Unexpected dystonia help

Dystonia, for those lucky enough to not experience is, is often related to PD and involves involuntary and often painful pulling or twisting of body parts, including legs and feet, or head and neck;  it is treated with medication and sometimes Botox injections.  I didn't have dystonia in my feet all the time, or even every day, but it was a regular visitor, especially in the morning.

My husband was sure that earthing (also called grounding) would help my PD, because pwp have a lot of free-radicals, a lot of oxidative stress that goes on that can be countered by earthing.  Many scientists believe that this oxidative stress is involved with degeneration of neurons that make dopamine. It's believed that there are too many unbalanced electrons (the free-radicals), with not enough anti-oxidants created to balance them out. Here's an article from the UK's Cure Parkinson's Trust that explains it.  Think of the benefits of going barefoot in the grass - one of which is that extra electrons from the earth can balance out the extra unstable atoms in the brain.

There's actually some science behind earthing - which is a good thing because it's pricey so there ought to be some proof of concept.  See  this article for a review of recent research.

How did grounding help me?  After awhile, I realized that I wasn't waking up with cramped and twisted-feeling feet (they didn't look twisted, but they felt twisted).  Prior to that, the pain would often wake me.

Taking two grams of Vitamin C at bedtime had helped for awhile - Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant, working to get rid those free-radicals that can cause some of the physical damage of PD - but it was upsetting my stomach to take that much Vitamin C at once.  My husband put a grounding sheet on the bottom of my bed.  There's always some skin touching it, even in cold weather, in between my socks and PJs.

We have a grounding pad under my feet in the living room, and in warm weather, that provides grounding, too.  When we camp - in warm weather - I'm outside a lot; while not barefoot, I do touch the ground, so that seems to help ground me, and dissipate the oxidation. I don't take the grounding equipment when we camp; I have a little dystonia sometimes when camping, but not much.

In the winter, I'm always wearing socks, which makes the grounding pad in the living room useless, so I count on the grounding sheet on the bed.  But occasionally I leave on the compression thigh-highs that I wear - and then my skin isn't grounded in bed at all because all my skin is covered.   The first time the compression stockings interfered, dystonia woke me; then I held onto the grounding wire for about 10 minutes, which seemed to help the oxidation dissipate and the pain stopped.

Was this a clinical trial?  Nope.  Just me; N=1.  But if this helps one other person, it's worth it.

I've tried the less-expensive grounding wristband, but it's not comfortable, and I forget to take if off when I get up in the middle of the night (amusing for somebody watching, but less so for me).  As far as I can tell, this wristband is the same one used by people working with electronic components, to ground static electricity.  If you're interested to know more, Google earthing.

I was skeptical that this would work, and it wasn't instant, but then I realized my dystonia was gone.  I did not expect grounding to work, so I don't think this was a placebo effect (where you expect a treatment to work, so it does).  I occasionally get twinges of dystonia, especially when I'm tired, but that's it - quite a change from twisting muscle cramps that could wake me up, and continue irritating me for hours.  Exercise wasn't improving this, so I needed something else.  For me, grounding worked.  Long may it last.

Images from Pixabay.