Earthing - Grounding

[Guest guest]

I believe this could be a HUGE missing piece for everyone with health issues.

You can use this link to the original article or read below. The original

article has a print option...

NOTE: IF you decide to practice the barefoot walking in a grassy area, you may

want to make sure they are NOT using those chemical fertilizers on the grass.

This is just my concern, I have no input from anyone on the effects of the

chemical fertilizers on our bodies.

The web address:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/29/james-oschman-on-e\

arthing.aspx?e_cid=20120506_WNL_art_1

The Article:

This is written by Dr. Mercola, from an interview with Dr. Oschman

Dr. Oschman is an expert in the field of energy medicine, with a

Bachelor's Degree in Biophysics and a PhD in Biology from the University of

Pittsburgh.

As an author of a number of books, he is widely recognized as an authority

in the biophysics of energy medicine. In this interview he discusses the

practice of " earthing, " or grounding.

Every modern school of alternative medicine talks about " energy, " although

they may use a variety of words to describe it. But what is this fundamental

" energy " you keep hearing about?

As Dr. Oschman went about to investigate, he found there is very good

science that can help demystify this nebulous term. He wrote a number of

articles for a journal published by Churchill Livingstone on the subject, and

after some encouragement from the publisher, those articles eventually resulted

in two books: Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basisi, and Energy Medicine in

Therapeutics and Human Performanceii.

Dr. Oschman was also introduced to earthing, or grounding, and his research

in this area has turned up some very interesting and compelling information

about how the energy from the Earth can help you live a healthier life. He has

recently written the Foreword for a new book by Clinton Ober, Dr. T.

Sinatra and M. Zucker, entitled Earthing: the most important health discovery

ever?iii published in 2010 (Basic Health Publications, Inc., Laguna Beach, CA.).

If you're like most people, you probably wear shoes with rubber or plastic

soles for the better part of each day. Read on to learn why shoes might be one

of the banes of modern existence.

The Emergence of " Earthing "

The concept of earthing, also known as grounding, was initially developed by

Clint Ober. Stated in the simplest terms possible, earthing is simply walking

barefoot; grounding your body to the Earth. Oschman was introduced to Ober via

Jeff Spencer, the chiropractor for Lance Armstrong's cycling team and an expert

in treating professional athletes.

" When Clint described the earthing phenomenon to Jeff, Jeff immediately

called me and had me fly out to California to meet Clint and talk about what

kind of research could be done to find out what is going on, " Oschman explains.

" People have known for a long time that walking barefoot feels good.

There are places in the world like Germany and Austria and Switzerland with

communities where there is a tradition of getting up in the morning and going

barefoot. "

My own introduction to the concept of earthing was also through Jeff

Spencer, some five or six years ago. I found it very intriguing, although I

initially approached it with some skepticism. As you will soon see, it's a

simple concept—to some it may appear too simple.

Fortunately, Dr. Oschman is now able to provide the scientific groundwork

for understanding what actually occurs. In fact, his team has now published

about a dozen papers on this topic.

What Happens to You When You Walk Barefoot?

Your skin in general is a very good conductor. You can connect any part of

your skin to the Earth, but if you compare various parts there is one that is

especially potent, and that's right in the middle of the ball of your foot; a

point known to acupuncturists as Kidney 1 (K1). It's a well-known point that

conductively connects to all of the acupuncture meridians and essentially

connects to every nook and cranny of your body. Interestingly, grounding—or

rather the lack thereof—has a lot to do with the rise of modern diseases.

How is this?

Well, Dr. Oschman's research into grounding has led him to better understand

inflammation. I've discussed before, chronic inflammation is a primary cause of

virtually all disease, from diabetes to cancer. And by looking at what happens

during grounding, the answer to why chronic inflammation is so prevalent, and

what is needed to prevent it, is becoming better understood.

When you're grounded there's a transfer of free electrons from the Earth

into your body. And these free electrons are probably the most potent

antioxidants known to man.

These antioxidants are responsible for the clinical observations from

grounding experiments, such as:

Beneficial changes in heart rate

Decreased skin resistance

Decreased levels of inflammation

To better understand the science behind what happens during grounding and

how it impacts the inflammatory response, Dr. Oschman begins by explaining what

happens when you experience an injury.

" Even the slightest bump, if you bump the door, your immune system

immediately responds by sending white blood cells (neutrophils) to the place of

injury…

The neutrophils secrete a Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)… called free

radicals, in what's referred to as an oxidative burst... These are like Pac-Man.

They are very important molecules that tear things apart. If bacteria have

gotten through your skin, these free radicals will destroy the bacteria very

quickly. If you have damaged cells, the free radicals will break them apart so

that there is a space for healthy cells to move in and repair the tissues.

That's known as the inflammatory response.

What we have discovered that is truly profound is this: we now

understand why you get the inflammatory response, which has five

characteristics: pain, redness, heat, loss of range of motion, and swelling. All

of those are the five hallmarks of inflammation and it turns out that that

doesn't have to happen.

Inflammation, which in medicine is considered an important part of the

healing process, is really an artifact caused by lack of electrons in your

tissues. What happens is, the neutrophils deliver the Reactive Oxygen Species

(ROS) to the site of injury, but in so doing, some of those free radicals can

leak into the surrounding tissue and damage healthy tissue. That's what creates

the inflammatory response " .

Interestingly, grounding research has now discovered that if you place your

feet on the ground after an injury (or on a grounded sheet, or place grounding

patches on the balls of your feet), electrons will migrate into your body and

spread through your tissues. Any free radicals that leak into the healthy tissue

will immediately be electrically neutralized. This occurs because the electrons

are negative, while the free radicals are positive, so they cancel each other

out.

" So really what is happening with grounding or earthing is that you're

protecting your body from -- I call it, collateral damage, " Dr. Oschman says.

" Damage that was not intended to take place but does take place because we have

disconnected ourselves from the Earth by putting rubber and plastic on the

bottoms of our shoes. "

Earthing as an Anti-Aging Strategy

One of dominant theories on aging is the free radical theory, which is that

aging occurs because of accumulative damage to your body caused by free

radicals. You get free radicals when you have an injury or chronic inflammation,

from breathing, and from the food you eat, among other things. While you don't

want to completely eliminate ALL free radicals, you do want to maintain a

healthy balance of antioxidant electrons in your body to ensure the damage from

free radicals doesn't' get out of hand.

Earthing can help accomplish this delicate balance. There are three kinds of

sub-models of the aging process caused by free radicals.

DNA damage and mutation due to free radical damage

The mitochondrial theory. Mitochondria in every cell in your body carry

out oxidative metabolism and a byproduct is free radicals. Eventually the

mitochondria wear out or self-destruct due to excess free radicals

The protein cross linking theory, which explains why you get wrinkles in

your skin. The proteins stick to each other, reducing the efficiency of enzymes

" It looks to me, from my study of biophysics and cell biology, like the

body is designed with a semi-conductive fabric that connects everything in the

body, including inside of every cell, " Dr. Oschman says.

" I refer to this system as the living matrix. Those electrons that enter

the bottom of your foot can move anywhere in your body. Any place where a free

radical forms, there are electrons nearby that can neutralize that free radical

and prevent any of those processes: mitochondrial damage, cross linking of

proteins, and mutation or genetic damage.

So the whole fabric is basically an antioxidant defense system that is

in every part of our body.

We have this material called ground substance which is part of the

connective tissue. It goes everywhere in the body. It's a gel material and it

stores electrons. So that if you go barefoot, you will take in electrons and

your body will store them, and they will be available at any point where you

might have an injury, or any point where a free radical might form... "

How Grounding Affects Your Blood

Another very important discovery, and one of the most recent, is that

grounding thins your blood, making it less viscous. This discovery can have a

profound impact on cardiovascular disease, which is now the number one killer in

the world. Virtually every aspect of cardiovascular disease has been correlated

with elevated blood viscosity. Dr. Sinatra has been coaching Dr. Oschman's team

in how to measure blood viscosity using a method called zeta potential. It

measures the potential on your red blood cells by determining how fast they

migrate in an electrical field.

It turns out that when you ground to the earth, your zeta potential quickly

rises, which means your red blood cells have more charge on their surface, which

forces them apart from each other. This action causes your blood to thin and

flow easier. It also causes your blood pressure to drop.

Another obvious implication of this is that by repelling each other, your

red blood cells are less inclined to stick together and form a clot. Blood clots

don't have to be very big to form like a pulmonary embolus that would kill you

instantly, so this is a significant benefit. Additionally, if your zeta

potential is high, which grounding can facilitate, you not only decrease your

heart disease risk but also your risk of multi-infarct dementias, where you

start losing brain tissue due to micro-clotting in your brain.

The Best Surfaces for Grounding

Clearly, the simplest way to ground is to walk barefoot outside when safe to

do so. But what about urban or city dwellers who are surrounded by asphalt and

concrete? Can you ground on those? And what about natural surfaces—which ones

are the most effective? There are indeed significant differences between various

surfaces.

The ideal location for walking barefoot is the beach, close to or in the

water, as sea water is a great conductor. Your body also contains mostly water,

so it creates a good connection.

A close second would be a grassy area, especially if it's covered with dew,

which is what you'd find if you walk early in the morning. According to Dr.

Oschman, concrete is a good conductor as long as it hasn't been sealed. Painted

concrete does not allow electrons to pass through very well. Materials like

asphalt, wood, and typical insulators like plastic or the soles of your shoes,

will not allow electrons to pass through and are not suitable for barefoot

grounding.

Why Living in a High-Rise Could be Detrimental to Your Health

Additionally, there's a major difference between standing outside in your

bare feet and standing outside in shoes. And, how high up you are, off the

surface of the Earth, without being grounded also matters. Why is this?

Dr. Oschman explains:

" The Earth's surface is electrically charged and can push electrons up

in your body. So from the top of your head to the Earth, there is a potential,

which you don't feel because it doesn't cause any any particular current to

flow, even though it can be a couple of hundred volts. If it did, it would give

you a shock.

What happens is when the weather changes is that the potential can go up

enormously. It can go from a hundred volts per meter to 10,000 volts per meter.

That's pre lightning. We're talking about the potential that causes lightning to

come to the earth. That voltage is well known and well understood…

This is the potential between the surface of the earth and the

ionosphere, hundreds of miles up, which is very electrically active; charged by

the solar wind, the charged particles that come from the sun. Those charged

particles eventually reach the Earth by lightning and electrify the entire

surface of the Earth so that anywhere you touch the Earth, there are electrons.

They come originally from the sun, to the ionosphere, to the earth.

There is no lightning happening right here right now but somewhere there

is lightning, a constant current flow from the ionosphere to the earth. Those

are the electrons that your body needs for your immune system to function

properly. "

What this means is that the higher up you are, separated from the surface of

the Earth, the higher this potential would be, and the worse the implications

for your health if you're not grounded. For example, if you live on the 20th

floor of a high-rise and you're not grounded (using grounding technology, of

course), the consequences to your health will be more significant than if you

lived on the first floor. Likewise, when you wear rubber- or plastic-soled

shoes, you are effectively shielding yourself from this beneficial influx of

electrons from the Earth. For optimal immune function, you want these electrons

to enter your body, so make sure you take your shoes off now and then!

Easy Ways to Incorporate Grounding Into Your Daily Life

Exercising barefoot outdoors is one of the most wonderful, inexpensive and

powerful ways of incorporating earthing into your daily life and will also help

speed up tissue repair and ease muscle pain due to strenuous exercise.

References:

A Special Interview with Dr. Oschman. Video transcript.

i Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis, Amazon.com, June 15, 2000: L.

Oschman.

ii Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance, Amazon.com, March

8, 2003: L. Oschman.

iii Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever?, Amazon.com, April

9, 2010: Clinton Ober, et al.