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I think Earthing cured my dysautonomia/POTS

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30
Location
Atlanta, GA
Hi- I believe that earthing (also known as grounding) has cured my dysautonomia and adrenal fatigue. I am not in any way affiliated with earthing products. I am a disabled mom.

MY HEALTH STORY

For the past ten years, I have steadily transformed from a healthy, thirty-year-old attorney to a sickly forty-something-year-old on disability. All of my illnesses have involved inflammation, my immune system and my adrenal glands. In 2002-2003, I developed Sjogren's Syndrome and chronic hives.

In 2006, with my son in daycare bringing home every cold, and while I worked full-time, I developed an extremely rare flesh-eating pneumonia. Within a day of catching this, I turned septic and was in a narcotically induced coma for 2 weeks. Miraculously, I woke up with all of my mental faculties intact. I was left with scarring in my lungs called bronchiectasis. In denial about the gravity of my illness, I returned to work as a full-time attorney after 8 weeks.

Within 3 weeks of returning to work, I developed chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome (“cfids”). My adrenals were exhausted from managing my immune system through such a serious illness, and their failure caused my whole body to shut down. I couldn’t sleep no matter how many Ambiens I took. I couldn’t eat. I felt wired all the time due to a resurgence of Epstein Barr Virus. I had always had anxiety and angers issues, because ironically, although I craved stress in my life, I didn’t handle stress well. With the cfids and adrenal problems, my anxiety went through the roof. I also began getting recurrent pneumonias due to the lung scarring and because my immune system was down-regulated from the cfids. This was when I had to go on disability. My body had given out. I was bedridden.

In 2010, I tried an experimental treatment, Valcyte, and got my cfids in remission. Of course, the minute I got it into remission, I tried to reengage in some form of living. I started exercising and volunteering at my son’s school. Through all this, I still got pneumonias on a semi-monthly basis and started having difficulty sleeping through the night as my adrenals struggled to keep up. Even the little stress caused by volunteering was enough to take me down.

Then, in 2012, I developed dysautonomia (i.e. POTS or mitral valve prolapse syndrome—every doctor I see calls it something different). I suddenly became very sensitive to exercise. Sometimes I threw up after exerting myself. I started having dizziness if I didn’t drink water and take salt at timed intervals throughout the day. At bedtime, I had to sleep sitting up because I had such bad bed spins. I had adrenaline surges and low blood sugar where I would almost faint. I would feel really sick if I got hot. The nausea became so bad that I couldn’t eat.

In 2012, I also developed adrenal fatigue again. No matter how well I slept at night, I could not get up in the morning. I slept until noon. I felt low energy, depressed. My hair started falling out again. I was absolutely miserable. Everything I read said to cure adrenal fatigue one had to rest for two years.

During this round of disability, I decided that I was going to cure the dysautonomia and adrenal fatigue just like I had “cured” the cfids. I started researching like crazy and trying every treatment that I could get my hands on. I wanted to get better naturally, but I was desperate. I did graded exercise and acupuncture and Chinese herbs and hormones (pregnenolone & dhea) and diet and supplements. I got all sorts of blood tests, nutrition evaluations and food allergy testing. I did colon hydrotherapy and coffee enemas and Thai massage. I spent so much money it was ridiculous. The doctors had no suggestions beyond what I was already doing, and nothing worked. Finally, after a year, I gave up on ever curing the dysautonomia.

I had become so obsessed with feeling better that my stress levels were at an all-time high. I was anxious and always angry at my husband; it’s hard not to be a miserable person when you are miserable.Around this time, I started getting neck pain. I would get cricks that wouldn’t go away, and my having to sleep sitting up all the time compounded the pain. It was debilitating, so I started researching pain relief and stumbled upon earthing.

EARTHING

Earthing (also known as grounding) is the concept that our bodies need the electromagnetic energy of the earth for optimum health as much as we need water, plants, rocks (minerals), air and sunlight. The earth gives off electrons that our body readily absorbs, which brings us to the same electrical frequency as the earth. We have become cut off from these electrons in our modern life by wearing shoes with plastic and rubber soles and by living in houses made of wood; these materials are not conductors, so the earth’s electrons cannot pass through. In order to “earth,” you can walk barefoot on the ground. There are also grounding sheets and pads that you can order; you plug them into the third hole of your outlet. (They give you a tester to test your outlet to make sure it’s safe before you plug).

The science of how these electrons improve health is not 100% understood. We know that free radicals are positively charged and that they do their damage to bacteria, viruses and human tissue by seeking electrons, so one theory of the benefits of earthing is that electrons may act as antioxidants. However, some of the other benefits of earthing are not easy to understand. It makes sense in some ways though because we evolved over hundreds of thousands of years walking barefoot and sleeping on the surface of the earth. Also, there are double-blind placebo studies published in scientific journals showing earthing regulates cortisol and adrenal gland functioning, reduces pain, aids sleeping, thins the blood, and enhances a sense of well-being.

Earthing & Me

I bought the earthing sheet for my neck pain, and I plugged it in with the expectation that my pain might improve after about 6 weeks of sleeping on it. My husband thought I was daffy and refused to sleep on the thing. Luckily, I had bought the half sheet, so I could put it on my side of the bed and not have to listen to his complaining. When I lay down on the sheet, I immediately got tingling and burning shock sensations in a big scar on the side of my leg. “That’s weird,” I thought. It was a little uncomfortable but it subsided after about 15 minutes. Once I finished reading, I went to sleep.

On the first night, I had an intense herxheimer reaction (also known as die-off). This is something that often happens to people with cfids who have lots of viruses or bacteria built up in their body when their immune system or a drug they are taking is killing the pathogens. When I get die-off, it’s my Epstein Barr virus dying. Since it resides in your nervous system, my nervous system gets inflamed, and I can’t sleep. So on my first night on the sheet, I slept horribly.

When I got up the next day, I was shocked. I had never had die-off before from anything but potent antiviral drugs. I immediately began googling “die off and earthing,” and I found many people with lyme disease and cfids who had experienced die-off when using the sheet. I figured that it must be the blood thinning properties of earthing, because Coumadin is often used in treating cfids because people’s blood gets very clumpy, and thinning the blood exposes pathogens. I was impressed and excited that I had found something to help keep my viral blood levels down.

During this time, I had been continuing with my dysautonomia routine—water and salt all day at timed intervals. I had noted to myself, “Wow, you are getting really good at measuring just the right amount of salt to prevent dizziness.” Little did I know.

Then, on the fourth evening, we went on a church retreat to some cabins in the wilderness. We drove at night to get there. Right around bedtime I realized I had forgotten my salt! Panic!! My husband walked around the entire camp trying to find me salt to no avail. I decided to tough it out and vowed to drive to find salt in the morning. That night, I had no dizziness, no nausea, and I slept like a rock. I was shocked, but I didn’t trust it, so I found and took salt the next day.

Once we got home, and I had the convenience of being able to let myself feel sick, I decided I was going to test whether I needed salt and water anymore. One day, I purposely got extremely dehydrated and had no salt, and I felt fine all day and slept like a rock that night. The next day, the same. The next day, the same, and every day since. I have no nausea, no dizziness, no low blood sugar. I feel 100% normal.

After a few nights of earthing, there were other things I noticed as well.
(1) My adrenal fatigue appeared to disappear. Even though I hadn’t slept well those first nights due to die-off, I woke up with energy, and I could get out of bed without dragging until noon. I felt more energized sleeping 4 hours with earthing than I did when I slept 12 hours normally. I felt like I had returned to the land of the living.
(2) My anxiety and anger lifted. I feel lighter, happier, more peaceful, less stressed. My husband has noticed a change in my moods and my energy. I feel like I have found something that has been missing all of my life.

My conclusions: Most of the diseases that I have had involved stress and the adrenal glands, and stress is what made me so sick with every disease I’ve ever had. We know earthing regulates your cortisol, which is why people sleep better when they earth. Perhaps, earthing does this by regulating your hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis which would explain why I feel the healthiest I have ever felt in my life and why my dysautonomia and adrenal fatigue were miraculously cured after a few nights of sleeping on the sheet.

ask2266
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
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ask2266

If you hit edit below your post and break it into very short paragraphs, more people will be able to read. People here have visual problems.

Sushi
 
Messages
30
Location
Atlanta, GA
Thanks, Sushi. I had originally not put paragraphs in because I thought there was a word limit on the post, and I was trying to save space, but I hate reading long run on posts like that, too.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Thanks for posting your account and experiences of earthing, ask2266. Certainly seems like a spectacular improvement in health.

Very interesting that earthing (grounding) your body appeared to improve/cure your postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

There are quite a few studies on PubMed on the physiological effects of earthing the human body. Some relevant excerpts from these studies I have quoted below.

In particular, note that studies have shown earthing can improve the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and shift the balance of the ANS toward away from the sympathetic nervous system ("fight or flight"), and towards the parasympathetic nervous system ("rest and digest"). This I would think most likely explains your improvements in POTS symptoms.

And check out the study below that says "earthing during sleep reduces night-time levels of cortisol and resynchronizes cortisol hormone secretion more in alignment with the natural 24-hour circadian rhythm profile."



Earthing (grounding) the Human Body Reduces Blood Viscosity — A Major Factor In Cardiovascular Disease (2013).
"RESULTS: Earthing or grounding increased zeta potentials in all samples by an average of 2.70 and significantly reduced RBC aggregation."

"CONCLUSIONS: Grounding increases the surface charge on RBCs and thereby reduces blood viscosity and clumping. Grounding appears to be one of the simplest and yet most profound interventions for helping reduce cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular events."​

Note: Zeta potential of the blood is related to the quantity of electric charge within (and surrounding) blood cells and other particles flowing in the blood. The higher the zeta potential of the blood, the lower viscosity of the blood will be, and the less the blood cells clump together (meaning the blood will flow better).​



Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth's Surface Electrons (2012).

"The immediate decrease in skin resistance indicates a rapid activation of the parasympathetic nervous system and corresponding deactivation of the sympathetic nervous system. The immediate increase in skin resistance at cessation of grounding indicates an opposite effect. Increased respiratory rate, stabilization of blood oxygenation, and slight rise in heart rate suggest the start of a metabolic healing response necessitating an increase in oxygen consumption."

"Grounding the body to the earth substantially increases the zeta potential and decreases RBC aggregation, thereby reducing blood viscosity. Subjects in pain reported reduction to the point that it was almost unnoticeable. The results strongly suggest that earthing is a natural solution for patients with excessive blood viscosity, an option of great interest not just for cardiologists, but also for any physician concerned about the relationship of blood viscosity, clotting, and inflammation. In 2008, Adak and colleagues reported the presence of both hypercoagulable blood and poor RBC zeta potential among diabetics. Zeta potential was particularly poor among diabetics with cardiovascular disease."

This shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic activation that earthing apparently achieves may be of particular benefit in ME/CFS, as this shift will have immunomodulatory effects; and this shift may be of particular value in POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which is caused by autonomic dysfunction.​



The biologic effects of Grounding the Human Body During Sleep as Measured by Cortisol Levels and Subjective Reporting of Sleep, Pain, and Stress (2004).

"CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that grounding the human body to earth ("earthing") during sleep reduces night-time levels of cortisol and resynchronizes cortisol hormone secretion more in alignment with the natural 24-hour circadian rhythm profile. Changes were most apparent in females. Furthermore, subjective reporting indicates that grounding the human body to earth during sleep improves sleep and reduces pain and stress."


Does Grounding The Human Body to Earth Reduce Chronic Inflammation and Related Chronic Pain?

This study provides some graphs showing the normalization of aberrant cortisol hormone secretion cycles that is achieved through earthing:​

cortisol-hormone-measurements-during-earthing.jpg



Earthing the Human Body Influences Physiologic Processes (2011).
"RESULTS: Earthing of an electrically insulated human organism during night rest causes lowering of serum concentrations of iron, ionized calcium, inorganic phosphorus, and reduction of renal excretion of calcium and phosphorus. Earthing during night rest decreases free tri-iodothyronine and increases free thyroxine and thyroid-stimulating hormone. The continuous earthing of the human body decreases blood glucose in patients with diabetes. Earthing decreases sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, total protein, and albumin concentrations while the levels of transferrin, ferritin, and globulins α1, α2, β, and γ increase. These results are statistically significant."​



Emotional Stress, Heart Rate Variability, Grounding, and Improved Autonomic Tone: Clinical Applications.

"Among the host of interventions to improve autonomic function (see Table 2), we would like to add grounding as a simple, cost-effective, and noninvasive intervention."


The effects of grounding (earthing) on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

"Grounding an organism produces measurable differences in the concentrations of white blood cells, cytokines, and other molecules involved in the inflammatory response. We present several hypotheses to explain observed effects, based on current research results and our understanding of the electronic aspects of cell and tissue physiology, cell biology, biophysics, and biochemistry."

 
Last edited:
Messages
30
Location
Atlanta, GA
Hip:

Thanks for the links to the studies! I have become absolutely fascinated about this and am wanting to do more research. This is a great place to start! Hope you are feeling well in your health. Best, Ashley
 

Seven7

Seven
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3,444
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USA
1) I have a wrist grounder would that work?
2) Does it have to be used while you sleep or daytime is same???
3)Would lay down on grass or outside before sleep do the same???
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
1) I have a wrist grounder would that work?
2) Does it have to be used while you sleep or daytime is same???
3)Would lay down on grass or outside before sleep do the same???

I think a wrist grounder will work, provided you keep it on all night while you sleep. You'd of course need to connect it to an electrical earth. Presumably your grounder comes with a plug that connects to the earth terminal of the mains power socket.

When you are in bed, I would think it is probably best to attach the wrist grounder around your ankle, with the cable running out from the bottom end of your bed. That way if you toss and turn during sleep, the cable is less likely to get tangled up around your body.

Reading through those studies I quoted above, some studies just used small TENS-type pads to connect the body to earth (see the picture on page 2 of this study), so I assume that earthing the body at just one point (like at the wrist or ankle) may be just as good as earthing the body by laying down on an electrically conductive blanket. But that is just a guess. It would be interesting to see if people using a full earthing blanket during sleep also get the same benefits when earthing just via a specific part of their body.

There seem to be particular benefits to being earthed while you sleep. Many of the studies quoted above specifically focus on the benefits of earthing while sleeping.

Being earthed for just a short time before sleep (like laying on the grass before going to bed) would probably not really work so well; I think you need to earthed all the time during sleep. Earthing works not by a one-time discharge of excess bodily electricity down to earth, but rather works by you being in constant electrical connection with the earth, so that minute electric currents can always flow between you and the earth, dynamically responding to any electrical disturbances arising in your body (such as those caused by mains electricity hum), thereby keeping your body in an electrically balanced state.

If you read paragraph 2.4.2. of this study quote above, you see that some of the physiological benefits of earthing occur immediately on grounding your body, but also disappear immediately when you disconnect your body from the ground. So these benefits are only to be had while you are electrically earthed. But other physiological benefits seem to persist even after you disconnect from the earth.


Note that these earthing products contain a 100 kΩ resistor in series for safety, so that even in the extremely improbable event that your mains earth became live (hot) due to mis-wiring or some other fault, this resistor would prevent the electricity getting to you, and you'd feel nothing.

So if anyone who is competent with electrical wiring is planning to make their own cheap DIY earthing system (as I may do), it would be advisable place a 100 kΩ resistor between you and the mains earth terminal. And only do this you know what you are doing; if you accidentally connected yourself directly to the live (hot) electrical terminal, it would be curtains for you.
 

Hip

Senior Member
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17,824
lnester7

I just now came across this study: The Effectiveness of a Conductive Patch and a Conductive Bed Pad in Reducing Induced Human Body Voltage Via the Application of Earth Ground.

The study compared the results of earthing the body at just one point (using a conductive patch), with the results of earthing the body in its entirety using an electrically conductive bed blanket (conductive bed pad).

The study measured the amount of electrical disturbances in the body arising from the mains hum (50 or 60 Hz vibrating electric fields) present all places that have mains electricity. They found that when earthing the body at just one point, this reduced the amount of mains hum-derived disturbances in the body by a factor of 70, which of course is substantial; but the electrically conductive bed blanket did even better, and reduced the mains hum electrical disturbances in the body by a factor of 110.

So the electrically conductive blanket covering the whole bed is better, but earthing the body at just one point (such as at the ankle) is also very effective.
 

Hip

Senior Member
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17,824
Hip:

Thanks for the links to the studies! I have become absolutely fascinated about this and am wanting to do more research. This is a great place to start! Hope you are feeling well in your health. Best, Ashley

ask2266

How long ago did you start using your earthing blanket, by the way? I am just wondering how long you have had these improvements in your POTS, ME/CFS, adrenal and anxiety symptoms, and whether this improvement has been maintained, and has not lapsed back.

I have some degree of POTS myself, so I find this interesting, and I am definitely going try using an earthing blanket.

(Incidentally, if you still have some residual anxiety symptoms, you may find THIS very effective anxiety treatment useful.)
 
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30
Location
Atlanta, GA
I noticed a full remission of symptoms within 3 days of using the sheet. It was really crazy. I have now been using it for around 2 weeks, so this has not been for a very long time. Still, if you knew how sick I was 2 weeks ago, and you saw me now, you would be shocked.

I read in Clint Ober's book that he has noticed that in people with inflammatory diseases, they notice the effects of grounding very quickly-- within days. However, they tend to need more hours of grounding per day in order to gain the full positive effects available. I bought a earthing pad for under my feet while I work, so I can do it during the day now, as well.

Also, I want to remind everyone that I have had die-off from this the entire time I have been using it. I slept horribly the first night I used it, but on the third night, even though I was still waking up at five am from die off, I felt more refreshed in the morning than I had in years. I'm pretty sure that it is from the blood thinning effects of the sheet. As you may know, blood in CFIDS is very clumpy because it is inflamed, and viruses and bacteria hide in the clumps. When the blood is thinned, it enables the immune system to kill the pathogens more efficiently, which can cause die-off.
 

Sparrowhawk

Senior Member
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514
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West Coast USA
ask2266 could I trouble you to share the exact earthing sheet product you purchased, I'd like to try this. I see it is low risk, and anything that does't involve taking a pill is a good bet for me, as messed up as my GI tract is at the moment.

Hip very much appreciate all the research links, adds a lot of validation to ask226's n=1 experience.

I am wondering if this might be more effective attached to a separate ground rod pounded into the earth. The wall ground is so tightly associated with the home electrical system I am puzzled how it might not be influenced by such proximity to the 60 cycle signal there.
 
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30
Location
Atlanta, GA
I purchased the half-sheet. I tuck it into my bed at my head and my foot, so I am lying on the entire thing.However, now that my husband has seen my results (he says, "You turned from a gray person into a pink person."), we are getting a king sheet so he can use it, too, and I am putting the half sheet on my son's bed.

I have read anecdotally from some people that they think it works better when you ground the sheet separately to the earth, not through the electrical system. However, the electromagnetism of the earth is so strong that the home electrical system is puny in comparison. When grounded, an object experiences no electrical effect from other electromagnetic fields nearby. The electrical field of the earth is just too powerful.
 

Hip

Senior Member
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17,824
Also, I want to remind everyone that I have had die-off from this the entire time I have been using it. I slept horribly the first night I used it, but on the third night, even though I was still waking up at five am from die off, I felt more refreshed in the morning than I had in years.

That is very interesting. For the last two nights, as an experiment, I slept using a makeshift earthing system that I cobbled together myself. During the first night of being earthed, I found I slept quite profoundly, and I woke up feeling noticeably more rested.

But on the second night (last night) of being earthed during sleep, although my sleep was quite deep, I also had some slightly disturbed dreams. It is possible these disturbed dreams were just caused by toxins from some sort of die-off that the earthing had begun to precipitate. In fact, today, after the second night sleeping with an earthed body, I do not feel good; my sound sensitivity symptoms are much worse today. However, hopefully this is just a temporary Herxheimer-type effect that will disappear after a day or two. I will persevere with this earthing experiment, and see how being earthed while sleeping affects my wellbeing over then next few days and nights.

What is very clear to me is that earthing does have a very noticeable effect on sleep and on your general condition, and this has certainly surprised me. I read about earthing before, but I always assumed its effects would be slight and subtle — if any. I did not expect earthing to have an effect which is a strong as some of the strongest supplements and medications I have taken.

Thanks once again for writing up you story, ask2266. Prompted by your success, I am now quite excited about trying out earthing myself.

I'm pretty sure that it is from the blood thinning effects of the sheet. As you may know, blood in CFIDS is very clumpy because it is inflamed, and viruses and bacteria hide in the clumps. When the blood is thinned, it enables the immune system to kill the pathogens more efficiently, which can cause die-off.

A pathogen die-off might be triggered by the activation the parasympathetic nervous system (and the reduction in sympathetic nervous system activity) that earthing apparent achieves.

The parasympathetic (and its main nerve, the vagus nerve) powerfully controls inflammation and the immune response, so you might expect the changes in parasympathetic function caused by earthing to modulate the immune system. This change in immune response may then perhaps be responsible for a pathogen die-off.

This shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic activation that earthing apparently achieves — the immunomodulation that can result — may be of particular benefit in ME/CFS. Many successful therapies in ME/CFS are based on Th2 to Th1 immunomodulation.

And, as ask2266 has found herself, this sympathetic to parasympathetic shift may be of particular value in POTS.
 
Messages
30
Location
Atlanta, GA
Hip:

Thanks for the insight about the parasympathetic activation. I hadn't thought of that! Glad you are seeing some significant results, but I hope your die-off quiets down soon. Die-off sucks (excuse my language, but only cursing can suffice to describe die-off hell) When I took Valcyte, I herxed horribly for 4 months (I could NOT sleep) and then less for the next 6 months, but that is what got me into remission, so if you can endure the die-off, who knows where it could lead.

Thanks for checking back in,
ask2266
 

Sparrowhawk

Senior Member
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514
Location
West Coast USA
I purchased the half-sheet. I tuck it into my bed at my head and my foot, so I am lying on the entire thing.However, now that my husband has seen my results (he says, "You turned from a gray person into a pink person."), we are getting a king sheet so he can use it, too, and I am putting the half sheet on my son's bed.

I have read anecdotally from some people that they think it works better when you ground the sheet separately to the earth, not through the electrical system. However, the electromagnetism of the earth is so strong that the home electrical system is puny in comparison. When grounded, an object experiences no electrical effect from other electromagnetic fields nearby. The electrical field of the earth is just too powerful.
Thanks for the additional info. I apologize but could I ask exactly what product from what website? I searched online and there are scads of sources selling this type of thing. Since it worked for you I was wanting to get the exact one you got. If you don't feel comfortable posting I'd be glad to do that via PM. Thanks!
 

Hip

Senior Member
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17,824
I am wondering if this might be more effective attached to a separate ground rod pounded into the earth. The wall ground is so tightly associated with the home electrical system I am puzzled how it might not be influenced by such proximity to the 60 cycle signal there.

It's possible that a separate ground rod may be electrically cleaner, with lower levels of mains hum interference on it.

I read HERE that in order to make a proper electrical connection to earth, you need a metal earth rod 8 to 10 feet in length, which you then stake deep into the ground. And the metal rod itself needs to be at least 3/8 inches in diameter. THIS video also explains how to install a ground rod.

I have read anecdotally from some people that they think it works better when you ground the sheet separately to the earth, not through the electrical system. However, the electromagnetism of the earth is so strong that the home electrical system is puny in comparison. When grounded, an object experiences no electrical effect from other electromagnetic fields nearby. The electrical field of the earth is just too powerful.

The earth in a home electrical system is no different to an earth connection in the ground you make yourself: somewhere around your house or garden, there will be a 8 to 10 foot metal rod driven into the ground, which is the earth connection for your entire domestic electrical system. All the earth terminals in all the electrical sockets in your house are directly wired into this metal rod in the ground.

Though as Sparrowhawk mentions, since the earth wiring in the domestic electrical system runs alongside the mains power wiring, it's possible that the domestic earth wiring may pick up very small amounts of main hum interference from the power wiring. So this is why setting up a second and separate ground rod might provide you with an earth which does not have any such electrical interference on it.

Though given the fact that you need an 8 to 10 foot long, 3/8 inch wide metal rod to create a proper earth, you might first try to see what health benefits arise from using your regular domestic electrical system earth; if you discover there are long term health benefits, then you can consider creating a separate earthing system.
 

Hip

Senior Member
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17,824
Hip:

Are you a scientist by trade?

My eduction was in mathematical physics, and I have lifelong passionate interests in many areas of science; but I am not in fact a scientist by profession.

Though these days my brain fog makes even my amateur efforts to be precise and analytical quite a struggle. Nevertheless, I do find a scientific background comes in useful when you are dealing with complex illnesses like ME/CFS. So I am grateful for the few analytical brain cells I still have left!
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Sparrowhawk
Actually, in fact you may not need to have a very long 8 to 10 foot grounding rod if you are only using it to earth your body. A very long grounding rod may only be necessary for conducting the high currents (many amps) of a mains electric fault to earth. But the currents coming from the human body are going to be tiny, so a much smaller rod may be fine. There is a video HERE of a grounding rod specifically used for earthing the body, and it looks to be around only 1 foot long.
 

Sparrowhawk

Senior Member
Messages
514
Location
West Coast USA
Hip thanks, yes once I got the site from Our Dear Thread Originator, I saw they sell those one foot exterior grounding rods as well. Not to be placed near your smart meter, one assumes! (sorry, tired attempt at humor, I crash every day around four pm)

Will post how it goes once I have it. I put this in the same category of the Red LED thread. You wouldn't thing that would make any difference but folks on that discussion are seeing pretty significant effects, good and unfortunately also bad.

I could imagine a day when PR folks may get so fed up with the lack of research on remedies that we self organize, crowd fund and run our own mini trials. I assume that liability is so nuts that only pharmaceutical companies can afford it, but if there was a way to make it entirely voluntary, we might garner some attention. I know someone was culling through to see how support groups helped people generally, the same data could be culled to derive effective or promising approaches. For instance this thread was the first time I heard about combining blood thinner and antiviral, and it obviously worked for her.

Just ruminating...