Grounding Effect on Alzheimer's Disease

Chang Gung Medical Foundation

Status: Completed

Conditions: Alzheimer Disease; Depression, Anxiety; Insomnia

Treatments: Device: Grounding

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05246332

201901136B0

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators explore the effectiveness of grounding as a non-pharmacological therapy for treating sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression in patients with mild AD.

Full description

Grounding refers to having direct contact with the Earth, such as walking barefoot or lying on the ground. Research has found that grounding can improve inflammation, free radical damage, blood pressure, sleep quality, pain, stress, mood, and wound healing. However, there has been no re-search on the effect of utilizing grounding for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Thus, in this study, the investigators explore the effectiveness of grounding as a non-pharmacological therapy for treating sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression in patients with mild AD.

Patients with mild AD were enrolled in the study. The electrochemical analyzer CHI 1205b was employed to check the electrochemical signals at acupoints KI1 and GV16. The investigators used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) to evaluate sleep quality, anxiety, and depression, respectively, at weeks 0 and 12.

Enrollment: 22 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• diagnosed with dementia, and CDR ≥ 0.5
• aged > 50 years,
• sit with bilateral bare feet on the grounding mat
• able to answer the questionnaire
• able to sign the informed consent adequately.

Exclusion criteria

• aged less than 50 years
• inability to sit with bilateral bare feet on the grounding mat
• currently taking anti-oxidative health supplements or anti-inflammatory medicine.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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22 participants in 2 patient groups

Patient receive grounding

Experimental group

Description:

The investigators use the grounding mat (EARTHING Conductive Earthing Uni-versal Mat with Earthing Cord) as the grounding method. The grounding group use a grounding wire to sit on a chair barefoot in contact with the grounding mat for 30 minutes.

Treatment:

Device: Grounding

Patient receive sham-grounding

Sham Comparator group

Description:

The investigators use the grounding mat (EARTHING Conductive Earthing Uni-versal Mat with Earthing Cord) as the grounding method. The sham-grounding group use a sham grounding wire to sit on a chair barefoot in contact with the grounding mat for 30 minutes.

Treatment:

Device: Grounding