Have you ever felt calm and relaxed after walking barefoot through a damp patch of grass or along the shoreline at a beach? What you experienced has come to be known as earthing or grounding.
Rubber-soled shoes, floors in buildings and homes, and elevated mattresses all interrupt the flow of healing electrons from the earth. This results in inflammation, which is the foundation of disease.
The earth is like a battery that is always radiating energy. It maintains its charge from solar radiation, lightning, and heat that radiates from its core. Free electrons circulate from the earth's surface. These electrons are some of the most powerful antioxidants ever discovered.
Antioxidants are important because they neutralize free radicals. Free radicals are uncharged molecules that have an unpaired electron. They contribute to disease by damaging healthy tissue.
Your body continually produces free radicals as you breathe and eat. You can help reduce the amount of free radicals your body produces by eating healthy whole antioxidant-rich foods, reducing the amount of environmental toxins you come into contact with, and walking without shoes in the grass, sand, or on concrete.
As you walk barefoot, the free electrons from the earth enter into your body through your feet. They are drawn to positively charged free radicals, neutralizing them so that they can't cause any more damage.
Earthling's effects have been tested in a controlled environment using pads like the kind that are used for EKGs. There is a measurable amount of relaxation as the body adjusts from the sympathetic nervous system, which activates the fight or flight response, to the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows the heart rate and relakes the body.
1. Earthing Reduces Inflammation From injury or Illness
When you incur any kind of injury from a minor bump to a gaping wound, your body sends white blood cells to repair the damage. They release an oxidative burst that creates reactive oxygen species (ROS), free radicals that damage healthy tissue surrounding the injury.
This is the inflammatory response. Neutralizing electrons from earthing and healthy foods reduce this inflammation, which boosts healing time while minimizing damage.
The advantage to earthing over consuming antioxidants is that healing begins instantly when you step your bare feet onto the ground. ingested antioxidants must go through the digestive system before they can go to work on free radicals.
Inflammation is the root of disease. For example, over 30,000 studies connect the state of inflammation with cancer. Those who suffer with chronic pain do so because of the damaging effects of inflammation.
2. Earthing Helps Improve Sleep Issues
Earthing balances the stress hormone cortisol, which benefits those who struggle with sleep problems Cortisol levels become elevated when you experience stress, making a good night's sleep impossible.
Chronic pain also contributes to sleep issues. Earthing helps alleviate pain by cooling inflammation, which allows for a peaceful rest. Thermographic images of people who offer with chronic inflammation show that earthing can lessen pain in as little as 20 minutes.
3. Earthing Relieves Muscle Soreness and Fatigue
Some professional athletes, like those who participate in the Tour de France, use earthing to recover from injury and fatigue. Earthing relieves delayed onset muscle soreness, which is the pain you experience after lifting heavy objects or working out too hard. This effect has been measured through blood tests and personal accounts.
How to Incorporate Earthing Into Your Day?
Walking out in the morning dew is cane of the most beneficial ways to incorporate earthing into your daily schedule. Water helps conduct the transfer of free electrons into your body, getting more to the areas where they are needed most. If you live by the ocean, stand or walk with your feet in the water for maximum effect.
Sea water and moist grass are the best conductors of the earth's free electrons. Sealed or painted concrete and asphalt don't conduct them at all.
Hydration are important. The more moisture in your cells, the better the conductivity of electrons will be throughout your body. Sufficient moisture should surround proteins for efficient conduction.
Even though research continues to prove the benefits of earthing, it is difficult for many to accept. Walking in your bare feet seems too basic and inexpensive to be effective. Earthing is easy, free of charge, and harmless (as long as you watch where you're stepping), so try it out for yourself: take your shoes off and get outside.
