45 Comments
User's avatar
Brian Moore's avatar

I keep seeing this grounding stuff too, but...

"if there exists a path for the current to ground you through a mat and an electrical outlet, you’re golden."

For this "tribe," I just don't get the steelman case. Sure, you could say "the average person spends a lot less time grounded with their rubber tires and shoes" and that's absolutely true, for whatever that's worth. But... why does the time matter? If I find some way, after being in my car and my shoes, to discharge that uh, charge by accidentally touching a pole or something (in the same way the mat is supposed to work) then surely I'm getting rid of it at the speed of electron transmission? Or when I walk around in my socks or barefeet in my house, or touch any other conductive surface, whoosh out it goes. This seems like every other "correlated with wealth and therefore diseases of civilization" factor that you list many of - that then falls apart when you actually try to measure it/absence-of-it with a properly controlled population.

For the naturalistic one, I am 100% on board with "being outside in the natural world is good and healthy" but how on earth would you disentangle "grounding" effects from that? Whatever method you are gonna have to study this is gonna be confounded by all those really healthy outdoors types who are walking around in insulative hiking boots.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Yea I suppose the time is not technically what matters, it'd probably something like "charge built up under the curve." But since grounding yourself immediately.. grounds you.. time is probably a reasonable proxy. If you ground yourself every minute of the day, the time under the curve will be minimal even if you tap dance with rubber soles on polyester carpet the whole time.

Agreed on the disentangling. That's why I find the isolated "electrical-only" grounding the easier experiment; I continued my lazy indoor cat lifestyle, just grounded. Making massive lifestyle changes and starting long hikes barefoot would come with 100 other possible factors.

Expand full comment
Brian Moore's avatar

please don't make me do calculus!

Expand full comment
UNIcodeX's avatar

Now I've got Bohemian Rhapsody in my head. Thanks for that...

Ah. Well.... Easy come easy go.....

Expand full comment
Brian Moore's avatar

(Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia) /

Mamma mia, let me go /

Beelzebub has electrons put inside of me, for me, for me /

Nothing really matters, anyone can see /

Nothing really matters /

Nothing really matters to me

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

*Nothing really energies to me

ftfy

Expand full comment
Brenda's avatar

I do not agree. Grounding works. I bought mine from Earthing.com. I knew I could return it if I didn’t feel a difference. If you are young you may not tell anything. I am older and all soreness was noticeably improved. It will always ground as

much as i can during the day.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Yea I used the ones from Earthing.com as well. I had the one for the bed and a smaller one for under my desk while working.

I didn't really have any soreness/joint issues at the time, so maybe that's why I didn't notice anything.

Expand full comment
Brenda's avatar

I had a friend who also felt no difference. I mentioned that I felt a reduction in soreness using the mat under my desk. I then decided to try the sleeping mat and felt more improvement. My friend got the sleeping mat and told me that she was actually sleeping BETTER! You may be getting improvement that you do not realize. Did you watch “The Earthing Movie” or read the book. Both were very convincing.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

I didn't. I actually felt like I slept slightly worse, because the sheet was less comfortable than just normal bed sheets. Felt a little like sleeping on plastic. Slippery when tossing/turning.

Expand full comment
Adam's avatar

I've been on the fence about ground for ages. I walk barefoot quite a bit and I think I notice a subtle difference, but it's hard to say.

I'm intrigued by the experiments that Jessica is doing, showing that grounding changes how red blood cells "stack" but haven't dusted off my microscope and done the experiments myself yet.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-137676591

Expand full comment
Dr. David Thor's avatar

I think it doesn't work on the fence. You have to be on the ground.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Correct. It's called grounding for a reason, not fencing.

Expand full comment
Mac's avatar

LBA isn't that useful tho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc4Q8RQKIXA

Expand full comment
Adam's avatar

Yeah, I don't know much about it. But it's still interesting that grounding reliably changes what she sees in the microscope. Whether the changes indicate anything useful is a another question ...

Expand full comment
Brian Moore's avatar

"Deuterium (I had to look up what that is)"

How canna I run the warp engines without it, cap'n?

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Engines at 50% capacity, captain! - I need you to get to 110% - For you, captain, I'll get it to 200%!

Expand full comment
Dapose's avatar

Grounding while holding a cellphone, you become the ground. You are getting reduced if grounding and sitting in an office or home with Wi-Fi touching your skin. The reason a bird can land on an electrical wire outside your window and not get blown up is because they are not grounded. The couple times I went barefoot working and had my cellphone in my pocket I got sick the next day. Two times. I can for 5 min, but when I got sick I had for at least 8 hours. (I’m a gardener so was working) Anyways, my guess is you going from 0% grounded to 80% grounded was N\A bad data, electrified environment 24/7. Health is the smooth flow of electrons from food environment to cells. I think the feeling wellbeing of grounding on grass takes about 30~60 sec. It’s not some ultra hack. Saying grounding doesn’t work is like saying washing your face doesn’t work.

Thanks for doing an experiment. I value your perspective.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

I guess it's less "grounding doesn't work" and more "grounding didn't do anything for me." Sort of like washing your face doesn't do anything if you already have a clean face?

Expand full comment
Karl Humungus's avatar

Tap water is conductive and your plumbing goes to ground, so you ground out every time you take a shower or even touch a faucet.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Yea, but I could theoretically see how that's only a couple times per day - how often do you shower/use a faucet? 5x a day? Maybe 10x. But there will be entire hours ungrounded, especially at night when you sleep.

So I could see that being grounded nearly at all times (on the grass/sleeping on the ground) would've been the evolutionary norm.

Expand full comment
Random Reader's avatar

our mats are about 3' x 4' and we have them across the foot of our bed, on top of the fitted sheet; used some of the elastic clip-straps to keep them in place. don't really notice them at all. you have to be in direct contact with the grounding sheet. and, yes made a difference in our sleep.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

The mat I got said it was ok to put under the sheet, it would still work.

Expand full comment
Stephen F. Wyndham's avatar

When my wife bought a grounding sheet, I told her she wasted her money. 3 days later, I was astonished at the difference it made for me. I’m 67 with quite a few joint injuries from my hard life. I woke up like I was in my forties, which meant I jumped out of bed not stooped over for the first 5-10 paces. When the sheet quit working in about a year, I bought a pad, which we did not like. We have since gone back to a sheet. Grounding and giving up seed oils have dramatically improved the quality of life for me and my wife.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Nice! So your sheet lasted about a year? Interesting that it would wear out. But given that these aren't that expensive, even buying a new one every year is probably easily worth it.

That's why I think this is such a good experiment to do; worst case you lost $200. Best case, your arthritis is gone!

Do you also feel like sleeping on a plastic liner with the grounding sheet under your linens? It was really noticeable for me.

Expand full comment
Stephen F. Wyndham's avatar

The grounding sheet replaced the fitted sheet on our bed. The only issue for us is the grounding sheet does not have the high thread count of our usual sheets. I gave up seed oils 10 years ago when I realized they were causing most of my arthritis. My wife is an organist and before we gave up seed oils she was taking diclofenac in order to do her job.

Expand full comment
Laggy's avatar

There are some scientific studies done. Inflammation is one are where benefits have been seen.

I’m still brand new to the concept so I’m still poking around.

I’m one of those healthy hikers that’s always wearing shoes lol

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Yea I've seen people mention those studies, but I haven't really checked them myself. That's why I just briefly mentioned them in the post. I guess my diet/lifestyle is already pretty anti-inflammatory, so maybe I just didn't need it much.

Expand full comment
Laggy's avatar

That’s also a possibility

Expand full comment
Robin's avatar

Interesting video on Dave Feldman's channel. Guy pulled himself back together after a massive heart attack using water, light and grounding among other things. The grounding apparently increases blood flow and zeta potential.

Expand full comment
Mac's avatar

Someone might move the goalposts and say your electrical system wasn't actually properly grounded to actual earth. Remember one paul saladino podcast where the guest said you need to be grounded to actual earth to get proper results, not the ground of your electrical system which might have some alternative config.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

I tested that, though. That's a huge concern w/ grounding people and they send you a meter in the package.

Expand full comment
Kim Nari's avatar

I am waiting for quantumplastics next.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

It's healthy/unhealthy at the same time until the wave function collapses

Expand full comment
Kim Nari's avatar

LOL, ty for the laugh. xD

Expand full comment
protein and veg's avatar

So you're saying that we could stop all the lightning with just a few copper wires?!

Now that sounds like *real* "appliance of science". Go for it! Start campaigning now!!!

What do you mean, "is it a good idea to stop the lightning"! Obviously ... I mean ... errr ... hmmm, well ... ok, I *guess* there might be downsides. Still - interesting thought! :-)

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Yea we just need to attach very thick copper wires to all the clouds

Expand full comment
Panagiotis's avatar

I use both grounding and red-light as recovery tools. Do I think they work? They is enough data out there (research + physiology) to suggest they work and I actually would go as far to say that they are equally important to our diet. Maybe it is just me, but do we get choose what is ancestral and what not, and part of our physiology is important and what not?

Example - Many people have drifted so far from our normal physiology, that they never even walk barefoot in the house (yes!). This creates very weak feet, ankles, knees and hips. Do people understand it? No.

In the same way I think that creating a flow of change (see all fourth phase water) is something we are based to function upon.

Does it reduce inflammation? Not sure, but for a 50 year old guy I think I recover better that the average person.

In any case I am a firm believer of the 1% change. Small changes can have a big impact in the long term.

Expand full comment
bertrand russet's avatar

how do you implement red light therapy?

Expand full comment
Dr. David Thor's avatar

Hanging out behind cars with their brake lights on is the cheapest option.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

> Maybe it is just me, but do we get choose what is ancestral and what not, and part of our physiology is important and what not?

That's true, we don't get to choose. But we also don't know which parts are important and which ones are not.

So we have to take the "complete ancestral lifestyle" and try and figure out which parts are load-bearing and which ones are not.

> Many people have drifted so far from our normal physiology, that they never even walk barefoot in the house

I know those people! So weird. I've always been barefoot unless protection is required. Just more comfortable. But I know people wearing shoes, indoors, all day.

Expand full comment
Mac's avatar

Indoor slippers at most if the floor is cold, otherwise it can get pretty gross IMO

Expand full comment
Bryan's avatar

i walk around like a crazy person in my front yard at 10am

short-shorts, no shirt for maximum skin exposure for the sun, feet on the yard. I stopped putting any kind of chemical anything on my yard for any purpose about 2y ago ...so should be safe(r) than most places.

Expand full comment
Bryan's avatar

i should add - i have no idea if this does anything for me. I've avoided PUFA for almost 3y and to be honest.. i can't tell if there's been any benefit to that either.

Expand full comment
Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Morning sunlight is definitely great, if red light is true you'll get some of that, maybe even get sweating in the summer (sauna-ish?), being in nature, literally seeing the color green, moving around a bit.. even if the grounding part does nothing, I can see this being nice :)

Expand full comment