Is there any science behind the practice of ‘grounding’ or ‘grounding’?

After a long day, there’s little doubt that a walk in nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.

But according to “earthing” proponents, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, but the current from the Earth.

Also known as “grounding,” grounding is a growing practice that suggests placing your bare feet on the ground balances your electrical charge, helping to regulate inflammation, mood issues, and more.

But is there any science behind it?

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Norman Swan recently called the practice “complete bloody nonsense” and the health claims “nonsense” on ABC Radio National’s What’s That Rash?

Grounding is a word used by scientists – not just in the way of rebalancing health.

According to Karen Livesey, a theoretical physicist at the University of Newcastle, “grounding” has long been used as a physics term, where it refers to the process of removing an accumulation of too many positive or negative charges.

But the lack of argument is unlikely to make a person sick.

“The fact that we’ve been lifting for many thousands of years throughout human history seems to indicate that it won’t be harmful to us,” Dr Livesey said.

Grounding requires a conductor

Most people will have experienced static electricity, which occurs when negative or positive charges build up on your skin.

This is a fairly regular phenomenon and occurs due to the friction of two objects sliding against each other, where one object gains electrons and the other loses them. This creates an object that is slightly positive and one that is slightly negative.

Walking on carpets, playing with balloons or sliding down playground slides can result in these loads, which can sometimes make your hair stand on end.

We’ve known about static electricity since at least ancient Greece.

“They didn’t have balloons back then,” Dr Livesey said.

“They had rabbit fur and amber sticks and they knew they could rub them together and create this magical static electricity to impress three-year-olds.”

But these excessive fees don’t last forever.

These extra electrons try to get away from each other by spreading out as much as possible, ending up in your hair, which causes it to stand up.

And at some point it will leave you when you touch a conductor, which can be anything from a piece of metal to an unsuspecting friend. This is what physicists mean when they talk about grounding.

But it’s not just metal or other objects that can function as a conductor. Even the Earth itself does this.

“The Earth has an overall negative electrical charge … and because the overall system of the Earth’s atmosphere should be neutral, that means there are positive electrical charges in the atmosphere,” Dr Livesey said.

“When we touch the Earth, there will be a transfer of electrons so that we have the same electrical potential.”

What about grounding practice?

For earthing proponents, it’s the Earth’s ability to shed extra electrons — which they call “vitamin G” — that supposedly produces the practice’s positive effects.

While getting outside and spending time in nature has been linked to mental health benefits, the idea that chronic illness could be caused by an electrical imbalance between us and the Earth “makes no sense”, Dr Swan said.

Those who practice earthing believe that you can also get the benefits internally by using a variety of different products, including what is known as an earthing floor.

These are plastic mats that go into the power point, but only connect to the third, bottom hole.

In a home, that bottom hole in a power point does not provide electricity, but instead is connected to Earth to protect against electrical faults.

But Dr Livesey said the practice of grounding – using a mat or anything else – was unlikely to have any health benefits at all.

“From a physics point of view, there is no process that I can think of where an excess or lack of electrons on the surface of our body can affect our health,” she said.

“There are 10 octillion [a 1 with 28 zeros after it] electrons in our body. Being a few electrons short – when compared to Earth’s charge – is very unlikely to change the way our bodies use electricity to work.”

Electric charges also exist in nature

Nature has been working with positive and negative charges long before humans invented a way to make it power our modern lives.

The interaction between bees and flowers is an example.

Flowers, being part of the Earth, are slightly negative, while flying bees produce a positive charge.

Bees can sense the electric field of flowers, and it is this static electricity that causes the bees to end up covered in pollen.

When the bee visits the next flower, that already positively charged pollen is thrown back onto the plant.

“A flower is a little lightning bolt,” said Dr Livesey.

“[Bees] They actually have to fly around for a long time to get their positive charge back so they can go and be attracted to a flower again.”

Electrical charges also play a vital role in the human body.

“How our cells talk to each other, how they have immune responses, how neurons in the brain fire, it’s all about sending electrical charges,” said Dr Livesey.

Positive elements or “ions” such as potassium and sodium, along with negative ones such as chloride, exist in varying concentrations inside and outside the cell.

As the cell performs various functions, these ions switch places, which allows nutrients in and out, aids transport, and regulates cell size.

While Dr Livesey says it takes more than static electricity to unbalance this system, there are some diseases and poisons that can.

Epilepsy is caused by an excessive burst of electrical activity in the brain, and spider and snake neurotoxins can interfere with the movement of electrical charges, which can damage or even kill neurons.

Listen to Dr Norman Swan and Tegan Taylor unpack why scientific studies on earthing are so difficult to analyze on What is that rash? AND subscribe to the podcast for more.