After a long day, there’s no doubt that a walk in nature or sitting in a park can be restorative.

But according to “grounding” advocates, it’s not the environment that makes you feel better, it’s the current on Earth.

Also known as “grounding,” grounding is a growing practice that suggests putting your bare feet on the ground balances electrical charge, helping to repair inflammation, mood issues, and more.

But is there any science behind it?

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Norman Swan recently called the practice “complete bloody bullshit” and the health claims “nonsense” on ABC Radio National. What is that Eruption?

Earth is a word used by scientists – just not in a health rebalancing way.

According to Karen Livesey, a theoretical physicist at the University of Newcastle, “grounding” has long been used as a physics term, where it refers to the process of removing an accumulation of too much positive or negative charge.

But lack of grounding is unlikely to make a human sick.

“The fact that we have accumulated loads for many thousands of years throughout human history seems to indicate that it will not be harmful to us,” said Dr. Livesey.

Grounding requires a conductor

Most people will have experienced static electricity, which occurs when negative or positive charges build up on your skin

This is a fairly common occurrence and happens due to friction from two objects sliding against each other, one object gaining electrons and the other losing them. This creates a slightly positive and a slightly negative object.

Walking on carpets, playing with balloons or sliding down slides on the playground can lead to these loads, which can sometimes lead to hair growth.

We know about static electricity at least since ancient Greece.

“They didn’t have balloons back then,” said Dr. Livesey.

“They had rabbit fur and amber sticks and they knew they could rub them together and create this magical static electricity to impress three-year-olds.”

But these excess taxes don’t stay forever.

These extra electrons try to get away from each other, spreading out as far as possible, ending up in your hair, which makes it stand up.

And at some point, it will knock you out when you touch a conductor, which can be anything from a piece of metal to an unsuspecting friend. This is what physicists mean when they talk about grounding.

But not only metal or other objects can act as a conductor. The earth itself does this.

“The Earth has an overall negative electric charge… and because the overall Earth atmosphere system must be neutral, that means there are positive electric charges in the atmosphere,” said Dr. Livesey.

“When we hit the Earth, there will be a transfer of electrons so that we have the same electrical potential.”

What about grounding practice?

For grounding advocates, it’s the Earth’s ability to shed extra electrons—which they call “vitamin G”—that supposedly produces the practice’s positive effects.

While getting outside and spending time in nature has been linked to mental health benefits, the idea that chronic disease could be caused by an electrical imbalance between us and the Earth “makes no sense,” said Dr. Swan.

Those who practice earthing believe that you can also reap the benefits indoors by using a number of different products, including what is known as an earthing mat.

These are plastic mats that plug into the power outlet, but only plug into the bottom third hole.

In a home, that hole at the bottom of a power outlet does not supply electricity, but connects to Earth to protect against electrical faults.

But dr. Livesey said the practice of grounding — using a mat or anything else — is unlikely to have any health benefits.

“From a physics point of view, there is no process that I can think of where an excess or lack of electrons at the surface of our body could influence our health,” she said.

“There are 10 octillion (a 1 with 28 zeros after it) electrons in our body. Being short by a few electrons – compared to Earth’s charge – is very unlikely to change the way our bodies use electricity to function.”

Electric charges also exist in nature

Nature has been working with positive and negative charges long before humans invented a way to make it power our modern lives.

The interaction between bees and flowers is an example.

Flowers, being part of the Earth, are slightly negative, while flying bees produce a positive charge.

Bees can sense the electric field of the flower, and it is this static electricity that causes the bees to end up covered in pollen.

When the bee visits the next flower, that positively charged pollen bounces back onto the plant.

“A flower is a little lightning rod,” said Dr. Livesey.

“(The bees) actually have to fly for a long time to recover their positive charge so they can go and be attracted to a flower again.”

Electrical charges also play a vital role in the human body.

“How cells talk to each other, how they have immune responses, how neurons in the brain fire, it’s all by sending electrical charges,” said Dr. Livesey.

Positive elements or “ions” such as potassium and sodium, along with negative ones such as chloride, exist in different concentrations inside and outside the cell.

As the cell performs different functions, these ions switch places, which allows nutrients in and out, aids in transport, and regulates cell size.

While dr. Livesey says it takes more than static electricity to throw this system off balance, there are certain diseases and poisons that can.

Epilepsy is caused by an excessive burst of electrical activity in the brain, and spider and snake neurotoxins can interfere with the movement of electrical charges, which can damage or even kill neurons.

Hear from Dr. Norman Swan and Tegan Taylor reveals why scientific studies of grounding are so difficult to analyze on What’s That Rash? And subscribe to the podcast for more.