There was an interesting and informative article recently on the MindBodyGreen website entitled 7 Health Benefits of Going Barefoot. It is always nice to see these sorts of articles.
Well, almost.
A lot of it was rather mundane, with tips like: “It’s Free Foot Yoga” and “Get Back to What Matters”.
But there was one of them that was just ridiculous.
6. It’s Grounding. Literally.
Our bodies are made up of about 60 percent water, which is great for conducting electricity. The earth has a negative ionic charge. Going barefoot grounds our bodies to that charge. Negative Ions have been proven to detoxify, calm, reduce inflammation, synchronise your internal clocks, hormonal cycles and physiological rhythms. The best places to get some negative ions through your feet are by the water. Everyone knows how good it feels to be barefoot on the beach – now we know why!
That’s just a scientific-sounding word salad. It takes advantage of people’s ignorance of science to put together sciency words that make it sound as if there is something to it.
It’s as if your auto mechanic told you that “the points and plugs in your carburetor are inhibiting the timing sequence from discharging the cam shaft.” That might sound all car-ish, but if you know anything about cars, it’s just word salad.
The point in the article is a reference to a piece of quackery called “earthing”, which I am not even going to provide a link to. Earthing is the usual sort of pseudo-science that only gets published in “alternative” journals, because the “studies” they produce only have the veneer of science. They simply don’t know what they are doing, scientifically. They don’t know how to properly provide controls; they don’t know how to do the statistics properly; they do their “experiments” in ways that get the results they already believe in.
The claim of the earthing folks is that our bodies need to be grounded to the earth. In fact, they will sell you a special “device”. It’s a pad you put on your bed that you then ground to the earth.
The quote above cannot even tell the difference between electrons and ions. It conflates electricity and negative ions. The only things that might travel along the ground wire are electrons, not ions. Ions are not going to enter you through grounding, either by wire or by going barefoot. All that happens is that the few stray electrons on your body (and most are on your body surface, not inside) are going to redistribute. Some leave, some move elsewhere.
However, ions do make up almost all the chemistry of our body, and you just cannot “ground” that away (and that’s good, because otherwise you’d die). For instance, put a little salt in water, and the water becomes full of sodium and chlorine ions. Add a few stray elections—and nothing happens.
Heck, you can add huge amounts of electrons and nothing happens. (And in fact, electrically, “ground” is pretty arbitrary; an electric potential, just like a gravitational potential, only depends on a difference between two different potentials. There is no absolute potential.) These guys are not at ground.
Their bodies keeps working just fine. It’s not the voltage that hurts you, it’s the current. That’s why they carefully bring them up to the potential of the wires first. It’s no different than birds or squirrels that since on powered lines. It’s only if they provide an arc that there is any danger.
(Yes, there could also be long-range effects because the wires carry alternating current, not direct current. That produces all sorts of extraneous electromagnetic fields. However, that does not describe the extremely low, direct currents that regularly move about the body through your everyday motions.)
Let me hasten to add that I am not against real scientific advantages of going barefoot, the most obvious of which are the things I talk a lot about here: strengthening muscles, tendons, and ligaments; allowing the arch to develop; removing sources of corns, bunions, and athlete’s foot. I even feel good about more subtle effects from that fact that one simply feels better going barefoot. There is actual science that backs up how cortisol (the stress hormone) negatively impacts our health, so something as simple as going barefoot as a way to reduce stress will have positive health benefits. There is even a plausible mechanism about how the continual varied pressure on our soles might have a positive effect on our physiologies, upregulating various genes that could have multiple effects.
But just mouthing “ions” and “our bodies are 60 percent water” just doesn’t cut it.
So, as barefooters, should we care about this sort of misinformation? I mean, I don’t doubt there are many people who will read the article and they might decide to go barefoot more often. What do we care if people go barefoot because of the article.
I still don’t like it. For one thing, I really prefer truth.
But there is also another crowd that we need to convince, people like doctors and podiatrists. If we spend our time touting things that are obvious nonsense to anybody with a bit of real scientific training, they will end up deeply suspicious about all of our other claims about the benefits of going barefooted.
To me, converting that sort of person, with facts and not quackery, is much more important.
I’m glad to see someone other than me have a problem with this. You throw some pseudo-scientific words at people and their brains go right out the window. “Earthing” is on the same list with sun gazing as far as I’m concerned.. and I still can’t believe there are people who stare into the sun on purpose.
Actually, I just started reading the Earthing book. Not far into the book yet and not ready to really defend “earthing” but I don’t discount the theory altogether. I know I sometimes feel a connection to the Earth when barefoot, whether that is real or imagined I could not say. I will say I have no desire to buy their sleeping pads or other products.
Bob, I agree with everything you said above. but theres got to be something about going barefoot on the true earth (not concreat or asphalt) that draws people to it. I’m kinda leaning toward spirituallity if nothing else. What are your thoughts on this?
Ward,
While I tend to agree with you on spirituality, it’s easy to fall into circularity when one tries to define “spirituality”. What is spirituality? It’s the feeling you get when you walk barefoot on the true earth (not concrete or asphalt). 🙂
I suspect a lot of it is just in our heads. It also feels quite spiritual to climb the stairs of the Statehouse (marble, or some sort of limestone, I think), with the depressions made by thousands of feet (even MORE so in the U.S. Capitol building). On the other hand, does that marble count as “true” or not?
But I think there can also be a sensory basis. True earth just gives much more stimulation. Even rocks (e.g., large sandstone boulders) are better than concrete because they have an obvious texture and are not perfectly flat. It allows the bones and muscles and ligaments to actually move more.
For me, playing tennis feels similarly wonderful (well, except when I shank a backhand): sweating, motion of various body parts. But that probably isn’t spirituality—it is the body being used effectively, just as bare feet are that part of the body being used effectively on true earth.
As another example, if I am wearing a cotton shirt, I am in contact with “nature”. But if I go shirtless, in some ways that is more spiritual as I feel the breeze on my skin. It’s sensory; it’s texture. Ditto walking barefoot.
Dan,
I don’t think any of us deny feeling a connection to the Earth. But, suppose you were instead reading a book on “Nucleoning” that claimed that we absorbed the mitochondrial dna in the soil through our soles and that is why it feels so good. Might you also, if that was all you heard about, think there was something to that? When their explanation is pretty much counter to known physics and biology, and when there are so many other more mundane explanations that don’t require such a suspension, that places a very heavy burden them that they don’t come even close to meeting (particularly when I look at their “studies”).
The passage on “reflex points to every part of your body” in the feet looks doubtful to me to. I think acupuncture has never been really scientifically defined and verified, has it?
I have used the grounding pads. I do think that it detoxes you. I got extremely bad headaches for a few days once I started using it and they went away. You must use the pad for several hours for headaches to become a problem. I sleep on it all night to cause mine. Headaches happen when you fast also. In both cases toxins flood your body and get headaches and even get dizzy. Takes high doses of MSM also can detox you. I have done all three. Once toxins are taken care of the headaches go away.
[…] [Late addition- my friend and fellow BRS/SBL member Longboard gave me this link; it explains the pseudoscience angle a little better: https://ahcuah.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/eye-on-ions/%5D […]
Hi Bob,
Have you actually read through all the “pseudoscience” of earthing/grounding? If you did, you’d know, for example, that the real creators of the concept of earthing, the ones selling the “special devices” are not saying “ions”, they are saying “electrons”. If you’d taken the time to experiment yourself a bit, rather than just the time it took to write your insulting article, you’d also see 1st hand that grounding yourself with one of their “special devices” does indeed convert your body voltage to nearly zero. If you had patients coming to see you who have experienced insomnia for most of their adult lives, begin “sleeping like babies” even in the face of their own skepticism about said devices, AND read the DOUBLE BLIND, PLACEBO CONTROLLED research on effects grounding had (again using a “special device”) on cortisol and melatonin secretion, maybe you’d at least smartly hold back on your comments until you found research proving grounding/earthing DOESN’T work, of which there is none. I find it amusing when someone spouts off about how bogus something is but has no direct proof that it actually is. Keep up the “good work”.
Actually, I have looked at the studies. They are typical pseudo-science, with the sorts of errors that one sees in such pseudo-science. That’s why regular science journals won’t publish them.
The plural of anecdote is not data.
I’ve been using the bad pad and foot pads. I’ve noticed a distinct benefit. I’m breathing better and getting better sleep. My girlfriend sleeps much quieter now. I woke up more tired than usual a few days back and then noticed that the pad was unplugged.
If you are already barefooting however, you may not notice a big difference.
To each his own, but $200 is chump change to spend on health care, even if it’s a placebo (which I don’t think it is).
Of course it is placebo. Tell you what: you have your wife flip a coin every day, and then based on whether it is heads or tails, she either connects or disconnects the ground, without telling you, and make sure you cannot see whether it is connected or no. She also keeps good records (and you don’t cheat by looking at the records). Meanwhile, you make your own record as to how you feel each day, and as to whether you think you really are grounded or not.
Do that for a month, and then compare results.
If they agree significantly more than around 50% I’ll be really surprised.
No thanks, I’m set here. I’m simply sharing my personal experience with it. I’m not a salesman and I don’t care if anybody buys the stuff.
The biggest reason I’m able to pull off walking barefoot in public (and my office) is that I could give a rat’s about what other people think (besides the cops).
@tom I’d really like to see that study if you bothered to do it. It sounds cool! 🙂
@macquills sun gazing eh? I experimented with this a while back out of curiosity and wouldn’t be surprised if someone who knew what they were doing could actually get an interesting real scientific study on it. You aren’t actually staring into the sun. The idea is to get yourself relaxed in high light scenarios.
The guy who originally did some amount of research (not necessarily the best science though) was Dr. William Horatio Bates in the early 1900s. He was unable to find any actual eye damage. However, with advent of knowledge about the sun’s UV rays (and considering how sunburn works on much less sensitive skin) and better imaging equipment, I do wonder how much it still holds.
I don’t want to delve into the details now on how you do it. Just suffice to say that you slowly step it up, but you are never actually staring into the sun. I have used it successfully when the sun was really bright out and I didn’t have any sunglasses.
There’s also hearsay about a court case in the 1950s against a Bates practitioner for practicing medicine without a license where the defendant brought in a few hundred successful clients to show that there was no damage to the internal eye. However the jury was told to dismiss them as insignificant to the case at hand. The thing is, I haven’t looked for it, so I don’t even know the historicity of the supposed court case. Anyhow.
If you want to talk to someone further about all this (just be prepared for a bunch of New Age type talk) go check out dreamersight.wordpress.com. She has a lot of knowledge and practice in this area.
Cheers!
Bob, I’ve taken you up on your challenge. Here’s what I posted on the BRS site regarding how I’m proceeding with the experiment:
“So, for anyone interested, here is my little research study’s protocol:
Beginning on 4/9/13, and for 31 days subsequent, we’ve placed a conductive half-sheet on our bed. This sheet is connected to a grounded outlet in our bedroom (plugging in only to the ground; no electrical contact is made). I’ve selected, at random, 15 nights in which this sheet will be grounded, and 16 random nights when it won’t be. There is no pattern for this cycle. When it is plugged or unplugged is known only to me, and the plug itself is concealed (and I have my wife’s solemn word that she won’t peek).
I developed a self-questionaire, which she is filling out every morning. The questions ask to rate, on a scale of 1 -5, things like sleep quality, feeling of refreshment upon waking, ease of falling asleep, etc. These are all admittedly subjective, but without fancy equipment determining sleep depth, etc., this is the best I can do.
At the end of the 31 days, I will then repeat the experiment, but this time, rather than attaching the sheet to the grounded plug, it will be attached to a dedicated 8′ grounding rod that I sunk outside our bedroom. (This is the method used during the aforementioned studies.) The same randomized pattern will be followed for when the sheet is hooked up or not, and the same questionnaire will be used to measure the various topics.
At the end of the 60 days, I’m going to compile the numbers and see whether or not there is any detectable pattern or difference in subjective reporting between those nights plugged vs. unplugged. Then, I will compare those results to those obtained during the purely grounded period.
I’ll post the results here, in case anyone is interested in my findings.”
Should be interesting to see the results!
Well Tom, looking at the date on your last post in which you take up Bob’s challenge, it seems that a year has passed and no results appear to be forthcoming. I’m fairly sure that had you achieved the positive results that I believe you were hoping for you would have posted them here as soon as the data was in. I can only presume by your silence that the results were as to be expected, or to put it into more scientific terms…..an absolute load of old bollox.
Typical self-serving Facebook user. Take a moment from smelling your own smug and re-tweet this: Get bent Simon!
I’m just going to note that it was “Thom”, not “Tom”, who said he was going to try that test. Unfortunately, when I made suggestions to Thom’s protocol that would have made it more robust (and less susceptible to bias), he decided it was too much bother to do the test.
Also, I am planning on doing the test myself, but numerous life events have stopped me from starting it.
The earthing movement is loosely allied with the UN sponsored “Mindful Meditation” movement, which is clearly a hoodoo religion. Spirituality isn’t pragmatic, and these snake oil salesman sound are comparable to the money changers Jesus drove out of the temple.
That being said, what about the question of homeostasis, electrically speaking, with the VOLTAGE of the earth, as mildly fluctuating as that may be?
After five back surgeries, I went barefoot (walking, can’t run anymore) about a month ago, and the bio-mechanically induced changes have resulted in a 25% improvement in my overall pain levels, which is a clear win.
Going to to do a jury rigged, direct-to-earth (don’t want to kill myself on the wall socket) grounding setup and see if it works. If it doesn’t, I’m out $20 and a small hole drilled through my window frame.
I refuse to call it “earthing”. Sounds too much like an altar call to a strange god, and I’m already a Jesus freak.
Hey Rev. I think you will like the direct ground. It’s relaxing. I still enjoy using a plug-in sheet, but sometimes it sits in the hamper. Beyond the sheet, earthing products are mostly a waste as there is no substitute for strengthening bare feet. Of course, diet and exercise are the most important. In my experience, grounding is simply a quality of life add-on.
I have the grounding wires. I did my own experiment of placing two wires in glasses of water with a flower. I picked 3 flowers at the same time and the third flower was placed in glass with no wire. I expected maybe a couple days I might see a difference. Within 2 hours the 2 flowers in the wired water had visibly brightened up and the third still looked the same. Plus o can feel the wires tingle when I hold it in my hand.
I guess you’ve never heard of the idea of controls.