Earthing

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Earthing Tips: Feet Too Cold on the Earthing Mat?

With winter approaching in Australia (summer in the Northern Hemisphere), Earthing distributor Linda McNair began to feel the chill in her feet.

“I love using the Earthing mat and my feet are planted on it every day while I’m at my computer,” she says. “However, with the chilly winter weather I need to put socks on to keep my feet warm.  I could move the mat to under my hands, but I’d rather not. I feel more strongly grounded when it’s the bottom of my feet that are connected.  So I decided to do a little experimenting with socks to see how much conductivity would be lost by wearing them. It made sense to me that socks may be more conductive if they have a small amount of silver or copper in them. I did a quick search on the Internet and found both silver- and copper-threaded socks.  With a click of a button they were on their way to me. I then did a little test with my voltmeter and included ‘everyday’ socks and stockings to see which ones conducted the best.”

Here are Linda’s results:

Situation & voltmeter reading (in volts)

Ungrounded
Standing on carpeted floor in office   1.260

Grounded
Standing on mat barefoot         0.016
Standing on mat with an “everyday” sock   0.420
Sitting, with feet on mat with “everyday” sock after half-hour 0.100
Standing on mat with nylon stockings       0.100
Standing on mat with silver-fiber socks     0.030-0.016
Standing on mat with copper-fiber socks   0.023

What Linda was doing was testing the induced ambient alternating current (AC) voltage on her body while wearing a variety of socks. She conducted her test in her office where she has a variety of computer equipment, phones, and lamps. Such electrical equipment, as well as the wiring in the wall, emits electromagnetic fields (EMFs). 

As Linda’s experiment reveals, wearing silver and copper socks reduced the AC charge on her body nearly as well as being barefoot. However, wearing nylons and “everyday” socks, as she describes them, permits significant reduction, too.  The important issue here is how well grounded you are so that your body receives the electrons from the Earth.  The readings she obtained show that the socks and nylons permit the necessary conductivity, some a tad better than the others. The differences, in the cause of Earthing, are unimportant. Linda correctly points out that bare feet are best but she offers some practical options for folks who need to wear socks at work or keep their feet warm.

The options:

1)  Wear silver or copper socks.  Our preference would be silver, if you choose to go this route.
2)  Use thin, “everyday” socks. Your feet will naturally sweat and will hydrate the socks making them conductive enough for Earthing purposes.
3)  One of Linda’s recommendations is to cut a small oval hole out of each sole around the K1 point (the area where the ball and instep meet).  “You still basically have your bare feet on the mat and the rest of your foot is kept warm.”

Thanks to Linda for sharing her experiment and suggestions with us.  If you have any good tips related to Earthing, let us know with a message to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)