Reconnecting yourself to the Earth may not produce the same effect as jump-starting a dead battery, but it does work surprisingly fast to reener-gize fatigued bodies and reduce pain. Earthing usually generates a healing response that people feel after twenty to thirty minutes. Pain reduction can occur much faster.
In an attempt to clock the speed of Earthing, so to speak, a study was organized by Dr. Chevalier to measure different physiological values before, during, and after a forty-minute grounding session. Twenty-seven healthy men and women, ages eighteen to eighty, were used in the exper-iment. They were grounded with electrode patches applied to the soles of their feet and the palms of their hands. For comparison, measurements were also taken during a similar length session of sham grounding.
Actual grounding produced the following results:
. An immediate reduction (within a few seconds) of skin conductance, indicating rapid activation of the calming-mode parasympathetic nervous system. Skin conductance is a widely accepted measure of nervous system function. This result strengthens our understanding about stress reduction and improved sleep from grounding.
. An increased respiration rate and stabilization of blood oxygenation, as well as a slight rise in heart rate. These changes occurred about twenty minutes after grounding commenced and may suggest the start of a healing response necessitating an increase in oxygen. Signs of more efficient oxygen consumption during grounding continued, as was documented, for at least ten minutes after the cessation of grounding.This fascinating observation links Earthing and a healing response to metabolic activity. We hypothesize that this metabolic activity increase is the source of the healing response and that metabolic activity increases most where the body needs more repair, such as a site of injury or acute inflammation. Interestingly, immediately after ungrounding, blood oxygenation became erratic and respiration rate became even slightly higher. The reaction suggests that the body does not like being
“unplugged” from the Earth.