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Earthing: Science or Marketing?

Connecting to nature

Connecting to nature (Source)

I love that people want scientific explanations for how to improve their health. But in the realm of alternative health, the science is often cherry-picked and applied incorrectly – despite sounding impressive, the explanations are often misinterpretations of the scientific principles and collapse when subjected to scrutiny.

On a positive note, the attempts to use mangled scientific explanations suggest that people want to better understand their lives. Scientific explanations are often added to boost credibility even if the ‘science’ is misinterpreted or incorrectly used. I hope people will start getting more interested in science – but will also start to view these ‘sales pitches’ with a more critical eye and informed mind.

Walking barefoot is good for you

This popped up in my Facebook feed, posted by people I respect:

earthing

I can believe that walking barefoot on the earth and grass can be beneficial (ignoring the ‘But the parasites!’ from my germophobe husband).

We feel better on days when we take the time to go outside for a meandering walk or just to read a book in the warm sun. Bursts of stress can cause our blood pressure to spike, although the long-term effect on blood pressure, specifically, is not yet known (AMA). It is known that chronic stress can have a negative impact on our health (MayoClinic) and reducing our stress should help improve our health. It’s not a big leap to believe that taking a moment to go outside and de-stress can help.

So are the health benefits of walking barefoot due to de-stressing and taking the time and opportunity to relax outside? Not according to fans of ‘Earthing’.

earthingRemember that Facebook post?

According to the article, walking barefoot outside gives us a

“Direct physical contact with the vast supply of electrons on the surface of the Earth. Modern lifestyle separates humans from such contact. The research suggests that this disconnect may be a major contributor to physiological dysfunction and unwellness. Reconnection with the Earth’s electrons has been found to promote intriguing physiological changes and subjective reports of well-being…
from Spirit Science and Metaphysics
(I’m not linking to avoid giving the pseudo-scientific article extra clicks)

This article doesn’t go into the ‘science’ but details a host of benefits, including reducing blood cell clumping (I wasn’t aware that this is a problem, and it isn’t anything taught at my medical school). There is an explanation from Dr. Mercola (popular pseudo-doctor as described well at Visionary or Quack and the science-based medicine site). His post includes the statement:

When you walk barefoot on the Earth, there’s a transfer of free electrons from the Earth into your body that spread throughout your tissues. The effect is sufficient to maintain your body at the same negatively-charged electrical potential as the Earth. 

The explanation by Dr. Mercola has a bunch of science words and some apparent reasoning, but it doesn’t hold up. It is almost like someone said, “electrons, those are science-y. They have something to do with energy, right? Having more electrons will give us more energy.”

The Earthing ideas are based on a simplistic view of grounding. The earth is a reservoir of electrons and can provide or receive electrons. When you work with electricity, you want to have a low resistance path to the earth (a ground) so that excess electricity flows to the earth instead of through you or your equipment. If you are out in a lightning storm, you want to have rubber soles or other ways to disrupt current so that the lightning doesn’t use you as the lowest resistance path or ground. But the ‘Earthing’ people are extrapolating these ideas to suggest that we need new electrons directly from the earth. Even if we need new electrons, we can get electrons from other things we touch that touch the earth. Direct contact would not be necessary. And the idea that these electrons are then changing our physiology in significant ways doesn’t make sense. [A more complete discussion of this pseudoscience is at Neurologica.]

Of course, Dr. Mercola has a grounding/earthing mat to sell you for your home. He is using this science-y sounding explanation to explain why you desperately need more electrons. And why you should buy his product(s).

In general, when I read an idea to improve my health and there is an associated device or supplement to be bought, I get suspicious. My suspicion goes higher when these products are promise a way to decrease the effort needed to follow the advice. In this case, walking barefoot makes you healthier, a bad science explanation is provided, and then they try to sell you something that relies on the ‘science’, but avoids the original point of walking barefoot.

The sellers are directly benefiting from you believing them. Natural health providers like to say that they aren’t beholden to big Pharma or other interests, but the natural health providers also aren’t regulated. Dr. Mercola makes his money from selling things and he earns millions from his website and supplements. In contrast, health care providers implement evidence-based therapies and they can’t directly sell medication or devices without endangering their license to practice. In British Columbia, Canada, you do not provide money directly to your physician, and physicians are not paid more to give you a medical test or prescribe you a drug. In contrast, a natural health practitioner receives money from every remedy and test.

Conclusion/Advice

Walking barefoot may very well make you feel better and may have health benefits. However, I don’t believe that sleeping on a special electron mat would give the same effects.

I think there is good advice to be found in some alternative/health articles and I encourage people to go outside more, eat a varied diet high in fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly, etc. But please be wary when you are reading the science, especially if there is a pill or device that will let you shortcut the good advice. Just as you don’t trust the car salesman when he raves about a car, be careful when someone is selling you ‘easy health’.

Again, I love that people want scientific explanations. But just as you might check consumer reports or talk to car aficionados about some of the claims made by a salesman, you should make sure that health explanations make sense. Review them with objective authorities not invested in the economics of it all. You can check out science-based medicine, a site that evaluates medical treatments and products.

Scientists are as interested in good health as we all are. But like a savvy car buyer, they depend on facts, not speculation or inventive marketing, to make a good decision.

 

Related post: Rant: Propose term of Anecdotal Medicine instead of ‘alternative medicine’

Comments

  1. Very well said! The practical reference to lightning and electricity flow makes perfect sense and puts things in perspective, for me. I am reminded of a friend who purchased an expensive sleeping mat that went under her mattress at night to increase or stimulate the transfer of something and “guaranteed” to give her better rest, improve her mind and body, etc,

  2. Hi just wondering if you would be open to promoting my new earthing forum to your followers. can be found at earthingforum.com

    It needs more members! If you check it out, you’ll see there is already quite a bit of great discussion over there – hope to see you soon!

    Thanks

    • I’ve included your comment with your forum so that others can see what is being said about earthing. I did check out the site and some people are discussing the placebo effect and other explanations. But maybe others would like to share some more science on the site!

      • Awesome thanks for keeping up the comment.

        I totally agree with you about the science aspect. There have been some scientific studies done but not nearly enough. The problem with studies is they are expensive and unless there is a huge payout (ie – selling drugs), most corporations have no incentive to fund studies like that of earthing.

        Some people have invested their own cash into doing some studies but like I said, there need to be more.

        I hope lots of people will check out http://EarthingForum.com for the ongoing and awesome discussion with real people on the ground!

  3. I watched a promotional “Earthing” video that claimed, “the negative electrons you receive from the earth will cancel out the positive electrons in your body” and I knew right there she had no idea what she was talking about.

    (On a somewhat related note, I once knew someone who bought an expensive blanket that was supposed to “block electromagnetic waves.” I told her my average blanket could block out light too.)

  4. There is bunch of clinical proof and case studies that show it works amazingly.

    Think of it this way, ALL evolution occurred while animals were earthed and even today no other animal on earth other than humans spends most of it’s life “disconnected”.

    Mercola is not the only source of earthing out there you know

  5. Hi thanks for your article. I haven’t used an earthing mat but have been keeping an open mind after hearing positive reports from a trustworthy source and reading many glowing reviews. I have just now found quite a few published papers (many through NCBI) on the subject that report positive results. Have a look at the bottom of the page here – http://www.groundology.co.uk/scientific-research.

    I’m not a scientist so, as sound as this all looks, I can’t substantiate any of it. Several of them are written by people that are connected with Earth FX – I guess it makes sense for interested parties to fund research into their subject. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on these if you have time.

  6. Hi Catherine, as with your reaction my initial reaction was the earthing claims sound bogus. That said, I took the time to research the matter further and surprisingly I found that there seems to be something to it.

    Have you done any research on the matter? I suspect not, since the very next google search result after your site lists a bunch of studies and various results (of which you are seemingly unaware) – there is much more info that this on this subject out there as also per the comment of James Alliban.

    The link is: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3265077/

    Not really hard to find. Which to me implies that you know very little about the subject. Note also that these studies were done by connecting devices to bare skin and not by walking barefoot on the earth as you imply could indirectly be the real benefit.

    Please note I am not questioning you education or knowledge, only your knowledge on this subject.

    If I am wrong about your knowledge on earthing please accept my apology in advance and I look forward to your comments on the studies and other research you have done.

    If not, please refrain from putting out likely misinformation on a subject you have not studied. Just because we don’t fully understand the mechanics doesn’t make it invalid.

    Thanks

    • My main point is that people should be examine claims closely, especially when there is a product to buy. I agree that Earthing may have benefits but we don’t know the exact mechanisms and I doubt that buying special products is the answer.

      • From personal experience I’ve seen benefits. I’ve groundeddd myself to the earth while sleeping but I feel the most benefit by walking on bare earth.

      • I found the article to be, even on the face of multiple peer reviewed papers (did you read these, or know of them btw?), quite derogatory about the whole practice. Just imagine if earthing is even half as revolutionary as the papers claim. Your article might have discouraged many people that actually need this from trying it.

        I agree that people should investigate new approaches to health carefully and this includes people writing articles on them. I really think you should scrap this article, investigate the subject thoroughly and rewrite it once you are in possession of all the facts.

        • Again, I’m not against Earthing but the associated products. I believe that walking barefoot can be beneficial and can come up with several reasons why.
          After saying that, the explanations about electrons from the earth make no sense and the papers are flawed.
          Note: the more comments on this piece, the higher this piece will rise in Google so more people can read it.

          • So all the peer reviewed papers published by reputable sources such as the NCBI are flawed and all the doctors and researchers involved are lying in order to fill their pockets? What exactly are you basing this on? Have you replicated the experiments and found different results? Have you tried one of these products? Have you really researched any of this or are you simply expressing an opinion? Because without any actual experience or real research I can’t take your article seriously.

            More comments might just get this article higher in the Google results, but ultimately, if the products do work (and it appears they do), the blame for the spreading of misinformation is entirely on you.

          • I agree 100% with James. I think this article should be revised, i.m.o. you have lost a lot of credibility. Even if the explanation for why this works is incorrect with regards to electrons (which is still to be proven, it is clear grounding you body almost immediately changes your body voltage measured as a difference to ground – multiple videos available on this as well as from a common sense stand point) it doesn’t nullify the results achieved.

            If the papers are (all?) flawed, please explain why and point us to “better” done studies that proves the contrary. All in all, the ball is in your court, as the studies available clearly point to various health benefits. If you can disprove this please do, but just attacking the explanation and studies isn’t proving anything.

            As James said, even if half of the claims are true, you take a great risk of discouraging people to try something that might work – at no or little cost compared to massive charges for drugs and treatment, not to mention the side effects of those treatments – by putting out this article.

            And yes, there are products available to buy, but these so implied snake oil salesmen readily admit that you do not need any products let alone theirs, or can make your own if you are careful.

            As for a higher google ranking, you are only proving to more people you write articles on topics you know very little about.




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