Ground Yourself: Simple Yet Powerful Health Benefits of Earthing

Earthing, also known as grounding, is a simple, powerful lifestyle hack that we can all do for free, but it’s often overlooked. Earthing is done simply by walking outside barefoot, sitting on the ground, or using a specific type of mat or device (e.g., conductive bed sheets, floor or desk pads, and electrode patches, such as those used in electrocardiography) to realign the body with the Earth’s electrical charge. Multiple studies have found that earthing is associated with virtually immediate and significant health benefits.

We all have natural electrical fields inside of us, but they get thrown off from exposure to artificial inputs like electromagnetic fields and unnatural noise. It is well-established, although not as well-known, that the surface of the earth has a limitless and continuously renewed supply of free or mobile electrons as a result of a global atmospheric electron circuit. The modern lifestyle separates humans from direct contact with the earth (e.g., wearing shoes with insulating soles and/or sleeping in beds) and this disconnect may be a major contributor to physiological dysfunction and disease.

Direct physical contact with the surface of the earth enables both daily electrical rhythms and free electrons to flow from the earth to the body, generating a kind of electric nutrition, with surprisingly potent and rapid anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.

One study proposed that free or mobile electrons from the earth can resolve chronic inflammation by serving as natural antioxidants. Earthing may neutralize the positively charged free radicals that are the hallmark of chronic inflammation, which is a culprit behind almost every modern chronic illness, as well as the aging process. Earthing during sleep normalizes the daily cortisol rhythm and improves sleep.

Other benefits of earthing include:

• reduced inflammation
• reduced pain
• improved stress
• improved blood flow
• better energy
• overall greater well-being

In a randomized, controlled trial conducted at The Chopra Center for Well-Being, researchers looked at the effects of earthing on massage therapists, whose profession is well-known for routinely developing health problems, over a six-week period. The therapists were not grounded for the first week, were grounded while working on clients and at home while sleeping for the next four weeks, and then ungrounded for the last week. The participants experienced significant increases in physical function and energy and significant decreases in fatigue, depressed mood, tiredness and pain while grounded as compared to not being grounded. At one month following the study, physical function was also increased and depressed mood and fatigue were decreased. 

Another study found that grounding increases the surface charge on red blood cells and thereby reduces blood viscosity and clumping, making it one of the simplest and yet most profound interventions for helping reduce cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular events.

Earthing may be a simple, natural, and easily accessible tool against degenerative and inflammatory-related disease. The evidence of physiological improvements when the body is grounded vs. non-grounded makes it clear that earthing should be included in the clinical practice of preventative, complementary, and lifestyle medicine and has great potential as a simple strategy for supporting overall health and quality of life. Try to take just 10-15 minutes several times a week to get outdoors, connect your feet to the ground, and breathe some fresh air.