Grounding and Blood Pressure: What Does the Evidence Really Show?
Could grounding affect blood pressure?
It is one of the more intriguing questions in grounding research because several small human studies have now reported reductions in blood pressure after grounding — across very different populations and grounding methods.
The results are interesting, and the direction of the findings has been surprisingly consistent. But the research is still early. Most of the studies have been small and uncontrolled, and there has not yet been a large, blinded, sham-controlled trial specifically testing grounding in people with hypertension.
So what has actually been found?
The short answer
Four small human studies have directly investigated grounding and blood pressure in people with elevated blood pressure or hypertension.
Across those studies, blood pressure moved downward following grounding. One study included a non-grounded comparison group and found substantially larger reductions in the grounded participants. The other three reported significant before-and-after reductions but did not include control groups.
That repeated pattern is worth investigating.
However, it does not yet establish that grounding itself caused the reductions. Without stronger controlled trials, factors such as rest, exercise, outdoor exposure, medication, natural blood-pressure variation and other changes cannot always be separated from grounding.
The evidence is therefore best described as preliminary but genuinely interesting.
A 2015 controlled study found an immediate reduction
One of the most useful studies for understanding the blood-pressure question was published by Teli and colleagues in 2015.
Researchers initially screened 150 second-year medical students and identified 53 who met the study's criteria for what was then classified as prehypertension. People with established hypertension were specifically excluded.
The 53 participants were assigned to two groups. Twenty-eight removed their footwear and remained barefoot with their feet in contact with the ground for one hour. Twenty-five remained in their footwear without direct ground contact. Both groups sat comfortably during the hour.
The results were notable.
In the barefoot-grounded group, average systolic blood pressure fell from 134.36 to 122.71 mmHg, a decrease of 11.65 mmHg. Average diastolic pressure fell from 81.21 to 73.57 mmHg, a decrease of 7.64 mmHg.
In the control group, systolic pressure declined by a smaller 3.52 mmHg, from 131.92 to 128.40 mmHg, while diastolic pressure did not decrease. Neither control-group change was statistically significant.
The comparison group matters because simply sitting quietly for an hour can affect blood pressure. In fact, the researchers acknowledged that rest could explain some of the systolic reduction seen in both groups.
But the larger change among the barefoot participants raises an interesting question about whether direct ground contact contributed something beyond rest alone.
There are important limits. The experiment lasted only an hour, there was no sham-grounding or blinding, and the researchers did not follow participants afterward to determine how long the change lasted. It also studied prehypertension rather than established hypertension. The authors reported no study funding and no conflict of interest.
What happened in people with diagnosed hypertension?
A 2018 study by cardiologist Howard Elkin and Angela Winter looked at a very different situation: people already being treated for hypertension.
Ten patients in a cardiology practice grounded themselves at home for at least 10 hours per day over several months.
Blood pressure was recorded in the clinic at baseline and at approximately monthly intervals. Participants were also asked to measure their BP at home twice a day on three days each week for 12 weeks.
By the end of the study, systolic blood pressure had decreased in all 10 participants. Individual reductions ranged from 8.6% to 22.7%, with an average reported reduction of 14.3%.
Those are substantial changes and make the case series an important part of the grounding-and-blood-pressure literature.
But a case series cannot determine whether grounding caused the change.
There was no non-grounded or sham-grounded comparison group, and the participants knew they were grounding. With only 10 patients and no control group, other influences on blood pressure cannot be ruled out.
The appropriate interpretation is therefore not that this study proved grounding treats hypertension. Rather, it identified a potentially meaningful signal that warrants controlled testing.
A 2023 study looked at hypertension during pregnancy
Another study examined 20 pregnant women with hypertension in Indonesia.
Participants were more than 20 weeks pregnant and used a custom grounding system involving a copper mesh connected by copper wiring to a grounding rod in the soil. They sat or rested with bare feet touching the mesh for one hour per day for 30 days.
Average systolic blood pressure fell from 142.8 to 128.45 mmHg, a decrease of 14.35 mmHg.
Average diastolic blood pressure fell from 93.05 to 79.6 mmHg, a decrease of 13.45 mmHg.
The before-and-after differences were statistically significant.
These findings are certainly interesting, but this study needs particularly careful interpretation.
It involved hypertension during pregnancy, a medically distinct setting that cannot automatically be generalized to ordinary hypertension. The study also used a one-group before-and-after design with no control group and purposive rather than randomized sampling.
The paper discusses preeclampsia extensively, but its stated inclusion criteria were broader: pregnant women with hypertension who were more than 20 weeks pregnant and had negative urine protein. For that reason, it is more accurate to describe this as a study of hypertension in pregnancy rather than simply a study of preeclampsia.
The research received financial support from Indonesia's Directorate of Research and Community Service within the relevant government research and higher-education ministry.
A newer study reported reductions in older adults
In 2025, Wedri and colleagues studied 32 adults aged 60 or older with diagnosed hypertension at the South Kuta Community Health Center in Indonesia.
Participants continued taking their prescribed antihypertensive medication consistently during the study. They completed nine grounding sessions across three weeks: 30 minutes of barefoot walking on natural ground such as grass or soil, three times per week.
Average systolic pressure declined from 150.50 to 142.69 mmHg, a reduction of 7.81 mmHg.
Average diastolic pressure declined from 91.69 to 89.03 mmHg, a reduction of 2.66 mmHg. Both before-and-after changes were reported as statistically significant.
Again, there is a positive finding — but there is an unusually important confounding factor in this study.
Participants were walking while grounding.
Walking itself can affect blood pressure, and the intervention also involved spending time outdoors. Because there was no comparison group walking the same amount while insulated from the Earth, the study cannot tell us how much of the change, if any, was attributable specifically to electrical grounding.
That does not make the result meaningless. It means the experiment tested a combined activity — barefoot outdoor walking with direct Earth contact — rather than isolating grounding as the only variable.
Is there a consistent pattern across the studies?
This is where the evidence becomes interesting.
The four studies are quite different. They involved prehypertensive young adults, cardiology patients with hypertension, pregnant women with hypertension, and older adults receiving antihypertensive medication. Grounding exposure ranged from a single hour to daily use over several months. Some participants were barefoot outside, while others used indoor grounding systems.
Yet each study reported blood pressure moving in the same general direction: downward.
Across the four studies, 90 participants received a grounding intervention, while another 25 participants formed the non-grounded control group in the Teli experiment.
That consistency is scientifically interesting, particularly because the studies used such different populations and protocols.
But it does not establish a dose-response relationship, tell us that 30 or 60 minutes is a minimum effective grounding time, or prove that longer grounding produces larger reductions.
Comparing effect sizes between these studies would be unreliable because too many other things changed at the same time: the populations, baseline blood pressure, intervention, duration, medication status and study design were all different.
Those questions need to be tested directly.
Could changes in the blood help explain the findings?
One proposed explanation comes from a separate 2013 experiment by Chevalier and colleagues.
Ten healthy adults were grounded for two hours using conductive patches placed on their hands and feet and connected to a grounding rod outside.
Researchers measured the electrical properties of red blood cells, particularly zeta potential, which relates to the electrical charge around the cells, as well as red-blood-cell aggregation.
After grounding, zeta potential increased in all participants by an average factor of 2.70, and red-blood-cell aggregation decreased.
The researchers interpreted these changes as consistent with reduced blood viscosity.
But an important distinction is needed: this was not a blood-pressure experiment, and the study did not demonstrate that these red-blood-cell changes caused blood pressure to fall.
It provides a possible physiological avenue for further investigation — not an established explanation for the blood-pressure findings.
The study was supported by Earth FX Inc., a company involved in grounding products and research. Three of the authors reported being independent contractors for the company and owning small percentages of its shares.
What about the autonomic nervous system?
Researchers have also proposed that grounding could influence autonomic regulation — the balance of nervous-system activity involved in controlling heart rate, blood-vessel tone and short-term blood-pressure regulation.
The Teli researchers discussed this as one possible explanation for the acute BP changes they observed.
However, their study did not measure heart rate or directly determine sympathetic versus parasympathetic activity, something the authors themselves identified as a limitation.
So at this stage, autonomic regulation remains a hypothesis rather than a demonstrated explanation for the blood-pressure findings.
This distinction matters. The studies show us what happened to blood pressure. They do not yet tell us with confidence why it happened.
Does this mean grounding can treat high blood pressure?
Not yet.
The existing research provides enough of a signal to justify better studies, but not enough evidence to establish grounding as a treatment for hypertension.
What is missing is particularly important: a larger randomized trial in people with hypertension that compares genuine grounding with a credible sham-grounding condition while keeping the rest of the experience the same.
That could help answer several questions at once.
Does grounding itself lower blood pressure beyond rest or expectation? How large is the effect? How long does it last? Does repeated use matter? Do people with different forms or severities of hypertension respond differently? And do grounding mats, sheets, patches and direct barefoot contact produce comparable physiological effects?
The existing research cannot yet answer those questions.
What does this mean for someone who uses a grounding mat?
The studies reviewed here should not be interpreted as evidence that every grounding method produces the same effect.
The research has used barefoot Earth contact, custom grounding systems, conductive patches and prolonged home grounding. Those protocols are not automatically interchangeable.
In particular, the 2015 and 2025 studies involved direct barefoot contact with natural ground, while the pregnancy study used a custom copper system connected directly to a rod in the soil.
Research on one method cannot simply be transferred to another without testing.
For people with hypertension, grounding should also not replace prescribed medication, blood-pressure monitoring or medical care. Anyone considering changing antihypertensive medication should do so only with their healthcare professional.
The bottom line
So, what does the evidence really show?
There is a small but intriguing body of human research in which blood pressure has decreased following grounding.
One controlled experiment found a substantially larger acute reduction among barefoot-grounded participants than among people who remained insulated from the ground. Three additional studies in different hypertensive populations reported significant decreases following repeated grounding interventions.
That repeated positive direction is worth paying attention to.
At the same time, three of the four direct blood-pressure studies lacked control groups, none was a large blinded sham-controlled hypertension trial, and some interventions included factors — particularly walking — that make it difficult to isolate grounding itself.
The most scientifically defensible conclusion is therefore somewhere between dismissal and certainty:
There is an interesting early signal that grounding may influence blood pressure. We do not yet know whether the effect is truly caused by grounding, how large or durable it is, or which grounding methods might produce it.
Those are exactly the questions that stronger future trials could answer.
Research references
Teli SS, Velou MS, Paramasivam L, Divya D. An experimental Study on immediate effect of direct barefoot contact with earth on prehypertension. International Journal of Medical Research and Review. 2015;3(8):836–840.
Elkin HK, Winter A. Grounding Patients With Hypertension Improves Blood Pressure: A Case History Series Study. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 2018;24(6):46–50.
Estiningtyas, Cahyaningtyas AY, Muflikhun MA. Earthing Method as Lifestyle Medicine to Reduce Hypertension in Pregnancy in Surakarta City, Central Java, Indonesia. Journal of Health Science and Prevention. 2023;7(1):26–38.
Wedri NM, Savitri KS, Sukawana IW, Mertha IM. Grounding activities effectively lower blood pressure in elderly people with hypertension. Nursing and Health Sciences Journal. 2025;5(4):484–491.
Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Delany RM. Earthing (Grounding) the Human Body Reduces Blood Viscosity—a Major Factor in Cardiovascular Disease. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2013;19(2):102–110.