Earthing

Friday, March 09, 2012

Multiple Benefits – The Holistic Impact of Earthing

Many different systems in the body are affected when we reconnect with the Earth.  Earthing is truly a holistic concept.  People who start Earthing because of a sleep problem or a pain problem are often surprised to experience a broad array of relief. Here are two stories we’ve received along those lines:

Lynn Deene, 65, Milo, MI

“In November 2010, when I started Earthing, I had been looking for some kind of relief for bilateral swollen and painful Achilles tendons and plantar fasciitis for over a year.  I had tried different exercises, ice packs, massage, and finally physical therapy, all with little or no relief and none with lasting effect. At the end of each day, my feet were so painful and sore, as well as my calves, that it felt like every step was torture.  It didn’t matter if my day was more or less active. Also, with the fasciitis, getting out of bed in the morning, even with doing foot and ankle exercises before putting my feet on the floor, it felt like I was standing on blocks of wood. It took several slow steps to loosen up my feet.  I also had left shoulder and upper arm pain from a fall six months earlier, which, again, had minimum relief from therapy, pain relievers, and stretching exercises.  I was also experiencing urinary frequency, headaches, fatigue that sleep didn’t relieve, other muscle aches, and a feeling of heaviness in my legs that came after a few minutes of my daily walks, and chronic knee pain from a twenty-year-old injury caused from a horse kick.

“I have led a healthy lifestyle all my life – no alcohol, no tobacco, eat well, drink lots of water, take supplements, have regular adjustments, daily exercise, and love the outdoors. 

“I first heard of Earthing when Dr. Sinatra was interviewed by Dr. Christiane Northrup. I was very intrigued, so I got the book, and then an Earthing mat. I put the mat on the floor at my computer. After a 10-hour day in front of the computer, I noticed after just a couple of days that I didn’t have the ‘normal’ headache after a few hours at work, and also, that I wasn’t nearly as fatigued at the end of the work day.  I had more energy for my after-work walk.

“I was so excited that I got a half-sheet for our bed. My husband was willing to give it a try.  After 2 weeks I had less muscle pain. After 3 weeks, I noticed that my Achilles tendons were less swollen and that they didn’t hurt at the end of the day. After 4 months, I was like a new person. My tendons looked and felt normal. The fasciitis was completely gone. The knee pain, ‘creakiness,’ and heaviness in my legs were gone. My mobility became stronger, quicker, more flexible.  I wasn’t fatigued at 10 am, as I was before.  The shoulder and arm pain was greatly relieved.  And the urinary symptoms were gone.  I didn’t have to plan my life around the availability of bathroom facilities!  Moreover, I’ve been able to lower my blood pressure medication – from 20 to 5 milligrams – with a consistently-lower reading that I haven’t seen since starting on medication more than ten years ago. The best yet is that my husband has very little muscle pain, sleeps more sound, and with less snoring, and has more energy.
 
“Looking back, almost a year-and-a-half later, did I believe all this could happen? That my pain and fatigue would be gone?  No, I didn’t. The best that I had hoped for was some relief from the tendon pain.  I was afraid that my active life was going to be severely compromised, but instead, I am able to not only enjoy more, but to do more physically.”

Karen Ball, 60, massage therapist, Beaverton, OR

“In July 2011 I was in terrible shape.  At 244 pounds, I was 80 pounds overweight. I had been suffering with serious insomnia for 22 years, sleeping maybe 2 -3 hours on average per night. I had developed an inability to break down carbohydrates and had other digestive difficulties, mild depression, bloating, 15 years of hot flashes, bone density issues, and severe arthritis and muscle contracture in my right hip that caused pain and restricted movement. Sleeping pills, mega-doses of melatonin, antihistamines, supplements, hot baths, herbs, teas, meditation, breathing exercises, relaxation CDs, and so many more things were not making much of an impact on my problems. I read everything and tried everything I found, many times over. I checked out every book the library had on insomnia, and read anything I could find on the web.

“In July 2011 I got the Earthing half-sheet and started sleeping on it. The first three nights I didn’t get any sleep, but I had massive amounts of energy from laying on it 7-9 hours per night. Within the first 2 hours I lost considerable inflammation so that my ankles which had been severely swollen now appeared normal.  I weighed myself and found I had lost 4.5 pounds of swelling those first three nights. Not real weight loss; just a very noticeable decrease of swelling. It took 6 nights before I got a good night’s sleep.  But since August of 2011 I have had 4-8 hrs of sleep every night except for 2 nights. I have had 11 nights where I have been able to sleep the night through without getting up to urinate.

“My ankles first and then the knees became normal size without the swelling. I could actually see my kneecap for the first time in five years. My pain was reduced. The contracture in my right thigh (my body trying to protect the hip) went away. The position of the femur corrected itself, and was no longer pressing against the side of the hip socket. This meant a greater range of movement, less pain, and for the first time in years, allowed me to start exercises to reverse the muscle atrophy that had developed over the last decade. Walking and other forms of exercise had been very painful. I can do those things now.

“In recent years, my hip pain and restrictions had increased to the point where at times I couldn’t manage anything greater than a four-inch stride (I am a tall woman with a 36-inch inseam). I was barely able to get my leg over the side of a tub, and had to lift my leg with y hands to get into bed or to get into a car.  My stride is 16 inches now. That’s not much for a woman of my age with very long legs, but it is so much better, and it is getting better all the time. I still walk with a cane most of the time, but when I don’t my side-to-side hip sway is less than half of what it was before. The sway increases pain so I use the cane to minimize the sway and therefore the pain.  It provides support as I get better.  My ability to bend my knees has increased.  I can cross either leg over center now and I could not before. I can lift things now that before would cause severe pain in the hip.

“My night sweats stopped.  Then my hot flashes diminished, and stopped completely in December 2011. After 15 years, it was such a relief to have them gone.

“I had a few nights of detoxification symptoms in the beginning. I drank additional water and the symptoms quickly went away.

“I had also developed arthritis in the distal joint of my right pinky.  It was swollen and bent, and painful when I put pressure on it during my work as a massage therapist. The joint has straightened dramatically (not completely yet) and is much smaller now. I can now put maximum pressure on it without any problem. I had pain in one wrist and that went away as well.

“I hadn’t realized how depressed I had been until I started having this incredible sense of well- being and return to health. It is a wonderful feeling. With the sleep I have started to lose weight (19 pounds now) for the first time in a long time.  I can do so much more now.  My capacity keeps growing and the improvements continue. It’s been a process but clearly the more time I spend Earthed, the better I feel.” 

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

One Dentist’s Earthing Experience

Chuck Munier, DMD, Augusta ME

I was trained as a mechanical engineer before I went into dentistry and normally take an engineer’s show-me attitude to new things.  So when Earthing first came to my attention as a suggestion from an enthusiastic patient, I was naturally skeptical that the concept actually worked beyond a placebo effect. However, I suspended my skepticism the first day after my first night sleeping on an Earthing sheet.

I had been suffering for a few years with a chronic foot infection that had not responded to repeated medication. After the first night I already noticed a healing process underway. By the end of the week the infection was gone, and to this day, one year later, it has never returned. This was truly a remarkable effect.

I decided I better read the book to find out what happened and how this thing actually worked as well as it did.  After reading the book and with my background in health and science it made perfect sense.  It resonated a lot with what I had been studying about inflammation and cellular biology as the basis of most disease. The Earthing book made the connection for me of the actual electrical effect on the inflammatory process and the ability to approach healing on an electrical as well as a biochemical basis.

I have been treating dental patients for 39 years now and during that time have always looked at the condition of the teeth and mouth as reflective of the health of the rest of the body. Often the mouth is the first place that changes are noticed. I have learned the value of treating the total patient not just his or her teeth. During this time I have learned by observation from countless patients that the key to avoiding and treating disease is to manage inflammation. I have seen through the years an alarming increase in the use of drugs to manage disease and although there are some good drugs that address inflammation most of my patients with ongoing problems are overmedicated and then that becomes the main problem.  Earthing added an electrical approach to the dietary, lifestyle, and exercise model that I had been using to address inflammation.

With this in mind I decided to try Earthing in my busy practice to help patients looking for relief from acute temporomandibular joint (TMJ) or jaw pain and others experiencing problems with snoring, sleeping, bruxism (teeth clenching and grinding),sinus, and headaches. To date we have had a very positive response back with reduction of acute symptoms of TMJ responding to an Earthing patch placed directly over the offending joint. Chronic problems have not responded as quickly as acute. This would be expected since they are of a long-standing inflammatory nature with adaptive changes. We are also using Earthing bands on the head at night and they have been working remarkably well with better sleep, less bruxism, more dream sleep time, less snoring and headaches, and an opening of the passages during sleep so that nasal breathing is enhanced.

From my own results and that of friends, family, and patients, Earthing works extremely well in an overall program that addresses total health and well being, and why it does so makes perfect sense to me. Earthing reconnected me personally to the Earth and to an exciting healing factor.