Headache

Over the years many people have reported that grounding has helped reduce the intensity and/or frequency of their headaches. We don’t know how the body will react in each and every case, because we haven’t researched the subject, and moreover, headaches come in different forms: migraine, tension, and cluster, just to name a few.

What we know is that grounding reduces inflammation, has a calming influence on the nervous system and a normalizing effect on the stress hormone cortisol, improves blood flow, and promotes better sleep.

One or more of these effects are likely involved in counteracting headaches.

Here are several examples of what people have told us:

Evidence that the head is connected to the feet

● From a man on Facebook in 2018: “Grounding helps with headache, journal entry this morning: had a bad uncomfortable headache yesterday afternoon, lots of stress at work…while driving home pulled over by a patch of grass, took off socks and shoes, walked around for 15~20 minutes – headache gone. Got home still not totally feeling 100%, after dinner went for a barefoot walk for 40 minutes, felt great after and slept well last night, deep sleep for 7 hours + with no interruptions. Grounding is good.”

Stress & sinus headaches

CM, South Hadley, MA, 59, a customer service representative for a major company, male: “I have been Earthing since 2013. I use the grounding sheet at home and the grounding pad at work at my desk, where I have a history of developing stress headaches. In general they have lessened in frequency. Whenever I get one, or when I develop a tightness in the neck and shoulder, I apply a grounding patch near the site of the pain. Within 30 minutes the pain subsides, and after 45 minutes the pain is totally gone.

“In the spring I also get a one-sided headache and inflamed sinuses. I believe it is allergy-related. I use a decongestant with pain medicine, and also irrigate the nasal cavity with saline solution. I used the grounding patch with the medication the last time. The inflammation went away much sooner, within one hour.

“Several years ago, I had a lumbar discectomy for severe back pain. Once in a while I do something stupid and create some back pain for myself. One hour with a grounding patch alleviates the pain and tightness completely and that is without Ibuprofen! This has been successful three times for me.”

● From a delivery service worker: “Whenever I have a stress headache, tight neck and shoulder or back pain, I plug myself into the ground and attach the electrode patch near the site of pain. Within 30 minutes the pain has subsided, after 45 minutes the pain is totally gone.”

Migraines

JJ, 51, Maine homemaker, female: (September 2013) “This is absolutely a must for migraines. I have had migraines infrequently since I was 7 years old (44 years ago). An untreated migraine has a pain scale of 8 for me, lasts a few hours, and I don’t feel well the rest of the day, nor completely well the next. Medications drop the pain down to a level 3, the headache still lasts a few hours, and I still don’t feel too well the next day.

“Now, for the last year since I have been grounding, when I get the aura that precedes the headache, I wrap myself from head-to-toe in my king-sized earthing half sheet and nap for one hour. I get no or little headache pain, maybe a level of 1. Afterwards I feel pretty good, but not perfect (about 90% of normal). Then, after a few hours of not being grounded, a headache slowly appears, so I immediately ground for a while to keep it from developing, and it quickly dissipates. After sleeping grounded that night, the next day I feel 100 percent and have none of the “hangover” I experience without treatment or with meds.

Sept 2014: “Earthing still is the best way for me to treat migraines. It only works when wrapped from head to toe in an Earthing sheet/blanket. Just having legs and feet on a half sheet is NOT enough to quell my migraine, but is enough for ‘touch-ups’ to keep the headache from returning after it’s gone.”

● Migraine relief and more energy reported by a Maine homemaker: “I don’t like going a night without my Earthing sheet and feel a deep unexplained need for it. From the first few nights sleeping grounded I felt more rested and energetic. I do feel more youthful, an effect that has occurred gradually over my 2 1/2 years of grounding.

“I have had migraines infrequently since I was 7 years old (for 44 years). An untreated migraine has a pain scale of 8 (out of 10) for me, lasts a few hours, and I don’t feel well the rest of the day, nor completely well the next. Meds drop the pain to 3, and the headache lasts a few hours, and I still don’t feel too well the next day. Now, when I get the aura that precedes the headache, I wrap myself from head-to-toe in my Earthing half-sheet and nap for an hour. I get no headache pain or a pain scale of 1. Afterwards I feel pretty good, but not perfect (about 90 percent of normal). Then, after a few hours of not being grounded, a headache slowly appears, so I immediately ground for a while to keep it from developing, and it quickly dissipates. After sleeping grounded that night, the next day I feel 100 percent and have none of the “hangover” I experience without treatment or with meds.”

Lorraine Lopez, 47, Lancaster CA, wrote us in January 2020 with the following report:  “I’m a busy mother of five, with five pets as well.  I have all the Earthing products, including bands, patches, and the bed mat.

“I first started Earthing in mid-September by going barefoot outside on the grass during the week and on weekends at the beach while we stayed on our boat. In December, I started sleeping grounded.

“I had migraines several times a week and when I got one I would lay my head on my grounding sheet, and it would go away.  Now I don’t get them anymore just from sleeping grounded during the week and going barefoot at the beach during the weekends. I was also experiencing back of the head tremors which used to frighten me. Haven’t had one again, also since Earthing!”

● MP, 65, retired nurse, Indio, California (2020): “When I first began grounding I did not have the immediate results that I have read about others having.  In fact I felt worse. I had more fatigue & pain. I have an autoimmune condition (Ankylosing Spondylitis), chronic pain, as well as migraines. You encouraged me to hang in there, that it would get better. I continued grounding night & during the day when I laid down. I have been grounding almost 3 months. The changes have been very gradual.

“I was averaging 5-10 migraines a month and I now average 2 migraines a month. My chronic pain has improved, instead of having to take something for pain & laying down, I lay down & ground with relief. My pain is relieved without drugs.

“I purchased the band set from Earthing and I like them very much. I have even used the large band for my head when I have a migraine. I don’t know if it’s the pressure from the band or grounding my head but it does give me relief.

“Needless to say I am a firm believer in the benefits of grounding after only 3 months. Can’t wait to see how much better I get as time goes on!”

Donna Tisdale, real estate broker, Nashville, TN (2020): “Way back in 2007, I first heard about sleeping grounded was from Dr. Jim Oschman, who was friends with my rolfer. I remember purchasing Earthing sheets in November. My dear friend who has Lyme’s Disease used to have 14-15 migraine headaches a month and now has one or two a month!”

Post-trauma headache 

MJ, 72, Périgueux (France), female:  “I had a car accident in 1996 with luckily no major injury. Since then, however, I’ve had a residual pressure in my head, causing headaches in particular when I would wake up. I dislike pain killers. At one point, my doctor gave me a medicine that made me feel so weird that I quickly stopped taking it. I have done self-massages, using a ball with spines on it, that helped lessened the pain. Relief has been limited. I had to wear hats frequently because the wind and cold increased the pain.

“Since the second morning after sleeping grounded, the pain has diminished. Sometimes, the pain appears to return in the afternoons but sometimes not. Overall it looks like it is about to completely disappear. That’s a huge relief.”

Cluster headache

● “I started suffering with cluster headaches around the year 2000. I would usually get them three times a day for about three months every year starting around November. The headaches usually lasted around 30 minutes, and were mostly at night. I started grounding myself during the night and when I watch TV. I really don’t know if or how grounding fixed my cluster headache problem, but when November came around I did not get any headaches like I normally did.”

Headache – Caused by the sun

● Lyn Krieger, May 2022: “I cut grass for 2 hrs this afternoon and I know I was squinting from the sunlight. I was getting a headache when I finished and cleaned up. The headache got worse, so I got my grounding mat to put my feet on and just kept spraying water on it and the headache went away over time. I am so glad. I had gotten this from the sun.”

Headache – Unknown cause

● Sarah Bain, June 2022: “Wow, wow, wow! Yesterday I connected the earth plug of my grounding mat to a wire that was attached to a tent peg in the garden outside my bedroom. I lay on my bed for two hours with my feet on the mat. For the first time in two months, I had no headache when I went to bed or when I woke up!! My vertigo is much improved also. Healing has begun! Looking forward to getting my life back at last!”

CW, Germany (2020): “I’m a 60 years young German barefooter. Amongst the many benefits of walking without shoes the grounding aspect for me is very important. I always feel great joy and refreshment when being in nature with bare soles plus it relieves my arthritic joints.

“We run a pension. Often we house workers from abroad like Bulgaria or Romania. So one day an elderly worker asked me for pain-relieving pill for his horrible headache. Now, in my position as his landlord I’m not allowed to give medications. So I told the man to take of his shoes and socks and be on the nearby meadow for 10 minutes. And forgot about him.

“Next day he came by being very grateful for his headache had completely gone after his visiting the hospital-mother earth. “

● “For eight years I suffered 24/7 from considerable leg pain due to neuropathy. After some 18 to 20 months of sleeping grounded on an Earthing sheet, my legs are completely healed of the neuropathy. For two and half years now, I’ve had no problem with neuropathy. What worked for me may not work for everyone, but this is my result. I have a left shoulder that has been seriously injured three times in my life, and I attach three or four grounding patches to it each night as I sleep and by the next morning 90-95% of the pain is gone. I’ve also used the patches to relieve the pain of a bum knee, back pain, headaches, sore throats, pain in my hands, and to prevent leg cramps. When I feel cramping coming on, I quickly attach an Earthing patch to the muscle in question and the tendency to cramping immediately stops.” (U.S.)

Severe headache – Unknown cause

● In his 1997 book, “Your Inner Physician and You,” John Upledger, D.O., a craniosacral therapy pioneer, describes applying the grounding concept to help occasional patients. One such case involved a circuit court judge who suffered with “intractable headaches.”

The judge described his pain thusly: “It feels like an electric shock, a bolt of lightning that goes from my tail to my head…and I never know when it is going to happen.”

Dr. Upledger said he believed in following his intuition and something told him to ground him in the “electrophysics sense. He had a rather severe headache at the time. I connected his big toe to the drain pipe under the sink by a copper wire. Within minutes his headache began to subside.”  The patient’s craniosacral system also seemed to normalize, according to the doctor.

Relief from the headache lasted about 36 hours, then resumed. Dr. Upledger grounded him again and the headache dissipated.

The precise cause of the headaches was never determined, but Dr. Upledger said that grounding enabled the judge to “get control of the situation.” He said that the judge bought himself a four-foot length of half-inch copper pipe and used it as a walking stick when he went out for a walk.

“I heard from him about six months later and he was still doing well,”

Our recommendation:

Walk, stand, or sit barefoot outside, weather and conditions permitting, on grass, soil, concrete for a half-hour or so. A moist surface is more conductive.

The range of grounding products are usually helpful for headaches. You may get fastest relief by applying an Earthing patch on the K1 acupuncture point on the bottom of your feet (on one foot or both), or the palms of the hands, or on your neck or forehead.  Clint Ober reports that he has had the best overall results by grounding people on the K1 point.

Since we are all different, you may need to experiment to see which location gives you the best relief.

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