Laura Koniver, MD's Blog, page 16

5 Crucial Steps To Protect Your Health If You Are Electrosensitive

 

 

 

 

Even though exposures to mandmade EMFs are causing increasing health issues, it still remains true that exposures to natural sources of EMFs (the Schumann frequency, from the earth) is an absolutely crucial component of maintaining long term health in living tissues.

Conductivity is literally the basis of how our body functions.

Everything from your thoughts to your feelings to your sensory experiences to your heartbeat to your breath to your speech to your digestion to every movement you have ever made is all only possible because you are conductive.

So while natural earth EMFs soothe and heal you, bathing your conductive body in supportive energy fields, manmade EMFs disrupt and sicken you, artificially imposing polarized disruptive radiation fields around you.  Here is a great diagram, taken from this great article published in Science Of The Total Environment in 2019, showing how we need earth’s energy to be healthy, while manmade electrical fields make us sick:

Navigating this is actually simple: reduce exposures to man made electrical environments in your home and work space, and increase exposures to the earth’s natural energy fields by grounding.

The only reason this gets confusing at all is because some grounding advocates say that while you are grounded, you are magically “protected” from manmade EMFs.

While I wish this were true, it is not.

You still have man made EMF exposures affecting your body, whether you are grounded or not.  And when you are grounded, if you are electrosensitive you might literally feel these man made EMFs as tingling, headache, muscle tension, or irritability, as I talked about in last weeks blog post here.

The solution to this is for electrosensitive folks to reduce the manmade EMFs around them if at all possible, or add shielding to protect the body while you are grounding.

Unfortunately, grounding advocates who say you are magically protected from EMFs when grounding and who don’t believe in (or don’t understand) that electrosensitivity is real, tell you these symptoms are a “grounding detox” and ignore them.

That’s doesn’t work. No one should feel worse while they are healing… healing should feel like a relief and help you feel better and better and better.  So if you have felt negative symptoms when grounding through a standard ground cord, I want you to know that there are legitimate medical reasons you are feeling symptoms and you are not having a detox reaction.

Average levels of human perception of AC current:

0.7 mA is average perception in women1 mA is average perception in menexperienced electricians could even detect sensations as at 0.1mA or less!

In addition, small cuts, punctures and breaks in the skin’s integrity drops this threshold even lower, so if you notice increased symptoms in winter when your skin is dry and cracked, this may explain a lot for you!

 

 

 

 

The human body is a beautiful, electrically sensitive system, and it is a medical fact that we can pick up on (and have symptoms from) a current that is introduced to the human body via EMF exposures.

We want to deal with this ever-increasing, ambient, background electrical smog that we are exposed to every day by protecting ourselves from it.  And here is the good news… we can.

By employing these strategies, you can dramatically decrease your exposures to man-made EMFs and increase your exposures to healing earth EMFs, dramatically protect your conductive health and boosting your well being.

It’s simple — just run through these strategies, in this order:

 

1. Remove man made EMF exposures if possible

2. Reduce man made EMF exposures that can’t be removed

3. Shield from man made EMF exposures that can’t be removed or reduced

4. Ground to the earth to get your daily dose of good, healthy, natural frequencies

5. Boost the resiliency of the body in other ways

 

Let me walk you through it:

 

 

 

1. Remove:

 

Go through your living and work space to see what man made EMF exposures you can simply remove. Removing a source of man-made radiation beats shielding from it every day of the week.

Here are some ideas to consider:

Put your cell phone on airplane mode when you are carrying it on your body or in your pocket or purse to totally deactivate it as a source of radiation all togetherDecrease the quantity of other radiation exposures in your home: gaming systems, baby monitors, computer printers, home surveillance systems, etc… are each one absolutely necessary? Sleeping in a family bed is infinitely preferable to using wireless baby monitors, for example.  Another example, only install home surveillance systems outside of the home, not inside and certainly not in bedrooms.Do not use an electric blanket or electric bed frame, do not use electric heating pads, switch to using hot water bottles for soothing warmth and therapeutic heatTurn off your WiFi at night if you can, or put your router on a timer like this one so it turns off each night (and back on each morning) automaticallyShut off the electrical outlets in your bedroom at night (as opposed to simply turning off your bedside lamp, since a plugged in appliance still has EMFs radiating out of it even while it’s turned off.)  You could also unplug appliances or simply using an outlet kill switch like this one to turn appliances (light your reading light) on and off without unplugging them.Make car time cell phone free time — this is a great rule to instill in children of all ages too! Give them supreme rights to choose what music you listen to (yes even if you hate their music, let car time be music time, not screen time!) Make drive time for radio only (or playing music playlists with cell phone on airplane mode) and talking… trust me, when they become teenagers and are starting to drive, you’ll be so glad they have not coupled car use with cell phone useInstitute family game nights weekly that use board games instead of electronic gaming systems. Yes, there are some families out there that still play board games, Jenga, cards, etc… we still do and my kids are college aged!Make sure every single person in your family nurtures at least one non-electronic passion… from reading physical (paper!) books to playing basketball outside to painting to gardening to joining in on a Zumba class at the local Y to biking to writing… you get the idea!

 

 

2. Reduce:

 

Reduce any exposures that can not be turned off or removed. Reducing radiation is easiest when you simply increase your distance from the radiation source — simply moving EMF pulsing items out of the bedroom, for example.

Here are some more ideas:

If you can’t remove or turn off your WiFi router, then make sure your router is installed in an area of the home that is as far away from all bedrooms as possible and cover it with a Router Guard to decrease the strength of it’s radiation output, while still keeping it functional.Move gaming systems out of bedrooms, placing them in living areas & eliminating them from sleeping areasSame with computers and cell phones — moving all charging cords out of your bedroom — placing them in living areas only and never charge or store them in sleeping areasUse speaker phone & text — never hold a cell phone up to your head to speak on it. Holding your cell phone at arm’s length is infinitely better than holding it up to your headUse laptops and tablets on desks, not directly on your lapMove your main seating and sleeping areas away from wiring in the walls. For example, position your sofa in the middle of the room instead of against a wall, move your kitchen table into the center of an eating space instead of against a wall, and use a headboard to create distance between the wall and your pillow. Two feet is ideal, but any space put between the wall and your body is helpful

 

 

 

 

3. Shield:

 

Now that you’ve removed sources of EMFs as much as possible and increased your distance from the ones you can’t remove, you can go further to decrease your exposures by shielding.

Shielding works. There was an impressive medical study, published in 2017 in Immunologic Research, that followed 64 patients with autoimmune diseases (such as lupus and multiple sclerosis) while they slept shielded with a silver based sleep cap over their heads, for a total of 8 hours of shielding in a 24 hour period. The results? 90% of the patients reported a significant decrease in their disease symptoms.

Making small, simple changes like that that can dramatically reduce your exposures — for example, if you literally just place your cell phone behind a cell phone shield like this one while it is charging, you decrease over 90% of the radiation from that direction.

Here are some more ideas on shielding for you to consider:

Use a shielding throw over your lap while using computers, lap tops, cell phones, tablets, etc… so that your body has shielding materially blocking radiation from a close source of EMFsPlace your laptop in a laptop shielding case while charging or transportingWear radiation protective clothing while working or traveling away from your home. Sleep inside of a shielding sleeping bag, or wrap a soft lovely shielding cape all the way around your body like a robe (it even has a hood to protect your head!) or sleep between a shielding blanket on top of you and a mattress shield under you to create a cocoon of protection around your entire bed all night long.As important as what you do use to shield yourself is what you don’t use: do not use shielding stickers, shunghite & orgonite stones, home and office plug in “frequency modulators”, faraday snap on beads, shielding patches and chips, there are even fake USB shielding sticks — these not only do not work, as explained in this awesome research article published in 2019 in Science of the Total Environment but they provide the user with false confidence and because of that, can do more harm than good.

 

 

4. Ground:

 

While shielding from man-made EMFs is wonderfully protective, simply removing radiation sources does not actually nurture and strengthen your own health, it just removes a toxic irritant. The way to boost your conductive health and increase your conductive well being and resilience is through grounding.

Grounding daily to reset the conductive health of your body is essential — it is not enough simply to remove EMF insults, you must replace those toxic frequencies with the natural healing frequency from the earth.

Grounding means touching the earth outside to get a daily boost of healthy, soothing, natural EMF exposures, or using an indoor grounding tool to get grounded.  If you are electrosensitive, you should select a PureGround cord to use with all of your indoor grounding tools, so that you are protected from AC current and EMF’s in your indoor environment from acting on your ground line.  Watch this video for details on how the PureGround cord works to protect the electrosensitive:

 

 

 

Or better yet, go outside to ground directly to the earth (or do both indoor and outdoor grounding!  No amount of grounding is too much!)

How do you ground outside in the winter?    Here is an article I wrote for you that goes over all the grounding shoes, grounding gloves, grounding hiking sticks, and lots of tips and tricks to be able to go outside and ground even in the winter.

Grounding Outside As It Gets Colder & Colder: Yes You Can!

To keep your motivation to go outside and get naturally grounded up year round, I also wrote a book to help you: The Earth Prescription. I wrote this book to fill your mind, heart and spirit with exciting ideas on how to get grounded to support your health goals best, whether you want to sleep better, get more energy, feel more spiritually connected or even boost your creativity.  My goal in writing this book is to get you aching to go outside and to inspire you with hundreds of ideas on what to do once you get there, no matter what the weather, no matter where you live, and no matter what the season:

Order Sign Copies HereOrder On AmazonOrder On Barnes & NobleOrder On Indiebound

 

5. Boost:

 

Boost your health in other ways. Your health is multifaceted, so even though there will likely be EMF exposures that you can’t totally eliminate, you can boost your health through many many different approaches that allow you to be resilient despite less-than-ideal living situations.

By focusing on what you can immediately do to boost your health and resiliency with high quality sleep, high quality food, high quality water, fresh air and exercise… you become internally healthier and better able to withstand stressful outer environments.

As the 2016 EUROPAEM EMF exposure guidelines state:

“Anything that supports homeostasis will increase a person’s resilience against disease and thus against the adverse effects of EMF exposure.”

To that I say AMEN.

So if you feel overwhelmed or depressed by thinking of how to navigate shielding from all of the man made EMFs and other things in the world you can’t control, focus on what you can control.

What you can control is boosting your own personal health in many different ways. Read through this list and find one or two ways that resonate with you and feel good about instituting them:

Go through your pantry, bathroom, and laundry room to remove toxic, synthetic, chemical laden foods from your pantry, toxic artificial body care products, oral care products and hair care products from your bathrooms, remove chemical laden home care and cleaning products as well as artificially scented and chemical laden laundry products, and never use toxic chemicals on your lawn or toxic pest control chemicals inside your home. Reducing environmental toxins like artificial fragrances and toxic household cleaners and toxic body, beauty and oral care products goes a long way to reducing the total burden your body faces each dayReduce total body toxic burden by eating less processed and artificial foods, adding in more antioxidant rich natural healthy foods.Wash your hands before eating anything to remove all the chemicals we pick up as we go about our day so you don’t get traces of them into your mouth with each meal.Supplement with antioxidants that can help alleviate free radicals and oxidative damage, potentially decreasing risks from EMF exposures. Glutathione, Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), folate, and even melatonin are all powerful antioxidants that help slow or even reverse damage from oxidation. I have all my favorite, very highest quality supplements in the world waiting for you in my EMF Mitigation Protocol right here.Don’t drink enough water? Put a water filtration system right out on your kitchen counter and drink a big glass every single time you walk by it.Don’t exercise enough? Start and end every single day with a simple walk outside in fresh air. Daily movement helps deliver much needed fresh oxygen and nutrients to all organ systems as well as aid in the removal of toxins and waste by-products. Exercise absolutely boosts your body’s health and resiliency!!!Don’t sleep well? Take immediate measures to change that — put on blue light blocking glasses after dinner and wear them through bedtime, take melatonin at dusk every evening, use a light box every morning to reset your internal clock, and even go see your physician for a sleep study to see if a CPAP machine (or other sleep intervention) is right for you.Notice you are breathing shallowly? It only take 3 deep breaths to literally boost the function of your heart and other crucial internal organs. Take 3 deep breaths right now. Use a chime routinely to remind you… I walk you through it right here in this video. Feel that? Do it throughout the day, every day.Start reading books at night instead of watching TV.Stop multitasking and let your brain focus on just one task at a time.Start taking nightly epsom salt bath soaks to relax your muscles and ease you into deeper sleep.Start going to your community sauna each week to relax tense muscle and boost your health (as I blog about here, routine sauna increases life span!)Join a spiritual support group or get serious about finding a church or synagogue or meditation center that feels right the moment you walk in the doors.Stop using social media and reach out to your real life friends to set up a real date.

And on and on and on. There is always something you can do to feel better, and better and better.

 

More resources for any who thinks they may beElectrohypersensitive (EHS):

 

Most people are not quite sure if they are electrosensitive or not. And unfortunately for most, their physician has not asked about EMF exposures or taken EMF exposures into account when addressing health issues.

So… when will physicians become serious about the diagnosis and treatment of electrosensitivity? Soon.

There is a huge movement of physicians who are becoming aware and clear on how the non-stop onslaught of EMF exposures are affecting the physiology of the human body.

To help immediately, even before the field of medicine makes an EMF inventory a routine part of a health check up (this will absolutely happen one day, I promise you) I created an online class to help you diagnose and treat any EHS symptoms you may be experiencing.

Today, I invite you to join me in my upcoming Electrosensitivity Relief Class:

 

 

It’s absolutely possible to be EHS and safeguard your health, while still living in the modern world. In this class I will walk you through exactly how to do it, starting with a self assessment tool that will help you figure out if you are electrohypersensitive (EHS) and following up with a full week to walk you, step by step, through your living spaces to making them safer for you and your entire family.

This 7 day online class includes:

Day 1: What is electrosensitivity and how to assess if you are electrosensitiveDay 2: Removing exposures you can remove (I’ll walk you through it!)Day 3: Reducing exposures you can reduce (let’s do it together!)Day 4: Shielding from remaining exposures: key concepts & actions to takeDay 5: Grounding to rebalance your conductive health with natural earth EMFsDay 6: Boosting your body’s resiliency to mitigate exposures you can’t controlDay 7: How to talk to your physician about further in person diagnosing & treatment of EHS

 

 

Plus I give you tons of encouragement and additional tools to boost your health, decrease the reactivity and inflammation in your body from any EMF exposures that you can not decrease…

…as well as tools to give you the confidence to address EHS with your own in person physician, with free printables you can hand them to get the conversation started.

Reserve your spot today and take action to protect your well being, and forward this to your family and loved ones so they can take it with you! Taking this with an accountability buddy is a great idea so you can encourage each other and stick with it.

And I’ll also be your ultimate accountability partner, walking beside you the entire way:

 

 

It absolutely doesn’t have to be overwhelming, I’ll break it down for you into easily actionable steps that will leave you feeling empowered, not scared.

Please share this article with any friends or loved ones that you know that may be electrosensitive, which honestly in my opinion is pretty much everyone. We are all electrically conductive human beings that rely on conductivity for our health. Which means we all are dependent on grounding to the earth to boost our health, and reducing our exposures to manmade EMFs to protect our health.

If you are electrosensitive, than that’s actually awesome, because it simply means you are more aware of (and therefore can be more alerted to and protect yourself better from) these EMF exposures that so many folks are totally oblivious about.

Let’s turn your electrosensitivity into a positive! I’m here to help you do it.

xoxo,Laura Koniver, MD

The post 5 Crucial Steps To Protect Your Health If You Are Electrosensitive appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Could You Be Electrosensitive? Find Out Right Now

 

 

The simple answer is yes, you are electrosensitive. We all are.  Your body is designed to be highly conductive because it uses electrical activity to function — for your heart to beat, your brain to think, your muscles to move, your eyelid to blink, your intestines to process food — it’s all electrical.

Because our bodies are so highly conductive, the manmade energy fields around us truly affect our health from head to toe.  Every single cell in your body is conductive, every single organelle inside of each cell, every single cell membrane, the extracellular fluid around each cell, the intracellular fluid inside of each cell… yep, it’s all conductive.

Which is why grounding is so powerful — the moment one single cell in your body touches the earth, this amazing conductivity grounds your entire body from head to toe, just like flipping on a light switch — in one instant — ahhh…. you are grounded.

But exactly what makes our body grounded — the fact that we are highly conductive — is why we need to protect that exquisite conductivity, and also explains why you may literally feel the affects of ambient EMF fields around you.

 

 

In today’s incredibly electric world, a world filled with layer upon layer of electromagnetic fields, we can no longer afford to be caviler about the impact this has on the human body.  Because whether you “feel” it or not… the fact is, you are electrosensitive.

Electrosensitivity is now a mediacaly established fact… here is just a small sample of the incredible wealth of medical studies on the health effects of manmade EMFs:Electrohypersensitivity as a Neurologic Disorder: How to Diagnose, Treat, and Prevent It Clinical Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Electrosensitivity Building Science and Radiofrequency Radiation Oxidative stress in electrohypersensitivity with comprehensive molecular analysis Effects of electromagnetic fields exposure on the antioxidant defense system Electromagnetic field induced biological effects in humans EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses Electromagnetic hypersensitivity—an increasing challenge to the medical profession The implications of non-linear biological oscillations on human electrophysiology for electrohypersensitivity (EHS) and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) Functional impairment of electrohypersensitivity The Medical Perspective on Environmental Sensitivities

Over a decade ago, the World Health Organization classified man-made EMFs as potentially carcinogenic (category 2B) with many countries establishing Electrohypersenstivitivy (EHS) as a diagnosable and treatable illness, with guidelines on treating electrohypersensitivity published and updated routinely.

Many people — I’d say maybe even most people — feel uncomfortable sensations when they are in the presence of strong manmade EMF fields. Do you?  Ask yourself this:

Do you notice these symptoms after being on your computer, or cell phone, or near your router, or in an area with wifi?

stinging or tinglingheadachedecreased concentrationvertigo/dizzinessdisorientationtinnitus/ringing in the earsskin sensitivity or reactionsrestlesnessinsomniamood changes, including anxiety or depressionfatigueheart palpatationsmuscle pain/tension

If so, you are likely feeling the effects of manmade EMFs on your highly conductive body.  This is called Electrosensitivity — we are all affected by these feilds, but the ability to actually feel when your body is in a manmade EMF field is called being electrohypersensitive, or EHS.

How do we know these symptoms have to do with the presence of EMFs?

Actually, we’ve known the human body has a threshold of perception to electrical fields as far back as  100 years ago, when electricity was being developed as a power source.  There were quite a few experiments to determine what these different levels of perception of electricity are, and those findings are still being used today!

The most commonly cited source of electricity safety is the The Electrical Safety Manual of the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety [1]. The sources for the levels they use can be traced back to a series of key experiments conduced in the 1950s [2].

 

Photos from Dalziel’s testing in the 1950s

The main set of experiments conducted for electricity levels involved hundreds of men and women subjected to different levels of electricity.

They tested all sorts of levels of current in various ways, including a ‘gripping’ test where the subject starts off holding a metal probe and AC current was slowly increased until the person could start feeling it, as well as a touch test where the subject repeatedly touched a metal plate as the electricity was increased until they could start feeling it.

What did the researchers find?

First, they found there was a wide range of sensitivities. The least sensitive people couldn’t feel AC electricity until levels three times the most sensitive people!

 

 

They also found that women were more sensitive then men, which is a fact that is further confirmed in the medical literature on studies about electrosensitivity: more women than men are electrosensitive, and this data shows us exactly why.

Women have a lower threshhold to perceive electrical current than men do. But that doesn’t mean if you are a male that you are not electrosensitive — not at all.  Many men (and even more women!) all around the world are electrosensitive, and we will get into those numbers next.

 

Perception levels for men and women using the gripping test (adapted from Dalziel, 1954)

 

This shows us that there are millions of people who are sensitive to even very low levels of current.

In this video I created for you a few years ago, I show you how EMFs impact the human body, even when you are grounded. In fact, to record that video for you, I wasn’t feeling too good. The hotel’s wifi, the electrical cords in the room, and even the cell phone I was filming the video on all took it’s toll on me and I was feeling nauseous with a headache (you can see it in my eyes throughout the video!)

I’m not alone in feeling the effects of electrical fields and other EMFs. In medicine we call feeling sensations during EMF exposure “electrosensitivity” but in truth, whether you feel it or not, your body is being stressed out and accumulating inflammation — and specifically, neuroinflammation —  from these toxic EMF exposures.

Even going with the lowest commonly agreed upon prevalence of perception of symptoms (0.1% of the population, or 7 million people worldwide) this is roughly the same worldwide incidence of many other major illnesses.

A quick look through the WHO Global Burden of Disease report shows that this incidence is similar to the incidence of stroke, for example.  It also means that electrosensitivity is more common than congestive heart failure.  It is more common than Parkinson’s disease.  It is more common than breast, lung, prostate and colon cancer combined.

Medical research on electrosensitivity backs this up as millions of people are affected by electrohypersensitivty [3] and in population-based surveys, the prevalence of electrohypersensitivity (EHS) ranges from 1.5% of the population (found in Sweden) up to 13.3% (found in Taiwan) [4].

Now that you know you are electrosensitive… what can you do?  There are two first steps to take, right now:

 

 

 

 

1.  Offset Man Made EMFs with Natural Grounding

 

One thing I highly recommend you do is to head outside for at least a few minutes daily to rebalance your conductive health.

It doesn’t have to be for long — grounding is as instantaneous as flipping on a light switch. When you turn on a light, the entire room is illuminated and that’s exactly what happens when one cell in your body becomes grounded: your entire body becomes grounded.

While there are cumulative benefits over time to grounding, there is really no time that is too little for grounding, either. I never want you to miss an opportunity to be grounded just because it’s might only be for 30 seconds while you stop at a street crossing, or lean against a tree while you take a break during lunchtime, or when you stop for a second to pull a weed out from a garden bed.

Within seconds your skin surface conductance has changes throughout your entire body and your muscle tension has decreased.

As seconds turn to minutes, your brain and vagal tone have gotten a calming boost from grounding, and you might notice pain decreases and mood lifts.

Over time, as minutes turn to hours, your metabolic processes get a boost and your circulation (which supports every single organ system in your body) is running more smoothly.

Grounding day after day means nighttime sleep is more restorative, stress hormones normalize, inflammation decreases, and health benefits begin to accumulate, often resulting in noticeable health benefits on a large scale.

Grounding daily to reset the conductive health of your body is essential.  It is not enough simply to remove EMF insults, you must replace those toxic frequencies with the natural healing frequency from the earth.

 

 

The natural opposite of man-made EMFs are the natural earth made EMFs… and you can easily access these through grounding.

Grounding helps mitigate the effects of EMFs and rebalance your conductive health. It gives you results you can feel… grounding helps to:

boost mooddecrease anxietydeepen sleepdecrease paindecrease inflammationdecrease blood pressureboost cardiac functiondecrease muscle tensionimprove digestionimprove immune functionand on and on… pretty much the exact opposite effect that manmade EMFs have on our body

Today I want to share a free printable for you. I created this for my electrosensitivity class, and I’m sharing it freely with you here today. So be sure to take advantage of this and forward it to everyone you know who could benefit from seeing directly how manmade EMFs and natural grounding are connected and why!

Simply click the button below for a free printable version that you can study and even tape to your door, reminding you to go outside daily to get grounded!

 

 

Manmade EMFs and Earthing EMFs are Yin & Yang to each other, each one affecting our body because of our highly conductive living tissues.

So today, and every day, head outside for at least a few minutes to rebalance your conductive health.

It doesn’t have to be for long — grounding is as instantaneous as flipping on a light switch. When you turn on a light, the entire room is illuminated and that’s exactly what happens when one cell in your body becomes grounded: your entire body becomes grounded.

While there are cumulative benefits over time to grounding, there is really no time that is too little for grounding, either. I never want you to miss an opportunity to be grounded just because it’s might only be for 30 seconds while you stop at a street crossing, or lean against a tree while you take a break during lunchtime, or when you stop for a second to pull a weed out from a garden bed.

Within seconds your skin surface conductance has changed throughout your entire body and your muscle tension has decreased.As seconds turn to minutes, your brain and vagal tone have gotten a calming boost from grounding, and you might notice pain decreases and mood lifts.Over time, as minutes turn to hours, your metabolic processes get a boost and your circulation (which supports every single organ system in your body) is running more smoothly.Grounding day after day means nighttime sleep is more restorative, stress hormones normalize, inflammation decreases, and health benefits begin to accumulate, often resulting in noticeable health benefits on a large scale.

Here is a video I made for you a few weeks ago, that runs you through all of the medical literature on grounding and what health benefits you can get from grounding in just a few minutes, the health benefits from grounding for just a few hours, the health benefits from grounding for a few days, and more.

 

 

Grounding daily to reset the conductive health of your body is essential — it is not enough simply to remove EMF insults, you must replace those toxic frequencies with the natural healing frequency from the earth.

Luckily, the human body is an incredibly resilient force of nature and we naturally go back to vibrant health when we allow our body to bounce back by giving it time to heal between insults. Often by making a few small changes, you can feel relief literally overnight.

The basis of life is a natural ability to repair and recover and a natural adaptability as well.

Your body simply needs time and space, away from a constant toxic onslaught, to do so.

This is even more crucial for those of us who are electrosensitive.

I truly hope today’s article helps to reassure you exactly what you are feeling when you notice symptoms of electrosensitivity, as well as get you started with one simple solution to help you feel better than you’ve ever felt: get grounded outside.

 

 

 

2.  Join me here for more support

 

Need more support?

Have a specific question I can help you with?

If your in person physician is not able or willing to offer guidance on how to use conductivity to help heal you (grounding) and how to protect your conductivity to minimize damage (electrosensitivity) I am here to help.

Next month I am running a class to teach you everything you need to know to protect your conductive health and lower your EMF exposures.

I don’t know why we are so late to formally diagnose and treat EHS in the USA, but throughout Europe and in Canada you can get a formal diagnosis and even disability support, including letters from your physician to request employers and schools to accommodate your needs (and your children’s needs) to reduce EMF exposure and safeguard your health.

Physicians can write:

letters requiring employers to provide you with a hardwired ethernet connectionrecommendations to your employer to have you work in a place that is furthest from the wifi routerletters to school educators to seat children in the class seat that is furthest from routerletters to school educators to create a cell phone free classroom, with all cell phones put on airplane mode at the beginning of classletter to school educators requesting they allow students intermittent times to go outside and ground to the natural energy of the earth to help offset EHS symptoms

You don’t have to wait for your local health care professional to get on board with diagnosing and treating electrosensitivity, I’ll show you how you can advocate for yourself and protect yourself regardless.

I developed this class to teach you everything you need to know about your conductive health, including both positive ways to boost your conductive health through safe grounding practices, as well as ways to protect your conductive health through lowering your EMF exposures.

In this online class I will even walk you through how to get your own, in person physician comfortable with diagnosing EHS and writing those recommendations listed above on a Rx for you to hand to your employer or you child’s teacher.

 

 

 

It’s absolutely possible to be EHS and safeguard your health, while still living in the modern world. I walk you through exactly how to do it, starting with a self assessment tool that will help you figure out if you are electrohypersensitive (EHS) and walk you, step by step, through all of your living spaces to making them safer for you and your entire family.

Plus I give you tons of encouragement and additional tools to boost your health, decrease the reactivity and inflammation in your body, as well free printables and worksheets that you can keep forever, as well as lots of medical literature to validate exactly what you are experiencing and why.

No longer will you be brushed aside and told that your legitimate, valid ability to perceive electrical currents and EMF fields imposed on your body are simply a “detox” to ignore.

Nope. In this 7 day online class we will go over together:

Day 1: What is electrosensitivity and how to assess if you are electrosensitiveDay 2: Removing the exposures you can remove (I’ll walk you through it!)Day 3: Reducing the exposures you can further reduce (let’s do it together!)Day 4: Shielding from any remaining exposures: key concepts & actions to takeDay 5: Grounding to rebalance your conductive health with natural earth EMFsDay 6: Boosting your body’s resiliency to mitigate the symptoms you may already be feelingDay 7: How to talk to your physician about further in person diagnosing & treatment of EHSBONUS: Custom recorded class Q&A session

Reserve your spot today and take action to protect your well being (and forward this to your family and loved ones so they can take it with you!)

Taking this with an accountability buddy is a great idea so you can encourage each other and stick with it.  And I’ll be your ultimate accountability partner, walking beside you the entire way:

 

 

The Bottom Line:

 

In a nutshell: electrosensitivity is a well defined, identifiable, treatable, and preventable neurologic disease.

And awesomely, the human body is an incredibly resilient force of nature and we naturally go back to vibrant health when we allow our body to bounce back by giving it time to heal between insults. Often by making a few small changes, you can feel relief — literally overnight.

The basis of life is a natural ability to repair and recover and a natural adaptability as well.

Your body simply needs time and space, away from a constant toxic onslaught, to do so.

This is even more crucial for those of us who are electrosensitive.

I truly hope today’s article helps to reassure you exactly what you are feeling when you notice symptoms of electrosensitivity, to give you a fuller understanding of what is really happening when you are having these symptoms, and tons of solutions to help you feel better than you’ve ever felt.

To your incredibly resilient health!

xoxo, Laura Koniver, MD

The post Could You Be Electrosensitive? Find Out Right Now appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Feeling At Home Inside Your Body (+ My Latest Healing Painting)

 

 

My favorite way to release anxiety, drop out of my overthinking mind, and come home to my body is to combine grounding, deep breathing, and my favorite mantra.

Repeating a mantra has been shown to help with anxiety disorders such as PTSD, and I can think of no better phrase to repeat to help release stress, get out of fight/flight mode and relax into rest/digest mode.

A randomized controlled medical study comparing mantra therapy as a treatment for PTSD was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry on June 20, 2018 and here is what researchers found:

173 veterans were enrolled in the study, 89 of them using mantra therapy (focusing on a repeating a mantra) and 84 using talk therapy (with a focus on problem solving) for an hour long session once a week for 8 weeks straight.They were randomly assigned to each group and the assessments were done blindly (meaning the therapist did not know which patient was doing which therapy when assessing symptoms and monitoring progression) before treatment, after treatment on week 9, and at the two months follow up after the conclusion of the study (week 17.)The results showed that focusing on a mantra provided a clinically significant, meaningful improvement to the veterans PTSD symptoms that were sustainable, and worked particularly well for insomnia… better than the talk therapy did.Patients from the mantra group actually had larger improvements to their insomnia and equally good improvements to other symptoms, such as depression and anger.

The results showed that the mantra results were as robust as traditional talk therapy treatments that were trauma-focused.  That means, that even if you have resistance to focusing on the actual traumatic event to work through your trauma, you can have every bit as meaningful recovery when you focus on a mantra as opposed to the trauma!

In addition, equally exciting, is that the improvements from mantra therapy were sustained for months after the treatment ended, with more patients being PTSD free after mantra therapy than traditional talk therapy (60% of mantra patients were PTSD free at 2 months after intervention, compared to 40% of the talk therapy group.)

It’s simple, it’s convenient — and it’s free (as a huge advocate for grounding therapy, you know I am a big fan of free therapies that allow patients to take control over their own health.)

This study is so incredibly valuable I feel, because as someone who admittedly has a very difficult time with meditating for any length of time, I feel that knowing that just repeating a single word has literally been clinically shown to make a significant difference in improving quality of life and treating insomnia, anxiety and other PTSD symptoms is such a relief.

Slowing down your thoughts and practicing sustaining a point of attention on just a single repeated word or phrase was shown to help patients cope with daily anxiety, fear, anger, depression and insomnia.

You can practice a healing mantra any time, any where.

It’s very private and very powerful.  All it takes is literally a few deep breaths, repeating a word or phrase with each in breath and out breath.  it only takes three deep breaths to significantly support your vagal nerve tone, which helps modulate your autonomic nervous system. Meaning your heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and more all get calmed and centered and soothed… and pain actually significantly decreases as well.

I love it so much that I have tried many mantra meditations over the years, and my favorite is this one:

“I am at home in my body.”

I find it’s even more powerful if you can do this quick meditative healing practice while grounded, either outside on the earth or inside using an organic grounding mat.

I show you how to do this mantra grounded (both inside and outside) in this TikTok if you’d like me to walk you through it in less than two minutes:

@laurakonivermd

Grounding meditation: I am at home in my body. #grounding #earthing #holistichealing #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician #meditation

♬ Healing music for peace, holidays and nature – 水木翔太

 

Recently, I challenged myself to paint what this healing practice feels like, to drop down into the body, witness it, get to the point where it feels comfortable staying there for a bit.

Your body is your home, carrying you through in an earth suit.  Work with this mantra to make it the most comfortable place you can possibly be.

Here is what I came up with:

 

I used purples to show the depth of the earth beneath us, supporting us

 

Then added yellows and oranges to the energy of the sky cradling us

 

I added the warmth of the sun above and grounding energy below

 

I wanted to show nature enveloping, comforting and cocooning us as we drop our awareness down into the present moment

 

painting the outlines of nature and our human earth suit in soothing tones of purples and indigo blues

 

Here is the finished painting:  I Am At Home In My Body

One hand on your heart… One hand on your abdomen… Taking three deep breaths, repeat: “I am at home in my body”

 

canvas is gallery wrapped and painted on all sides

 

wildflower details

 

sunshine and foliage details

 

If you prefer to have the mantra printed directly on the artwork — to use as a reminder to repeat this exercise every morning when you wake up, or in the evening before you drift off to sleep, or at any time throughout the day, I have prints of this artwork professionally printed as well, and they look like this:

 

 

Find the original canvas painting, as well as 200+ year archival quality prints, right here.

xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

 

 

PS — Here are some other blog posts I’ve written on trauma recovery for you:

Trauma Changes The Health Of Your Body, But It’s ReversibleTrauma Increases Headache Risk 4-FoldChildhood Trauma Increases Risk Of Self Harm. Here’s Help.OCD May Stem From Birth TraumaGoing From Surviving To Thriving After CancerIs Your Job Driving You Crazy? You Are Not Alone. Here’s Help.Resolving PTSD, OCD, Tobacco and Drug Addiction TooEmotional Stress Directly Predicts Heart Attack… 10 Ways To Prevent ItLetting Go Helps You Heal (Here’s How)Is Stress Is Making Your Antidepressant Ineffective?The Healing Power Of Grounded TouchA Super Interesting Difference Between Men and Women When Under StressAnother Difference Between Men and Women… Found On AutopsyThe Healing Process Of Grief

 

The post Feeling At Home Inside Your Body (+ My Latest Healing Painting) appeared first on Intuition Physician.

8 Unusual Grounding Tools You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

 

Organic, hand sewn, eco-friendly grounding bed roll

 

I get asked all the time about alternatives to the cheap plastic grounding mats and bed pads, from folks wondering if there are more eco-friendly alternatives to the synthetic, hot, sticky mats and polyester synthetic sheets that eventually sit in a landfill for hundreds of years.

The answer is yes!  There are eco-friendly, all natural, organic, hand crafted and locally made grounding mats and bed pads (you can check them out right here.)

But when I also tell folks there are other eco-friendly ways to get grounded — ways that utilize items you already own, for example: making your own grounding hiking stick, or sewing a grounding ribbon onto sheets you already have, or placing grounding stickers on shoes you already own, or grounding an indoor plant and simply touching that plant to get grounded — most folks have never heard of those options!

So today I’m running through a list of the top 8 grounding tools that I recommend that are lesser known, in case one of these can help you stay grounded this winter or be that perfect holiday gift for a loved one looking to improve their health.

Here we go:

 

 

 

1.  Grounding Cane:

 

Keep your feet toasty warm and protected inside your hiking boots, and simply ground through your hands while using this stainless steal walking stick/hiking cane.  Hands are a great way for those who want to keep their feet inside warm protective shoes, or for those in a wheelchair or scooter which keeps them up off the earth, ungrounded.

Simply use cane to touch the earth near you and get grounded from head to toe right through your hands!  Ground while sitting at a park bench, all warm and bundled up.  Ground from your wheelchair without needing to use your feet at all.  A great way to get grounded while rehabilitating from an injury or just for those that prefer a way to ground cleanly through their hands instead of going barefoot.

 

 

 

2.  DIY Grounding Hiking Stick Kit:

 

Want to make your own hiking stick?  Have a stick you already love, or a cane or crutches you want to ground?  This grounding kit includes conductive tape and a steel crampon to create your own conductive hiking stick using any cane, pole or hiking stick you already have.  You can even create a grounding walking stick out of a broom handle!

Want to see how simple it is to make?  In the second half of this video (at 5 min 40 seconds) I show you how to use this DIY kit to easily create your own grounded walking stick:

 

 

 

 

3.  Grounding Ribbon:

 

This grounding kit allows DIYers to simply and easily add grounding to anything they already love and use in their home, office, wardrobe, for travel — really anything.  You can sew or pin it along sheets you have, your kitchen bath mat, the seat of your office chair, the waistband of your pants, a throw pillow on your sofa, across your yoga mat, your pet’s bed, the floor of your tent, inside your sleeping bag… truly any item you can dream up to create a grounding tool out of… sky’s the limit!

My conductive grounding ribbon is made from 100% medical grade stainless steel and is super conductive… yet cuts and sews just like regular ribbon.  Cut ribbon to desired length, sew onto any fabric (or simply place on the floor to rest bare feet directly on, or lay across bed to sleep on — just pin into place on your mattress, no sewing necessary).  Then clip your ground cord to either end or anywhere along the ribbon you like, and you are powerfully grounded!  Ribbon can be cut, washed, sewn like any fabric… even ironed.  Watch me work with it below to see how truly simple it is:

 

 

 

 

 

4.  Grounding Hot Water Bottle:

 

A hot water bottle significantly helps support the release of any discomfort you are experiencing — headaches, muscle tension, soreness, cramps, back pain, neck pain, growing pains, sinus pressure, earaches, etc… because of the healing power of water combined with the energetic support of warmth, which increase circulation and speeds repair of the body’s natural healing mechanisms.

Now you can combine the power of water and the power of heat with the healing power of grounding to introduce three different, synergistic ways to exponentially support vibrant health and expedite your body’s natural recovery process.  For years a hot water bottle was one of my favorite go-to recommendations for supporting healing, so I created the world’s first Grounded Hot Water Bottle, made out of organic hemp fleece!!

The hot water bottle cozy is removable and hand or machine washable, and can be used even without the water bottle inside, many folks use cozy as a great travel mini grounding pad and/or across their pillow or under foot!

 

“First night, using the water bottle cover across my pillow, I slept 11 hrs. Good heavens.  Laura, thank you. ”   – M.L

“I have a variety of grounding items from you, but the water bottle is by far my favorite.  I am so comforted by this product.  It has improved my sleep tremendously and I feel so good when I wake up! Filling the bottle and slipping it into my bed has become part of my bedtime ritual that I look forward to every night.”  -K.K.

“The hot water bottle cover is the best product you make!   We use it daily.  It moves around the house!  Either with the water bottle or without.  The water bottle cover doubles as a pillow cover.  Or wraps around shoulders.  I love how versatile it is!” – S.L.

 

 

 

5.  Grounding Ice Packs:

 

Prefer cold?  You can easily store these gel packs in the freezer for instant cooling relief, or even pop them in the microwave for soothing heat.  The smaller size also makes it perfect for use as a grounding beauty treatment — just rest grounded ice packs over eyes to reduce puffiness while grounding goes to work increasing skin circulation and radiance!  Helps relieve migraine pain (just  place on forehead and relax) place over sinuses to relieve sinus pressure, apply to abdomen to sooth cramping and nausea, ideal as a first aid treatment for injuries… the applications are endless.

“I have sprained my ankle 3 times and the first two times I used Arnica gel and homeopathic pills and prickly pear cactus to heal it. It took months of awkward walking. This third sprain I used your grounding hot and cold pack and this one healed in 2 1/2 weeks… so I am very happy!”   – J.H.

 

 

 

 

6.  Grounding Shoe Stickers:

 

I can’t think of much more eco-friendly than to continue to use shoes you already own. And if you love them, and they support your foot function best, why not convert your favorite pair of sneakers, running shoes, hiking shoes, or even sports cleats into grounding shoes? A grounding shoe sticker is the way to go.  Get all the benefits of wearing your favorite footwear — warmth, protection, even orthotic inserts to help with alignment — while still connecting to the earth below your feet.

The sticker is fully conductive and runs the grounding energy from the earth beneath you up and around your shoe and into the sole of your shoe where your feet are. By touching the sticker, you bypass the rubber sole entirely and are basically standing barefoot on the ground, conductively speaking.  I can’t even feel these stickers on my shoes. Find them here.

 

 

 

7.  Indoor Plant Grounding Kit:

 

I’ve had so many folks ask me if touching a potted plant indoors (or putting feet on a bucket of soil indoors or even on a bed of grass grown indoors) will ground them. Sadly, the answer is normally no, since the plant or soil is not in contact with the earth.

But, happily — my answer can now be yes, if you use a ground stake system to ground your potted plant!  Now, not only will your plant grow bigger & bloom longer (watch The Grounded and Heal For Free films to see tons of evidence of the benefits of grounding to plants) but if you touch your grounded plant, you can directly earth indoors through it as well!

Plant grounding kit is so easy to use: simply push the stainless steel stake easily into any potting soil then clip on the included grounding cord and your plant (and soil) is completely grounded.  And so are you, when you touch any leaf on that plant or the soil it’s grounded in.  Watch the video below where I demonstrate you can be grounded simply by just touching a leaf on a potted plant that has been grounded:

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.  Organic Grounding Mat — for your Pet!

 

I wanted to create an eco-ethically crafted mat that was hand sewn using medical grade stainless steel (so you can wash it over and over and it will last for years) + backed with eco-friendly soft organic cotton, dye free & chemical free so it is sensitive enough for use by those who have multiple chemical or environmental sensitivities.  This double thick, conductive grounding mat is soft, lays flat under foot, and is plenty large enough to use on a chair, a recliner, a sofa, as a floor mat, or even to sleep on.

Because it is washable, it’s great for using with your pets.  For a great article on why you might want to get your pet grounded, and pictures of pets using these organic grounding mats, hop over here.   I choose awesome stainless steel conductive fabric because stainless steel lasts infinitely longer than silver based grounding tools, and because biodegradable fabric is infinitely preferable to ‘leatherette’ plastic for both humans and the earth.  An alligator clip on the grounding cords gives you the flexibility to clip the ground cord onto any edge of the mat, so you can attach the cord in any position that works best for where you want to put it.

A phenomenal way to experience grounding with a long lasting, eco-ethically hand crafted grounding tool that can be used in dozens of different ways around your home or work space.  Watch this video below for an example of how I love to use this mat during my morning meditation:

 

 

 

 

 

Those are the lesser known grounding tools — did you know them all?  Were their any new ideas here that interested you?

For tons more grounding tools that boost your connection to the earth, including grounding idea books and grounding journals to track your grounding practice, to grounding gloves, grounding socks, organic grounding throw blankets… as well as tons of innovative products to shield you from artificial manmade EMFs like router guards, shielding clothing, outlet timers and outlet kill switches, EMF test meters and more… hop over here:

 

 

Why do you want to boost your connection to natural EMFs through grounding, and decrease your exposure to artificial EMFs in the first place?

This infographic I created for you helps show you that these two are basically opposites, swinging your health one way or the other.  You can utilize grounding to help swing it back in a more healing direction if you are experiencing symptoms of electrosensitivity from your artificial EMF exposures:

 

 

Feel free to share this infographic the help others become more aware that all EMFs affect every part of the body, as our entire human body is conductive!  Every single cell!   So just as artificial manmade EMFs are stressful to the body, natural earth produced EMFs are very comforting and healing to the body.

Use grounding to help de-stress and alleviate the effects of artificial EMF exposures each day. Hopefully these products can help make that a little easier.

xoxo, Laura Koniver MD

 

The post 8 Unusual Grounding Tools You’ve Probably Never Heard Of appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Try Not To Sit Still For More Than 2 Hours At A Time Today, Here’s Why:

 

Today, let’s intentionally sprinkle movement throughout our day.  I’ve blogged for you in the past about how sitting just might be the most deadly thing you do all day.   Sitting for more than a few hours straight increases your risk of lots of different health complications and even decreases life span.  Yuck (but if you want to read more on that you can right here.)

On the other hand, it really doesn’t take that much movement a day to boost your health and reap tons of benefits.  Here are three impressive benefits of moving your precious body throughout the day, and a bunch of  ideas on sneaking in more physical activity so that you are not sitting still for long periods of time:

 

 

 

 1.  Movement immediately boosts memory

 

Researchers recently found that there are immediate benefits to your memory function after exercising just once.  Once!  Published September 2020 in Scientific Reports, this study finds that one session of exercising (cycling on a stationary bike was the exercise used in this study) significantly improved motor sequence memory — immediately!

This is super encouraging, because it was not looking at just the long term benefits from exercise (which of course has far reaching protective health benefits) but suggests that even if all you can do is one single episode of  exercise, you will get immediate brain benefits, that very day.

So you can intentionally use exercise as a way to boost your brain function before a mental task. For example:

walkup and down a flight of stairs quickly before a meeting at workdoing a few jumping jacks before writing an important emailGoing on a brisk walk before settling down to study for an examencouraging your kids to jump on a trampoline before hopping on the school bus each morning.Creating a daily habit of a simple stretch routine when you wake up each dayHeading upstairs? walk up and down a flight of steps and then back up it againCreate a nightly habit of before-bed yoga routine

And although just one session of exercising provides benefit, ideally it would be even better to sprinkle movement throughout your entire day.  It could be as simple as standing up and walking around a bit every hour or two, getting in some gentle stretching routines in throughout the day, walking up and down your stairs if you have them, and/or doing a before-bed yoga routine to reap massive benefits.  More on this below.

 

 

 

2.  Movement decreases severity of Covid infection

 

While we already know that being active has tons of whole body benefits, including protecting against severe respiratory infections, we didn’t know if exercise had the same protective benefits against severe covid infection… until now.

A fabulous study, just published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine on Aug 22, 2022, looked at data from almost 2 million patients (1.8 million to be exact!) and found that routine activity decreased infection rates by 11%, decreased the risk of severe covid infection by 36%, and decreased the risk of death from covid by 43%.

The amount of exercise needed to get these protective benefits?  About 20 minutes a day, or a combined 2 and 1/2  hours of moderate activity a week.  If your exercise is vigorous, the amount of time it takes to get these protective benefits is even less — only 11 minutes of vigorous activity daily, or a total of an hour and 15 minutes a week.

 

 

 

 

3.  Movement protects your cardiovascular health

 

Another recent study, just published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise on Sept 24, 2022, found that folks who exercised more and were sedentary less had more favorable cardio metabolic profiles, including lower fasting insulin levels, lower triglycerides, and less adipose tissue (less fat) and other markers of cardiovascular health.

Previous studies have found that cardiometabolic risk factors start to rise significantly with 7 – 8 hours of sitting a day, and are worst in folks who sit for 10+ hours or more a day.

Today, see if you can come up with a way to move your body:

upon waking in the morningas a mid morning breakas a mid day breakas a mid afternoon breakand end with a before-bed stretch.

 

Can you add any of these activities to your daily routine?

 

 

 

 

Idea #1: Morning Stretch

 

Develop a stretch routine that you do when you first wake up, before even starting your day.

Once you get into a habit of morning stretching, you will realize how much this impacts your entire day and you’ll never want to skip this again.

To get ideas of stretches that feel good for you, here is a great YouTube video that includes some of my personal favorites, and is only 10 minutes long.  Take what you like from these suggestions and create your own routine that you will stick with:

Morning Stretch (YouTube)

If you prefer looking at stretch suggestions instead of watching a video, this page has 4 great stretches for you:

4 Morning Stretches (Self)

And then you can add these 6 on to create a simple 10 stretch routine to start your day:

6 Morning Stretches (The Chalkboard)

 

 

 

Idea #2: Mid-Morning Walk

 

If at all possible, I highly encourage you to go outside mid morning and mid afternoon on a walk.  Do as little or as much as you like, anything is absolutely better than nothing.

Walk the sidewalks of your neighborhood, walk the perimeter of your yard or driveway if you have one, walk back and forth to your mailbox several times, walk any neighborhood trails if you have them.

If you can not even go outside on a walk, find a pattern to loop inside of your home, going in and out of each room or simply up and down hallways.

Aim for at least 10 minutes of walking in each session, more if you can.

 

 

 

 

Idea #3: Mid-Day Steps

 

An easy way to get more movement into your day — mp  gym membership needed — is to seek out a flight of stairs, or even one single step if that is all you have.

You can walk up and down the steps leading to your front door, any steps you have inside your home if you live in a multi-story house, any steps that you have leading to your parking area or garage, or any steps you might have in your neighborhood.

Even if all you can find is one step, you can so some great calve strengthening exercises on that one step alone… a great mid-day pick me up.

Here are some ideas:

Stair Exercises (Mayo Clinic)Staircase Workout (Healthline)

 

 

 

Idea #4: Mid-Afternoon Walk

 

Repeat the same walk you did mid-morning (see above) or find a new way to walk — for example, if you walked around your neighborhood in the mid-morning while it was cool, you may wish to stay inside and loop your living room or office a dozen times in the heat of the afternoon.  Or vice versa!  Just keep moving for at least 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Idea #5: Before Bed Yoga Stretches

 

Never head to bed without stretching your body out — releasing tension from the day and giving your muscles one more deep release.  No, you do not have to do an inversion or anything remotely similar to the picture above.  A gentle evening stretch, if done routinely, will help your body stay limber as well as relax into sleep more easily.

If you need some ideas, or if you enjoy following a video, here is a great one:

10 Minute Bedtime Yoga (YouTube)

If you prefer reading over a written list of stretches (with pictures) here is my favorite set — this is one is very similar to the routine I do each night before I go to bed myself!

7 Bedtime Stretches (Hello Glow)

 

 

 

 

 

What if you are movement restricted? 

 

Whether from mobility issues, from being under the weather, or any other reason that you might not be able to easily get up and down throughout the day, there is an alternative.  Sauna increases the circulation of blood all throughout your body — getting the blood pumping through your cardiovascular system, your muscles, your skin, your joints, your brain — so it turns out that routine sauna has many of the same health benefits that exercise does.

So if you have mobility issues or find that your job makes moving your body through the day impossible… sauna is a great substitute (or addition) to any wellness plan.  In fact, sauna actually helps protect brain function and routine sauna is correlated with over a 60% reduction in dementia risk!  I write about that for you here:  Sauna To Protect Your Brain

You may also want to read more about how routine sauna is correlated with a longer lifespan, which I review for you here:  Sauna For A Longer Lifespan

Even better if you can do a combination of sauna and then grounding, which and friend and I demonstrate for you in a video.  Hop on over to watch!   Sauna + Grounding, A Win-Win Combo

If you don’t have access to a sauna (and let’s face it, most of us don’t) you can still use this healing principle to invite heat into your body in other ways.

Pick one of these ways (or use them all!):

a microwavable rice pack to wrap around neck and shouldersa 15 minute hot bath with magnesium salts to relax all musclesa 5 minute hot shower to release tension from head to toeor my favorite: bring an organic grounding hot water bottle into your bed at night – it will warm and soothe stiff muscles while also providing the additional health benefits of being grounded and deepening sleep!

 

 

 

Today, I hope you’ll move your body because it feels good to stretch, because it increases your energy level to walk around and get fresh air, because it helps you sleep better at night to have gotten a bit of exercise during the day, and because movement will help decrease your risk of infection, support your heart health, and sharpen your memory too!

Enjoy living in your body, my friend.

Treat it right.

All you’ve got to do is get up and move every hour or two.  If you do that, you’ve done more to protect your long term health than just about anything else you could possibly do.

xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

 

The post Try Not To Sit Still For More Than 2 Hours At A Time Today, Here’s Why: appeared first on Intuition Physician.

New Study Finally Reveals If Vitamins Help Improve Cognition As We Age

 

A painting I created out of my old medical school anatomy book

 

A new study, published Sept 14, 2022 in Alzheimers & Dementia, is the largest randomized clinical trial on multivitamin use in healthy brain aging.  It’s a three year long trial following annual cognitive assessments on over 2,250 patients that were randomly assigned either a daily multivitamin, a 500 mg daily flavanol supplement (from cocoa extract) or a placebo supplement.

What researchers found was that not only did taking a daily vitamin help preserve cognitive function, but it actually helped significantly improve it over baseline (and over placebo) by the third year.  Meaning it didn’t just help prevent cognitive function from declining with age, but it actually helped improve cognitive function long term.  Cognitive tests included word list, story recall, verbal fluency, number span, digit ordering and more.  The results show that the daily multivitamin improved memory, executive function and global cognition over time.

This is the first large, long term, double blinded placebo based study to show that multivitamins are effective at improving condition in older adults.   The researchers conducting this study estimated that the multivitamins potentially slowed brain aging by about 60%.  I hope even longer studies, looking at additional health benefits beyond cognitive benefits, follow.  If they do, I’ll certainly keep you posted.

By the way, there was no benefit found from taking the cocoa extract.  Although flavanols may be super beneficial in other health outcomes that were not studied (for example, heart health) this study helped drill home that our brain needs key vitamins as well as essential minerals for proper long term function.

 

 

So while big pharmaceutical companies try to come up with Rx medications to help prevent, or at least slow, the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, here is something simple and accessible that you can to without a prescription to help protect your cognitive brain function.  Not only to protect it, but if you are not already taking a multivitamin, possibly to actually improve it.   And that is: start taking a multivitamin.

What multivitamins do I recommend most?

I have a list of my favorite childrens, teen, adult, senior and prenatal daily vitamin and mineral supplements right here in my online dispensary, in gummy, capsule and chewable forms, including my favorite organic and vegan options too:

 

 

 

 

 

What other things can you do to help protect your brain as you age?

I’ve got you.  Click on the links below to read any of these other free healing articles I’ve written for you over the years:

 

Moving Your Body Helps Your Brain Function Better, Immediately. Here’s HowWhat Happens To The Human Brain During EMF ExposuresA Medical Study Reveals How To Boost Circulation To Your Brain, In 12 Minutes FlatOne Simple Thing You Can Do To Protect Your Brain Throughout Your LifetimeWhen You Are Doing Something Meaningful, Your Brain Works BetterGrounding Instantly Helps Your Brain, Mood, and SleepSauna To Protect Your BrainYour Gut And Brain Are Connected (Duh!)

 

Want even more?  Here is a huge list of additional ways you can support your brain function, right now:

 

 

 

1.  Stay Curious

 

Published October 22, 2014 in Neuron, researchers found that having your own internal motivation, in the form of curiosity, allows your brain to have enhanced memory and function… allowing you to more quickly master the information you are trying to learn and even enhances your ability to remember non-related information alongside it!

Researchers could literally see the brain enhance function on MRI when the subject was highly curious about the material they were engaged in — showing that being curious about something literally changes the way the your brain functions, enhancing key parts of the brain such as the hippocampus and the dopaminergic circuit.

Curiosity about life in general enhances your experience of life itself, opening you up to new things and enhancing your ability to absorb it. So it’s not as much about completing a task as directed, or rote memorization of material, or getting a specific test score on an exam in school that allows you to truly learn.

It’s about following your inner guidance system, engaging in your own innate curiosity, and allowing that to guide you in making educational and career choices that align your soul gifts with your occupation… so that what you are offering to this world is something that is perfect suit to you because you are self motivated to learn about it, master the material related and ancillary to it, and offering this unique vantage point that only you can offer back to the world.

In short, learning and processing and giving your thoughts back to the world becomes meaningful, instead of simply memorized. That study shows that you are naturally suited to learn, retain and remember information that you are self selecting, motivated, and innately curious about it.

Need some help discovering (or re-discovering) your natural curiosity? That’s normal, because the way our educational system and corporate work system is set up, it minimizes personal autonomy and creativity.

But you have it inside of you. Watch this video for inspiration to give yourself permission to become curious again, and then keep reading below for links to tons of resources of fun, learning, and growth!

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Learn A New Language

 

Learning a new language keeps your brain flexible and adaptive.  For fun you can start by journalling a few ideas on bucket list trips you may want to take one day, and then consider learning the language before you even book the trip!

Then, click on a link below to sign up for one of the many free language classes that are offered online — there are literally thousands of different languages you can master.

Free language classes at DuolingoFree language classes at OpenCultureFree language classes at LearnALanguage

 

 

 

 

3.  Reassess Your Career Goals

 

Stress on the job is such a real threat to your health that I think you should take it into account when figuring out your future. One medical study shows that stress on the job might literally drive you crazy. This study, published in Lancet Psychiatry on May 10, 2018, suggests that occupation alone might cause as many as one out of every 7 new cases of depression, anxiety, and other common mental disorders.

Even after adjusting for lifestyle factors, stressful life events, temperament, personality, family history and personal history of mental illness, researchers found that job strain alone was responsible for a statistically significant number of mental illness cases over a lifetime. 14% of all common mental disorders that onset in midlife was attributed purely to job stress.

Researchers looked at over 6,800 participants, ranking job strain at age 45 with risk of mental illness at age 50. The results were astounding:

Having a job that is highly demanding increased mental diagnosis rates by 70%.Having a job that causes high strain (moves at a fast pace, or is highly risky, for example) increased mental diagnosis rates by 220%.Having a job in which the employee had very little control over decisions increased mental illness rates by 89%.All in all, researchers estimate that simply having higher job stress increased the overall likelihood of subsequent mental illness significantly, accounting for 1 out of every 7 new cases of mental illness in midlife.

Forget the usually-thought-of triggers such as divorce, bereavement and serious medical issues… job strain alone can put you at significant risk for mental disorders.

What constitutes a stressful job? A job that requires high intensity, a job that moves at a fast pace, a job that has high risk, a job that gives you very little control over your duties, and/or a job that doesn’t allow you to make your own decisions were all factors that contributed to job strain.

If you are thinking… yes my job is stressful but I really love it, unfortunately that’s not enough. Job satisfaction was not protective of the strain that job stress can put on mental health. Although ideally we would all have meaningful soul satisfying jobs… even when they are super fulfilling soul careers, they can actually still be toxic, stressful, high paced, and put us at high risk for mental illness. And let’s face it, many times jobs simply are not in the slightest bit soul fulfilling at all and yet still are so stressful that they raise mental illness diagnosis, all for a job you don’t even enjoy.

But there are ways to help protect yourself and your mental state. Here are some ideas to help you decrease the negative effect of job stress on your health:

1. Factor job strain into your career choices early on whenever possible: If you have a family history or a personal history of mental illness, it is absolutely imperative that you protect your mental health by choosing jobs that give you autonomy, or at least allow you to participate in decision making. Or… if you want to work in a tightly regulated job field where you don’t get to have control over the decisions, then select a job where the pace is slow and relaxed and/or the job is low intensity, low stakes. If one out of every 7 cases of mental illness in midlife comes from having a stressful job, it is absolutely something to take into account when selecting between several possible career pathways. Look for a job that allows you to be a part of the decision making process, or look for a job with lower intensity and a slower pace if you have an option and want to be protective of your mental health.

2. Modify existing job parameters: If you are already in a stressful job that you want to stay in, consider small ways to modify your current stress levels at work. There are three different ways you can lighten your job strain: increasing your autonomy (getting to make more job related decisions,) lightening the pace of the job, or lightning the demands on the job. Even choosing just one way to modify your current work load, even just slight modification, can help reduce mental illness risk:

Ask to be part of decisions whenever possible… if there are committees to be involved in, if there are meetings you can speak up during, if there are opportunities for a leadership role this study shows that even in a highly stressful job, having some sort of say in what decisions are made allows the job to cause less strain over all.Negotiate terms whenever possible… not just the classic example of asking for a raise, but speaking up over anything you can… such as negotiating when you take a break, what shift you work, what snacks are stocked in the vending machine, or what the dress code is can help give you some say in your work day and reduce strain.If you can’t make decision and you can negotiate terms, sharing the burden is another way to reduce job strain. Asking for help, getting co-workers involved, turning individual tasks into group tasks, forming alliances, delegating and and all tasks that you can delegate these are all ways to reduce job strain even in jobs that are highly stressful and where you have little control.

3. Recover fully when not at work: Create clear boundaries around time spent working vs. time spent not-working each day. One of the worst habits you can get into is working on your time off. I should know, doctors are the classic occupation but every doctor I know makes this occupational stress a hundred times worse by bringing work home even when not on call. I have strained myself beyond capacity for years (decades actually) staying up in the middle of the night on my computer, returning emails from my phone at the wee hours of the morning, packing and shipping shop orders literally around the clock… I even worked all day when my appendix was rupturing, had emergency surgery in the middle of the night, and by the next day was back to packing up orders with bloody bandages around my abdomen. Which was totally stupid, I know (I blog about this here.) I not only risked delaying my healing process but I was still groggy from the surgical anesthesia so I mixed up quite a few of those orders, and then had the hassle of re-packing them. I should have stayed in bed. I know I am not alone. In many — if not most — jobs these days, there really are no designated off hours since technology can reach us anywhere, and this can create a situation where there is no down time, no recovery time, no off time.

So you have to be proactive and protective to ensure for your own mental health that there absolutely *is* time off from work and time away from all work related activity. If you are in a job that you can’t modify, can’t control, has high stress, and little autonomy, then the next best thing you can do to protect your mental and physical health is to make sure off hours are actually off hours.

Make it harder to access work related tasks… leave your computer at work (if you work from home, leave your computer in a designated *home office* space and do not bring it into the rest of the house!)Put cell phones on airplane mode at night, or better yet turn them off completely.Designate a cut off time in the evening where you will no longer check emails or return business related calls.Prioritize sleep.Make the sleep you do get more restorative by sleeping grounded.Move your body in a non-job related way: exercise, stretch, get into a yoga routine, go on a long walk, have sex, even simple taking a hot bath in Epsom salts will help soothe tense muscles and get you out of work mode.Read a book that is absolutely 100% simply for pleasure and *not work related!!!*. I’m the worst at this because I typically read medical journals before bedtime instead of romance or mystery novels but this is one of my new goals.Schedule time for leisure activities from a designated weekly movie night to a routine family date to time alone off time is so crucial for balancing out the stress from your job and should be given the same weight (or even more weight) than your dedication to your career.Take time for friendships and relationships that are not in any way work related. Consider this… are most of your relationships with people in the same work place or career path as you? Be sure to go out of your way to nurture friendships and relationships that have nothing to do with work at all — if you have to join a knitting club or a book club or sign up for a gym class or introduce yourself to your neighbors — meet people that it would be literally impossible to talk shop with in your down time because they do not work with you. Having outside interests and outside relationships apart from work helps ensure you don’t think about or talk about work in your off time.Take vacation time — up to 1/3 of all vacation days are simply never even used!!!! What the…? No way. Please take those vacation days.  Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

4. Be proactive about protecting your mental health in other ways: Particularly if you know you have high job strain, you want to be sure you are eating foods, taking supplements, staying well hydrated, sleep well, and many other things you can do (even if you can’t modify your current job in the slightest) that will boost your mental health.

To that end, here are more blog posts I’ve written for you on holistic ways to support your mental health:

Your Body Is Continually Speaking To You. Here’s How To Listen To It.17 Ways To Naturally Decrease Your Stress (+ A Few Freebies To Help)4 Easy Ways To Use Your Breath To Feel Instantly Better — Do Them With Me Right NowYour History Of Trauma Is Making This Pandemic Harder On You Than OthersMedical Decisions Can Be Overwhelming, Here’s An Easy Tool To Help (+ free printable)Need To Boost Your Hopefulness? I’ve Got YouWhat You Eat Is Making Your Anxiety WorseMissing Just One Hour Of Sleep Skyrockets Your Risk Of Depression, AnxietyAnxiety Doubles Cancer Mortality. It Doesn’t Have To… Here’s How.Reducing Background Anxiety Increases Mental Clarity: Here’s HowDisrupted Day/Night Rhythm Increases Mental Illness Rates2 New Treatments For PTSD You Can Use Right Now To Feel Immediatley Better.Incredibly Powerful Alternatives To AntidepressantsThat WorkA Sense Of Purpose In Life Medically Proven To Help Your Body Stay Younger… 9 Powerful Ways To Do ItSleep Increases Your Recovery From DepressionResolving PTSD, OCD, Tobacco and Drug Addiction Too5 Things You Can Do To Naturally Lift DepressionA Supplement So Good For The Brain It Can Prevent PsychosisEmotional Stress Directly Predicts Heart Attack… 10 Ways To Prevent ItOCD May Stem From Birth Trauma

 

 

 

4.  Take An Online Health Class With Me

 

I’ve got several health classes coming up in the next few months — keeping you feeling uplifted, supported and inspired all winter long, with classes in October, November, December, January, February and beyond.

Here is a list of my next 4 classes:

 

 

Oct 17th: Earth Relief Online Class.

 

Grounding can help you keep your immunity high, your inflammation low, reduce stress, deepen sleep, boost your mood, and so much more. I developed this class to give you tons and tons of ways to incorporate grounding into your daily health care and wellness routines, so that no matter where you live — yard or no yard, urban or rural — you can find ways to stay connected to the earth.

Every single day you will get a new, uplifting, inspiring way to support your innate health through grounding.  Our planet offers you so many different ways to stay healthy and strong, from the air you breathe to the water you drink to the food that we eat to the land that supports our homes, cars, communities and life as we know it to thrive… but the most direct way to get support from the earth is to touch it directly through grounding.

Join me in this two week course and get educational materials, tips, and ideas for grounding that you can use again and again and again, for the rest of your life, as well as a Q&A session where I answer any grounding question you could possibly dream up to ask me.  Join me here.

 

 

 

Nov 7th: Trauma Healing Online Class

 

As a holistic physician, not only have I scoured the medical literature for positive, actionable ways to help our bodies and minds heal from stressful, unavoidable trauma, but I share detailed ways to guide you through your own healing (along with both personal and patient examples from my past 20 years of medical practice.)

No matter what you have gone through, you absolutely do have the ability to rebound from from it and create a new normal and a new health set point. Everybody does. Your body naturally wants to trend back to full and complete wellness… mind, body and spirit.  I’ll give you the tools to get there.

This class has been hugely helpful in giving participants actionable, positive, enjoyable healing tools that are medically based and proven to work. One participant who just took my online classes said that the content on the very first day of the class alone far exceeded what she thought she would get out of the entire class, all put together.  Another participant said she felt movement on old stuck traumas from childhood for the first time in her entire life.  Another said that even though he had been in treatment for PTSD for years, he learned things he had never been told before about how the body holds on to trauma and how to let it go.  I would love to support you in this exact same way as well.  Join me here.

 

 

Dec 11th: Electrosensitivity Relief Online Class

 

Millions and millions of people around the world are sensitive to EMFs and report deleterious health effects in increasing numbers.

The truth is that the very thing that makes grounding so powerful is that we are fully conductive human beings, with every single cell in our body completely conductive and ready to receive the earth’s healing energy.And that is the very thing that makes us so susceptible to EMF exposures too, because we are fully conductive human beings, with every single cell in our body completely conductive and affected by manmade electromagnetic fields around us.

But how do you know if you are electrosensitive (EHS) or not?

And how do you navigate living and working in urban environments if you are?

It’s absolutely possible to be EHS and safeguard your health, while still living in the modern world.  In this class I will walk you through exactly how to do it, giving you tons of ways to decrease EMF exposures in your own home, self assessment tools that will help you figure out if you are electrohypersensitive (EHS) and a step by step walk through that we do together, as well as giving you tons of encouragement and tools to boost your health, to decrease the reactivity and inflammation in your body from any EMF exposures that you can not control, as well as tools to give you the confidence to address EHS with your own in person physician.

It absolutely doesn’t have to be overwhelming, I’ll break it down for you into easily actionable steps that will leave you feeling empowered, not scared.  Plus, the class content, as well as all included worksheets, quizzes, daily videos, printable assessments, suggested labs and hand outs to give to your employer/school/physician, and so much more (including the private class Q&A recording) are available to you forever.  Join me here.

 

 

Jan 2nd: Weight Release & Reset Online Class

 

Your 2023 tune-up, right from the comfort of your own home! In this 5 day online class, I’ll walk you through the 5 pillars of sustainable, feel-good weight loss. I’ve based this course directly off of the positive take-aways from recent medical literature on metabolism and weight, as well as on my 20 years of experience helping to support my patients with their weight loss goals.

I’m excited to offer this class to support a health weight, not the lowest weight. You’d be surprised that your body naturally knows what weight is the perfect one for you, and it can sustain it at this perfect weight effortlessly once you naturally align your metabolism. I’ll show you how in a very non-threatening, supportive, uplifting way. It’s not about being rigid or militant or hard on yourself, in fact, it’s the exact opposite. The harder you are on yourself, the harder it is to align with your healthiest version of you.

It’s not even about your diet and exercise plan — there are actually three other things that are even more important than what you eat and how you move… and without knowing what those three things are, you just can’t lose weight. Understand the three things that sabotage weight loss and include those in your plan, and the weight releases, naturally. Join me here.

 

 

 

 

 

When nothing is sure,Everything is possible.

— Margaret Drabble

 

Even More Tips To Help You Protect Your Brain:

 

Stay well hydrated to maintain alert cognitionSleep deeply to protect brain functionGround to the earth daily (here are all the awesome ways that grounding supports your brain function!)Take probiotics (your brain and your gut are deeply interconnected)Take Omega 3 Fatty Acid supplements (shown to help preserve brain volume as you age)Exercise to protect your brain volume as you ageEat organically (studies show that pesticides increase Alzheimers Risk)Avoid gluten (studies suggest that gluten is neurotoxic)Drink coffee (clinically shown to protect agains MS!)Drink green tea or take green tea extract (medically shown to boost memory!)Take Vit D supplements (studies show low Vit D levels are linked to increased dementia rates)Take Resveratrol supplements (medically studied to stop the progression of Alzheimers plaques!)Meditate regularly (medically proven to be brain protective!)And stay active (daily walking is the key!)

 

 

Like this holistic approach to health?

Be sure you are signed up to receive my free newsletter so you don’t miss any of these uplifting holistic healing tips I send out each week.

If someone forwarded you this email, you can sign up on my homepage and click the Newlestter button at the top of the page to get these tips delivered directly to your own inbox!

 

 

To your naturally resilient, astoundingly incredible human body!xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

The post New Study Finally Reveals If Vitamins Help Improve Cognition As We Age appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Grounding Outside As It Gets Colder & Colder: Yes You Can, Here’s How

 

 

As we move towards the cooler months of fall and winter, my inbox always gets overflowed with folks asking me if there is any way to keep grounding outside when the weather turns cold… and even bitterly cold.

Yes, actually, there are tons of fabulous options to stay warm while still grounding outside.

I’ve thoroughly tested them all for you — literally confirming that these grounding options work and truly ground you by verifying them with a grounding test meter on lots of different outdoor surfaces. I can confirm that there are several effective grounding shoes that truly do ground you, that there are conductive socks you can wear inside the shoes to keep your toes toasty warm and still be grounded, that there are shoe stickers that you can place on any shoe you already own and it will truly to ground you (perfect for a favorite pair of orthotic shoes you love, or if you simply want to be eco-friendly and not buy more pairs of shoes, as one of the best ways we can support our earth is reuse what we already have instead of consuming more!)

You can also switch to grounding through your hands (instead of barefoot) with several different options to keep your hands warm but effectively grounded… and even ways to keep warm in pajamas yet still be grounded while you sleep — wearing conductive sweatpants, socks, tank tops, t-shirts, etc… while sleeping inside, right on top of your grounding bedding.

Let’s get started!

 

My 10 favorite ways to stay grounded even when it is cold:

 

 

1. Wear Grounding Shoes:

 

I have three different companies whose grounding shoes are very impressive to me, and believe me when I say I’ve tested them all!  Out of the entire market of grounding footwear, these are the shoes I have found provide the most reliable grounding plus are made in an eco-ethical way.

Here are my top 3 choices when looking for new grounding shoes:

 

 

 

If you are looking for boots or hiking shoes: Harmony 783

Finally, a grounding boot!  Woot!  This company was founded by my dear friend Sharon Whiteley who developed a new technology called GroundWorks. This technology utilizes a conductive carbon outsole connecting to a silver conductive footbed.  For those looking for a lace up ankle boot or trail shoes, Harmony 783 are the ones you want.

Harmony 783 has sneakers, ankle boots, trail shoes, loafers, walkers and even flip flops — in both Mens and Womens styles. These are my go-to shoe to recommend to hikers, dog walkers, bikers, and really anyone who needs a stable and cushioned foot bed on their and need the rugged protection of a lace up style ankle boot or trail shoe.

 

 

 

 If you are looking for slip on loafers: Raum

Ethically made, individually hand crafted leather shoes that are minimalist in design and come in closed toe slip on designs as well as closed toe lace up loafers for both men and women.

Raum shoes have a zero-drop sole made from a porous water buffalo leather. This type of sole is made extra conductive by absorbing the earth’s moisture and your perspiration. In addition, a copper metal grommet located behind the ball of your foot at the KD 1 pressure point provides maximum conductivity to ground your body.

I particularly appreciate that these shoes are hand sewn, because most shoes on the market are simply glued or cemented together, not hand stitched. So your feet mold into the leather over time to create an amazing level of comfort that brings you back into alignment with how your foot feels and functions best.

If you are looking for a slip on shoe that is minimalist in design (read: a non-cushioned footbed that allows feet to stay in their natural alignment ) and you want the largest selection of colors, then you want Raum shoes. Whenever I head out the door with my hands full (which is pretty much every time I head out the door) and I don’t want to stop, put things down, and sit down to lace up or buckle up my shoes, I slip my feet right into these and carry on with my day effortlessly.

 

 

 

 If you are looking for sneakers or sandals: Groundz:

I’m so impressed with Groundz and wanted to showcase their gorgeous shoes… not only because I wear their sandals almost year round (where I live in the south, I can get away with wearing a sandal style shoe throughout the fall and even into early winter) but also because I’ve witnessed their customer service — absolutely phenomenal customer service bar none.

Obviously the sandals are a warm weather staple, but they are so soft and comfortable that if it’s a warm-enough day, these are my go to open toed shoes and here I am, wearing them:

 

 

And as you will see in the video I made for you at the end of this article, wearing open toed shoes whenever possible is extremely important for your foot alignment (and subesquently, for the health of your knees, hips and back over a lifetime!) so I typically reach for sandals instead of a closed toe shoe whenever weather permits.  But Groundz does also offer beautiful slip on loafer as well as slip on sneakers, so when patients are looking for grounding sneakers with a secure footbed, this is the website I send them to.

Groundz uses sustainably sourced and eco-friendly leather and goatskin throughout the sandals, chrome-free, water based and nontoxic vegetable dyes (very impressive) and a copper plug that is so comfortable I literally can not feel it. It’s so comfortable I had to check and double check that I was actually grounded in them and yep, I am, every time!

 

 

 

 

2. Add Grounding Stickers To Shoes You Already Own:

 

These grounding shoe stickers are so easy to use — stick them to shoes you already own and forget them! Get access to all of the benefits of grounding outdoors while being able to wear your favorite footwear.

I can’t think of much more eco-friendly than to continue to use shoes you already own. And if you love them, and they support your foot function best, why not convert your favorite pair of sneakers, running shoes, hiking shoes, or even sports cleats into grounding shoes? A grounding shoe sticker is the way to go.

The sticker is fully conductive and runs the grounding energy from the earth beneath you up and around your shoe and into the sole of your shoe where your feet are. By touching the sticker, you bypass the rubber sole entirely and are basically standing barefoot on the ground, conductively speaking.

I can’t even feel these stickers on my shoes. Find them here.

 

 

 

3. Wear Grounding Socks:

 

If you wear any of the grounding shoes above, or have put a grounding sticker on shoes you already own, you’ll be grounded the moment you slip your bare foot into the shoe and stand outside on the earth.

But what if you like to wear socks?

Almost every sock manufactured on this planet will block the grounding flow from the grounded shoe (or grounded shoe sticker) because almost all socks have synthetic, non-conductive fibers, elastic, polyester, etc… or are too thick to allow grounding contact.

But it’s truly no problem to wear a sock with a grounding shoe or grounding shoe sticker, you just have to make sure it is a conductive sock. Luckily there are tons of beautiful socks made with conductive materials that will ground you instantly. I’ve got three styles for you to consider:

an athletic crew sock: thick, plush, absorbent, ankle length a thinner dress sock: thinner, sleek, comfortable, crew length… great for work or dress!and a compressive knee high sock: stretchy, warm, with the added bonus that they carry grounding all the way up your calves!

In each of these pictures I am modeling the sock for you, and have thoroughly personally tested their conductivity with a grounding test meter. Each sock utilizes silver fibers throughout the entire sock, every inch of it, so the entire sock is conductive from top to bottom.

By wearing a conductive sock with your grounding footwear, your entire sock will instantly encase your entire foot and ankle immediately in grounding energy, which will then powerfully ground your entire body from head to toe.

You can also wear these conductive socks to bed if you like to wear socks but want to be grounded through the grounding mattress panel or grounding bed roll you have your feet resting on in bed!

 

4. Ground through your hands:

 

Grounding through your hands is a great option, here are my favorite four ways to do it!

 

Fingerless Gloves (shown above):

The first option is to wear fingerless gloves that keep your hands toasty warm but your fingertips available to touch the earth, like these lovely wool fingerless gloves I’m modeling for you here.

 

 

Conductive Gloves:

The second option is to wear conductive gloves that cover all exposed skin, protecting you from the elements while still allowing grounding to conduct right through to your hands. Find those right here.

 

 

Layering Both:

The third option — my favorite by far — is to layer the two! Put your conductive gloves on, then slip the fingerless wool gloves on top so you have a double layer of warmth while allowing grounding through your fingertips comfortably all winter long.

Wool fingerless gloves keep the palms, wrists and base of the fingers extra insulated, while allowing the conductive layer over the fingertips to touch the earth and directly allow the healing flow of grounding to ground your body from head to toe.

Sets of these gloves are sold together in Youth (XS), Small, Medium, Large and XL unisex sizes. Very stretchy to accommodate most hand shapes and sizes! Find your set right here.

 

 

Or Protect Bare Skin With A Skin Protectant:

You could also consider simply using a skin protectant like Warm Skin to allow you to stay out in the cold a bit longer, even without protective gloves on. I have to say I use this not only on my hands, but even on areas of my exposed skin that I don’t use for grounding, like my nose and cheeks!

As someone who has lived with Raynaud’s Syndrome all my life, staying grounding outside as the temperature drops is a huge challenge for me. I turn to using Warm Skin to protect my skin and prolong the time I am able to directly ground outside — Warm Skin prolongs my outdoor grounding season by several months each year, even on windy and cold days.

It works by holding in the body’s own natural warmth and serves as a barrier to prevent water loss, moisturizing the skin to keep it pain-free and flexible even in the harshest environments, without the interference of heavy clothing that would block your ground connection. It’s also made in the USA by a a small family business in Minnesota and is all natural. Find it right here.

 

 

 

Hold A Grounded Walking Cane: 

The other creative way to ground through your hands while staying bundled up and warm is to simply hold onto a conductive grounding walking cane!  Stainless steel cane from the crampon on the bottom all the way up to your handgrip ensures quick and immediate grounding.  This is the best solution I have found so far for those with mobility issues as well — not only can you sit at a bench or on a chair and ground through your hand using this cane, but even those in a wheelchair can hold onto this grounded cane while outside and ground directly through their hands.

 

 

Make a DIY Grounded Hiking Stick:

If you want to make your own grounding cane or hiking stick, you can grab a DIY kit to transform any cane, stick (even a simple broom handle!) into a conductive walking stick that will ground you from head to toe without you ever needing to touch the earth directly.

I demonstrate how to use my DIY kit to make your own grounded walking stick in the second half of the video above, starting at the 5:40 min mark.

 

 

 

5. Ground Through Your Pajamas:

 

I have these soft, elastic waistband, comfy sweatpants hand made, custom sewn per order right here in the USA.  They are made from a lovely shielding material, but the perk of this is that is also allows you to lay on a grounded surface (like an organic grounded bed roll or an organic grounding mattress panel, both waiting for you right here) and ground right through your clothes.  Perfect for folks who want to be grounded in bed all night long but who like to keep bundled up and warm with no exposed skin available to touch the grounding tool.

Find these options to wear to sleep to keep you grounded to your favorite grounding bed surface:

conductive T shirtsconductive sweatpantsconductive grounding socks

That’s right, yet another perk of having the grounding socks we talked about above… not only can you wear it with your grounding shoes to stay grounded outside, but if you like to sleep in socks to keep your feet warm in the winter, you can wear theses socks to bed and use them to ground while you sleep as well.

Slipping into bed and resting your feet on a grounding mattress panel or grounding bed roll will allow you to ground right through your grounded pajamas or grounded socks all night long.

 

 

6. Sleep with a grounding hot water bottle:

 

For decades one of my ultimate go-to healing recommendations for patients is a hot water bottle, which combines the healing properties of water with the healing properties of heat (the most holistic supportive therapy that helps relax, repair, and soothe aches and pains from head-to-toe!)

So I have these custom, hand sewn, grounding hot water bottle cozy’s made just for you when you order it, so that you can sleep all night long, grounded in warmth and healing energy.  I can’t think of a better way to stay warm and grounded all winter long, and if you are thinking ahead to holiday gifts, this must be one of the most lovely, comforting, supportive healing gifts you can possibly give.

You just have to make sure you order them early, because I have these literally hand made just for you when you order it and it does take a few weeks. Order yours before it get’s too darn cold at night… you can find them right here.

 

 

 

7. Treat your feet with toe alignment socks:

 

My feet instantly relax with these socks on, and as a bonus not only will the improve the health and alignment of your feet but they will also allow you to ground at the same time, thanks to the fact that your toes are still bare and ready to connect with the earth outside or a grounding mat while grounding indoors.

At the end of a long day, these are almost as good as a nice foot massage from your partner. Almost. But infinitely more practical, because I can wear them while I’m standing in the kitchen making dinner and doing the dishes, and my feet feel stretched out and free by the time I’m done.

I always smile when I pack up an order that someone has placed for these toe alignment socks and some magnesium lotion to go along with them — it’s just the sweetest little duo and I always imagine how good the recipient is going to feel after working some magnesium lotion onto their feet and slipping into these socks.

If you are looking for a little gift to give your hardest working loved ones, some toe alignment socks, my favorite magnesium lotion and a handwritten coupon for a free foot massage is the best thing I can imagine. It’s like physical therapy for your feet! Available in sizes small through XL.

 

8. Activity Time!Grab a pen and paper to test your foot health:

 

Want to know if you are getting enough barefoot time?If your feet properly aligned?If the alignment of your foot is giving you knee, hip and back pain?If the shoes you are wearing causing foot issues?And how can you reverse damage shoes have caused your feet?

With the two very simple tests that I demonstrate for you in this video, you can test your own feet right now and you’ll know the answer to all of these questions!

 

Here is the video on TikTok:

@laurakonivermd

Are You Going Barefoot Enough? (Laura Koniver, M.D. The Intuition Physician)

♬ original sound – Laura Koniver, MD

And here it is on YouTube:

 

A Quick Way To Know If You Are Going Barefoot Enough (YouTube)

 

This exercise is extremely eye opening, and you can do it in less than 2 minutes! I highly encourage you to give it a try right now!

 

 

 

9. Read About Even More Grounding Tips:

 

For more awesome winter time grounding tips, you’ll want to grab the ultimate guide to grounding outside, no matter where you live or what the temperature is.  Whether you have a yard or not.  Whether you live in an urban area or not.  No matter what the season.  No matter what the time of day or night.

I’ve filled this book with my very best ideas to get you inspired to head outside in the hottest and coldest seasons, no matter if you live in a city or have any green spaces around you or not… you can get grounded naturally to the earth and I’ll be right there with you, showing you how.

I have signed copies waiting for you right here… or you can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, New Harbinger, and anywhere books are sold!

Korean, Japanese and Russian editions available as well.  Find links to all of these editions right here.

 

 

 

10.  Ask Me Questions In Class So I Can Personally Help You

 

Grounding helps keep your immunity high, your inflammation low, reduce stress, deepen sleep, and boost your mood, no matter what you are going through.  Sounds like the perfect winter healing plan.  But how do you ground all winter long?  What is the shortest amount of time you need to stay outside in the cold and still see health benefits?  How can you optimize grounding for different health goals?

You ask me and let me help you.

I developed this class to give you tons and tons of ways to incorporate grounding into your daily health care and wellness routines.  Every single day you will get a new, uplifting, inspiring way to ground your body and support your innate health through grounding, even as we head into winter.  

Class culminates in a private Q&A Recording with me, Dr. Laura Koniver, answering every single question you’ve ever had about grounding.  Every single one.  Join me in class and get materials, tips, and ideas for grounding that you can use again and again and again, for the rest of your life.

Class starts in 2 weeks on October 17th, sign up to hold your spot today!

 

 

 

To a healthy winter full of grounding, even outside!

Yes, it is absolutely doable!  Please share these resources with anyone who would like some tips on comfortable cold weather grounding.  From shoes to gloves to DIY hiking sticks, books, classes and more, there are dozens of fun safe ways to connect to our planet and boost our health through grounding, no matter what the season.

xoxoxo, Laura Koniver MD

 

The post Grounding Outside As It Gets Colder & Colder: Yes You Can, Here’s How appeared first on Intuition Physician.

A Fall Checklist To Decrease Your Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

 

The fall Equinox was Thursday so we are officially into fall now!  And for so many of us, shorter days and longer nights means a dip in our mood.

Fortunately, there are lots of great things to do to get prepared as the seasons change. Of course there are things like pulling out your sweaters and boots and knitting a scarf or two and planting a winter garden and getting the fireplace cleaned that you might look forward to this fall.

But one thing that I get every year, and absolutely never look forward to, is a drop in my energy level and mood as the days get shorter.

So I want to share with you today my annual fall post with a collection of 11 important, personal things that I do to prepare my body now for a smooth transition to winter. It works. Give any or all of these a try and let’s have your best fall yet!

 

11 Essential Fall Health Questions To Ask Yourself:

 

 

 

1. Do you have a way to stay grounded, even as the weather outside gets colder?

Make your plan now for how you can still get outside and soak in the fresh air, sunlight, and healing earth energy even as the temperature falls.  Getting outside in even the cloudy grey days for a mid-day walk is better than staying inside even under the brightest artificial lights.

Even if the sun appears not to shine, your pineal gland senses the light in the environment and needs this pick-me-up to function best this fall and winter.  Make a commitment to get morning or mid-day light (sunshine if possible!) every single day.

Slip off your shoes for a few minutes, or, if it’s too cold, just use your fingers to hold onto a tree that is grounded in the earth.  I even have grounding gloves waiting for you so you can keep your hands inside a warm glove and still be grounded while touching a tree branch, cement, a rock, the earth. Same with socks that allow you to be grounded through your feet without ever exposing your toes to the cold!  And organic grounding throw blankets that ground you while wrapping around you in warmth!  Even an organic grounded hot water bottle, which is my absolute favorite way to ground indoors in the winter. Or, maybe this is the year you invest in a way to sleep grounded indoor all winter long… supporting your body’s well being all night long, every night.

As I talk about in this video here, connected to the earth each day — particularly around transitions such as the equinoxes and the solstices — allows your body to be oriented to the season and more seamlessly adjust to it.

The time spent grounding to the earth will refresh your body and soul. This one daily practice is probably the single best thing you can start right now to smooth your fall transition.

 

 

2. Do you make enough serotonin naturally?

Less daylight can mean a palpable drop in the mood boosting neurotransmitter serotonin.  If you happen to be serotonin depleted, the winter blues are more likely to hit you harder than other people.

You can address this in two ways:

One, by taking supplements that help boost your natural serotonin levels. If you get a mild case of winter blues, you likely don’t need to take prescription medications for that. Instead, you can make sure that your body is getting all it needs nutritionally in order to make its own, healthy levels of serotonin. To do that, it needs something called 5-HTP.

A precursor to serotonin (the positive, mood enhancing neurotransmitter that most antidepressants are targeting, in the hopes to elevate brain levels) 5HTP is a nutritional supplement that makes sure your body is getting the building blocks it needs to make serotonin as efficiently as possible.

If you feed your body what it needs (most of us don’t get enough of this precursor as it is) then you have the best chance to naturally create the serotonin you’ll need to keep your spirits up as the light fades.  I have 5HTP and several other supplements that have been shown to support seasonal affective disorder in my Mood Support Protocol right here.

Or alternatively, if you want something to prevent the winter blues and boost serotonin without taking a supplement, Light Therapy is medially proven to not only prevent and treat the winter blues, but it actually treats all forms of depression (and even treats fibromyalgia!)

My very fav, compact, therapeutic light box is clinically proven and is waiting for you right here.  And yes, you can absolutely do both — take the supplements in the Mood Support Protocol and use a light box simultaneously for the best support.

 

 

3. Are you sleeping enough?

Allow yourself to re-connect to the natural rhythm of the earth, which means you sleep longer in the fall and winter when nights are longer.

These days of bright artificial lights and TV channels that blast shows 24 hours a day can keep us feeling like there isn’t much difference between the middle of the night and the middle of the day.  But there is. To your body, to your pineal gland, your hormones, your muscles, your brain… the difference between night and day is iron clad. You are meant to sleep at night, and you are meant to sleep longer in the fall and winter months.

Allow your body to get an extra hour of sleep each night during the winter… at least give it a try this week: vow to sleep an extra hour each night this week and see if your mood, energy level, eating habits, activity level and joy all get a boost!

One way to do this is to lower your EMF exposures in your bedroom at night following this free 25 point EMF reduction checklist.  Another way to do this is to wear blue light blocking glasses starting 2 hours before bedtime, if you absolutely need to be on the computer, on your cell phone, or watching TV to unwind.

Another thing to consider is that those of us who tend to be low serotonin (and get the winter blues) also tend to have trouble making enough melatonin naturally. This is because melatonin is actually made from serotonin… so folks who are low serotonin are generally low melatonin, and these levels dip in the winter because of the shorter days.

So just as serotonin can dip in the winter, adding to the winter blues… your melatonin levels can dip too, wreaking havoc on your nightly rhythm. Even though the darkness makes you feel more tired and ready to turn in earlier, oddly enough you may find sleep elusive just when you crave it most.

While 5 HTP may helps boost daytime serotonin, at night you can take melatonin, as the sun sets, to boost your nighttime levels of melatonin.  Taking melatonin in the fall when the days grow shorter (and you can combine this with using the light therapy box we discussed above!) will help your body re-set to its natural rhythm once winter peaks. Sleeping well at night is an easy way to feel brighter during the day, beating those winter blues.  My favorite melatonin as well as tons of other suggestions on improving sleep are waiting for you right here in my Sleep Restore Protocol.

 

Free 5 day detox program

3. Do you need to detox?

Like I do every year when the earth begins to transition to cooler temps, leaves changing and shedding and the earth diving inwards for renewal, I have a natural urge to dive deeper and detox my own body, from the inside out.

There are a million ways to do this… strict raw food diets and prolonged fasting and colonics and a ton of wonderful different ways to feel like you are starting fall with a new you. For me, I go with a very easy and very simple detox.

I’m literally aching to do my gentle 5 day detox again, like I do every fall… and this year I want to do it with you! So I’m giving it to you for free as an instant download, right here.  Take 5 days to reset your body for the fall.  The earth is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and our bodies are going inwards for a period of renewal.  So Gentle Restart Detox, here I come. It’s time.

 

 

 

5. Are your magnesium levels good (i.e. are you pooping enough? Are your muscles tense?)

Many of us are magnesium deficient and we don’t even know it. Magnesium is absolutely essential to 300+ different biochemical reactions in our body, like muscle function, nerve function, maintaining healthy blood pressure, blood sugar levels and more.

Without enough magnesium, we can have muscle pain, irritability, insomnia, constipation and even heart arrhythmias.  So ask yourself… are your muscles tight?  Do you feel anxious or have trouble relaxing into sleep? Are you constipated?

If so, consider boosting your magnesium intake. Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant, so taking a magnesium supplement at night is one of my favorite recommendations for anyone with difficulty relaxing due to muscle tension or soreness, such as issues with tension headaches, fibromyalgia, grinding teeth at night, TMJ, etc….  so this is why I have magnesium supplementation included in my Sleep Restore Protocol.

You can also soak in a nightly bath filled with magnesium rich Epsom salts, which will relax your muscles before bed and is a great treatment for restless leg syndrome, tooth grinding at night, and other issues with muscle tension such as fibromyalgia.  You can then layer on a magnesium rich topical lotion to really relax and soothe sore muscles, here is my favorite magnesium lotion to help soothe tense or sore muscles.

If you are constipated, I would recommend taking magnesium internally, not just topically through baths and lotions, because it will naturally help loosen your bowels. My favorite way to do this is to drink a magnesium drink before bedtime (I like to drink mine in hot water, sipping on it like a nightly tea!) to help relax your body, loosen your muscles, soften stools, deepen sleep, and create a lovely evening ritual all fall and all winter long.  That’s why I have included a magnesium drink in my Sleep Restore protocol here.

It’s normal for everything to slow down in the winter, so if your bowels are feeling full of rich and hearty winter meals and you are feeling dense inside, you should also up your water intake, take tons of healthy fish or flax seed oil, eat a prune a day and ground on the earth each day to help restore your daily rhythms. But if that’s not enough, upping your magnesium intake will help!

 

 

6. Do you get enough Vitamin D?

Yes, you will get some Vit D when you go outside to get grounded each day… but most of us are deficient in Vit D even during the summer, so nearly ALL of us fall deficient in the winter.

Not only is Vit D a powerful antioxidant, it prevents cancer, stroke, heart disease, boosts weight loss, decreases pain… you name it… we need it. My favorite are Carlson’s Solar D Gems, found in my trusted online dispensary here. I love these the most because time and time again, when a patient comes to me with Vit D levels that are low despite supplementation with other brands, when we switch to the Solar D Gems, the levels return to normal. Woot!

 

 

7. Are you drinking twice as much water in the winter as you do in the summer?

Hopefully you’ve kept yourself well hydrated during the summer, when hot temperatures and sweating drive us to remember to drink water more than at any other time of the year.

But in the cooler temps, ones in which you are shivering, not sweating… it’s more important than ever before to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Dry heated air, dry cold outside air, wind chapping our lips, and no internal drive to remind us to drink leads to mid-winter dehydration, brain fog, and a sure-fire road to BLAH.

You can get so dehydrated that you actually feel semi-nauseous all the time and a bit depressed. Drink water and then drink some more… and start right now.  I take the time to filter out the fluoride and chemicals in my water… I’ve got lots of articles on why I do that (you could start with this one if you want to read more) and here is the water filter I personally use in my home.

 

 

8. Are you allowing yourself gain a few pounds?

You might be an enlightened buddha thriving off the energy of the universe, but your body is an organic, human thing that is connected to the physical earth and responds to the rhythms of the seasons and needs nourishment.

So every winter it is normal to slow down and allow a few extra pounds to sustain and warm you.

It is like-wise just as effortless and natural to lose several pounds in the spring as the world awakens and we are drawn to more physical labor such as preparing garden beds, trimming the lawn, spring cleaning our homes, and walking barefoot on the beach.  If we don’t attach all the typical BS to our weight that we usually do, the few pounds that warm us in the winter will be shed without a second thought in the spring.

This is the natural rhythm of the world all around you.

The first half of winter, while food is still plenty and days grow darker, are a time to allow yourself to find nourishment in foods and warmth under your blankets, eating more and sleeping longer.

In a few months, as the pantry empties out and the holiday parties are long gone, there will be a natural thinning time, a time when the days become noticeably longer and your thoughts turn to the fresh spring salads that will be popping up in your garden.

It is only when we attach a negative meaning to our weight that adds to the heaviness and permanency and bulk to it… and these pounds become a part of how we see ourselves forever. We get locked into battle with them and they fight to stay and add and grow, year after year after year.  As a result, most people tend to gain a few pounds a year (despite being locked in constant battle and fighting against it the entire time) and accrue this mass permanently, instead of easily gaining and losing a few pounds with the seasons. It just shows that fighting weight isn’t the way to go.

If we dropped all our mental baggage around this rhythm, a rhythm of ebb and flow, of nourishment and lean times, of seasons, we would not gain weight year after year after year, instead we would gain and release. It’s only our society that fears weight gain that makes it almost *impossible* to drop the pounds without thinking twice about it late winter and early spring.

Now is not the time to allow our culture’s baggage to taint what should be a natural time of celebration, stocking up, and preparing for the winter ahead. If you welcome this seasonal change with gratitude, you will be healthier for it.  For more guidance on dropping your resistance to a seasonal weight gain, you might want to start with this article I wrote for you on how having a few extra pounds can offer a survival advantage. 

 

 

9. Are you getting enough Omega 3 fatty acids?

I’ve already blogged a bit about how Omega 3’s can:

effectively treat ADHDsave your brain from atrophying (and decrease your dementia risk!)stabilize your mood so much that it can literally prevent psychosishelp relieve constipationdecrease prostate cancer riskprevent a fatal heart attack.and even cut your risk of diabetic retinopathy in half!

Omega 3 fatty acids are such an important whole-body nutrient that comes even more into play during the colder months.  Winter means everything from a permanent brain fog to dry tight skin. Omega 3 fatty acids support brain function, digestion, circulation and skin… all things that we need help with in the winter.

Although I absolutely recommend fish oil supplements not just for seasonal affective disorder support, but year round.  If you don’t already take them, plan on starting to take them in the fall and it will help prep your skin for the dry air to come, protect your brain for the dark days to come, soothe your circulation for the colder winds to come, and smooth your digestion for the heavier, thicker, richer foods to come.

 

 

10. Is your skin prepared for the winter ahead?

Winter can be a tough time for anybody’s skin… painfully dry hands and cracked heels galore (ouch!). Dry heated air dehydrates and cracks your vulnerable skin while you are inside staying warm, and combine that with whipping cold winds that chaff skin when you are outside and winter is just no fun on your skin, especially if you suffer from chronic skin conditions such as psoriasis, eczema or other forms of dermatitis.

Drinking twice as much water as usual and taking fish oil supplements will absolutely help from the inside out… but if you have specific trouble spots you might want a topical barrier cream to apply directly on a daily basis for protection.  And luckily, if you like the barrier protection of petroleum jelly but don’t want petroleum by-products anywhere near your body, it’s super easy to make your own!

Today I want to share with you the recipe my daughter and I whip up each winter to use on our poor cracked hands and feet. We have enjoyed this for several years now… thank you so much to One Good Thing by Jillee (which is where I first saw this recipe!)

Homemade (Un)Petroleum Jelly.

1/4 cup Beeswax Pellets 1 cup Olive Oil

Melt together over very low heat in a saucepan or double broiler… once well combined, pour into a jar or recycled container and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

I keep a jar by my bedside and by my kitchen sink to us on my winter cracked hands and heels.

 

 

11. Are you feeling burnt out?

Fall is the perfect time to turn inwards, nurture your adrenal glands, boost your internal energy reserves, and emerge this spring feeling better than you may have felt in many many years.  It’s okay to take these upcoming months slower, to tend to our inner needs more, and to make sure we are getting lots and lots of sleep. It’s not only okay, it’s what we are *supposed* to be doing.

It’s like Mother Nature hand carved these months out for you to repair your adrenal glands and nurture your energy reserves so you can emerge this spring feeling triumphantly energetic!  Repairing your adrenal glands is actually the easiest to do in the fall and winter.

It’s easier to sleep longer with the days getting shorter, easier to prepare and eat warm foods like soup, roasts, stews, etc… rich with fat, protein and salt (all absolutely crucial when repairing your adrenals) and easier to cocoon in and nurture your body, with less exertion and more repair.

Emerge this spring feeling better than you have felt in many many years!  Ready to eat lighter, sleep stronger, lose weight, move your body more.  To help, I am sharing my Adrenal Repair Book with you for free, right here.  In it I have tons of fun, uplifting, actionable things you can do right now to address adrenal fatigue.

A nice combo to do is start with my free 5 day detox plan and then move on to the free adrenal repair book immediately following the detox — this is an amazing way to head into the winter months feeling your absolute best, with several weeks of absolutely free holistic health support from me:

Free 5 Day Detox Plan — download by ordering it hereFree Adrenal Repair eBook — download by ordering it here

 

 

Let’s get you feeling better than ever… and enjoying this cooler weather and the beautiful fall colors that surround us.

I’ll be here for you all the way through it!

xoxo, Laura Koniver MD

 

The post A Fall Checklist To Decrease Your Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) appeared first on Intuition Physician.

How CBD Oil May Help Treat Difficult Or Chronic Skin Conditions

 

 

Cannabinoid receptors are found all throughout our body, including throughout our skin.

CBD is incredibly anti-inflammatory and soothing (if you want to hear me speak about the role of CBD in trauma recovery, you can listen to my podcast on that here) so it’s no surprise that researchers have found several different cannabinoid receptors in the skin.

Both cannabinoid receptors type 1 and type 2 (CB1 and CB2) are found in all skin, and help regulate everything from our hair growth to our skin’s immune system to it’s oil production.  CB1 and CB2 receptors have been found in our keratinocytes, hair follicles, sebeceous glands, on the skin’s nerve fibers (including pain receptors that give rise to pain and itch sensations) and mast cells (which are responsible for our skin’s allergic response.)

 

 

When our skin gets dysregulated, and the healthy balance of our skin is disrupted, it can be challenging to restore barrier function and get chronic conditions like allergic dermatitis, acne, eczema, psoriasis and other chronic skin conditions to truly resolve.

Everything from the environmental pollutants our skin is exposed to, to the chemicals in the body care products we put directly on our skin, to climate stressors such as UV radiation or cold whipping winds that can literally freeze and crack our skin, as well as the plethora of pathogens that we come into contact with every single day, all of it can stress out our skin.

With all of these irritants and exposures, no wonder skin conditions can be hard to treat.  If you’ve tried everything from topical moisturizers to topical steroids to topical antihistamines to topical antibiotics and you still have eczema, or hives, or rashes, or even resistant acne… you may want to consider adding a topical CBD lotion to your regime.

CBD has been well studied for it’s role in facilitating skin healing, treating acne, reducing itch and even decreasing inflammatory reactions such as eczema.   Researchers have found that supporting the endocannabinoid system may help reduce pruritus (itching) associated with chronic skin conditions, as well as decrease inflammation (showing promise for help in treating eczema) as well as decreasing oil production (making it a new avenue to treat acne.).

Many major research articles suggest that application of CBD to the skin improves human skin function while also being incredibly safe and well tolerated.  I’ve listed some of the best ones below, if you’d like to dive directly into the medical literature on this:

Therapeutic Potential of Cannabidiol (CBD) for Skin Health and DisordersThe antimicrobial potential of cannabidiolTopical Administration of Cannabidiol: Influence of Vehicle-Related Aspects on Skin Permeation ProcessThe potential role of cannabinoids in dermatologyCannabidiol induces antioxidant pathways in keratinocytesCannabidiol exerts sebostatic and antiinflammatory effects on human sebocytesAn Observational Study of the Application of a Topical Cannabinoid Gel on Sensitive Dry SkinTolerability profile of topical cannabidiol: evaluator-blinded clinical and in vitro studies in normal skinIn vitro percutaneous absorption studies of cannabidiol using human skinCannabidiol-Mediated Changes to Keratinocytes from Psoriatic PatientsThe Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Cannabidiol (CBD) on AcneCannabis sativa and Skin Health: Dissecting the Role of Phytocannabinoids

The purity and potency of the vast majority of CBD products on the market is questionable, so I highly recommend getting your CBD (whether topicals, capsules, gummies or tinctures) through ECS Therapeutics, which requires a physician to order it for you.

 

 

These are prescription grade, pharmacy quality CBD oil products that are organically grown right here in the USA and quality tested more thouroghly than any other CBD product I have ever seen.  It’s the only one I personally trust and use.  You can ask your in person physician for an ECS Therapeutics prescription, or you can fill out my contact form here to request more information on prescription strength CBD products ordered directly through me.

Skin has always been one of my favorite organs of the body to study.  I grew up in a family that has been researching/discussing skin ever since I can remember… My father, Dr. Vincent Hearing, literally wrote the bible on pigmentation and melanoma — a textbook that is still being used to this day.  As a head scientist at the National Institutes of Health, my dad literally paved the way for melanoma research, discovering pathways and enzymatic reactions that they didn’t even know existed when he entered the field of melanoma research, which have now given rise to melanoma drugs that are currently being tested in clinical trials based on the enzyme pathways that he discovered.

So growing up, I traveled all around the world with my family to attend scientific lectures on skin cancer with my father as the speaker of honor.  At one point, I considered going into Dermatology myself, so in med school I took three times the regular amount of training in Dermatology, because that was my focus of interest (and it was so much fun too!)

All in all I can tell you this:  we want to take really good care of our skin and preserve our skin barrier function.  Adding a topical CBD lotion to your skin treatment plan can support skin function in an entirely different way than you’ve ever tried before.  So if your acne topicals, or ezema ointments, or antihistamine lotions, or any other topical skin care products you have tried have failed to help resolve your chronic skin issue, I highly recommend giving CBD products a chance to get your skin into it’s best shape ever.

Now is the time to do it, before the cold, raw temperatures outside and the super dried-out, heated air on the inside makes your skin condition worse.  Because any skin that has a compromise in the skin barrier function needs the ultimate TLC above and beyond regular skin care needs.  This is especially important in the winter, as any crack in the barrier of our skin can invite inflammation, lead to infection, and even lead to scarring.

To make it through fall and winter with the best skin possible, I recommend these 10 all natural, holistic skin care steps, in addition to any skin care steps your physician or dermatologist recommends to treat your unique skin issues.

 

My 10 Favorite Winter Skin Care Tips:

 

 

 

1. Use CBD topicals on any trouble spots:

Like I discuss above, our skin has cannabinoid respecters throughout it, including receptors on hair follicles, on our oil glands, on our keratinocytes, and throughout the dermis and epidermis where things like our nerve endings and our immune cells live.  So for acne, chronic rashes, hives, eczema patches, psoriatic lesions, and other difficult to treat skin conditions, add topical CBD to your regime.  Supporting skin in an entirely new way, for better results.   As I mentioned above, ECS Therapeutics are the only CBD products that I personally trust and use.  You can ask your in person physician for an ECS Therapeutics prescription, or you can fill out my contact form here to request more information on prescription strength CBD products ordered directly through me.

 

 

 

2. Exfoliate with baking soda or dry brush your skin:

Many of us stop exfoliating in winter as our skin isn’t on show as much. But giving your skin a quick daily or even just a weekly exfoliation will sweep away dead skin cells and allow your skin to better absorb your moisturizer afterwards as well as decreasing the layer of dead keratinocytes on top, which can help decrease the likelihood of your skin cracking.

To exfoliate, simply make a paste by mixing baking soda and a little water in the palm of your hand and us it to gently scrub your skin to remove dead skin cells, or alternatively you can dry brush your skin using a natural bristled brush before stepping in the shower or bath, or an all natural hemp exfoliation mit while in the shower (this is the one I use.)

 

 

 

3. Soak in honey:

Add a half cup of honey to your bath water to nourish your skin and speed the healing of any winter whipped irritations. Honey is all natural, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial, accelerates wound healing and decreases the risk of scarring…. making it the perfect skin supportive, holistic bath soak!

And use warm, not hot water when you bathe.  Even though it is tempting to blast hot water in the shower to warm up, the extra heat strips the skin of its oils more quickly. Keep the bath or shower warm, not hot, stay in the water for less time, and decrease the frequency of your bathing in the winter months.

 

 

 

4. Slather on coconut oil to seal in moisture after bathing:

Use a beautiful, all natural, super healing organic oil directly on skin — such as coconut oil or sunflower seed oil (these are my two favs because they are both medically shown to repair the lipid bilayer best.)  Oil seals in moisture better than a lotion or cream which both are water based and will not provide a skin barrier the way a pure oil will.  You want to apply an oil on top of skin that is already hydrated, so it’s perfect to use right after bathing, or on top of a water based moisturizer that you apply first.

 

 

 

5. Protect your nasal mucosa with a humidifier + apply coconut oil to the interior rim of your nose:

Humidifying room air and keeping well-hydrated internally by drinking water copiously will prevent the tendency to develop chapped tight skin and dry, uncomfortable nasal passages. If you only have one humidifier, place it in your bedroom so that you can sleep in a moisturized environment at night.  You can also apply a little coconut oil just inside the nasal openings to help protect your nasal mucosa from drying out!

 

 

 

 

6. Make organic coconut oil lip balm to use throughout the day:

It’s so easy to whip up your own homemade lip protection, it takes less then one minute and you can even use it as an intensive hand and foot salve.

Simply melt 2 parts coconut oil with one part beeswax (for example, 2 TBSP coconut oil and 1 TBSP beeswax) in a microwave or over a double broiler. Stir and add a few drops of Vit E (I simply snip the end off of a capsule of Vit E and squeeze it right in) and stir again. You can add a drop or two of honey for sweetness (and honey is incredibly skin supportive as a topical treatment for wound healing) and pour the mixture into a clean, recycled container or small jar. Empty skincare jars or mint tins work well.

Use liberally to protect your lips and save them from winter dryness!

 

 

 

7. Moisturize skin from within:

If you are not internally hydrating your body, there is no amount of external moisturizer you can put on your skin that will effectively hydrate it. So all winter long, drink lots of pure, filtered water all day, every day.

This is the water filter I recommend as well as personally use.

Even though it’s so much easier to remember to stay hydrated in the summer when we are hot and sweating, please don’t ignore your hydration status in the winter when it is every bit as crucial, if not more so. Dry skin is dehydrated skin.

You can also support your skin by eating foods rich in healthy fats that supply your skin with the essential vital nutrients it needs to maintain its crucial lipid bilayer. Take care to consume foods such as olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, pistachios, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, fish, flaxseed and kelp all winter long.

 

 

 

8. Take high quality Omega 3 supplements daily:

Drinking water and eating healthy fats in the winter may not be enough to maintain a healthy skin lipid bilayer, especially if you are prone to dry skin, psoriasis or eczema. I highly recommend taking a high quality Omega 3 supplement daily (for so many reasons, from preserving brain volume to decreasing ADHD symptoms to supporting heart health to keeping your skin supple.)

Find all of my very favorite Omega 3 supplements in my online dispensary right here.

 

 

 

9. Get extra sleep:

Take advantage of the longer nights, the soft indirect lighting of winter and the natural urge to hibernate more to repair your sleep deficit and stock up on restorative beauty sleep. This decreases the stress on your body from the inside and out, allows your skin to repair more easily, giving your complexion a natural boost!  If you’d like to hear me talk more about why sleep actually does improve your skin’s appearance, you can hop over here to listen to my podcast on Beauty Sleep.

 

 

 

10. Re-evaluate your boundaries:

Your skin is always speaking to you.

Skin can speak subtly through chronic messages that it whispers to you your entire life… or skin can scream loudly and angrily during acute transitions and times of crisis.

Because our skin replicates so quickly, it is a wonderful mirror for what is going on with the rest of our body and mind:

If we are anemic, it shows us quickly.If we are dehydrated, it shows us quickly.If we are malnourished, our skin will lack that robust glow that healthy skin gives.If we have been neglecting our selves in other ways, our skin will reveal us.If we are unhappy, our skin literally sags.If we have lost connection with joy, our skin tells it.If we feel ugly, our skin mirrors that.

And because it covers our entire body, every thought we think and every word we say and every intention we ever have passes through our skin on its way to communicate with the outside world.

So it doesn’t just protect us from the world… quite the opposite is true too: it translates our inner being to the surface. It shows the world what is going on inside of us.

It is constantly in contact with and intimate with our inner workings. Because of this, skin reflects how we feel about ourselves.  Skin forms our barrier, our identity. It forms what we perceive as *us* and delineates *us* from *the rest of the world*.

In short, skin represents our personal boundary.

 

 

And every winter… during the darkest, coldest months, we get an invitation to go inward re-evaluate our boundaries before we emerge this coming spring fresh and new.

Grab a journal or get into an open meditative mindframe and ask yourself:

Are you grinning and bearing something that you’d secretly like to say a firm no to?Are you letting someone in your energy space that constantly irritates or drains you?Do you need to set some healthy boundaries at work?Do you need to set clearer boundaries around your time? We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but if you are doing activities you don’t feel aligned with or tending to emotional needs of others constantly, you will find much of that time will disappear and you won’t even know where it all went.Do you have a friendship that needs some boundaries clarified and strengthened?Do you have a family member that you need to create firmer boundaries and consequences of boundary violations with?Do you need more personal space when you are home? Do you have a place where it’s clear to everyone sharing your home that they are not to disturb you?Do you need to set boundaries in your sexual relationships?

Double-check that you say no when you need to and have clear boundaries that allow you to do what you truly want to do and enjoy that without guilt.

If you find your skin is stressed out, ask yourself what boundaries need to be strengthened in your life and meanwhile give your skin a little TLC with the other 9 steps listed above and watch the energy shift and your skin improve dramatically.

To your beautiful, radiant, ever repairing body boundary… your skin!

xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

 

 

P.S. Want another free resource?

Download my Free Skin Happiness eBook right here for tons more of my favorite holistic skin care tips.

The post How CBD Oil May Help Treat Difficult Or Chronic Skin Conditions appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Why Grounding Works, No Matter Where You Live In The World

I was asked to go a little deeper into the research on the earth’s DC global electrical grid, the Carnegie Curve and some of the science behind grounding.

So today, I want to share an article I wrote that gives tons of these references so that you can read the research for yourself!

Here we go:

 

Image credit: NASA/Simones

 

The Global Electrical Circuit

The earth, and all living things on the earth — both plants and animals — including the 8.7 million species of life, are part of an all natural, global electrical circuit (1).  This energy grid is comprised of DC energy, the natural energy of the entire universe, which is very different from our typical idea of energy that is a manmade AC current.  Instead, the natural world utilizes a direct current (DC) that syncs all conductive elements of the earth and life on earth together into one flowing circuit of energy.  

Our bodies are entirely conductive — every cell, every cell membrane, the cytoplasm of each cell, the cytoskeleton of each cell, every fluid in the body (including blood, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, plasma and more), every tissue, and every organ system — the entirety of our anatomy is conductive.  When we touch the earth in any way, we become a part of this global electrical circuit through the nature of our innate conductivity. 

In fact, it is only recently that we have ever lived disconnected from this natural global circuit, as it is only recently that we wear plastic shoes, live and work and learn and shop and eat in insulated indoor dwellings, even riding up off the earth in rubber tired vehicles and flying up away from the surface of the earth in aircrafts.  Because we no longer connect all day long to the earth’s natural energy circuit, we must intentionally ground our body to it in order to become a part of this energy flow, a practice known as grounding.

 

Image credit: Neotesla

 

What we know about this global electrical grid so far — first described by Charles Wilson in 1920 (2) is that there is a constant extremely low frequency DC energy pulse from the earth, named the Schumann Resonance. The Schumann Resonance can be thought of as the dial tone of our earth, albeit in a frequency too low to hear.  It is a constant DC energy source that flows over the surface of the earth and interconnects all conductive surfaces of the earth as well as any living plant or animal that touches it.

There is also a 24 hour rhythmic cycle, first described in experiments as early as 1915, called the Carnegie Curve (2, 3, 4.)  This is a DC cycle that rises and falls in a 24 hour pattern, becoming highest at 7 pm UT and lowest at 3 am UT. Not only is the Carnegie Curve cyclical daily but it falls into an elliptical pattern annually as well, becoming lowest seasonally at the spring and fall equinox, and highest at the summer and winter solstice (3, 5).   

 

Image credit: Edward J. Zipser

 

Practical experiments in the 1960s and 70s have helped elucidate how the presence of these low level DC energy currents produced by the earth helps human beings maintain a healthy circadian rhythm (6).  Test subjects who lived for a month in an underground bunker, completely removed from exposure to natural daylight, were able to maintain an internal synchronization to a day/night rhythm, even with the complete absence of sunlight.  Test subjects who lived for a month in an underground bunker that was additionally shielded from the low frequency DC energy of the earth (effectively shielding over 99% of the earth’s natural EMFs) became internally desynchronized, unable to maintain a consistent day/night rhythm. In repeated experiments of over 100 test subjects, the only test subjects that became internally desynchronized were the ones that were shielded from the earth’s DC energy pulse, but never the ones that were shielded only from the sun. When a low frequency electromagnetic field was re-introduced to the earth shielded test subject’s living quarters, they began to re-synchronize to a healthy day/night rhythm once again (7).

Because of these experiments, we understand that it is not simply exposure to light, but actually exposure to the earth’s low frequency electromagnetic fields that contributes to a healthy day/night pattern. This helps to make sense of why connecting to the global electrical grid — via grounding — helps to normalize sleep and boost daytime wakefulness, improving our circadian rhythm.  Grounding studies have show that being conductively connected to the earth deepens restorative sleep, normalizes cortisol, helps to relax muscles, and boost mood (8).  

Although grounding is a relatively ‘new’ health practice described by electrician Clint Ober in 2010 (9), living organisms have been benefitting from being a part of the earth’s global electrical circuit since the beginning of life itself.   It’s a healing practice that you can quite literally feel for yourself.  Have you noticed that activities that require you to touch the earth with your skin are more restorative than activities that don’t?  Swimming in the ocean, walking barefoot on the beach, running hands through the soil while planting a garden… these are the times you plug into the earth’s global electrical circuit and allow your body to benefit from grounding.  

 

 

 

Grounding To The Global Electrical Grid Yields Health Benefits

25 years of medical research now backs this up.  Researchers have exhaustively looked at the human body while it is connected to the earth, and found that the body goes into a deeply healing state while grounded.  We benefit from grounding with a boosted heart rate variability (HRV) (10), increased blood perfusion of our tissues (11), and blood that flows more easily, with decreased viscosity (12).  Our immune system gets a boost (13), muscles are more supported during exertion (14) and are less sore afterwards (15, 16).  Our brain gets much needed support immediately… EEG studies of brain activity show that grounding instantaneously shifts our brain wave patterns and reduces ambient stress levels (17) along with supporting deeper, more restorative sleep at night (18) and improving our body’s autonomic function too (19).  Grounding even supports our metabolic function as a whole, boosting our basal metabolic rate (20). Grounding helps to resolves the cascade of inflammation and auto-immune signaling in hormonal pathways that may ultimately lead to thyroid hormone imbalances, cortisol or sex hormone imbalances, all which can lead to issues such as adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, insomnia and more (21, 22).  Grounding exerts full body benefits, as every single organ system gets a boost of blood flow and oxygen because grounding positively impacts our cardiovascular function, improving circulation.  Over time, hormones normalize, cortisol drops, blood sugar stabilizes, sleep deepens, inflammation decreases, and the human body heals.  

 

 

When plants are grounded to our global electrical circuit, growing directly up out of the earth, they grow taller, bloom more, and the blossoms last longer than plants that are growing disconnected from the earth in ungrounded containers (23, 24.). When humans are grounded, we feel more vibrant and healthy and energetic than we do when we are ungrounded.  While the plant world expresses grounded support by vibrant growth, we express grounded support by vibrant health!

When you disconnect from the earth, by putting on shoes, going inside your home, or driving in your car, you disconnect from the earth’s global electrical circuit.  You have become unplugged from the natural flow of DC energy in this system and are operating instead as a closed loop.  All in all, a closed loop system is a finite system that is destined to decline. Touch the earth.  As you plug back into the global electrical circuit, you become an open flowing part of this DC energy circuit, not a closed container, and you feel yourself come back into balance. You are a conductive avenue for the expression and flow of life!  

 

 

Practical Applications Of Grounding

So, knowing this, how can we intentionally utilize grounding as a health practice?  Understanding the benefits of grounding the human body can give us different ideas in approaching grounding for our own healing.   Here are some examples of ways to incorporate the healing practice of grounding into a full treatment plan. Discuss your particular health concerns with your physician and ask for their recommendations in including grounding as an integral part of your healing therapies:

 

 

 

Stress/burn out: plan a grounded vacation:  

Feeling psychologically stressed truly impacts your body’s health over time.  As part of a larger plan to boost your resiliency that includes routine exercising, sleeping well and eating lots of fresh, unprocessed foods, taking a grounding vacation can reset your body.  Whether it is laying on a beach, swimming in a lake, napping poolside, yoga in a meadow or hiking in the mountains, taking a vacation (or a long weekend) centered around grounding daily might be one of the best ways to hit a reset button in your life.  Almost every vacation destination has evolved to be a vacation spot because of how good it feels to be grounded, even though most people don’t realize grounding is why: beaches, lakeside resorts, camp grounds, in ground pools in hotels… it’s all grounded and it all feels amazing.  While you relax connected to the global electrical circuit of the earth, grounding is at work decreasing cortisol, decreasing whole body inflammation, and significantly boosting mood — all perfect to decrease stress levels and restore your naturally energetic, creative and optimistic inner child.

 

 

 

Digestive issues: eat meals grounded outside:

As a physician, it’s becoming incredibly obvious that digestive issues of all kinds, from inflammatory bowel diseases to food sensitivities and food intolerances, are on the rise.  Steeply.  In addition to the food allergy testing, blood tests and bowel imaging studies that your physician may want to do as part of your work up, and in complement to the dietary changes, medications and lifestyle interventions your physician may suggest as a treatment plan, I encourage you to eat at least one meal every day grounded outside.  Grounding decreases inflammation throughout your entire body, and your gut lining is no exception.  Decreasing the inflammatory response of the gut by grounding while you are eating is a great way to allow your food to digest more easily and with less discomfort, and secondarily because grounding increases blood flow as well, your gut absorption will be enhanced too.  Lastly, taking ten minutes to walk grounded after your meal will help boost gut peristalsis naturally, which will encourage healthy bowel movements and decrease bloating and indigestion. 

 

 

 

Insomnia: ground in first morning light:  

If you find you have trouble sleeping at night, one of the best things you can do is to make a daily habit out of grounding in the morning light.  Grounding to the earth directly helps re-sync your circadian rhythm to the planet via the global electrical circuit.  And as we know from the medical literature, this helps calm brain waves, deepen sleep, normalize cortisol and makes the sleep you do get (even if it is not as long as you would hope) more restorative.  Get up with the sunrise and go outside for 20 minutes of grounding during the AM hours where you live.  Do this daily and you will notice your sleep naturally improving at night.  The best part about grounding in the morning as an adjunctive treatment for insomnia is that it works in concert with any conventional medical treatment your physician might suggest, and can complement everything from a sleep study work up, to correcting sleep apnea with a CPAP machine, to sleep-inducing supplements and medications.  

 

 

 

Anxiety: ground during panic attacks:

Because grounding goes immediately to work directly stabilizing your autonomic nervous system and boosting your vagal tone, it has the power to regulate your racing heart and deepen your breathing.  So, it’s literally the perfect adjunctive support during panic attacks and heightened anxiety states.  Along with conventional evaluation and treatment that might include therapy, medication, exercise and mind-body work, grounding is an instantly accessible healing tool that can provide immediate support during increased periods of anxiety no matter where you are or what you are doing.  If you feel a panic attack approaching, stop everything and touch the earth.  Pull over if you are driving, go outside if you are home or at work or in a crowded shop or restaurant and let the stability of the earth ease your panic and calm your anxiety with its power.

 

 

 

Depression: daily grounding is crucial: 

Grounding is a wonderfully uplifting way to balance mood, support the central nervous system, and release chronic inflammation that puts wear and tear on the body and mind. Ongoing research is revealing the full extent that inflammation plays in depression, as higher levels of blood markers of inflammation have been found to be directly correlated with a variety of depressive symptoms, including sleep difficulty, decreased energy levels, decreased motivation and increased or decreased appetite (25, 26)  Another study found that anti-inflammatory drugs helped to lessen depressive symptoms and resolve depressive episodes better than anti-depressants alone when added to anti-depressant therapy (27). Grounding is not only anti-inflammatory and stabilizing, it boosts mood and energy levels as well, and can work in conjunction with any therapy, medication or treatment for depression that your physician may suggest.  The best approach to adding grounding to a treatment for depression is to get into a daily routine so that benefits are cumulative over time, instead of sporadic support.  So, choose hobbies that get you outside routinely: gardening is perfect, whether it is flowers or herbs or vegetables that will get you outside daily, nurturing something growing on this earth will have you grounding daily by default.  Other ideas include bird watching, nature photography, stretching or journaling outside, or simply listening to a podcast or music… headphones on and bare feet in the grass.

 

 

 

Back Pain: the earth is your physical therapist:

Back pain is one of the most common reasons people see a doctor.  And the good news is, no matter what treatment plan your physician recommends, from imaging studies to physical therapy to surgery to medications, grounding can expedite your recovery and decrease pain from injury and inflammation in your spine.  Consider the earth your very own physical therapist, as you lay grounding directly on the earth outside.  We know that routine grounding decreases pain and decreases whole body inflammation, and that includes inflammation and pain in your ligaments and tendons.  Your entire spine is conductive, the discs and ligaments and vertebral bones that make up your spine are conductive, and all of your joints and the fluid in your joints are conductive.  Grounding spinal care can be as simple as laying on the earth outside with an ice pack or a hot water bottle held to tight areas, or you can add some gentle twists, stretches and release exercises or any physical therapy and rehabilitative exercises you’ve been instructed to do.  Make this time exponentially more powerful then stretching or doing rehab exercises indoors by adding grounding to the therapy session.   Even if all you do is go stretch on the earth outside while you wait for your pain medication to take effect, you will be supporting repair to your body’s skeletal system on a much deeper level than just treating pain with a pill.  Grounding decreases inflammation in the body over the long term, but you don’t have to wait to have back pain to begin to support your body’s longevity, but if you do already have back issues, grounding is one healing therapy you will want to add to your already established medical treatment plan.

 

 

 

Trauma: meditate grounded:

Meditation has been medically proven repeatedly in the medical literature to reduce PTSD symptoms as well as, or better than, traditional therapeutic approaches including talk therapy and exposure therapy (28).  Even a super quick and easy meditation technique like mantra repetition out performed talk therapy in reducing PTSD symptoms, even hard-to-treat symptoms such as insomnia (29).  So, if you struggle with prolonged meditation, simply taking a few minutes to repeat a positive word or phrase with mindfulness can reap huge benefits in trauma recovery.  And to get exponential benefits, combine mantra and meditation with grounding outside.  It can be as simple as sitting outside on the earth and focusing on your breath.  Connecting to our global electrical circuit through grounding deepens sleep, decreases stress hormones and boosts vagal tone, all of which can provide incredible relief and boost resiliency in the face of trauma. 

 

 

 

Rehabilitation/joint issues: ground in water: 

Take weight off of your area of injury to allow it to recover by removing the force of gravity from your joints, allowing healing that can be more gentle while at the same time be more effective.  Water is perfectly suited to helping you heal not just because it buffers the force of gravity from your skeletal system but because almost all pools and certainly all natural bodies of water are grounded.  In ground pools that are made from concrete or cement are all grounded, so most pools in hotels and gyms and neighborhoods and private back yards, as long as they are not lined with plastic or made from plastic, provide therapeutic grounding support to your body while you work on building strength, recovering mobility and increasing range of motion in the water.  We know that grounding not only decreases inflammation and pain, but during exertion it decreases damage done to muscles and mitigates how much soreness you experience later.  Which means you can participate more fully in your water-based recovery plan, without worrying about being as sore or in pain later.  This will allow you to be more invested in your healing sessions and see results faster, all while the grounded water is allowing supported movement and decreases the gravitational load on your joints.

 

 

 

Heart Disease: exercise grounded:

The link between exercise and heart health has long been studied, so most physicians will prescribe some sort of exercise plan for their patients with cardiovascular risk factors.  If you are in this group, be sure to add a grounded form of exercise to your routine, for a free way to upgrade the effectiveness of your healing plan.  In addition to any therapies, interventions and/or medications your cardiologist recommends, grounding outside on the earth can work synergistically to help naturally increase circulation and blood flow, decrease blood viscosity, increase heart rate variability, and reduce soreness after exercise.  Not only will this benefit your entire cardiovascular system, all of your bodily organs will then benefit from the improved blood flow as well, in addition to your heart.  Walking grounded, grounding through your hands while outdoors exercising (for example, while playing golf or hiking) or doing fun barefooted exercises outside such as tai chi, yoga, dance or even lifting weights (and if you keep your weights on a cement floor in your garage or basement, it’s very likely to be grounded)!   If you are on blood thinners, be sure to tell your physician you are grounding and have your physician follow your lab tests closely.  As your blood naturally moves more freely with daily time spent grounded, your personal physician may need to guide a medication adjustment and monitor your results.  

 

 

 

Osteoporosis: grounded yoga:  

The opposite of exercising in water to remove the wear and tear of gravity on your joints, to build bone density you actually want to have resistance or weight training to make your bones strong.  Simply using gravity is a wonderful way to maintain strong bones for a lifetime and combining this with the healing power of grounding will reduce bone metabolism to help protect your bones in an additional way.  Any poses that allow you to place weight on your hands such as tabletop, plank, chaturanga, reverse tabletop and downward facing dog, plus inversions such as forward fold, crow pose, head and hand and shoulder stands, all help keep your bones strong and are an invaluable daily habit to get into.  Doing it grounded outside not only adds the additional element of conductive health to your bone support, but the daylight you get while outside boosts your Vitamin D levels naturally, which are crucial for bone integrity.  Use gravity with yoga to stimulate strong bones, protect the metabolism of your bones with grounding, and boost Vitamin D levels outdoors all in one 20 minute yoga session.

 

 

 

Cancer Recovery: walk a dog grounded:   

There have been several incredibly positive studies showing that walking is one of the best things you can do to recover from, and prevent remission in, cancer treatment.  Walking was shown in a large medical study to significantly improves sleep in cancer patients (no matter which type or stage of cancer they had) and another study showed that walking improved outcome, decreased mortality rates, and predicted positive outcome in cancer recovery (30, 31).  Those results were so impressive that some physicians even started prescribing adopting and walking a dog daily as a crucial part of a cancer care plan.  Walking helps reverse sleep impairment during cancer treatment, supports better sleep during recovery, and is so good at improving outcomes that it could be considered front line therapy alongside conventional medical treatment.  Add grounding on to this and compound these fantastic results with decreased pain, decreased inflammation, deeper and more restorative sleep at night, and improved energy and mood as well.  Walk your dog and petting him or her often (which allows you to ground through your pet) or remove your shoes and walk barefoot with your pet daily.

 

 

 

Take Your Activities Outside

By now, I hope you can see how integral a grounding practice can be for your health no matter what your health care treatments are, and that’s why I routinely prescribe it for my patients as a crucial part of their healing plan. So I urge you to consider taking your health care activities outside and doing them grounded whenever possible.

Whatever therapeutic and healing daily practices you have that support your health, ask yourself if you can possibly do them outside, so that you can get the double benefit of supportive relief from the activity as well as from time spent connected to our global electrical circuit.  So many therapies are even more powerful when done outside.  For example, if your physical therapist has a set of stretches for you to do daily at home, do them outside.  If your psychologist wants you to do journal writing daily, do it outside.  If your massage therapist suggests hydrating more, take your glass of water and drink it outside.  If your physician wants you to get more exercise, swim or yoga or walk grounded outside.  If your nutritionist wants you on a specific diet plan, eat it outside.  If your spiritual director suggests you meditate daily, do it outside.  If your friend wants to come over and spend time with you, hang out outside.  If your partner wants time with you, go on a walk holding hands together outside.   If your kids want to play with you, head outside!   If your boss has catch up work for you to do on your laptop at night, take it outside.

Even though we have discussed numerous scientific studies that support the practice of grounding, the point isn’t just to optimize your cardiovascular health, or boost your metabolic health, or get better sleep.  The whole reason we want to optimize those things is so that you can feel vibrant and alive and enjoy your life more. And ultimately that’s what grounding does. I’ve seen it over and over again, I’ve experienced it personally in my own life, and I encourage you to connect to our planet and get grounded daily so that you can experience it too.  The global electrical circuit is just outside, waiting for you.

xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

References:

 1.  Benningfield, D. (2020) Studying Earth’s double electrical heartbeat, Eos, 101, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EO143519. Published 04 May 2020.

2.  Harrison R. (2020) Behind the curve: a comparison of historical sources for the Carnegie curve of the global atmospheric electric circuit.  History of Geo and Space Sciences, Volume 7, Issue 2, 207-213. Doi: 10.5194/hgss-11-207-2020

3.  Harrison, R.G. (2013) The Carnegie Curve. Surveys in Geophysics, 34, 209–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-012-92...

4. Liu, Chuntao & Williams, Earle & Zipser, Edward & Burns, Gary. (2010). Diurnal Variations of Global Thunderstorms and Electrified Shower Clouds and Their Contribution to the Global Electrical Circuit. Journal of The Atmospheric Sciences, 67. doi: 10.1175/2009JAS3248.1. 

5. F. Märcz, G. Sátori, B. Zieger. (1997) Variations in Schumann resonances and their relation to atmospheric electric parameters at Nagycenk station. Annales Geophysicae, European Geosciences Union,15 (12), pp.1604-1614. hal-00316522

6. Wever R. (1970) The effects of electric fields on circadian rhythmicity in men. Life Sci Space Res, 8:177-87. PMID: 11826883.

7.  Wever, R. (1974) ELF Effects On Human Circadian Rhythms. ELF and VLF Electromagnetic Field Effects, pp.104-144. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4684-9004-6.

8. Gae ́tan Chevalier,1, 2 Stephen T. Sinatra,3 James L. Oschman,4 Karol Sokal,5 and Pawel Sokal.  Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth’s Surface Electrons.  Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2012, Article ID 291541, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2012/291541.

9. Ober, C. Sinatra, S. Zucker, M. (2010) Earthing, The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? Basic Health Publications, Laguna Beach, CA. 2010.

10. Gaétan Chevalier, PhD; Stephen T. Sinatra, MD, FACC, FACN, CNS. (2011) Emotional Stress, Heart Rate Variability, Grounding, and Improved Autonomic Tone: Clinical Applications. Integrative Medicine • Vol. 10, No. 3 • Jun/Jul 2011

11. Chevalier, G. , Melvin, G. and Barsotti, T. (2015) One-Hour Contact with the Earth’s Surface (Grounding) Improves Inflammation and Blood Flow—A Randomized, Double-Blind, Pilot Study. Health, 7, 1022-1059. doi: 10.4236/health.2015.78119

12. Gae ́tan Chevalier, PhD,1 Stephen T. Sinatra, MD, FACC, FACN,2 James L. Oschman, PhD,3 and Richard M. Delany, MD, FACC4. Earthing (Grounding) the Human Body Reduces Blood Viscosity—a Major Factor in Cardiovascular Disease THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE. Volume 19, Number 2, 2013, pp. 102–110.

13. Oschman J, Chevalier G, Brown R.  The effects of grounding (earthing) on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.  Journal of Inflammation Research » Volume 8, 24 March 2015 Volume 2015:8 Pages 83—96.

14. Brown, R. and Chevalier, G. (2015) Grounding the Human Body during Yoga Exercise with a Grounded Yoga Mat Reduces Blood Viscosity. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 5, 159-168. doi: 10.4236/ojpm.2015.54019. 

15. Dick Brown, Ph.D.,1 Gae ́tan Chevalier, Ph.D.,2 and Michael Hill, B.S.1.  Pilot Study on the Effect of Grounding on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE Volume 16, Number 3, 2010, pp. 265–273

16. Paweł Sokal, Zbigniew Jastrzębski, Ewelina Jaskulska, et al., “Differences in Blood Urea and Creatinine Concentrations in Earthed and Unearthed Subjects during Cycling Exercise and Recovery,” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2013, Article ID 382643, 6 pages, 2013.

17. Paweł,Sokal. Karol,Sokal.  The neuromodulative role of earthing.  Medical Hypothesis. Vol 77, Issue 5, Nov 2011, pp. 824-826.

18. MAURICE GHALY, M.D.,1 and DALE TEPLITZ, M.A.2. The Biologic Effects of Grounding the Human Body During Sleep as Measured by Cortisol Levels and Subjective Reporting of Sleep, Pain, and Stress. THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE Volume 10, Number 5, 2004, pp. 767–776

19. Electrical Grounding Improves Vagal Tone in Preterm Infants.  Passie R.A., Doheny K.K., Gordin, Y.B., Hinssen H.C., Palmer C.A.  Neonatology 2017, 112:187-192

20. Karol Sokal, PhD,1 and Pawel Sokal, PhD2. Earthing the Human Organism Influences Bioelectrical Processes. THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE Volume 18, Number 3, 2012, pp. 229–234.

21. MAURICE GHALY, M.D.,1 and DALE TEPLITZ, M.A.2. The Biologic Effects of Grounding the Human Body During Sleep as Measured by Cortisol Levels and Subjective Reporting of Sleep, Pain, and Stress. THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE Volume 10, Number 5, 2004, pp. 767–776

22. Gae ́tan Chevalier,1, 2 Stephen T. Sinatra,3 James L. Oschman,4 Karol Sokal,5 and Pawel Sokal.  Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth’s Surface Electrons.  Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2012, Article ID 291541, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2012/291541.

23.  Kroschel, S. (Director) 2013, The Grounded [Film]. One Paw Productions. 

24.  Kroschel, S. (Director) 2014, Heal For Free [Film].  The House Of Film.

25. Jokela M, Virtanen M, Batty GD, Kivimäki M. Inflammation and Specific Symptoms of Depression. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016;73(1):87–88. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1977

26. Franziska A. Radtke, Gareth Chapman, Jeremy Hall, and Yasir A. Syed, “Modulating Neuroinflammation to Treat Neuropsychiatric Disorders,” BioMed Research International, vol. 2017, Article ID 5071786, 21 pages, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5071786.

27. Köhler O, Benros ME, Nordentoft M, et al. Effect of Anti-inflammatory Treatment on Depression, Depressive Symptoms, and Adverse Effects: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014;71(12):1381–1391. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.1611

28. Nidich, Sanford, et al. “Non-Trauma-Focused Meditation versus Exposure Therapy in Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: a Randomised Controlled Trial.” The Lancet Psychiatry, vol. 5, no. 12, 2018, pp. 975–986., doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(18)30384-5.

29. Bormann, Jill E., et al. “Individual Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Using Mantram Repetition: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 175, no. 10, 2018, pp. 979–988., doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.17060611.

30. Chiu, Hsiao-Yean, et al. “Walking Improves Sleep in Individuals With Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized, Controlled Trials.” Oncology Nursing Forum, vol. 42, no. 2, 2015, doi:10.1188/15.onf.e54-e62.

31. Thune, Inger, and Anne-Sofie Furberg. “Physical Activity and Cancer Risk: Dose-Response and Cancer, All Sites and Site-Specific.” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, vol. 33, no. Supplement, 2001, doi:10.1097/00005768-200106001-00025.

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