Hacker News Reader

Comment by RGamma | Hacker News Reader

Someone help me with my high school physics knowledge, but is this actually plausible?

Even if you're insulated, shouldn't your whole body potential sum to zero internally anyway? And shouldn't any bioelectrical fields be invariant under ground potential? (probably messed up the terminology there)

I remember that van de Graaff generator experiment that charges your entire body and makes your hair stand up. Assuming you run around for weeks charged (positively or negatively) like that, would this cause any physiological dysfunction?

View on HN

The zero ground potential is just a reference point of common agreement, it is zero in the context of electrical circuits, in comparison with known and controlled voltages of electrical components. But the ground itself is not zero: if you put the 2 voltmeter probes in the ground, you can observe rare random voltage fluctuations.

The Earth can be thought of as an anode, and the Sun - as a cathode. But the Earth as an electron source is obviously different than a van de Graaff generator, hence possible differences in current it produces.

You won't be able "to run around charged for weeks", because as soon as you contact a conductive surface or +charge careers, you drain the accumulated surface electrons.

So I've peeked somewhat more into the "groundology rabbit hole" and they seem to be claiming that a non-grounded (with respect to earth) state interferes with bioelectrical fields inside the body.

E.g. this paper https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/acm.2011.0820 (sponsored by Earth FX, Palm Spring, CA whose CEO Clint Ober peddles earthing products *wink*) claims that earthing reduces blood viscosity by increasing the "zeta potential" (outside of my specialty, but I read it as being proportional to intercellular repulsive force) of red blood cells. But surely this can't work because when increasing the "base charge" of the body, then the charges of all its constituents should move with it and the charge differences between cells (and the energy required to keep them up) should stay the same, right?

> You won't be able "to run around charged for weeks"

The "running around" part is unfortunately worded. Assume we would ensure this experimentally by keeping the subject insulated and/or recharging regularly (could be mice in a cage too, I guess).

Pubmed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=grounding%20earthing) provides a dozen of studies with benefits of grounding, including cardiovascular, so there should be something to it. And I saw at least 2 more of them, where patients were beneficially grounded via a "neutral" electrical line in the wall socket. There are Direct Current Stimulation treatments to promote bone regeneration as well as for the brain and muscle and they minimally work. With grounding the type of energy may be a bit different, because Earth is a non-point source.

None of this answers my questions, but uh huh

Reply on news.ycombinator.com