The Power of Negative Ions to Heal and Cleanse Your Body
In the olden days, people used to go to the seaside when they suffered from ill health. The clean salt air and pounding surf seemed therapeutic, bringing life back to the weary and fatigued. Today, most vacationers seek mountain and tropical retreats where the air is pure and the environment is free from everyday stressors, like traffic, email, and cell phones.
It turns out that there might just be a scientific reason you find nature so healing and refreshing. Natural environments are charged with tens of thousands of free-flowing negative ions. This contrasts drastically with the typical American home or office which often registers only dozens or even a flat zero.
Computers, television, cell phones, and acid-forming foods (highly processed and chemically laden foods that typically comprise the Standard American Diet) emit a positive charge. The myriad technological devices surrounding us generate a sort of electrical smog that clouds our thinking and lead to bad moods, restlessness, and headaches. The positively charged ions in our homes and offices ‘stick’ to the negative ions that should be circulating your body, reducing your body’s overall negative charge, which is the natural state of health.
Ions are created in nature as molecules break apart due to sunlight, radiation, and moving air and water. “The action of the pounding surf creates negative air ions and we also see it immediately after spring thunderstorms when people report lightened moods,” says ion researcher Michael Terman, PhD, of Columbia University in New York.
Researchers at the Goldstein and Lewin Dept. of Medical Research in Stahnsdorf, Germany, have correlated prolonged deprivation of negative ions to a shortened life span. On the other hand, researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow have demonstrated that exposure to high levels of negatively charged ions mitigates the effects of physical stress on the body. “Generally speaking, negative ions increase the flow of oxygen to the brain; resulting in higher alertness, decreased drowsiness, and more mental energy,” says Pierce J. Howard, PhD, author of The Owners Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind Brain Research and director of research at the Center for Applied Cognitive Sciences in Charlotte, N.C.
Negative ions have been shown to be effective at treating depression and seasonal effective disorder. The negative charge also binds to positively charged elements in your body, pulling out toxins and impurities. But before you rush out to buy an expensive negative ion generator, take heed: many of the products on the market do not produce a therapeutic dose of negative ions or are affected by other electromagnetic equipment in the room, such as computer screens, air conditioners, or televisions.
So, what do you do if you want to take advantage of the myriad health benefits of negative ions? First, limit your exposure to positively charged elements such as television and acid-forming foods. Second, use natural negative ion producers such as Himalayan Salt Lamps (recommended by Dr. Oz) and pure 100% beeswax candles, which actually emit negative ions and purify the air in your room as they burn (as opposed to paraffin candles that are created from petroleum sludge and emit carcinogens into the air). Third, and most importantly, take yourself to the biggest negative ion generators on the planet: waterfalls and ocean surf.