Going Barefoot, Health Benefits

Lately I observed that whenever I take a shower, while wet and I reached for the shower knob, I always receives a minor electric jolt, not too much but still disturbing.  When I reported that to my wife, she said she never experienced such, so it appears that is related in my body system and not with the circuitry of the house.

So I started wearing rubber slippers while taking a shower and it worked good for quite a while. Until this morning, I got a much stronger shock when I reached again for the knob to turn the water off, now even while wearing a rubber slipper during the shower.

So immediately upon arriving here in the office, I googled outright what could be causing this severe static electricity problem I have and the possible remedies, if any; as I am sure something is wrong with my current body metabolism.

And that is why I am making this blog to share what I have found out

Electricity Build-Up

As we know, our body is capable of generating electricity and storing those up.  There are numerous reasons for that but the amount of static electricity each of us can store varies on our own metabolism.  Some are very susceptible to it, others not much.  It appears that the more acidic our body is, the greater it can absorb and store electricity.  Or if our blood is thicker, then the same goes.


Lifestyle

With our modern lifestyle where we surround ourselves with modern technologies that requires electricity (and spreads discharge around us invisibly), then we are more susceptible to this static electricity build-up.  For instance, in the office I am surrounded by aircon, laptop, monitor, cpus, cctvs, ups, etc.  In the house, it is the same.  In-between, I am inside a car with all the glory of the air-con it provides.  Plus now in this era, my mobile phone is constantly near my body.

Impact on Health

These change in lifestyle is not mainly focused on the static electricity build-up alone inside our body.  This has also adverse effects on our internal organs and our well being.  We feel more stressed, we are more prone to sleep deprivation, our body is aging faster, our metabolism is more weaker, and the lot.

Going back to the roots

Our fore-parents are much stronger than us.  That is a fact.  But that is because their lifestyle is much more different than us now.

However, the reason for this post is to make readers aware that while we are on these era of modernization, it won't hurt to learn to do some basic things our fore-parents do.  And that is to go barefoot, once in a while

Earthing/Grounding

Like mentioned, we now constantly wore slippers or shoes and the soles of our feet now almost never come in contact with the soil/ground.  And this is actually one of the main reasons, as suggested by several articles, that degrades our health.

For instance, we are now more Electron Deficient than our fore-parents are. Simply for a sole fact that we seldom get in contact directly with the ground now (Eww!!! It is dirty!).

Borrowing writings from one of the links I will share below:

Physical contact with the Earth or lack thereof, affects inflammation, a causal influence in most common diseases. Inflammation has been linked to rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, asthma, multiple sclerosis, lupus, autism, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s, bowel disorders, osteoporosis and cancer.

“The growth in chronic illnesses since the early 1960s is likely related to the fact that we have become increasingly disconnected from the vital life force of the planet. Rubber soled shoes, indoor lifestyles without any Earth contact, and living in multi-storey, ungrounded buildings, where the voltage on a person rises the higher in the building one resides, is where we are beginning to find the answers.”

Ultimate Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory

Grounding or Earthing is defined as placing one’s bare feet on the ground whether it be dirt, grass, sand or concrete (especially when humid or wet). When you ground to the electron-enriched earth, an improved balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system occurs.

It appears our body's immune system functions optimally when we are in contact with earth.  As earth offers an abundant supply of free electrons, then going barefoot and in contact with the ground is a healthier way of living, even if we only do this once in a while.

Aside from receiving these much needed electrons, going barefoot is a fast and healthy way of discharging the stored static electricity out of our body.

Going Barefoot myself

And I tried it a while ago myself.  Lately I am constantly getting shocked as mentioned during showering, have been feeling quite not good myself, am having lack of proper sleep, and an alarming (not quite) prolonged heartburn (while a sign of heart attack, mostly caused only by too much acid in the stomach).  And as I have mentioned, too much acidity increases the chance of storing more static electricity within one's body.

So I said to myself, before I decided to write this article, I won't loose anything to try it myself.  So I went out of the office, looked for a good place to go barefoot for a few minutes (clean soil or gravel), found one under a tree, removed my socks and shoes, and went barefoot.  I was trying to discharge said static electricity out of my system and is trying to see what receiving these needed electrons can do to my body.

After around 5 minutes of standing, I sat down with my bare feet on the gravel and soil and mused to myself, let's speed up the process by touching the tree as well with my other hand (while I am still reading other articles about this).

And after another 5 minutes or more, I did felt  getting better.  The heartburn slowly goes away (but it came back again now while I was in front of this laptop), I felt refreshed, my head's fog seems to have slowly lifted, my eyes started to get sharper, and I felt very very relaxed.

Psychological?  Maybe, maybe not.  But then my belief is more into the scientific explanations.  I was able to discharge my stored static electricity (maybe not all) and I was able to receive electrons my body has been lacking, plus I also received a doze of negative ions (research for that as well); being I was in contact with mother earth and I am under the cool shade of that tree.

Epilogue:

We are always cocooned into our modern lifestyle constantly surrounding ourselves with various gadgets that we forget to go out in the open once in a while.

So the reason for this article is to advice everyone to at least go out in the open, say weekend, do some barbecues outside in your lawn, give some time to sit under the trees, to read or simply gaze at the beauty of the nature, breathe the free air and expose ourselves with what nature can give.  And yes, go barefoot to directly interact with mother earth, even for a brief period of time.

Update:

I have been doing the morning routine, during my coffee break, for 3 days now where I go to my secluded place under the tree and gone primitive without any foot apparel, just for 5 to 10 minutes.  My bare feet on the gravel and sand.  And what is noticeable is while I am doing that in the early mornings, at night I can still feel my blood in my feet coursing through the veins.  It is something you feel after you got a foot massage where the veins seems to be very active.  Or when you go to the beach barefooted and came back at night to sleep.  Have you experienced the same, if you did tried this?

Links/Sources:

• Why Does Walking Barefoot on the Earth make you feel better?
• Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth's Surface Electrons
• How Your Body Generates Electricity
• Static Build-up on People
• The Shocking Truth Behind Static Electricity
• Earthing: Restoring Health From the Ground Up