By Stephen T. Sinatra, MD, FACC, FACN, CNS

Throughout my years in cardiology practice, I have been constantly awed by magnificent advancements in medical technology that enabled me to better diagnose and treat my patients.  

What has probably awed me the most, however, is something totally out-of-the box and utterly low-tech with remarkable preventive and therapeutic benefits.

As surprising as it sounds, that something is the very ground beneath our feet. 
Mother Earth.

In a 2014 article for spacedoc.com, I wrote about the healing power of the Earth’s natural electric surface charge and how contact with this subtle energy offers significant promise for diabetics.

In this update, I want to focus on how the Earth’s energy can actually improve blood flow throughout the body’s circulatory system, the thousands of miles of blood vessels through which the heart pumps blood to feed all the cells of the body with oxygen and nutrients.

Connecting with this energy is called grounding, or Earthing, and represents a discovery with massive health implications.

Earthing book. View on Amazon

First, a little background:
Grounding refers to the discovery of big and very surprising benefits – such as reduced inflammation and pain, better sleep, a calming of the nervous system – resulting from walking barefoot outdoors or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors in contact with conductive mats and other products that transfer the Earth’s natural energy from the ground into the body. 

We Are Bioelectric Beings Living on an Electric Planet
In essence, the Earth is a gigantic battery.  Its surface carries a negative charge, the effect of a virtually limitless reservoir of unseen free electrons constantly renewed by global lightning strikes. 

Emerging research, which I am proud to be part of, has revealed that direct contact with this subtle electric field generates fascinating physiological changes that accompany subjective reports of improved well-being. 

Your body works electrically.  Think of the heart, the nervous system, and your musculature.  Contact with the ground’s energy quickly restores a natural electrical balance within your body. 

With contact, you also become charged with these electrons, which serve as antioxidant reinforcements. 

These are big-time benefits leading to a reduction of damaging free radical activity involved in chronic inflammation and multiple diseases. 

To get these benefits, we need to reconnect to our planetary battery because human lifestyle has thoroughly disconnected us. We wear insulating shoes made of plastic and rubber. We sleep on elevated beds. We are disconnected.

Better Blood Flow
Grounding research is exploring the dynamics of how the Earth’s charge affects the body.  The findings raise the question as to whether societal disconnection represents a major overlooked cause of the sharp rise in non-communicable, inflammatory-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, auto-immune disorders, and diabetes. 

One Major Research Focus is Blood Flow
Everyone understands the importance of good blood flow through the circulatory system, through blood vessels large and small. Viscosity is a term that we cardiologists use that describes the water and solid content of plasma and how well, or not so well, the blood flows through this system.

Cardiovascular patients tend to have thick, sludgy blood that doesn’t move through efficiently. Cells and tissues underperform because they are thus underserved.  As a result, they become more vulnerable to toxicity and inflammation.  I have told many a patient that I want to see blood that flows like wine, not like ketchup.  

Thick blood is inflamed blood, and it predisposes you to red blood cell clumping and abnormal clotting.  This is the kind of blood – sludgy, clump-and-clot prone − that we cardiologists see in our practices, blood that causes the heart to work harder.

Doctors prescribe pharmaceutical blood thinners to thin the blood, and they can certainly help save lives. 
We have discovered that grounding also offers a natural blood thinning effect.

In my 2014 Earthing article on this website, I reported on a study I participated in showing that grounding dynamically improves blood flow.  View this short video clip to see a before-and-after blood sample from the study that clearly demonstrates better flow and less clumping of blood cells:
http://www.earthinginstitute.net/how-grounding-affects-blood-viscosity/
The study was published by the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.¹ The implications are significant: enhanced blood electrodynamics resulting in better blood flow.   

In 2014 and again in 2015, electrophysiologist Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., with whom I collaborated on the earlier study, published new research providing further evidence for grounding’s beneficial circulatory effect.^2,3,4,5 Using both laser contrast imaging and thermal imaging (thermography), he monitored forty participants who were either grounded or sham-grounded for an hour while seated in a comfortable recliner chair.

References
1. http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/acm.2011.0820
2. Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, et al. Earthing (grounding) the human body reduces blood viscosity: A major factor in cardiovascular disease.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2013; 19(2): 102-110.
3. G. Chevalier. “Grounding the human body improves facial blood flow regulation: results of a randomized, placebo controlled pilot study,” Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, 2014; 4(6): 293–308.
4. G. Chevalier, G. Melvin, T. Barsotti. “One-hour contact with the Earth’s surface (grounding) improves inflammation and blood flow – A randomized, double-blind, pilot study,” Health, vol. 7, pp. 1022-1059, 2015. http://www.scirp.org/Journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=58836
5. J.L. Oschman, G. Chevalier and R. Brown. “The effects of grounding (earthing) on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and immune diseases,” Journal of Inflammation research, 2015; 8: 83-96. 
https://www.dovepress.com/articles.php?article_id=21001

For more information on grounding research and observations, visit www.earthinginstitute.net

Stephen Sinatra, MD, FACC, FACN, CNS, a board-certified cardiologist and certified psychotherapist, with more than 35 years of experience in helping patients prevent and reverse heart disease, specialized in integrative cardiology combining conventional medical treatments with complementary nutritional and psychological therapies. 
Now retired from clinical practice, Dr. Sinatra lectures widely on the metabolic approach to cardiovascular disease and electromedicine. 
Dr. Sinatra, Clinton Ober, and Martin Zucker are co-authors of the Earthing book.
Dr. Sinatra is also co-author of The Great Cholesterol Myth and is the host of the popular, informational website www.heartmdinstitute.com.

Note:  Complimentary Earthing books and products were provided to this site for evaluation purposes.

February 2017

Related Articles on spacedoc.com

• Improve Your Circulation Naturally − Connect to the Earth 2 of 3
• Improve Your Circulation Naturally − Connect to the Earth 3 of 3