Knowledge base

Scientific evidence for earthing: what does the literature say?

Earthing is making direct contact with the earth to restore the natural electrical balance of our body. Research shows that earthing reduces inflammation, improves sleep quality, and promotes cardiovascular health. Studies have shown that earthing improves blood circulation and reduces muscle pain after exercise. Earthing can also protect against the effects of electromagnetic fields. The scientific backing for earthing is growing, and modern earthing products from Earthle offer an easy way to integrate the benefits of earthing into your daily life.

Earthle aardingskussensloop op de bosbodem tegen een dennenstam

Earthing sounds too simple to do anything: let your skin make contact with the earth, and nothing more. Even so, it has been studied repeatedly over the past twenty years and published in scientific journals. Below is what has been measured, with study, year and number of participants, so you can look it all up yourself.

What gets measured

The earth is a source of negatively charged free electrons. Through contact, the voltage between you and the ground is evened out. That is not theory but something you can check with a multimeter, and it is exactly what most studies establish first.

In daily life that contact almost never happens: rubber soles do not conduct and we spend most hours indoors. Indoors you restore it through the earth connection of your socket. How that works technically, and why no current runs through your product, is in earthing: safe and effective.

Cortisol and sleep

In 2004 Ghaly and Teplitz had twelve people with sleep problems sleep earthed for eight weeks. Their cortisol dropped at night and the release across the day returned to its natural 24-hour rhythm. Participants also reported sleeping better and less pain. Published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

Cortisol is the hormone that wakes you in the morning and should be low at night. When that rhythm slips, you notice it in your sleep. What customers report is in better sleep through earthing.

The blood

In 2013 Chevalier and colleagues measured, in ten participants after two hours of earthing, an average 2.7 times higher charge on the red blood cells. Cells with more charge repel each other more strongly and therefore clump together less, which helps circulation. Published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

If you take blood thinners, have a quick word with your doctor before you start, and never change your dose yourself.

Mood, with a control group

In 2015 Chevalier set up the strictest design. Forty people sat for an hour, half genuinely earthed and half sham, with nobody knowing who had what. Only in the genuinely earthed group did mood improve significantly. Published in Psychological Reports.

That is exactly the trial you want to see: if nobody knows who is earthed and the difference holds, it is not coming from expectation.

Voltage on the skin

In 2017 Passi and colleagues saw skin voltage fall from 415 to 19 millivolts in twenty-six premature babies as soon as the earthing was connected, and vagal tone rise by 67 percent. Published in Neonatology.

This study carries weight, because newborns have no expectations about what earthing should do. It also shows how direct the electrical effect is: it happens within seconds.

Inflammation and recovery

The longest line of research runs around inflammation. The mechanism researchers describe: free electrons from the earth help neutralise free radicals, so inflammatory processes run less fiercely. Publications include thermographic images from before and after, and descriptions of wounds that closed faster.

That fits what athletes report about muscle soreness and recovery after exertion. Sports performance and earthing goes into that.

Electromagnetic fields

Earthing drains excess charge on your skin to the ground. That is the same measurement as above under voltage on the skin: from hundreds of millivolts to close to zero. What that means for the hours you spend beside a laptop and a router is in earthing and EMF.

Earthle does not sell medical devices and does not replace treatment. If you have health complaints, take medication, are pregnant or have an implant, talk to your doctor first.

Check it yourself

You do not have to take our word for it. You can check the 100,000 ohm resistor in the plug with a multimeter; the manual with your product explains how. And the voltage on your own skin, with and without earthing, you measure with the same device.

Read on

If you want to know what to expect yourself, what you can feel and expect is the piece to read. Just starting out? Earthing for beginners walks through the practice step by step. And the basics are in what earthing is and what it does to you.

Try it yourself

Reading research is one thing, noticing what it does for you is another. At the bottom of the shop page there is a product finder that shows in a few short questions which product and which size fit your situation.

Most of the research above is about sleep, and a sheet or a sleeping mat fits that most closely. If you want to start small, a pillowcase is the smallest step. You have thirty days to decide, so you can simply try it for a few weeks.

Measured from the inside

You do not feel it, the instruments do

Your body clears damaged cells using free radicals. When you are earthed, the radicals left over are neutralised straight away by electrons from the earth. When you are not, they take their electron from a healthy cell, and the chain reaction known as silent inflammation begins. Since 2004 this has been studied in more than twenty studies. Here is what was measured, with the number of participants, because those numbers are small and you deserve to know that.

Cortisol over 24 hours, before and after eight weeks of sleeping earthed Ghaly and Teplitz, 2004 · twelve participants

01

Cortisol follows its own rhythm again

Twelve people with sleep complaints slept for eight weeks on a conductive mattress pad. Their cortisol dropped at night, and the release across the day returned to the natural 24-hour rhythm: high shortly after waking, low at night.

Ghaly & Teplitz, 2004
J Altern Complement Med

02

The blood flows more freely

Ten participants, two hours earthed. The negative charge on their red blood cells was on average 2.7 times as high afterwards. Cells with more charge push each other away harder, clump together less, and the blood flows more easily.

Chevalier e.a., 2013
J Altern Complement Med

03

Mood noticeably improves

Forty people sat in a chair for an hour, half genuinely earthed and half sham-earthed. Nobody knew who had which. Only in the genuinely earthed group did mood improve significantly, more than the quiet hour can explain.

Chevalier, 2015
Psychological Reports

04

The voltage on your skin disappears

In a neonatal unit the voltage on the skin fell from 415 to 19 millivolts the moment the earth connection was made, roughly 95 per cent lower. Vagal tone, a measure of the capacity to recover, rose by 67 per cent.

Passi e.a., 2017
Neonatology

Voltage on the skin Passi et al., 2017 · twenty-six participants

The measurement you can take yourself

In an ordinary bedroom there is voltage on your skin, generated by the wiring in the wall and everything plugged into it. Researchers measured how much: 415 millivolts on average. The moment the earth connection was made, it dropped to 19.

This is the only number on this page you can check yourself. Set a multimeter to AC voltage, hold one probe against your skin and connect the other to the earthing cable of your product. Plug the cable in and watch what the number does.

What you see under the microscope

Red blood cells carry a negative charge on the outside. The stronger that charge, the harder they push each other away and the less they stick together. Electrons from the earth strengthen exactly that charge.

In a drop of blood before and after two hours of earthing you can see it: from stacks glued together like rolls of coins to separate cells keeping their distance.