Nearly half Americans suffer from high blood pressure, and the solution is sitting right beneath their feet. Scientific studies show grounding can reduce blood pressure your blood pressure by 8 points within 30 minutes!
In this article, we explore how grounding works, its effects on blood pressure and the scientific studies supporting its benefits.
Understanding Grounding: What Is It and How Does It Work?
Grounding involves direct skin contact with the Earth, such as walking barefoot on grass, soil, or sand, or using conductive grounding mats, sheets, or patches. The Earth carries a negative electrical charge. When your body makes electrical contact with the earth, electrons from the Earth flow into the body, acting as a natural antioxidant. These electrons are the reason why so many grounded people report reductions in inflammation, pain, and blood pressure.
Scientific Evidence Grounding Reduces Blood Pressure
While anecdotally, people who have grounded themselves previously reported reductions in blood pressure, the first scientific confirmation of this phenomena came in 2015. A study divided fifty three participants into a study group, which remained barefoot in contact with the ground for one hour, and a control group without ground contact. The grounding group experienced an average reduction in systolic blood pressure by 8 points and diastolic by 8 points, while the ungrounded group showed no significant changes in blood pressure. (Teli et al., 2015).
In 2018 a series of case studies investigated the effects of grounding on blood pressure. It only involved ten patients who grounded themselves daily for several months using conductive sheets and mats, but the results showed an impressive average 14.3% reduction in systolic blood pressure (Elkin and Winter, 2018).
How does grounding reduce blood pressure?
We hypothesize that grounding reduces blood pressure through three primary mechanisms.
1.) Reducing Blood Viscosity
Viscuous or “thick” blood, forces the heart to work harder to circulate oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. Grounding can significantly lower blood viscosity by reducing the electrical charge on red blood cells and preventing them from clumping together. A 2013 study demonstrated that grounding leads to a significant decrease in red blood cell aggregation and thus more freely flowing, less viscous blood (Chevalier et al., 2013).
2.) Reducing Arterial Inflammation
Chronic inflammation damages arterial walls and causes stiff, constricted blood vessels, which increases resistance to blood flow. Grounding acts as a natural anti-inflammatory that neutralizes reactive oxygen species (ROS). This effect has been demonstrated in various studies, including one where participants who engaged in grounding showed measurable reductions in inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (Chevalier et al., 2015). Lower inflammation would increase the interior diameter of blood vessels and thus reduce blood pressure.
3.) Reducing Stress and Cortisol Levels
Elevated cortisol levels, the body's primary stress hormone, cause blood vessels to constrict again causing higher blood pressure. Grounding has been shown to regulate the autonomic nervous system, shifting the body out of a chronic stress response and into a parasympathetic "rest and digest" state. A 2011 study found that grounding during sleep led to a significant decrease in nighttime cortisol levels, which helps to regulate blood pressure naturally (Ghaly & Teplitz, 2011).
How to Incorporate Grounding into Your Daily Routine
To experience the benefits of grounding for reducing blood pressure, try these simple practices:
- Walk barefoot on grass or sand
- Swim or wade in natural bodies of water
- Picnic on grass
- Work grounded by keeping your feet or elbow on grounding mats.
- Sleep grounded on grounded bedsheets for eight hours of continuous grounding.
Conclusion: A Natural Way to Support Heart Health
Grounding is a simple, cost-effective practice to lower your blood pressure by reducing your inflammation, blood viscosity, and stress. You can get started for free by simply going outside barefoot.
At Groundluxe, we would love to see more grounding research, but we guarantee no pharmaceutical companies will sponsor grounding clinical trials, because grounding threatens to defund the $22 billion dollar blood pressure medication industry. So until more bootstrapped studies are published, try grounding yourself. It’s free!
Just know that if you combine grounding with blood pressure medication, it is possible to drop your blood pressure too low, so watch for dizziness or light-headedness and inform your doctor if you are incorporating grounding into your daily routine.
References:
Chevalier, G., Sinatra, S. T., Oschman, J. L., & Delany, R. M. (2013). Earthing (Grounding) the Human Body Reduces Blood Viscosity—A Major Factor in Cardiovascular Disease. Health, 5(4), 529-544.
Chevalier, G. (2015). Grounding and its effect on blood flow. Health, 7(8), 1027-1040. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2015.78118
Elkin, H. K., & Winter, A. (2018). Grounding Patients With Hypertension Improves Blood Pressure: A Case History Series Study. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 24(6), 46-50.
Ghaly, M., & Teplitz, D. (2011). The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 17(4), 301-308. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2010.0687
Teli, S. N., Shivayogappa, S., Sreevani, P., & Bhat, M. N. (2015). Immediate effects of barefoot contact with Earth on prehypertension. Earthing Institute.
