Alternative Medicine- Earthing

I try to be open-minded about alternative medicine, but sometimes you have to draw a line.

It feels wonderful to run on a grassy surface or sand on a beach, but to say we should do this continuously or seek expensive, weird, questionable ways to “connect” to the earth is just taking things too far.

The list of alternative medical therapies is long- acupuncture, reflexology, homeopathy, colon cleansing, aromatherapy, salt rooms, and on and on. I try to keep an open mind, knowing that there is much about the world in general and my world, traditional western medicine, in particular that we do not know. Some practices are just so “out there” that my skeptic radar just pings extra loudly. Enter earthing.

Earthing can be distilled down to the practice of getting people directly in touch with the earth, with nothing in between their skin and Gaia herself. It is the brainchild of Clinton Ober, a true ‘medical’ pioneer, who “discovered” earthing one fine day in 1998 while sitting on a park bench and watching people walk by. Ober was not a physician, scientist, academician, or even an electrician. He was recently-retired from working in the cable TV industry and dealing with a mid-life crisis. His travels landed him in Sedona, AZ long a mecca for the unusual, odd, and just plain weird, including people, lifestyles, and ideas.

Ober noticed something that apparently had escaped other observers that came before- everyone around him was wearing some sort of footwear. Shoes! That was his true “Eureka!” moment. Of course! Shoes were the cause of the world’s ills and possibly the most dangerous human invention. Ober knew from his work in cable TV that electrical devices needed to be grounded to avoid damage from errant electrical signals. To him, it was an obvious leap to see that humans functioned the same way and needed to be “grounded” by direct contact with the earth, e.g. by eliminating shoes and going barefoot. Grounding, he concluded, must have all sorts of health benefits. What could be more clear?

Of course, there were some practical obstacles to this. Practically speaking, you can’t walk around barefoot all day long. For one thing, you would be picking glass, splinters, rocks, dirty needles, and other assorted objects out of your feet continuously. It is also not a good look with a business suit in the boardroom (trust me on this). Even assuming your job is primarily outdoors, you have to enter buildings, walk on mean streets and sidewalks, and eventually go home to a house, which probably doesn’t have dirt floors so, once again, you will be insulated from mother earth. Unless you sleep on the ground, outdoors, you will be really insulated when you climb into your bed for eight or more hours per day. Studies show that more people die at night. Could this be why?

Ober set out to ground the human race and overcome the obstacles of modern life to his quest. He found solutions and offered them…..for a price. On his website he has a cornucopia of devices you can purchase to ground yourself anytime, anywhere. A number of these for your home plug into your wall outlet which, in turn, connects to the wiring of your home, which eventually goes to a ground into the earth. Voila! Easy peasy. Your grounded! You can purchase all sorts of wall outlet adaptors, starting at $8, all the way up to a grounding throw blanket kit for $289. I was especially intrigued by the grounding pad for your car seat. Given that cars ride on rubber tires and have no other contact with the ground, I was truly mystified by how this one worked. According to the product information, it pulls static electricity off your body while you drive. Who knew this could be harmful? I think of all the times I have accumulated static electricity in my life and marvel that I am still alive and relatively healthy.

OK. Maybe I am having a little too much fun knocking this, so I will back off and get serious for a moment. I practiced traditional, western, allopathic medicine, which is held to very high standards of proof and evidence. Testimonials from happy patients, while wonderful and heartwarming, are not enough to validate any practice, medication, or procedure. There has to be enough credible, hard evidence that can be verified and reproduced for a physician to offer it to patients. Alternative medicine is somehow exempt from these requirements. On Ober’s earthing website there are all sorts of claims using weasel words. Weasel words are words that sound great but mean nothing. Earthing “promotes” immune health. What does promote mean, exactly? How does it do this? Neither is explained. Earthing claims on the one hand to reduce inflammation and on the other to boost the immune system. This is nonsense as these are mutually exclusive. You can do one or the other. You can’t do both at the same time.

Doctors and organized medicine are suspect because money changes hands and the bottom line is that doctors make a living from treating sick patients so, of course, we have vested interest in perpetuating illness and disease, and ignoring prevention. Somehow, alternative medicine providers escape this criticism as though they all are altruistic believers with no financial incentive. By all accounts, Ober’s earthing is very successful and he has enviable positive reviews online. Financial information for Ober’s company, earthing.com, is not available but the sales of earthing products are expected to hit $7 billion per year by 2028. We’re not talking peanuts here.

The saying “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck” applies here. Earthing sounds and reads like quackery. If someone resorts to earthing, is willing to pay for its questionable products, and believes these work, more power to them. I only object when alternative medicine can be harmful itself, or when someone suffers from delay in effective medical treatment to try nostrums and alternative treatments. If I have cancer, I am going straight to an oncologist, not a naturopath or homeopath. I do freely admit to jealously, and some resentment, at how much these purveyors of alternative treatments rake in with very little blowback, while traditional medicine is veiwed through a microscope with a jaundiced eye.

All of that said, do I feel there is a benefit to being outdoors and, even, at times, barefoot. Yes! Nature, sunshine, and the great outdoors are good for the soul and body. John Muir wrote extensively on the connection between ourselves and the world around us. Too many people never venture beyond their city limits. Many never take a moment to remove their shoes and just feel the ground under them. It feels wonderful to run on a grassy surface or sand on a beach, but to say we should do this continuously or seek expensive, weird, questionable ways to “connect” to the earth is just taking things too far.

On earthing, call me a serious skeptic.

Richard T. Bosshardt, MD, FACS

My book, The Making of a Plastic Surgeon- Two Years in the Crucible Learning the Art and Science, is available on Amazon in eBook and paperback. In it readers can share my journey to becoming a plastic surgeon, the most fascinating and misunderstood specialty in medicine.