More and more people report problems after being exposed to high levels of EMF radiation.
Here are some of the typical symptoms for people who are suffering from EMF radiation.
Some of these issues are very physical and measurable while others have a more psychological character.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations used in this article:
EMF: Electromagnetic Fields (All types of radiation)
RF: Radio Frequencies (Radiation from wifi, cell towers and other wireless technologies
V/m: Volts over meters (How we measure RF radiation)
7 Common Symptoms You Are Affected By EMF Radiation
Stress
They are pretty strong evidence today that high levels of EMF affect the cortisol levels in your body. This is also commonly known as “the stress hormone”.
This makes a lot of sense because the EMF radiation makes the cells in our bodies vibrate and therefore the temperature is raised. It also stresses the cells and it can create a long list of problems that relate to stress.
When the cortisol pumps around in your body it will leave you stressed and prevent you from getting proper rest when your body needs to relax and regenerate. EMF radiation will not affect everyone in the same way.
Some people will immediately feel stressed or exhausted when exposed to EMF while others won’t notice any change at all. This is simply because we all react differently to external stimuli and some people are much more sensitive to these things than others. But that doesn’t mean that people who don’t feel any effects from the radiation will not be affected in the long-term.
Another reason why high levels of EMF radiation will cause stress is that it directly affects the quality of our sleep. As you probably know, there is a direct link between sleep deprivation and stress.
For people who are very sensitive to EMF, there can also be other reasons why they get stressed when exposed to the magnetic fields. My wife says she can literally feel a “buzzing” sensation on her skin when she is near a strong wifi signal. This is not as uncommon as you would think. The reason why we don’t hear about this more often is probably that people are not even aware of the possibility of this happening.
Sleep Deprivation
If you have a high level of EMF radiation in your home from sources such as cell towers or smart meters you will not be able to get the rest you need during the night. It is pretty well documented that high exposure to EMF radiation leads to bad sleep. It lowers the amount of REM sleep which is vital for us in order to get proper rest.
When people don’t get enough rest during the night even though they stay in bed for eight hours or more, it’s quite evident that they will get stressed over time.
This is also the reason why people who are extremely sensitive to EMF radiation often choose to cover their bed with a canopy. They do so in order to create a radio silent environment for them to sleep in which is vital for people who are very sensitive to EMF. People have reported great progress overnight when they successfully managed to decrease the amount of EMF radiation in their bedroom.
This is also why the bedroom is extremely important to look at if you are living in an area with too much EMF radiation from external factors. These can be fractures such as cell towers, smart meters, high-voltage power lines, etc. If these are your neighbors you need to pay close attention to what’s going on and you might find the solution to why you are being extra tired or stressed out.
It is during our night’s sleep that our bodies regenerate and our brains need these daily breaks to keep us functioning and in good shape.
Fertility Issues
Several experts on EMF like Nicolas Reneaut advise guys to avoid having the mobile phone in the front pocket.
You can actually find information in the manual for smartphones to never use the phone with direct contact to the skin. We normally don’t read the fine prints so people are typically not aware of this warning.
When you shouldn’t keep the phone close to your body it makes sense not to keep it in your pocket either. Or in the bra or a fitness band on the arm, for that matter. The reason is that the radiation levels the phones emit at these distances are higher here than the phones are approved for.
This radiation is also affecting the sperm quality of men.
According to recent research, EMF has been linked to fertility issues and this counts for both men and women.
The problems are bigger for men simply because the organs are placed externally on the body. This leaves them more vulnerable to the radiation. We have known for a pretty long time that keeping your phone in the front pocket can negatively affect the sperm count but we have learned much more about it in recent years.
Tinnitus
This is something I have suffered from over a period of more than a year earlier on in my life. It can be very frustrating and I ended up having to leave the music on every night in order to fall asleep.
It’s this constant ringing in the ears that you cannot turn off.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t get my tinnitus from the EMF radiation because this happened to me long before I got a smartphone or before Wi-Fi was invented. I got my tinnitus because I really liked rock music and I was not good at remembering my earplugs.
But it makes perfect sense that the buzzing Wi-Fi signal can also impact your hearing. More than 50% of people who report being EMF hypersensitive are experiencing problems with tinnitus. Your brain neurons are communicating with each other using tiny electrical charges and that EMFs can interfere with these signals.
Skin Diseases
People hope are hypersensitive to EMFs will often tell you that they can feel an itching sensation whenever they touch a mobile phone or other EMF emitting devices.
We know from the fine print in the instruction manual from all smartphones that they are not supposed to touch our skin.
When phones are tested (in order to make sure they are not admitting more EMF then they are allowed to) they are also done so by holding the device around an inch from the body. So, we know already from these facts that the radiation levels from a cellphone touching the skin are higher than the FCC allow.
You should always keep your phone in an external bag when wifi, Bluetooth or the cell signal is turned or on. Or even better, in the next room.
You can do so by using headphones or simply using the phone with the speaker on. When you do so you should make sure not to hold it in your hand. Place the phone on the table in front of you and have at least 2 feet of distance when you are using it.
Weight Gain And Weight Loss
Several people have also reported weight gains or loss when exposed to EMFs.
This is something I have to look more into and I will probably come back and add more information on this point later.
What Are Dangerous Levels Of EMF?
This is something scientists do not agree on. We simply don’t have enough evidence on the (very) long-term effects on the human body.
This is because the EMF radiation levels have gone up significantly over the last couple of decades and we do not yet have a group of people who have been exposed to these amounts of radiation over a lifetime.
So we might not have the answers to these questions until several decades in the future.
It’s important to take a closer look at where we have put the maximum limits today. When we examine the numbers we find that America and Canada have much higher EMF limits than the rest of the world.
Here are the maximum levels of radiation we are allowed to being exposed to in the US:
- RF & Microwaves: 61,4 V/m
- Magnetic Fields (MF): 6.040 mG
- Electric Fields (EF): 10,000 V/m
When we compare our numbers to other countries, we find that other countries are being much more restrictive here. Take Russia and China, for example, they only allow 6 V/m as the upper limit for RF and MIcrovaves. This is more than 10 times lower the amount of radiation when we compared to the United States.
Within the EU, the maximum limit for magnetic fields (MG) are also around 6x lower. They only allow 1,000 mG of radiation here. When it comes to electric fields radiation (EF), the max limit in the EU is 5,000 V/m which is only half of the U.S limits.
So it’s safe to say that we are not protecting our self as well as people in other countries.
This has caused many people to take this matter into their own hands. When the FCC is not adjusting the upper limits as we increase our cellphone and wifi exposure everywhere it seems only logical to take your own precautions.
We don’t find a lot of government-funded research being conducted on these matters and the interest seem to be very low from the political side. Most research is being done by individual scientists working independently of funding.
The telecommunication industry itself is also releasing quite a lot of papers on the matters. But not very surprisingly, they often find that their own products are not being dangerous toward humans. So, it’s really difficult to say for sure when the limits are too high or when they are acceptable. Good one thing we know for sure, the lower the radiation, the better.
Here are some proposed values from leading scientists in the field. This should all be possible to attain if you use proper protection inside your house:
- RF & Microwaves: 0.2 V/m for daytime and 0.96 V/m for nighttime.
- Magnetic Fields (MF): 1 mG (yes, that’s more than 6,000 times lower than what you might find in your neighborhood!)
- Electric Fields (EF): 10 V/m for daytime and 1,5 V/m for nighttime
We found these numbers in “The Non-Tinfoil Guide To EMF” book by Nicolas Pineault. We can REALLY recommend this book for people who are getting into these things. If you want to learn all the basic stuff, this is definitely the best place to start.
How To Protect Yourself From EMF Radiation
All of this information can seem overwhelming at first. It certainly was overwhelming for me when I first started learning about EMFs and how they affect our bodies.
Luckily enough there are a lot of things you can do to reduce the amount of EMF radiation in your home.
As it turns out, the main sources of radiation are actually placed within your home and they are easy for you to control. These are devices and things like:
- Smartphones
- Tablets
- Laptops
- Wifi routers
- Bluetooth devices
- Tech gadgets that use wifi.
The first thing you do here is to turn off as many of these devices as possible. You can start by limiting the amount of exposure from your smartphone by either placing it in the next room or simply set it to flight mode when you’re not using it.
You can also reduce the radiation from your smartphone by disabling 4G. By turning off 4G on your phone and sticking to only 3G you will reduce the EMFs significantly.
This is how you do it on the iPhone: Settings > Mobile Data > Turn off 4G.
You can do the same thing for your tablets.
You should also turn off the Bluetooth signal when you aren’t using it. This will not only save you a good deal of radiation in your home it will also save battery time on your device.
Now things become a little more complicated and you will have to do some wiring and work on your house because we need to wire your internet connection to eliminate the wifi signal altogether.
Here’s how I did it in our home.
Most routers will have 3 or 4 ports to let you plug in an ethernet cable. By doing so you will have a wired Internet signal which you can insert into your laptops and desktop computers. Many new computers such as MacBooks and other smart laptops will not have that ethernet port anymore. So you will have to buy a USB-ethernet cable like this one:
Now it’s time to do the hard work of installing cables from your router to all the places you want to connect your laptops and desktop computers.
It takes a while, but luckily you only have to do this one time and it’s very affordable because ethernet cables are cheap.
If you have the option of choosing fiber Internet you should definitely do so. The good thing about fiber Internet connections is that they are built around fiber optic technology. Without getting into the very technical details here, just remember that fiber optics do not emit EMF radiation because they simply light waves being transmitted and not electric currents.
If you manage to do all these things you have successfully reduced the radiation in your home A LOT.
The most dangerous sources of GMF radiation are the sources that are the closest to our bodies such as your cellphone, tablets and Wi-Fi routers. External factors such as cell towers and high-voltage power lines are also dangerous but they are harder to control and they are typically not as strong as the signals inside our houses.
You can read more here about how you might be affected by the power lines in your neighborhood.
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4256039/
https://www.emf.ethz.ch/en/knowledge/topics/health/sleep-behaviour/
http://www.avaate.org/IMG/pdf/Rimbach-Study-20112.pdf
https://www.emfresearch.com/