Skeptics are well aware of a few of the more popular doctors selling woo on the web or on TV. One of the them, Dr. Mercola, is mentioned many over and over for his anti-vaccine stance and his pseudoscientific approach to medicine. In fact, Josh DeWald just caught Dr. Mercola misrepresenting dental fillings just over a week ago. Today, Dr. Mercola tweeted about his interest in “grounding aka earthing” and its “benefits.” What drives me crazy about the information in the link he tweeted is not just that he is misrepresenting the health benefits, but he makes it more difficult to undo his misrepresentation of how electricity works in a basic physics sense.
There is some science in the article he gets right. There is a section where he discusses AC and DC currents that, although incomplete, is a pretty good and accurate description of how things work. Although they don’t explain how the drift velocity cited for the flashlight example in this section was obtained, it isn’t unreasonable, and in fact is something many people don’t know about electricity. When we think of electricity, we think of it “flowing,” so it is interesting to note how slow the electrons actually “flow.”
Other than that section, the science turns to pseudoscience and misinformation quickly. The main claim in the article is that somehow, evolution intended us to walk barefoot on the Earth, and that such a process causes electrons from the Earth to enter your body where your immune system can somehow use them. It further claims these electrons protect your body from inflammation. Aside from the gross misrepresentation of the role of electrons in your body, Dr. Mercola claims the effects are well-studied without actually linking to any of the studies making this claim – well other than saying “Do you notice you feel better when you walk barefoot on the Earth?”
One of the most egregious errors is the representation of electromagnetic fields. Here’s an example of an illistration (which is really just a claim, but somehow it is supposed to make things clear):
…a variety of devices introduce spikes or transients that distort the 60 cycle electric field in the wiring, particularly when appliances are switched on or off.
To illustrate this phenomenon, we will use the example of your neighbor’s refrigerator or air conditioner switching on or off. This produces a sudden electrical “spike” that travels through the power lines to your household electrical system. A signal is also radiated into the atmosphere because the wiring acts as an antenna. Taken together the various signals and distortions to the alternating current field create what some people refer to as “dirty electricity.” Attempts have been made to link these phenomena to a variety of health effects. There has been considerable debate about this issue.
I’m not sure what point is being made. To me, the term “spike” would indicate some kind of increase. If anything, the local grid being stressed by several high power appliances would temporarily decrease the current. You can sometimes see this in your home when your own air conditioner cycles on. It depends on many factors. It does cause a measurable change in the voltage you read at an outlet in your home, but claiming this is somehow “dirty” is nonsense.
The other thing they get wrong is ”A signal is also radiated into the atmosphere because the wiring acts like an antenna.” There are two possibilities here. One is the possibility of the wire producing an electromagnetic wave, which isn’t dependent on the atmosphere, and in fact the atmosphere would attenuate any such signal. At 60 Hz, the wavelength of such a wave would be about 500 5000 kilometers, which is much too long to ever expect it to interact with the body. The second possibility is a magnetic field, which for decades people have tried to connect with various diseases. Assuming a very high current draw of an air conditioner of 30 amps, the magnetic field at 5 meters away would be about 0.012 Guass – which is about 2% of what we are exposed to 24 hours a day from the Earth’s magnetic field. If a magnetic field of that strength causes disease, the Earth is doing it to us and not any electrical device.
Another claim is that “alternating electric fields are present everywhere in the environment – they are radiated from wires, even when no current is flowing through them.” I can’t even begin to imagine how they came up with such a claim. Well, I guess I can come up with some far fetched explanations and maybe find a way to make this true. Even in those cases, the effect would be so small that it would take some pretty sensitive measurements to do so, far smaller than the background radiation naturally produced by the sun (something Dr. Mercola constantly touts as being healthy).
Embedded at the top of the article is a video in which Dr. Mercola and Clint Ober try to explain how all of this works and then demonstrate why you need to buy their expensive grounding equipment. In one demonstration, Clint puts an electrode on Dr. Mercola and then displays a volt meter reading about 1 volt of potential on the doctor. Clint then has Dr. Mercola place his hand on the grounding pad, and the voltage goes to about 0.02 volts (which Clint even misreads and/or exaggerates as 2 thousandths instead of 2 hundredths). This is a total sham demonstration; if you look at the setup, the other wire of the volt meter is hooked up to the grounding pad. This would be like putting both wires of a volt meter on the same side of a battery – of course it is going to read zero.
One thing Dr. Mercola didn’t think through in writing this article is he explains how electrons are the particles being moved in electricity, and then claims those same electrons will protect you from various electric fields. If your body has more free electrons, those electrons can then easily be moved by an electric field. So in a sense, your body would be more susceptible to an electric field, and you could actually induce a current in your body as you walk through electric fields.
Dr. Mercola’s question ”Do you notice you feel better when you walk barefoot on the Earth,” seems to stem from Clint Ober’s website statement where he says “Go barefoot outside for a half-hour and see what a difference it makes on your pain or stress level.” As David Gorski points out, “Can you say “placebo effects”? Sure, I knew you could.” Of course a half-hour break walking on the grass on a warm day away from the stress of the work day is going to make a person feel better. I can say with certainty it has nothing to do with electrons at my feet. It has much more to do with the electrons already present in my brain.
If someone really feels they need extra electrons, just go ahead and shuffle your feet across a carpet for a minute or so. That little shock you get from touching the doorknob? That’s because you picked up a few too many electrons. You will pick up all the electrons you need from your normal interactions with the environment. You don’t need special treatments to protect you from this mythical “dirty” electricity. I imagine your health would be better if you simply stopped worrying about it. It would also help my health as I wouldn’t have to un-teach bad physics.
It seems every Mercola has just enough correct information at the beginning to easily lead someone to believe the rest of it is credible. Good stuff!
Eric
An appliance switching on or off, if not properly suppressed, will cause a ‘spike’ of interference. This is entirely separate from any longer term increase or decrease in the mains voltage caused by the change in loading. This spike will have many higher frequency components and does conduct through cabling and will radiate. However, most appliances will be able to tolerate these short-term spikes. It’s quite common to refer to the mains supply as being ‘dirty’ because of these (and other) disturbances on the cabling.
Of course, just because these disturbances exist, does not mean they cause or could cause any health effects!
I couldn’t bring myself to watch all of the sales pitch nor to read his nonsense, but I will be writing about the advertising of Clint Ober’s products in the UK in 10 days time.
Sure, I could imagine some feedback into the circuit that could cause a very short burst of a higher frequency. But to even begin to reach a level where any interaction with a human could even be a consideration, the frequency would have to be at least a million times higher to get to a 5 meter wavelength. Even then the likelihood is extremely low (probably would need to be on the order of 10^9 or more higher to start human interaction). The duration would also be very short. As you state, in either case it wouldn’t be enough to have an effect on human health, and certainly a few excess electrons in the body wouldn’t change that.
I’ll look forward to your writings on this!
The harmonics of mains interference can stretch up to GHz, – this may affect some other electronics connected to the same cabling if they are not adequately protected, but, as you say, this first has to be radiated and then interact with the body and the field strengths are way to low for that!
WDDTY #7 – Going to Ground? – The Nightingale Collaboration
Also, a 60 Hz wave has a wavelength of 5,000 km, not 500 km!
Ahh yes, as often would get me points off on my physics tests, I missed a zero when I calculated it.
I am not fully convinced that Earthing has any benefits, but they certainly do make a convincing argument. Would you say that this report on EarthingInstitute.net is false and what parts?
http://www.earthinginstitute.net/statements/understanding_earthing.pdf
Samantha
Which bit do you find convincing?
The biggest falsehood is one I address in the blog and comes right from the summary:
Our immune system is a very complex set of cells and proteins. See more here: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/boost-your-immune-system/. Simply adding electrons to our body does not have some magic effect on all of those systems. I will also use my own anecdote to disprove this point – if extra electrons made us feel better, then we should feel great in the winter when the dry air allows us to build up a whole bunch of extra electrons walking across a carpet.
The document also refers to the Earth as a source of electrons and “subtle electric fields.” You don’t need to walk barefoot to be affected by an electric field – it would penetrate right through your shoes. More signs that this is woo.
In their conclusion – they state:
Even if absorption through the skin was the primary source of electrons in our body, it would be silly to think the only source is the ground and through our feet. The various processes of digestion and energy production are very good at providing electrons as needed (one example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_transport_chain). But our skin comes in contact with all sorts of objects that can easily donate electrons if our body somehow had an excess of positive charge.
Although I am not a medical doctor, I could argue that too much negative charge can actually be bad for you as well. If you look at the role of potassium in the body (a positive ion), too little of potassium is linked to all sorts of health problems. Adding negative charge to the body could counteract this balance. As most science-based doctors will tell you, the body is really good at regulating what it needs on its own (unless some disease prevents that for certain nutrients). There is no need for a special effort to obtain electrons, vitamins, or anything else. Just eat a good balanced diet, and your body will take care of the rest.
When you you talk about potassium it is a dissolved ion. With out getting crazy with medical details. It is the intra-cellular extra-cellular ion gradient that is important not the ion itself. Sodium has a high extra-cellular concentration and a low intra-cellular, potassium is the opposite. The cell membrane channels drive the gradient and it drives muscular and nerve function with “electrical” potentials. The ion itself is not the issue but the gradient. Low potassium is an issue because muscle, notably the heart, is susceptible to gradient disturbances.Significant amperage can disrupt the gradient by activating potentials independent of the gradient. there is no mechanism for the body to make use of free electrons. There is a level of charge the body can absorb through fluid resistance, and grounding. There is no effect until the charge disrupts cellular controls. If standing on the ground inactivated oxidation processes you would drop dead. Since without them you cannot form ATP and hence cellular death.The “electrons” do not know what reactions are good and which ones are harmful. Which is why your body uses enzymatic control which is protein key specific.
Useless magical thinking. Antioxidants are chemical not conductive.
I think Mercola is a crackpot on s many levels. Chemistry and physics beng the obious. then there is biology and physiology.
The discussion in the comments s getting very silly indeed.