"Grounding" reduces inflammatory conditions

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This sounds pretty strange to me, but it appears to be legitimate research. So I guess it means you should replace your tinfoil hat with tinfoil shoes.

"The effects of grounding (earthing) on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378297/

"Multi-disciplinary research has revealed that electrically conductive contact of the human body with the surface of the Earth (grounding or earthing) produces intriguing effects on physiology and health. Such effects relate to inflammation, immune responses, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The purpose of this report is two-fold: to 1) inform researchers about what appears to be a new perspective to the study of inflammation, and 2) alert researchers that the length of time and degree (resistance to ground) of grounding of experimental animals is an important but usually overlooked factor that can influence outcomes of studies of inflammation, wound healing, and tumorigenesis. Specifically, grounding an organism produces measurable differences in the concentrations of white blood cells, cytokines, and other molecules involved in the inflammatory response. We present several hypotheses to explain observed effects, based on current research results and our understanding of the electronic aspects of cell and tissue physiology, cell biology, biophysics, and biochemistry. An experimental injury to muscles, known as delayed onset muscle soreness, has been used to monitor the immune response under grounded versus ungrounded conditions. Grounding reduces pain and alters the numbers of circulating neutrophils and lymphocytes, and also affects various circulating chemical factors related to inflammation."

Hmm, interesting concept. I have no idea how you'd apply it to people though, how to ground people in that way.

Sounds like a lot of snake oil pseudoscience to me.

The paper referenced was written by people with a direct financial interest in pushing this philosophy. Certainly there is substantial evidence pointing to the role that free radicals have in cellular damage but I fail to see any sound link between this and maintaining equipotential grounding of the body.