Will You Ground With Me

I have a question… will you ground with me today?

Does that question throw you off? Are you not really sure what I’m asking you?

I wouldn’t be shocked if my question has confused you. Grounding isn’t a health practice your average American knows much about.

I think the only time we’ve ever talked about it was in our first email about coronavirus. In that email, Dr. Lantelme mentioned it as a way to help boost your immune system’s ability to fight coronavirus.

But he didn’t explain what grounding is.

And so, I wanted to take the time to do that today.

I think many of you reading might be skeptical about grounding as you read over this article.

That’s OK.

Grounding is definitely on the fringe of alternative health therapies.

And the beautiful thing about grounding is while it may be a bit odd, the benefits are undisputed and it’s 100% safe - no side effects guaranteed.

Now, let me show you what grounding is and how you can use it to feel better, boost immunity, and tap into the energy around you to become the best version of yourself.

Grounding: Kinda Hippyish - But Not Really

Ok, let’s just get right into this.

What is grounding?

Grounding, or earthing, is the simple practice of getting your bare feet onto the bare ground and allowing the electricity generated by the Earth to recharge our own internal electrical grid.

That’s a very ethereal way of describing grounding.

As many of us learned in school, everything around us is filled with electrical currents. We are electrical beings, and the Earth we live on is teeming with electricity as well. 

Debra Rose Wilson writes:

“This practice relies on earthing science and grounding physics to explain how electrical charges from the earth can have positive effects on your body. This type of grounding therapy isn’t entirely the same as the technique that is used in mental health treatment.”

These claims seem a bit sketchy but there is some science to support how grounding improves health. 

Obviously, the science of grounding isn’t getting tons of attention from researchers.

I think that’s rather unfortunate considering that grounding can’t just help reconnect us with the Earth’s surface electrons…

It also gets us out into nature, exposing us to all kinds of good microbes and sunshine, while getting us out of the electrical chaos inside a home.

I won’t make any crazy claims about how grounding will help to improve your health, but I think there’s good enough reason to believe that incorporating grounding into your daily routine could be helpful with relieving inflammation, boosting heart health, enhancing your mood, and helping to lessen chronic pain. 

How is any of this possible?

Researchers at the Journal of Inflammation Research think that grounding affects your body’s central connector of cells called the living matrix.

They concluded that the body needs occasional reconnection to the earth as a way to recharge this matrix which improves our body’s natural antioxidant capacity.

They write:

“Accumulating experiences and research on earthing, or grounding, point to the emergence of a simple, natural, and accessible health strategy against chronic inflammation, warranting the serious attention of clinicians and researchers. The living matrix (or ground regulation or tissue tensegrity-matrix system), the very fabric of the body, appears to serve as one of our primary antioxidant defense systems. As this report explains, it is a system requiring occasional recharging by conductive contact with the Earth’s surface – the “battery” for all planetary life – to be optimally effective.”

Studies testing that hypothesis corroborate these findings.

In a study by the Journal of Complementary Medicine researchers tested grounding on 10 people by measuring their blood before and after grounding to see if the fluidity of their red blood cells changed at all.

Cell fluidity is known to factor into heart health and they discovered that grounding resulted in far fewer red blood cells bonding together which they believe significantly can improve heart health.

A larger study by the Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine tested to see how much grounding could influence recovery after vigorous exercise. 

In this study they “examined the role of grounding on post-exercise muscle damage. Researchers used both grounding patches and mats and measured creatine kinase, white blood cell count, and pain levels before and after grounding.

Blood work indicated that grounding reduced muscle damage and pain in participants. This suggests that grounding may influence healing abilities.”

And both of these studies are supported by one more study from The Chopra Center for Well-Being where they asked 16 massage therapists to try grounding off and on for several defined periods to see how it made them feel.

The massage therapists noted that their physically demanding job produced intense amounts of emotional and physical stress. After they grounded for some time they reported that many negative factors of health (including pain, stress, depression, and fatigue) had all dropped significantly.

These are just a few of the studies on grounding, and I know there are more to report on and more to come in the future.

While these studies were all quite small and not rigorous by any stretch of the imagination, this accounts as enough evidence to at least try grounding out to improve your health.

Now, it’s time to show you how to ground effectively.

Here’s How You Ground Well

Grounding really isn’t hard, and why should it be?

All you need to do is make a solid connection to the ground, or use equipment that will do that job for you.

Here’s how to get your grounding in with minimal time and 0 money spent.

1 - Walk or stand barefoot:

It matters very little what kind of surface you are on, if you let your skin touch any natural surface for 5-10 minutes that counts.

2 - Lay down on the ground:

Laying down on the ground increases how much skin you expose to the earth’s electricity and helps you get more done with less.

3 - Get in the water:

Remember, water is a great conductor of electricity, and there are a number of people who are in the grounding movement who claim that conductivity means getting in the water is a great way to ground as well.

That’s all it takes.

As I write this in the summer, I can tell you I ground quite frequently, without even realizing it.

As long as it’s warm out I think everyone should try it out.

And while I can’t prove it’ll cure you of anything…

I can promise you’re going to love how it makes you feel.