I took my shoes off and went for a barefoot hike. I couldn’t believe what happened next

Whenever I see Kim McAdams, she never wears shoes. Every year she tests my car's emissions from her work station in a parking lot in Roswell, Georgia. In the four years that I have known her, no matter the weather, she is always barefoot.

I've heard of people kicking off their shoes to connect with the Earth and it always sounded so calming. But in a parking lot littered with who knows what underfoot?

This year my curiosity got the better of me. “Do you happen to believe in grounding practices?” I asked. She replied with a smile, “What makes you think that?”

McAdams said she never liked shoes and at one point when she was in high school in Ohio, she simply stopped wearing them. “We had a big Levi's bell,” she explained. “It didn’t matter whether I had shoes on or not—my feet weren’t visible.”

Back in the 1970s, no one was talking about grounding, also known as grounding, she said. “For a long time I didn’t know what it was,” she continued. “I feel the ground underneath me, I feel better, I feel healthier.”

As it turns out, viral TikTok videos have popularized the practice of barefoot women making direct contact with the Earth in recent years.

“People are looking to improve their health and connect with nature,” she told me. “Everyone wants to be punished, I think it's because there's so much shit going on and so much things in our food, chemicals that are in things“

While McAdams' approach may seem extreme, I spent most of my professional career working in London and Atlanta, and I have learned to appreciate the restorative benefits going out into nature. And to take it a step further: maybe immersing yourself in water while taking off your shoes every now and then while outside isn't such a crazy idea.

Putting your feet on the ground

When I started gardening about 10 years ago, I always went outside with a speaker to listen to my favorite tunes. One autumn day I wondered if I really needed to listen to Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind album. As much as I loved Steve Harris's galloping bass lines, it dawned on me that perhaps my own peace of mind would be better served if I tuned in to the birds singing and the leaves blowing.

Now I take off my shoes whenever I walk in the yard, and the feeling of my feet shuffling through the grass is oddly soothing.

I'm up to something. There are now thousands of Canadian doctors prescribe nature to their patientsincluding Dr. Melissa Lem, co-founder of PaRX, Canada's national outdoor prescription program.

“There is a huge amount of research, thousands of in-depth studies, describing the benefits of nature for your health,” Lem, an assistant professor of family practice at the University of British Columbia, told CNN. “Anything that gets you outside, mindful, and more connected to nature is likely to improve your health.”

So I wondered how much more of a difference it would make if you took your shoes off and plugged in directly with the Earth?

The 2019 documentary Grounded argues that the human body is both biological and electrical, making it susceptible to the charges that constantly emit from the earth beneath our feet.

According to Lem, the science behind earthing is still emerging. But to help us understand the theory behind it, she explained it this way: “We accumulate positive charges, free radicals, in our body. The surface of the Earth has a negative charge, and so filling your body with these negative ions and charges helps reduce the overall number of free radicals and reduce inflammation.”

Free radicals These are molecules inside a body with unpaired electrons. Seeking a match, they rob other cells of their electrons, causing cellular damage that can cause inflammation, which contributes to chronic disease. According to its proponents, grounding can support your body by supplying it with stabilizing electrons.

Director Josh Tickell, who directed the film Grounded,» said he was skeptical when the idea for the film was first pitched. “I thought it was, you know, California, eco, crunchy,” he told CNN. “I thought, 'Oh my god, another bad movie idea.'

But his film has found an audience of 8 million people on YouTube who are ready to hear his message or have already believed it. Among the more than 10,000 comments, there are hundreds of personal stories that testify to the restorative benefits of direct contact with nature.

The Modern Grounding Movement

Clint Ober, 81, is considered by some to be the “godfather” of the earthing movement. He believes that the advent of modern shoes has isolated us from what he sees as health benefits on Earth.

“Before I was born in 1944, it was impossible to get out of the mud,” he told CNN. “It would be impossible to give up grounding if you wanted to. We came out of nature 65 years ago, and since then everyone has started developing these inflammation-related health disorders.”

The founder of Earthing, which makes earthing mats, mattress pads and pillows, Ober became more widely known after being featured in The Earthing Movie. In it, he told the story of a childhood friend from the Cheyenne tribe in Montana who was treated for a serious illness by being placed in a hole in the ground for several days.

Ober said he spent nearly a month in the hospital in 1995 after an abscess destroyed 80% of his liver's function, and when he left the hospital he vowed to live a healthier, more natural lifestyle.

The study is funded by Obera shows some benefits of earthing, but until now independent research on earthing has been limited. No studies have provided any confidence in support of this movement, and any evidence still appears anecdotal.

“I have no interest in science,” Tickell said. “But when you photograph enough people who are going through enough life changes, you kind of realize there’s something there.”

Ken Crenshaw, 57, is the director of sports medicine and performance for the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. He says he treated players with grounding mats. He also sleeps on one of them at home and even touches one of them while typing on his office computer, meaning he practices grounding most of the day even though he works in his office indoors.

Crenshaw told CNN that some players were skeptical because they didn't feel like anything was happening when they made contact with the mats. “But if I work with you from a manual tissue standpoint, I feel like it changes how quickly the tissue reacts,” he said. “Is this a subjective conclusion? Yes, but it seems to me that it is so.”

Trying to ground myself

Shortly after I first watched The Grounded Movie several years ago, I remember passing a young man on a forest path. He was barefoot and didn't seem to care about anything. For research purposes, I myself went barefoot.

Getting out early wasn't as relaxing as I had hoped. I'd never noticed the crushed gravel under my sneakers at Leitha Thompson Memorial Park in Roswell before, but I was surprised at how quickly I was able to navigate the spiky terrain once I got used to it.

“Barefoot! Wow!” exclaimed one woman, who stopped dead in her tracks. I assured her and the other woman that I was not crazy and would watch out for tree stumps and broken glass.

The words that really struck me came from a couple walking behind me on the trail. “This man doesn’t wear any shoes,” he said bluntly. “It’s grounding,” she replied with full authority.

At that moment I felt that I had entered another world, a world in which contact with the Earth was not some minor activity, but something normal and completely understandable.

To be honest, I didn't expect anything to happen as a result of my barefoot trek.

But then I noticed one significant and immediate change. I usually wake up at least once or twice every night, but for the next week I slept until the morning without a break. Was it grounding or something else? Perhaps walking on the gravel triggered the pain points on my feet and provided me with some sort of natural reflexology treatment. I can't say for sure, but my sleep definitely improved over the next week.

Matt White has some thoughts on the change in my sleep quality. He is a health and environmental psychologist at the University of Vienna who is leading a €6.3 million research project on biophysical sustainability for the European Union.

“We do find some of the effects that people are reporting when they do earthing,” he explained to CNN. “But we're not saying it has anything to do with electrical currents in the ground.”

“There's a lot good quality evidence showing that the more you physically touch the natural environment, the more complex microbiome you have,” he explained. “We know that better microbiome “better influences gut and brain mechanisms that can reduce inflammation and enhance immune function.”

How to Ground Yourself

It is important to note that if you have a chronic inflammatory disease, you should consult your doctor before earthing. Outdoor recreation is not a panacea. But whatever you think of its merits, the benefits of simply connecting with nature are well known.

White's study It is estimated that just two hours of fresh air each week can increase your well-being by 2%. If that doesn't sound like much, he says the estimate is average, meaning the benefits could be much higher for some people.

If you are going to invest in grounding equipment such as mats and sheets, the only downside is that you will be spending money on something that may not work. But if you go outside, with or without shoes, what do you have to lose?

“You can’t go overboard with weed,” Tickell joked.

Grounding yourself doesn't mean you have to stop wearing shoes all the time, like McAdams does.

It could be as simple as taking them off and taking walk on grass or mud. You can play in the sand on the beach or swim in the sea, river or lake. Even gardening with your bare hands will make a difference—you just need to make direct contact with Mother Earth.

Don Riddell is a presenter and correspondent for CNN World Sport.

Get inspired with our weekly look at how living well is made simple. Register for CNN Newsletter “Life But Better” for information and tools designed to improve your well-being.

For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at: CNN.com