http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/index/ en martinzucker@sbcglobal.net Copyright 2013 2013-01-31T00:13:21+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/earthing_book_going_global/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/earthing_book_going_global/#When:23:13:21Z The Earthing book is now out in Swedish, German, Korean, Italian, Finnish, Dutch, Spanish, French, Russian, and Polish!  Coming in 2013:  Earthing in Danish, Chinese, and Greek. 2013-01-30T23:13:21+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/grounded_wine/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/grounded_wine/#When:20:50:56Z               By Karin Larka (Karin Larka is a retired, award-winning California educator whose experience spans pre-school children, the arts, gifted pupils, and graduate students) Provence, a scenic region of hilltop villages full of mountains, valleys, forests, and rivers, is one of the oldest wine-growing areas of France.  It is there that my husband and I travel each fall to enjoy the precious beauty and tranquility that this area offers – so different from the hot and dry central valley of California where we live.  We also go for the wines, which range from light, fresh, and fruity, to deeper in color and taste. One of our happiest discoveries has been the Montirius Winery, located near the village of Sarrians in the southern Rhône Valley. The winery produces magnificent organic wines − Vacqueyras, Gigondas, and Côtes du Rhône – and, as we have learned, has been using an Earthing concept in the processing since 2002. Montirius is always our first stop after picking up our rented car in Avignon. Each year we buy enough wine for family and friends as well as ourselves. It is the only wine we drink there and we thought the exquisite taste was due solely to the winery’s self-sustaining, organic applications, inspired by famous Austrian philosopher and metaphysicist Rudolf Steiner nearly 100 years ago.  But we learned otherwise. Montirius, it turns out, “earths” their wine vats.  Several years ago that wouldn’t have had much meaning for us. But in 2010, we read the Earthing book and were intrigued enough to try the concept ourselves. From our first night’s sleep on an Earthing sheet, our experience has been so extraordinary that we have become “Earthing Ambassadors.”  We tell everybody about Earthing. Our health has dramatically improved as we experience deep restorative sleep, sharper mental acuity, and reduction in inflammation and muscle pain. The depression I suffered left after a month and most importantly, we believe Earthing kept my husband alive when a medical mix-up delayed an urgently-needed surgery for two weeks following a stroke. In our first visit to France after reading the book, we traveled up the road to Mont Ventoux, one of the highest, steepest, and most difficult climbs of the Tour de France.  We wanted to experience – although in a car – what the Tour cyclists had to go through and imagined just how big a help Earthing could be to cyclists in such a grueling race.  Below Mont Ventoux are countless vineyards, that are so delightful to explore, and among them is Montirus. Montirius is a serene place that we have come to love. It is the largest winery in the area, the property of the Saurel Family for five generations. The current owners, Eric and Christine Saurel, made the unusual decision to grow their grapes “bio-dynamically* − they were the first French vintners to do so − and also to allow the juice to birth into wine and mature in “earthed” vats.  Sitting outside their home recently, and sipping wine (of course), Christine explained to us how their wine is earthed and what it means to the wine-making process. When a specific field with its specific variety of wine is harvested, the harvest goes into its own vat. There are 55 vats in all, and the content of each vat matures at its own rhythm. Unlike many wineries that mix their harvests, no other harvest is added to that particular vat. The aging process extends over two years and then the content is bottled. Each of the stainless steel and concrete vats are grounded with copper wire.  “We did experiments,” Christine further explained, “and discovered that if we earthed the vats, the process of separation in wine-making was speeded up.  It happens immediately…in a few hours. Without the Earthing, the separation process could take much longer. Many days or weeks. It eventually happens, but never as fast.”  The separation process refers to when the liquid separates into the opaque and transparent juices. This occurs before the liquid actually becomes wine, and before the alcohol enters the juice in the fermentation process. “It is difficult to know if the wine tastes different or better as a result of the Earthing because the wine was always good and continues to be so,” Christine said.  The strategy really goes beyond taste, to simulating, with a ground wire in each vat, a connection to the Earth’s energy during the wine-making process that the grapes naturally have during the growing process in the field. “It’s about a better way to maintain life in the liquid during the alcoholic fermentation and aging in the tanks, and beyond, so that each bottle contains as much of the life and energy given by the soil and vines to the grapes.” Whenever we visit Montirius, other visitors and winery “hoppers” drop in to the tasting room. From what we have witnessed, the comments are always quite positive, a confirmation by individual palates of the many awards that Montirius has won over the years. For those interested in “grounded wine,” visit the Montirius website at http://www.montirius.com 2013-01-06T20:50:56+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/earthing_for_lyme_patients_go_slow/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/earthing_for_lyme_patients_go_slow/#When:03:59:21Z By Alix (Alix is the online name used by the co-founder of http://www.spirochicks.com, a collaborative Lyme lifestyle blog, with hundreds of subscribers and followers)  −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−− Lyme Disease Facts ● Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted by the bite of an infected tick. ● The condition was first reported in the U.S. in 1975 and has now been documented in Canada, Europe, the U.K., Russia, Africa, and Latin America. The Centers for Disease Control reports about 30,000 new cases per year in the U.S., an incidence the agency says is grossly under-reported. The reason, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, is likely because of poor recognition of symptoms by doctors, and because screening tests miss 35% of culture-proven Lyme disease.    ● Lyme disease is usually treatable soon after an infectious bite with at least a month of antibiotics. However, it can become chronic when it is undertreated or when it is left untreated. ● Early symptoms can include: a bull’s eye rash (not all cases), flu-like symptoms, and joint pain ● Late symptoms can become disabling and can include neurological manifestations like facial palsy, loss of cognitive abilities, sleep disturbances, and heart abnormalities.  ● Controversy exists over the cause of long-term Lyme symptoms despite use of antibiotics.  −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−− In 2003, I bought the wood-cut print pictured above and hung it up on a wall in my house. I had no idea why I was attracted to this piece of art.  At the time, I was very ill but had no diagnosis. A few years later I was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease. It’s now obvious why I was attracted subconsciously to the image of a barefoot woman holding a plant. Those were the two keys to my healing from a decades-long case of Lyme disease: Earthing and herbal medicine. Earthing is profoundly healing for people with Lyme, as I and many in the SpiroChicks group have discovered.  Aside from going gluten-free in 1999, nothing else has boosted my health so dramatically and rapidly as Earthing.  Like me, anyone can enjoy the many benefits of Earthing, such as: ● The ability to fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply ● Reduced pain and inflammation ● Feeling of calm My personal journey to optimal healing with Earthing was a bumpy one.  I learned, and others have learned as well, that Lyme patients have to proceed slowly and cautiously because it is possible to Earth too much too soon if you suffer with Lyme. As an example, I offer a chronicle of my own experience. I first Earthed in fall 2010 after hearing about Earthing at a health conference. I felt a sense of calm immediately after I placed an Earthing band around the ball of my foot, centering the contact point on my sole (over the acupuncture point called Kidney 1).  I slept Earthed for the first time in my conference hotel room, and felt as though I fell asleep faster and slept a bit better than normal for someone with normally raging insomnia. My permanent headache – a problem I’d had for 16 years − abated significantly while at the conference. When I returned home, I continued Earthing all night with the band around my foot, on the K1 point.  My sleep improved to the point where, after a few weeks, I felt brave enough to stop cold turkey my prescription sleep medication. I was gratified to experience no trouble sleeping through the night. I didn’t miss the medication or the awful “hangovers” it gave me. (Note: I’m not recommending this to anyone on an addictive sleep med!).  I also dumped my other sleep supplements except melatonin.  I kept that because my body makes a lower than normal amount of its own melatonin. Without prescription sleep meds and most of my sleep supplements, I kept sleeping well. That meant having deliciously long nights where I slept like a baby, sometimes for more than 12 hours. You can’t imagine how welcome this was after many nights of all-nighter insomnia for about eight years.  At some point, I decided to change my connection from a grounded wall outlet to a dedicated Earthing ground rod. I don’t recall what happened, but some Lyme patients in our SpiroChicks forum have said this change was noticeable to them. Then, I got an Earthing recovery bag, thinking that “more is better.”  It turned out to be too much exposure for me. A familiar and horrifying feeling returned – I went to bed as normal, feeling very sleepy, yet could not nod off for the entire night. I remained completely aware of my surroundings all night. The next day I had my trademark post-insomnia symptoms that render me non-functional – dizziness, a feeling of being “drunk,” and terrible pain in my head and body. I guessed that Earthing had caused a setback of insomnia, likely due to amplified Herxheimer and/or detoxification reactions.  Let me explain those phenomena as they relate to Lyme patients: ● Individuals undergoing Lyme treatment sometimes experience Herxheimer reactions, an odd phenomenon where one feels worse because bacterial die-off produces an inflammatory event.  Some people associate fatigue, nausea, and fever with “herxing.” Herxheimer reactions can also cause previously experienced Lyme symptoms to temporarily reappear. ● Earthing may also increase the body’s ability to detoxify − the actual cleaning out through our organs, of dead bacterial debris, such as Lyme spirochetes, and their resultant endotoxins. We can have detoxification reactions when the liver, kidneys, lymphatics, colon or skin become overloaded and are unable to manage the demands placed on them. Detoxification is notoriously impaired in long-term Lyme patients’ bodies. Based on patient reports, it’s possible that Earthing increases the capacity of one or more of these systems to eliminate toxins, but that the body retains bottlenecks in other organs that then get overloaded. The list of detox symptoms is long but can include fatigue, joint or muscle pain, skin rashes, sleep disturbances, irritability, and headaches. I was still strongly convinced that Earthing was good for me, so I decided to go back to placing the band around my foot, which had caused wonderful initial benefits and no discomfort at all. I took the recovery bag off my bed for a while. The strategy worked. I did pretty well with sleep and was gradually able to build back up to Earthing my entire body on an Earthing sheet, without an uptick in insomnia. There is no doubt that my reaction was a Lyme-specific reaction: too much Earthing too quickly. This experience is actually quite common among Lyme patients.  It doesn’t mean that Earthing’s benefits − like pain reduction and better sleep − will not occur.  It just means that Lyme patients need to go slowly when they start Earthing.  It’s important to gradually build up the duration and amount of the body that is Earthed, so you don’t get slammed with a Herxheimer or detox reaction. Lee Cowden, M.D., a well-known integrative physician and natural Lyme practitioner, directs Lyme patients to Earth for 15–30 minutes a day, building up to 3 hours while awake. Once a patient can Earth for 3 hours in the day, he says the patient can then try sleeping Earthed overnight. Due to oftentimes quick provocation of reactions, some of my friends with Lyme have gone very, very slowly, at first only touching the metallic contact on a grounded Earthing band for 5 or 10 minutes per day. Some got a reaction, sometimes described as nausea, sometimes described as “detoxing too quickly,” even at this very minimal level. Some, like me, reacted quite positively at first. Many reported that once they weathered the temporary rough spots they experienced pain and headache reduction, better sleep, clearer thinking, a more alkaline body, and even improved excretion of heavy metals. Others never endure a negative reaction, and just enjoy the benefits. Still others report no apparent symptom benefits. We don’t know yet how many Lyme patients fall in each group. To me, the fact that Earthing causes Herxheimer and detox reactions in Lyme patients suggests it must be inherently healing, as it’s hard to imagine that touching Mother Earth could ever cause ill health.  What fascinates me, and demands study, is the reasons why the Earth may help Lyme patients heal. Although we only have hypotheses as to why Earthing can cause people with Lyme to Herx and detox, it’s good to begin somewhere. From my investigations there are a few factors that could contribute: ●  Blood thinning: Earthing’s ability to thin the blood may allow the antibiotics used to treat Lyme to penetrate more deeply into tissue and access spirochetes. Thinner blood may also allow detox pathways to function better, by physically making it easier for blood to pass through smaller spaces. ●  Blood oxygenation: Increased blood oxygenation from Earthing would also be detrimental to circulating spirochetes, causing more die-off than normal. More oxygenation could also contribute to improved detoxification. ● Prevention of Cysts: Steven Phillips, M.D., said at a 2004 Lyme conference that prescription blood thinners “appear to disrupt the formation of spheroblasts (cysts) in the bloodstream.” Lyme-literate MDs theorize that Borrelia Burgdorferi (Bb), the Lyme pathogen, form cysts as a defense mechanism when under threat from antibiotic treatment. Maybe, like prescription blood thinners, Earthing’s blood thinning effects somehow disrupt cyst formation, too?  If so, does this mean Earthing could help a Lyme patient’s body slow the formation of cysts in the first place? ● Cyst Breakage: Earthing book co-author Steven Sinatra, MD suggests that the Earth’s natural frequencies might cause entrenched Bb cysts to open and deliver spirochetes to the bloodstream where they are more susceptible to antibiotics. At this point, without Lyme-specific research, we can only speculate about the responses to Earthing but we can begin to create an Earthing strategy. My personal Earthing strategy is to sleep Earthed and work at my desk Earthed. I also seek out other Earthing opportunities such as walking barefoot on the beach and wearing Earthing flip flops as I walk outside. I’m happy that after three years of herbal Lyme treatment and after experiencing a sharp and unmistakable diminishing of symptoms starting with daily Earthing in fall 2010, I was able to stop treating the Lyme in Spring 2012! Severe headaches and brain fog are largely a thing of the past thanks to Earthing. My joint pain is much reduced. I feel calmer and ready to sleep as soon as I connect to the Earth for the night. Sleep is still a demon I fight each night, but it is more good than bad, and my baseline is much improved due to Earthing. The more I learn about Earthing and Lyme, the more my thoughts return to that painting of the woman with bare feet. I’m convinced my subconscious knew more about my plan for healing than I did.  I can also accept that the Earth knows more about healing our bodies than we’ll ever be able to prove. *  *  *  If you are interested in a lively discussion about the Earthing experiences of Lyme patients, please click here:  http://www.spirochicks.com/2011/02/earthing-lyme-hypotheses.html Thanks to Scott Forsgren, who hosts another informational Lyme disease website http://www.betterhealthguy.com for contributing to this article. 2012-12-21T03:59:21+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/earthing_and_multiple_medications/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/earthing_and_multiple_medications/#When:01:05:46Z In the Earthing book, as well as in previous Earthing reports here, we have written about the need for caution when someone on medication considers starting Earthing.  We have specifically singled out the categories for blood thinning, hypertension, thyroid and blood sugar. You can read our previous articles by clicking on these links: http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/blog/2010/05/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/blog/2011/05/ Please review them if you, a friend, or family member, has just started Earthing or are interested in starting, and are under a doctor’s care, or if you are considering recommending Earthing to somebody being treated by a doctor. There is another aspect to this issue we would like to bring to your attention: when somebody takes multiple medications, as is often the case with elderly individuals or those with serious health complications. In these situations, we strongly recommend not starting Earthing until a discussion takes place about Earthing’s multiple physiological effects and potential effect on medication dosage with the doctor or health professional involved. Earthing promotes a variety of improvements in the function of the body. Such improvements, to be sure, are welcome, but one byproduct could be that a specific medication dosage may no longer be applicable simply because the body is working better. An overdose situation could develop. Symptoms of overdose could appear. For somebody taking a single medication, or perhaps two, such symptoms may be apparent, and easily remedied by consulting with one’s doctor and reducing the dosage. When multiple medications are involved, the situation is more complex. Multiple interactions could occur as different medications affect each other. There might be some roughness as part of an initial healing effect as well. For this reason, someone taking multiple medications should NOT start Earthing until he or she has talked about it with their health professional.  Earthing is relatively new. Most doctors have not heard about it or don’t know just how significantly it can influence the physiology. Until there is more research and Earthing becomes more mainstream, this issue is a challenge. Doctors have the best interests of their patients at heart, so our advice is to always follow your doctor’s advice.  He or she may say no, because of unfamiliarity with Earthing, or be open to it provided there is close monitoring of medications and reporting of any unusual reactions.  Earthing is simple and natural.  But even a half-hour or so of exposure – outdoors or indoors – can start generating benefits for some people.  So one cautious approach, and one which a doctor may be more inclined to support, is to start very slowly, with maybe 20 or 30 minutes Earthing exposure, and then very slowly increase. In other words, don’t jump in and sleep grounded the very first time. This way the body can gradually acclimate to the Earth’s energy.  In any case, please be prudent and speak to your doctor or health professional first. 2012-12-01T01:05:46+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/the_ultimate_earthing_bed_or_ultimate_bed_bug_bed/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/the_ultimate_earthing_bed_or_ultimate_bed_bug_bed/#When:03:21:18Z Thanks to Claus Henriksen in Denmark for bringing this creative down-to-Earth bed to our attention. 2012-08-25T03:21:18+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/shifting_lives_with_earthing_a_psychiatrists_perspective/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/shifting_lives_with_earthing_a_psychiatrists_perspective/#When:21:57:40Z Tracy Latz, M.D. I love digging in the dirt and feeling my connection to the Earth. I find walking barefoot in the grass to be a great stress reducer. As a young girl, I used to run around barefoot with my siblings during the warm summer days, and recall how free and wonderful it felt. My father, a rural doctor, would always yell at us about the danger of cutting our feet or stepping on a nail. We would just laugh it off and continue romping barefoot. In my psychiatric practice, I often recommend Earthing to patients as part of an integrative approach to healing.  In my mind, it is in alignment with the ancient medical doctrine of “Primum non nocere” – which means “First, do no harm.”  Some of my patients are open to the concept of Earthing.  Others aren’t. Some will say, “I don’t have enough time to stand or walk outside barefoot” or “I don’t want to pay for an Earthing mat or sheet.”  Patients who do follow my recommendation to “Earth,” and there have been dozens of them, tend to have good responses.  They are individuals with a wide variety of emotional, mental, and physical problems, and often combinations of problems. They often tell me afterward they feel much better. One of the first things patients tell me after they start Earthing is that they sleep so much better at night.  This is a big deal for many of my patients.  I recall two recent patients who came in to see me a day apart. Both had been on vacation with their families and found that they didn’t need to take their usual sleeping pills or over-the-counter melatonin when away from home, but then slept poorly again once they returned to their home.  I asked both of them where they had been. Both had been at the beach, where they had been walking barefoot, sitting on the sand, and dipping in the ocean water. They said they slept so well, and their mood and pain was so much better when at the beach.  This, of course, happens often on seaside vacations, but people rarely connect it to being barefoot or in the water. In my practice, I have noted that Earthing can help psychiatric patients in the following ways: ● For those with anxiety (post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, etc.), reconnecting with the Earth can assist with an improved sense of safety. By improving sleep architecture, Earthing can help normalize serotonin levels in the brain as it decreases cortisol (an anxiety-inducing hormone). When cortisol levels are high, there is a tendency to go into ‘fight-or-flight’/panic responses to stressful situations and become more easily angered or irritable. As cortisol levels decrease and stabilize, we become more centered, peaceful and calm. In short, we get more easily into our heart and have more compassion for our self as well as for others. ● For those with depression, Earthing can assist with stabilizing serotonin levels as noted above. Serotonin assists with decreasing crying spells, near-tearfulness, and obsessive/repetitive negative thoughts. When depressive symptoms decrease, energy levels improve and tolerance to stressful situations, pain, or discomfort improves. I have had many chronic pain patients referred to me from pain management doctors.  Many have not responded well to, or are resistant to, taking medication.  With Earthing, they often have decreased inflammatory problems overall. I’ve seen a lot of people with gluten intolerance and irritable bowel symptoms who have significantly improved by connecting to the Earth.  While they may not be completely cured, their GI and stomach issues are better.  Their pain is better and so is their anxiety.  Some patients, I have found, stop Earthing after their anxiety gets better, and I have to remind them about what helped them get better.   I recommend Earthing to anyone with an auto-immune condition.  Two patients with systemic lupus erythematosis are feeling much better after they began Earthing. Their primary doctors attribute their improvement to “a calm period” in their disease process.  Another patient developed a rare form of lupus – anticardiolipin antibody – that can cause a narrowing and irregularity of the blood vessels, blood clots, and the potential for stroke or heart attack.  Previously, she had experienced symptoms of fibromyalgia and an assortment of problems that doctors had a hard time figuring out. She’s been labeled in the past with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and bipolar disorder.  This obviously is not a woman in good shape.  Although she gets fatigued, she’s doing much better now after Earthing and her doctors can’t believe she’s as active as she is.  She has five horses and in the early evening after it cools off, she will go out and feed her horses barefoot, and then sit or lay for a few hours on the Earth. Weather permitting, of course.  She’s been doing this for a year or two and says she feels much better, calmer, more peaceful, and quiet in regards to her anxious mind chatter. This practice of hers I strongly believe has prevented her condition from progressing. I see many patients with chronic fatigue, people who have exhausted their adrenal hormones.  Most of these people have a history of intense stress. With Earthing, they are much less fatigued and calmer. As their sleep cycle improves, the adrenal issues start improving, and they start to pick back up in their energy level and feel better.   One of my friends is a computer systems programmer for a major bank. He works with multiple computer screens around him for up to 10 hours a day 6 or 7 days per week and is always under pressure answering SOS calls and fixing this or that glitch in the nationwide system.  He’s so busy that he hardly has any time to relax.  The pace is wearing him down and aging him at an alarming rate.  One day I brought him a present – an Earthing mat.  I told him to place it under his bare feet at his desk since that’s where he spends the biggest chunk of his time.  He called me the next day.  This is how the conversation went: “I just wanted to tell you that I love my ‘fizzy feet,” he said. “Fizzy feet?” “Yeah, I can feel the fizzies in my feet and coming up my legs,” he explained.  “I really feel good for the first time in a long time.  And I slept so well.” My friend is sticking with it, and enjoying his ‘fizzies’ and feeling good. As far as my own Earthing experience is concerned, I immediately slept more soundly and deeply on the Earthing sheet that I started using in 2011. I have also experienced much less pain in my left knee that had been intermittently nagging at me for a dozen years after I chipped a divot of bone out of my femur in a freak accident.  Now I only get rare slight twinges when the weather gets real cold suddenly or there are abrupt changes in atmospheric pressure.  I sent my mother an Earthing sheet for her fibromyalgia-like and chronic pain symptoms. She was able to work in the garden for the first time in three years. She now sleeps through the night, which she wasn’t doing before, and can walk down stairs normally instead of one step at a time. My three teenagers each sleep with an Earthing sheet because they are very active. My eldest is a musician and had previously reported chronic neck and should muscle tension from holding a trombone or large cymbals at attention out in front of her during either marching band or indoor drumline competitions. My two sons are athletes – playing high school football and lacrosse. All three report they rest better, have less muscle inflammation, and more rapid recovery from injuries since Earthing.  (Tracy Latz, M.D., M.S., is an integrative psychiatrist in private practice in Mooresville, a suburb of Charlotte, NC. She has worked in state, county, and community psychiatric and mental illness facilities in the past. She specializes in shifting lives that are stuck in relationships, circumstances, and illness.) 2012-08-17T21:57:40+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/rapid_benefits_an_earthing_1-hour_time_trial/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/rapid_benefits_an_earthing_1-hour_time_trial/#When:16:50:22Z A 2012 women’s wellness conference in Southern California was the setting for an informal experiment to measure how fast Earthing could influence the experience of vitality.  About 100 women in attendance filled out questionnaires before and after a one-hour talk on Earthing. The questionnaire covered individual assessments of about energy, pain, stress/irritability, mood, circulation, and flexibility.  About half the audience was familiar with Earthing. Here’s how the experiment was set up. When the women entered the hotel conference room, they received a “goody bag” containing the questionnaire, a pen, an Earthing patch and cord, and a pocket mirror that lights up. Why the mirror?  So they could easily view themselves before and after the talk, and see how they looked.  Once seated, they filled out the “before” section of the questionnaire asking for their subjective impressions on how they felt, using a 1-10 scale. Prior to the presentation, an Earthing wiring system had been laid out throughout the room that allowed each seated attendee to place the patch on the bottom of one foot, and then connect the cord to the room-wide system.  The system was connected to grounded wall outlets. At the end of the talk, everyone filled out the “after” section of the questionnaire.  The results were “phenomenal,” demonstrating just how rapidly Earthing can enhance a woman’s vitality, and “likely a man’s as well, although guys being guys they might be more reluctant to admit it,”    said Christy Westen, D.C., who gave the talk on Earthing. Here are the questions that were asked and the results: ● Question # 1 Energy Before (or after) Earthing, my energy levels are:  a numerical range from Horrible, to OK, to Magnificent. 78% reported more energy, on average an increase of about 40%. ● Question # 2 Pain The level of pain in my body before (or after) Earthing is:  a numerical range from Extremely painful, to OK, to I am pain-free. 60% of those with pain said they had less pain at the end, and an average decrease of about 30% ● Question # 3 Stress My level of stress and irritability before (or after) Earthing is:  a numerical range from Terrible, I am extremely stressed, to OK, to I feel calm/centered. 77% reported less stress, on average about 50% better. ● Question # 4 Mood My overall mood before (or after) Earthing is: a numerical range from Terrible, I feel extremely low, to OK, to My mood is wonderful. 82% said their mood had improved, with an average of 40%. ● Question # 5 Complexion Before (or after) Earthing, when I look into the mirror, my face looks: a numerical range from Dull & Pale, to OK, to Vibrant & full of color. 73% thought they looked better, with an average improvement of 38 percent. We attributed the change to improved circulation and more calmness, even from just an hour of Earthing.  ● Question # 6 Circulation Before (or after) Earthing, the temperature of my hands/feet are: a numerical range from Poor – my hands/feet are ice, to OK, to Great – my hands/feet are warm. 65% stated that their circulation had improved , and on average by 32%. ● Question # 7 Flexibility Before (or after) Earthing, if I reach down to touch my toes, my flexibility is: a numerical range from Poor, I am extremely stiff, to OK, to Excellent, I feel very flexible. 62% reported improvement, with about a 23 percent improvement. Keep in mind that these changes occurred within an hour of being seated on typically hard, uncomfortable conference chairs next to people you don’t know.   Dr. Westen summed up the experience thusly: “Most people think that creating more vitality in life requires a ton of time, effort, and sacrifice. We have to sweat it out in the gym, strenuously try to eat the perfect diet, and offload as much stress as possible.  To be sure, these are essential ingredients in a healthy lifestyle recipe, but often not so easy to accomplish. Earthing, on the other hand, requires no strain whatsoever and is, in fact, one of the easiest things you can do for your health. Until now it’s been the missing ingredient in the recipe.  But now, it’s here, and scientific research is confirming its effectiveness.  Just reconnect to the Earth, and even in one single hour you can feel a difference, sometimes profoundly so, and without any side effects!  Make it a routine part of your life, and wow, you really put yourself on a direct path to becoming simply vibrant!” 2012-08-14T16:50:22+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/how_to_optimize_the_lifespan_of_your_earthing_sheet/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/how_to_optimize_the_lifespan_of_your_earthing_sheet/#When:16:22:58Z We frequently receive inquiries from people fretting about the longevity and condition of their Earthing sheets. They may have had the sheet for a year or two and are concerned that it may be losing conductivity and no longer carrying the Earth’s healing energy through the silver fibers embedded in the fabric.  Some people say that they haven’t washed their sheet at all, or only seldom, out of fear of ruining the conductivity. We can’t give you a precise lifespan for your sheet. Every situation is different. What we can say is that that no sheet lasts forever. When a sheet does lose its conductivity, it needs to be replaced.  We have heard from folks describing the “sudden death” of sheets and from others saying their sheet gradually lost conductivity over time. By comparison, we have some Earthing sheets in use for over five years and they are still going strong. However, there is no guarantee that any particular sheet will last as long. So what can you do to protect your sheet?  Here are some “anti-aging” tips to enhance its longevity: ● If you use your sheet routinely, wash it routinely – every week or two. If you don’t wash the sheet regularly, sweat, wastes, and a variety of organic compounds excreted through your skin can build up and create a film on the sheet that can impair conductivity.  Such substances could oxidize and permanently damage the silver fibers as well. ● Wash your sheet in warm water. Set wash cycle to ‘gentle.’ Do not pour detergent directly on the sheet. Let the detergent dissolve in water first, or put the detergent in the designated machine dispenser, and then place your sheet in machine. Tumble dry on ‘low’ or ‘no heat’ setting. Remove sheet from dryer promptly. Fold to minimize wrinkles. ● Never use bleach. Bleach instantly destroys the conductivity of the silver fibers, and is typically what has happened when somebody reports “sudden sheet death.”  ● We have tested many commercial detergents, even soaked sheets in them for a week, and they do not harm the conductivity.  Make sure the detergent contains no bleach or fabric softener.  ● Don’t use any fabric softener or any drying sheets. They won’t kill the silver in one stroke, but over time they might contribute to loss of conductivity because of their chemical content. ● Do not dry clean your sheet. ● Some people like to iron their sheets. If you do it, set the iron to low heat.  ● Avoid applying creams, lotions, and essential oils before bedtime to any areas of your skin that will be in contact with the sheet. The oils contained in these products become absorbed into the fabric of the sheets and can reduce or damage conductivity. Please use such body products at an earlier time. The Bottom Line Periodically test your connected sheet with the conductivity tester. If you use the tester very often, the battery will wear out more rapidly.  The green light will become dim. When that happens, screw open the tester, remove the battery, and replace it. Replacements are available in most stores selling electronics and phones. If you suddenly realize – like from one day to the next – that the sheet isn’t giving the benefits it had been giving all along, the cause could be bleach…or the cord got disconnected from the ground source (the outlet or a ground rod cord)…or maybe an animal chewed up the cord. 2012-08-14T16:22:58+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/menopausal_transformation_a_case_history/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/menopausal_transformation_a_case_history/#When:22:47:41Z Laura Koniver, M.D. I have seen over and over how simply touching the Earth dramatically changes lives, but a recent patient of mine may have had the most dramatic transformation I’ve seen yet. She is a 53-year-old menopausal female who came to me because she was anxious, tired, and burnt out, unable to sleep, moody, and unmotivated. She had tried everything from hormone therapy to antidepressants to raw food and juicing.  Nothing seemed to really make her feel like herself again.  She felt very frustrated with conventional medicine and disappointed with alternative medicine.
She turned to me for an intuitive reading on what was going on with her body. I found that her mind was overworking and overanalyzing everything in her life without pause, effectively preventing creative and comforting energy to arise and flow through her body. My prescription was grounding.  Simple as that.  She just absolutely needed to be in a state that would promote and allow a transition. I believe there is nothing more powerful than the Earth for this. The great transition of menopause is only truly navigable if you are supported by the Earth.  Women are meant to be intimately tied to the Earth and there is no time in a woman’s life where this becomes more obvious than during the hormonal upheaval of menopause.  The Earth is a woman’s comfort, healing, and salvation as the winds of menopause blast through.  Without grounding, women can feel wired, frazzled, unsupported, depressed, and anxious.  With the Earth firmly anchoring our bodies, relieving the inflammation and stabilizing our hormones as we make this transition, the journey through becomes deeper and more meaningful, filled with inspiration and power. Two months of daily grounding literally transformed my patient from an exhausted anxious and despairing woman to a powerful, centered, grounded woman who began uncovering her passion and commitment for the second half of her life.  She touched the Earth barefoot or sat right down on it while she read a book for at least 20 minutes every day, and this was enough to change her life. Grounding to the Earth decreased her hormone swings, made her hot flashes disappear, lifted her mood, increased the quality of her sleep, and comforted her in a way she had never been comforted before. Research and scientific data can explain the anti-aging/anti-inflammatory effects of Earthing on her body and the metabolism boost, blood sugar stabilization, and higher quality sleep she is enjoying. But I know that energetically Earthing goes well beyond what we can measure.   My patient is fortified in a way far beyond just fixing an imbalance or decreasing stress on the body. She has literally reconnected to the Earth and found herself again.  She has found her passion, her reason for being, and her future.  She is radiant in a way that just a few months ago she would not have thought possible. She has now been able to replace her hormone prescription with Earthing and herbal supplements.  She has replaced her sleeping pills with Earthing and nightly meditation.  She has replaced her antidepressant with Earthing and finding meaning in her life again.  She credits Earthing with getting her life back.  I credit her with having the commitment to connect to the Earth and make it a daily routine.  I am so impressed with what Earthing has been able to accomplish in such a short period of time and the prescriptions she has been able to stop taking and the joy I hear in her voice when she talks.  She is an inspiration to me and I wanted to share her story with you here!  Thank you so much to Earthing Institute for raising awareness over this miraculous resource that is otherwise overlooked in our society. (Laura Koniver, M.D., combines intuition with conventional and alternative medicine to detect the deeper meaning behind disease. She practices general medicine in Charleston, SC.) 2012-08-05T22:47:41+00:00 http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/earthing_for_snoring_relief/ http://www.earthinginstitute.net/index.php/site/earthing_for_snoring_relief/#When:17:26:52Z Earthing attracts a good deal of attention and curiosity among healthy living and lifestyle bloggers.  One blogger was motivated recently to write about Earthing after her mother reported a huge reduction in dad’s nocturnal snoring level. “Really?” the blogger-daughter answered.  “Are you sure? Why is that?” At that point, the blogger’s mother said it was due to sleeping grounded and as proof to support what was happening in her bed she proceeded to cite several references to reduced snoring in the Earthing book (pp. 132, 151, 158).  Here at the Earthing Institute, we frequently receive notes from folks saying that their spouses or partners are no longer snoring or are snoring less, and that sleep apnea is improved.  One dentist told us that patients “using the Earthing sheets report a lot of gratitude from partners…and everyone’s snoring is much improved or eliminated.” This is a big deal – another one of Earthing’s multiple benefits.  According to a National Sleep Foundation survey in 2008, nearly 50 percent of 75,000 adults surveyed reported snoring, about 37 percent of them on a regular basis. It’s a common problem among all ages and both genders, and can cause disruptions in sleep leading to daytime dysfunction and cardiovascular disease. A serious form of snoring, called sleep apnea, involves cessation of breathing and requires medical attention. Snoring and apnea often involve inflammation of nasal and sinus passages, which is one reason why Earthing helps.  Earthing reduces inflammation throughout the body. The blog writer didn’t have a snoring problem, but said she has experienced an improved quality of sleep after she started sleeping grounded.  This was a big deal, she wrote, because she’s “a mother who has had a steady 8+ years of regularly interrupted sleep (I’ve been pregnant or nursing this whole time).  She was now “waking up refreshed with far less sleep than would normally have been required to experience the same level of alertness.”  Earthing also helped her husband’s back pain, she added. Responses to her blog included the following comments: ●  “We’ve been sleeping earthed/grounded for about a year, and it has helped my hubby and me tremendously. He has chronic sinus issues and snores a lot. Between changing our diets to be primal/paleo and sleeping grounded, he doesn’t snore much anymore. Yay! My own quality of sleep has improved tremendously too.” ● “My wife used to snore a lot. We started sleeping grounded about 6 months ago and already after a few weeks her snoring dramatically reduced. And should she snore it does not bother me anymore, as I have never slept so well. My sleep is the deepest ever. And another thing. I’m 67 years of age and getting up during the night to go to the bathroom was a normal routine.  Not any more.” 2012-07-02T17:26:52+00:00