Is ElectroPollution Making You Sick?

Science Lesson: Your body is an amazing, electrically-powered, organic machine and your cells communicate with each other through electrical impulses. Your brain tells your heart to beat. Your stomach tells your brain you are hungry. Your skin sends information about the texture, temperature, and weight of objects you touch, etc.

In fact, your central nervous system is kind of like the Internet; it is the conduit for millions of messages to be sent back and forth between cells and organs to keep your body functioning properly. When you cut yourself, distress signals are sent out by the damaged tissue, and your body responds with various reinforcements to clot the blood, fight infection, and seal off the area. That’s just one example of millions of chemical processes in the human body that are all controlled by electrical impulses.

Anytime electrical current flows through something, like a wire for example, it creates an Electromagnetic Field (EMF). Like electronic equipment, our electric bodies have an Electromagnetic Field surrounding them. We conduct electricity and radio frequencies, which is why getting close to or touching the TV antenna helps get a better picture. This is also why sticking a fork in an outlet will shock the spit out of you.

“Electropollution” is a term that describes our increasing exposure to harmful, invisible, electronic frequencies harnessed by man in our modern world. Electronic frequency can be divided into these basic groups:

Extremely Low Frequency (ELF): power lines
Radio Frequency (RF): radio and tv signals, microwaves, and wireless devices
Intermediate Frequencies: dirty electricity emitted by appliances, electric circuits, etc.
High Frequency: ionizing radiation, X-rays, CT scans, and PET scans, which have been proven to cause cancer
“Dirty Electricity” is a term used to describe the harmful combination of distorted frequencies from various electronic sources in our homes, offices, schools, etc.

So what’s the problem exactly?

As I said before, our cells are constantly sending and receiving messages via electrochemical pathways of our nervous system. External Electromagnetic Frequencies can disrupt normal communication between cells. They essentially overload and confuse cells with false messages or messages they don’t understand, like too many people trying to talk at the same time. This interference can disrupt cellular function in every part of your body.

When we are exposed to external EMFs, they can disturb our nervous systems and raise cortisol, our stress hormone, which can lead to all kinds of physical problems such as: sleep disorders, depressed immunity, cardiovascular disease, premature aging, autoimmune disorders, and even neurological problems like depression.

EMFs can rupture cell membranes and create free radicals resulting in DNA damage. They can disrupt normal cell division, handicap your immune system, and also create precancerous cells.

If you have health problems, electropollution is not something your doctor is going to look into, but it could be causing or aggravating your condition. Don’t rule it out.

Your home may literally be making you sick, aka Sick Building Syndrome.

Unless you live in a cave or a tee-pee, there is electrical current flowing inside the walls and ceilings of every room in your home, all producing EMFs. Every electrical device in your house is amplifying these electromagnetic fields: your TV, stereo, refrigerator, dishwasher, alarm clock, hair dryer, electric razor, computers, Wi-Fi, baby monitors, lamps, fans, etc.

We are living and working in electrified boxes, pulsating and radiating EMFs into our bodies nearly 24 hours a day.

According to the research completed in 1959 by Samuel Milham M.D., M.P.H., the spread of electricity is directly linked to a rise in degenerative disease, cardiovascular disease, and suicide in the United States. The incidence of these diseases was much lower in rural areas before they were electrified.

There have been over 30 studies, since the ground-breaking 1979 Leeper-Werthheimer Study, directly linking children with leukemia to their proximity to power lines, step down transformers, and exposure to EMFs emitted by household appliances.

There have been hundreds of studies linking EMFs to Alzheimer’s, heart disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, miscarriage, birth defects, infertility and more.

Cell Phone Radiation

In 2006, a study of cell phone habits of 900 people with brain tumors was conducted by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life. The study found that people who used cell phones for a total of 2000 hours had a 240% increased risk for a malignant tumor on the side of the head that they usually held the phone. This is because cell phone radiation penetrates two inches into an adult skull. Cell phone radiation penetrates even further into a child’s skull. This is why children should not use cell phones.

FYI: 2000 cell phone hours breaks down to 2000 minutes per month for 5 years.

Here’s what I do to minimize my exposure to cell phone radiation:

• I rarely put my phone up to my head when I’m using it. I try to always use the speaker phone, or my earbuds.
• I keep the phone away from my body as much as possible. I put in on my desk, on the table at restaurants, or on the car seat next to me when I’m driving.
• I prefer to text message rather than talk on the phone, and put my phone on airplane mode if I’m carrying it in my pocket for long periods of time. This stops the radiation completely and allows me to be present and to focus on the people I’m spending time with without interruptions.

So for those folks who like to give me a hard time because I never answer the phone – now you know why.

Also, the weaker your phone signal, the more radiation it produces. If you don’t have full signal, don’t answer.

Finally, don’t charge your cell phone on your nightstand at night. Speaking of the bedroom – EMFs and any light in your bedroom can interfere with your body’s production of melatonin, which is a major player in your immune system and is only produced when you sleep.

What Melatonin Does:

It is an antioxidant 5 times more powerful than Vitamin C.
It Increases the effectiveness of your lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are killer cells that fight off foreign invaders and mutated cells.
It increases the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione. These chemicals are antioxidants, detoxifiers, and help repair damaged cells.
Melatonin is one of the most powerful, health-promoting hormones in your body. Make sure there isn’t anything interfering with your body’s production of it.

What you can do to reduce EMF exposure at home:

• Unplug electrical devices in your bedroom, especially those near your body. As much as you might like to hit the snooze button in the morning, you’re better off putting the alarm clock on the other side of the room.
• Unplug as many electrical devices as you can in your house. This reduces EMF exposure and saves you money. Turn your computers off, then turn off the power strip. Unplug the blender, mixer, toaster oven, etc.
• Turn off your wi-fi when you aren’t using it.
• Install a kill-switch outlet in each circuit.
  This requires a bit of explanation. Your outlets and lights are wired in separate circuits throughout your house. Depending on how your house is wired, all the outlets in one room should be on one circuit, but sometimes they share circuits with other rooms. If you disconnect the first outlet in the circuit, it will disable the power to the rest of the outlets in that circuit. If you disconnect the second outlet, the first will still work, but all the rest will be disabled. Make sense?
• A kill-switch outlet will kill power to the rest of the outlets that follow it in the circuit, thereby allowing you to easily turn off whole circuits at a time without messing around in the breaker panel. For example, a properly placed kill-switch outlet will kill the power to every outlet in your bedroom, or just the three walls around your bed. It may also kill the power to other outlets in other rooms if they share the same circuit. The switch outlets we use have a small red indicator light on them. If the indicator light is on, that means there is power to the circuit. Also the receptacle in this outlet works even if the switch is killing the power to the rest of the room. This is what we have in all three bedrooms at our house.

  Tracing down the different circuits and deciding where to install each kill-switch is something you can figure out yourself, if you have basic electrical experience (Please don’t burn your house down). If you want to hire an electrician, it should not cost you more than a couple hundred bucks. Kill-switch outlets themselves are only about $9 each.

Other tips:

Move couches away from the wall where your electric wiring is located. Avoid placing your sofa against a wall if your fridge is on the other side.

Fluorescent bulbs generate more EMFs than standard bulbs and are filled with toxic mercury vapor. Because of this there is no good way to get rid of them. Oops. Two more things the “green movement” somehow missed. LED lighting generates the least amount of EMFs, but produces high levels of blue light, which can interfere with melatonin production at night. Incandescent bulbs are best.

Ceiling fans, recessed lighting, and refrigerators all generate high magnetic fields in the rooms above them. You don’t want these below your bedroom.

If you would like to measure the EMF fields in your home or at work, you’ll need a Gauss Meter. The TriField 100 XE is a Gauss meter with magnetic, electric, and radio/microwave detection in one unit. With it you can accurately measure EMF pollution “hot spots” in your home, or work environment so you can take steps to reduce your exposure. FYI: This is also what ghost hunters use to look for paranormal activity.

I learned a lot from the book “ZAPPED: Why Your Cell Phone Shouldn’t Be Your Alarm Clock and 1,268 Ways to Outsmart the Hazards of Electronic Pollution” by New York Times bestselling author Ann Louise Gittleman. It’s a fascinating read, and is chock full of invaluable information, only of fraction of which I touch on in this post. She’s done a ton of research and put it all together in an easy to read format with practical steps throughout.

Chris Wark is the author behind the website chrisbeatcancer.com and best-selling novel Chris Beat Cancer. He was diagnosed with stage IIIc colon cancer in 2003. After surgery he opted-out of chemo and used nutrition and natural therapies to heal. Today he is healthy, strong, and cancer-free! To learn more about him and how he advocates for a natural approach toward supporting the body through cancer, please visit his website. To hear his interview with Dr. Ron Hunninghake, Chief Medical Officer of the Riordan Clinic, please visit this link.