Part 15 (1/2)

Back fifty years ago or so, with the emergence of medical insurance plans, people expected they'd be taken care of when they got old and there would be a pill for every illness. Today, there is a pill for practically every illness, but the pills don't particularly cure anything or make us healthier.

The late John Knowles, M.D., head of the Ma.s.sachusetts General Hospital and the Rockefeller Foundation during the 1960s and 1970s, put it this way years ago: ”People have been led to believe that national health insurance, more doctors, and greater use of high-cost, hospital-based technologies will improve health. Unfortunately, none of them will.”

At the time, politicians and doctors had become increasingly concerned about the rising costs of health care. Sound familiar? Such costs were eating up about 8 percent of the domestic national product back then. Today, the percentage has more than doubled and is supposed to reach 20 percent in a few years! Politicians and doctors are still concerned, but concern hasn't helped much.

And the future?

Ouch! It hurts to look ahead.

HEALTH CARE CHANGE ... FROM THE GROUND UP.

Nearly 80 million American baby boomers will soon turn sixty-five, and as they do, there will obviously be more people with chronic diseases and higher medical care costs draining an already strained medical system. Without any significant changes, the surge may break the Medicare coffers-and predictions for that have already surfaced.

The Council of State Governments, a leading multi-branch organization forecasting policy trends, said in a 2006 alert on chronic disease that along with more forecasted disease among the older population, there is also the issue of more children entering their teen years, college, and adulthood with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other effects of overweight, physical inactivity, and unhealthful eating. ”Some experts estimate that the generation growing up today will be the first to live a shorter life than their parents and grandparents. This will have a tremendous effect on public resources and the ability of public agencies to provide health care and social services, while draining a critical U.S. resource-the work force.”

The status quo isn't working. The situation threatens the health of individuals, the family, and nations everywhere. Declining health is hardly an American monopoly. The health of all humanity is in crisis. The many ailments besetting the United States are symptomatic of a planetary catastrophe in the making before our eyes and headlined in the news every single day.

The a.n.a.logy of raising cows may be appropriate here. If humans were cows, they would have to be taken out and shot. Who could afford the vet bill?

Health care, as it operates today, is impotent, exorbitant, and ineffective. Chronic disorders are out of control, and the solution is really not in the hands of government or insurers. It is in our hands. Our health, or lack of it, is by and large the result of how we live.

”Self-care is the only effective way to ensure good health and a longer, fuller life,” wrote Joseph D. Beasley, M.D., and Jerry J. Swift, M.A., in an epic 1989 Ford Foundation book, The Kellogg Report: The Impact of Nutrition, Environment & Lifestyle on the Health of Americans The Kellogg Report: The Impact of Nutrition, Environment & Lifestyle on the Health of Americans (Bard College). ”While there is a crying need for reforms of the health care system, the most needed reform of all is in our own att.i.tudes-we patients must become activists for our own health.” (Bard College). ”While there is a crying need for reforms of the health care system, the most needed reform of all is in our own att.i.tudes-we patients must become activists for our own health.”

These and many other similar admonitions have largely remained beyond the hearing range of most people, who persist in overeating unnatural food and avoiding physical activity. So we just become sicker and sicker.

Instead of focusing on health insurance, we need to emphasize health a.s.surance. We reach that greater level of protection by removing the major sources of stress and toxicity in our lives. In this book, we propose one surprisingly and utterly simple means of helping to reach that goal.

EARTHING'S PARADIGM-CHANGING HEALTH AND ECONOMIC POTENTIAL Earthing represents a discovery of the first magnitude, as potentially significant and globally sweeping as electricity, telephones, radio, television, and computers. Consider the changes that new technologies like these brought to society in their time. We are still riding the waves of innovation they generated in terms of jobs and economies. Earthing, like these concepts, is disruptive in that it changes how people live. It is something evolutionary and, at the same time, revolutionary.

We believe that Earthing can change the way medicine itself is practiced, adding major effectiveness in healing while lowering the cost of treatments for many diseases. Keep in mind that the physiology of the grounded person appears to be different-in a more efficient and healthier way-than that of an ungrounded person.

As more research rolls out, we envision Earthing units being installed in spas and the clinics of health pract.i.tioners. We envision patients being grounded in hospitals and nursing homes. Sophisticated electrically operated equipment and instrumentation are grounded in medical and health care facilities. The beds are grounded. Why not the patients in those beds?

Looking ahead, we believe that Earthing can generate a broad societal and economic overhaul.

Economies are based on businesses that create profits, jobs, and wealth. We think that Earthing offers a huge bonanza for business the world over. Earthing has the potential to benefit-and change-the world in many ways. It is equally available to the richest and the poorest, to both the industrialized and the developing world.

Earthing will affect all society-literally from the ground up, starting with the shoe industry. The simple insertion of a few cents of conductive carbon or some other similar material in the soles of shoes can bring people into contact again with the Earth's healing energy. The shoe manufacturing industry hasn't acted in bad faith, but its innovations have contributed to the rise of chronic illness. Here's a golden opportunity for the shoe industry to redeem and reinvent itself in the name of health ... and expanded sales. What a glorious prospect! Every year a person buys at least one new pair of shoes. For a small investment on the part of the industry, so much good can be done in the marketplace. As a consumer, start asking about grounded shoes the next time you make a purchase. Create the demand.

Earthing has the potential to thoroughly revolutionize the bedding and mattress industry. Every eight years on average, people replace their mattresses in the United States. About 30 million are sold each year. And there is a mattress store for every 20,000 homes in America. Here is an industry that sells comfort in all forms: water, air, springs, foam, latex. But just by adding a few dollars' worth of conductive material to the mattress and connecting it to the Earth, it can improve the health of a society full of insomniacs while it sleeps. The new mattress bottom line will be: more comfort, better sleep, less pain, better health.

Imagine the rush to buy grounded mattresses!

Hotels have been spending billions on twenty-first century upgrades such as flat-screen TVs, wireless Internet, trendier bars, and fancier showers. Imagine the appeal of hotels offering weary travelers grounded mattresses to promote sleep and elimination of jet lag.

The shoe and mattress industry have blockbuster products to sell and, while they are at it, become a part of the health care industry. These are the best place to start the Earthing revolution. Is there any simpler kind of health reform than that? When you go out to purchase shoes and mattresses, you will simultaneously be buying better health for yourself.

There are innumerable business opportunities to bring the Earth's healing electrons up into our lives so that everyone lives grounded most of each and every day. Homes, offices, and schools need to be grounded. That includes floors, carpets, and furniture. Even cars can get a modified dose of grounding with a simple seat pad. All these basic parts of society's infrastructure can be inexpensively outfitted with conductive material, creating a whole Earthing industry to ground new and existing houses. Out of this will come whole new manufacturing, marketing, distributing, and installation industries, just like exists today with telephone or cable systems.

Think of how all this will impact the way we design our living and working environments. Can you imagine what effect all this will have on the health statistics we cited above? And on the economy of the world in terms of new jobs, careers, research, products, education, services, and even tax revenue for cash-strapped governments? For corporations, just think of what this will do to their own health insurance premiums and cost of doing business. Instead of a malignant cycle of bad health, we can create a benign cycle of good health that embraces and benefits both employers and employees alike.

Earthing is the future. Humanity needs to reconnect to the planet, to our natural electrical state, and to our natural state of good health.

It's so simple to do.

Our book is a bugle call. Wake up, people. Go out. Ground yourself. Reintroduce your bare feet to the ground. Sleep grounded, and, if you can, work grounded, play grounded, and watch TV grounded.

If you haven't done it by now, go sit or stand barefoot outside (weather permitting) for a half hour or so. If you have pain, see what difference it makes. Then ask yourself if reconnecting with the Earth might be the most amazing health discovery you you have ever made. have ever made.

We think that reconnecting with the Earth is amazing, and may, in fact, be the the most important health discovery ever. most important health discovery ever.

Appendices

APPENDIX A. Technical Notes on Grounding and Earthing Methods Physicists and electrical engineers have chosen the Earth as the most obvious ”ground,” or reference point, for all electrical power grids. The Earth provides a reference voltage, that is, the ground or zero potential against which all other voltages are established and measured. There is no absolute electric potential. What is measured is the difference in electric potential between two points-one being the Earth, the reference point.

What Exactly Is a Ground?

A ground is defined as a conductive object that makes a direct electrical connection to Earth and has the ability to absorb or dissipate an electrical charge, thereby maintaining a grounded object at the stable electrical potential of the Earth. Grounding is central to the safe and stable usage of electricity. A ground connection serves as an electrical ”sink” that minimizes the susceptibility of electromagnetic interference in communication systems; reduces the risk of equipment damage due to lightning; eliminates electrostatic buildup, which can damage system components; and helps protect people who service and repair electrical, electronic, and computer equipment.

In effect, an electrical ground drains away any unwanted buildup of electrical charge. When a device or person is connected to an Earth ground, that device or person will equalize with, and maintain, the stable electrical potential of the Earth.

An ”Earth ground” usually consists of a ground rod driven into the Earth. In a car, truck, aircraft, or a s.p.a.cecraft, there is no such thing as a true Earth ground. But if the ma.s.s of metal comprising the vehicle is substantial, that ma.s.s can simulate an Earth ground reasonably well.

Earthing Methods and Considerations We expect that after reading this book many people will want to experiment with Earthing in order to experience the effects that Earthing may have on their health and sleep.

The easiest method, of course, is as simple as routinely going outdoors and placing your bare feet directly on the Earth for thirty minutes at a time. But being barefoot is not always an option.

We have described a variety of personal Earthing methods in the book that we call ”barefoot subst.i.tutes.” They involve use of a ground rod or a specially designed wall plug that can be connected to conductive floor mats, chair pads, sheets, mattresses, and common electrode patches to Earth individuals indoors while sleeping or sitting. We have even mentioned grounded shoes.

Few of these systems are now commercially available, but we expect more to become accessible in the near future. Keep in mind that most of these systems were developed primarily for use in proof-of-concept Earthing studies. Ways were needed to Earth people for study purposes when they were confined to one place during a testing period. From the start, many study partic.i.p.ants and researchers requested sample Earthing devices for friends and families, leading to further development and testing of various Earthing product forms for indoor home use. Some proved to be functional and effective. Others, less so.

The primary concern in developing these home/office systems was to ensure both effectiveness and safety. The systems used in the studies consisted of a ground rod placed directly in the Earth, along with a fuse-protected ground wire to connect the Earthing test device to the ground rod. (See Figure A-1.) When home grounding systems were given to individuals who requested sample devices, we recommended that an electrician or professional cable installer be employed to install the ground system, which included placing of the ground rod, running the ground wire, and mounting a permanent wall outlet for easy connection of Earthing devices.

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Figure A-1. Placing ground rod in Earth.