonder if it's a vitamin D thing? I can recall times in the past where I felt pretty awful both physically and mentally, and I would go outside and sit in the sun, breathe the air and read a book and put my feet in the grass, and I'd feel so much better after 30 mins or so. I don't think it was my feet in the grass though, I think it was the sun shining on my skin and causing me to get a nice boost of vit D.
 
Location
Missouri
Once the weather gets 50 degrees F, you will find me in flip flops or barefoot. I've been this way since I was a child. I dislike wearing shoes except when I'm out, at work, etc. Something about feeling the grass on your feet, it's mental health therapy to me, lol!
 
To me, the idea of "grounding" yourself to the earth may or may not have direct/indirect benefits. Firstly, I do believe exposing your skin to soil microbes and the various airborne microbes of the forest probably balances your immune system somehow from going haywire. Secondly, the earth and humans are supposed to each have an electrical field which may be a very low frequency at which it is least stressed. I think surrounding yourself with green may put your mind at an alert/ease which mimics natural/evolutionary upbringing. Can anyone really prove that this is the case? I don't know.

I do believe that some individuals are susceptible to electrosmog/emf/frequency pollution. I think the WHO classifies something like 3% of the population as "electrochemically sensitive". So for that 3% of the population, you will likely be immunologically impaired. I think this manifests as heart palpitations and tingling sensations or general stress (fight/flight) response including chronic fatigue. I've also heard that keeping yourself supplemented with minerals and electrolytes may help. Do I think that this directly relates to crohn's? No idea.

Lately people have been experiencing such effects shortly after smart meters are placed on their homes, so communities are being lobbied to force the option to keep analog meters despite shady dealing of electric companies. The issue is not thermal effects of such frequencies but the subtle effect on various literal cellular communications of the body such as messing with mineral transport within the body or even elevated levels of copper and overexpression of certain genes like TGF-Beta 1 or MMP-9.

Smart meters do not simply communicate a couple times daily to the electric company, many have been measured to burst multiple times a minute at frequencies stronger than cellphones. So I don't use cordless phones and maybe turning off wi-fi at night is a good idea, etc.
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
Great article. Most of the research has been on those actually on ground and less with the conductive pads so it's nice to see that. I have the pad but mainly aim to just go out barefoot. I notice no difference though but it's worth trying.
 
This is a little off topic, but have you read about negative ions:
Negative ions are odorless, tasteless, and invisible molecules that we inhale in abundance in certain environments. Think mountains, waterfalls, and beaches. Once they reach our bloodstream, negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy.
-My favourite hike is to a small creek with rapids, and it makes me feel good to walk along it. I also got an aquarium with a little waterfall, and a small pond outside. Yes, I believe in negative ions
 
"Negative ion" is gibberish. You're constantly inhaling "negative ions" because much of the atmospheric oxygen is bound into simple oxides - oxygen in combination with any other element, most typically in a -2 oxidation state.
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
This is a little off topic, but have you read about negative ions:
Negative ions are odorless, tasteless, and invisible molecules that we inhale in abundance in certain environments. Think mountains, waterfalls, and beaches. Once they reach our bloodstream, negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy.
-My favourite hike is to a small creek with rapids, and it makes me feel good to walk along it. I also got an aquarium with a little waterfall, and a small pond outside. Yes, I believe in negative ions
Absolutely. I definitely believe those environments are good for our physical and mental health. There is something magical and energizing about them.
 
The paper talks about using a specific form of high density oxygen that doesn't occur as a gas in nature. :) The benefits in using this in therapy may not even outweigh the dangers, superoxides are toxic to the point that life can't exist in an oxygen rich biosphere without the superoxide dismutase enzymes that break it down because most complex organisms use it as part of the immune response.
 
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This is the ionizer that he used for the studies. It has nothing to do with oxygen.

http://asp.cumc.columbia.edu/psych/asktheexperts/ask_the_experts_inquiry.asp?SI=1354[/URL]
http://www.cet.org/eng/AirIonizer_ENG.html

I have an air purifier that has a built in ionizer, for my dust allergy. Negative ions make airborne dust settle, making the air cleaner, on top of it having a hepa filter. It probably doesn't make as many negative ions though.

*tries to pry your closed mind open a crack*
 
This is the ionizer that he used for the studies. It has nothing to do with oxygen.*tries to pry your closed mind open a crack*
V

The Paper You Linked said:
In accordance with the technology, patients with depression are treated by placing them in an environment of high-density negative air ions (superoxide)
I resent the implication I'm close minded. I'm a scientist by trade and this drastic misuse of scientific language to explain spiritual concepts is degrading to both sides of the equation. Those places in the world have magical quality yes, but describing it in scientific terms not only takes the magic out with clinical language, it misuses science and promotes ignorance and a lack of understanding. Please stop twisting science to try to explain spiritual concepts, it's offensive to me as a biochemist.
 
"Negative ion" is gibberish. You're constantly inhaling "negative ions" because much of the atmospheric oxygen is bound into simple oxides - oxygen in combination with any other element, most typically in a -2 oxidation state.
Well, you're coming across as a troll. There's a lot of research going on in different countries, they have found that negative ions even reduce the amount of bacteria in hospitals.
 
Well, you're coming across as a troll. There's a lot of research going on in different countries, they have found that negative ions even reduce the amount of bacteria in hospitals.
You literally can't tell the difference between an oxide and a superoxide. You really shouldn't be trying to tutor me on biochem. And indeed they do! Superoxides are an important part of the human immune response because they're hilariously toxic to life and it overwhelms the bacteria's ability to break it down.
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
Let's not turn this into a battle please. Earthing and negative ions are interesting and harmless for those interested in any benefits but it certainly isn't a treatment of any kind. It falls into the same category as other alternative practices, maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't and there will be a bunch of different anecdotes.
 

vonfunk

Bourbon Bandito
Location
Toronto,
The placebo effect is still an effect. 20% of people who believe something will help will see some amount of improvement.
 
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