Grounding (Earthing): The Easiest Way to Fight Stress

By Jed Diamond, PhD, LCSW

We all know that the world is becoming more stressful every day. We worry about the economy, another war in a place we’ve never heard of, our parents getting old and dying, the well-being of our children, our own health. Sometimes it seems like our lives are one endless series of stresses. The bad news is that stress is on the rise and it’s causing major problems for many of us. The good news is that there are simple ways to combat stress and get back in control of our lives.

So, let’s get the bad news out of the way. Studies show that 80% to 90% of all illnesses are stress related, everything from Alzheimer’s disease to depression, rheumatoid arthritis to irritable male syndrome. What’s more stress impacts men more negatively than women and men die more frequently from 14 of the leading 15 causes of death.

Now, the good news! We can reduce stress in our lives now and forever. The even better news is that it’s simple to get started. In my new book, Stress Relief for Men: How to Use the Revolutionary Tools of Energy Healing to Live Well, I describe four scientifically sound, easy to use, and highly effective tools for reducing stress in your life.

Why Grounding (Earthing) May Be the Most Important Health Discovery Ever

The basic idea of “Earthing” has been with us for a long time.  Throughout history, humans have strolled, sat, stood, and slept on the ground—the skin of our bodies touching the skin of the Earth—oblivious to the fact that such physical contact transfers natural electrical energy to the body.  Modern lifestyle has disconnected us from the Earth’s energy, making us more vulnerable to stress and illness.

Many health-enhancing discoveries are made by regular people who put two-and-two together and come up with an insight that is obvious and simple, but one had thought of before.  Clint Ober, who “discovered” Earthing, is one of those guys. He grew up in the Midwest and worked in the cable TV industry. He learned that you have to ground and shield the entire cable system in every home to prevent extraneous electromagnetic signals and fields from interfering with the transmission carried through the cable.  That’s how you provide the viewer with a perfect signal and a crisp picture.

Like many discoveries that revolutionize how we see ourselves and the world, this one was sparked by one of those “aha” experiences that seem to grab our hearts.  “My ‘light bulb’ went off one day in 1998,” Ober recalls.  “I was sitting on a park bench and watching the passing parade of tourists from all over the world.  At some point, and I don’t know why, my awareness zeroed in on what all these different people were wearing on their feet.  I saw a lot of those running shoes with thick rubber or plastic soles.  I was wearing them as well.  It occurred to me rather innocently that all these people—me included—were insulated from the ground, the electrical surface charge of the Earth beneath our feet.  I started to think about static electricity and wondered if being insulated like that could have some effect on health.”

After years of research he teamed up with cardiologist Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D. and health writer Martin Zucker to write the book, Earthing:  The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? James L. Oschman says that “Earthing seems to do away with or dramatically improve so many health challenges common in this day and age:  Insomnia, the chronic pain of multiple diseases and injuries, exhaustion, stress, anxiety, and premature aging.”

How can Earthing or Grounding help with so many chronic illnesses?  One answer seems to be that it helps reduce inflammation in our bodies.  Inflammation is now believed to be the underlying cause of more than 80 chronic illnesses, and more than half of Americans suffer currently from one or more of them.  “Inflammation may turn out to be the elusive Holy Grail of medicine—the simple phenomenon that holds the key to sickness and health,” says William Meggs, M.D., Ph.D. of East Carolina University in his book The Inflammation Cure:  How to Combat the Hidden Factor Behind Heart Disease, Arthritis, Asthma, Diabetes & Other Diseases.

Getting Grounded: Three Simple Ways to Combat Stress

1) Take your shoes off

We intuitively knew what was right when we were young.  As soon as we were out of school for the summer we took off our shoes and went barefoot.  Now science validates our youthful wisdom.  The late Dr. William Rossi, a Massachusetts podiatrist, footwear industry historian, scientist, and author said in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management, “A natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person.  It took four million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering.  Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement heat to foot.”   So, when you can take off your shoes.  You’ll walk better and feel better.

2) When you wear shoes, wear leather-soled shoes or the new Grounded Shoes.

“Why are so many nerve endings concentrated in our feet?” asks Dr. Rossi. “To keep us ‘in touch’ with the Earth.  The foot is the vital link between the person and the Earth.  The paws of all animals are equally rich in nerve endings.  The Earth is covered with an electromagnetic layer.  It’s this that creates the sensory response in our feet and in the paws of animals.”

Even if we decide to walk barefoot more, there are times when we need to wear shoes to prevent injury and keep our feet warm.  What can we do?  Get back to wearing leather soled shoes.  Dr. Rossi bemoaned the fact that modern shoe soles have separated us from the energy of the Earth and feeling of the ground, which is so important to our health and well-being.

There is a new line of shoes available that grounds you and gives you the benefits of connecting to the Earth but are useful and can be worn anywhere.  Each pair contains black plugs made from a custom carbon and rubber compound that sit under a weight bearing part of our feet ensuring electrical contact between us and the earth. These plugs are designed to conduct a flow of free electrons from the earth to our bodies.  The company is called Pluggz and you can contact them for more information at http://www.pluggz.com/

3) When you’re at home and work use “barefoot substitutes.”

Another way we can get the health benefits of grounding is by using simple devices that were originally used for research studies on Earthing, but are now available to the public.  They provide inside connectivity to the Earth outside.  They are connected by a wire to a ground rod placed directly in the Earth or plugged into the ground port of a grounded electrical outlet.  They can be utilized during sleep, work, and even while watching TV.

There are Universal chair/desk/mouse/bed/floor mats and pads that can be used interchangeably to fit any setting.  A pad placed on a desktop conducts through your forearms or wrists, on the floor through your feet, and on your chair through your butt.  And on the bed through any part of your body that makes contact with it.  Normal perspiration through layers of clothes, such as a dress, pants, socks, or long sleeves, permits varying degrees of conductivity.  The pad utilizes a metallic fiber mesh and conductors coupled to a wire connected to a grounded outlet in the wall or an outside rod.

I tried it out and it’s pretty nifty.  They include a little test devise that insures that the outlets in the house have a proper ground.  Then you plug into the ground slot.  There’s no connection to the electricity so it’s totally safe.  On their site (www.Earthing.com) they have a good description of each product and a question and answer section that tells you what you need to know.  As a special bonus to those in my community, they offer a 5% discount.  Simply type in the word “menalive” when you buy something and you get your discount.

Jed Diamond, PhD, LCSW, is the Founder and Director of the MenAlive, a health program that helps men live well throughout their lives. Though focused on men’s health, MenAlive is also for women who care about the health of the men in their lives. Diamond’s new book, Stress Relief for Men: How to Use the Revolutionary Tools of Energy Healing to Live Well, brings together the wisdom accumulated in 40 years helping more than 20,000 men, women, and children.