What is Grounding?
One of the most fascinating things about science is that the more complicated and sophisticated our testing equipment gets, the simpler the answers are. This is doubly true when it comes to health.
The further we stray away from Mother Nature, the worse people’s health gets.
Grounding is a fantastic example of this.
You can eat the best foods for humans and have the perfect workout plan, but if you do not ground yourself, you will never reach true peak levels of health.
Truth is, we can’t blame modern dis-ease food quality and toxins alone. It’s much broader than that.
For example, you may already know that I am not a huge fan of wearable technology like CGMs, smartwatches, Oura Rings, and the like.
The biggest reason being the unnecessary exposure to non-native EMFs (nnEMFs). nnEMF exposure can have detrimental health effects (as we will see), making countermeasures like grounding even more important.
On top of that, many of these markers can simply be tracked by getting in touch with your own body. Sure, the data won’t be quantifiable, but you won’t be actively harming yourself in the process AND you get to become more in-tune with your body. That’s a win-win in my book.
If you would like to read more about this, I highly recommend The Invisible Rainbow by Arthur Firstenberg.
In a world where everyone wears rubber-soled shoes, it shouldn’t be too surprising that grounding is an overlooked aspect of health.
Grounding is simply getting direct skin contact with the surface of the Earth (or water) through your bare feet or hands.
Simply put, grounding equalizes the electric charge of our bodies using electrons from the earth. When this occurs, your body voltage drops to nearly zero, stabilizes, and doesn’t change with exposure to constantly fluctuating electric fields around us- so long as we stay grounded.
In a world that is trying to shove every technological gadget down your throat to tell you how your body works, it’s refreshing to find a technique that has nothing to do with that at all.
It’s already provided for you. In fact, it is the very Earth itself. Literally, the ground beneath your feet. It’s really fascinating how Mother Nature provides, and we’re going to dive deep into how today.
Humans have always been in contact with the Earth. Even up until recently, people wore leather-soled shoes, which conduct electricity.
When we look at ancient healing arts like Traditional Chinese Medicine, the practice of grounding (also known as earthing) is known as “earthing qi” or “grounding qi.”
As far back as thousands of years ago, TCM practitioners believed that the Earth’s energy can balance and harmonize the body’s energy, leading to improved health and well-being.
Isn’t that incredible? Over thousands of years, our technology is leading us back to answers people already knew about.
This is a practice still recommended by many TCM practitioners today.
The Earth is an electrical planet, and you are a bioelectrical being. You only need to look at the heart and nervous system for obvious examples of this.
The term “inflammation” (or what I call an acidic body) has become a topic of much debate even in the conventional medical world. Today, many folks are recognizing inflammation as the leading underlying trigger of most major health disorders, including:
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Arthritis
- Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia
- Cancer
- Pain
More researchers are coming to the conclusion that “all roads to chronic disease lead through inflammation.” Many are living in acidic bodies. They are on fire…
The potential benefits of the Earth’s energy on the body- especially the brain, muscles, nervous system, and immune system- are massive. Seriously, the list is astonishingly long.
Grounding is an incredibly simple, practical, effective, and cost-cutting way to aid many of the chronic health challenges the average person faces- for free!
Why Does Mainstream Medicine Ignore This?
Most of the mainstreamers scoff at this practice, even though this is something people have been doing simply as a part of life for millennia. It is often ridiculed by centralized medicine and considered alternative voodoo.
Unsurprisingly, this stems from a fundamental lack of understanding. If it isn’t in the Big Pharma textbooks or covered by insurance, it isn’t even worth exploring. But that’s a topic for another day.
Simply put, it works similar to how the sun above helps the body create vitamin D, but in reverse. It’s much more complicated than that (as we will see), but for sake of the analogy, the ground below provides you with a similar “Grounding Vitamin” – what are really free electrons, perhaps the most potent source of antioxidants we have access to!
Remember, we are first and foremost electrical beings, not material. We live in an energetic world, not a material one. We are mostly energy and electricity, not matter.
This is why the concept of quantum physics is so important. In many ways, I believe that quantum physics exists to make up for the mistakes in Newtonian physics the average person still uses as gospel. It is a way of rewriting the mistakes- in a nice way.
Perhaps a better way to look at it for now is:
- Quantum physics: the physics of the invisible world
- Newtonian physics: the physics of the visible world (although again, this has its limitations- a story for another day).
Modern life has certainly brought some amazing breakthroughs, but it has led to the average person becoming sicker, weaker, and more dependent on the system than any generation of humans to date. Let that sink in.
The average modern-day human wears insulated rubber- or plastic-soled shoes, lives in high-rise buildings, and uses elevated beds that separate most humans from direct skin connection with the Earth’s surface.
Most average humans don’t walk barefoot, ever. This physical disconnect from the Earth is a largely overlooked cause of abnormal physiology and can contribute to inflammation, stress, poor sleep, poor recovery, and pain.
In the typical modern society, we are bombarded with oxidative stress at a level never before seen in human history. This is almost exclusively our own doing as a society.
If you aren’t grounding, you are missing out on an incredibly powerful energy transfer provided by Mother Earth herself.
This energy can restore and stabilize the electrical circuitry that we call our nervous system. It harmonizes your fundamental biological rhythms, enhances the body’s ability to heal itself, reduces pain and inflammation, improves your mood, and helps you get world-class sleep.
Long-story short, when you connect with the Earth, you can tap into your body’s healing mechanisms more effectively.
There are some folks who are taking grounding seriously and putting it to the test, from an academic standpoint. In the late 1990s, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, a cardiologist, and Dr. James Oschman, a biologist, studied the effects of grounding on human physiology with Clint Ober, a man who came from the cable industry! They even wrote the book Earthing on the very subject.
They all found that grounding has many health benefits, including
- Reduced inflammation
- Improved sleep
- Reduced stress and anxiety
- Reduced pain
But again, this is just scratching the surface. Speaking of surface, that’s a great place to start!
Where Do Free Electrons Come from?
The benefits of grounding stem from absorbing free electrons (negatively charged subatomic particles) from Earth’s electrical surface.
This energetic phenomenon includes the Schumann resonances, an electromagnetic “vibration” (7.83 Hz, fundamental frequency) in the atmosphere. It also includes a “humming” of the energetic surface of the Earth.
The story of the Schumann Resonance is rather interesting! Unlike most findings in the scientific field, they were predicted- NOT observed- first in 1952 during a mathematical study of the ionosphere. The man who predicted them went by the name of Winfried Otto Schumann, a German physicist.
He originally calculated a frequency closer to 10 Hz. A decade later their existence was validated, and studies have found them to be excited by lightning strikes.
The Schumann resonances are not uniform. They vary over the course of a day as different parts of the Earth are exposed to the sun. The often-cited 7.83 Hz value actually ranges from 7.5 Hz to 8.3 Hz. So there is variance from moment to moment.
This rhythm or “heartbeat” that affects the motion of the electrons in the Earth’s surface. That makes the ground we walk on electronically active and dynamic. These free electrons improve our health in astonishing ways.
This story starts with the sun, as all life does. The sun emits positively-charged solar rays that come into contact with our negatively charged Earth’s crust.
When these two forces collide, they generate free electrons.
The liberation (or formation, depending on who you ask) of free electrons leads to an electric current continuously flowing across Earth’s surface.
Remember, we are electric beings by nature. Free electrons can be directly absorbed from the Earth via skin contact. This happens all the way down to the cellular level. Every single cell in our body has a net negative charge.
As time goes on, the free electrons are used up, and this results in us losing that negative charge.
When we ground, we uptake new free electrons by just standing on the surface! You can equalize your charge to that of the Earth and get back to a stable electrical state, just by being in contact with it!
The earth’s surface possesses a limitless and continuously renewed supply of free or mobile electrons as a consequence of a global atmospheric electric circuit.
Take a look at modern society. Grounded technology allows for perfect data transfer in the telecommunication industry through the internet, cable, and telephone.
Human bodies are no different! Humans require ground to maintain electrical stability, and achieve perfect data transfer between the complexity of our environment (Earth’s day-night cycle) and our human circadian rhythm, for example.
This is why one of the best ways to re-regulate your circadian rhythm after flying through multiple time zones is to get your eyes exposed to light and your bare feet on the ground!
So, big picture here:
This key frequency (the Schumann Resonances) of the grounding phenomenon is maintained by a global electrical circuit.
This circuit has two main generators:
- Solar wind entering the magnetosphere
- Ionospheric wind and thunderstorms occurring predominantly around the equator
- Yes, there are lightning storms further from the equator that play a role as well.
This creates a constant current that separates positive charge in the upper atmosphere (called the ionosphere) and a negative charge to the surface of the earth.
This is what gives the Earth’s surface an enormous amount of free electrons. When you ground, you absorb these free electrons.
When you come into contact with the electrons, your health will start to improve.
But first, let’s look at exactly how this works.
Why and How Do Free Electrons Benefit Your Health?
We are often seen as chemical beings, but as Clint Ober, the father of grounding, would say: “Electrical first, chemical second.”
As I mentioned before, electrons carry a negative charge. These electrons can act as antioxidants in the body. In fact, one can argue the Earth’s surface may be the best source of antioxidants…period!
Previous humans have always reaped the benefits over the years because they were in physical contact with the ground. And what’s more, this carries no negative side effects!
What is Oxidative Stress?
Before we go any further, we need to define oxidative stress.
What we call Oxidative stress is a phenomenon caused by an imbalance between production and accumulation of oxygen reactive species (ROS, also known as “free radicals”) in cells and tissues and the ability of a biological system to detoxify these reactive products. Free radicals are positively-charged.
Free radicals can play several physiological roles (i.e., cell signaling), and they are normally generated as by-products of oxygen metabolism.
IMPORTANT: Just as free electrons are negatively-charged, free radicals are positively-charged.
These modern times bring about new challenges never before seen by human beings. Environmental stressors (i.e., UV, ionizing radiations, pollutants, and heavy metals) and xenobiotics (antiblastic drugs, pesticides, plastics, etc.) contribute to greatly increase in free radical production. This causes an imbalance that leads to cell and tissue damage- what we call oxidative stress.
If free radicals cannot be neutralized, it can result in what is known as oxidative stress. This can harm cells and alter proper function.
Oxidative stress has been linked to heart disease, cancer, arthritis, stroke, respiratory diseases, immune deficiency, emphysema, Parkinson’s disease, and other inflammatory or ischemic conditions.
Enter: antioxidants. Antioxidants play a role by neutralizing the damage caused by oxidative stress.
But how exactly does this work?
The Role of Antioxidants
Antioxidants donate electrons to free radicals, which neutralize them and stop them from causing harm.
Antioxidant vitamins and minerals include vitamins A (and carotenoids), C, and E, as well as selenium, manganese, zinc, magnesium, and phytochemicals like lutein, quercetin, and lycopene.
You must understand that this is the first time in human history that humans aren’t grounded.
We carry a constant flow of electrical energy that needs to be discharged- or grounded. If you never do this, you can’t restore and maintain the body’s natural electrical state. If you are in an impaired state electrically, it is only a matter of time before dis-ease will occur.
When grounded, you’re transferring these electrons from the earth to your body which can produce a reduction reaction. These reactions reduce oxidative stress because free radicals have unpaired electrons.
I need to say this again:
A direct connection to the Earth…
- Reconnects us to our natural circadian electrical rhythms
- Allows free electrons to flow from the earth to the body
- And neutralizes the positively-charged free radicals!
This is game-changing stuff! Really.
Why?
Because free radical overload is the hallmark of chronic inflammation.
The free electrons you receive by just standing on the ground can resolve chronic inflammation by serving as natural antioxidants.
Grounding stabilizes our electric charge. It does not fluctuate or get depleted when we are connected.
We essentially recharge, and there is a limitless battery we can tap into.
OK, So What are the Benefits?
Because we are electrical beings, the list here is LONG! It is actually incredibly difficult to keep track of all of the benefits.
Here’s a short list, and we’ll dive deeper into some below.
- Better hydration
- Lowers the chances of getting blood clots. Lowered blood viscosity improves blood flow to nourish your entire body with vital oxygen and nutrition and facilitates the elimination of metabolic wastes.
- Improvements in blood oxygen
- Lower inflammation (acute and chronic)
- Improves CNS recovery – restores relaxation and balance between sympathetic & parasympathetic
- Reduces hormonal and menstrual symptoms (like PMS)
- Improves liver function
- Improves pancreas health
- Improves sleep
- Pain reduction from virtually all causes
- Improves quality of life for those with neurological disorders (Alzheimer’s)
- Increased heart rate variability, a measure of the health of the cardiovascular system.
- Reduces muscle tension and headaches
- Accelerates healing from trauma, injuries, and sports/exercise activity
Restores Circadian Rhythm
As mentioned earlier, electron flow is powered by the interaction of the sun & earth. This flow changes depending on the time of day & season. This also creates variance in electron flow on the Earth’s surface. This is how grounding can help restore circadian cortisol secretion.
Your body uses electrical cues the same way it uses sunlight to realign its internal circadian clocks. An optimized circadian rhythm is non-negotiable for peak health.
This is also why keeping your pineal gland healthy is key!!! A calcified pineal gland negatively impacts health physically and spiritually.
If you wonder why I always talk about sunlight, this is one of those reasons!!!
When you restore your circadian rhythm, it will help with your sleep, mood, stress levels, and anxiety.
Grounding Changes Blood Viscosity
The studies on blood viscosity and grounding are perhaps the strongest. Researchers have observed that those who ground have thinner blood, or reduced blood viscosity.
Thin blood circulates faster. When blood circulates faster, it can
- Deliver oxygen and nutrients to cells all over the body faster
- Remove toxins from them in a more efficient way
On the other hand, thick, sticky blood is more prone to clotting, increasing the risk of cardiovascular events.
Blood gets thicker when red blood cells clump together. This occurs when they lack the negative surface charge required to repel each other.
What’s the old adage? Opposites attract. That’s what happens with blood when the negative surface charge dissipates.
So how do you increase the negative surface charge? You guessed it! Grounding.
This negative exterior charge is referred to as zeta potential. Increased zeta potential indicates thinner blood and a greater negative charge. Grounding increases the negative surface charge (remember, electrons are negatively charged) of our red blood cells. This can decrease blood viscosity and increase zeta potential.
On the flipside, when they lose charge, they are more likely to clump together, increasing your blood viscosity. Increased blood viscosity and poor cardiovascular health are strongly linked.
SIDE NOTE: this concept is something that is also related to “Exclusion Zones” in water, mentioned by Gerald Pollack in his book The Fourth Phase of Water.
Grounding is perhaps the easiest and simplest way to reduce blood viscosity.
More Energy
Fundamentally, life is about converting energy from one form to another. Energy is never created or destroyed- it simply changes form.
If we’re looking at energy production on the smallest scale, then, we need to look at the mitochondria.
You may know mitochondria are the “powerhouse of the cell.”
High concentration of electrons within the mitochondria are a reason why cells have a net negative charge internally.
This negative charge is often called “redox potential.”
The stronger the net negative charge, the stronger the battery becomes.
Now this only makes sense when you look at the apparatus itself, called the electron transport chain.
The electron transport chain is a part of the aerobic respiration process. Aerobic means that free oxygen is used to power the steps. This differs from anaerobic respiration, in which no oxygen is used to create energy.
The biggest practical difference: anaerobic is short-lived but immediate energy (think sprinting or high-effort, shorter-time frame actions), while aerobic energy is longer-term energy (running, biking, sports etc).
The electron transport chain itself is composed of four large, multi-protein complexes embedded in the inner mitochondrial membrane and two small diffusible electron carriers shuttling electrons between them. The electrons are passed through a series of redox reactions, with a small amount of free energy used at three points to transport hydrogen ions across a membrane. This process contributes to the gradient used in chemiosmosis (the process of moving ions (like protons) to the other side of a biological membrane).
Now- I have one question for you. Scroll back up and look at the “Global Electric Circuit” diagram. Can you see how the Earth creates a gradient as well? That these are the same mechanisms that are happening at different scales? THIS IS WHY I ALWAYS REPEAT: NATURE IS FRACTAL!!!
Put simply:
More electrons→ Stronger net negative charge →Stronger/Bigger battery →Higher capacity for energy production →Healthier cells
The two organs with the greatest mitochondrial capacity & the greatest need for strong & optimal redox potential are the heart & brain.
So where does grounding come in?
Grounding enhances ATP production in the body. ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, is your body’s primary energy source.
In order to recycle ATP, the body takes electrons from food. However, if you absorb free electrons from the earth’s surface, it may make it easier on the body to recycle ATP.
Because of this, grounding may improve immune system and cardiovascular function by facilitating the production of ATP.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Improvement
Not all heartbeats are spaced out evenly. HRV is the time variation between each of your heartbeats.
There should be this slight variation in time intervals between each heartbeat.
Are you favoring one end of the sympathetic/parasympathetic spectrum? HRV can give you some insight.
To date, HRV is the most effective way to estimate this balance. Why? Your autonomic nervous system (ANS) directly influences the activity of your heart.
Your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) tells your heart to slow down, which allows more space for variability.
More variability = higher HRV.
Grounding has been shown to increase HRV high frequencies (associated with PNS) by 63%.
This means that grounding produces an improvement in HRV that outclasses normal relaxation techniques alone. Are you starting to get why the old-school TCM practitioners would recommend forest bathing?
Wound Healing:
This is perhaps my personal favorite. Wounds heal much faster when the body is grounded. Additionally, the cardinal signs of inflammation are reduced or eliminated.
What are the 5 Cardinal Signs of Inflammation?
- Rubor (redness)
- Calor (warmth)
- Tumor (swelling)
- Dolor (pain)
- Functio laesa (loss of function).
But seriously- just look at this:
Additionally, the profiles of various inflammatory markers over time seem to improve more so in grounded individuals compared to controls.
Improved Nervous System Function
Grounding also generates immediate changes in electroencephalography (EEG). Grounding has the ability to alter electrolyte concentrations, which regulate correct nervous system function.
Stress reduction has been confirmed with various measures showing rapid shifts in the ANS from sympathetic to parasympathetic dominance, improvement in heart rate variability, and normalization of muscle tension
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
In a controlled study on DOMS, those who slept on grounding equipment experience better recovery from exercise and less soreness. Grounding and hydrating foods are the only two methods I am aware of to date that can help with this.
Less Inflammation
Yes, grounding can reduce inflammation in the body. This has been documented with infrared medical imaging and with measurements of blood chemistry, like white blood cells.
Reduce nnEMF Damage
This is a biggie, especially in today’s world.
Every single cell in the body is influenced by electromagnetic fields.
What we call “grounding” now was never actually called anything because it was the only way to interact with the world! No one studied it because everyone was doing it by default! Also, if folks were wearing shoes, they had soles made of leather, which would not disrupt the flow of electrons the same way rubber and plastic soles do.
Remember- while grounding, your body is energized by negatively charged free electrons found in the Earth’s surface. When grounded, your body and the energy level of the Earth equalize.
This is how grounding shields you from nnEMF exposure like very few things do. When you are connected to the Earth’s surface, you can be protected from nnEMFs.
nnEMFs are known to activate the cellular stress response (inflammation), as well as dehydrate (alter electrolyte balance within) them.
nnEMFs exposure can be linked to:
- Tinnitus
- Insomnia
- Increased incidence of cancer
- Hormonal disruption, especially low testosterone and elevated estrogen
- Migraines
- Leaky gut
- Leaky blood-brain barrier
- Mineral imbalances, especially calcium
- Miscarriages
- Wrecked circadian rhythm
- Red blood cell damage
- Free radical damage
- Depression & anxiety
- Infertility
- Brain damage
- Fatigue
- Heart problems
- And many more
Interestingly, European hotels are more aware of the potential health risks of wireless radiation and some offer nnEMF protection.
In some, routers come with the option to turn off the wireless feature, unlike in the US.
Some hotels in Europe have implemented grounding technology to disperse energy through water pipes.
In some hotels in France, Wi-Fi is only available when the TV is turned on.
Grounding helps counteract the negative effects of modern life, such as exposure to nnEMF and Wi-Fi.
If you don’t ground daily, you haven’t covered a foundational component of what you need to do to be healthy by default and you can change that by even 30 minutes a day.
OK, So How Do I REALLY Ground?
This is a simple, natural, and profound practice that has been overlooked in the health space.
And we are just scratching the surface of a whole new and exciting frontier for how to live in line with Mother Nature.
She always has the last word.
So how are you going to reap the benefits?
It’s easy!
All grounding requires is for you to be connected to the Earth’s surface directly. That’s it.
You would not benefit from the Earth’s energy by standing with bare feet on a man-made surface.
There are some surfaces that are not entirely manmade but feature natural materials. These are not very conductive. They include wood and asphalt surfaces.
Interestingly, despite being somewhat manmade, concrete is an effective surface for grounding and you will likely notice the benefits of grounding if you walk barefoot along it.
Grass, sand, and soil are all very conductive and excellent for grounding outside. Salt water is an even better source- simply due to the surface area that is covered when you go swimming. Of course, your skin must touch the Earth.
When you do this consistently, you will likely notice a lot of health benefits for your body.
For whatever reason, if you want to wear socks while you ground, it is perfectly viable. In fact, since the feet sweat a lot, they are one of the most conductive parts of the body. This is the primary reason advocates claim that grounding works best when we connect our feet to the Earth!
Yes, most people will tell you that the best way to harness the earth’s energy is by standing barefoot. However, if you want to wear a pair of socks, it shouldn’t drastically alter the results.
So How Long Do You Have to Do It?
You can practice grounding for as little as 20-30 minutes a day. There is no set time limit for grounding’s long-term effectiveness. Everyone’s health journey is different. The more you do it, the better the effects will be over time.
It may take longer for a person with a chronic condition to notice significant improvement. Degrees matter. For this reason, results vary from person to person.
If you’re relatively healthy, and want to practice grounding for an energy boost or to lift their mood, you may feel better after a session or two.
Putting it All Together
Ideally, you’re looking for at least 20-30 minutes every day.
How to Ground – Indoors
Grounding can be practiced indoors with the use of inexpensive grounding systems including pads and patches that connect to the grounding socket of your household electrical circuit.
- Buy Grounding Mat
- Connect it to the Power Outlet
- Stand Barefoot on Mat
BONUS: you can purchase a grounding mat and place it in your bed while you sleep as well!
NOTE: No Electricity is used! The outlet provides the negative “Grounding.”
How to Ground – Outdoors
- Go Outside
- No Shoes (socks can work)
- Walk on the Ground
- Sand, grass, dirt, water, and concrete are all good choices
- Asphalt and wood can work but are less effective.
That’s it! That’s the protocol!
How easy?
So get out there!
Grounding is intertwined with our human existence. It is as simple as regularly walking barefoot outdoors, lying on a beach, and swimming in natural bodies of water.
Remember, the best forms of medicine are free, and grounding is an underappreciated, overlooked tool that the average person just simply isn’t utilizing.
The power of Mother Nature is infinite- all you have to do is tap in and start reaping the benefits.
Much love-
Dr. Vincent Esposito
Want More?
Whenever you’re ready, there is two ways I can help you:
- Live a life that is beyond the average human being, then start by giving it the nutrition it needs! There is information on over 150 other herbs and superfoods in my book Nature’s Kitchen & Cabinet!
- Learn the systems that I used to lose 15lbs, eliminate joint pain, have boundless energy, and unlock the body’s healing potential. Check out my free webinar here to learn more!