Your Friday Dose of Woo: "Grounded" in woo

The other day, as is my wont every week, I was perusing my Folder of Woo, the folder on my computer in which I keep a bunch of URLs leading to many potential targets for Your Friday Dose of Woo, looking for this week's victim. I had one all picked out, too, but for some reason it just wasn't getting the woo-inator going enough to inspire me to do what is expected every week. Not that it wasn't good woo, even really good woo. It just wasn't great woo, and YFDoW just hasn't been around long enough for me to settle for anything less than the greatest, finest, tastiest woo just yet. Or maybe it was just that I wasn't in the mood for the options that were there in my folder. So, I fired up the browser and prepared to head to Whale.to or perhaps Mercola.com, either of which are so chock full of woo that they would almost certainly never let me down. I even contemplated going back to visit the Tiller Foundation to look for some even more "out there" woo.

And then a reader came to the rescue and sent me what I needed. But first I have to ask you a question:

Do you know why having direct skin contact with the ground is very, very, healthy for your body?

I bet you want to know.

But before we can get into this "grounded" woo, I realized that there was a problem. It turns out that I wasn't the first to sample this particular woo. Not that that is a huge problem; the very best woo has often been noticed by fellow skeptics before I steal it for my nefarious purposes. Heck, I've even raided wholesale The Second Sight at times looking for targets. (What is it about Australia that nourishes the most bizarre forms of woo?) It's my--shall we say!--unique take on this woo that makes for a good YFDoW. But even so, if someone else has been there before, I have to have a unique take on it, particularly when the blogger who's been there before happens to be PZ, who, as I remembered, had taken on this particular woo in the not too distant pass.

Fortunately, as usual, I think I'm up to the challenge. Why? Because I have the "scientific paper" that allegedly "proves" the validity of this particular woo, served up in one of our favorite crank journals, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a journal whose output we've had some fun with before. But first, the woo as featured on the web site, which is perfectly encapsulated by these two pictures below:

i-c786be644108d966eaf194b04b224575-mrbarefoot.gifi-76e47952b3f321fe25e0336c3d8d0f49-earthing_electrons_into_person.gif

You see, the idea is that you need to have your skin in physical contact with the earth because--well, just because it's healthier, you know. Wearing shoes is bad for you! And here's the reason:

When a person's bare skin touches the earth, a flow of free electrons and frequencies from the earth travels all throughout that person's body, neutralizing free radicals, erasing pain and inflammation and revitalizing one's energy.

This healing flow of free electrons and frequencies from Mother Earth reduces stress, creates a feeling of peace, calms an over-reactive immune system, slows down inflammatory damage to cells and stops free radical escalation inside the human body.

Think how good you feel when your bare feet touch the earth. The rapid repudiation of free radicals that results from free electron flow from the earth is the reason why people feel so good when they go barefoot outside.

Now you know why Mr. Barefoot and his dog are so happy. They're happy because they're feeling these benefits:

Reduction of inflammation

Normalization of cortisol levels

Improved sleep

Lessened stress and irritability

Decreased pain

Improved flexibility

Hastened muscle recovery following exertion

Neutralization of free radicals to a far greater degree than is attainable with antioxidant supplements
If you can't remember how good it feels to be barefoot outside, then we urge you to go outside and spend several hours with your feet on the ground. You can feel it.

But how can you accomplish this? What if you live in Chicago this time of year? You're not about to be out and about going barefoot. What if you have a job, as most of us do? I dont' know about you, but people would frown on it if I tried to go barefoot to work, and it's not just because I have ugly feet. Patients would be appalled, and who knows what's on the floor of my lab? Fortunately for people like me, Mr. Clint Ober sells conductive mattress pads:

Even though the scientific data is just beginning to come forth, with just what we now know already, it's simple -- if you're not earthed daily, then your body is being deprived of multitudinous opportunities to extinguish free radicals and thereby stay younger and undamaged from free radical produced molecular disruptions inside your body.

But, you don't have to be barefoot outside. Indeed, in most places, it's too cold or uncomfortable for much of the year to do so. But, because of the pioneering work of Mr. Clint Ober, inventor of sleeping earthed systems, there is an easy way to sleep on a conductive mattress pad that is grounded to the earth and by doing so, you will effortlessly get the benefit of this healing earth contact every day of the year. If you wan't even more earthed time than just sleeping hours, we have other day-use pads that can keep you grounded during non-sleeping hours.

i-c09a7e88eafeaa099a51c95b754b215a-a_Imagesdna2_1.gifOK, it's true that free radicals can cause cellular damage. They're believed to contribute to all sorts of health problems, including aging and cancer, not to mention heart disease as well. However, there is no evidence that any "continuous flow of elections" from the earth does anything whatsoever to eliminate these free radicals. There's alleged science in there that's just plain wrong, too:

Question: Why does the earth's electric field transfer so easily to the body?

The body is mostly water and minerals; it is an excellent conductor of electricity (electrons). The free electrons on the surface of the earth are easily transferred to the human body as long as there is direct contact. Unfortunately, synthetically-soled shoes act as insulators so that even when we are outside we do not get the benefits of the earth's electric field. When we are in homes and office buildings, we are also insulated and unable to receive the earth's electrons. Barefoot technology remedies this situation allowing an individual to be in contact with the earth in the comfort of his/her home and work place.

The body may be a good conductor of electrons, but dry skin has a pretty high resistance to small amounts of electrical current, which is why an electric shock that might not kill you when you're skin's dry will kill you if you're touching water, standing in a puddle, or, worse, sweating (mainly because the salt in your sweat provides a means for current flow). It's the same reason why the grounding pad for the Bovie electrocautery that we use in surgery has a viscous, sticky jelly on it to improve conduction and why EKG pads have the very same sort of conductive gel on them. Does this "barefoot pad" that, according to the website, occupies the lower 1/3 of your bed where your feet are, have anything like conductive jelly to overcome the natural resistance of the epidermis? Take a look for yourself:

i-0e4162edcfccbf33eb599b2cde2860de-bed_full2.jpg

All it is is a pad containing conductive carbon fibers and billed as having a dissipative surface resistance of 1 x 105 ohms with--get this!--a wire that you string out your window and attach to a metal grounding rod driven into ground. I kid you not. That's all this device is. Oh, not quite. There's a 10 mA fuse in it, too. Why, I'm not sure. After all, why limit the supposed flow of electrons to just 10 mA? And it really, really works, if you believe the website. Really, it does. Here's the evidence. One picture is an arthritic ankle before "earthing." The other is the same ankle after "earthing." It is claimed that earthing caused an improvement in the swelling.

i-cf551a503ca83ea655b9730c2a5cfbda-diabetic_ankle_before.jpgi-d0fb6c44b5c1b5d3dabf3606728779e1-diabetic_ankle_after5.jpg

Can you guess which is which? (No cheating and going to the link above.) One is claimed to be "less swollen" than the other. I don't know about you, but to me the ankle on the right looks more swollen. Too bad that's supposed to be the "after" picture.

Of course, there are many testimonials, including Lance Armstrong and the entire U.S. Bicycling Team. (Maybe Lance should start selling some of these "earthing" pads instead of his "Livestrong" bracelets.) And, of course, there's lots of sciency-sounding jargon, all caps, and colored highlighting; so it must be important. But what about science? Glad you asked! here's a paper in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine:

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.

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.

Sound convincing? Consider this before you answer. It's in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, the same journal that published last week's "information theory" homeopathic woo. Now, it's not inappropriate for each patient to serve as his or her own control, which is what this study did, but consider the fact that the study is completely unblinded. Both the patients and the investigators know when they are sleeping on the pad. The proper way to do this study would be as follows: Have two groups, both of which start sleeping on the pad, but only hook up the patients in one group to the grounding wire, so that one group is sleeping on the pad but not grounded. Even better would be to include a black box in the course of the wire going to ground. Half the boxes could be set up so that the circuit was completed; in the other half, so that the circuit is not. Assign the boxes randomly to patients and do not break the code which tells which box completed the path to ground and which box did not until the experiment is over. Then, even the investigators wouldn't know which patient was grounded and which wasn't. Given the lack of blinding in this study, of patients or investigators, it's impossible to tell whether the subjective reports by patients of improved sleep and feelings of well-being are anything more than the placebo effect. Finally, I have to wonder how they collected saliva samples without waking up the patients. Did they in any case, saliva cortisol levels, although they correlate with blood cortisol levels, can be affected by drugs and/or variations in the levels of different plasma proteins. Worse, they compared single day measurements, which are prone to large day-to-day variations:

Single day assessments are very weak approaches to this problem since measures are affected by many day-to-day variations, and this is especially difficult when the shape of the rhythm is of interest, since this seems rather sensitive to the influence of stress.

[...]

Joe Schwartz calculated that data should be collected over 3-4 days to get a reliable assessment of a "trait" daily concentration (area-under-the-curve), and for 6 or more days to get a reliable assessment of a "trait" rhythm. The advantage of using multiple days is that it helps to control the unreliability of one day's data which can underestimate the cortisol relationship to outcomes. For example, if nine samples per day are collected, collection over 4 days will give an estimate of area-under-the-curve with .80 reliability, and 8 days will give an estimate of the slope with .80 reliability.

Not surprisingly, these guys didn't bother with more than comparing two nights, one before and one after the eight week "grounding" period. Neither did these guys bother to look at the area under the curves. Instead, all we get is this:

i-4da4788430cd4521cd87087028e7485f-a_cortisol_chart.gif

Wow. Lots of curves superimposed on each other. It must be science, right? Well, yes, but it's bad science. Notice how, if you removed just two of the patients, the before-and-after profiles would look very similar. Not that you could tell whether, even in this current form, there's any statistically significant difference, mainly because no statistics are reported. Sorry, guys, but the "eyeball test" usually isn't enough, especially when you're using only 12 patients and especially when you didn't bother to do a few repeat measures.

In other words, this study is, in essence, meaningless.

So how much will all this set you back? Well, for a queen size bed, the pad and grounding wire is $289. Of course, if you don't want to hang a wire out your window, they now offer a handy-dandy outlet connector to "ground" you through your home's electrical system. Of course, given the "competence" of these guys with regard to their science, I don't know that I'd trust them to have gotten this outlet connector right. It'd really suck if it turns out that the wire was connected to the live prong rather than the ground prong of the plug. That'd give the "groundlings" way more electrons than they bargained for.

I wonder what Bora would have to say about this. After all, besides being a form of electrical and free radical woo, this is also a form of Circadian rhythm woo. (A trifecta of woo, of sorts!) Whatever he says, this website, as have so many before it, makes it clear that I'm definitely in the wrong business.

More like this

1. Say it ain't so, Lance!

2. There's no need for the bed. You could receive a free flow of electrons by simply holding on to two metallic objects inserted into the hot and return sides of an outlet (you'd also get some nasty electrical burns and cardiac arrhythmias).

3. The fuse is probably meant as a protection for anyone stupid enough to actually buy this device: sticking a metal rod into the ground attached by a wire to an electrically conductive bed seems a little dangerous, especially if an electrical storm develops (now that would give you a free flow of electrons!). Still, isn't 10mA applied across the heart enough to disrupt its electrical activity? I know the threshold is pretty low.

I shake my head at the woo.

Reviewing that paper for Journal of Biological Rhythms would take about five seconds: enough to write "Reject" in large capital letters with three exclamation marks and triple underlined!

It's probably got a fuse because it's almost certainly a standard industrial ESD protection mat sold at a massive markup...

And don't electrons flow to ground rather than from it? Or am I being confused by conventional current again?

As for the current needed to affect the heart, I know the rule of thumb for hobbyists is "20 mills [milliamps] kills". The question is whether you're looking at current across the heart or current across the body. I believe 6mA across the heart is enough induce defibrillation.

After thinking about it further, I realize how badly muddled this whole idea is (not that that should be surprising!).

Electrical potentials are developed in humans by the chemical gradients of ions, not the flow of free electrons, like in wires. In fact, sending streams of electrons through the human body is exactly the opposite of what you want: this disrupts the transmembrane potentials directly, opens voltage-gated ion channels, etc. This would make Mr. Barefoot and his dog quite unhappy, were it the case that electron streams flow through the human body when they touch ground.

The only reason Mr. Shoes would be different (electrically) from Mr. Barefoot is that Shoes might not be isoelectric to the ground--he might build up a slight charge scuffing against the carpet, for example. However, this charge would usually be carried on the surface of the body, and would immediately be neutralized upon contact with almost any metal object. These sorts of transient potentials develop all the time; it's not like we're hurting because we're not constantly connected to an electrical grounding device.

Well, there is one (and only one) element of plausibility in this woo: humans originated in a tropical climate, in which cold was not an impediment to being barefoot, so something having to do with being barefoot could be going on with humans.

But then, so much woo... so much woo...

By valhar2000 (not verified) on 12 Jan 2007 #permalink

Orac, I think you've corrupted me. Anytime anyone says something about "eliminating free radicals," or free radicals in general, I want to slap them. I think it's the YFDoW series, because so much of the woo you present involves it. Also, that drawing of Mr. "Shoes" and Mr. "Barefoot" is the most hilarious defense of woo I've ever seen in my life. The abuse of quote marks is icing on the cake at this point.

I don't know, I am generaly happier when I am barefoot. Of course, if I'm barefoot, I'm not working and it is warm enough to wear very little clothing, both of which are quite pleasant for me.

Funny how ambient humidity appears to be ignored in their analysis. Of course, they may not be aware how much humidity affects conduction.

For the record, in general the more humidity the more surface electons will flow through the air to equalize voltage potentials. Of course, too much humidity can cause condensation problems. So the best humidity level for modern electronics is around 30%.

Some time ago I had a friend, a programmer, who couldn't understand why he kept blowing up CRTs. He attributed it to excess humidity causing condensation, and every time one blew he added a de-humidifier to his computer room. The CRTs still kept burning out. He was a bit nuts and was never able to grasp that by keeping his computer room below 5% humidity he was causing the problem.

I know that just about everyone knows this these days, but it doesn't hurt to remind people on occasion.

Going barefoot reduces pain*...right up until you step on something sharp!

* If we first posit that your shoes don't fit, that is.

By Interrobang (not verified) on 12 Jan 2007 #permalink

Maybe they think hookworm is good for a person.

Dunc's probably got it right. Conductive floor pads and workbench mats are widely used in the electronics industry for ESD control. Heck, you can get an ESD-dissipative wrist strap for a few bucks ath your local Radio Shack.

I'm reminded of the unsung genius who first figured out that you could buy alligator clips in bulk for maybe a penny apiece, attach some feathers or beads and sell them for several dollars apiece as roach clips.

By Ktesibios (not verified) on 12 Jan 2007 #permalink

But...what if you live in a second story apartment? How do you ground it then? It's not like I can dangle a wire down a story into my neighbors lovely porch area that is below my bedroom window.

By SarahBeth (not verified) on 12 Jan 2007 #permalink

You cynical geniuses have missed something important.

"This healing flow of free electrons and frequencies from Mother Earth reduces stress, creates a feeling of peace, calms an over-reactive immune system, slows down inflammatory damage to cells and stops free radical escalation inside the human body.

It's not just the electrons. The frequencies, which are often overlooked by mainstream medicine are important, and just because they can't be measured by conventional means, doesn't mean they aren't beneficial.

I sleep 14 hours a day (11 at night, 1.5 after my morning massage, and 1.5 in the early afternoon just after my energy meditation). I have never been more relaxed in my entire life, since I started using this amazing product. The dramatic improvements in my overal well-being may not be due to electrons alone, but the frequencies from Mother Earth can not be discounted so quickly.

If you are sleeping without one, or allowing loved ones to do so, you are denying benefit (which you clearly don't understand) and probably preventing them from a longer, healthier, happier life.

By Grounded For Life (not verified) on 12 Jan 2007 #permalink

Grounded for Life

I'd be a hell of a lot more relaxed myself if I could sleep 14 hours a day (with or without a grounding pad) and had a daily massage.

i don't care what presumed health benefits i'm supposedly missing out on, i'm not walking barefoot in northern Michigan in January. even in this unseasonably warm winter, i dare say i'd be at greater risk if i tried that than if i did not.

By Nomen Nescio (not verified) on 12 Jan 2007 #permalink

If I want frequencies, I'll turn on my radio, thank you very much.

You mind telling us, GFL (ha! almost like GFI! sometimes I crack myself up), how something that "cannot be measured by conventional means" can actually exist and affect human physiology?

Is this particular woo in any related to vampires having to sleep on native earth?

I was going to post, but DuWayne and Interrobang have already said what I wanted to say....

Personally I'll stick to wearing shoes when Mr. Barefoot is walking Mr. Dog given what Mr. Dog might be doing during that walk.

You mind telling us, GFL (ha! almost like GFI! sometimes I crack myself up), how something that "cannot be measured by conventional means" can actually exist and affect human physiology?

I didn't say anything about physiology. I said "relaxed" which can be a state of mind. I also said "well-being", also a state of mind.

By Grounded For Life (not verified) on 12 Jan 2007 #permalink

This healing flow of free electrons and frequencies from Mother Earth reduces stress, creates a feeling of peace, calms an over-reactive immune system, slows down inflammatory damage to cells and stops free radical escalation inside the human body.

The bold points above require a physiological mechanism to achieve them; hell, all the points above can be measured in terms of physiological change (more vs. less calm, more vs. less stress--these psychological changes are based in physiological changes, too!). However, I'm interested specifically in the claims in bold.

Surely, if you are marketing such a product--I have made that assumption here, so tell me if I'm wrong--you can tell us the principle of its operation! I don't want any proprietary information; just give us a clear, mechanistic outline of how this works. Are ion channels are opened, and how? Are there changes in transmembrane potential? How do these electron flows not disrupt the autorhythmic cells in the pacemaker? Thanks!

The reason why Australia has more bizarre woo than the US is simply that American woo is more visible. The fact is, this grounding stuff isn't any more bizarre than chelation, you just haven't heard as much about it.
Australia hears this much about the US:

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By comparison, US hears this much about Australia:

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By Pseudonym (not verified) on 12 Jan 2007 #permalink

"Heck, I've even raided wholesale The Second Sight at times"

Ha! You can't fool me! It's a choprawoowave quantum synchronicity!

Hey woo-lover GFL, please remember to unplugg this thing during electrical storms, because when it comes to lightning, a 10 amp fuse is meaningless.

Further, this is just placebo effect, sorry. Every single description of how this works is just physically silly, and "frequencies" don't make a damn bit of difference if the fields and currents involved don't even interact with the human body as pretty much every poster has pointed out.

Now, Orac, that reminds me, have you ever done a post on Rife Machines? I had a (distant) family member who got the idea in her head that that particular 160 year old idiotic idea could cure her rheumatism or something.

I have a water bed with electrons whirling around underneath in a heating pad. Will this confuse the frequencies Kenneth?

By Bill from Dover (not verified) on 13 Jan 2007 #permalink

Grounded for Life wrote: It's not just the electrons. The frequencies, which are often overlooked by mainstream medicine are important, and just because they can't be measured by conventional means, doesn't mean they aren't beneficial.

Quite right, and just because there is not reason whatsoever, of any kind, to do it, doesn't mean that you shouldn't give me a million bucks.

By valhar2000 (not verified) on 14 Jan 2007 #permalink

I'm very interested in this subject.

I found this here;

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&li…

How do you read it without paying the $29.00 ?!

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.

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.

PMID: 15650465 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Again, seriously. How do you read it without paying the $29.00 ?

Highdesert

By Highdesert (not verified) on 24 Jan 2007 #permalink

Why doesn't some labratory that is already studying, say arthritis in lab rats, raise a generation of rats, half in cages grounded to earth and half in cages which are not grounded to earth? Then they just compare the arthritis or free radical damage or whatever they are already looking at.

Another independent study or two to confirm any discoveries or lack thereof would do it for me.

Is it such a preposterous idea that we shouldn't even spend that small amount of money to make sure there's nothing useful here?

highdesert

By highdesert (not verified) on 24 Jan 2007 #permalink

highdesert said "Again, seriously. How do you read it without paying the $29.00 ?"

You go to a library that subscribes to the journal. Some public libraries have subscriptions to the service that can provide you a copy of the paper. Or there are university libraries with subscriptions to the services that can get you a copy of the paper.

I finnaly found it here free. A guest editorial by James L. Oschman PhD preceeds it.

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.

http://www.cutcat.com/earth_tether_acm_excerpt.pdf

Highdesert11

By highdesert11 (not verified) on 27 Jan 2007 #permalink