Effectiveness of Grounded Sleeping on Recovery After Eccentric Muscle Loading

True within a specific domain but as it is we have very little idea about the forces that affect biological systems at a lower level - my favourite example is that basic disciplines like the use of anesthesia in medicine have to rely on extremely complex quantum theories* to even come close to explaining how the drugs work. Evolution has had no reason not to rely on extremely subtle aspects of reality.

* https://anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org/article.aspx?articleid...

Observation: Some new-agey quacks are selling products claiming that "grounding" has beneficial effects on physiology, but reasonable people doubt doubt this.

Hypothesis: "Grounding" is complete nonsense, a "grounded" organism functions exactly the same as an ungrounded one. This hypothesis is easily justifiable by undergraduate physics and biology.

Experiment: In this study we'll show that there's no difference in recovery after eccentric muscle loading in a grounded organisms than in an ungrounded one. Ooops! Negative result... hypothesis falsified?

OK, I'm joking... sort of. The best scientists try to look at any phenomenon from as many angles as possible, even, and especially, absurd ones.

It's $139: https://www.earthing.com/products/ground-therapy-single-slee...

Note the "Verified Purchasers" and the rating which is slightly below 5 stars: high, but not maximum to avoid suspicion of fake reviews.

Blood lactate was measured 5 minutes after the exercise intervention. If by "protocol" you mean the choice of bedsheet, that wouldn't have an influence.

If you mean the exercise intervention reduced blood lactate levels—compared to resting levels that's quite unlikely given how lactate metabolism works. Also, both groups did the same exercise.

Better-trained individuals are generally expected to have lower peak lactate levels at the same effort, and a higher capability for clearing lactate from muscles and blood stream. I was arguing that the study did not control for differences in training levels between the two groups.

Note that at no point do they attempt to quantify these alleged electrons, measure a potential difference between the body and ground, or the magnitude of current flow in the wire.

Moreover, free electrons do not float about in solutions. They're usually carried about by negative ions. If you can change that the battery industry would be very interested to hear about it.

Edit: I'm wrong about not quantifying!

> Electrostatic charge was measured on the skin at the region of the vastus lateralis via an electrostatic voltmeter (ESVM 1000, Wolfgang Warmbier, Germany). The pilot study revealed values of -0.2 ± 0.1 V vs. -81.9 ± 25.6 V (P < 0.001) in the grounded vs. sham-grounded situation clearly demonstrating the effects of grounding via the conductive sheet.

.. but there's another problem. Humans are conductive. Even if there's a net charge on your surface, the charge inside you must be zero in conventional electrostatics.

Also, some of those measured values are negative, so if this alleged effect is tied to electrons, those people are made "worse" by grounding them!