Grounding Patients With Hypertension Improves Blood Pressure: A Case History Series Study.

BACKGROUND: Research conducted during the last 15 y has demonstrated that grounding (Earthing) the human body to Earth's surface charge generates multiple beneficial physiological effects. Anecdotal reports include lowering of high blood pressure (BP). OBJECTIVE: To test such reports, a pilot case history series was undertaken with hypertensive patients in a single physician cardiology practice. INTERVENTION: Patients grounded themselves at home for at least 10 h/d for several mo. OUTCOME MEASURE: BP was measured at baseline in the clinic, and then, after starting grounding, 3 subsequent times in the clinic again at approximately monthly intervals. Patients were also given a BP monitor and were asked to measure their BP on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM for 12 wk. RESULTS: All 10 patient measurements were found to be significantly improved at the end of the trial period, and some, well before the end. Systolic levels decreased during this time, ranging individually from 8.6% to 22.7%, with an average decrease of 14.3%. CONCLUSION: This is the first known study measuring the influence of grounding the body on hypertension. The results indicate that grounding appears to be a safe BP-reducing therapy warranting further research.

A multicenter assessment of the analytical performance of the routine thyroid panel on the Olympus AU3000i immunoassay system.

BACKGROUND: The AU3000i thyroid assay panel (TSH, fT4, T4, fT3, T3) was evaluated at four sites in a European multicenter study. The study was designed to assess the basic analytical performance characteristics of the Olympus thyroid assays. In addition, a comprehensive assessment of the TSH functional sensitivity was undertaken to challenge the manufacturer's claim of 4th generation assay performance. RESULTS: Repeatability (within-run precision) of TSH, ff4 and T4 was better than 3% across the measurable range, T3 and fT3 repeatability was better than 6%. Within-laboratory (total) precision was better than 10% for all assays, for fT4, it was better than 3%. Method comparisons were undertaken against the Roche Elecsys 2010, the Siemens Advia Centaur and the Abbott Architect. Overall, good to excellent correlations were seen, however in some cases there were systematic differences which can be attributed to the lack of an appropriate standard or reference method and/or heterogeneity of the analyte. The functional sensitivity of the Olympus TSH assay was confirmed to be 4th generation, giving a mean functional sensitivity (at 20% CV) of 0.0011 mIU/L with no sites exceeding 0.002 mIU/L. Plasma (Li-heparinate) was shown to be an acceptable sample type for use in these assays. CONCLUSION: The results generated in this study indicate that the assays of the Olympus AU3000i routine thyroid panel are precise, correlate well with other established assays, and are suitable for use in the routine clinical laboratory.