“Earthing:” Never heard of it!

When researching my post about the side effects of blood thinners, I stumbled across a concept called “earthing” or “grounding.” The source said that “grounding thins your blood, making it less viscous.” Inquiring minds need to know!

Earthing is “direct physical contact with the vast supply of electrons on the surface of the earth” (from an article in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health, written by five bona fide scientists!). In other words, earthing is going outside and walking barefoot or lying down on the grass. The surface of the Earth is negatively charged. When you touch the earth, you pick up some of this electric charge and transfer the energy from the ground into your body.

According to the scientists, many important processes take place on cell tissue surfaces. When we’re not grounded, which is almost all of the time for most of us, “electrical gradients, due to uneven charge distribution, can build up along tissue surfaces and cell membranes.” When you’re grounded, you pick up this negative charge and create a stable internal bio-electrical environment for all organs, tissues and cells.

The scientists performed a bunch of experiments to prove the effects of earthing. One effect, as mentioned above, is blood thinning (the more negative charges on the surface of your red blood cells, the less your blood coagulates). In addition, they also found that earthing reduces stress levels, increases healing responses, reduces muscle soreness, improves cardiovascular health, improves glucose regulation and immune response. The journal authors offer scientific measurements for each of these effects, but it’s too complicated to discuss here.

The authors say that going barefoot as little as 30 or 40 minutes a day “can significantly reduce pain and stress.” If that’s not practical, you can buy “conductive systems” such as chair pads and sheets that will do the job. Deepak Chopra is into earthing and offers a chair pad. It’s available on his Web site. Skeptical people have tried some of these devices and admit that they help them relax and sleep better.

I would like to try earthing. But we don’t have a nice lawn or any other outside surface that I could use for an experiment that wouldn’t cause pain. And I’m too cheap to buy something. Maybe I can think of something.

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