Earthing for Human Body - Don't fall for it!

When I was undergoing Yin Yoga training recently, it so happened that around the end of it we were shown this curious device that can provide earthing (or grounding) to human body! With supposedly numerous health benefits! Not that it was part of the training, but the trainees were introduced to it just for the sake of it. The tutor told that he was using it and he just wanted to show it to us 🤔.

Coming from a reputed teacher, this idea successfully aroused my curiosity up to the point that I decided to check it out.

Here I'm presenting my discoveries and knowledge that I gained in the process.

Here's how some of these devices look like:

So What is Grounding for Human Body

The proponents of this idea say that by virtue of living in buildings with wooden or carpeted floors, wearing plastic or leather shoes and slippers mostly throughout the day, and then retiring on beds that can and do not conduct any electricity to the ground, we develop static electricity on our bodies which is positive in nature. This positive electricity, which is composed of "free radicals", doesn't get a chance to be neutralized by earth's electrons. This makes us "electron deficient".

If, on the other hand, if we come in contact of earth for sufficient time, or use specialized devices and equipment, we can increase our exposure to earth's electrons, and, lo and behold, this results in very generalized health benefits including, but not limited to, improvements in sleep quality, reduction in pain and stress, and betterment of many bodily cycles such as hormonal and gastrointestinal.

What are These Specialized Earthing Devices

The idea is simple - most of these devices work by connecting your body to the grounding wire that is there in every building's wiring, which in turn, is connected to the earth's stabilizing field, e.g. it can be a bracelet, or a mat or a mattress cover made of some conducting material and having a cord with a plug that is to be inserted in the electric wall socket.

Similarly, there are shoes and sandals that have some mechanism to have your foot connected to the ground, e.g. by having a grounding strap, or conducting sole etc.

Why This Doesn't Make Sense

When we get to hear a lie from somebody, generally there are two possibilities.

1. The speaker wholeheartedly believes in the idea, and he doesn't know that the idea is futile.
2. The speaker knows that he is telling a lie. And then it becomes a scam.

With this idea of 'grounding human body', although my effort was just to verify its usefulness, over time I've also got the feeling that most of its proponents fall in the second category explained above - i.e. they are scamming. And I'll explain how.

TL; DR

Why the Idea Itself is Wrong

Well, there are many reasons.

1. Excess charge cannot stay inside our body.
   This is simply because like charges repel each other, and by residing on the surface of the body, they are farthest from each other which is their most stable arrangement.
   This means that at most, the "free radicals" can only harm our skin, or only the epidermis. Our other organs are already safe in this regard!
   Find more explanation on this here - physicsbuss.physicscentral.com.
   
   
2. It's not possible to build up significant voltage (potential difference, or charge) on our body and maintain it in our day to day activity.
   Surely, we can have noticeable charge on us for a brief moment of time, e.g. immediately after rubbing our feet against a carpet, but unless we completely insulate ourselves from that point onward, this excess charge simply cannot stay on us, simply for the reason that everything else around us is eager to take some or all of that charge back - depending upon their size. And since, most of the things around us are bigger than us (or smaller but electrically connected to one another making a bigger whole), our capacity to hold an excess charge is very limited in terms of both amount and time.
   
   This can be easily verified by using a voltmeter. Insert one connector of the voltmeter into the grounding socket of any electrical socket and touch the other one. The readings you will see are generally in the range of 0.03 and 0.15 V. This is just the noise in the equipment! Same numbers will show up if you hold both the leads in one of your hands! So, unless we work with machinery using heavy loads of electricity, chance are that at any given point of time, we are at same voltage as that of earth.
   
   
3. We connect to earth many a time even from within our homes. For example, whenever we touch the water tap, we are grounded. Or whenever we touch or walk barefoot on tiles or concrete, we are mostly grounded. Same goes for touching metallic doors, concrete walls etc. And it takes only a moment for the charges to neutralize. Combined with the point 2 above, this leaves really zero room for any charges (even very small ones) to stay on us for long duration.

Why This is a Scam

Now let's see how the champions are actually knowingly trying to fool us.

1. The devices include a 100,000 Ω resistor!
   Since the earthing devices connect us to the grounding wiring in the house to which every other electrical equipment of the house (with earthing pin) is connected, these earthing devices pose a serious threat of electrical shock. What if a big equipment such as refrigerator, or washing machine faults and it starts sending large amount of current to the grounding wire? At that moment if we are "grounded", there is a good chance that we'll get a shock. Similarly, if lightning strikes, we can get a major shock.
   
   In order to cover their back, all these devices (that connect to the grounding wiring) have a resistor of about 100,000 Ω as a safety precaution. A resistor's job is simply to resist current. So, if everything else remains same, such as the amount of excess charge on my body, and the amount of time I spent barefoot on ground for comparison, now I'll have to spend 100,000 times more time using these devices in order to get the same benefit. 100,000 seconds for one second spent barefoot! That is 27 hours for each one second of the benefit gained by going barefoot!
   
   Very good explanation by Chard Orzel here - https://scienceblogs.com.
   
   
2. That Which Cures Everything Cures Nothing!
   From sleep improvement to gastrointestinal relief to reduced stress to decreased pain and inflammation! But no quick relief either! This is a very common trap used by the quacks and charlatans. By including as many ailments as possible, they increase their target audience multi-fold. But at the same time, they push their 'no-quick-relief' disclaimer. This combined strategy has two advantages:
   
   
   1. By having a very large audience and large number of ailments, the chances of a good number of people getting better in due course of time, on their own or because of other treatments, become exceedingly good.
      Similarly, for a single person, if he is having like six health related general issues, chances of him getting slightly better in one or two over time are really good. And when that happens, there are good testimonies!
      
      
   2. Even for longer treatment processes, ideally a number is supposed to be provided - like 3 months, or 6 months or 2 years. But without mentioning a number, and by just saying 'no-quick-reliel', they buy themselves ample amount of time in which some of their customers will get better in relation to some whatsoever disease or ailment. As soon as that happens, they have a satisfied customer.
      
      
3. It Takes Only a Moment to Neutralize the Charges.
   Unless we have a supernatural capability to keep building the charges continuously on our body or that of pulling it all the time from surrounding objects, a quick contact with tap water a few times a day should itself be good enough. What more are we gaining by keeping ourselves connected to the ground (for which we'll obviously need these specialized products)?

For a very detailed, point-by-point rebuttal, read this - http://www.sillybeliefs.com/earthing.html.

Finally, what about the experienced and knowledgeable yoga teacher who advertised one of such devices informally though during his class? It's even saddening that a google search on his name shows this on the first page - "... has had a passion for science..."!
Beyond doubt, he was exceptionally good in the training he provided - in both theoretical and practical areas. But he could not do a simple research about the human-body-earthing phenomenon before mentioning it to a class of hundreds of trainees! I can think of no other reason than paid-advertising.