Dr. Mercola June 21 2008 140,765 views
Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS) is a condition in which people are highly sensitive to electromagnetic fields. In an area such as a wireless hotspot, they experience pain or other symptoms.
People with EHS experience a variety of symptoms including headache, fatigue, nausea, burning and itchy skin, and muscle aches. These symptoms are subjective and vary between individuals, which makes the condition difficult to study, and has left experts divided about the validity of such claims.
More than 30 studies have been conducted to determine what link the condition has to exposure to electromagnetic fields from sources such as radar dishes, mobile phone signals and, Wi-Fi hotspots.
Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS) is still viewed with skepticism by most scientists and medical professionals. The World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a workshop in Prague in October 2004 to review the more than 30 studies on the topic. The editors of the workshop stated:
"There are also some indications that these symptoms may be due to pre-existing psychiatric conditions as well as stress reactions as a result of worrying about believed EMF health effects, rather than the EMF exposure itself." But added, "Whatever its cause, EHS is a real and sometimes a disabling problem for the affected persons."
So is it real, or is it just another problem in your head?
With everything I know about the health dangers associated with electromagnetic fields (EMF) and information-carrying radio waves from cell phones, WiFi routers and cell phone towers, I’m convinced EHS is a real and looming health disaster.
Sweden is leading the pack in acknowledging and dealing with this issue, mainly due to the progress made by FEB - The Swedish Association for the ElectroSensitive. The association produces and distributes educational literature that has helped raise awareness about the phenomenon around the world.
Mast Action UK is doing similar work in Great Britain, as well as the Electromagnetic Radiation Alliance in Australia.
There are signs that acceptance is spreading, especially in Europe. Just last week, the French magazine Connexion reported that four libraries in Paris have turned off the WiFi connections they installed at the end of 2007 after staff claimed they were causing health problems.
Why is WiFi Potentially Worse than Other Radiation?
Electomagnetic fields are all around us, no matter where you live these days. They emanate from power lines, televisions, household electrical wiring, appliances and microwaves. Then you have the information-carrying radio waves of cell phones, cell phone towers and wireless internet connections.
WiFi is a kind of radio wave that operates at either 2.4 or 5 gigahertz – slightly higher than your cell phone. Since they’re designed to allow for transmission of very large amounts of data, WiFi radio waves also emit greater amounts electromagnetic radiation.What are the Signs and Symptoms of EHS?
Lucinda Grant, director of the U.S. support group Electrical Sensitivity Network, and author of two books: The Electrical Sensitivity Handbook and Workstation Radiation, compares electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) to that of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), which is an apt comparison as both groups are environmental canaries.
Chemical sensitivity was also once thought to originate in the minds of hysterical housewives.
Many times, those suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity will also be highly sensitive to chemicals or suffer from MCS. Other at-risk groups for developing EHS include those with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and people experiencing mercury toxicity from dental amalgams.
This makes logical sense since your nervous system is a primary site impacted by both chemicals and electromagnetic fields. And if your nervous system has been damaged from toxic exposures you may also be more susceptible to EHS as well.
The five most common symptoms of electromagnetic hypersensitivity are:
Less commonly reported symptoms include:
Electomagnetic Fields Produce More Potent Mycotoxins
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, in which we discussed the impact of electromagnetic fields and radio waves on your body (among other things. The complete audio interview and transcript is available to all my Inner Circle members).
Dr. Klinghardt reminded me that Dr. Robert Becker -- in his second important book Cross Currents that came out in the late 80s or early 90s -- found that when you expose a bacterial culture to abnormal electromagnetic fields, the bacteria believe they are being attacked by your immune system and start producing much more virulent toxinx as a protective mechanism.
Klinghardt believes that it’s possible that some 50 percent of chronic infections are caused, and/or aggravated, by electromagnetic field exposure, leading to syndromes like chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and other chronic pain syndromes.
Why Your Laptop May be More Harmful than Your PC
Another fascinating tidbit of information gleaned from my interview with Dr. Klinghardt is that laptops are far more hazardous to your health than desktops. As they heat up, the circuitry board out-gasses metals such as beryllium, and as the plastic warms it out-gasses flame retardants like PBDE, all of which adds to your toxic load.
It would be prudent to only use your laptop short-term, such as when traveling, and using a desktop for your day-to-day work. Preferably positioning your hard drive as far away from you as possible, with fans blowing air away from where you sit.
Heavy Metal Toxicity Increases Your Risk of Electromagnetic Sensitivity
Last but not least, the issue of heavy metal toxicity in relation to electromagnetic and radio wave exposure may be one of the most significant and convincing pieces of the EHS puzzle.
Dr. Yoshiaki Omura’s research shows that the more your system is contaminated with heavy metals from silver amalgam fillings, eating contaminated fish, living downstream from coal burning power plants and so forth, the more your body becomes a virtual antenna that actually concentrates radiation, making it far more destructive.
But there’s also an additional overlap that can influence and increase the risk of damage to your health.
If you have accumulated toxic metals in your brain, your brain becomes like an antenna, picking up more cell phone radiation, which in turn can cause the microbes in your system to overreact and create more potent mycotoxins. This can create a never-ending vicious cycle between the microbes and metals in your body and your exposure to electromagnetic fields, which can lead to hypersensitivity.
What Can You Do to Protect Yourself and Your Family?
First, you need to understand that your nutrition and your daily lifestyle can make you either accumulate more toxic metals or help you excrete them over time.
Eating a healthy diet tailored to your nutritional type and maintaining a regular exercise regimen, as well as detoxing on a regular basis, forms the foundation of optimal health, and can help reduce your toxic load.
Two other factors that play a vital role here are: sleeping well and getting plenty of appropriate sun exposure.
Why?
Because sleep and sunlight have a direct impact on your melatonin levels, and melatonin is actually one of the most potent detox agents that eliminate metals from your brain naturally.
Increasing your melatonin production can be done in three ways:
1. Sleeping in absolute darkness 2. Getting at least an hour of exposure to bright daylight each day 3. Reducing the electro-pollution in your sleeping quarters (i.e. remove electrical alarm clocks, cordless home phones and wireless phones from your bedroom)
1. Sleeping in absolute darkness
2. Getting at least an hour of exposure to bright daylight each day
3. Reducing the electro-pollution in your sleeping quarters (i.e. remove electrical alarm clocks, cordless home phones and wireless phones from your bedroom)
Melatonin is not only the most important detox agent for your brain; it is also a very important anti-inflammatory. And as I stated earlier, electromagnetic radiation can make inflammation worse by creating more potent mycotoxins, so reducing inflammation is vital.
A 1997 Australian Senate Discussion Paper also confirms the importance of reducing electro-pollution in your bedroom, as researchers found that even low level (12 milliGauss) exposure to 50-60 hertz electromagnetic fields can significantly reduce your melatonin production.
For other recommendations on how to protect yourself and your family from cell phone radiation, please review my list of guidelines from last week’s article, Now Half the World Has a Cell Phone - - Why That is a Brain Tumor Epidemic Waiting to Happen.
You reference that people should get screened for metal toxicity. How do you recommend people go about doing that? I understand that hair analysis is very sketchy (and often a sign that you are NOT ridding your body of metals is that very LITTLE shows up in the hair). Are you referring to chelation challenges?
The EHS people I know are helped to some degree by measures to deal with mercury toxicity. Perhaps it is currently not possible for them to rid the body completely of mercury, because while it relieves a lot of their health problems, they are still EHS. I think there are more factors involved than mercury toxicity by itself. Nor would I feel sanguine about getting over my inconvenient "problem" (ability to detect a harmful environment) in order to join the global gang bang with unknown long-term consequences to the environment and haman race.
BTW, thank you sincerely, Nutritional Healing Centers, for your efforts to help! This is crucially important. If I came across as critical, I wasn't aiming at you, but was concerned about what others were reading into this.
Thanks for your posting...very interesting and informative.
Note the misspelling of the word "tragedy" (not tradegy, as you have it twice in this article)
NHC, You are absolutely correct in your assessment of the "antenna effect." I personally developed ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)/CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) while living and working in highly microwave radiated areas in Fukuoka City, Japan. My apartment was within 300 meters of two cell phone masts (microwave antennas) and within one kilometer of a total of four microwave antennas while most of my adjacent neighbors had WiFi bleeding into my apartment. My office at Kyushu University was also on the 6th floor and in line-of-site of a number of antennas. The ME/CFIDS doctor I went to see at Kyushu University Hospital told me there was nothing I could do for this problem. It was six months of being sick and searching for a cure before I even imagined that EMR (electromagnetic radiation) might be the cause. However, I did notice that I felt better at night (in spite of the fact that I couldn't sleep) when people aren't using their cell phones. I also noticed that I got weird anxiety attacks at specific times of the day: between 8 AM and 9 AM, 12 noon, and between 7 PM and 9 PM. I later found out that these were peak cell-phone usage times in Japan, where I was living at the time. I also noticed that I felt better if I changed my location to one more out in the country. Finally, I found a log house up in the mountains of Saga Prefecture in a place with no cell phone or television reception. I decided to initially rent it out for three days. I would say that within the first 24 hours that 50% of my symptoms disappeared -- though it took another two months before I could sleep without sleeping pills. I ended up staying up there for four months. As I started to get better, I also started to become extremely sensitive to EMR -- especially the microwave radiation from cell phones and cell phone towers. If we were driving down the road I would feel the radiation from the cell phone tower before we got to it...continued.
If I were in a coffee shop in in the mountains and someone walked in with a cell phone in her purse, I could feel it. Fortunately, the log house was only about 30 minutes away from one of Japan's most famous alternative doctors' clinic, Dr. Toshihiko Yayama <www.cosmic-energy.co.jp/.../yhc.cfm>, author of "Qi Healing: The Way to a New Mind and Body" and the inventor of the "Zero Search Meridian Energy Diagnostic Measuring Device." With this device he was able to tell me in about five minutes that I had a number of active viral infections, candida, mold, mycoplasma, and heavy metal accumulation. He originally put me on two of his Chinese medicine herbal formulas: what he called "Infection" and "Metal." In line with the names, the first was for clearing infections and the other was for clearing metals. I also practiced Qi Gong at his hospital every day and eventually had all my filling removed from my mouth at his dental clinic. After about eight weeks of living in an electrosmog-free area, I started to do over the next five weeks or so ten IV EDTA-Calcium chelation treatments. At the end of the treatments, using his Zero Search device, he declared me free of metals. While I had still felt like I had some kind of infection in my brain before these treatments, after them this went away. I was also able to handle the EMR much better after them. Three weeks later he declared me cured. Other things that I continue to do and have helped have been acupuncture, Transfer factor, and lots of antioxidants. I have also left Japan since the electrosmog there is just too overwhelming. While I can say that clearing the heavy metals out of one's body will make one less susceptible to the negative effects of EMR, I definitely cannot say that this will completely solve the problem. The only thing that will solve this problem is a drastic reduction levels in the ambient electromagnetic radiation we are all being exposed to on a daily basis. Everyone is being affected by this!
NHC could be on to something......It is my belief and personal experience that heavy metal toxcity can cause health problems on their own without exposure to EMF.
It would make sense to me however that coming in close contact with EMF's along with having heavy metal toxicity could increase the toxic effect on the human tissue by causing a vibration of sorts and also a possible dislodging of the metals only to be relocated in some other part of the human body. In doing so it could potentially cause liver and other organ damage along the way via the bloodstream.....
In getting rid of my heavy metal toxicity last year I soaked my feet in hot water along with bentonite clay mixed in with it. Currently I do it as a preventative maintenance program usually about once every month or so.....
The body is an antenna (conductor) whether it's full of heavy metals or not, so just getting rid of them won't get rid of the problem. We need to get rid of the microwave pollution, or change our technology so it uses only frequencies that are harmless.
How does one go about getting screened for EHS sensitivity and heavy metal toxicity?
Hello I'm new and I was wondering does your clinic have a website? Also, what is your recommendation for testing concerning heavy metals in body? I'm located in Northern California.
many thanks!
Lisa
How does one remove toxic metals from the body?
Lisa777, this IS the website. Click on "My Clinic" at the top of the page to learn more. Don't expect Dr. Mercola to answer your questions in this forum. That it not his habit.
I agree with your assessment of our bodies acting like antennas because of the heavy metal toxicity within us, but with all the barium, aluminum, titanium and other heavy metals sprayed upon us daily, I feel it is at best a somewhat losing game in detoxifying. Some is better than none, but how can we possibly get all this garbage out of ourselves when we are literally breathing it 24/7/365, eating 7/365 and drinking it 7/365?.
In many places these heavy metals are found in the soil and groundwater at thousands of times the recommended daily exposure levels. Their presence has killed the vital soil organisms that make the minerals and vitamins available to the vegetables we eat. The vegetables themselves are repositories for all of these toxins.
Perhaps there is a chelation agent that will enable us to keep our heads above the water with regard to this very dangerous situation?.
Nice article. I would not personally use the term "allergic" to Wireless Internet as that can conjure all kinds of reactive responses in the reactive mind -- or subconscious mind if you prefer -- when we are not really allergic to such frequencies though there can be biochemical responses to them that will manifest as physical symptoms. Those responses are due to entrainment of frequencies of various ranges and harmonics which can and do modulate the vibrational components of the body resulting in biochemical changes. My views.
The "Antenna Effect" was also an interesting post that I believe is highly relevant and gave useful information. I do consider as well, that the field of the body itself is also an antenna as well as a transmitter and that the field of the body can also act as a shield to certain frequency transmissions. In my consideration, different minerals in the body can fortify one's field essentially creating a "shield effect" to different outside frequencies effectively bouncing them off so that they do not penetrate the field/shield thereby eliminating any bioentrainments that may result if those specific minerals were not present in adequate amounts. By the same token, in my view, things like heavy metals can weaken the field through their frequency outputs by modulating different compatible frequency components of the body resulting in a weakening of the field thereby causing unhealthy biochemical changes.
Thanks for listening.
John Jr.
Thank you for bringing up this aspect! The EHS have also had considerable success with magnesium supplementation, and that may relate to this. I was able to fend off chronic fatigue syndrome for about a year with magnesium, and then I had to start resorting to shielding. Shielding was so successful, problems such as allergies (to cats, etc.) from childhood were resolved, suggesting to me that I'd been affected household EMF as young as three. People are aware of allergens, but not circumstances in which they become susceptible to them. This became really clear to me in Siberia, where I amazingly tolerated ubiquitous cats and dogs except in two houses. Those two had computers with Internet (but not Wifi--that's another matter). At a third house, where I'd tolerated a cat, the owner got a computer, and we plugged it in, booted it up and sent an e-mail, and lo and behold there was my allergy, and it lasted about 4 hours afterwards.
Calling EHS an "allergy" is imprecise, I agree. On the other hand, how many people know the term EHS? How do you begin to explain to the average citizen what the problem is? The word "allergy" sometimes opens the door to a discussion they can relate to. It can also be an obstacle, though. In Japan, they take it to mean I'm objecting to the bizarre lifestyle cell phones have engendered, which they can relate to. If I use the term "denjiha kabinsho" (EMF sensitive), they are usually aware of the meaning.
My dog is!!
The dog was exhibiting veryu strange behaviour. Normally a very boisterous three year old Doberman she was lethargic, disinterested and sleeping all the time. Concerned we looked at everything - diet (she is fed raw meat and bones) tick fever etc. Suddenly we realised she was sleeping in the same room as the wifi box for the computer. We moved her immediately and switched it off when not in use. It took three days for her to return to what we considered to be her normal self. She doesn't know about EMF and certainly hasn't read about it!!! It has certainly made us think about it as I had always thought I might be affected.
I wish there were many more articles like this! So the editors of the WHO stated people 'suffer' from EMS "as a result of worrying about believed EMF health effects, rather than the EMF exposure itself." Bull! It's taken me 11 years of suffering from thyroid, fibro, chronic fatigue, etc..to realize it IS the exposures that are making me feel like death. ELEVEN YEARS!! I took a test relating to EMS and I had 45-47 out of 50 symptoms. I feel shaky, anxious, 'metallic', dizzy, clumsy, exhausted, brain fuzzy, so nauseous, and a myriad of other symptoms. I feel sad for the loss of "me" to my children. I used to be one who had excess energy and danced around the house. Now I have to struggle to pay attention to anyone and complete a sentence without sounding like an idiot. I'd like to give those WHO people and doctors who don't believe in EMS a swift kick in the A**!
It is clear to lots of us that the WHO is well infiltrated by corporate interests. ICNIRP, the body responsible for establishing international EMF standards, was apparently not an official part of the WHO (it was affiliated somehow and such a confusing situation that we all assumed they were part of the WHO) and received funding from corporations. Michael Repacholi, who used to head ICNIRP, went directly from there to work for the telecommunications industry as a consultant. I believe Louis Slesin's Microwave News or EMFacts in Australia has more information on this. In any case, ICNIRP has used a lot of rationalizations to arrive at its public pronouncements. The statement by the WHO about EHS being a psychological problem is a brazen insult to former Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, who has EHS.
Environmental Illness, EHS, MCS, Lyme Disease, global changes, religious fanatics, greedy-greedy people (our own government being the worst), etc.
Seems like this has the makings of the end of times my friends.
I CAN'T WAIT! BYE EVERYONE!