Better Earthing cofounders Corrina & Peter Griffiths were interviewed for 2019 Australia Day, Australian-Made Advertising Feature in Melbourne’s Sunday Age and Sydney’s Sun-Herald.
Here is the article plus a “behind-the-scenes” photo that didn’t make it into the paper (scroll down to the end to view).
Peter talks about what motivated him to start Better Earthing and why he decided to have Better Earthing products made in Australia, rather than offshore.
Getting the very best out of the good Earth
How a crippling back injury led to a successful business venture with a genuine focus on optimal health and wellbeing.
In 2014, Peter Griffiths was lifting his bike onto a car rack when he hurt his back. He could not have known that the stabbing, debilitating pain would signal the start of a journey that would change forever the lives of himself and wife Corrina.
Griffiths knew nothing about earthing, the ancient practice of using the Earth’s subtle, natural energy to enhance the body’s ability to heal itself. Then a friend and health speaker, former AFL footballer Mark Bunn, opened his eyes.
Desperate to reduce the pain and inflammation, he purchased an earthing sheet and mats made overseas. His physical improvement was swift, but so too was the decline of the products – within months they stopped working.
“So I took a punt, bought some high-percentage silver fabric and safety connections and made my own earthing sheet,” he says. “I had a hunch it would work as an underlay, sleeping on your normal sheet without knowing it’s there, and only needing to wash it every few months.”
And so Better Earthing was born, a business that counts health practitioners from masseurs to cardiologists among a client base that continues to grow, even more so since joining forces with the Australian Made campaign last March. They turned to earthing to combat inflammation, insomnia, anxiety, arthritis and other auto-immune issues. Around 10 percent of their customers use Better Earthing as a proactive measure, simply to stay well.
“It’s a natural phenomenon that the Earth contains free electrons, and when we’re in conductive contact with them they enter the body, pair off and neutralise excess positive charge’s associated with inflammation,” Griffiths says. “There are a growing number of published studies to support this.”
“Put simply, free radicals are the things that basically kill us, through earthing we have free radical scavengers (antioxidants) on tap while we’re sleeping.”
The couple report that 90 percent of sleep sufferers notice a marked difference within a week or two of using a Better Earthing underlay. “Most people are telling us they’re sleeping better – they’re getting more sleep, or they’re waking up less. And when they do wake up, they’re able to go back to sleep more quickly.”
This is because earthing normalises the body’s levels of cortisol, the hormone that ideally makes us feel alert when we wake up. “You want it to peak in the morning, not in the middle of the night while you’re trying to sleep,” Corrina Griffiths says. “We’ve had people who’ve had insomnia for 10 years who have been able to get off sleeping tablets.”
The Better Earthing underlay has come a long way since the 2014 prototype and is roughly the thickness of a 1000-count bed sheet – so subtle that the Griffiths’ have had people purchase them without telling their partner. The lead from the underlay can be earthed using an adapter plugged into a power point – which doesn’t need to be turned on, as no electricity is used – or run outdoors and earthed using a grounding rod.
The underlay sheet demands detailed construction for optimal earthing conductivity, and the Griffiths’ are grateful they found a local Gold Coast sewing company whose skill and guidance have been integral to Better Earthing’s evolution. As a mark of quality, they give a five-year warranty in an industry where zero to one-year is the norm.
Producing locally is a no-brainer for a couple whose primary focus is on optimal health and wellbeing. “It’s very important to me that we get the most out of our minds and our bodies,” Peter Griffiths says. “Earthing is a really easy way to support this.” Corrina Griffiths knows that without the malfunction of the earthing products Peter originally purchased, their business would never have started. “Our focus was to make really high-quality products, and we knew we’d be able to do that with Australian businesses.”
As earthing naturally thins the blood, if you take prescription blood thinning medication you should consult your doctor before using an indoor earthing product.
