Part 8 (1/2)

”I Wouldn't Go Anywhere without My Sheets”: Another Earthing amba.s.sador is Donna Tisdale, a top Nashville real estate broker. Another Earthing amba.s.sador is Donna Tisdale, a top Nashville real estate broker.

”Where do I start?” she said when asked about her Earthing experience.

”Let me start with allergies. I have been plagued with miserable seasonal allergies all my life. As a real estate professional, I'd be out showing property, and I would sneeze maybe ten or fifteen times in a row. I would laugh and tell my clients I'm allergic to the months of May and September. Well, it's been a year since I started sleeping grounded. First May came and went, and then September, and guess what? I have not taken one allergy med the entire spring and summer! I've sneezed maybe a few times and that's it. I have not gotten up one single solitary time in the middle of the night to clear my sinuses so I could breathe and sleep! This has been unbelievable.

”For fifteen years, I've had a weird autoimmune skin disease called granuloma annulare. It produces unsightly breakouts on my legs, arms, and trunk. Now it's almost completely gone on my arms, and almost completely gone on my legs. It's amazing. I've been to dermatologists all over the place, and n.o.body has a cure for it or knows what causes it.

”My eighty-eight-year-old mother has been incontinent for fifteen years. She had bladder surgery, and it didn't work. So she would use fifteen to twenty pads a day. She came to visit for a month six weeks after she started to sleep grounded. She was now using maybe one or two pads a day. 'I think it's the sheets,' she said.

”She also had shoulder pain for three years from an injury and could not raise her right hand over her shoulder. One day during her visit I saw her combing her hair with her right hand. I asked her about it. She said, 'My shoulder doesn't hurt anymore. I think it's the sheets.'

”For three years, my husband Bill was looking at knee surgery and getting injections into the knees. He's pa.s.sed on the shots now because the knees aren't hurting as bad. At a family wedding over Labor Day weekend in 2009, we danced together for the first time in years. His knees are doing great. He has also suffered with plantar fasciitis, and now that is totally gone. One of my sisters had that as well. It would come and go. She's been sleeping grounded and now hasn't had a single flare-up in months.

”Another sister has very aggressive rheumatoid arthritis. She's sleeping grounded and says she has very few flare-ups anymore.

”A dear friend who has Lyme disease used to have as many as fifteen migraine headaches a month and now she has one or two. She went to Arizona to visit her mom for a week. She forgot to take the sheets with her. She had four migraines during that time. I told her she was crazy. I wouldn't go anywhere without my sheets.

”From the start, we slept much better on the grounded sheets. Bill stopped getting up three times at night like he used to do. He and his bladder are seventy years old. A few weeks after we started sleeping grounded, we headed off on a weekend trip out-of-state to visit family. I wanted to take the sheets. Bill didn't. I gave in. Well, he flipped and he flopped at night. He was up. He was down. He didn't sleep well. So when we went to Austin to see the grandchildren for Christmas, guess what? We took the sheets! We slept well. Now we don't go anywhere without them.

”Do I ever have a pa.s.sion for getting people Earthed!”

THE SPIRITUAL CONNECTION.

Gabriel Cousens, M.D., sixty-seven, Patagonia, Arizona, director of Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center: ”I applied Earthing first to myself and my wife. We both felt a difference. Our sleep is deeper. We used to go barefoot some of the time. Now we go barefoot all the time. ”I applied Earthing first to myself and my wife. We both felt a difference. Our sleep is deeper. We used to go barefoot some of the time. Now we go barefoot all the time.

”In my work, I am on the go all day long. Now I find myself getting up earlier than before, and despite a half hour or an hour less sleep than I normally used to get, I have more energy. I've always been a high-energy person, but now I have more.

”My clinical impression is that Earthing helps decrease inflammation in people with autoimmune disorders. I have seen it make a difference for people with depression and anxiety. At the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, we recommend that everyone who comes here for treatment sleeps on grounding sheets, and everyone benefits in some way or another. People are more relaxed, sleep better, and have more energy as a result.

”Beyond these things, Earthing represents a whole way of thinking. It really speaks to the problem today that people on this planet have lost touch with the Earth and have not returned to the Earth. They have gotten further and further away. From a biblical perspective, people who lose touch with the Earth lose touch with G.o.d. There is a whole deeper understanding here. Earthing reconnects us to the Earth, to others, and, in a sense, to G.o.d.”

THE MOST BENEFITS FOR LEAST AMOUNT OF WORK.

David Wolfe, thirty-nine, San Diego, speaker and author on healthy lifestyle: ”Personally, I've seen three surprising changes after I started Earthing two years ago. The first was the disappearance of a stubborn remnant of an infection-likely one of those antibiotic-resistant staph infections. I developed the infection on my big toe about eight years ago and battled it for a couple of years, down to one lump that looked like scar tissue. Occasionally, it would bother me. I used all the healing tools at my disposal and even asked for help from some health professionals I know. But I couldn't eliminate it. Then I started using a grounded floor pad as I worked on my computer or on the telephone. Within two days, the lump was gone. Like magic. ”Personally, I've seen three surprising changes after I started Earthing two years ago. The first was the disappearance of a stubborn remnant of an infection-likely one of those antibiotic-resistant staph infections. I developed the infection on my big toe about eight years ago and battled it for a couple of years, down to one lump that looked like scar tissue. Occasionally, it would bother me. I used all the healing tools at my disposal and even asked for help from some health professionals I know. But I couldn't eliminate it. Then I started using a grounded floor pad as I worked on my computer or on the telephone. Within two days, the lump was gone. Like magic.

”Similarly, I had a very sensitive tooth for about twenty-five years. I had cracked it at age fourteen. The tooth was sensitive to cold water and any kind of sugar or sweetener. If I chewed down on a small, hard object like a seed and it pressed against the tooth, there would be a jolt of pain. After a few months of Earthing, I noticed the sensitivity disappeared.

”The biggest change health-wise has been with my allergies. As a kid, they were completely disruptive. I was extremely sensitive to cats and pollen, especially ragweed. Exposure could incapacitate me for two or three days. In pollen season, my lungs would fill with mucus and fluid. I would get intense itchiness in my eyes, ears, and back of the throat. My eyes would tear. The allergies have gotten better over the years as I have improved my nutrition. But Earthing has been like the coup de grace. I've gone through two pollen allergy seasons now without any problem. No symptoms. If I go into a house now where a cat resides, I am good for about an hour. Before I couldn't even go into the house.

”Besides the changes in me, I have seen and heard pretty amazing things when other people are grounded. One woman who came to one of my health seminars was in obvious pain. She was sitting in the front row, and I could see her discomfort written on her face. I went over and asked her about it. She said she suffered with back pain for twenty years. I had a grounding pad with me. I connected it into a wall outlet and she put it inside her blouse against her back. An hour and twenty minutes later, when I finished my talk, her face had totally changed. She couldn't believe what had happened. She said her pain was gone. I was shocked. Everybody in the room was shocked.

”Pretty much everybody who sleeps grounded says they sleep better. One interesting feedback I've gotten from a number of people is that they feel different when they work grounded at their computers. They describe the feeling with words like 'comfort,' 'security,' and 'safety.' A few of them have said they actually don't like working at a computer anymore unless they are grounded.

”In my work as a health educator and speaker, I focus on what's natural, good for healing, and good for people in general. I'm also very much attuned to what is the least amount of work that somebody can do and get the most benefits. That's a number one consideration for me because in the health world people want to get the most benefits for the least amount of work. Well, it became clear to me after about a month of Earthing that this was it. Earthing gives you the most benefits for the least amount of work of anything I've ever seen. There is no work!”

IMPROVING THE LIFE OF A DOCTOR AND HIS PATIENTS.

David Gersten, M.D., sixty, Encinitas, California, pract.i.tioner of nutritional medicine and integrative psychiatry: ”A few years ago, I developed what I called a 'cause and effect' health map that plots out why people get sick with chronic illness and stay sick. I narrowed it down to a simple three-step process. In all chronic illness, you have primary causes (level one), which includes genetics, infections, toxins, digestive problems and malabsorption, and mental, emotional, and stress factors. Level two involves how the body reacts to these primary causes, namely through inflammation and the stress response. Level three relates to total body disturbances of biochemistry, or what I call metabolic chaos. Over time, it has become clear to me that Earthing has a profound healing effect on level two. ”A few years ago, I developed what I called a 'cause and effect' health map that plots out why people get sick with chronic illness and stay sick. I narrowed it down to a simple three-step process. In all chronic illness, you have primary causes (level one), which includes genetics, infections, toxins, digestive problems and malabsorption, and mental, emotional, and stress factors. Level two involves how the body reacts to these primary causes, namely through inflammation and the stress response. Level three relates to total body disturbances of biochemistry, or what I call metabolic chaos. Over time, it has become clear to me that Earthing has a profound healing effect on level two.

”I've been grounded for about three years, and now it's completely integrated into my practice. I see people all the time who come to a doctor like me as a last resort. The first feedback I usually hear after a patient starts Earthing is an email the following morning that says, 'I just had the best sleep in twenty years.'

”I provided a grounding unit to a ninety-six-year-old friend who had severe osteoarthritis for probably twenty-five years. I didn't explain a word to her. I just explained it to her son. After a few days, I called to see how she was doing. He said his mother, a well-known folk medicine healer in San Diego for decades, told him her pain was down more than three-quarters. But what was really amazing was that her pa.s.sion for life had come back. She had had a stroke six months before, and although she had recovered from the physical effects, she had lost her typical pa.s.sion for life. This was a vital woman who was still traveling and giving lectures. 'It's back,' her son told me.

”People frequently come to me for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a problem that often involves cognitive issues like memory, concentration, focus, and brain fog. One such patient was a sixty-five-year-old woman. She had had CFS, plus hypertension, for a very long time. I told her to get grounded. On day thirty-one after she started, she emailed me to say her energy was much improved from the Earthing but also her cognition had suddenly returned. Moreover, her blood pressure numbers had dropped and began to quickly normalize. I advised her to monitor her blood pressure carefully each day. She had been taking two blood pressure medications that another doctor had prescribed. Her blood pressure came down so fast that on her own, without consulting with me, she discontinued one of the blood pressure meds. She then went back to her other doctor, who prescribed a much weaker prescription. Now, along with the Earthing, she is able to maintain a normal blood pressure. Her fatigue and most of her other CFS symptoms have vastly improved.

”In terms of my own personal experiences, I didn't see anything miraculous, at least not for a while. For decades, I have suffered with keratoconus, a condition in which the cornea of the eye becomes progressively thin, leading to significant visual loss. About one out of two thousand people in the population have this problem. The cornea thins out and blows out like a balloon, and you can't get a contact to fit on it anymore. I've had five corneal transplants over the years. Three in the right eye were rejected, resulting in considerable inflammation and the formation of hundreds of minute blisters on the surface of the cornea. In the latter stages of rejection, the pain is absolutely agonizing. I was a good year and a half into the rejection of my 2004 transplant when I began to ground myself. In addition to the pain, I was waking up each morning with drainage coming out of the eye. After about four months of Earthing, I woke up one morning and realized that the drainage was not there. From that day on, there has been no drainage at all. The pain level has stayed low, and it's very tolerable almost all the time. I do still have occasional to rare days when the pain is high enough to require a strong painkiller. But now I'm three years into a rejection that would not have been bearable without Earthing. This is a good thing for me because I need to wait for stem cell research before I have another corneal transplant.

”In any case, I have no vision out of the right eye. Although I haven't had the corneal transplant rejection issue with the left eye, I was definitely losing vision in that eye and was quite concerned to say the least. I had been going downhill for about fifteen years until I started Earthing. Then the vision loss stopped and reversed. My optometrist was amazed at the dramatic improvement in vision. I asked him if he had ever seen anyone who had a degenerative eye disease that suddenly reversed after decades. He said he had never seen that before. For me, this was pretty miraculous.

”Another personal experience made me keenly aware of the power of Earthing. I was working at night in a clinic and had stepped outside to take a short break. While outside, I walked smack into a metal post with a 'No Parking' sign. The side of the post was like a dull knife blade, and it put a half-inch gash in my forehead down to the bone. It was bleeding badly. I ran back into the clinic and had my nurse clean the wound and bandage it up. I would have sent any patient with this kind of cut to the emergency room. But I had more patients to see. The next day, I pulled off the bandages and there was just a small line, like a small surgical incision, where the cut was. There was no sign of redness, heat, swelling, or pain. There was virtually no inflammation. On day two, I could just make out the edges of the gash. The edges of the cut were starting to come together and heal. On day six, it was so completely healed that there was no sign of the cut at all.

”I was also impressed by the experience of a patient who, in addition to CFS, suffered with anxiety. Immediately after she grounded herself, she had a significant decrease in her anxiety. Her overall health and energy improved. What made the most impact on me was what she described as a sense of renewed connectedness to the Earth, to others around her, and to the absolute core of her being. She felt this connectedness so much when she was grounded that she took her bed pad with her to work. She slept on it at night and used it at her desk during the day. She said she was experiencing her deepest self, 'a new me,' she called it, without all the worry, the fear, the anxiety, and the restless mind. 'I'm changed at the core,' she said.

”The feedback I have from patients is now so strong that I know predictably, as a doctor, this will change a person's life. Maybe three out of nearly one hundred patients have said they didn't notice any difference.”

THE ANTI-AGING CONNECTION.

With the pa.s.sage of time, changes inexorably occur in the human body. The signs of aging range from the obvious-weight gain, loss of height, muscular weakness-to the hidden-loss of elasticity in blood vessels, slowdown in hormonal output, and most significantly, cellular damage from unrelenting free-radical activity. Doctors see a wide variety of physiological responses to the aging process. Some eighty-year-old individuals physically appear to be fifty or sixty. Conversely, some middle-aged people in their forties and fifties look like they are ready for retirement. There are many reasons why some people ”age” faster than others. Could Earthing be one ingredient for slowing down the process?

Growing older is inevitable. Anti-aging strategies are not about living to one hundred or one hundred and twenty, but about growing older gracefully and with energy. The goal is to prevent illness and develop physical and mental potential in the pursuit of satisfaction and aliveness.

Arvord Belden, Ph.D., ninety, Yountville, California, retired clinical psychologist: ”I've been sleeping grounded pretty regularly for more than eight years. Within a year, I realized that I wasn't going to doctors like I used to do. My hands and hip hurt me less from arthritis. I also noticed that my mind seems to be clearer, and I seem to have more energy and stamina. ”I've been sleeping grounded pretty regularly for more than eight years. Within a year, I realized that I wasn't going to doctors like I used to do. My hands and hip hurt me less from arthritis. I also noticed that my mind seems to be clearer, and I seem to have more energy and stamina.

”After a year, I had a checkup with my doctor, and he commented that he was amazed at my excellent health given my age.

”Now after all these years of continued Earthing, I can't say I've reversed the aging process. I still have the arthritis, but I don't need to take any medication for it. In fact, I don't take a single medication for anything. I feel darn good for somebody who is ninety. My energy is great.

”I still do a lot of yard work, including tree pruning, and I've had my share of cuts, sc.r.a.pes, and even falls. I was out a few weeks ago on my rec.u.mbent three-wheeler bike and I took a fall. I banged myself up but didn't break anything, and I healed up nice and quick. Same thing with the yard work. None of the cuts ever get infected, even though I don't put any topical medicine on them.

”My sleep has definitely been better ever since I started this. If I wake up at night, it seems like after a minute or so, I am back sleeping again.”

Katherine Van Hatten, seventy-one, Brentwood, California, ma.s.sage therapist, acupressurist: ”I've been working and sleeping grounded for five years. I still work a full day, and the only way I can do that at my age, without going home exhausted, is to stand barefoot on a floor pad that is grounded while I give my ma.s.sages. If I don't use it, I can do maybe one or two ma.s.sages a day. If I work on the pad, I can work a full day, meaning four, five, or even six ma.s.sages. Moreover, my clients receive the benefit because for the whole hour that they're on the table I am bringing free electrons to them through the pad, my body, and my hands. So they are grounded as well. ”I've been working and sleeping grounded for five years. I still work a full day, and the only way I can do that at my age, without going home exhausted, is to stand barefoot on a floor pad that is grounded while I give my ma.s.sages. If I don't use it, I can do maybe one or two ma.s.sages a day. If I work on the pad, I can work a full day, meaning four, five, or even six ma.s.sages. Moreover, my clients receive the benefit because for the whole hour that they're on the table I am bringing free electrons to them through the pad, my body, and my hands. So they are grounded as well.