Earthing/Grounding 101: How it Can Reduce Inflammation
Since the weather has been so great lately and the ability to get outside is more abundant, I really wanted to bring some information to you on the importance of earthing/grounding for your overall health.
As an integrative and functional nutrition certified practitioner, I take a holistic approach to nutrition and your health. This means that I look at areas of your life outside of nutrition and provide recommendations that will enhance the nutrition recommendations that I provide, but also help with balancing your lifestyle overall. I always tell my clients to get outside into nature to help calm the nervous system, but also to get vitamin D from the sun and get activity/movement, but there is another important factor that nature provides to our bodies – the earth.
WHAT IS EARTHING/GROUNDING?
Earthing refers to reconnecting the human body to the Earth’s natural surface electrical charge. Our bodies are filled with energy, and we are conductive. Think of all the various chemical processes that occur within our body to allow us to do everything we need to do throughout the day, from movement, to breathing, to our heart beating, our brain thinking, etc. We require energy to live, and our energy is that of various electrical currents, charges, and conduction. The connection between the earth’s electrical charge and our body’s influences the basic bioelectrical function of the body. This can help stabilize our physiology, reduce inflammation, pain, and stress, improve sleep, blood flow, and lymphatic/venous return to the heart. Ultimately, this helps produce greater well-being. Not to mention, the earth’s mobile electrons are some of the BEST antioxidants for us, and they have been since the beginning of time.
Earthing is easy to do, and you can achieve rapid results, especially for those with chronic health disorders. The best bonus of all is that this natural therapeutic tool can be completely FREE! Listed below are some ways of earthing:
There are inexpensive Earthing systems (conductive mats, pads, body bands, or patches) that you can use indoors during the times that you cannot get outside, and you can use these while sitting or sleeping
Spending time outside, barefoot and in contact with natural conductive surfaces like grass, soil, gravel, stone, and sand
You can even earth/ground in the water – wading in the lake, ocean, body of water and letting your feet sink into the sandy/rocky bottom
Earthing restores a primordial electric connection to the earth that’s been lost over time because of our lifestyles. It appears to correct an “electron deficiency syndrome” – which is commonly overlooked but it likely significantly contributes to multiple health disorders. Earthing can be a preventative lifestyle strategy to counteract and reduce risk of many conditions that plague much of the world, like cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, neurodegenerative conditions, autoimmune conditions, type 2 diabetes, and cancer, to name a few. Earthing also offers a potent health and healing tool for prevention and therapy alike. It can be used alone or with other clinical treatments to address the root causes of symptoms and dysfunction within the body. It truly gets to the deep bioelectrical levels of our physiology. Earthing facilitates a significant transfer of free electrons into the body, which results in rapid, and sometimes instant, physiological changes. Earthing ultimately restores and maintains a natural internal electrical environment. Sokal and Sokal, two Polish doctors and researchers, performed a series of experiments years ago and concluded that Earthing the human body represents a “universal regulating factor in Nature”, strongly influencing bioelectrical, bioenergetics, and biochemical processes and appear to offer a significant modulating effect on chronic illnesses and dysfunction.
All modern electrical systems, from large grids and power stations to homes, buildings, and factories, and the machinery and appliances powered by electricity, are all connected to the earth for stability and safety – so why aren’t we doing the same and staying connected? Unfortunately, over time, we have lost connection to the earth. We no longer sleep on the ground or on top of electrically conductive animal hides. We rarely walk barefoot outdoors, and for more than a half century (since about 1950 when plastics and rubber came around) we almost exclusively wear insulating synthetic soled shoes rather than the traditional and conductive leather footwear or moccasins. We also live and work and spend most of our time far above ground. Not only that, but our busy, hectic lifestyles and constant go-go-go mentalities have left us burnt out and in a constant state of stress and strain. This activated, chronic fight-or-flight response not only affects our moods and emotional wellbeing, but it affects our behaviors, thinking, ability, and ultimately our physical health. The lost connection to the earth through earthing/grounding keeps our nervous systems in a heightened state and dysregulated.
WHAT ARE SOME BENEFITS OF EARTHING?
Over nearly 20 years of research has documented that earthing can reduce and even eliminate chronic inflammation, a common cause or aggravating factor for chronic and aging-related diseases, as well as pain. Various studies have provided evidence of Earthing’s dramatic impact on inflammation and pain beginning in 2004 with medical thermal imagining (registers small changes in skin temperature to produce a color-coded image display). The effects are likely due to the free electrons from the earth, entering the body and neutralizing free radicals (aka reactive oxygen species that result in damage in our tissues). Benefits can include:
Better blood flow
Earthing reduces blood viscosity and clumping
Improved blood fluidity
Improved overall physiology
Calming effect on the body and normalizing the stress hormone cortisol, balances the autonomic nervous system, improves sleep
Specific areas of the body where earthing has shown changes:
Face – improves circulation, appearance, mood
Respiration – improves blood oxygen, enhancing cell functions throughout the body, asthma relief
Digestion – calms upsets, bloating
Reproductive system – regulates hormonal rhythms
Bones – balances bone calcium, metabolism, reduces osteoporosis
Energy – enhances bioelectrical processes throughout the body (muscle contraction, nerve conduction, wound healing, hormonal rhythms, ends jet lag)
Heart – calms arrhythmias, lowers blood pressure
Muscles – reduces muscle pain and damage after exercise
Injuries – enhances immune responses, heals wound healing
Aging – slows free radical damage associated with aging
Electrical sensitivity – reduces body voltage induced by electrical environments
Chronic diseases – prevents and calms chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases of all kinds
As you can see, there are benefits to health when it comes to the effects of earthing/grounding. It doesn’t take much – just pulling those shoes off and walking around barefoot in the grass or lying down for 15 minutes on the ground outside during a lunch break. Get in tune with the earth’s rhythms again and feel the peace wash over you. It truly can make a world of difference in your health and well-being!
To learn more about how you can incorporate a more holistic approach to your health and well-being, schedule a free 30-minute discovery call with me. Just click here.
Sources:
Menigoz W., Latz TT., Ely RA., et al. Integrative and lifestyle medicine strategies should include earthing (grounding): review of research evidence and clinical observations. Explore. 2000; 16(3): 152-160. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2019.10.005
Oschman, JL. Illnesses in technologically advanced societies due to lack of grounding (earthing). Biomed J. 2023; 46:17-29. doi:10.1016/j.bj.2022.10.004
Sinatra ST., Sinatra DS., Step, Chevalier G. Grounding – the universal anti-inflammatory remedy. Biomed J. 2023; 46(1): 11-16. doi:10.1016/j.bj.2022.12.002
