Is Barefoot Contact With the Earth Necessary For Health?

 

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Feeling “grounded” is an increasingly uncommon experience in this day and age, and it should be, considering we no longer regularly touch the groundwith our bare feet, as nature intended.

It is no great mystery that the human foot was designed, over countless millenia, to be in direct contact with the Earth, the literal and symbolic ground of our being. And the Earth is no inert substance, but rather a living and breathing entity (of which we are but a mere part) capable of infusing us with its life, ‘singing the body electric,’ as Walt Whitman once mused.

Indeed, the Earth breathes life into us through a continual stream of free electrons…

“It is well established, though not widely known, that the surface of the earth possesses a limitless and continuously renewed supply of free or mobile electrons as a consequence of a global atmospheric electron circuit. Wearing shoes with insulating soles and/or sleeping in beds that are isolated from the electrical ground plane of the earth have disconnected most people from the earth’s electrical rhythms and free electro”

— James L Oschman, Can electrons act as antioxidants? : A review and commentary

The effects of which James Oschman speaks are not simply theoretical. There are a wide range of measurable changes in the body associated with this “grounding” including changes in pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygenation, perfusion index, and skin conductance which have been clinically studied.

Grounding has also been shown to reduce delayed onset muscle soreness, lowers and synchronizes cortisol levels during sleep, reduce inflammation, modulates neurological function, and reduce oxidative stress.

A new study published last month in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health covers this topic in greater depth, and is well worth the read.

I also encourage you to take a look at Juil.com, a relatively new range of earthing  footwear. By including copper conductors within their footwear, Juil offers a natural conduit between your feet and the earth’s surface, helping to release built-up free radicals and supporting your health and wellbeing.

By Sayer Ji

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Pluggz Grounding Shoes

Softstar Earth and Grounding Shoes

Earth Runners