Interesting Report on Earthing (Receiving antioxidants from the Earth)

[redaxe]

Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth's Surface Electrons
Gaétan Chevalier, 1, 2 * Stephen T. Sinatra, 3 James L. Oschman, 4 Karol Sokal, 5 and Pawel Sokal 6

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3265077/

Earthing (also known as grounding) refers to contact with the Earth's surface electrons by walking barefoot outside or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors connected to conductive systems, some of them patented, that transfer the energy from the ground into the body. Emerging scientific research supports the concept that the Earth's electrons induce multiple physiological changes of clinical significance, including reduced pain, better sleep, a shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic tone in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and a blood-thinning effect. The research, along with many anecdotal reports, is presented in a new book entitled Earthing

Just something here I thought I'd share...
A lot of claims are made about Earthing and after trying it myself during my sleeping hours for a couple of weeks I can anecdotally report improvements in symptoms similar to what are claimed in this article. I've noticed a definite improvement in my sleep and a variety of symptoms since I started Earthing myself (using an insulated copper electric wire connected to the soil adjacent to a tree outside my bedroom window - the bare copper is wrapped around a steel bar in the ground and around my toe at night).

For those who don't know this, the theory behind Earthing is that our modern lifestyles by-and large have us spending nearly all our time in insulated buildings and wearing rubber shoes where we are separated from the natural electrical energy of the earth. Earthing proponents argue that our bodies & biological processes are strongly electrical and that earthing is essential for optimum health
Back to CFS - one thing I find especially interesting is the report above claims a blood thinning effect. I wonder if this would be associated with an improvement in peripheral blood circulation through capillaries than many other benefits would be felt from better blood flow (it would be reasonable to expect that oxygen & cellular nutrition as well as waste removal from tissues would improve)?
If so this would be expected to have a positive effect on allowing the body to heal from the damage that this syndrome causes.
It doesn't seem like anyone has done any real studies on Earthing and CFS/ME but any treatment that is associated with reducing the levels of Reactive Oxygen Species, improving sleep and improving blood circulation may be helpful for CFS sufferers.
I also try to earth myself at other times to i.e. reading outside or gardening with my bare feet in contact with the earth. If you can read a book or magazine, listen to music or just have a daytime siesta it may be worth trying to Earth where possible. This is best to do at beaches (salt water is very good) or otherwise at parks.
The claims behind earthing are that the sicker a person is the more benefit they will get but the amount of benefit is relative to the amount of time a person is earthed. No-one promotes it as a 'cure' but rather as a holistic way of enhancing your body's health so it can function more optimally.

There are a lot of alternative health treatments out there and many of them may well be suspect but one thing I really like about Earthing is its free! No-one is charging you money to connect electrically to the Earth, and it seems to be a phenomena that is not well understood and something that a lot of people would scoff at but there does seem to be a lot of people out their claiming benefit from it and there's no money it for them to do so.....so perhaps there is something in this....

 

[Hip]

There is a thread on earthing here:

I think Earthing cured my dysautonomia/POTS

Many people seem to find earthing helps them sleep well for the first few night, but after that, they feel much worse, and sleep very badly (this is what I found in my case). So earthing may not necessarily be a good thing.

 

[Christopher]

There is a thread on earthing here:

I think Earthing cured my dysautonomia/POTS

Many people seem to find earthing helps them sleep well for the first few night, but after that, they feel much worse, and sleep very badly (this is what I found in my case). So earthing may not necessarily be a good thing.

I don't understand how we could be feeling worse from earthing, unless the method is flawed. Surely sleeping outside on the ground is not dangerous? Or is it?

 

[Hip]

I don't understand how we could be feeling worse from earthing, unless the method is flawed. Surely sleeping outside on the ground is not dangerous? Or is it?

The theory that I proposed in this post is that if you earth yourself while in your home, the oscillating magnetic fields of the mains AC electricity supply (the mains power hum) will constantly drive an electric current in and out of your body, at 50 or 60 times per second.

The mains power hum induces a constantly varying electric voltage in your body, such that as soon as you connect yourself to earth, this voltage will constantly drive an electric current in an out of your body via the earth connection.

If you don't earth yourself, the varying electric voltage in your body from the main hum will still be present, but there will be no electric current flowing in your body, because when you are not earthed, there is no pathway along which the current can flow. The earth connection provides this pathway.

So earthing yourself while you sleep in your home is not the same as earthing by sleeping on the ground out in nature, because of the presence of this mains hum.

 

[redaxe]

This seems to be the frustrating thing with ME/CFIDS nothing seems to work for everybody. While I find it hard to believe that earthing can make one feel worse people have reported that for virtually every treatment available for CFIDS on these boards so im not real surprised.
But then I dunno many people's conditions seem to wax-and-wane often for unknown reasons (some days are just better than others). If some new treatmetn picks you up a bit one day and then you go downhill again the next day whilst continuing it chances are whatever it is is having no beneficial effect on you.

 

[Hip]

This seems to be the frustrating thing with ME/CFIDS nothing seems to work for everybody. While I find it hard to believe that earthing can make one feel worse people have reported that for virtually every treatment available for CFIDS on these boards so im not real surprised.

This does not appear to be an ME/CFS specific issue: if you search online, you'll find other reports of (non-ME/CFS) people feeling worse through earthing.

 

[eafw]

This seems to be the frustrating thing with ME/CFIDS nothing seems to work for everybody.

The problem is actually that something - any old quackery - will always work for somebody.

You take enough people with chronic ailments, not just ME other diseases too, and there will people showing improvement whatever they are trying out. You just can't draw any serious conclusions about efficacy from this.

 

[Hip]

@eafw
Although nearly all of the descriptions you find about earthing are chock full of pseudoscientific terms, like the "benefits from electrons from the Earth," the effects of earthing can be obvious to observe once you try it out.

And if you read all about the supposed wonderful benefits of earthing, but when you try it yourself you feel awful, that feeling awful cannot be placebo.