Grounding Helps Thin Dangerously Thick Blood and Fights Inflammation
and Disease
August 04, 2013
Story at-a-glance
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When you walk barefoot, free electrons are transferred from
the earth into your body, and this grounding effect is one
of the most potent antioxidants we know of.
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Inflammation thrives when your blood is thick, and you have
a lot of free radical stress, and a lot of positive charges
in your body. Grounding effectively alleviates inflammation
because it thins your blood and infuses you with negatively
charged ions through the soles of your feet.
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Surfaces that allow for proper grounding include sand,
grass, bare dirt, and untreated concrete, brick and ceramic
tile. Leather-soled shoes also allow you to ground while
walking, whereas rubber-soled shoes disconnect you from the
earth and block beneficial electron transfer.
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Grounding helps thin your blood by improving its zeta
potential, which means it improves the energy between your
red blood cells. Research has demonstrated it takes about 80
minutes for the free electrons from the earth to reach your
blood stream and transform your blood.
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Grounding is contraindicated if you take Coumadin, as it may
thin your blood too much.
By Dr. Mercola
Dr. Stephen Sinatra is a prominent cardiologist and an
innovative pioneer. He promotes a number of natural strategies
as "add-ons" to the field of cardiology, such as grounding or
earthing, which is the topic of this interview.
He'd done five years of post-graduate training in
conventional medicine when, in 1977, he met Dr. Jacob Rinse, a
91-year old Dutch chemist who exposed him to alternative
medicine.
"After that I studied some nutrition," he says,
"but I became a psychotherapist. I spent 10 years
training in psychotherapy. I studied bioenergetic
psychotherapy, which looks at energy blocks in the body.
That really helped launch me even more into
alternative medicine. Then I decided that nutrition needed
more work, so I studied for the American College of
Nutrition exam, a test to certify a nutrition specialist."
Then, 10 years ago, he met Clint Ober, who introduced him to
grounding. (Ober is the co-author with Dr. Sinatra of the 2010
book,
Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever?).
"At first I was skeptical," Dr. Sinatra admits.
"I said, 'My gosh, putting my feet on the ground is
going to improve my heart, my body; or at least the things
that Clint is talking about?' But then... I spoke to him for
about an hour, and went from skeptical to being all in! ...
[L]ook, the heart is the most electrical organ of the body.
We are electrical [beings]."
What Is Earthing?
The terms "earthing" and "grounding" are interchangeable. It
is simply the act of placing your bare feet on the earth, or
walking barefoot. When you do, free electrons are transferred
from the earth into your body, and this grounding effect is one
of the most potent antioxidants we know of.
Unfortunately, few people ever walk barefoot anymore to
experience it.
Hopefully, as more and more people become aware of the
importance of being grounded, this will change, or at the very
least spawn a much needed change in the way most footwear is
made. Synthetic rubber soles disconnect you from the earth.
Leather soles do not. So you can still find shoes that allow you
to remain grounded without going barefoot.
Grounding has numerous benefits, aside from creating a
general feeling of well-being. For example, walking barefoot can
help ameliorate the constant assault of electromagnetic fields
and other types of radiation from cell phones, computers and
Wi-Fi.
By getting outside, barefoot, touching the earth, and allowing
the excess charge in your body to discharge into the earth, you
can alleviate some of the stress put on your system. That is the
grounding effect. I have personally prioritized grounding myself
to the earth as much as possible for over 5 years.
Inflammation -- The Root of Most Disease
One of the primary health benefits of grounding is its
antioxidant effect. It helps alleviate inflammation throughout
your body.
"I told [Clint Ober] 10 years ago, "What you need to
do is show that grounding improves inflammation. If you can
show that, then you can show that it improves heart disease.
Because the real cause of heart disease is inflammation.
It's not cholesterol like everybody believes. It's really
inflammation," Dr. Sinatra says. ... [H]is
experimental work was just really awesome, and I got
involved with research myself. I'm still smack in the middle
of it right now, but it took me 10 years."
Dr. Sinatra goes on to tell the inspiring story of a
contractor he met about 23 years ago, who at one point worked
with a group of Scandinavian carpenters who really understood
the benefits of grounding and supported each other in
maintaining this healthy habit:
"They all took off their shoes in the morning and
walked barefoot on the wet grass," he says. "He
came to work as a young carpenter, and the foreman said to
him, 'Hey buddy, you better take your shoes off, because if
you come to work right now with those shoes on, you're going
to be busted up in 10 years. Your joints are going to be
aching. Your muscles are going to be aching. Everything's
going to be aching...' He told him to take his shoes off for
an hour in the morning. Guys slugging sledgehammers, digging
and hammering. It's stress to the tissues. But if they put
their feet on the ground for an hour and had their coffee
breaks with their shoes off, it made a difference."
According to Dr. Sinatra, inflammation thrives when your
blood is thick and you have a lot of free radical stress, and a
lot of positive charges in your body. Grounding effectively
alleviates inflammation because it thins your blood and infuses
you with negatively charged ions through the soles of your feet.
But beware; not all surfaces allow you to ground.
What Surfaces Will Allow You to Properly Ground?
Good grounding surfaces include:
- Sand (beach)
- Grass (preferably moist)
- Bare soil
- Concrete and brick (as long as it's not painted or
sealed)
- Ceramic tile
The following surfaces will NOT ground you:
- Asphalt
- Wood
- Rubber and plastic
- Vinyl
- Tar or tarmac
An interesting tidbit offered by Dr. Sinatra is how to ground
while flying. I typically bring a grounding pad with me
when I fly, but Dr. Sinatra claims that simply taking your shoes
off and putting your feet (bare or with socks) on the steel
struts will do the trick.
The Earth Is a Rich Source of Healthful Electrons
The earth is struck by lightning thousands of time each
minute, primarily around the equator. Subsequently, the earth
carries an enormous negative charge. It's always electron-rich
and can serve as a powerful and abundant supply of antioxidant
free radical-busting electrons.
The human body appears to be finely tuned to "work" with the
earth in the sense that there's a constant flow of energy
between our bodies and the earth. When you put your feet on the
ground, you absorb large amounts of negative electrons through
the soles of your feet. In today's world, this is more important
than ever, yet fewer people than ever actually connect with the
earth in this way anymore. Free radical stress from exposure to
mercury pollution, cigarettes, insecticides, pesticides, trans
fats, and radiation, just to name a few, continually deplete
your body of electrons.
"We now know that oxidative stress causes disease. It
causes inflammation," Dr. Sinatra says. "[But] we
have this Earth – Mother Earth, that's going to give us all
these free electrons."
Recharge Your 'Batteries' with Grounding
Dr. Sinatra, like myself, is a proponent for CoQ10, as it is
a major electron donor and helps turn over ATP, which is the
energy generated within each of your body's cells. Amazingly,
grounding can also enhance ATP, via another mechanism. How do
dietary-derived, oral antioxidants compare to the electrons
transferred from the earth through your skin? According to Dr.
Sinatra:
"Whether you take antioxidants... or whether you get
electron donors through the skin, what you're taking in --
into your skin, and taking in orally -- is going to be
synergistic. It's going to help your
body... What's a healthy lifestyle? It's eating healthy.
It's avoiding sugars. It's avoiding trans fats. It's eating
organic much of the time. It's avoiding pesticides,
insecticides, and chemicals. It's drinking healthy water,
breathing in healthy air, and getting healthy sunlight... In
other words, taking in these natural energies is a healing
energy. Grounding is another natural energy that everybody
should do in their lives, because it just makes sense. It
incorporates a healthier lifestyle."
Walking Barefoot Is a Valuable Aspect of a Healthy Lifestyle
Exercising barefoot outdoors is one of the most wonderful,
inexpensive and powerful ways of incorporating Earthing into
your daily life and will also help speed up tissue repair, as
well as easing the muscle pain you sometimes get from strenuous
exercise. A review of the available research, published January
2012 in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health,
agrees with the concept of reaping health benefits when
connecting to the Earth1.
According to the authors:
"Mounting evidence suggests that the Earth's negative
potential can create a stable internal bioelectrical
environment for the normal functioning of all body systems.
Moreover, oscillations of the intensity of the Earth's
potential may be important for setting the biological clocks
regulating diurnal body rhythms, such as cortisol secretion.
It is also well established that electrons from
antioxidant molecules neutralize reactive oxygen species
(ROS, or in popular terms, free radicals) involved in the
body's immune and inflammatory responses. The National
Library of Medicine's online resource PubMed lists 7021
studies and 522 review articles from a search of
'antioxidant + electron + free radical.' It is assumed that
the influx of free electrons absorbed into the body through
direct contact with the Earth likely neutralize ROS and
thereby reduce acute and chronic inflammation.
Throughout history, humans mostly walked barefoot or with
footwear made of animal skins. They slept on the ground or
on skins. Through direct contact or through
perspiration-moistened animal skins used as footwear or
sleeping mats, the ground's abundant free electrons were
able to enter the body, which is electrically conductive.
Through this mechanism, every part of the body could
equilibrate with the electrical potential of the Earth,
thereby stabilizing the electrical environment of all
organs, tissues, and cells.
Modern lifestyle has increasingly separated humans
from the primordial flow of Earth's electrons. For example,
since the 1960s, we have increasingly worn insulating rubber
or plastic soled shoes, instead of the traditional leather
fashioned from hides. Rossi has lamented that the use of
insulating materials in post-World War II shoes has
separated us from the Earth's energy field. Obviously, we no
longer sleep on the ground as we did in times past.
During recent decades, chronic illness, immune
disorders, and inflammatory diseases have increased
dramatically, and some researchers have cited environmental
factors as the cause. However, the possibility of modern
disconnection with the Earth's surface as a cause has not
been considered. Much of the research reviewed in this paper
points in that direction."
The Sunflower Experiment
Last year, Gary Schwartz, PhD, at the University of Arizona,
performed an elegant experiment with sunflowers to demonstrate
the powerful biological effects of grounding. As shown in the
photos below, one set of sunflowers were connected to a grounded
power outlet via a thin metal rod placed in the vase, connected
to a wire.
The second set was connected to an outlet that was not
grounded. All of the flowers were freshly picked, from the same
area, at the same time, and the water came from the same source
and had nothing added. The experiment was blind, so the
experimenter was unaware of which outlet had been grounded.
Photos used with permission from
Gary Schwartz.
As you can see, by the seventh day, one set is clearly
wilting away, while the other still looks plump and fresh. As
hypothesized, the set that kept their freshness were connected
to the grounded outlet. Even more remarkable was the dramatic
difference in overall survival -- the grounded flowers survived
for another 10 days after the ungrounded set had shriveled up
and died!
According to Clint Ober, this isn't so surprising since
flowers growing in the ground receive a continuous supply of
energy from the earth. The grounding rod used in this experiment
effectively mimics this natural ground connection, allowing them
to thrive longer, as if they'd never been plucked in the first
place. So, can this concept translate into better health for
you? There's compelling evidence it can, and does...
How Grounding Changes Your Blood
Grounding helps thin your blood by improving its zeta
potential, which means it improves the energy between your red
blood cells. Research has demonstrated it takes about 80 minutes
for the free electrons from the earth to reach your blood stream
and transform your blood.
Do you know what a high-sugar diet, smoking, radio
frequencies and other toxic electromagnetic forces, emotional
stress, anxiety, high cholesterol, and high uric acid levels do
to your blood?
All of these make your blood hypercoagulable, meaning it
makes it thick and slow-moving, which increases your risk of
having a blood clot or stroke. Hypercoagulable blood is the
essence of inflammation, because when your blood does not flow
well, oxygen can't get to your tissues. In fact, grounding's
effect on blood thinning is so profound if you are taking blood
thinners you must work with your health care provider to
lower your dose otherwise you may overdose on the medication.
Zeta potential is the electrical potential of solids and
liquids, also referred to as electrokinetic potential. Your red
blood cells repel each other and function at the speed of light,
traveling through your body at an astounding 186,000 miles per
second. Grounding actually increases zeta potential by an
average of 280 percent. According to Dr. Sinatra:
"This is the most incredible discovery, because if
you can increase the thinning of your blood naturally by
grounding, you can fight off disease. Not only heart disease
and stroke, but I'm thinking cancer, Alzheimer's, multiple
sclerosis, or any illness that requires good oxygenation to
the tissues."
Similarly, anything that lowers zeta potential of
your blood will promote disease. For example, early (and some
current) birth control pills were notorious for causing heart
attacks in women. One of the mechanisms that causes this
increased risk is that synthetic estrogens and progesterones
increase blood viscosity, i.e., they decrease the zeta potential
of your blood... There are currently studies being performed at
the University of Arizona which will objectively document
grounding effect on the zeta potential. They are anticipated to
be completed this year.
Other Beneficial Changes Caused By Grounding
Animal experiments have also shown that ungrounded rats had
higher blood sugar compared to their grounded counterparts,
despite being fed identical diets. If disconnecting from the
earth disrupts human sugar metabolism, we may have identified
yet another contributing cause for the dramatic rise of diabetes
in children.
"... I think the reason why we have a generation of
diabetic kids is because we took away the ground, gave them
a lot of sugar, and no exercise. That's the perfect storm,"
Dr. Sinatra says.
Experiments in Poland, the U.S. and Canada, using both animal
and human models, show that grounding improves the human
physiology. Other biochemical alterations caused by grounding
include changes in:
- Phosphorus
- Calcium metabolism
- Fibroid metabolism
- White blood cells
Grounding also calms your sympathetic nervous system, which
supports your heart rate variability. And, when you support
heart rate variability, this promotes homeostatis, or balance,
in your autonomic nervous system. In essence, anytime you
improve heart rate variability, you're improving the entire
organism -- in this case, your entire body and all its
functions.
"In other words, we're there -- we're in a
health mode, as opposed to disease mode. Grounding
does that," Dr. Sinatra explains.
Contraindications and Other Warnings
While walking barefoot is clearly one of the most natural
things you can possibly do to improve your health, there are
still some contraindications and situations in which you may
want to use caution.
"I don't like people to ground when they're taking
Coumadin," Dr. Sinatra warns. "It's a relative
contraindication because we have had people ground, taking
Coumadin at the same time, and their blood became like
water. It was like red wine and then it got really thin.
That could be dangerous. If you have high blood pressure,
[or]... if you had a stroke and you have thin blood, it's a
disaster. We basically tell people that if you're on
Coumadin, you must work with your doctor, because your
doctor's going to have to reduce the Coumadin."
Depending on your health status and toxic load, your health
may also get worse before it gets better when you start
grounding on a regular basis. This is a classic detox reaction,
which you may also experience with other detox methods.
"Some patients with polyneuropathy would get
worsening of their limb pain on grounding, and some would
get better. I want to make that clear that grounding is not
a panacea," Dr. Sinatra says. "But what I've
learned with grounding is that the sicker you are, the more
you need to ground."
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/04/barefoot-grounding-effect.aspx
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