3 Key Benefits of Connecting With the Earth

3 Key Benefits of Connecting With the Earth

Sunday, May 26, 2013



by Dr. Daniel Chong

What are the most basic, fundamental recommendations you can think of in
terms of how to improve your health and prevent disease?

Eat well. Exercise. Get more sleep.

Sound familiar? That's what I learned in school and that's what I teach
to my patients and clients on a daily basis. Some might argue other
steps like exposure to sunshine and fresh air, stress reduction, quality
social interaction, living a purposeful life and even hydrotherapy are
equally necessary and fundamental, and I really wouldn't argue against
any of them. What I would, however, argue for is the inclusion of an
additional step; one that, until recently, has been fairly unrecognized,
certainly by the conventional medical system, but also by most
alternative health practitioners. What is it?

Touch the Earth.

Wait a second, you say. Unless I've had this whole gravity thing wrong
all along, I thought we were touching the earth. Well, we are, but not
like we should be. It just so happens that humans are actually meant to
touch the earth with our bare skin, and that doing so may be as
fundamentally healthy for us as any other health promoting habits you've
learned about along the way.

The most common term used these days to describe this simple, yet
powerful healing technique is Earthing. Another term is grounding. If
you have yet to explore this technique, you are all missing out. In
fact, these days, from what I have seen in my own practice, I would now
rate it as on par with all other basics requirements for optimal health
we know so well.




Traditional healthcare systems like Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine have
promoted the health benefits of skin-to-skin contact with the earth for
hundreds, if not thousands of years. If that's not reason enough to
consider this therapy, there is also now a growing body of research not
only proving what those wise physicians knew all along, but showing
exactly what happens when we perform this simple act.

What is known for certain is when you touch the earth with your skin or
through material that does not insulate you from its energy field you
immediately begin absorbing a significant amount of electrons from its
surface into your body. The key questions are whether or not this
matters to you and what exactly happens to you when you do it. My
experiences, having recommended this treatment to patients now for
years, have been nothing short of astounding in some cases. I like
research and reproducible "proof" as much as the next doc, but for me,
the responses I see in my own patients trump all. Nonetheless, for
other obvious reasons, research and the proof it can provide are
important. Here are some highlights from what we know so far:

1. Touching the earth is calming, reduces many negative effects of stress and can help you sleep




Have you ever arrived at your favorite park or beach, taken your shoes
off and felt a seemingly instantaneous sense of calm overtake you?
You've probably never even thought twice about it. Being at the beach
or in a park is just nice, so of course you feel calmer right? Nope, it
appears there may be something more to it than that.

Recent research into the effects of grounding
is showing that it leads to an increase in parasympathetic nervous
system activity, and reduces sympathetic activity. The fact that most
of us walk around in a state of nearly perpetual sympathetic overdrive,
anything that encourages parasympathetic activity is beneficial. Beyond
that, additional research into other parameters of stress has shown that
grounding also directly normalizes both cortisol secretion, a hallmark
of stress activity in the body, and melatonin secretion, which is of
course crucial for a good night's sleep and possibly much, much more.

2. Touching the earth is anti-inflammatory




Chronic
inflammation is now understood to be a primary, causative factor in
seven of the top ten leading causes of mortality in the United States.
It is beyond the scope of this article to review the details of chronic
inflammation, how and why it happens, but it is important to realize
that chronic inflammation is not a good thing, and Earthing may be a simple way to reduce it, whatever the cause may be.

As we know, an inflammatory response in your body begins with the
production of free radicals (electrically charged particles) in an
injured area, which help prevent infection and stimulate the healing
process. However, when an inflammatory response becomes chronic, the
excessive free radical activity begins to damage healthy tissue in the
surrounding area. Depending on the tissue in question, this process
could result in cancer, cardiovascular disease, arthritis or one of many
other types of chronic disease.

Earthing, which saturates the healthy tissue in your body with negative
electrons, literally works to create a barrier through which these free
radicals cannot pass, in turn protecting you from the outlying damage
they would otherwise cause.

3. Touching the earth helps keep your blood flowing




For blood to flow efficiently through your veins, arteries and
capillaries, the cells need to move freely amongst each other, and not
get stuck together. To aid in this process the surface of your red blood
cells all have a negative charge to them, known as a zeta potential,
literally causing them to repel each other. The greater the negative
charge is around your blood cells, the greater the zeta potential, and
the better your blood cells will bounce off of each other and continue
flowing along. The electrons you absorb from the earth's surface are
negatively charged as well, and contribute to a greater zeta potential.
The end result then is that touching the earth helps to naturally
encourage blood flow. This discovery has far-reaching implications for
the field of cardiology, and some of the most cutting edge, brightest
minds in it have begun to take notice. Dr. Stephen Sinatra of Heartmdinstitute.com
is one of the more well-known and respected physicians in the field of
integrative cardiology. He is also a huge proponent of earthing and
encourages it to as a preventative health measure for all cardiology
patients.

Conclusion

There are many more reasons why reconnecting with the earth is good for
you, some of which I'm sure have yet to even be discovered. Perhaps the
most obvious explanation though, is that it is simply natural.

With
our technologically advanced world changing at such an astoundingly
fast pace, it is easy to forget where we have come from and what our
bodies are adapted to. What it all boils down to is that chronically ill
people have literally become that way specifically because of how
unnatural their lives are and how far away from nature they have moved
both literally and figuratively. Time and again we all see proof that
the reintroduction of simple, natural necessities like whole food,
movement, and sleep into their lives, helps our patients get better.
Adding Earthing to your list of preventive health practices will
undoubtedly serve to further enhance your vitality and add an entirely
unique angle of support for your long term health.

So tell your patients to start putting their bare feet on the ground and
reconnecting, and recommend utilizing some of the additional equipment
now available to help them do so when touching the earth is impossible
or impractical. They will thank you for it.

source:-
http://www.naturalblaze.com/2013/05/3-key-benefits-of-connecting-with-earth.html