Grounding reduces inflammation

Grounding has been tested for its effect on inflammation in four small randomized trials, and the results do not all point the same way. Two found smaller rises in inflammation markers with grounding: a trial of 22 people sleeping grounded after hard downhill running, where the inflammation panel covered only 4 of them, and a trial of 84 patients grounded for one night after spine surgery, where C-reactive protein (CRP) rose less. A third, in 32 young men after exercise, found less muscle damage but no difference in pain and higher counts of neutrophils, an inflammatory white blood cell, in the grounded group. A fourth found that saliva CRP fell in barefoot walkers only among those who started with higher levels.

These are short-term measurements in healthy adults after exercise, in adults walking outdoors, and in patients after surgery, over 4 hours to 5 weeks. No trial has studied grounding in people living with a chronic inflammatory or autoimmune condition, and none has been pooled in a systematic review. The most-cited trial and the review that proposes how grounding might work come from researchers paid by, or holding shares in, a company that sells grounding products; the other three trials declare no such ties. This is early research, and whether grounding changes ongoing inflammation has not been studied yet.

In the downhill running trial (University of Salzburg, 2019), 12 people slept on a grounded sheet and 10 on an identical sham sheet for 10 nights, with neither participants, testers nor analysts knowing which. Creatine kinase, a marker of muscle damage, rose less and jump and strength performance recovered faster with grounding. Of the inflammatory markers, three (IP-10, MIP-1 alpha and sP-selectin) were lower in the 4 people tested, while IL-6, TNF alpha and IL-1 beta were below the detection limit in everyone. In the spine surgery trial (Poland, 2025), CRP rose from 15.3 to 24.4 mg/L in the grounded group and from 24.5 to 57.4 mg/L in the sham group, and pain fell by 2.5 versus 1.6 points on a 10-point scale. The groups started at different CRP levels, the paper's abstract and results report different CRP figures (the numbers here are from the results section), and the trial did not measure complications or recovery beyond the next day.

In the 2015 exercise trial, funded by the grounding company Earth FX Inc., men sat grounded or sham-grounded for 4 hours on each of two days after 200 half knee bends. Creatine kinase rose in the sham group and not in the grounded group, pain did not differ, and neutrophils and platelets were higher with grounding; the authors note that neutrophils take part in both driving and resolving inflammation. In the barefoot walking trial (South Korea, 2024), 62 adults walked a forest trail 20 times over 5 weeks, barefoot or in sneakers. Saliva CRP rose in the sneaker group; among those who started with higher CRP, it fell in the 14 barefoot walkers and did not change in the sneaker walkers. That comparison cannot separate contact with the ground from bare feet on uneven ground, and the authors attribute the change to foot stimulation and walking.

The main proposed explanation is that the earth's surface carries a supply of free electrons, and that contact lets them enter the body and neutralize reactive oxygen species released by immune cells at an injury. In rats given a chemical that inflames the brain, 21 days on a grounding mat lowered two inflammatory markers, IL-1 beta and prostaglandin E2. No study has measured electron transfer into human tissue alongside inflammation. Indoor grounding products are commonly connected through the ground port of a wall outlet, and none of the cited Sources assessed the electrical safety of that setup. None included children or pregnant women.