November 6, 2024 • 48 mins
Discover the health benefits of having your body grounded, with expert Clint Ober, a pioneer in earthing. Join us as Janet Walker steps in for Roland Perez to guide a captivating conversation about how connecting with the Earth can transform health. Clint shares his remarkable journey from the cable TV industry to inadvertently unearthing the benefits of earthing. Get ready to hear Clint's childhood story that underscores the deep historical roots of earthing, utilized by cultures worldwide for centuries before gaining scientific attention.
Learn how grounding can be your ally in the battle against inflammation and chronic pain. This episode sheds light on the natural electrical connection between our bodies and the Earth, and how our modern lifestyle has distanced us from this simple yet powerful practice. We delve into personal experiences and scientific curiosity surrounding grounding's impact on inflammation and pain relief. Balance your body's electrical charges and discover potential improvements in sleep quality, stress reduction, and overall well-being.
Explore the earthing revolution with insights into the burgeoning market for earthing products, fueled by demand from athletes and wellness enthusiasts alike. Clint Ober reveals his journey from research to innovation, creating products that bring the benefits of earthing indoors for everyone. Learn how these tools help bridge the gap between ancient practices and contemporary life, emphasizing personal experience and trust in incorporating earthing into daily routines. Prepare to rethink your approach to wellness with Clint's innovative solutions.
From the producers of PBS's American Health Journal and Innovations in Medicine. Thank you for listening to Better Wellness.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Janet Walker (00:08):
Recently, wellness expert David Delrahim was here
with our host, roland Perez, foran episode that focused on how
nature can change our lives.
Roland promised that we wouldexplore the topic of grounding
our bodies for health in a fullepisode, so today we're talking
to the world's preeminent expertin earthing.
Welcome to Better Wellness, apodcast that explores the newest
(00:34):
innovations in true wellness.
I'm your host, janet Walker,filling in for Roland Perez as
an executive producer of theAmerican Health Journal and
Innovations in Medicine.
For more than 25 years we'veproduced over 530 award-winning
healthcare television shows thathave aired nationally on PBS
(00:55):
with an audience of over 100million viewers.
The Better Wellness Podcastcontinues to explore health
topics to keep your body healthyand to help you develop the
mindset and balance thatprevents illness.
Our guests are experiencedexperts in the world of staying
healthy, young and well.
Our guest today is Clint Ober.
(01:20):
Beginning as an expert in cableTV grounding systems, clint's
research led to pioneering workin the field of earthing for
health.
Today he is the founder ofEarthFX, a grounding research
and development company thatpatented the first indoor
earthing products.
Welcome to the show, clint.
Clint Ober (01:41):
Thank you, Janet.
Thanks for having me on yourshow.
It's a real honor and apleasure to be here.
Janet Walker (01:46):
First, let me ask what is earthing, and is that
different from grounding?
Clint Ober (01:53):
The words are commonly used interchangeably,
but earthing actually means toelectrically connect with the
earth.
But earthing is the moretechnical name, the more used
name around the world.
Earthing is very simply puttingyour feet directly on the earth
.
Grounding is bringing twothings to the same electrical
potential.
Janet Walker (02:14):
How did you become a part of the discovery of
earthing for health?
Clint Ober (02:18):
I grew up on a ranch in Montana and as a boy I was
sat on a horse most of the time.
But anyhow, at that time Ispent a lot of time in Montana
and as a boy I was set on ahorse most of the time.
But anyhow, at that time Ispent a lot of time in nature.
So I become very attuned to thethings in nature.
And when I left thatenvironment I went to work in
the cable television industry,which was just beginning in its
(02:40):
early stages in Montana andPennsylvania area.
And as we were pioneering thatindustry we learned that you had
to ground everything to theearth.
You had to connect the wiresthat are in the air to the earth
physically in order for them todischarge static electricity or
(03:01):
any environmental charges thatcould be created on the wires,
like lightning and so on, andground it to the earth so that
it didn't travel into the home,blow up a TV set or start a fire
, but anyhow.
So along the way we learnedthat a lot of the noise, a lot
of the static, a lot of theproblems and power surges and
everything, we had to groundeverything.
(03:22):
But anyhow, when I was 50, Iretired.
At that time I was noticing oneday that everybody was wearing
the Nike type tennis shoes and Inever really ever wore those,
because I was either barefootwhen I was a kid or I was
wearing a leather cowboy boot,and I always did.
It just felt better andwhenever I would put these
(03:45):
tennis shoes on, my feet wouldsweat and I didn't like that.
So I never really got in thehabit of wearing them.
But one day I was standingthere at a tourist area and a
tour bus pulled up and a groupof tourists got off the bus.
They were all.
I think it was a Japanese tourgroup and I just looked at them
and I just intuitively asked thequestion I wonder if no longer
(04:08):
being naturally grounded couldhave an effect on our physiology
and on our health, because theywere all wearing those
rubber-soled sneakers.
Yes, I didn't really know.
I had no clue.
The question just came out ofnowhere, but anyhow so grounding
was an accidental discovery onmy part.
As it relates to health.
I had not a clue andsurprisingly I found out no one
(04:32):
else did either at the time.
Janet Walker (04:34):
Interesting how the idea just came to you.
Yes, is earthing a new ormodern concept, and I'm
including the 1960s in that timeframe?
Clint Ober (04:43):
Well it is, and I'm including the 1960s in that
timeframe.
Well, it is because, like inmost homes built before 1970,
you do not have an earthingsystem in the home other than at
the mains, but your outlets arenot grounded.
But earthing per se goes backto when I was a kid.
One time I was raised aroundthe Crow and the Cheyenne up in
(05:05):
southeastern Montana.
A couple of them were my bestfriends growing up.
But one day one of my friends,his sister, had scarlet fever
and they had been to the docksand done everything but there
was nothing they could do atthat time.
And this was in the 50s, early50s.
So when they brought her home,one of the elders dug a little
(05:29):
pit in the ground and put alittle bit of straw in it and
they laid her in that.
So she was in the earth, butnot buried in the earth but
laying in the ground, laying onthe ground.
And then they built a fire realclose by and somebody was
sitting there with her for a fewdays while this was going on.
And then we came home one dayfrom school and here she was up,
(05:50):
running around like nothing hadever happened.
And I didn't think anythingabout that at the time.
But as I got more involved inthis and I recall that event and
then I did some research anddefined that many cultures
around the world bury people whohave high fevers or health
(06:12):
challenges until they recover.
Now it sounds odd, but you canGoogle it, it's everywhere.
But almost every culture theyuse earthing.
They didn't call it earthing,it was just a process that,
probably to cool the body, youput it in the earth and it cools
you down but at the same timeit reduces inflammation.
(06:33):
So it's ancient.
The Chinese yogis back 5,000years ago would call it earth qi
energy from the earth and theysay it comes into the feet and
travels up the meridians andthroughout the body and it
stabilizes or returns the bodyto normal.
(06:54):
Now they had no technicalbackground and I was not aware
of any of that at the time Istarted this work, but anyhow.
So it's kind of somethingthat's always been there and
every culture has a history or astory about earthing their
people, especially for healthreasons.
But that was just in thebackground.
(07:17):
I didn't find out most of ituntil after we had written the
first book, the earthing book,and then people started sending
us stories and clippings andreferences to historical books
and so on about the use ofearthing.
Janet Walker (07:30):
Oh, that's fascinating.
Clint Ober (07:32):
And so it was really fascinating.
And then the question was well,how come nobody knows about it
today?
How come I didn't know aboutthis?
I've been grounding things for30 years and I had no idea this.
Janet Walker (07:44):
I've been grounding things for 30 years
and I had no idea as a societyor a modern culture.
What do you think caused us todisconnect?
Clint Ober (07:55):
from such a natural way of living and from
experiencing the benefits ofearthing.
Oh, that's a good one.
When I was a kid, as soon asschool was out, we lost the
shoes and we were alwaysbarefoot.
You couldn't get shoes on us.
So back then, you know, wedidn't know anything about that.
We just went for the comfort ofbeing barefoot because we felt
(08:16):
better barefoot.
What happened was in 1950, plusor minus a few years television
began to surface.
People started spending moretime indoors.
Before then you couldn't get usin the house.
There was nothing to do in thehouse except listen to the radio
on Saturday night, and soanyhow.
(08:40):
Then in late 1950s theydiscovered polymers, plastics.
The first thing that happenedwith plastics is we put them on
the soles of our shoes and westarted carpeting our homes.
But that was great, because noweverybody could afford shoes
(09:00):
and they're inexpensive.
You didn't have to worry abouttaking care of them, you could
just wear them anytime.
But television, I think, was alittle more interesting, because
all of a sudden our livesswitched on a dime.
Television became thecenterpiece of the home, got in
the habit of being indoors orspending more time indoors being
(09:25):
entertained via television, andnow we have the computers and
the tablets and the cell phones.
I mean, we have screens infront of us at all times, 24-7
now, but anyhow.
So that was the progression.
It was in the 1960 era that allof this began to manifest in
earnest.
Janet Walker (09:45):
So it sounds like everything in our lives is
taking us further and furtheraway, Even the processed foods.
I'm sure there's not peoplethat are putting their hands in
the dirt with vegetable gardenslike there used to be.
Clint Ober (10:00):
No, it's like when I was growing up in Montana, you
know, we grew everything.
We had fresh eggs every day andwe milked cows.
We made our own cottage cheese,we made our own yogurts, we
made everything ourselves, andthe only thing that we didn't
make was sugar and flour andsugar.
Before then, sugar was, youknow, it was common, but it
(10:22):
wasn't.
And now everything we eat isfull of sugar.
Yeah, everything has pulled usaway from that natural world,
that innate lifestyle that wehad.
We didn't know about health.
We had never heard of the wordinflammation.
Janet Walker (10:44):
So that brings us to my next question what
disorders happen from thisdisconnection, and how does
earthing promote healing?
Clint Ober (10:47):
Well, that's a good one it took me.
I first discovered this in themid-90s and I was at the time I
was pushing 54, I think I had ahard time sleeping, had chronic
pain.
I skied for 30 years.
I played tennis.
I've done everything you canpossibly do, but anyhow.
So I started grounding myselfand, quite by accident, I
(11:09):
learned the pain disappearedwhen you ground the body.
And when I'm talking about pain, I'm talking about oxidative
pain.
Janet Walker (11:17):
And that comes about from inflammation.
Is that correct?
Clint Ober (11:21):
Inflammation.
The word inflammation meansjust what it describes Body in
flame.
There's a fire, a slow burningfire, oxidation.
So at the time nobody knew.
We did studies and we testedcortisol, we tested various
things and saw all these results, but we didn't understand the
(11:44):
mechanism of what was reallygoing on.
So I just kept doing theresearch, kept pushing on it,
because it affected womenprofoundly, and I'm talking
about moms and people who hadcertain health disorders.
(12:09):
When I would ground them it wasalmost like seeing a miracle.
Versus the guys, guys are thickskin.
Their skin is actually thickerthan women's, so they're not as
sensitive to the environment orwhat goes on in the environment.
Janet Walker (12:23):
So you mentioned you started by grounding
yourself and you just mentionedthat you've started grounding
other people.
Can you describe that so that Ican get a picture in my head of
what you mean?
Clint Ober (12:34):
Okay, well, back then I had a working knowledge
of grounding and groundingequipment In the beginning, when
I first recognized that I wasexperiencing this reduction of
pain whenever I was workingundergrounded or with grounding,
that led me to testing out moreabout this, and the first night
(12:54):
that I did this, I went to ahardware store and I bought a
roll of three inch wide metalaluminum heating tape, duct tape
.
I brought it home and I put iton my bed, taped it across my
bed from top to bottom and Iconnected it to a wire, threw
the wire out the window,connected it to a ground rod.
(13:15):
It was at earth potential.
Most people wouldn't know to dothis or even think of it, no
Wow.
But I had to have two wiresoutdoors, one going to a meter
so I could test the voltage andone going to the tape that I was
laying on.
So I went in and after Iinstalled this I laid down on
(13:35):
the bed and I was normally I hadto leave the TV on because I
couldn't sleep unless the TV wason.
I would just stay awake until Ifell asleep because I had so
much pain in my body.
So I laid down on this tape onmy bed and I had the meter and I
was holding it in my hand and Icould.
When I would roll over and Iwasn't touching the tape, then I
would have these charges orvoltages on my body, measurable
(13:57):
voltages, and that was staticelectricity and EMF and all this
environmental stuff that's inour modern living environments.
It's everywhere.
It's pervasive.
Static electricity is the worst.
It's everywhere.
Every time you move clothing orpick your shoe up off the floor,
there's a static charge that iscreated.
It bleeds off quite quickly butyou're forever creating it and
(14:21):
replicating it.
So your body is forever chargedwith this environmental
electricity.
When you're standing barefooton the earth, then the earth is
infinitely large compared to thebody.
So when you put your feet onthe earth compared to the body,
so when you put your feet on theearth, then you couple up, you
(14:41):
electrically connect to theearth, just like plugging
something into an outlet.
You're electrically connectedand this has been there since
the beginning of time.
It's totally natural.
It's a natural phenomenon andit provides the free electrons
that produce all life on planetearth.
But anyhow, it provides thefree electrons that produce all
life on planet Earth.
But anyhow, it's not somethingthat you can harvest.
It's free to everybody.
It's universal.
(15:01):
It's everywhere around theworld pretty much equally.
So when you stand on the Earth,you are electrically part of
the Earth.
You and the Earth are one andthe same, electrically speaking.
What that does is it preventsbuildup of static electricity on
your body.
So once I recognized thatgrounding my body reduced all
these charges on my body andplaying with this meter, I fell
(15:25):
asleep quite quickly that night.
And I woke up the next morningwith the meter laying by my side
and I don't think I even turnedover that night.
I looked at it and I said, whoa, there's something going on,
because I fell asleep.
I didn't have to take any Advil, I feel rested, I feel like
better than I felt in a longtime.
So that was the real aha, Okay,there's something going on here
(15:48):
.
I didn't know exactly what itwas.
I knew everything about all thenoise and all the EMF and all
the static.
I knew all that.
But I had no idea that the bodyis, when it's ungrounded, when
it's not in contact with theearth, it's an antenna that
attracts static charges andeverybody has experienced it,
(16:10):
because you walk across the roomand on some days you can touch
the doorknob and there's a sparkRight.
That spark is from your bodydischarging excess electrons on
the body to the doorknob or viceversa.
Janet Walker (16:26):
Really, someone can start experiencing the
benefits of earthing right nowjust by being barefoot on the
grass or dirt or sand.
Is that correct?
Clint Ober (16:35):
Yes, grass or dirt or sand, is that correct?
Yes, anything that is a pieceand a part of the earth, like
concrete sitting on the earth,would be, and it's made of earth
, so it would be conductive orsemi-conductive, like the earth
itself.
Grass, damp, grass, justanything that is earth or
earthen or alive and connectedto the earth, like if you're
(16:59):
riding a horse bareback, thenthe horse is grounded and when
you sit on it you're grounded.
Janet Walker (17:04):
Oh wow, Very interesting.
Clint Ober (17:07):
That's why a lot of special needs programs like to
take the kids and put them onhorses.
Janet Walker (17:13):
Yeah.
Clint Ober (17:14):
Because it calms their nervous system.
And now we know why.
We didn't know why, but it's abig horse.
But the horse is grounded.
It's part of the earthelectrically.
You sit on the horse with yourskin touching the horse and then
you are grounded.
And all living things up untilmodern times were naturally
grounded to the earth.
You couldn't get off of theearth.
(17:36):
Now you can't get back to theearth unless you take your shoes
off and go to the park orwherever.
So what happens is when youground the body to the earth,
the body touches the earth.
Then the body absorbs asufficient amount of these
electrons to maintain the bodyat earth.
(17:57):
Potential Earth potential meansthe electrical charge of the
earth and the electrical chargeon your body is identical, one
and the same.
Janet Walker (18:07):
Now you mentioned a meter, so then grounding can
actually be measured in ourbodies.
Clint Ober (18:15):
Okay, measuring the electrical functioning in the
body.
First of all, every single cellin your body is electrical,
every single cell.
To measure the body as a wholeand say the body has an
electrical voltage of X be alittle bit challenging and it
would take very expensiveinstruments to do that.
(18:35):
And we have done that and weknow this.
Janet Walker (18:39):
So getting back to health issues, specifically
inflammation.
What did you discover aboutinflammation?
Clint Ober (18:48):
Yeah, that was the question of questions, and no
matter who I talked to in thescientific community or the
medical community, they all saidwell, what's the mechanism of
that?
You have to tell us why thisworks, because we don't
understand.
And so I spent, you know, eightto 10 years just wandering
around trying to uncover well,why does grounding reduce
(19:10):
inflammation in the body?
We actually did a study anddeveloped a whole list of the
things that grounding wasaffecting in the body.
One day I was sitting workingon a research paper and somebody
had mentioned something aboutoxidative stress and pain.
(19:31):
He said if you're researchingpain, you need to be researching
oxidative stress.
Pain is a byproduct ofoxidation.
Oxidation in our world now meansfire Body's on fire, so the
body is being oxidized, justlike when you light a match to a
log.
You're lighting a fire, it'soxidizing the log, it's burning
(19:55):
the log up.
So at the time that was DrSteven Sinatra.
He was a famous cardiologistthat helped work with me for 15
years or so.
But anyhow, he said you've gotto go research oxidation.
So I started looking and then Iwanted to know what promoted
oxidation, and then that led meto the immune system.
(20:17):
And so, in short, if you have apathogen in your body or an
injury, then the immune systemwill respond by sending a
neutrophil, a white blood cell,over to the site of injury or
issue and the neutrophil will.
It's kind of a jelly cell, itwill just kind of wrap itself
around the pathogen and then itwill release what we call
(20:41):
reactive oxygen species.
The word reactive oxygen meansthat it's highly electrically
charged charged sufficient thatit can rip an electron from the
shell of the pathogen anddestroy it.
That's how the immune systemworks and there's lots of
technical explanation, butbottom line is oxidative pain is
(21:04):
like what I call Vicodin typepain, hot burning, and it's
inflammatory.
Healing pain oftentimes is justyou injured yourself and the
body produces enough pain tokeep you or prevent you from
doing further injury.
So you know, rest, relax or dosomething.
(21:24):
So one day, in a moment, Irecognized that well, the only
thing I'm doing is I'mconnecting somebody to the earth
and the only thing that happenswhen you connect somebody to
the earth is earth's naturalenergy negative charge.
Earth's electrical chargetravels up the wire and then
(21:46):
anything connected to that wire,it will absorb sufficient
electrons to maintain earth'spotential.
So it's at the same electricalcharge as the Earth.
And the significance of thatwas very simple when you ground
a person, the pain disappears,goes away.
So what you're doing is thebody's absorbing these free
(22:06):
electrons from the Earth.
And normally when you have anoxidative burst, throughout
history we were always grounded.
Nobody ever needed to knowabout grounding because it was
automatic.
It was just like sunshine.
Then that helped me torecognize that it was the shoes
that was universal around theworld that changed in the 1960s,
(22:29):
then the carpets and thecreature comforts and the
plasticization of everythingthat we touch, including the
steering wheel in our car, youknow whatever.
Because when I was a kid weused to have tractors or
whatever, and they were metaland everything was metal.
Today you can't touch anythingmetal.
Janet Walker (22:49):
No, I mean, we have a computer mouse in our
hand eight hours a day, 10 hoursa day, and it's plastic yeah.
Clint Ober (22:55):
Right, so anyhow, that's how I made the connection
was.
Well, all I'm doing is pouringfree electrons into the body and
the body's absorbing them andit's reducing oxidative stress.
Janet Walker (23:09):
So someone who starts incorporating earthing
into their lives can expect areduction of inflammation and
starting to feel better lesspain, better sleep.
Clint Ober (23:20):
Oh yeah, no, what it affects is if you have pain or
you are in pain, then your fightor flight system is elevated,
your sympathetic state ischronically elevated and that's
pumping your body full ofcortisol the cortisol.
If you don't reduce that, theneventually it will create more
pain, the pain creates morestress and it's just a vicious
(23:43):
circle.
So, anyhow, what's happening iswe learned that because the
body is now short of electrons,does not have enough free
electrons to reduce theoxidative charge, immune system
is doing exactly what it'ssupposed to it's oxidizing
pathogens.
The problem is, after theoxidative burst, if there's any
(24:04):
free radicals left overelectrically charged molecules,
oxidants then they will steal anelectron from a healthy cell,
damage it, another neutrophilcomes and you have a chain
reaction and that's the start ofchronic inflammation, or what
they call autoimmune disorder,meaning the immune system is not
(24:26):
functioning like it's supposedto.
Normally it does that all daylong, but the problem is there's
not enough free electrons inthe body to unwind and ground
the excess radicals left overafter an oxidative burst.
So therefore, that's what theproblem is.
Can grounding help people whohave autoimmune conditions, then
(24:47):
you can't have an autoimmunedisease if you were to get
grounded and stay grounded.
Janet Walker (24:53):
Oh interesting, it's not possible.
Clint Ober (24:55):
So to give you an example, I make that statement
loosely, but basically theanimals in the wild.
Inflammation doesn't exist innature.
This only exists in humans andanimals who live indoors with
their owners.
Janet Walker (25:13):
And you mentioned cortisol.
So that's the fight or flighthormone, yes, which, in short,
bursts when we need.
It is a good thing.
Clint Ober (25:21):
Absolutely.
Janet Walker (25:25):
But when it builds up and builds up and builds up
in our body, it gets to thesecritical levels.
Clint Ober (25:27):
So you become chronically elevated.
You have chronically elevatedcortisol.
That left alone meets thefibromyalgia, lupus, MS, and he
keeps on going up the ladder.
So the thing that women have todo at the end of the day,
because they are much moresensitive than the guys they
have to take a chair, gooutdoors, take their shoes off,
put their feet sit down, puttheir feet directly on the earth
(25:49):
.
Really that simple and it takes, you know, 15 to 30 minutes.
First thing that's going tohappen and this is all we know
this because of our studiesFirst thing that's going to
happen is you're going todischarge any electrical charges
on your body.
That's static electricity,that's, you know, all this stuff
(26:09):
.
But that charge, that's acellular charge from
inflammation, is going todischarge and that happens near
the speed of light.
Now the damage that has beencreated in the body by being
charged or being electrifiedwith all this stuff.
But as soon as you ground thebody, the body absorbs these
(26:30):
electrons, dissipates thesecharges and then the electrons
stabilize the immune system.
It begins to function normallyand a couple, three or four
minutes, the immune systembecomes stable.
Now there's a lot of damagethat's been created in your body
from being ungrounded for days,hours, weeks, months and, for
(26:50):
many people, years.
And this damage has manifestdifferently in different people
based on their genetics, theirlifestyle, what they eat, their
mental attitude, theireverything creates, you know, is
electrical.
So you're, you're, our body's,full of charges.
Our brain, everything, ouremotions, everything is an
(27:10):
electrical charge.
So you ground this out.
The first thing you feel iskind of a release.
A lot of times you don't eventhink about it because it feels
so good to get grounded.
You just do it automatically.
You don't even know why.
It doesn't matter.
But the first thing you'regoing to feel is a release of
this energy and the tension inyour body is going to reduce.
Now you have free electronsbeing absorbed by the body.
(27:33):
So now you have greater rangeof motion.
Because you have more energy,more electrons, you can breathe
a little easier, your O2 uptakeis a little improved and then
any pain that you have usuallywithin 15 to 30 minutes, I don't
really care what kind of painit is.
From my experience, Anyoxidative pain you have is going
(27:55):
to subside.
Janet Walker (27:56):
Okay, I think, as soon as this interview is over,
I'm going to go out in mybackyard and walk on the grass
for a while.
Clint Ober (28:03):
Yeah, that's what you're doing.
Then just kind of make a mentalnote about the tension in your
body, your respiration, and thenjust that relaxation effect
that comes over you.
Janet Walker (28:19):
I saw that there are at least 20 peer-reviewed
clinical studies in the medicalcommunity about earthing that
prove the positive benefits.
Why aren't more doctors talkingabout it with their patients?
Clint Ober (28:28):
I don't want to get myself in trouble here, but I'll
tell a short story.
I have a lot of friends in themedical industry.
I have a group in San Diegoarea that when we grounded the
riders in the Tour de France,you know back in 204 or
something in that timeframe.
Janet Walker (28:46):
So how exactly did you do that?
What did you use to ground theriders?
Clint Ober (28:51):
What we call the recovered bag.
It was a like, if you can thinkof, a king-sized sheet folded
over, but it had a conductivecarbon material on it and it had
a zipper, so it was like a bigsleeping bag.
Janet Walker (29:05):
Oh, okay.
Clint Ober (29:07):
And it was grounded.
So then you ground it to theearth, like we did for the tour.
We designed it for the ridersof the Tour de France, the US
Postal Team and Team Discovery.
Some of these writers werepatients of one of these docs
and when he found out about ithe said well, I want one of
those.
So he got one and he playedwith it, took it home, and then
(29:28):
he called up and wanted more,and so I started giving him a
dozen at a time, sometimes twodozen.
And then he called and put inan order and I said I'm going to
be driving to San Diego.
I'd like to at least stop andmeet you.
And so I went there and I askedhim.
I said what do you do withthese things?
And he says, well, we use themourselves, you know, to stay off
(29:50):
the some of the meds, toprevent what we now know as
inflammation and modern healthdisorder, but anyhow.
So I asked him.
I said why don't you give theseto your patients?
Because you know it works Well?
It really had great effect onthe writers, because those guys
are doing a 22 or 23 daymarathon every day, all day long
, and their issue is recovery.
(30:11):
They have to recover, they haveto prevent inflammation in the
bodies, because you don'trecover if you have inflammation
.
But when I asked him how come hedidn't give it to everyone else
, he said and he's a nice guy,and he wasn't demeaning anything
.
And I'm not demeaning him atall, but he said it's very
simple.
He said I went to school for 12years and I look around.
(30:34):
He said I went to school for 12years and I look around.
He said I have this office, Ihave this staff, I have all of
these people.
And he said I've got a wifethat's married to a doctor.
Those were his exact words.
But anyhow, he said I can'ttell people to go home and get
well for free.
I have to do my tests, I haveto do all the things I do and a
lot of people they need medicalattention, medical care and
(30:55):
medical guidance.
So I'm not trying to interferewith any of that, but they knew
the significant health benefitsof it.
And he said we can't just tellpeople to go home and take their
shoes off and get well, becauseit does have such a profound
effect on the cardiovascularsystem.
Because cardiovascular diseaseis an inflammation.
It's an inflammatory healthdisorder.
(31:17):
It doesn't exist in nature andwe have lots of docs and lots of
nurse practitioners, lots ofpeople who suggested that you
ought to try for certain peoplebecause there's not much you can
do for certain diseases.
There's a point where itbecomes more palliative care and
to be able to ground thesepeople and reduce their pain,
(31:37):
even though they can't recommendit because it's not blessed by
the medical world, ama and so on.
But I did call the FDA one timewhen I first started on this and
I said I want to know what allthe rules are, because this is
something that affects health.
And I explained it and he saidwell, they kind of understand
what I was talking about.
But he says we do not regulatenatural phenomena.
(31:58):
This is a natural phenomenon.
This is not something youbottle up and put it in packages
and ship it around andwholesale it and sell it.
This is something that isavailable to every person on the
planet and it's free to everyperson on the planet and it's
(32:20):
free If you can find a spot ofbare earth or dirt or grass that
you can spend time on.
And for a long time I justcalled this poor man's medicine.
You don't do anything.
I mean whatever's wrong withyou.
If you have something wrong,please don't even think about it
.
Go to a doctor, have the test.
But for inflammation-relatedhealth disorders whether it's
lupus, ms, any of those kinds ofhealth disorders just go
(32:41):
outdoors, put your feet on theair for 15 to 30 minutes and
notice what happens, and if it'sgood then do it twice a day.
If it's really good, then do itmore often.
Lose the shoes, don't wear themin the house.
Don't wear shoes ever at all ifyou don't have to.
Janet Walker (33:00):
You've written a book and produced documentaries,
including the Earthing Movie,the Remarkable Science of
Grounding, and you've got somebig celebrity names promoting
earthing for health.
Author and actress MurielHemingway is a huge proponent of
the movement, especially forits effects on mental health.
Why do you think that earthingis gaining so much popularity
(33:22):
among the celebrity crowd?
Clint Ober (33:24):
Well, first of all, it works.
These people are all stressed.
If you think of an athlete,like you know, like the baseball
players, football players orwhatever, I mean, they're high
output energy, I mean and theyhave lots of information because
they have to maintain muscletone and have to work out.
They have to do all thesethings.
(33:44):
Actresses are the same.
Actors and actresses andperformers like Sting or any of
these people who are putting outall this energy and they're on
tour or they're doing this orwhatever, they have to recover
every night.
Recovery is the name of thegame.
You're only going to stay inthe game as long as you can
(34:06):
recover.
When we started grounding theTour de France and talking about
recovery, then all of a sudden,a lot of high profile actors,
actresses I would say that mostelite athletes and the baseball
players, half of them usegrounding A lot of the sports
(34:29):
teams, but the actors andactresses, they all go to
similar type docs as theathletes.
And when I started groundingthe Tour de France, all of a
sudden all the other docsstarted to find out about it.
The docs who take care of thesekind of people found out about
it.
And then I started getting allthese calls and they said well,
you know, other people are doingit.
(34:50):
I got to do it and I got to doit now, but everything took off
all by itself.
We've never known how to marketit, because this is more of a
research and development companyEarthFX Inc.
And the Earthing Institute iswhere all this stuff is
deposited all the studies andeverything.
Janet Walker (35:09):
Let's talk a little bit about your company,
earthfx.
Not everyone lives in a placeor has the time to get outside
barefoot, so your company hasdeveloped products that can give
people the earthing experienceand benefits inside their homes,
cars or offices.
Yes, how was it that you cameto start manufacturing products
(35:33):
for earthing?
Clint Ober (35:34):
I never in my life ever thought that I would be in
the business of creatingproducts.
But anyhow along the way, whenwe started doing studies, we
would bring people in who hadnot necessarily health disorders
but just to be able to groundthem for a period and then draw
blood before and afterwards ordo biofeedback or just all of
the things that we did After wedid the studies.
The people who were groundedall wanted to keep the devices
(35:58):
that we were using to groundthem during this test period.
The reason is because it madepain go away in 15 to 30 minutes
.
So anyhow we started giving themthe test units and then all of
a sudden they start coming backand wanting one for their mom,
or one for their grandma anddaughter or whatever.
(36:18):
But that little universe.
And then all of a sudden, wedidn't have any scraps, didn't
have enough product or anything,so we had just.
We sat down one day and we said, okay, what is one thing we can
do that we can produce so thatpeople, when they leave here or
learn about it, they can, atleast for the people who can't
get grounded any other way, theycan at least do this.
And so the first thing thathappened, we were working in one
(36:41):
of our facilities and we hadthese conductive mats thin black
conductive mats laying on ourbenches so we could put
electronic parts on it and nothave any static electricity harm
them.
So, anyhow, we looked at themattress and said, well, the
best thing we can possibly do,without creating something they
(37:02):
have to do every day, is createa mat that they can sleep on.
They have to put it on theirmattress, cover it up with a
sheet if they want, and lay downand do what they always do
every single night Just comehome, lay down, go to sleep and
let nature put out the fire ofinflammation and help them
(37:25):
recover.
And then we started giving themaway and then all of a sudden
it was too big, so we had tostart buying stuff and then we
started selling them and we soldthem for.
So, anyhow, this, over a periodof 20 years, is now a business
that goes around the world.
It's kind of that kind of athing.
People learn about it and theyshare it.
(37:45):
You can't sell it because theydon't believe you or don't
understand what you're talkingabout, unless you experience it
or you trust somebody or you dosomething that somebody's
telling you to do.
Janet Walker (37:57):
Well, unfortunately we're out of time
to talk about all of the amazingearthing products you offer,
including the mattress pads,shoes, yoga mats and more, but
listeners can visit your websiteat earthingcom to see the full
product list and I'm surethey'll be glad they did.
Clint, thank you so much forbeing here.
(38:18):
It was so nice talking with you.
Clint Ober (38:20):
Same here.
Janet Walker (38:21):
And hopefully we'll get to talk again at some
point soon.
Take care.
Clint Ober (38:27):
You bet.
Thank you, take care.
Janet Walker (38:28):
Listeners.
You can learn more about ClintOber Earthing the products that
can help you heal, and ClintOber's book Earthing the most
important health discovery everby visiting wwwearthingcom.
And thank you so much forlistening to the award-winning
Better Wellness podcast.
(38:49):
I'm your host, janet Walker.
Better Wellness is brought toyou by Cocoon Wellness a new way
to support your natural-bornability to be well.
You can find us on ApplePodcasts, google Podcasts,
iheartradio, spotify or whereveryou get your podcasts.
Be well and thanks forlistening.
Recently, wellness expert David Delrahim was here
with our host, roland Perez, foran episode that focused on how
nature can change our lives.
Roland promised that we wouldexplore the topic of grounding
our bodies for health in a fullepisode, so today we're talking
to the world's preeminent expertin earthing.
Welcome to Better Wellness, apodcast that explores the newest
(00:34):
innovations in true wellness.
I'm your host, janet Walker,filling in for Roland Perez as
an executive producer of theAmerican Health Journal and
Innovations in Medicine.
For more than 25 years we'veproduced over 530 award-winning
healthcare television shows thathave aired nationally on PBS
(00:55):
with an audience of over 100million viewers.
The Better Wellness Podcastcontinues to explore health
topics to keep your body healthyand to help you develop the
mindset and balance thatprevents illness.
Our guests are experiencedexperts in the world of staying
healthy, young and well.
Our guest today is Clint Ober.
(01:20):
Beginning as an expert in cableTV grounding systems, clint's
research led to pioneering workin the field of earthing for
health.
Today he is the founder ofEarthFX, a grounding research
and development company thatpatented the first indoor
earthing products.
Welcome to the show, clint.
Clint Ober (01:41):
Thank you, Janet.
Thanks for having me on yourshow.
It's a real honor and apleasure to be here.
Janet Walker (01:46):
First, let me ask what is earthing, and is that
different from grounding?
Clint Ober (01:53):
The words are commonly used interchangeably,
but earthing actually means toelectrically connect with the
earth.
But earthing is the moretechnical name, the more used
name around the world.
Earthing is very simply puttingyour feet directly on the earth
.
Grounding is bringing twothings to the same electrical
potential.
Janet Walker (02:14):
How did you become a part of the discovery of
earthing for health?
Clint Ober (02:18):
I grew up on a ranch in Montana and as a boy I was
sat on a horse most of the time.
But anyhow, at that time Ispent a lot of time in Montana
and as a boy I was set on ahorse most of the time.
But anyhow, at that time Ispent a lot of time in nature.
So I become very attuned to thethings in nature.
And when I left thatenvironment I went to work in
the cable television industry,which was just beginning in its
(02:40):
early stages in Montana andPennsylvania area.
And as we were pioneering thatindustry we learned that you had
to ground everything to theearth.
You had to connect the wiresthat are in the air to the earth
physically in order for them todischarge static electricity or
(03:01):
any environmental charges thatcould be created on the wires,
like lightning and so on, andground it to the earth so that
it didn't travel into the home,blow up a TV set or start a fire
, but anyhow.
So along the way we learnedthat a lot of the noise, a lot
of the static, a lot of theproblems and power surges and
everything, we had to groundeverything.
(03:22):
But anyhow, when I was 50, Iretired.
At that time I was noticing oneday that everybody was wearing
the Nike type tennis shoes and Inever really ever wore those,
because I was either barefootwhen I was a kid or I was
wearing a leather cowboy boot,and I always did.
It just felt better andwhenever I would put these
(03:45):
tennis shoes on, my feet wouldsweat and I didn't like that.
So I never really got in thehabit of wearing them.
But one day I was standingthere at a tourist area and a
tour bus pulled up and a groupof tourists got off the bus.
They were all.
I think it was a Japanese tourgroup and I just looked at them
and I just intuitively asked thequestion I wonder if no longer
(04:08):
being naturally grounded couldhave an effect on our physiology
and on our health, because theywere all wearing those
rubber-soled sneakers.
Yes, I didn't really know.
I had no clue.
The question just came out ofnowhere, but anyhow so grounding
was an accidental discovery onmy part.
As it relates to health.
I had not a clue andsurprisingly I found out no one
(04:32):
else did either at the time.
Janet Walker (04:34):
Interesting how the idea just came to you.
Yes, is earthing a new ormodern concept, and I'm
including the 1960s in that timeframe?
Clint Ober (04:43):
Well it is, and I'm including the 1960s in that
timeframe.
Well, it is because, like inmost homes built before 1970,
you do not have an earthingsystem in the home other than at
the mains, but your outlets arenot grounded.
But earthing per se goes backto when I was a kid.
One time I was raised aroundthe Crow and the Cheyenne up in
(05:05):
southeastern Montana.
A couple of them were my bestfriends growing up.
But one day one of my friends,his sister, had scarlet fever
and they had been to the docksand done everything but there
was nothing they could do atthat time.
And this was in the 50s, early50s.
So when they brought her home,one of the elders dug a little
(05:29):
pit in the ground and put alittle bit of straw in it and
they laid her in that.
So she was in the earth, butnot buried in the earth but
laying in the ground, laying onthe ground.
And then they built a fire realclose by and somebody was
sitting there with her for a fewdays while this was going on.
And then we came home one dayfrom school and here she was up,
(05:50):
running around like nothing hadever happened.
And I didn't think anythingabout that at the time.
But as I got more involved inthis and I recall that event and
then I did some research anddefined that many cultures
around the world bury people whohave high fevers or health
(06:12):
challenges until they recover.
Now it sounds odd, but you canGoogle it, it's everywhere.
But almost every culture theyuse earthing.
They didn't call it earthing,it was just a process that,
probably to cool the body, youput it in the earth and it cools
you down but at the same timeit reduces inflammation.
(06:33):
So it's ancient.
The Chinese yogis back 5,000years ago would call it earth qi
energy from the earth and theysay it comes into the feet and
travels up the meridians andthroughout the body and it
stabilizes or returns the bodyto normal.
(06:54):
Now they had no technicalbackground and I was not aware
of any of that at the time Istarted this work, but anyhow.
So it's kind of somethingthat's always been there and
every culture has a history or astory about earthing their
people, especially for healthreasons.
But that was just in thebackground.
(07:17):
I didn't find out most of ituntil after we had written the
first book, the earthing book,and then people started sending
us stories and clippings andreferences to historical books
and so on about the use ofearthing.
Janet Walker (07:30):
Oh, that's fascinating.
Clint Ober (07:32):
And so it was really fascinating.
And then the question was well,how come nobody knows about it
today?
How come I didn't know aboutthis?
I've been grounding things for30 years and I had no idea this.
Janet Walker (07:44):
I've been grounding things for 30 years
and I had no idea as a societyor a modern culture.
What do you think caused us todisconnect?
Clint Ober (07:55):
from such a natural way of living and from
experiencing the benefits ofearthing.
Oh, that's a good one.
When I was a kid, as soon asschool was out, we lost the
shoes and we were alwaysbarefoot.
You couldn't get shoes on us.
So back then, you know, wedidn't know anything about that.
We just went for the comfort ofbeing barefoot because we felt
(08:16):
better barefoot.
What happened was in 1950, plusor minus a few years television
began to surface.
People started spending moretime indoors.
Before then you couldn't get usin the house.
There was nothing to do in thehouse except listen to the radio
on Saturday night, and soanyhow.
(08:40):
Then in late 1950s theydiscovered polymers, plastics.
The first thing that happenedwith plastics is we put them on
the soles of our shoes and westarted carpeting our homes.
But that was great, because noweverybody could afford shoes
(09:00):
and they're inexpensive.
You didn't have to worry abouttaking care of them, you could
just wear them anytime.
But television, I think, was alittle more interesting, because
all of a sudden our livesswitched on a dime.
Television became thecenterpiece of the home, got in
the habit of being indoors orspending more time indoors being
(09:25):
entertained via television, andnow we have the computers and
the tablets and the cell phones.
I mean, we have screens infront of us at all times, 24-7
now, but anyhow.
So that was the progression.
It was in the 1960 era that allof this began to manifest in
earnest.
Janet Walker (09:45):
So it sounds like everything in our lives is
taking us further and furtheraway, Even the processed foods.
I'm sure there's not peoplethat are putting their hands in
the dirt with vegetable gardenslike there used to be.
Clint Ober (10:00):
No, it's like when I was growing up in Montana, you
know, we grew everything.
We had fresh eggs every day andwe milked cows.
We made our own cottage cheese,we made our own yogurts, we
made everything ourselves, andthe only thing that we didn't
make was sugar and flour andsugar.
Before then, sugar was, youknow, it was common, but it
(10:22):
wasn't.
And now everything we eat isfull of sugar.
Yeah, everything has pulled usaway from that natural world,
that innate lifestyle that wehad.
We didn't know about health.
We had never heard of the wordinflammation.
Janet Walker (10:44):
So that brings us to my next question what
disorders happen from thisdisconnection, and how does
earthing promote healing?
Clint Ober (10:47):
Well, that's a good one it took me.
I first discovered this in themid-90s and I was at the time I
was pushing 54, I think I had ahard time sleeping, had chronic
pain.
I skied for 30 years.
I played tennis.
I've done everything you canpossibly do, but anyhow.
So I started grounding myselfand, quite by accident, I
(11:09):
learned the pain disappearedwhen you ground the body.
And when I'm talking about pain, I'm talking about oxidative
pain.
Janet Walker (11:17):
And that comes about from inflammation.
Is that correct?
Clint Ober (11:21):
Inflammation.
The word inflammation meansjust what it describes Body in
flame.
There's a fire, a slow burningfire, oxidation.
So at the time nobody knew.
We did studies and we testedcortisol, we tested various
things and saw all these results, but we didn't understand the
(11:44):
mechanism of what was reallygoing on.
So I just kept doing theresearch, kept pushing on it,
because it affected womenprofoundly, and I'm talking
about moms and people who hadcertain health disorders.
(12:09):
When I would ground them it wasalmost like seeing a miracle.
Versus the guys, guys are thickskin.
Their skin is actually thickerthan women's, so they're not as
sensitive to the environment orwhat goes on in the environment.
Janet Walker (12:23):
So you mentioned you started by grounding
yourself and you just mentionedthat you've started grounding
other people.
Can you describe that so that Ican get a picture in my head of
what you mean?
Clint Ober (12:34):
Okay, well, back then I had a working knowledge
of grounding and groundingequipment In the beginning, when
I first recognized that I wasexperiencing this reduction of
pain whenever I was workingundergrounded or with grounding,
that led me to testing out moreabout this, and the first night
(12:54):
that I did this, I went to ahardware store and I bought a
roll of three inch wide metalaluminum heating tape, duct tape
.
I brought it home and I put iton my bed, taped it across my
bed from top to bottom and Iconnected it to a wire, threw
the wire out the window,connected it to a ground rod.
(13:15):
It was at earth potential.
Most people wouldn't know to dothis or even think of it, no
Wow.
But I had to have two wiresoutdoors, one going to a meter
so I could test the voltage andone going to the tape that I was
laying on.
So I went in and after Iinstalled this I laid down on
(13:35):
the bed and I was normally I hadto leave the TV on because I
couldn't sleep unless the TV wason.
I would just stay awake until Ifell asleep because I had so
much pain in my body.
So I laid down on this tape onmy bed and I had the meter and I
was holding it in my hand and Icould.
When I would roll over and Iwasn't touching the tape, then I
would have these charges orvoltages on my body, measurable
(13:57):
voltages, and that was staticelectricity and EMF and all this
environmental stuff that's inour modern living environments.
It's everywhere.
It's pervasive.
Static electricity is the worst.
It's everywhere.
Every time you move clothing orpick your shoe up off the floor,
there's a static charge that iscreated.
It bleeds off quite quickly butyou're forever creating it and
(14:21):
replicating it.
So your body is forever chargedwith this environmental
electricity.
When you're standing barefooton the earth, then the earth is
infinitely large compared to thebody.
So when you put your feet onthe earth compared to the body,
so when you put your feet on theearth, then you couple up, you
(14:41):
electrically connect to theearth, just like plugging
something into an outlet.
You're electrically connectedand this has been there since
the beginning of time.
It's totally natural.
It's a natural phenomenon andit provides the free electrons
that produce all life on planetearth.
But anyhow, it provides thefree electrons that produce all
life on planet Earth.
But anyhow, it's not somethingthat you can harvest.
It's free to everybody.
It's universal.
(15:01):
It's everywhere around theworld pretty much equally.
So when you stand on the Earth,you are electrically part of
the Earth.
You and the Earth are one andthe same, electrically speaking.
What that does is it preventsbuildup of static electricity on
your body.
So once I recognized thatgrounding my body reduced all
these charges on my body andplaying with this meter, I fell
(15:25):
asleep quite quickly that night.
And I woke up the next morningwith the meter laying by my side
and I don't think I even turnedover that night.
I looked at it and I said, whoa, there's something going on,
because I fell asleep.
I didn't have to take any Advil, I feel rested, I feel like
better than I felt in a longtime.
So that was the real aha, Okay,there's something going on here
(15:48):
.
I didn't know exactly what itwas.
I knew everything about all thenoise and all the EMF and all
the static.
I knew all that.
But I had no idea that the bodyis, when it's ungrounded, when
it's not in contact with theearth, it's an antenna that
attracts static charges andeverybody has experienced it,
(16:10):
because you walk across the roomand on some days you can touch
the doorknob and there's a sparkRight.
That spark is from your bodydischarging excess electrons on
the body to the doorknob or viceversa.
Janet Walker (16:26):
Really, someone can start experiencing the
benefits of earthing right nowjust by being barefoot on the
grass or dirt or sand.
Is that correct?
Clint Ober (16:35):
Yes, grass or dirt or sand, is that correct?
Yes, anything that is a pieceand a part of the earth, like
concrete sitting on the earth,would be, and it's made of earth
, so it would be conductive orsemi-conductive, like the earth
itself.
Grass, damp, grass, justanything that is earth or
earthen or alive and connectedto the earth, like if you're
(16:59):
riding a horse bareback, thenthe horse is grounded and when
you sit on it you're grounded.
Janet Walker (17:04):
Oh wow, Very interesting.
Clint Ober (17:07):
That's why a lot of special needs programs like to
take the kids and put them onhorses.
Janet Walker (17:13):
Yeah.
Clint Ober (17:14):
Because it calms their nervous system.
And now we know why.
We didn't know why, but it's abig horse.
But the horse is grounded.
It's part of the earthelectrically.
You sit on the horse with yourskin touching the horse and then
you are grounded.
And all living things up untilmodern times were naturally
grounded to the earth.
You couldn't get off of theearth.
(17:36):
Now you can't get back to theearth unless you take your shoes
off and go to the park orwherever.
So what happens is when youground the body to the earth,
the body touches the earth.
Then the body absorbs asufficient amount of these
electrons to maintain the bodyat earth.
(17:57):
Potential Earth potential meansthe electrical charge of the
earth and the electrical chargeon your body is identical, one
and the same.
Janet Walker (18:07):
Now you mentioned a meter, so then grounding can
actually be measured in ourbodies.
Clint Ober (18:15):
Okay, measuring the electrical functioning in the
body.
First of all, every single cellin your body is electrical,
every single cell.
To measure the body as a wholeand say the body has an
electrical voltage of X be alittle bit challenging and it
would take very expensiveinstruments to do that.
(18:35):
And we have done that and weknow this.
Janet Walker (18:39):
So getting back to health issues, specifically
inflammation.
What did you discover aboutinflammation?
Clint Ober (18:48):
Yeah, that was the question of questions, and no
matter who I talked to in thescientific community or the
medical community, they all saidwell, what's the mechanism of
that?
You have to tell us why thisworks, because we don't
understand.
And so I spent, you know, eightto 10 years just wandering
around trying to uncover well,why does grounding reduce
(19:10):
inflammation in the body?
We actually did a study anddeveloped a whole list of the
things that grounding wasaffecting in the body.
One day I was sitting workingon a research paper and somebody
had mentioned something aboutoxidative stress and pain.
(19:31):
He said if you're researchingpain, you need to be researching
oxidative stress.
Pain is a byproduct ofoxidation.
Oxidation in our world now meansfire Body's on fire, so the
body is being oxidized, justlike when you light a match to a
log.
You're lighting a fire, it'soxidizing the log, it's burning
(19:55):
the log up.
So at the time that was DrSteven Sinatra.
He was a famous cardiologistthat helped work with me for 15
years or so.
But anyhow, he said you've gotto go research oxidation.
So I started looking and then Iwanted to know what promoted
oxidation, and then that led meto the immune system.
(20:17):
And so, in short, if you have apathogen in your body or an
injury, then the immune systemwill respond by sending a
neutrophil, a white blood cell,over to the site of injury or
issue and the neutrophil will.
It's kind of a jelly cell, itwill just kind of wrap itself
around the pathogen and then itwill release what we call
(20:41):
reactive oxygen species.
The word reactive oxygen meansthat it's highly electrically
charged charged sufficient thatit can rip an electron from the
shell of the pathogen anddestroy it.
That's how the immune systemworks and there's lots of
technical explanation, butbottom line is oxidative pain is
(21:04):
like what I call Vicodin typepain, hot burning, and it's
inflammatory.
Healing pain oftentimes is justyou injured yourself and the
body produces enough pain tokeep you or prevent you from
doing further injury.
So you know, rest, relax or dosomething.
(21:24):
So one day, in a moment, Irecognized that well, the only
thing I'm doing is I'mconnecting somebody to the earth
and the only thing that happenswhen you connect somebody to
the earth is earth's naturalenergy negative charge.
Earth's electrical chargetravels up the wire and then
(21:46):
anything connected to that wire,it will absorb sufficient
electrons to maintain earth'spotential.
So it's at the same electricalcharge as the Earth.
And the significance of thatwas very simple when you ground
a person, the pain disappears,goes away.
So what you're doing is thebody's absorbing these free
(22:06):
electrons from the Earth.
And normally when you have anoxidative burst, throughout
history we were always grounded.
Nobody ever needed to knowabout grounding because it was
automatic.
It was just like sunshine.
Then that helped me torecognize that it was the shoes
that was universal around theworld that changed in the 1960s,
(22:29):
then the carpets and thecreature comforts and the
plasticization of everythingthat we touch, including the
steering wheel in our car, youknow whatever.
Because when I was a kid weused to have tractors or
whatever, and they were metaland everything was metal.
Today you can't touch anythingmetal.
Janet Walker (22:49):
No, I mean, we have a computer mouse in our
hand eight hours a day, 10 hoursa day, and it's plastic yeah.
Clint Ober (22:55):
Right, so anyhow, that's how I made the connection
was.
Well, all I'm doing is pouringfree electrons into the body and
the body's absorbing them andit's reducing oxidative stress.
Janet Walker (23:09):
So someone who starts incorporating earthing
into their lives can expect areduction of inflammation and
starting to feel better lesspain, better sleep.
Clint Ober (23:20):
Oh yeah, no, what it affects is if you have pain or
you are in pain, then your fightor flight system is elevated,
your sympathetic state ischronically elevated and that's
pumping your body full ofcortisol the cortisol.
If you don't reduce that, theneventually it will create more
pain, the pain creates morestress and it's just a vicious
(23:43):
circle.
So, anyhow, what's happening iswe learned that because the
body is now short of electrons,does not have enough free
electrons to reduce theoxidative charge, immune system
is doing exactly what it'ssupposed to it's oxidizing
pathogens.
The problem is, after theoxidative burst, if there's any
(24:04):
free radicals left overelectrically charged molecules,
oxidants then they will steal anelectron from a healthy cell,
damage it, another neutrophilcomes and you have a chain
reaction and that's the start ofchronic inflammation, or what
they call autoimmune disorder,meaning the immune system is not
(24:26):
functioning like it's supposedto.
Normally it does that all daylong, but the problem is there's
not enough free electrons inthe body to unwind and ground
the excess radicals left overafter an oxidative burst.
So therefore, that's what theproblem is.
Can grounding help people whohave autoimmune conditions, then
(24:47):
you can't have an autoimmunedisease if you were to get
grounded and stay grounded.
Janet Walker (24:53):
Oh interesting, it's not possible.
Clint Ober (24:55):
So to give you an example, I make that statement
loosely, but basically theanimals in the wild.
Inflammation doesn't exist innature.
This only exists in humans andanimals who live indoors with
their owners.
Janet Walker (25:13):
And you mentioned cortisol.
So that's the fight or flighthormone, yes, which, in short,
bursts when we need.
It is a good thing.
Clint Ober (25:21):
Absolutely.
Janet Walker (25:25):
But when it builds up and builds up and builds up
in our body, it gets to thesecritical levels.
Clint Ober (25:27):
So you become chronically elevated.
You have chronically elevatedcortisol.
That left alone meets thefibromyalgia, lupus, MS, and he
keeps on going up the ladder.
So the thing that women have todo at the end of the day,
because they are much moresensitive than the guys they
have to take a chair, gooutdoors, take their shoes off,
put their feet sit down, puttheir feet directly on the earth
(25:49):
.
Really that simple and it takes, you know, 15 to 30 minutes.
First thing that's going tohappen and this is all we know
this because of our studiesFirst thing that's going to
happen is you're going todischarge any electrical charges
on your body.
That's static electricity,that's, you know, all this stuff
(26:09):
.
But that charge, that's acellular charge from
inflammation, is going todischarge and that happens near
the speed of light.
Now the damage that has beencreated in the body by being
charged or being electrifiedwith all this stuff.
But as soon as you ground thebody, the body absorbs these
(26:30):
electrons, dissipates thesecharges and then the electrons
stabilize the immune system.
It begins to function normallyand a couple, three or four
minutes, the immune systembecomes stable.
Now there's a lot of damagethat's been created in your body
from being ungrounded for days,hours, weeks, months and, for
(26:50):
many people, years.
And this damage has manifestdifferently in different people
based on their genetics, theirlifestyle, what they eat, their
mental attitude, theireverything creates, you know, is
electrical.
So you're, you're, our body's,full of charges.
Our brain, everything, ouremotions, everything is an
(27:10):
electrical charge.
So you ground this out.
The first thing you feel iskind of a release.
A lot of times you don't eventhink about it because it feels
so good to get grounded.
You just do it automatically.
You don't even know why.
It doesn't matter.
But the first thing you'regoing to feel is a release of
this energy and the tension inyour body is going to reduce.
Now you have free electronsbeing absorbed by the body.
(27:33):
So now you have greater rangeof motion.
Because you have more energy,more electrons, you can breathe
a little easier, your O2 uptakeis a little improved and then
any pain that you have usuallywithin 15 to 30 minutes, I don't
really care what kind of painit is.
From my experience, Anyoxidative pain you have is going
(27:55):
to subside.
Janet Walker (27:56):
Okay, I think, as soon as this interview is over,
I'm going to go out in mybackyard and walk on the grass
for a while.
Clint Ober (28:03):
Yeah, that's what you're doing.
Then just kind of make a mentalnote about the tension in your
body, your respiration, and thenjust that relaxation effect
that comes over you.
Janet Walker (28:19):
I saw that there are at least 20 peer-reviewed
clinical studies in the medicalcommunity about earthing that
prove the positive benefits.
Why aren't more doctors talkingabout it with their patients?
Clint Ober (28:28):
I don't want to get myself in trouble here, but I'll
tell a short story.
I have a lot of friends in themedical industry.
I have a group in San Diegoarea that when we grounded the
riders in the Tour de France,you know back in 204 or
something in that timeframe.
Janet Walker (28:46):
So how exactly did you do that?
What did you use to ground theriders?
Clint Ober (28:51):
What we call the recovered bag.
It was a like, if you can thinkof, a king-sized sheet folded
over, but it had a conductivecarbon material on it and it had
a zipper, so it was like a bigsleeping bag.
Janet Walker (29:05):
Oh, okay.
Clint Ober (29:07):
And it was grounded.
So then you ground it to theearth, like we did for the tour.
We designed it for the ridersof the Tour de France, the US
Postal Team and Team Discovery.
Some of these writers werepatients of one of these docs
and when he found out about ithe said well, I want one of
those.
So he got one and he playedwith it, took it home, and then
(29:28):
he called up and wanted more,and so I started giving him a
dozen at a time, sometimes twodozen.
And then he called and put inan order and I said I'm going to
be driving to San Diego.
I'd like to at least stop andmeet you.
And so I went there and I askedhim.
I said what do you do withthese things?
And he says, well, we use themourselves, you know, to stay off
(29:50):
the some of the meds, toprevent what we now know as
inflammation and modern healthdisorder, but anyhow.
So I asked him.
I said why don't you give theseto your patients?
Because you know it works Well?
It really had great effect onthe writers, because those guys
are doing a 22 or 23 daymarathon every day, all day long
, and their issue is recovery.
(30:11):
They have to recover, they haveto prevent inflammation in the
bodies, because you don'trecover if you have inflammation
.
But when I asked him how come hedidn't give it to everyone else
, he said and he's a nice guy,and he wasn't demeaning anything
.
And I'm not demeaning him atall, but he said it's very
simple.
He said I went to school for 12years and I look around.
(30:34):
He said I went to school for 12years and I look around.
He said I have this office, Ihave this staff, I have all of
these people.
And he said I've got a wifethat's married to a doctor.
Those were his exact words.
But anyhow, he said I can'ttell people to go home and get
well for free.
I have to do my tests, I haveto do all the things I do and a
lot of people they need medicalattention, medical care and
(30:55):
medical guidance.
So I'm not trying to interferewith any of that, but they knew
the significant health benefitsof it.
And he said we can't just tellpeople to go home and take their
shoes off and get well, becauseit does have such a profound
effect on the cardiovascularsystem.
Because cardiovascular diseaseis an inflammation.
It's an inflammatory healthdisorder.
(31:17):
It doesn't exist in nature andwe have lots of docs and lots of
nurse practitioners, lots ofpeople who suggested that you
ought to try for certain peoplebecause there's not much you can
do for certain diseases.
There's a point where itbecomes more palliative care and
to be able to ground thesepeople and reduce their pain,
(31:37):
even though they can't recommendit because it's not blessed by
the medical world, ama and so on.
But I did call the FDA one timewhen I first started on this and
I said I want to know what allthe rules are, because this is
something that affects health.
And I explained it and he saidwell, they kind of understand
what I was talking about.
But he says we do not regulatenatural phenomena.
(31:58):
This is a natural phenomenon.
This is not something youbottle up and put it in packages
and ship it around andwholesale it and sell it.
This is something that isavailable to every person on the
planet and it's free to everyperson on the planet and it's
(32:20):
free If you can find a spot ofbare earth or dirt or grass that
you can spend time on.
And for a long time I justcalled this poor man's medicine.
You don't do anything.
I mean whatever's wrong withyou.
If you have something wrong,please don't even think about it
.
Go to a doctor, have the test.
But for inflammation-relatedhealth disorders whether it's
lupus, ms, any of those kinds ofhealth disorders just go
(32:41):
outdoors, put your feet on theair for 15 to 30 minutes and
notice what happens, and if it'sgood then do it twice a day.
If it's really good, then do itmore often.
Lose the shoes, don't wear themin the house.
Don't wear shoes ever at all ifyou don't have to.
Janet Walker (33:00):
You've written a book and produced documentaries,
including the Earthing Movie,the Remarkable Science of
Grounding, and you've got somebig celebrity names promoting
earthing for health.
Author and actress MurielHemingway is a huge proponent of
the movement, especially forits effects on mental health.
Why do you think that earthingis gaining so much popularity
(33:22):
among the celebrity crowd?
Clint Ober (33:24):
Well, first of all, it works.
These people are all stressed.
If you think of an athlete,like you know, like the baseball
players, football players orwhatever, I mean, they're high
output energy, I mean and theyhave lots of information because
they have to maintain muscletone and have to work out.
They have to do all thesethings.
(33:44):
Actresses are the same.
Actors and actresses andperformers like Sting or any of
these people who are putting outall this energy and they're on
tour or they're doing this orwhatever, they have to recover
every night.
Recovery is the name of thegame.
You're only going to stay inthe game as long as you can
(34:06):
recover.
When we started grounding theTour de France and talking about
recovery, then all of a sudden,a lot of high profile actors,
actresses I would say that mostelite athletes and the baseball
players, half of them usegrounding A lot of the sports
(34:29):
teams, but the actors andactresses, they all go to
similar type docs as theathletes.
And when I started groundingthe Tour de France, all of a
sudden all the other docsstarted to find out about it.
The docs who take care of thesekind of people found out about
it.
And then I started getting allthese calls and they said well,
you know, other people are doingit.
(34:50):
I got to do it and I got to doit now, but everything took off
all by itself.
We've never known how to marketit, because this is more of a
research and development companyEarthFX Inc.
And the Earthing Institute iswhere all this stuff is
deposited all the studies andeverything.
Janet Walker (35:09):
Let's talk a little bit about your company,
earthfx.
Not everyone lives in a placeor has the time to get outside
barefoot, so your company hasdeveloped products that can give
people the earthing experienceand benefits inside their homes,
cars or offices.
Yes, how was it that you cameto start manufacturing products
(35:33):
for earthing?
Clint Ober (35:34):
I never in my life ever thought that I would be in
the business of creatingproducts.
But anyhow along the way, whenwe started doing studies, we
would bring people in who hadnot necessarily health disorders
but just to be able to groundthem for a period and then draw
blood before and afterwards ordo biofeedback or just all of
the things that we did After wedid the studies.
The people who were groundedall wanted to keep the devices
(35:58):
that we were using to groundthem during this test period.
The reason is because it madepain go away in 15 to 30 minutes
.
So anyhow we started giving themthe test units and then all of
a sudden they start coming backand wanting one for their mom,
or one for their grandma anddaughter or whatever.
(36:18):
But that little universe.
And then all of a sudden, wedidn't have any scraps, didn't
have enough product or anything,so we had just.
We sat down one day and we said, okay, what is one thing we can
do that we can produce so thatpeople, when they leave here or
learn about it, they can, atleast for the people who can't
get grounded any other way, theycan at least do this.
And so the first thing thathappened, we were working in one
(36:41):
of our facilities and we hadthese conductive mats thin black
conductive mats laying on ourbenches so we could put
electronic parts on it and nothave any static electricity harm
them.
So, anyhow, we looked at themattress and said, well, the
best thing we can possibly do,without creating something they
(37:02):
have to do every day, is createa mat that they can sleep on.
They have to put it on theirmattress, cover it up with a
sheet if they want, and lay downand do what they always do
every single night Just comehome, lay down, go to sleep and
let nature put out the fire ofinflammation and help them
(37:25):
recover.
And then we started giving themaway and then all of a sudden
it was too big, so we had tostart buying stuff and then we
started selling them and we soldthem for.
So, anyhow, this, over a periodof 20 years, is now a business
that goes around the world.
It's kind of that kind of athing.
People learn about it and theyshare it.
(37:45):
You can't sell it because theydon't believe you or don't
understand what you're talkingabout, unless you experience it
or you trust somebody or you dosomething that somebody's
telling you to do.
Janet Walker (37:57):
Well, unfortunately we're out of time
to talk about all of the amazingearthing products you offer,
including the mattress pads,shoes, yoga mats and more, but
listeners can visit your websiteat earthingcom to see the full
product list and I'm surethey'll be glad they did.
Clint, thank you so much forbeing here.
(38:18):
It was so nice talking with you.
Clint Ober (38:20):
Same here.
Janet Walker (38:21):
And hopefully we'll get to talk again at some
point soon.
Take care.
Clint Ober (38:27):
You bet.
Thank you, take care.
Janet Walker (38:28):
Listeners.
You can learn more about ClintOber Earthing the products that
can help you heal, and ClintOber's book Earthing the most
important health discovery everby visiting wwwearthingcom.
And thank you so much forlistening to the award-winning
Better Wellness podcast.
(38:49):
I'm your host, janet Walker.
Better Wellness is brought toyou by Cocoon Wellness a new way
to support your natural-bornability to be well.
You can find us on ApplePodcasts, google Podcasts,
iheartradio, spotify or whereveryou get your podcasts.
Be well and thanks forlistening.
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