Originally published March 19 2011
Grounding yourself shown to provide health benefits
by Dave Gabriele
(NaturalNews) Ever feel the urge to walk barefoot on the beach or feel the grass between your toes? As it turns out, this urge goes much deeper than simply feeling good. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that there is a significant electrical interaction between the Earth and each one of us.
Earth, as it turns out, is not neutrally charged as was originally believed - it has a negative charge. This means that is has an abundance of electrons. This charge does not interact with us too often since we live in insulated buildings and wear insulated footwear. In other words, we rarely touch the ground!
Why does touching the ground matter?
Humans evolved, like all animals, walking on the ground without insulating barriers between the Earth and our feet. It is common knowledge that the soles of our feet are extremely sensitive due to a high concentration of nerve endings. Since nerve tissue is electrically conductive, it is easy to understand that the bottoms of our feet are highly conductive surfaces.
Because of the conductivity of our soles, it was proposed that perhaps there was an electrical interaction between the Earth's negative charge and our bodies. This hypothesis was tested many times and the results were nothing short of amazing.
Researchers found that there was a significant relation between the charge of our bodies and the ground. In fact, it has been determined that the Earth acts as a natural reservoir of electric energy. If a person with an excessive negative charge, or an excess of electrons, steps onto the ground, the excess will be absorbed into the Earth. If a person has a positive charge, or a deficiency of electrons, then the Earth will supply what is needed to achieve homeostasis (balance). This is a truly amazing discovery: stepping on the ground electrically balances you!
Why is this significant?
In the past twenty years, we have witnessed an explosion of research conducted on human physiology and disease. What has been discovered has prompted almost global awareness of the importance of antioxidants and the process of oxidation. Oxidation, literally the same process of iron rusting, has been found to greatly contribute to aging and the formation of disease.
The culprits are "free radicals." A free radical is a molecule that has become unstable because of the lack of an electron. Free radicals will 'take' electrons from other molecules in order to become stable, but in the process they produce more free radicals. In time, free radicals can damage any tissue and lead to aging and disease.
Free radicals form in our bodies naturally as a byproduct of stress, environmental & dietary toxins and natural metabolic processes. Nature's solution to free radicals is anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are substances that help put a stop to oxidation by providing the missing electrons to free radicals without becoming free radicals themselves.
Thanks to the progress of science, we now better understand that related to oxidation is the natural process of inflammation. Inflammation, called "the silent killer," is the leading theory on the underlying cause of many diseases (such as cancer and heart disease). The problem of inflammation lies not in a scarcity of electrons, as in oxidation, but in an excess of electrons.
Stay Balanced, Stay Grounded!
When you ground yourself, you are utilizing nature's most powerful form of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory: free electrons. The effect does not need to come from an injection or a drug; it comes directly from the Earth. All you have to do is put your bare feet on the ground!
REFERENCES
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089...
http://www.bodyworkmovementtherapies.com/art...
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089...
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089...
Clinton Ober, et al. Earthing. Basic Health Publications, 2010.
About the author
Dave Gabriele, D.Ac, BA, is a registered acupuncturist, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and a health researcher helping people in and around the Greater Toronto Area. He is the founder of Life Balance Family Health Care (www.balanceyourlife.ca), an organization committed to providing people with the information and guidance they need to make positive lifestyle changes. Dave has been a teacher of Chinese martial arts since 1997, including the arts of Taiji and Qigong.
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