Grounding and Earthing: What Can Standing Barefoot on the Earth Do?
Neither hype nor dismissal. A fair assessment of which effects of standing barefoot are well documented and where the electron hypothesis currently rests on thin data.
I love it when people walk barefoot across a meadow. I like it less when that turns into a promise. Between dismissing and worshipping there is a third way: looking closely at what was actually measured.
Do you know this moment? You take off your shoes in summer, step into the cool grass and, for the first time that day, let out a full breath.
Something happens there. You can feel it. And then you read online that it is the Earth's electrons flowing into your body and calming inflammation. And suddenly that good feeling costs a grounding mat, a sheet and an extension cord.
May I ask you a question? What if your feeling is right, but the explanation is a different one? That is exactly what this article is about. I do not want to talk you out of anything, and I do not want to sell you anything. I want to sort the pieces.
What to expect in this article
- What grounding claims in the first place
- The studies on earthing, one by one
- Where the evidence gets thin and why
- What nature contact can do, well documented
- What barefoot walking does for your feet
- The four KPNI lenses on the topic
- A story about grounding mats
- Three levers for everyday life
What grounding claims
Imagine the Earth as a giant battery. Its surface carries a slightly negative charge, meaning a surplus of electrons. That is physics and undisputed.
The grounding hypothesis goes one step further. It says: when your skin has conductive contact with the ground, the electrical potential of your body equalizes with that of the Earth. In the process, free electrons might enter the body. There they are supposed to neutralize free radicals like antioxidants and thereby influence inflammatory processes.
The first part is plausible. Your body is conductive, and a grounded body has a different surface potential than an insulated one. The second part is a hypothesis. That electrons from the ground travel in meaningful amounts to sites of inflammation in tissue and capture radicals there has not yet been shown directly in humans.
The question is not whether standing barefoot feels good. For many people, it does.
The question is which part of the experience makes the difference. Electrical contact, fresh air, daylight, greenery, slowness, sensory input through the soles of your feet. Only when you separate the ingredients can you decide what is worth your money and time.
And now you know why the discussion so often misses itself. Proponents and skeptics are talking about the same experience, but about different explanations.
What the studies on earthing show
I would like to present the most important studies the way I read them myself. With what was observed. And with what the study design allows.
In 2004, Ghaly and Teplitz grounded twelve people with sleep problems, pain and stress at night for eight weeks using a conductive mattress pad. Salivary cortisol was measured over 24 hours before the study and in week six.
Nighttime cortisol was lower afterwards, and almost all participants reported better sleep and less pain. There was no control group, and participants knew they were being grounded.
What this means for you: This is an interesting starting point. Without a comparison group, however, it is impossible to separate whether the grounding, the expectation or simply time made the difference.
Ghaly M, Teplitz D. J Altern Complement Med. 2004. DOI: 10.1089/acm.2004.10.767In 2012, Chevalier and colleagues grounded ten healthy adults for two hours using electrodes on their hands and feet. They measured the electrical surface charge of red blood cells, known as the zeta potential.
The zeta potential rose on average by a factor of 2.7, and the red blood cells clumped less under the microscope. The authors speak of reduced blood viscosity.
What this means for you: What was measured were blood drops on a microscope slide from ten people, without a control group. Whether this plays a clinical role in circulation remains open. The title of the paper frames the finding as a cardiovascular factor. In my reading, this framing goes beyond what ten blood samples can show.
Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Delany RM. J Altern Complement Med. 2013. DOI: 10.1089/acm.2011.0820In 2015, Brown and colleagues had 32 young men perform 200 half squats. Afterwards, half of them lay grounded for four hours and the other half sham-grounded, on two consecutive days.
Both groups had muscle soreness. Creatine kinase, a marker of muscle damage, rose markedly in the sham group on the second day, but not significantly in the grounded group. The difference between the groups lay just below the five percent significance threshold.
What this means for you: Methodologically, this is one of the stronger studies, because there was a sham condition. It is small, however, the effect is narrow, and pain as an everyday measure did not differ decisively. A preliminary study by the same group had only eight participants.
Brown R, Chevalier G, Hill M. Open Access J Sports Med. 2015. DOI: 10.2147/OAJSM.S87970In 2018, Chevalier and colleagues studied 16 massage therapists in a double-blind stepped-wedge design over six weeks. For four weeks they were grounded at work and during sleep, before and after that they were not.
During the grounding phase, they reported more energy and better physical function as well as less pain, fatigue and low mood.
What this means for you: Double-blind is a plus. Sixteen people and questionnaires as the only endpoint, however, make the result vulnerable to chance. It is an invitation to larger studies, not a confirmation.
Chevalier G, Patel S, Weiss L, Chopra D, Mills PJ. Explore (NY). 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.explore.2018.10.001Who researches grounding?
One point belongs on the table, stated factually. A large share of earthing research comes from a small, recurring circle of authors. That is not unusual for young research fields.
In a 2017 review, three of these authors state that they hold shares in a company that manufactures indoor grounding systems. In another publication, an Earthing Institute is listed as the affiliation. Conflicts of interest do not make results wrong. They are, however, a reason to wait for independent replication.
What the studies show: In several small studies, grounding coincided in time with changes in cortisol, blood cells, muscle damage markers, pain and mood.
What they do not show: that these effects are large, clinically meaningful and independently reproducible. And that the mechanism works through electron transfer.
The reviews by the same group of authors put forward far-reaching hypotheses about inflammation and autoimmunity. That is legitimate as a direction for research. As a health promise, it does not hold up.
And now you know why I neither laugh nor cheer when it comes to grounding. The idea is interesting. The data base is thin.
The grounding mat and the evening walk
I know this pattern very well. A person who spent a lot of time at a screen for work had been sleeping poorly for months. After watching a video, they had bought one grounding mat for the bed and one for the desk.
When we looked at their daily routine together, something stood out. Along with the mat, they had also built a ritual. Every evening they spent half an hour barefoot in the garden, without their phone. They went to bed earlier, because they did not want the mat to just lie there. And overall they were outdoors considerably more than before.
After a few weeks, they slept better and felt more awake during the day. When they traveled for two weeks, without the mat but with daily walks, their sleep stayed stable.
What nature contact can do, well documented
Think of the last day you spent outdoors for a long time. You were probably tired in the evening, but in a pleasant way. This feeling has been studied far more thoroughly than any grounding mat.
In 2018, Twohig-Bennett and Jones analyzed 103 observational and 40 interventional studies on green space and health.
More greenery in the surroundings was associated with lower salivary cortisol, lower heart rate and lower diastolic blood pressure. The risk of type 2 diabetes was lower, with an odds ratio of 0.72, and so was all-cause mortality, at 0.69.
What this means for you: These are associations, not proven causes, and the authors themselves point to partly low study quality. Across a very large number of studies, though, the direction is remarkably consistent.
Twohig-Bennett C, Jones A. Environ Res. 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2018.06.030In 2019, Antonelli and colleagues screened 971 articles, included 22 studies and analyzed eight quantitatively.
After the stay, salivary cortisol in the forest groups was on average 0.05 micrograms per deciliter lower than in the urban groups. The authors emphasize that expectation effects might play an important role.
What this means for you: A small, short-term and repeatedly observed effect. The authors are open about the placebo component, and that is exactly the attitude I would like to see in earthing research too.
Antonelli M, Barbieri G, Donelli D. Int J Biometeorol. 2019. DOI: 10.1007/s00484-019-01717-xIn 2023, Qiu and colleagues pooled 21 studies with 2,270 participants on blood pressure and 13 studies with 1,786 participants on salivary cortisol.
Compared with the city, systolic blood pressure after forest programs was on average 3.44 mmHg lower and diastolic 3.07 mmHg lower. Programs of 20 minutes or more showed larger effects than shorter ones. The prediction intervals were wide and also included no effect.
What this means for you: On average, time in the forest might slightly lower blood pressure and stress markers. For you personally, this is not a certain value, but rather a good probability.
Qiu Q, Yang L, He M et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20010458In 2015, Bratman and colleagues at Stanford University sent healthy adults on a 90-minute walk, either in a natural setting or along a city street.
After the nature walk, participants reported less rumination, and activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex was lower. After the city walk, this did not occur.
What this means for you: Your mind can grow quieter outdoors. And in this study, that happened with shoes on.
Bratman GN, Hamilton JP, Hahn KS, Daily GC, Gross JJ. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1510459112In 2019, White and colleagues from Exeter surveyed almost 20,000 people in England about their nature contact in the previous week.
From about 120 minutes per week onwards, respondents more often reported good health, with an odds ratio of 1.59 in the range of 120 to 179 minutes. The association rose up to 200 to 300 minutes and then leveled off. Whether the time was spent in one go or spread out made no difference.
What this means for you: A survey does not prove a cause. But two hours per week is a target you can work with in practice.
White MP, Alcock I, Grellier J et al. Sci Rep. 2019. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3When you stand barefoot on a meadow, you automatically get the well-studied ingredients: greenery, daylight, slowness, less screen time.
The Earth does not need to give you electrons for that. It gives you a place where your nervous system can receive the signal that there is no danger right now.
And now you know why grounding feels good to so many people, even if the electron explanation remains open.
What barefoot walking does for your feet
Imagine wearing a glove for years that cushions every movement. At some point, your hand forgets how to grip finely. It is similar with your feet, it just gets noticed less.
The sole of your foot is one of the skin areas most densely packed with sensory receptors. It constantly reports pressure, unevenness and temperature to the spinal cord and brain. Then there are the small, intrinsic foot muscles that support the arch. Heavily cushioned, supportive shoes take work away from both systems.
In 2019, Ridge and colleagues randomly assigned 57 runners to three groups: walking in minimalist shoes with a slowly increasing step count, targeted foot exercises, or control.
After eight weeks, foot muscle size and strength had increased in both intervention groups, but not in the control group. Walking in minimalist shoes was about as effective as the exercise program.
What this means for you: Your feet might respond to less cushioning with more strength. In the study, the slow progression was key.
Ridge ST, Olsen MT, Bruening DA et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001751In 2021, Quinlan and colleagues had 70 children aged 9 to 12 wear either standard shoes or moderate minimalist shoes at school for nine months.
The minimalist shoe group improved markedly in a dynamic balance test. The increase in foot muscle cross-section and toe strength was moderate but not statistically significant.
What this means for you: Balance and body awareness might benefit from more ground contact. This is a measurable, mechanical effect.
Quinlan S, Sinclair P, Hunt A, Fong Yan A. Gait Posture. 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2021.12.009And now you know why barefoot walking can make sense even without any electron theory. Your feet are sensory organs, and sensory organs want to be used.
The four KPNI lenses on standing barefoot
In clinical psychoneuroimmunology, we look at four systems at once. When I view grounding through this lens, the effects sort themselves fairly clearly.
Nervous system
When you walk barefoot, the sole of your foot sends much more information to the brain. A natural environment can strengthen the parasympathetic branch and dampen rumination. This is well documented for nature contact, less so for the electrical contact itself.
Immune system
This is where most earthing hypotheses sit: fewer muscle damage markers, altered neutrophils, electrons as antioxidants. The data come from small studies. Mechanistically conceivable, not yet conclusively demonstrated in humans.
Metabolism
People who are barefoot outdoors are usually moving. Walking can improve muscle insulin sensitivity, and stronger foot muscles might make everyday movement easier. This effect depends on the movement, not on the ground.
Hormonal system
Cortisol can be somewhat lower in green surroundings, as several meta-analyses show. Morning daylight can set the internal clock and thereby help organize the cortisol rhythm. The earthing study on nighttime cortisol, by contrast, had no control group.
Well documented or plausible
- Nature contact and a small drop in cortisol
- Forest and slightly lower blood pressure
- Nature and less rumination
- Less cushioning and stronger foot muscles
- Ground contact and better balance
- Outdoor movement and sleep rhythm
Hypothesis with weak evidence
- Electrons from the Earth as antioxidants
- Earthing against chronic inflammation
- Earthing and blood viscosity in daily life
- Grounding mats for better sleep
- Earthing in autoimmune diseases
- General cardiovascular prevention through earthing
The ground beneath your feet is not a medication. It is an invitation to slow down, to be outdoors and to feel your body again. That is less spectacular than an electron theory. And it is much better studied.
For me, this is the moment of freedom in this topic. You do not need a device, a mat or a plug. You need a meadow, twenty minutes and permission to achieve nothing.
And now you know why, with grounding, I mainly look at what you get without a cable.
Three levers for your everyday life
If this article makes you want to take off your shoes: good. Here are three directions you can try without spending anything.
Collect your nature minutes
The Exeter survey offers a guideline: about 120 minutes of nature contact per week, whether in one go or spread out. A park counts. A backyard with a tree counts a little too.
Slowly give your feet back the ground
Start with a few minutes barefoot on soft ground, grass, sand, forest floor. Build up over weeks. This fits with what strengthened the foot muscles in the minimalist shoe study.
Make it a ritual, not a project
As in the story above, the habit might be more valuable than the tool. A regular evening walk without your phone, a morning coffee barefoot on the balcony. If you like a grounding mat, you are welcome to use it. Just do not expect it to replace the habit.
If a product gets you to go to bed earlier and spend more time outdoors, then it has given you something. Just perhaps not what it says on the packaging.
If pain, sleep problems or exhaustion persist, a thorough medical assessment is worthwhile. Earthing can be a pleasant building block. It does not replace diagnostics.
Frequently asked questions about grounding and earthing
What exactly does grounding or earthing mean?
Grounding or earthing refers to electrically conductive contact between your body and the surface of the Earth. This can happen by standing barefoot on grass, soil, sand or damp ground, or indoors via conductive mats, bed sheets or patches connected to a grounding point.
The core idea of its proponents is that electrons flow from the Earth into the body and might influence processes such as inflammation there. This idea is a hypothesis. So far it has only been examined in small studies.
What effects does grounding have according to studies?
The available studies point to possible changes in pain perception, sleep quality, cortisol patterns, blood cells and markers of muscle damage. Most of the studies, however, are very small, with between 8 and 32 participants. Several had no control group or no blinding.
Part of the research comes from a small circle of authors, some of whom declared in a review that they hold shares in a manufacturer of grounding systems. The results should therefore be read as interesting signals, not as established proof.
Can earthing lower cortisol levels?
A 2004 pilot study by Ghaly and Teplitz grounded twelve people with sleep problems, pain and stress at night for eight weeks using a conductive mattress pad. Nighttime cortisol was lower afterwards, and participants reported better sleep.
There was, however, no control group and no blinding. Expectation effects, and the fact that people with symptoms often change even without any intervention, cannot be separated out this way. For nature contact in general, by contrast, there are meta-analyses showing a small decrease in salivary cortisol.
Do grounding mats for the bed do anything?
Whether grounding mats change anything beyond a placebo effect cannot be answered with confidence based on current data. There is one small double-blind study with 16 massage therapists in which pain, energy and mood improved during the grounding phase. This study is too small to derive a general recommendation from it.
If you use a mat and feel good with it, there is little against it, as long as the electrical installation is sound. But do not expect it to treat a medical condition.
Is walking barefoot healthy?
For the feet themselves, there is good evidence. A randomized study with 57 runners showed that walking in minimalist shoes over eight weeks could increase the size and strength of the small foot muscles about as much as targeted foot exercises. In 70 children, minimalist shoes improved balance over nine months.
Barefoot and near-barefoot walking challenges the foot muscles and the sensory feedback from the sole. This is a plausible and clearly measurable effect that needs no electron hypothesis at all.
How long should I spend barefoot outdoors?
For earthing in the electrical sense, there is no reliable dose. For nature contact, there is a guideline: in a British survey of 19,806 people, those with about 120 minutes or more of nature contact per week more often reported good health and high wellbeing. The association reached a plateau between 200 and 300 minutes.
For your feet: start slowly, a few minutes on soft ground, then build up. This is an observational study, not a dosing rule, but it is a useful target.
Why do I feel better after walking barefoot on grass if the evidence for earthing is weak?
Because walking barefoot on grass brings many factors together at once. You are outdoors, often surrounded by green, in daylight, you move slowly, you are away from screens and the soles of your feet send an unusual amount of sensory input.
There are considerably more studies on nature contact, movement and daylight than on electron transfer. A Stanford study, for example, showed that a 90-minute walk in nature could reduce rumination and the activity of a brain region linked to it. So your good feeling is genuine. The only question is which part of the experience triggers it.
Is grounding dangerous?
Standing barefoot on grass is harmless for most people. Caution makes sense if you have diabetes with reduced sensation in the feet, circulatory problems, open wounds, during thunderstorms and on ground with glass, ticks or dog waste.
With indoor products grounded via the protective earth of a power outlet, safety depends on the electrical installation. If you are unsure, have it checked by a qualified electrician. And earthing does not replace a medical assessment of pain, sleep problems or inflammation.
Can grounding influence inflammation?
This thesis is at the center of a 2015 review by Oschman, Chevalier and Brown. The authors describe changes in white blood cell counts and inflammatory messengers under grounding and propose hypotheses about the mechanism.
In a randomized study with 32 young men, creatine kinase, a marker of muscle damage, rose less after squats in the grounded group than in the sham-grounded group. Muscle soreness occurred in both groups. These are interesting individual findings, but not a basis for statements about chronic inflammatory diseases.
What is the difference between grounding and forest bathing?
Grounding refers to electrical contact with the Earth. Forest bathing refers to a slow, mindful stay in the forest, with or without shoes. There are several meta-analyses on forest bathing.
One meta-analysis found lower salivary cortisol across 13 studies with 1,786 participants and lower blood pressure across 21 studies with 2,270 participants compared with urban settings. So if you stand barefoot in the forest, you get the better-studied effects along with it anyway.
More from the Guide to Natural Forces
Further topics in this cluster
- Using natural forces in everyday life: the overview
- Forest bathing: what happens in the body
- Forest bathing for stress and burnout
- Morning light and the internal clock
- How much sun does the body need
- Vitamin D deficiency in winter
- Cold, the immune system and hormesis
- Ice bathing for beginners
- Contrast showers and Kneipp in everyday life
- Sauna and the heart: how often
- Infrared and red light
- Breathing techniques and the vagus nerve
- Exercise as medicine at the cellular level
If stress and inflammation keep you thinking
Silent inflammation and hs-CRP
How inflammation can be measured in the blood
Burnout and the stress system
What happens in the body when exhaustion becomes chronic
Depression and inflammation
How the immune system and mood may be connected
4-7-8 breathing for falling asleep
A second, free way into evening calm
Sources
All information was checked against the original abstracts in PubMed; figures are taken from the abstracts. The studies on earthing itself are small, partly uncontrolled and predominantly from a narrow circle of authors. For this subtopic, there are so far no large, independently replicated randomized trials. The statements on nature contact and barefoot walking are based on broader evidence, including meta-analyses and randomized trials.
- Ghaly M, Teplitz D. The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress. J Altern Complement Med. 2004;10(5):767-776. DOI: 10.1089/acm.2004.10.767 [Real-world, pilot study without control group, n=12]
- Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Delany RM. Earthing (grounding) the human body reduces blood viscosity: a major factor in cardiovascular disease. J Altern Complement Med. 2013;19(2):102-110. DOI: 10.1089/acm.2011.0820 [Real-world, pilot study without control group, n=10]
- Brown D, Chevalier G, Hill M. Pilot study on the effect of grounding on delayed-onset muscle soreness. J Altern Complement Med. 2010;16(3):265-273. DOI: 10.1089/acm.2009.0399 [Real-world, pilot study with sham grounding, n=8]
- Brown R, Chevalier G, Hill M. Grounding after moderate eccentric contractions reduces muscle damage. Open Access J Sports Med. 2015;6:305-317. DOI: 10.2147/OAJSM.S87970 [RCT, sham grounding, n=32]
- Chevalier G, Patel S, Weiss L, Chopra D, Mills PJ. The effects of grounding (earthing) on bodyworkers' pain and overall quality of life: a randomized controlled trial. Explore (NY). 2019;15(3):181-190. DOI: 10.1016/j.explore.2018.10.001 [RCT, double-blind, stepped-wedge, n=16]
- Oschman JL, Chevalier G, Brown R. The effects of grounding (earthing) on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. J Inflamm Res. 2015;8:83-96. DOI: 10.2147/JIR.S69656 [Review, hypothesis review]
- Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Sokal K, Sokal P. Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth's surface electrons. J Environ Public Health. 2012;2012:291541. DOI: 10.1155/2012/291541 [Review]
- Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Chevalier G, Sinatra D. Electric nutrition: the surprising health and healing benefits of biological grounding (earthing). Altern Ther Health Med. 2017;23(5):8-16. PubMed ID: 28987038 [Review, authors with declared stake in a manufacturer of grounding systems]
- Kafatos MC, Chevalier G, Chopra D, Hubacher J, Kak S, Theise ND. Biofield science: current physics perspectives. Glob Adv Health Med. 2015;4(Suppl):25-34. DOI: 10.7453/gahmj.2015.011.suppl [Overview, cited for the affiliation "The Earthing Institute"]
- Twohig-Bennett C, Jones A. The health benefits of the great outdoors: a systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes. Environ Res. 2018;166:628-637. DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2018.06.030 [Meta-analysis, 103 observational and 40 interventional studies]
- Antonelli M, Barbieri G, Donelli D. Effects of forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) on levels of cortisol as a stress biomarker: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Biometeorol. 2019;63(8):1117-1134. DOI: 10.1007/s00484-019-01717-x [Meta-analysis, k=8 of 22 studies]
- Qiu Q, Yang L, He M, Gao W, Mar H, Li J, Wang G. The effects of forest therapy on the blood pressure and salivary cortisol levels of urban residents: a meta-analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023;20(1):458. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20010458 [Meta-analysis, 21 studies blood pressure n=2,270, 13 studies cortisol n=1,786]
- Bratman GN, Hamilton JP, Hahn KS, Daily GC, Gross JJ. Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015;112(28):8567-8572. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1510459112 [RCT, interventional study with fMRI]
- White MP, Alcock I, Grellier J, Wheeler BW, Hartig T, Warber SL, Bone A, Depledge MH, Fleming LE. Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Sci Rep. 2019;9(1):7730. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3 [Real-world, cross-sectional survey, n=19,806]
- Ridge ST, Olsen MT, Bruening DA, Jurgensmeier K, Griffin D, Davis IS, Johnson AW. Walking in minimalist shoes is effective for strengthening foot muscles. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019;51(1):104-113. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001751 [RCT, n=57]
- Quinlan S, Sinclair P, Hunt A, Fong Yan A. The long-term effects of wearing moderate minimalist shoes on a child's foot strength, muscle structure and balance: a randomised controlled trial. Gait Posture. 2022;92:371-377. DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2021.12.009 [RCT, n=70 children]