035 - Easy Ways to Ground and Improve Your Life, Reducing Burnout For Physicians- Part 2 with Clint Ober

In this episode, Coach JPMD kicks back off with grounding pioneer, Clint Ober. Tune in to learn more about the health benefits of grounding, some easy ways you can begin, and how YOU can use it to transform your life!

In 1998, after a successful career grounding systems in the cable television industry, Earthing Pioneer Clint Ober began investigating the potential to improve human health with grounding. Today, he is the founder of earth FX Inc., a grounding research and development company based in California through which he helped to develop, and patent, the first indoor Earthing products. 

Show Notes

Discover how medical graduates, junior doctors, and young physicians can navigate residency training programs, surgical residency, and locum tenens to increase income, enjoy independent practice, decrease stress, achieve financial freedom, and retire early, while maintaining patient satisfaction and exploring physician side gigs to tackle medical school loans.

Transcript

Coach JPMD  0:01  
So we are back with part two of our earthing grounding episode. With Clint Ober, if you haven't had a chance to listen to episode 34, I strongly suggest that you take a listen to it. Look at the show notes. And there's tons of research and tons of things and tons of videos and articles that you can look at. And watch to learn more about grounding. And in today's episode, Episode 35 is about how you can ground and I've been grounding for the past two years, and I'm actually sitting at my desk right now, my feet with bare feet on a grounding pad. And I don't think I'll ever go back. And in this episode, you'll kind of get a feel of why you should actually try it. Because it is for at least what it was, for me, life changing in terms of my sleep habits, in terms of inflammation in terms of my ability to recover from sports injuries. So welcome, and listen in and find out how you can ground yourself.

Intro  1:09  
Welcome to the practice impossible podcast, where your host, Jude A Pierre, also known as Coach JPMD, discusses medical practice topics that will guide you through the maze that is the business of medicine, and teach you how to increase profits and help populations live long. Your mission should you choose to accept is to listen and be transformed. Now here's your host, Coach JPMD.

Coach JPMD  1:33  
So we're back with Clint Ober. And we've been speaking about grounding, we've been speaking about the science behind it and, and the benefits. And today we have the opportunity of, again, discussing some of the things that you can do to ground so and how do does one ground? And Clint, can you give us some examples of basic examples, because I've I've actually recommended grounding to many of my patients, some of which, some of whom have diabetes. But the recurring theme is, you know, I have diabetes, and I'm not supposed to put my feet on the ground. Or in Florida, we have St. Augustine grass, which is really, I don't know why they call it st grass because it looks like a weed to me. And they don't want to do it because they're ants. It's too hot. So how do we get patients to ground? 

Clint Ober  2:26  
First of all, it takes a little education, and all of my research, all of the things that I spent the last 23 years on the conclusion is one thing. And it's cowboy logic. And again, it comes from being in a grounded and grounding industry in the communications industry, you can't have charge in a grounded object. You can't I mean, if it's grounded, the mean is flooded with free electrons, there can't be any charge. Yeah, so if the human body is grounded to the earth, and at earth potential, you can't have inflammation in the body, you can have him you can have normal inflammatory cascades, you can have the normal functions of the immune system, but you don't have that chronic low grade burning fire from, you know, not having enough electrons. So anyhow, it's really important to understand that people somehow or another learn that and I what I tried to do with everybody is say, if you can't do anything else, it's free. You can go outdoors at the end of the day, go in the backyard, if you don't like the way it is fix it so you have a little patch where you can put a chair and sit your feet on the earth and just sit there and put your feet on the earth for 30 minutes. It's life changing, it will change your life. Because what you do, the first thing that happens is your your blood viscosity normalizes. And that's really major because the red blood cells themselves are electric, they have an electrical service charge as long as the the wall linings and so on and the vessels and so when you're grounded in your your you increase the negative charge a red blood cells. And so now they repel each other. Now they thins the blood, they can get in and out of the capillaries and reduce the you know the inflammation and clean out the debris, all that kind of stuff and balance, the pH everything it all happens automatically. It's all one thing. But anyhow, in our studies, in order to learn all these things we learn and all these studies are available at the Earthing Institute. But what we learned earlier, we had to first of all create ground planes. Well, the easiest one for us was to take an EKG patch for it on the problem of somebody's hand that had MS or whatever, and then connect it with a ground wire to a an electrical ground. And we've actually done this with babies in, you know, at the Hershey Clinic in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the preemies you know, ground them to the you know, via the electrical ground, so it's totally safe, you know. And so anyhow,

Coach JPMD  4:45  
So let's speak about this totally safe because you're saying to connect to the ground wire outside, but let's say there's a thunderstorm outside and it's thundering and lightning and you've got discharge of thunder and lightning in your backyard. Let's say, can you then take some of that charge into the ground rod that's connected to the same earth has been fed by...

Clint Ober  5:06  
Well, first of all, once it's on the earth, if it at that speed of light radiates a radial distribution disbursement at the speed of light around the world. So it's not going to take time to go and find the ground rod and go up the ground, right. And even if it did, it wouldn't do that. Because there's no place for it to go. Once it gets up the ground run the ground, rolling it, the only ground rod is going to a human body, or it's going to a ground bat that the body is laying on. But you have to have a circuit, okay have to have a path for electrons to flow for, where with grounding, all you're doing is equalization. You may have a rise in earth potential, but you're not going to have a lightning, screaming through regressively, it would burn up the wire would evaporate the wire within a couple inches of the crown rod, okay? Because it's very, very small. So it's your lightning is it's gonna hit you first then go to the earth, if you're grounded, that's the problem. But coming up the ground, that's not not likely. Because once it sets Earth, that's what it's looking for. It's looking for a huge...

Coach JPMD  6:20  
Capacitor.. is electronics, I think of ground would be the capacitor of that electron.

Clint Ober  6:28  
It stores them, it's a sink, you know, it stores them. And so anyhow, what we had to do is we had to find ways to in order to do the research, we had to find ways to ground people. And we eventually we would do anything, because in 30 minutes, you can take a lady who has MS or any kind of a chronic flaring.

Coach JPMD  6:49  
Inflammatory Condition.

Clint Ober  6:50  
Yeah, yeah. And you know, and just put the patch on 30 minutes later, it's going to put the fire out. For instance, with EMS, you have neutrophils oxidized, eating up the myelin sheath, you clean up one mess, and then it was just to collect costs and collateral damage. So anyhow, I can honestly say now after 23 years of doing this, and I don't know how many ladies with MS and lupus and the light, but you put a patch on the palm of their hand, and I can and the pain will come down, their demeanor changes, their color comes up because that blood viscosity, and this all happens in minutes. And you know, half hour, because this is this is an electrical system chemical, this is electrical, everything in the body is your your grounding the body normalizing the internal functioning of the body. And most of all you're giving, you've got a reservoir of electrons to prevent collateral damage from an immune response the immune system is, is unbelievable. I mean, it's simple. And the beauty of you know, when we're all living on the earth and grounded, then we didn't think about it's like breathing oxygen or uneven need to know oxygen existed, you just had it, it was automatic. While grounding was automatic, it prevented oxidative stress in the body.

Coach JPMD  8:09  
So so so if you can't have your your feet on the ground, and you don't want to have your feet on the ground, you're resistant. You have some products, what what are some of the things that you've developed? And are there patents on these products? or what have you developed?

Clint Ober  8:23  
We had to patent, we had to patent them, but we share things pretty. The main thing is, when we were doing our studies, we had to have these ground planes in order to ground people long enough to measure the effects of grounding. And then as we were doing this, and we recognize that there's really profound benefits to grounding, then we recommend, what is the easiest, what is the number one thing we could do for most people, that they will get the most benefit in the short amount or shortest amount of time, and take the least amount of work. Because people don't like to break routine and have to do things that don't want to, you know, So anyhow, we thought, well, the best thing to do is ground people during sleep, because they're gonna do that anyway. And all you got to do is put a mat on the bed, and ground it to the earth, via the grounded outlet or whatever. And then all they have to do is lay down, they do that one time, put it on the bed, then after that, if you just lay down, go to sleep like they normally do. And then the you know, the Earth does all the rest. I mean, you know nature does the rest.

Coach JPMD  9:23  
So what's in that what's in the pad what's in the actual sheet because I I'll admit, I bought a sheet, I looked on my Amazon account in 2020. And I've watched it several times and it's still conducts and I actually have a conductivity a continuity tester that is able to test I'm geeking out on my audience right now. But basically test to make sure that the ground wire actually works in the sheet. And I have rest. I have the best sleep every night using this thing and it's not that I'm trying to promote this but I just want people to understand that there is something to this, especially in sleep disorders.

Clint Ober  10:04  
It's really simple. The number one problem The reason people can't sleep is they're, they're in a kind of a quasi fight or flight state and their bodies function, cortisol, stress of the day. And the cortisol, you know, it's like having one eye open. It's like fight or flight. It's your fight or flight system. And so if you don't sleep, then the you know, the cortisol becomes elevated, that exhausts your parasympathetic, and your adrenals. And then you have anxiety, irritability, it'll lead to eventually depression. And then but you end up with oxidative I mean, oxidation, inflammation, that creates pain, nobody can sleep if they have pain in their body, or if they're stressed. So it's really about so what grounding does, first of all, it reduces the pain quiets the sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic can come back up over a period of time. But you normalize blood viscosity, so it can go in, clean out the inflammation, and all the hormone cascades that take place at night during sleep, they can function like they normally are intended. So combining all these products, we had to invent these products in order to do the test. And then with all the researchers, and the subjects and their relatives, everybody wanted the products. So we ended up in an excellent thermal business. My background is communication, putting data over satellites, is not about making bed paths. The last thing I ever wanted to try to do was sell anybody anything. And I told everybody in the world, I said, this is not a product, I'm not going to sell you this product, I'm going to explain it to you, I'm going to tell you, and you can do your own studies, all you got to and it's free. Just go outdoors, take your shoes up, put your bare feet on the earth, stay there for 30 minutes. And if you feel a little bit better than maybe do it for another 30 minutes later in the day. And then if you do that makes you feel better, then you may want to consider spending more time on the earth or finding ways you can ground yourself indoors. 

Coach JPMD  12:01  
You said it Well, you said it well, that's that's really it. And you know, if you live in that on the beach, you put your feet on the on the sand, I had someone tell me that day they go to the beach, but they put their sandals on, I'm like, no take your sandals off at the beach. Because that's only where you're gonna ground.

Clint Ober  12:19  
Yeah, it's it's hard to, for people to make the change, and to incorporate something new. So I do my best  to stay with kids. You know, I made a statement the other day to somebody I said, you know, I spent 20 years educating most, or you're working on this. And most of the people I worked with were over 50, you know, 60s, so, and today, half of them, most of them are dead. You know, because they didn't say most of them don't stay with it, the pain goes away, and then they give it up, you know. But but anyhow. So I, I try now I only work with moms 35 to 40 years old, because they're taking care of their moms. As soon as they get grounded, that works for them, then they give it to their mom who needs it worse than they do. And then they get another one for themselves. Then they give that to their sister or whoever. And then it's the average woman who gets grounded, she buys 10 of these pads in first year, just taking care of her family.

Coach JPMD  13:15  
So while you mentioned moms, why not dads where are the dads? 

Clint Ober  13:16  
I hate to say this, but you know, 80% of women sleep alone. Okay. Now as a physician, you may know that the reason is because of pain. And when a woman's in pain, and she's not happy or feeling good. It produces more cortisol. But it's like, I hate to say this publicly, but it's like autism once autism, once an autistic child shows up in the family. It's like, you know, do not pass go collect, do not collect $200. Go directly to jail because that family is going to jail. There's no insurance go. There's nothing anybody can help them. And eventually, I mean, it's really a trauma and drama. And it's just a challenge. And it's very worrying. And oftentimes, if the family ends up with a divorce, that's one of the major things out there. Otherwise, it's the woman herself. Has Fibromyalgia starts out as anxiety, irritability, and then fibromyalgia, and then lupus then MS or whatever, chronic arthritis. For you. It's all it's all one thing. It's chronic inflammation. Because of it, they don't feel good so that you don't feel good. That pumps more cortisol that you're you become more stressed you become more angry, you become less hospitable.

So you're you're really hitting something that I'm not I wasn't aware of and earlier you said that 98% of the people who buy the products are women?

Oh yes.

Coach JPMD  14:53  
What would be the one thing that you would could tell a physician or tell a male physician or male that could convince them to get this? Well, what do you what do you think is the issue? The block?

Clint Ober  15:05  
There's no... man. There's no red blooded man gonna say, Oh yeah, I've got one of those, I believe everything you're saying. You can see this is nuts said if this are true, I would know about it. It's the same, it's been the same for 20 years, men, it's an ego, it's a slap in the face, because men are supposed to know everything. So women are the ones who buy these products, they sneak it into the bed underneath the sheet under their husbands and get them well, getting rid of quit snoring and whatever, all those things. But yeah, it's a cultural thing. It's moms are, you know, they're looking for anything that will help them. You know, it's like this whole wellness industry and this integrative and this alternative, and everything goes on out there. You know, what is it 80% of all prescriptions are female. Men don't buy drugs and take them. They'd throw that out, man have no pain, no pain, no gain. Anyhow, I could go on because I spent really 23 years grounding people, sometimes one on one, sometimes 1500 people at a time 3d conventions, just so they can experience but the thing I've learned is, you cannot accept earthing, I don't care who you are, until you experience it, because it's unbelievable. It's absurd. You mean, you tell me you want me to take my shoes off? And go stand barefoot on the earth? Are you nuts, I'll get my feet dirty.

Coach JPMD  16:34  
So maybe we could do some psychological research on this. 

Clint Ober  16:37  
Oh there is. yeah, that's the big thing. It needs to be done. Because grounding will put the fire out. But what's feeding these fires?

Coach JPMD  16:46  
It's mental. It's mental. Yeah. So what are some of the ongoing research that you're doing now? Are there any ongoing certain studies that, that you're enrolling patients in?

Clint Ober  16:55  
There are some studies on mitochondria and ATP and things like that, which is pretty straightforward. But again, you have to go through the processes. Yeah, we have what I've done the last few years is, we pretty much don't do too many studies ourselves anymore. Instead, if somebody's doing a PhD, or somebody wants to do a study, universities don't do studies, unless there's money in it, they're not going to give you money, unless they're gonna make money off of it. So they want to own the patents, or they want to own the business side of it. You know, it's the way it works, you know, it's just the way it works. This is a self care, health assurance, not insurance. Because there's no such thing as health insurance really. But health assurance meaning, you need to put your feet back in and you need to reconnect to the earth, get rooted in nature, from where you come who you are. And find the ways to incorporate that into your living environment and your lifestyle. Because if you don't, there's fire inside. But So anyhow, what I spend most of my time is, you know, we've got the earthing movie we put out a couple three years ago. And that took about four or five years to build. And it's just 100%, authentic, just grounding people. And I mean, they're telling their stories, sharing their experiences, and to give a lot of people to perk people's interest, so that they will at least go outdoors and try it. But the business I'm in is education. I'm not in the business of bed pads, and I'm not in the business of research. I'm in the business of shaking the tree and getting researchers to pay attention getting moms to hear something that can help you. That's what I do. 

Coach JPMD  18:50  
And we so appreciate it because that's how I found you. And I watched the movie I've read, I've actually recommended the movie several times. Some patients actually have listened. So obviously, we're going to share that in the show notes as well. So what's next for you? Like, what's your next? What are the next steps for you?

Clint Ober  19:09  
Well, I'll be 78 here in a couple of weeks. I didn't know anybody could live this long. Back when I was 50. But I have good energy I you know, of course you entropy is real, no matter how good your health is. But no, I don't have any real health issues at all. I have halfway decent. I'm grounded probably 80% of the time. And I think that speaks to my health. But anyhow, so really, from here on all I can do is anybody that's interested ask me a question and I'll share what I know. 

Coach JPMD  19:46  
That's wonderful. 

Clint Ober  19:47  
It's really about sharing and, and it's you know, everything is free. The results are phenomenal, are profound, and it's free. And anybody any practitioner, if you can get people a free I'm trying to sell them a product, maybe beyond your ability to accomplish, but you are going to have better outcomes on whatever you're doing. If you can just get them to go outdoors and drain, the stress, the inflammation that charge out of their body for 30 minutes after they get home from work and a stressful day and the cortisol side, and then they're going to, they're going to feel better, they're going to put the, they're going to just put the fire out. And the immune system can't do much in 30 minutes. But if you can put the fire out and do that routinely, that's, that's cumulative. But you're going to sleep better, you're going to feel better. And then, you know, people don't buy products, because I tell them anything, they go outdoors, they put their bare feet on the earth if they have a good experience, and they say, I don't want to do this and make every one of those products. 

Coach JPMD  20:58  
Yeah you're saying it right. I mean, it's sharing the story, sharing your experiences. And that's what I wanted you to do today. That's what I wanted to do to my audience, and you know, or with my audience, and it's, again, an honor to have you on the show. And, you know, I how do we find you? How does our audience find you and what's so it's a best place to find out more about your book and you're in the movie.

Clint Ober  21:24  
The earthingInstitute.net is kind of a repository of all of that stuff. I interact daily, on a Facebook page, or share information, just under my name, Clint Ober. Earthing.com is a company that provides the products, they have bed pads them that you can sleep on, they have pillow covers, that you put over your pillow, and you even put your pillowcase over the top of it, and you sleep on that. There's many reasons that's really a lot of people love that product. The patches are great for flowering, anything arthritis, arthritic, I guess anything is it is diabetes is absolutely diabetes is an inflammation related health disorder. It's in the literature. Autism is an inflammation related health disorder, all this. So if you're if you have a health issue, I can tell you this for sure, after 23 years. And also I knew this with the cows, if you have a health problem, if you have pain in your body, then something you're doing is compromising your body's your immune system, to the point to the degree that the immune system can't restore and maintain health. So you have to start removing things from your body or your environment or adding things or whatever, you have to figure out what's causing my immune system. How come I don't have health is my most natural state. How come I don't have health? You know, it's is it is what I'm eating? Not alone. Is what I'm breathing? Not alone. That is it's all it's a whole bunch of things. But it starts with sunlight, vitamin D, sunlight, you know, oxygen, good clean, oh two, and ground, maintaining the electrical stability of the body. Stabilizing your heart rate variability and your vagal tone. That's automatic. Just put your feet on the earth. 

Coach JPMD  23:16  
Yeah. It's wonderful. What a great conversation. And I appreciate I appreciate you coming on to the practice impossible podcast and I know that my audience is going to we're going to start grounding. We're going to have a grounding movement in Tampa.

Clint Ober  23:30  
There you go. I'm all for it. Well you got the perfect place to. 

Coach JPMD  23:33  
Yeah. 

It's really nice there. I lived down in Key Largo for a couple of years. 

Nice. 

Clint Ober  23:37  
I just just love Florida.

Coach JPMD  23:39  
Thank you again. And we'll see you soon.

Clint Ober  23:43  
All right. Namaste.

Coach JPMD  23:44  
Namaste. So thank you for listening to the practice possible podcasts. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for sharing this episode. And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to listen to episode 34. And there are plenty of other episodes as well. And yes, we're teaching physicians not only the business of medicine, but also how to practice living a powerful life a healthy life. And that's what we do here at the practice impossible podcast. Our next episode is going to be a pretty neat one and that's with my own medical assistant. And you're gonna learn some things that I learned from her and the things that have inspired me to continue doing what I'm doing and hopefully it will inspire you as well. So see you in two weeks and keep practicing impossible.