The Basics Of Earthing Our Body – What you need to know

The Basics Of Earthing Our Body – What you need to know. I have spent many hours of research to give you the best answer in this article.

The latest trend in the health improvement world seems to be earthing. If you are not familiar, earthing (or grounding) our bodies mean connecting ourselves directly to the earth.

xa\qProponents of the idea claim it has phenomenal health advantages, although there is significant controversy around the science of it all.

Earthing is the act of putting our bodies in direct and uninterrupted contact with the earth. Walking barefoot in nature is perhaps the best example of earthing.

The idea is that your skin must touch the natural elements like sand, rock or water. But how does earthing hold up to science? We will explore that in the next section.

Here are two earthing mats available on Amazon.

Earthing mats for your bed.

A scientific approach to earthing our body

Earth is considered to have a mild negative charge to it, according to science. This is because of the composition of the earth and how it absorbs energy.

Now, human beings are charge-neutral for the most part. However, we tend to build up a positive charge within us with time. Now, if we ground ourselves, the charge buildup gets nullified and we return to the neutral state.

Some experts have linked this charge buildup to feelings of stress, premature aging, premature greying of hair, etc.

As a population, we can go years without touching the earth at all, even when we are frolicking outside. That is a problem.

Therefore, we must proactively try and practice grounding so that our bodies can realign themselves and go back to a charge-neutral state.

Why does our body generate a positive charge?

In our day to day life, we tend to generate special reactive compounds as a byproduct of our metabolic function called free radicals.

They are important because they have the ability to attack and destroy unwanted intruders like viruses and bacteria. However, too many free radicals can be bad since they can then expedite aging and be a catalyst for chronic diseases.

Free radicals defend our bodies from outside intruders by cordoning off that part of our body in a process called inflammation. Inflammation creates a boundary and inflames the tissues nearby while attacking and destroying the virus or bacteria.

Free radicals thus act as deterrents and are an important part of the healing process. However, too many free radicals can cause unnecessary low-grade inflammation (especially in your joints) leading to pain.

They have also been linked with chronic illnesses like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, it is important to keep a constant check on the number of free radicals in our bodies at all times.

Free radicals are positively charged and do not have electrons to balance them out. Electrons can be introduced in your body by way of diet – for example, with foods rich in Vit A, C and E – but it’s not the only way.

Earthing can be a great way to balance out your body too. It does this by allowing the positive charges from the body to flow back to the earth, thus bringing your body to a neutral state.

In theory, this can help with reducing too many free radicals in your body and thus inflammatory pain.

Benefits of earthing your body

Earthing is the process of eliminating excessive free radicals from our body. Grounding ourselves to the earth can have multiple health benefits as listed below.

It is important to remember, however, that people start seeing results at a varied pace. Some can immediately see tangible results whilst with others, it can take weeks.

BENEFITS OF EARTHING | Why You Need to Ground video by Annabel O’Neill

Scientific studies on earthing your body.

Proponents of this idea point to anecdotal evidence and personal stories but obviously they cannot be a benchmark for scientific inquiry.

However, there were a couple of studies done in this field that gives us some insight. One study done in 2014 examined 60 people with chronic pain and sleeping issues.

They were divided into two batches and one was made to sleep on earthing sheets while the others were made to sleep on similar-looking placebo sheets. The group that slept in the grounding sheets reported a reduction in pain, as well as stress levels.

They also overwhelmingly vouched for an improved quality of sleep and increased energy levels. The placebo group did not report any improvement.

There have also been some preliminary studies done to examine cortisol levels and inflammation with respect to earthing and they all show promising results.

However, the experiments are so small that it is not enough to draw conclusive evidence.

That said, the thousands of personal stories, coupled with these small scale studies give me hope that we soon might find a definitive answer to the effectiveness of earthing from a scientific standpoint.

A summary of findings in an article I found on google scholar says:

Grounding appears to improve sleep, normalize the day-night cortisol rhythm, reduce pain, reduce stress, shift the autonomic nervous system from sympathetic toward parasympathetic activation

You can find it here.

Inflammatory behavior and earthing

Earthing has been shown to deliver tangible results when it comes to reducing inflammation and pain.

In an experiment done in 2017, thermographic imaging shows a drastic drop in heat activity after just 30 minutes of earthing. The subject in question had been suffering from chronic pain and muscle stiffness.

The problem with these experiments is the minuscule scale within which they are run. However, the results give me hope that we will soon be conducting broad-scale research on this to confirm its effectiveness.

At this point, the evidence seems to be purely anecdotal but I am optimistic that future research will shed light on the exact science of earthing.

The possibility of reducing inflammation by earthing ourselves is exciting because it can mitigate a wide range of diseases that stem from inflammation.

It can also finally give a definitive answer on how to best tackle chronic diseases like diabetes.

Personal experiment.

While doing research for grounding, I couldn’t find a dependable account of a grounding practitioner to bring to you the exact changes that you can expect your body to go through.

Thus, I decided to try it out myself. The idea of connecting to the earth made sense and the process was easy. However, I was skeptical of its effectiveness.

People on forums had spoken so effusively on the effectiveness of grounding, it almost sounded too good to be true. I found myself hard-pressed to believe that a simple exercise such as grounding can bring about such drastic improvements in my quality of life.

I was optimistic about the results though, primarily because it was influenced by my personal experience at the beach.

If you’ve taken a beach vacation, you will remember falling asleep much more easily and experience deep sleep after a long day of frolicking on the beach.

Experts suggest that this is possible because both sand and water are natural conductors and help in balancing the electrical charge within your body.

I started out by making a point to walk barefoot outside every day and sleeping in a grounding sheet at night. I had nothing to lose and it was a fun experiment that had significant results on my body.

My results.

I was mildly surprised to find that I fell asleep much faster and had a full sleep on the first night of sleeping on the grounding mat. While the results were great, I factored in the placebo effect.

I kept sleeping on the mat for a couple of weeks and each time I would get a deep, fulfilling sleep. I only figured out the massive difference in sleep quality when one night I tried sleeping without the mat and had to toss and turn for more than an hour before dozing off. 

It improved my health significantly. My mood was better, I had a lot more energy and my blood pressure was back to normal within the first week of using it. However, the results can take time for some people.

That said, just keep on sleeping on a grounding mat and walking barefoot outside and you will definitely see positive results.

But don’t take it from me. Many legendary athletes including the likes of Ronaldo, Maria Sharapova and Lance Armstrong have attested to the effectiveness of earthing products.

Olympic athletes have reported using earthing products regularly because they help in faster recovery. Even popular TV doctors like Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil have recommended it in certain instances.

Grounding mats and sheets.

The best way to practice grounding is to take a long walk barefoot. However, it is not always possible for us to do that. We live in urban environments that limit our interaction with nature. Therefore, we must get creative in reducing free radicals from our bodies.

The best way of mitigating this is to opt for one of the various grounding products available in the market today. The two sought after ones are the grounding mats and grounding sheets.

• Grounding mat/Earthing mat: A grounding mat can be used to reduce free radical generation in your body as well as EMF radiation that your body is exposed to. You can simply place it under your desk and have your feet rest on it. It will channel all the harmful radiation and free radicals directly to the earth, thus leaving your body unharmed.
• Earthing Sheets: Earthing sheets can be used in beds that allow the user to sleep more easily and experience a night of deep, full sleep.

1. Nikken 1 KenkoGround Magnetic Field Therapy.
2. Ground Therapy Desk Mat 15″ x 30″

Earthing mats for your bed.

1. Grounded Beauty Sleep Mat by Ground therapy.
2. Earthing Sheet Half Size with Grounding Cord, Grounding Conductive Mat with Pure Silver Threads.

How earthing mats work

The grounding mats allow you to practice earthing while being indoors. The mat plugs into the grounding port of your electrical outlet and enables electrons to flow to the mat and come in contact with your skin.

The positive charge in your skin and the electron in the mat react, thus nullifying each other until there are no more excessive free radicals left in your body.

The mats are small and portable which makes it an ideal travel companion. It also comes with an outlet tester for you to confirm if the configuration is correct.

Should you get an earthing mat?

In my personal experience I’ve had incredible results with using an earthing mat.

Therefore I have no hesitation in recommending you to get one too. They reduce stress, make you feel livelier and drastically improve your quality of sleep.

I cannot recommend them highly enough. However, remember that not everyone experiences the difference immediately. If you are not feeling a change from sleeping on it, keep repeating. The changes can take up to 3-4 weeks to show.

My personal favorite EMF detection and protection products.

Related questions.

Is there scientific proof behind earthing mats?

The science is ambiguous at best right now. This is because we haven’t done thorough experiments to get a definitive answer on the effectiveness of earthing mats.

However, the small scale experiments that have been conducted show promise.