Earthing
09 Nov 2013, 11:22 pm
So the delivery took 2 days.. pretty impressed. My son's room IS grounded (outlets) and he has been sleeping grounded for 2 nights so far. According to him, he's slept "horribly" .. often waking up at night. The second night was better than the first and he mentioned he can fall asleep faster. Of course, me asking, "Do you find you're falling asleep faster?" is leading him on LOL
My son's mattress sucks! When I sleep on it, I get inflammation in my joints .. shoulder, elbows and hips. I'm going to be purchasing a memory foam to soften the sleep and maybe he won't be waking up so often. I hope I didn't waste money on this experiment, either lol
11 Nov 2013, 10:51 pm
Hokum.
In 1998, a retired cable TV executive named Clint Ober sat on a park bench in Sedona, Arizona. As he watched the passing parade of tourists, it occurred to him that almost everybody -- him included -- wore synthetic plastic or rubber soled shoes.
What followed was the typical "Guru" narrative – an individual makes a single observation or hits upon an idea, which is then presented as if it’s a breakthrough scientific discovery. From this one notion that rubber soles have replaced leather soles in recent years, Ober made up his pseudoscience of earthing. His "research" has not been vetted by peer-group review, nor has it been presented in any reputable scientific journal. He went straight from concept to market, and his profits keep rolling in.
Ober is taking a very simplistic view of the whole concept of grounding. Ober then further distorts this concept, claiming that the earth is a source of electrons (it isn't) that gently flow into the body curing whatever ails you (it doesn't). A further premise is that simply by wearing shoes with rubber soles we are so thoroughly isolated electrically that our bodies cannot reach their natural electrical homeostasis (a term that Ober made up). Our bodies, according to Ober, must be craving electrons (they don't), but simply cannot get them from the environment without a special connection to the ground -- all of this without any validated experimental evidence whatsoever.
Clint Ober is not a scientist, nor is he a physician. He is simply a man who saw a way to market a woo-woo concept for his own gain and profit to a public that will buy anything to "feel better" even if it there is no medical evidence to support it.
He has fooled millions of people, and he seems to have fooled a few more.
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12 Nov 2013, 8:30 am
Evidence, please? Something other than anecdotes and confirmation bias, please.
I am an electrical engineer. I understand electricity. Show me where an established medical association has endorsed this product.
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12 Nov 2013, 8:38 am
In 1998, a retired cable TV executive named Clint Ober sat on a park bench in Sedona, Arizona. As he watched the passing parade of tourists, it occurred to him that almost everybody -- him included -- wore synthetic plastic or rubber soled shoes.
What followed was the typical "Guru" narrative – an individual makes a single observation or hits upon an idea, which is then presented as if it’s a breakthrough scientific discovery. From this one notion that rubber soles have replaced leather soles in recent years, Ober made up his pseudoscience of earthing. His "research" has not been vetted by peer-group review, nor has it been presented in any reputable scientific journal. He went straight from concept to market, and his profits keep rolling in.
Ober is taking a very simplistic view of the whole concept of grounding. Ober then further distorts this concept, claiming that the earth is a source of electrons (it isn't) that gently flow into the body curing whatever ails you (it doesn't). A further premise is that simply by wearing shoes with rubber soles we are so thoroughly isolated electrically that our bodies cannot reach their natural electrical homeostasis (a term that Ober made up). Our bodies, according to Ober, must be craving electrons (they don't), but simply cannot get them from the environment without a special connection to the ground -- all of this without any validated experimental evidence whatsoever.
Clint Ober is not a scientist, nor is he a physician. He is simply a man who saw a way to market a woo-woo concept for his own gain and profit to a public that will buy anything to "feel better" even if it there is no medical evidence to support it.
He has fooled millions of people, and he seems to have fooled a few more.
There have been a few studies done on earthing and its positive effects on the body that I have come across. For example, here are a few articles that look into its effects.
"Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth's Surface Electrons"
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2012/291541/
&
"Lower Your Blood Pressure With Earthing"
http://www.drsinatra.com/lower-your-blo ... -earthing/
snippet from Dr. Sinatra's article:
There are about a dozen or so completed studies on Earthing showing its vast health benefits. The simple act of grounding yourself to the earth decreases inflammation, lowers stress, increases calmness, and helps to relieve pain.
But perhaps one of the most powerful benefits of Earthing is what it can do for your blood pressure. As many of you know, high blood pressure is caused by something called “hyperviscosity,” which means your blood is thick and sticky and moves slowly through your circulatory system. In other words, your blood is thick like ketchup, and that feeds the inflammation process that damages arteries, boosts blood pressure, and increases the risk of blood clots....
Read more: http://www.drsinatra.com/lower-your-blo ... z2kRET4I1V
12 Nov 2013, 9:06 am
Hindawi publishing is not a peer-review organization, but instead touts "Open-Access Journalism", meaning that any quack can publish anything through them for a fee. The main argument against Open-Access Journalism is the diminishing of the overall quality of scientific journal publishing - Open-Access Journalism drags down the overall quality of scientific journalism. For example in 2009, a hoax paper generated by a computer program was accepted for publication by a major publisher under the author-pays-for-publication model ("Open-Access Journalism"). In a similar incidence, a staff writer for Science magazine and popular science publications targeted the open access system in 2013 by submitting to a number of such journals a deeply flawed paper on the purported effect of a lichen constituent. About 60% of those journals accepted the faked medical paper, for a fee. Thus, open access journals also lack the reputation of their subscription counterparts.
Dr. Sinatra may be licensed and certified, but his business model (e.g., how he makes his millions) is through the sale of unregulated "supplements" and television appearances. Any claims by Dr. Sinatra that he "invented" Coenzyme Q10 are false. CoQ10 was first discovered by Professor Fredrick L. Crane and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Enzyme Institute in 1957. The efficacy of CoQ10 is still in dispute, yet Dr. Sinatra is becoming wealthy off these pills and the gullibility of the people who buy them.
Using what amounts to nothing more than a silver-lined piss-pad reminds me of the Pyramidiocy of the 1970s - people slept in or under expensive plastic pyramids, and then made the same health claims. Meanwhile, the providers of those pyramids took the money and ran.
Follow the money.
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12 Nov 2013, 9:51 am
Yeah, admittedly one of the problems with earthing is testing. There really isn't an easy test a person can do to see changed results. One can report feeling better, sleep more soundly, feel tingling when standing barefoot outside or on a grounding mat as I and family do, but that is an observation. It would be nice if there was a test one can do that shows improvement. Maybe some day that will happen.
Oh, I think science even with peer review has it's issues. Different topic, but been kind of humorous reading about the long touted cholesterol theory come under fire of late.
"Cholesterol and heart disease: Where is the science?"
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/lipi ... e-science/
12 Nov 2013, 4:36 pm
I googled a bit and found that cortisol can be measured.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15650465
[
The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress.
Ghaly M, Teplitz D.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
Diurnal cortisol secretion levels were measured and circadian cortisol profiles were evaluated in a pilot study conducted to test the hypothesis that grounding the human body to earth during sleep will result in quantifiable changes in cortisol. It was also hypothesized that grounding the human body would result in changes in sleep, pain, and stress (anxiety, depression, irritability), as measured by subjective reporting.
SUBJECTS AND INTERVENTIONS:
Twelve (12) subjects with complaints of sleep dysfunction, pain, and stress were grounded to earth during sleep for 8 weeks in their own beds using a conductive mattress pad. Saliva tests were administered to establish pregrounding baseline cortisol levels. Levels were obtained at 4-hour intervals for a 24-hour period to determine the circadian cortisol profile. Cortisol testing was repeated at week 6. Subjective symptoms of sleep dysfunction, pain, and stress were reported daily throughout the 8-week test period.
RESULTS:
Measurable improvements in diurnal cortisol profiles were observed, with cortisol levels significantly reduced during night-time sleep. Subjects' 24-hour circadian cortisol profiles showed a trend toward normalization. Subjectively reported symptoms, including sleep dysfunction, pain, and stress, were reduced or eliminated in nearly all subjects.
CONCLUSIONS:
Results indicate that grounding the human body to earth ("earthing") during sleep reduces night-time levels of cortisol and resynchronizes cortisol hormone secretion more in alignment with the natural 24-hour circadian rhythm profile. Changes were most apparent in females. Furthermore, subjective reporting indicates that grounding the human body to earth during sleep improves sleep and reduces pain and stress.
Cortisol is something that can be objectively measured. And yes, Fnord, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (in which this was published) is peer reviewed.
http://www.liebertpub.com/manuscript/acm
not that I have done this. I still get the willies just thinking about it (and no I don't use an electric blanket). Nobody has ever been electrocuted doing this (I looked) but a few years ago a tree in my neighborhood was split in half when it was struck by lightening so the reassurance that lightening strikes are statistically unlikely near me just doesn't hold.
12 Nov 2013, 5:57 pm
Thanks Janissy. Nice find, that likely will be a helpful test!
I was also thinking along the lines one of those phone health apps. It would be nice if something could be created that measured the qualities of ones sleep - buy a head set, plug into the phone to see if your sleep improves. It seems every week some new health app is coming out. Might be dreaming on that creation, but that is something that would interest me also.
Yeah, I'm for grounding safety too. My house has been hit by lightening a couple times. It's been awhile since it last happened. The trees around the place have grown, but when it occurred last a few TVs were replaced. I've been sure to unplug my grounded items when storms are in the area.
12 Nov 2013, 6:10 pm
Owwww, I went to a web sight I've bought home testing kits from before. They sell a cortisol test. I'll have to give it a try .... at some point in the future.
https://shop.trackyourplaque.com/Produc ... t-kit.aspx
