Earthing: How to Ground Yourself with Dr. Christy Garner

This blog post accompanies the Evolve Experience Podcast: Episode #3 with Dr. Christy Garner

Grounding is a popular topic today, and many patients inquire about whether it will help them. I asked my good friend and holistic healing chiropractor and colleague Dr. Christy Garner to talk with us about this topic, as she has used grounding to help many people with a variety of challenges. Here’s an excerpt of my interview with her.

Dr. Bill Jensen: So I’ve heard different terms for this—grounding, earthing—are these the same?

Dr. Christy Garner: Yes. It’s all the same. We’re trying to come up with a name for this foundational term. It means our bodies are designed to be connected to the earth, so it could be called earthing or grounding. It’s like how our bodies are designed to be in the sun—when the sun hits our skin, our bodies make vitamin D. We have that same intimate connection with the surface of the earth.

When we touch the earth, it’s covered with free electrons, or negatively charged particles, and our body absorbs these electrons. They all have different impacts on our bodies, but what a lot of people are familiar with is the term antioxidant. If you want to simplify this, there are many things that are toxic to us, like heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and these are often positively charged. Things that are nourishing, like fruits and vegetables and herbs, are negatively charged. So if you can flood your body with negative ions, you get the benefit of introducing antioxidants to your body. That’s why earthing is so versatile. It’s like plugging your body back into a battery charging station. That’s how many people describe the feeling, as recharging or replenishing their body.

Dr. Jensen: In our podcast we sometimes talk about how we call our show the Evolve Podcast because the world is rapidly evolving, and the human body has evolved as well over time, but not as rapidly. When you look at health and wellness you get back into what life used to be like—eating vegetables, touching the ground, being out in the sun, etc. How did you get into this topic of grounding?

Dr. Garner: The world works in interesting ways. I was invited to an autism think tank, because a lot of my practice involves childen with autism. Many of them also have severe seizure disorders. With these type of sensitivities, of course keeping their spines adjusted and their bodies well are very important things to do. But there’s also a lot going on with their digestive tracts, brain inflammation, etc., and some of these things are very difficult to treat because their systems are so sensitive. So I was at this think tank with a really interesting group of people from different disciplines and I brought up the challenge of treating seizures. You know, some of these kids were having up to a hundred seizures a day. This gentleman at the think tank said, “Why don’t you earth them?”

I didn’t know what he was talking about, so he explained the science. He shared a case history of a seizure patient who they reconnected to the earth. The way he explained it, the electrical systems in our homes are grounded, because if they weren’t we’d get static. So our bodies are the same, we have an electrical system, and we need to ground our nervous system. A seizure is like an electrical system that’s sparking, and if we ground the electrical system, maybe we can reduce some of these misfirings in the brain.

So I went back to my practice and decided to try this to help one of my patients. She was a little girl who, at the time, was having about 11 seizures a day. I told her mother that I thought grounding might help, and explained how to do it. I told her to connect her both at night and as many hours as possible during the day. She went from 11 seizures a day to only about one a week. As we worked on other ways to support her body, she eventually became seizure free.

Dr. Jensen: What are some of the other health benefits of earthing?

Dr. Garner: I’ve seen healing on several levels, clinical and also research. One of the things that’s striking about earthing research that’s different from even herbal medicine or pharmaceutical medicine, is that usually it’s considered a successful trial if some percentage of people respond. For example, if 20 percent of people respond to your treatment, that’s a success. With earthing, what was so striking is that every variable measured, 100 percent of people responded 100 percent of the time. I literally mean that.

For example, in the Zeta Potential study, they were specifically looking at oxygenation of the blood, and how red blood cells repelled each other. So when your body is very positively charged, your red blood cells start to clump together and your blood becomes sluggish. It starts heading towards ketchup, it’s too thick and can’t hold oxygen and you lose energy. When an individual touches the earth and you watch what happens in their body—they absorb negative electrons and it increases what’s called the Zeta Potential, which is like their electrical ability to repel each other. And the red blood cells would go from a flattened shape to perfectly rounded, and the blood flow became thinner and quicker. It’s almost like the blood went from thick and soupy to almost like wine, it would just start to flow. So when you think about that and the clinical applications, when you earth, immediately your flow in your body is going to improve.

Dr. Jensen: You know, the first thing that really hits home for me is the Covid pandemic going on right now. They’re still learning about the pathological process, but even though they can get air in their lungs, there’s an inability for the oxygen to bind to the red blood cell. It’s speculation, but if we’re on lockdown and not getting out and touching the earth, we’re actually compounding the problem.

Dr. Garner: Yes, and research is showing that vitamin D levels are also a factor. So when we’re inside, we’re not getting any sun, we’re not touching the earth, and we’re not moving our bodies, so our systems may be more sluggish. For all my patients, if we were going to circle back and say, what would be the two things that you can really do to strengthn your immune system in case you do face Covid, that would be to get your vitamin D levels up, and connect to the earth.

Dr. Jensen: So how do people get started on earthing?

Dr. Garner: All you need is direct skin contact with the earth. You can go barefoot on the earth or even wet sand. That’s why people feel awesome at the ocean! Wet sand, or even unfinished concrete, you can get some connecting through that. You can also touch something that is earth, like a tree. Those are all the free ways you can earth outside.

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Want more? Check out this short interview with Dr. Garner on her current daily routine and lifestyle choices at The Chalkboard Mag!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this excerpt from my interview with Dr. Christy Garner about earthing. The full podcast is available here. Remember that earthing can be used with other techniques, like our NuCalm treatments and chiropractic care, for a full body wellness experience. Be sure to come back next week for more health and wellness news!

Stay safe out there, everyone, and don’t forget – we are always offering valuable introduction packages and specials at one of our two locations in Port St. Lucie. Whether you are seeking chiropractic care for an injury or ongoing wellness, post-op physical therapy, relaxing massages, or innovative mind-body wellness services and products, you can get started with us for low introductory specials and rates. Click here to learn more!