When I first heard about this concept I was very sceptical. I am a big supporter of orthomolecular and nutritional medicine and the not-very-popular idea of treating the causes of disease and not just suppressing symptoms with drugs...but earthing just sounds so completely eye-rollingly nuts at first!
After watching a half dozen videos on the subject made by experts and reading about the same number of articles on earthing, I was quite intrigued but still far from convinced of its scientific merits.
So I came to this book with an open but very sceptical mind and with the attitude that I would have to see a lot of impressive evidence and solid logic to be convinced that this concept was worth bothering with and worth supporting.
Long story short, this book did convince me. I went out and spent $50 on a grounding mat before I had even got to the end of it.
Any book can provide lots of testimonial claiming all sorts of health benefits (dubious and genuine) for just about anything, and this book is no different in that respect. There are a LOT of testimonials in this book and I must say I had little interest in most of them. What impressed me about this book was the story of how the grounding concept was discovered (which has an undeniable ring of truth to it), the solid logic of the concept and the studies done so far on grounding.
People cut off from the electrical current of the earth for long periods of time develop all sorts of problems which are reversed by grounding, and studies have show the positive effects it has on sleep and also on red blood cells. The red blood cell before and after photos in the book are amazing as are the thermography images. At least some of the studies done were double blind as well. I'm still too ill to go into all the science and theory here, and you really need to read the whole book to fully understand it all anyway, but this is a brief sample of what the book contains.
The fact that trying grounding is either free or very inexpensive, very easy to do, low risk in regards to side effects (low-level healing reactions are possible but that is about it) and potentially mildly or very helpful for those battling illness and pain also helps.
The main benefits described by the book from grounding are pain relief, reduced inflammation, a reset sleep-wake cycle, feeling calmer and a dampening down of the sympathetic nervous system and adrenaline surges, resynchronisation of cortisol release, protection from EMF radiation and the problems it can cause, relief of muscle tension and headaches plus speeded healing and prevention of bedsores. It can also help you cope with jet-lag.
This book explains:
"Exposure to sunlight produces vitamin D in the body. It's needed for health. Exposure to the ground provides an electrical `nutrient' in the form of electrons. Think of these electrons as vitamin G--G for ground. Just like vitamin D, you need vitamin G for your health as well."
FWIW the effects of grounding myself using a small grounding mat day and night for the last 2 months have been noticeable and definitely worthwhile but not astounding, sadly. I feel a significantly blunted adrenaline response (which is great as adrenaline surges are part of my disease and very detrimental to my long-term health) which has led to me feeling calmer and more able to cope with stress and I have also noticed a normalisation of my sleep-wake cycle (which is also a part of my disease) and possibly better sleep quality.
The book mentions MS patients (MS is very similar to the disease I have) having their illness reversed through grounding, but I am not at all sure that this is something that could be said to be a 'usual' effect of grounding and suspect the benefits for many or most of us may be more subtle. It would be easy to read the many testimonials in the book and to expect far too much and be disappointed. I was a little bit, I have to say.
The effects I felt were fairly immediate and as I have said, worthwhile, but I'm still very ill and mostly bedbound of course. The effect grounding had on me wasn't quite life changing, just life improving. (I wonder if this could be due to the fact I was already very electron boosted through taking high dose vitamin C and GSH? More on this below.)
The mats are okay to use and only mildly annoying on occasion, such as when I scrunch them up in my sleep, but most of the time I don't even notice they are there. The prices are pretty good for grounding products although I do have some concern about how you know when they need to be replaced in years to come.
My dad has said to me that I should do my own trial on the mats and that he could disconnect the grounding wire from the wall for me without my knowing about it on random days or weeks. I may well take him up on that in a few months! I'd be very interested to see the results. For now I'm hoping that more benefits will appear form grounding over time. After 6 months or so I may begin my tests though.
Author Dr Sinatra's son had a near-lethal electropollution illness for 6 years, which was slowly improved through grounding. If nothing else this book is absolutely *essential* reading for anyone suffering with severe EMF health issues. This book explains that when we are grounded our bodies don't have to cope with so much electrical 'noise' and that all our interconnected electrical systems (such as the heart) can then function better. Studies have backed up the reduction of EMF radiation with grounding. I don't see why anyone with severe EMF issues wouldn't at least try this and/or read more about it, as there is so little to lose and a lot to gain, potentially, when you are really ill in this awful way. For this issue in particular grounding seems very promising and makes a lot of sense.
If you are ill, read this book if you can and make up your own mind I say. See if your library has a copy at least, like mine did, and then your initial risk is minuscule. Remember too that the results from grounding may not be immediate and that it is very 'dose' dependent.
Grounding isn't the whole answer to regaining health or preventing illness but it does seem like one very important or even essential part of the bigger picture. It should not be ignored or dismissed out of hand without proper open-minded investigation, particularly as the risk and cost is so very low. Please actually read this book before making up your mind.
Thanks to the authors of this book for writing it, doing all the research and doing such a great job with both. I look forward to reading about the new grounding studies being done in the near future.
I'd love to learn more about how grounding and the electrons it gives compare to the electrons given by vitamin C and glutathione. Some crossover research would be great too.
As vitamin C experts Dr Levy explains, Vitamin C is the premier extracellular antioxidant and glutathione is the premier intracellular antioxidant. Vitamin C and glutathione are powerful and important antioxidants taken alone and have an even more powerful synergistic effect when they are taken together. They both give the body the `rapid and profound influx of electrons' needed to fight disease and to support heart, lung and brain health and immunity says Dr Levy, who also adds that `Virtually all diseases and toxins/poisons cause sickness and death through their electron stealing activity.'
In the book GSH: Master Defender Against Disease, Toxins and Ageing ' Dr Levy continues,
"Since no one has ever seen an electron, for most people it remains a theoretical entity. It is this invisibility that makes it so difficult to accept them as real entities that reliably treat diseases more effectively than antibiotics or prescription drugs. Yet this is precisely the case.
Even though it is not possible to give a teaspoon of electrons to a sick child, one can administer medications and/or nutrients that are extremely rich in their electron content. Once a sufficient quantity of electrons is delivered to the body, it brings what can only be described as fantastic clinical results when compared to traditional medical therapies. And, this has already been shown to be true for a wide variety of medical conditions."
It seems grounding should be added to this electron boosting list, at the very least!
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for M.E.
