Part 11 (2/2)

”Other people who I have turned on to Earthing have had positive experiences. I've heard about arthritic pains going away in a few days and restless legs immediately calming down.”

Keep Track of Your Earthing Experience To monitor how Earthing may be helping you, we have created a simple symptom checklist and progress chart. You'll find it in Appendix D.

CHAPTER 11.

The Heart Connection: Steve Sinatra's Perspective Earthing research is in its bare infancy as far as the heart and cardiology is concerned. Yet our observations and the feedback from patients point to an exciting potential: an utterly simple method that can both protect healthy hearts and help heal ailing ones. In addition, we can perhaps draw some a.s.surance at this early date in our research knowing that countless barefoot and much-closer-to-Nature generations that came before us were pretty much free of heart disease. Today, it is the No. 1 disease killer in the Western world and is rising rapidly in tropical and subtropical countries where it was previously uncommon. As a cardiologist who uses both conventional and complementary methods, I envision Earthing becoming a major practical tool against cardiovascular disease. In fact, it looks like a big winner in the practice of medicine in general.

Like any new idea in the medical world, Earthing needs to be carefully scrutinized and tested objectively without bias. If that happens, I see it taking a central place as a natural, low-cost pillar of health maintenance and disease prevention and treatment. In this age of off-the-chart medical costs and skyrocketing chronic disease, doctors need as much help as we can get in order to give patients cost-effective care. Where better to get that help than from Mother Earth herself? From the ground up, no less.

I am excited by the broad implications of key improvements related to the following: * *ATP production *Sympathetic nervous system activity * Arrhythmias Arrhythmias *High blood pressure *Blood viscosity

With time, I am confident that many more benefits will come to light. Meantime, I'd like to discuss what we know now about Earthing and its positive effects on the heart and cardiovascular system.

PROMOTING THE BODY'S ENERGY FUEL-ATP For me, a metabolic cardiologist keenly interested in improving and maintaining the energy production in the hearts and bodies of patients, Earthing has all the makings of a simple, safe, and effective energy booster. For years, I have recommended natural supplements such as coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), L-carnitine, D-ribose, and magnesium to elevate the bioenergetics of nutrient-starved heart cells and protect them from the ravages of aging, environmental toxins, and relentless oxidation. I have written books and articles about these supplements I refer to as ”the awesome foursome.” They provide key metabolic raw materials that are typically deficient in patients. This nutritional approach has worked remarkably and consistently well in helping to restore the failing pumping capacity of sick hearts. Now, Earthing appears to provide another primary ingredient for cellular restoration and cardiac rehabilitation.

The Earth feeds energy into all organisms that make direct contact with it. One aspect of this bioelectrical energizing likely takes place in the mitochondria of your trillions of cells. The mitochondria are like microscopic power plants. There can be thousands of them in each cell, depending on how much energy the cell has to provide (heart and kidney cells contain the most). Inside the mitochondria, a complex process takes place nonstop. In it, electrons are pa.s.sed along, like a football, through an a.s.sembly line of enzymes that create a substance called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the fuel that enables cells to function and repair themselves. By providing an unlimited flow of electrons into the body, grounding may ensure that ample electrons are available in the mitochondria and may thus contribute to the production of ATP in all the cells.

It's taken me the better part of thirty-five years of practicing cardiology to learn that the heart is all about ATP. The bottom line in the treatment of any form of cardiovascular disease is the restoration of your heart's supply of ATP. I've come to realize that sick hearts leak out and lose vital ATP. Cardiac conditions such as angina, heart failure, silent ischemia, and diastolic dysfunction can all cause an ATP deficit.

Another aspect of cellular energy production is that the electrons transported through the a.s.sembly line are of a higher energy type, more like a ”hot potato” than a football, and that this energy is transferred to ATP. Scientists say these energized electrons are in an ”excited state.” We think that electrons provided by the Earth must be of that type-electrons br.i.m.m.i.n.g with higher energy. The Earth thus provides us not only more electrons but supercharged electrons at that!

THE SYMPATHETIC-HRV CONNECTION.

Whenever you can turn down the volume on stress in the body, it's good for the heart and that's one of the big benefits of Earthing.

Chronic stress triggers an excess release of the stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline. It also throws off the balance between the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. Too much sympathetic ”arousal”-from stress-leads to the well-known fight-or-flight mode, an alert and readiness state that humans automatically switch on in reaction to an imminent danger, like fighting in a battle. In today's world, unpredictable social, financial, and political events conspire to keep stress levels at an unhealthy high level. More and more people live day to day in a state of physiological arousal. (Refer to the inset ”Factors Contributing to Sympathetic Nervous System Activation” for a list of factors that rev up the sympathetic nervous system.) Revved-up sympathetic activity overwhelms the calming influence of the parasympathetic nervous system. The result, among other things, is a heightened risk of hypertension, arrhythmias, and even sudden death. One major yardstick of sympathetic overdrive is disturbance to what cardiologists call heart rate variability (HRV), a measurement of nervous system balance on heart function as well as an important indicator for both acute and chronic stress produced by mental load, anxiety, and emotional trauma. HRV refers to the beat-to-beat alterations in heart rate. People with low variability are less able to ”go with the flow” when faced with stress and are more p.r.o.ne to stress-related disorders, including cardiovascular disease.

Factors Contributing to Sympathetic Nervous System Activation Environmental and/or medical conditions Air pollution (particulate matter <10 microns)=”” insulin=”” resistance,=”” diabetes,=”” or=”” metabolic=”” syndrome=”” congestive=”” heart=”” failure=”” obesity=”” depression,=”” anxiety=”” sleep=”” apnea=”” hypertension=”” psychosocial=”” and=”” behavioral=”” conditions=”” abuse=”” of=”” stimulants=”” sleep=”” deprivation=”” chronic=”” stress=”” smoking=”” hostility,=”” anger,=”” or=”” rage=”” social=”” isolation=”” and=”” loneliness=”” sedentary=”” lifestyle=”” sugar-laden=”” diet=”” pharmaceutical=”” drugs=”” beta-agonist=”” bronchodilators=”” short-acting=”” calcium=”” channel=”” blockers=”” peripheral=”” alpha=”” blockers=”” in=”” 2008,=”” i=”” partic.i.p.ated=”” with=”” electrophysiologist=”” gaetan=”” chevalier,=”” ph.d.,=”” in=”” an=”” experiment=”” to=”” measure=”” the=”” effect=”” of=”” earthing=”” on=”” hrv.=”” we=”” believe=”” that=”” the=”” autonomic=”” nervous=”” system=”” (ans)=”” is=”” one,=”” and=”” possibly=”” the=”” first,=”” of=”” the=”” major=”” body=”” systems=”” to=”” react=”” to=”” earthing.=”” the=”” ans=”” serves=”” the=”” body=”” as=”” a=”” rapid=”” response=”” mechanism=”” to=”” control=”” a=”” wide=”” range=”” of=”” functions.=”” cardiovascular,=”” respiratory,=”” gastrointestinal,=”” hormonal,=”” urinary,=”” and=”” other=”” systems=”” are=”” regulated=”” by=”” the=”” ans's=”” sympathetic=”” and=”” parasympathetic=””>

Previous experiments have shown that grounded individuals experience a reduction in stress and a normalizing, balancing effect on ANS function. In this new study, which will be published in 2010, data from twenty-eight healthy men and women (average age of forty-eight) showed that Earthing produces a trend toward improvement in HRV. Each partic.i.p.ant was measured for forty minutes, grounded as well as ungrounded. The results give yet more strong evidence indicating its potential for balancing the nervous system and supporting cardiovascular health.

This represents an important finding. If there is a trend in forty minutes, what will sleeping grounded for six or eight hours do? Whenever there is an improvement in HRV, a reduction in sympathetic intensity and a better balance of the ANS takes place. The study gives us a glimpse of significant cardiac possibilities inviting more investigation. It hints at a cardiac-protective feature of Nature hitherto unknown. In our opinion, Earthing should be added to a host of other simple, cost-effective and noninvasive interventions that positively impact the ANS (for a list of these interventions, see the inset ”Interventions to Improve Autonomic Nervous System Function”).

ARRHYTHMIAS AND EARTHING.

Arrhythmias-whether of the skipped heartbeat variety or atrial fibrillation or malignant ventricular irregularities-are frequently set off by emotional stress and turmoil, situations that generate heightened sympathetic activity. Worry and fear can trigger these cardiovascular events. There is definitely a heart-brain ”hotline.”

Imagine living with a heart that vibrates, quivers, and races rapidly and erratically instead of beating in a steady, comfortable, and predictable rhythm. Atrial fibrillation is the medical name for this condition, the most common arrhythmia of the heart. Every year, 2 million or so people are diagnosed with ”atrial fib” or ”a-fib,” as it is called for short. Although it isn't by itself life threatening, it can lead to heart failure or stroke. For sure, it can scare the heck out of most anybody who has it and drain his or her energy. People frequently think they are having a heart attack.

A-fib means there is an electrical problem in the heart. In a normal heart rhythm, the upper chambers of the heart-the atria-contract in unison in response to an electrical signal generated by pockets of specialized cardiac cells called the sinus node. In patients with a-fib, however, the conduction is deranged and electrical signals are scattered throughout the atria. Instead of contracting, the atria beat quickly and irregularly. This results in the loss of normal, synchronous pulsation and raises the risk of blood pooling inside the chambers, where it can form clots. Coumadin is usually prescribed to prevent clot formation.

Interventions to Improve Autonomic Nervous System Function EARTHING.

Lifestyle modifications Exercise Smoking cessation Meditation, yoga, tai chi, qigong Social support Religiosity or faith Stress reduction, biofeedback Restoration of normal sleep Weight loss Medications Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors Beta blockers Natural supplements Omega-3 fatty acids Emergency interventions include electrical cardioversion to ”break” the atria from fibrillating and allow the heart to resynchronize and reestablish control. This procedure involves a perfectly timed, low dose of electricity to give the conduction system a ”jolt,” which enables it to reset itself.

Bob Malone, sixty-nine, Boulder, Colorado, financial adviser: ”After experiencing chest pain, rapid heart beat, and flutter, I was diagnosed with a-fib in 1996. It's very scary. You don't know when the next episode is going to come on and whether or not you will survive it. In my case, it was all brought on by stress in my life, particularly business stress. My work involves advice and decisions that affect people's lives. ”After experiencing chest pain, rapid heart beat, and flutter, I was diagnosed with a-fib in 1996. It's very scary. You don't know when the next episode is going to come on and whether or not you will survive it. In my case, it was all brought on by stress in my life, particularly business stress. My work involves advice and decisions that affect people's lives.

”Medication kept the symptoms under control most of the time. When the meds were unable to control the wildness in my heart, I would have to get the electroshock and jolt the heart back into a normal rhythm. I needed that kind of treatment about every nine months or so. The meds were horrible. They took my energy down to zero. It was sort of like not having a life. I've always been an active, creative guy, and I love the outdoors, and now this stopped me in my tracks.

”I started sleeping grounded in 2000. I went from not getting sleep and waking up frequently at night to getting good, solid sleep pretty much all the time. I later added a grounded floor pad while I was reading or watching TV, and during the last couple of years, I have even used one at the office where the stress level is pretty high. I wear leather shoes so I can get the Earth's energy while I work.

”The number of incidents slowly started to stretch out. They went from days to weeks to months apart. Over time I was slowly able to wean myself off the medication. I had a flare-up in 2006, which I believe was related to the stress over the death of my brother. I had to take medication, but I haven't taken any for the last eighteen months.

”In 2007, I went to Vail for some fresh air and took an hour-and-a-half hike up and down a mountain. My pulse was ranging between 115 to 130 beats per minute. In the process I got chest pain (angina), which happens whenever I exercise aggressively. Then it normally goes away at night when I sleep grounded. But I wasn't grounded up in Vail, and the chest pain continued the following two days when I took two small hikes. I came back home the next day, a Sunday afternoon, with the pain still there. So I lay down on a grounded bed pad and napped for about a half hour. When I got up, the chest pain was gone completely. I even took a one-hour moderate bike ride afterward and no chest pain came back. So after having chest pain for three days straight I was greatly relieved.

”I haven't had chest pain since that time or any sign of atrial fib since October of 2008, about the time that the financial markets went sour. Despite all the stress that followed I didn't have another episode. Obviously I'm thrilled to have gone through the tough and anxious times without incident.”

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.

Doctors don't know the precise cause of high blood pressure, but they do know that it affects a huge segment of the human race and is increasing at an alarming rate. A 2007 report from health organizations around the world predicted a 60 percent rise, to an estimated 1.56 billion people by 2025. Currently, one billion people globally and about 72 million Americans have high blood pressure. The report envisioned a cardiovascular disease epidemic as a result. High blood pressure, while it is often symptomless, is serious business because it places you at increased risk for blindness, kidney damage, an enlarged heart, heart attack, and stroke.

High blood pressure is one of the biggest and most insidious heart risk factors around. Unless you get it under control, it is a sure ticket to heart disease. I've treated this common condition countless times in my practice and even wrote a book about it: Lower Your Blood Pressure in Eight Weeks Lower Your Blood Pressure in Eight Weeks (Ballantine, 2003). (Ballantine, 2003).

I've often treated patients who came to me from other doctors unable to bring their blood pressure numbers down with conventional treatment. My experience has been that standard drug and diet therapies frequently fall far short of their intended goals, permitting incompletely controlled blood pressure to silently continue chipping away bits and pieces of the arterial system.

For a large percentage of patients with high blood pressure, I have used four major tools in a nondrug approach and they work both for prevention and therapy: diet, supplements, mind/body techniques, and exercise. Mild high blood pressure, as a matter of fact, is one of the easiest medical conditions to control without drugs or medical treatment. Management of emotional stress, optimal nutrition and supplements, weight management, exercise, elimination of smoking and caffeine, and moderate restriction of alcohol, as well as other lifestyle modifications can prevent, delay the onset, reduce the severity, treat and control the condition in many cases. Individuals with symptomatic kidney disease, a result of high blood pressure, need to take medication.

When I was in medical school more than thirty years ago, we didn't have a cause for high blood pressure. Now we regard the biggest cause as oxidative stress, meaning you have inflammation and free radicals eroding the sensitive endothelial cell linings of blood vessels. The second, and perhaps equally as big, is sympathetic overdrive that, among other things, causes the blood vessels to constrict.

As far as Earthing is concerned, we haven't done a study yet to doc.u.ment the effects on blood pressure, but our observations so far are very promising. Earthing snuffs out harmful free-radical activity and inflammation. It pacifies sympathetic overdrive. We think Earthing may represent the easiest possible way to lower your blood pressure. You do it in your sleep without a pill or anything else.

The following two stories show the possibilities.

Dean W. Levin, fifty-four, Redondo Beach, California, marketing strategist: ”Around 2000, my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, his decline has accelerated in the last couple of years, and in 2008 he began being a.s.sisted through a hospice program. ”Around 2000, my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, his decline has accelerated in the last couple of years, and in 2008 he began being a.s.sisted through a hospice program.

”Doctors use a 0 to 30 scale to describe the level of cognition in patients. My dad was at a 20 or 21 level seven years ago. Now, at age eighty-eight, his level is around 10. He requires 24/7 care, including hand-feeding. He is pretty much immobile. He has to be lifted from the bed to the wheelchair. He's had no exercise in at least a year, and there are only very limited moments of awareness/consciousness. He has very, very limited moments of being in the present.

”The hospice doctors visit him monthly and monitor his health and overall condition. For the past several years, they have prescribed only two medications for him-one for the Alzheimer's and the other to regulate his blood pressure. He had been taking hypertension medication for years as well.

”At the end of 2008, I put a grounded sheet in my father's bed and he has slept grounded ever since. Six months or so later, the doctors observed that his blood pressure had returned to normal. They didn't understand how this could happen with someone who had no mobility. My father couldn't walk or talk. Consequently, they took him off his blood pressure medicine.

”Another unusual thing also occurred. He hasn't developed a single bedsore despite the fact he's sleeping perhaps 85 percent of the time. That's rather uncommon for someone so thoroughly bedridden. Bedsores develop when you don't move, and of course there's limited circulation. He didn't have bedsores before, but earlier on in the disease he was moving or being moved around. Since there is a radical decline in functionality toward the final stages of the disease, the doctors are surprised that there are no bedsores.”

<script>