What is EMF Sensitivity? An Injury, Not a Disorder | Peppermint Stick Learning Company

Think about it…

If a person chokes up when around someone who is smoking a cigarette, does that mean that choking person has a disease, a disorder in their body which is causing them to sputter?

If people get drunk from the amount of alcohol they swallow, is their body the problem that it just can’t handle that amount without symptoms? Or is the cause behind those symptoms instead the alcohol acting upon the body?

While both second-hand smoke exposures and drinking alcohol in excess can yes, cause diseases, there is an underlying foundation that these things (smoke and alcohol) can actually cause harm to healthy bodies and healthy minds, rather than the cause being an “abnormal” body or mind “over-reacting”.

Initially, these substances cause a body to weaken and/or exhibit symptoms by injuring/damaging the cells. Secondarily, with enough exposures and weakening, disease processes can begin.

The point I’m making is that disease, in these examples, is a potential secondary affect, and that a disease is not the primary cause of the symptoms of sputtering or drunkenness.

We further know that people who avoid the causes (exposures to smoke, alcohol) can eliminate those symptoms (of sputtering or drunkenness).

Plus, they can significantly recover from the damage that has been already done on their bodies when such is avoided – of course, “the sooner, the better”.

The more damage that happens from repeated exposures, the more the body cells might be permanently injured. This situation is similar to what can be observed in EMF sensitivity as well.

(If you want to see this in a graphic, I drew one and put it on my post entitled, “What Can Happen?“ (hopefully linked here shortly)

In contrast, some people (including so-called “experts”) would like to place “EMF sensitivities” under the category of “Disease”, blaming the cause of our symptoms on “there’s gotta be somethin’ wrong inside that body of yers ’cause ya can’t be like me”.

It’s sometimes classified as a “disease” or an “environmental illness”, similar to the cell damages that can occur in living things exposed to synthetic pesticides like DDT. Yet foundationally, symptoms of EMF sensitivity occur because of and in the presence of harmful things in the environment. Thus, a better term for classifying it is under “environmental injuries”, and “environmental sensitivity” (due to surviving past environmental injuries but being weakened to have more-easily noticed affects upon subsequent exposures).

This post looks at this issue: How should we categorize what EMF sensitivity is?

What is EMF Sensitivity? (the “short answer”) –

Here is a short version that I wrote – summarizing this post and a few other posts on our website:

What is EMF Sensitivity?
It’s often repetitive injuries (if exposures repeat at sufficient levels). And whether or not injury occurs at low-levels, sensitivity is a natural response (i.e. a reaction).
It’s a disability, needing accessibility measures for housing, work, community services, and church.
It means limitations, relating to changes in lifestyles, thoughtful work-arounds, and sometimes creative problem-solving situations.

Like pregnancy, it’s a condition often self-reported but might be confirmed by an understanding professional. Added complications might need treatment but otherwise, common sense tips can manage it well.
Like drinking alcohol, many people can still tolerate some levels; but too much eventually will cause serious problems.
Like being around smog, issues could be able to be ignored, for a while, with only the sensitive people needing a better environment to manage well. It’s being a canary in a coal mine – we experience the affects of certain kinds of pollution earlier than some people.

Real EMF sensitivity means there is a body with a well-designed system to alert of problems in the environment. It isn’t a disorder that needs a prescription drug or anything else to “fix the body” because that body is already doing what it should be doing…warning people of a real problem.
Real EMF sensitivity isn’t Central Sensitivity syndrome, an over-reaction, or a weird phobia that needs to be calmed down or become better adapted to tolerate pollution.

Having an environmental sensitivity isn’t a mind/body/spirit connection issue that needs ‘rebalancing’ or ‘realigning’. People can get very confused if they stray off into that direction. It might even appear like a sort of healing (but it doesn’t lead to good for them in the end).
Like asbestos in the ceilings, manmade EMFs are undetected to most people. But if these kinds of emfs stay around instead of being removed, more people will suffer as a result.
Like being around second-hand smoke, EMFs have been thought of as not a risk or danger to the general public. Thus, wireless device usage increases in society.

What can be done?

We can prevent, reduce, or heal from injuries. We can help to alleviate suffering in that process.
We can use supportive health measures like good nutrition and antioxidants, protective clothing, and tips to lessen exposures. We can find encouragement from kind people. We can bring messages of truth and real hope. We can be thankful for a body that is acting appropriately in the midst of a marred and deteriorating world.
But there is NO curing concoction or beneficial remedy for having a sensitivity (nor should we expect one) …because EMF sensitivity isn’t a disease!

Why does understanding what the cause is matter anyway?

It MATTERS how we classify something ….. because it determines what we’ll accept as a potential cure or solution!

It matters…because it also determines how societies who understand “the why” behind the situation will help, or hinder, the lives of people in their communities.

For example, read long-time emf researcher Olle Johansson’s summary to UK’s Parliamentary Committee (2020) at this link. This one is quite easy to read and I recommend that my readers take a bit of time to read it. For clarification of paragraph 29 in that summary about the fluid-filled plastic doll being heated for 6 minutes, this refers to the experiment from which “Safety Code 6” was derived to say that cell phones are “safe”. Yes, it was a plastic doll that determined cell phones are “safe” for real people (source link). That is why Johansson remarks that that is “dangerously naive” to trust.
There’s also a psychologist’s journal article about environmental sensitivities (EMF and MCS) subtitled, “Living on the Margins with Access Denied” that I have read and would suggest it to medical professionals, counsellors, or decision-makers for public spaces including schools, churches, and community centers (or others who are interested in statistics and accessibility issues). However, the article has since been removed from free public access and it’s my understanding that the author, Pamela Reed Gibson, has retired. Apparently, people can request it from the publisher at this link or the author at this link (but that looks like an older webpage). “Googling” the DOI number also may bring it up.

It matters…because it also determines how we will take care of our natural world of flora and fauna, which is our responsibility and privilege.

Sometimes, one of the easiest arguments for why EMF sensitivity isn’t an over-reaction or a psychosomatic “It’s all in your head” condition, is that these same emfs that people are known to be injured with ARE ALSO harming some kinds of animals and plants!

And we wouldn’t say that the ants or bees are over-reacting or that trees are nutty! (OK, maybe some trees are nutty.)

There is a webpage which puts some of the animal and plant studies in a more-readable language at this link. Again, I wouldn’t personally agree with all of the statements or explanations on that page. However, the author re-tells of a few interesting experiments with ants, near the beginning of the page. (To read the technical report on this set of experiments, you can go to this link here.) Basically, they exposed little ants to a smartphone and to a cordless landline phone and when the phones were “on” (emitting RF-EMFs), those little ants had difficulty walking normally. When a phone was put under the ants’ nest, the ants quickly relocated their eggs and young with them but when the phone was removed, they went back home. With their disturbed behaviour near a computer with wireless activated and the other observations, the researchers concluded that these little critters are bio-indicators. Amazing to think something so small is designed so detailed like that, isn’t it!

Classifying “EMF Sensitivities” – Part 1

An Illness, A Sickness, A Chronic Disease? (Not until…)

People calling EMF sensitivity by its various names including using names such as “disease”, “illness” or “chronic sickness”, can mean well. They may want to show empathic kindness to those of us who are suffering. I appreciate their concern and intent.

And sometimes points made in otherwise fairly good articles or studies use those terms. So I try to overlook those terms when they are used.

However, I believe that calling EMF sensitivity an illness or disease or chronic sickness leads to an inaccurate understanding of how to solve the problems, how to offer the best help to people who are suffering, or how to view those who are unwell as a result of manmade emfs.

I would prefer not to use the terms such as “environmental illness” to describe EMF sensitivities unless or until a person also develops a disease process, which continues wrecking havoc inside him/her even when further exposures to the environmental triggers have stopped weeks ago, for example, in environmentally-caused cancers, or radiation sickness, or microwave illness. Those would be situations of correct usages of those terms – when a disease deteriorates health without additional exposures.

While “chronic diseases” definitely exist, not everything labelled “chronic” is a disease. (I think this is something that some doctors and researchers have forgotten in this situation.)

Even feeling “chronically sick” because a person remains always or frequently under exposures triggering the symptoms is NOT the same thing as having a “chronic sickness/disease”.

Although it can be helpful for those of us suffering to describe our symptoms as “I feel sick”, or “I get ill whenever I go to ______”, using “sick” and “ill” only describes how we feel, not necessarily that we think we have a “disease” for which we seek a pill or curing treatment by a practitioner.

If we can understand ourselves what is happening, it helps us help other people understand and helps us to avoid “dead-end street” ideas in solutions that are offered to us.

A Chronic Condition? (Yes)

What about using the term “chronic condition”?

A person with EMF sensitivity CAN recover/improve simply being in natural environments for hours or days, without the need for medical intervention (because it isn’t a disease, needing treatment).

But, whenever they get exposed again to the harmful levels EMFs, they are again, likely to experience directly-related symptoms, depending of course, on their level of sensitivity or how full their “bucket” is. (For the bucket explanation, please see my post here.) So yes, due to society being what it is, symptoms end up occurring over and over and over, often worsening as society increases its levels.

In the sense of ongoing repetitiveness because of ongoing exposures, it is a “chronic condition”.

We also can call this a “chronic condition”, meaning that it is “life-long” to be sensitive. (Symptoms themselves don’t need to be life-long of course. Those come and go due to new exposures and recovering from injuries.)

A canary is ‘chronically sensitive’ life-long because it was made like that. (It isn’t because it is diseased that it is sensitive. It doesn’t belong to the “land of misfit toys” without purpose. It simply was made to act as a warning to other living things that something is wrong in the environment – and that is a good thing.)
- There are other living things which are designed with sensitivities to small amounts of harm in the environment too. In science, we sometimes call them “indicators”. I’ve already mentioned about ants. (To read about some more examples of these in nature, you can go to my post “Canaries in a Coal Mine” to be linked here when it is posted.)
Living things can also become ‘chronically sensitive’ because of surviving but being damaged from past toxic or radiation exposures or other harmful exposures in their past (or their parents’ past).

A Disorder? (No)

A “disorder” means that the body somehow is “out of order” and isn’t able to accept what would be good for it.

So one should think, “Is the thing that is making my body unhealthy or injured, good or bad?” Then one can determine if it is a disorder, a disease, or something else.

Many people (even many EMF “experts”) view EMF sensitivity as a disorder – that something is “wrong” with people who are this sensitive.

They might say something like, “These people have not been able to adapt or evolve to the environment as it changes. Other people have been able to adapt/evolve better.”

(When you look at statements like that, you can recognize that they believe the human body is the way it is due to evolution, not creation.)

While there is an aspect to health and disease in the sense that the human body has more mutations in it compared to many centuries ago, it does not seem logical to assume that our bodies are really supposed to be working OK with unnatural, manmade inventions all of the time.

To me, it is perfectly logical for the human body to be affected negatively with human inventions, especially those inventions which find themselves, I understand, in the realm of that which was invented to be used in weapons to harm (microwave technology). Ever hear about the invention of margarine and why that became a turkey disaster? The story of manmade microwaves has some similarities.

It can be a good thing to be sensitive –

Decades ago, tobacco smoke was not considered harmful. Many people exposed to smoke remained relatively healthy for many years, even some for all of their lives. But many eventually suffered as a result of those exposures they had had years prior.

But there were/are also a handful of people who can’t stand smoke at all – they cough, get shortened breath, sputter, etc. – they are “smoke sensitive”. Hindsight now shows that the smoke- sensitive people who just can’t stand being around second-hand smoke, actually don’t have a disorder! They instead have a wonderful warning system left intact in their bodies that warns them that something is dangerous to breathe in.
I’d say that it is a blessing to be sensitive to something harmful, even though it would be socially frustrating to not be able to go to restaurants with smoking or other social events.

I do recognize that sometimes, the benefits of using the manmade pulsating frequencies and household electricity out-weigh the dangers of using them. But how these wireless technologies are typically used today (and how the utility grid is deteriorating in quality as time goes on, at least in some places), seems to be doing a fair amount of damage overall – to the extent that these things do not look like they have the value/worth as much as previously marketed. So in that sense, when an invention is used in a way that harms the environment and human health, then it really is primarily a pollutant, isn’t it?

A pollutant still might be able to be used for a good purpose somewhere (e.g. in surgery or in telecommunications where there is no other good method able to reach an area). But in general, I believe that the especially widespread use of wireless technologies is pollution, and is a growing problem.

But couldn’t it be a disorder that causes the sensitivity?

Perhaps. Environmental triggers can change the DNA so that it looks like a person has a genetic disorder from birth but, in actual fact, that person may have instead acquired that genetic issue when something in the environment injured it so badly during their life. In other words, a disorder or lessened-ability to manage exposures like average people.

Science does say that environmental injury can also impact enough to cause cellular or DNA mutation.

Could it be that a mutation inside the human body makes it difficult or impossible to eliminate toxins (e.g. environmental chemicals, metals, wastes from damaged cells) when normally, a body should be able to do that? Yes, and that could be a possible contributor to some people’s challenges.

But, even if a body has difficulty with the “clean-up” of the damage, that person is still going to get up-to-date cell damage when exposed to harmful environments to them. And we should remember that they would not get that if there were no exposures to that kind of environment. And that with many chemical sensitivities and emf sensitivities that it isn’t just a few people here and there who get affected – it’s a fair percentage of society of people from various ages and backgrounds plus various species of animals, insects, trees, etc..

So the main root cause of this problem still remains with the environment.

This isn’t a matter of “not adapting” well to the changes in the environment.

This is a matter of being an example of the affects of pollution on nature.

As socially frustrating as it is to be sensitive with manmade radiation, my opinion is that my body is working very well the way God designed it to be in this issue.

The environment however, is not doing very well and is becoming more polluted.

And so, I’d like to challenge the idea that EMF sensitivity is a “disorder”. And I’m not alone in challenging it.

A Disability, A “Functional Impairment”, Limitations? (Yes)

I agree with Olle Johansson, a professor of dermatology and Swedish researcher for the effects of EMF in people, in a short video linked here, that a better term is “functional impairment”.

Please listen to this:

An Interview with Olle VIDEO (about 5 minutes long)

By the term, “functional impairment“, he is not meaning a psychosomatic cause,as some people would use that term.
- Olle Johansson believes EMF/EHS symptoms have an environmental cause and has observed harmful changes in skin cells, for example. (I have seen other online articles where a writer argues against using the term “functional impairment” to describe EMF sensitivities because the writer(s) take that term to mean ‘a thinking disorder of the mind’ – that a person is impaired in the function of thinking sensibly. That isn’t what Johansson is meaning though.)
Prof. Johansson uses the “functional impairment” term as a a term to describe a disability or physical limitation not needing medical intervention but rather societal accommodations similar to a person in a wheelchair needing a ramp to a building for accessibility reasons. I would agree with this meaning of the term “functional impairment” for describing EMF sensitivity.

But perhaps an even clearer category term is “environmental injury” or “chronic environmental injuries”.

Environmental Injuries? (Yes)

Living with EMF sensitivities (or at least some kinds of multichemical sensitivities) is akin to repeatable injuries, similar to continuing to stub a toe every day on a piece of furniture in our way. (The solution is to move the furniture or choose to avoid connecting such with the foot. It isn’t to wrap up the foot and tell us we can continue life as-always!)

When someone suffers with damage from manmade emfs, his/her body is actually acting the way it should to things that damage – it IS acting in a good order, not disorder!

The “other people” who appear to handle emfs fine without repercussions, can actually still be damaging their bodies. (Read an example here if interested.) This is like people who keep living comfortably-enough amidst the smog of a city, taking the risks (and/or not being concerned) about how regular smog exposures are affecting their life for the long-term. True, they do not get as much affected or injured as the sensitive people do, early on. (That is also within a range of “normal” expectations, as much as sensitivity is.)

It’s one thing to occasionally have exposures to pollutants (e.g. smog). Our bodies naturally have been designed with processes to tolerate an occasional and low-level of pollution, then repair quickly to heal from the damage caused. But it’s another thing to believe that it’s “good” for living things to have the levels of manmade pollution that we are experiencing in our generation!

It’s one thing to take risks for a good reason – sometimes people are called into high-risk situations. But it is another thing to think that risks don’t have consequences or to put everyone around under those risks!

Variability exists within living things as to “how much damage is shown or felt” – not everyone who jumps down from climbing a tree will get two broken legs, a broken nose, and a bruised tailbone!

Some people will not feel damage at all, unless they jump “too many” times.
But it remains within normal (not abnormal)expectations that people, unlike cats, could get injured with jumping down from trees at higher levels.

It is within normal expectations for a body to respond, to react, to things that are making it not work naturally. Think of nerve conduction studies (often with EMG testing), where an electrical stimulus outside of the body makes a muscle contract, twitch, and even become fatigued when it is stimulated too much. While that situation might not be at a level causing an injury per se, we could logically conclude that it would cause some disability (muscle fatigue) if it was hours or days of stimulating such signals. (See my post here for an example of where too much of an electrical stimulus can result in a real problem for cows or emf sensitive people.)

And just like ANYONE can get an injury (i.e. no one is “immune”), anyone can also become EMF injured if they are exposed to this kind of radiation, and can become to the point of getting noticeably EMF sensitive. Even so, many people don’t like to recognize EMF sensitivity as an injury of over-exposures because they like the exposures for now, and lessening those, would crimp their style.

About Getting a Diagnosis

Self-reporting

Many times, EMF sensitivities is something that is “self-reported”. Then medical professionals essentially “confirm” the patient’s understanding of what he or she has been experiencing through double-checking that the symptoms aren’t caused by other causes and likely checking to some extent that the body is actually showing inflammation (a common physiological indication that it is trying to heal/recover from something attacking its cells).

In my opinion, “self-reporting” isn’t a problem. But some feel that it is very wrong and troubling to figure out environmental sensitivities on one’s own, because they are still stuck in the mode that it’s a “disease” that requires “expert knowledge” to explain.

And yet, I doubt that they would feel it was “wrong” to for a mom to “self-report” that she figured out that she is pregnant!

Official Diagnosis

The advantage to calling EMF sensitivities “a disease” is it provides the potential to get official documentation in order to prove that one indeed is suffering and might be able to, in some countries, ask for governmental or work-related assistance for living with their disabilities/limitations. A diagnosis of EMF sensitivities can also substantiate the sufferer’s symptoms as not being “just imagined” or “crazy”.

But, like pregnancy, I still say that EMF is not a disease. For pregnancy, a medical professional doesn’t really “diagnosis” it either – all they really can do is “confirm” the condition. (A grandmother could actually do the same if consulted by a younger lady regarding her symptoms.)

And, like pregnancy, it can still be a good idea to seek help from people who understand physiology (the normal functioning of the human body in comparison to disease or injury). Why?

One, they might be able to help with pain management or prevention of infection from broken skin, etc. just like a health care provider might help a mom with morning sickness or other pregnancy complexities.
Two, they might learn through the experiences of one patient in order to help with how they view and advise other similar patients.

For those reasons, seeking an “official medical diagnosis” might be helpful to a person so I do suggest that people seek medical professional help if they live in places where they can.

But don’t expect educated people to always understand or always be able to help. They are specialized to help with diseases and injuries and general health. But like any other human being, they also have their limitations as to what they know about and can actually help with.

However, the first step towards getting an official diagnosis, and perhaps the only step, would be to consult with your own local general health care provider.

By the time one clinic contacted me, I was too severely affected to travel to it and they didn’t do tele-health appts. By the time the other one contacted me, I had recovered enough to meet just for an initial consultation and released from the typical subsequent ones. What this means is that, while I received official confirmations (both with local professionals and the clinic), I did not require further input because they felt I knew already what needed to be done and was doing well.

Self-Learning

Don’t be afraid or ashamed of “self-reporting” to professionals who care about you.

And do what you can to learn about this condition yourself, instead of just waiting on them to help! (Of course, I’m meaning to learn from good information sources; there are bad ones around too.)

This is about managing environmental injuries. Healing from them involves taking good care of your general health and making changes to avoid further injury by spending more time in cleaner/better (e.g. natural, low-emf) environments, while still keeping some connections with real people.

– EUROPAEM 2016 Guidelines. I’ve mentioned this document on my website before but I’m doing so again since it was one of the most helpful ones while I waited. It helps one understand what things might be tested in the process of getting an official diagnosis and is what some medical teams have based their practice on. It also has a section of ways of reducing a “total body burden” (which is like my “bucket” explanation on my post) – of practical ideas that clinics could suggest to their patients, most of which I would also agree as helpful (see the below point too). The “2016” guidance continues to be well-supported by more recent scientific research in much of what it presents and it remains one of the most detailed but concise pieces of writing one can find anywhere on this condition. (Europe also has tended to produce more research on EMF sensitivities in comparison to North America.)

A similar but shorter document is the Austrian 2012 Guidelines which is provided (in English) in a pdf at this link. Again, this document is quite well-presented in general, including that it classifies ideas (both ones I agree are beneficial and ones I don’t agree with) under “lifestyle coaching”, i.e. choices, and not as “cures” for sensitivity.

Another key document (2025) which summarizes details about the damage going on inside body cells with emf exposures, is one by Dimitris J. Panagopoulos et al. “A comprehensive mechanism of biological and health effects of anthropogenic extremely low frequency and wireless communication electromagnetic fields”.

Classifying “EMF Sensitivities” – Part 2

Patients need patience –

Individuals might get a false or misleading diagnosis, although in some other cases, such a diagnosis could be true if they have more than this going on. This can be because of overlapping symptoms, puzzling symptoms that are harder-to-observe directly, or assumptions about why someone would have symptoms.

In general, for poorly-understood health-related conditions, it is often the case that it takes a very long time to receive a correct diagnosis. Many people with rare diseases, disorders, and conditions, as well as their supportive family/friends, find this a frustrating process.

In this process, it isn’t always a matter of doctors admitting, “I don’t know the cause behind your suffering but I’ll try my best to keep my eyes open if I learn about anything that looks similar”. Indeed, that kind of humble answer is more helpful than telling a person they have something that doesn’t match-up well (or at all) with what they are dealing with. (I’m very thankful that my GP years ago, and some others along the way too, was humble, caring, empathetic, intrigued, and supportive.)

Even nowadays, medical professionals get very little, if any, training in understanding the impacts of electromagnetic waves on the human body, other than a bit for the section of the EMF spectrum from infrared to gamma rays. Few areas of health care professional studies look at details for the impacts of invisible physical things (e.g. heat, electricity, radiation) on the function of the human body.

In other words, if you have environmental sensitivities, expect that it can take a long time to get more of a full answer. Keep focused on good priorities in your life, not just your health, and keep following only what is true.

So I’d like to write just a bit about a few “diagnoses” that a person with EMF sensitivities might be questioned about, if not assumed to have, yet these conditions do NOT describe or define REAL EMF sensitivities.

Please note that a person could be suffering from one or more of those conditions IN ADDITION TO real emf sensitivities OR INSTEAD of real emf sensitivities. What I am saying on this page is that there are real emf sensitivities which are NOT of the following:

A spiritual cause for symptoms
A phobia or psychosomatic condition (or better known as “it’s in your mind”)
Central Sensitivity Syndrome (or better-known as an “over-reaction” that needs calming down)

My comments:

A spiritual cause for symptoms?

In the Bible, there are examples given of people with physiological symptoms caused by spiritual reasons. One example is of Jesus healing a boy who had what looked like epileptic seizures but instead was demonic possession; you can read about this story in Mark 9:17-29. (This was not the medical condition of epilepsy. Epilepsy can occur regardless of one’s spiritual condition.)

2. Under a spiritual category for explaining a cause for symptoms, there is, in some non-Christian worldviews, the belief that a Mind/Body connection needs to be “realigned” or “rebalanced”, thus, making “holistic” treatments, including to the “spirit” and “the mind”, the solution. (As a Christian, I strongly disagree with that worldview.)

EMF MCS does not come because of a mind/spiritual misalignment to the body. (That is a pagan philosophical/spiritual belief that has no true science basis.) People of all belief systems can experience healing/recovery and manage lifelong sensitivities very well WITHOUT ANY pagan techniques or practices.
Holistic health care resources often include some naturally-good ideas for healthy choices. But it also typically mixes in mind/body pagan spiritual concepts, under the guise of “it’s science”. In a pantheistic worldview, anything in nature (which is described by science), has a spiritual significance to it. Then people with that worldview build on that presumed idea to try to spiritually fix another thing in nature through thoughts and rituals (called practices or techniques or therapies to sound science-based).
- The naturally-good ideas for healthy choices are fine. These ideas can also be found outside of pagan promotion. They are simply based on logical observation of how our physical and orderly world works and human discoveries that fit with the scientific method.
- The mind/body spiritual concepts are in error when compared with God’s Word, the Bible.
  - “But isn’t the mind/body connection that we hear about scientific? After all, there ARE nerves running through the body from the brain, aren’t there?” For my answer, please see my post called, “How Do Parts of My Body Communicate with Other Parts?”
- In a nutshell, the confusion stems from practitioners using the same or similar words as science does in order to mean something spiritual. The idea that the science words can also describe spiritual powers comes from a pantheistic worldview that claims things in nature (aka science) are also spiritual/divine/god. They do not see a separation of the natural world and the spiritual world. But this usage of the same or similar words (e.g. nerves, sending messages, re-balance, energy, etc.) can sound quite confusing to people, including to scientists (who stick to concepts such as the scientific method, measuring, repeatable observations, and related reasoning/logic conclusions) as well as to those who do not believe that nature is divine.

Homographs

Homographs – We talk about these in language arts in school. These are words with the same spelling, same pronunciation, but have different meanings. So students are encouraged to look the right meaning up in a dictionary and/or to understand the context of the surrounding sentences to grasp the author’s meaning of using such a word. Here are some examples of words with very different meanings:

nail – both noun meanings are sharp but which kind of nail is it?
season – is it part of a year or is it just a spice we’re adding briefly to a stew?
bark – a noise from a dog or an outer layer of a tree?
racket – something we want to quiet down or something we want to pick up and play with?
jam – something we like around breakfast-time… or not…if we’re also driving in the city to get to work.
rock – a baby likes to sleep with one kind of its meaning – but not with the other kind of meaning as that would be rather a hard lump.
spring – I might want one for fresh water or… I might not want it bouncing around in my water glass!
date – On a date on the calendar years ago, Rob and I went to the store to get a date. That was a fun date!

We can have fun with homographs – they make up many puns and riddles.

But there is a serious side to them too. That occurs when people get confused with what exactly the word means especially if using both meanings in the same subject area such as human health care.

energy – is it physical energy (physics, biology, chemistry)…. or spiritual energy that the practitioner is working on?
electricity – is it physical electricity (static, electrons from atoms that can be measured in mV, etc.)… or a spiritual concept of electricity of inner power?
(For more about that topic, you can read my post called, “Energy Healing and the Christian”.)

about praying (- a general post)
about God (- right and wrong views of Who God is)
about reasons for suffering (and hope)

A psychosomatic condition or a phobia?

“It’s all in your head!” This diagnosis is of the kind that thinks symptoms are only stress-induced (from mental/emotional trauma) or a conversion disorder and similar. People can be unnecessarily fearful of cell phones or other things. I’ve heard of people hiding a battery-operated, non-emitting device in a person’s pocket, noticing that he was fine all day with it and then telling him, only to watch him start to get “symptoms”. But that “experiment” does not prove that real emf sensitivities doesn’t exist. It only shows that that individual has at least, a problematic phobia/fear.

I have sometimes trusted that where I am at a particular time/place, has low-levels or no levels of wireless signals. I have an RF meter but I don’t always carry it with me on short trips nor do I always take it out to check when being among people I know. I might think that something has been turned “off” but by mistake, it wasn’t. I can find out “the hard way” – by reacting when I didn’t think I would at all or that much. The burning/inflammation of eyes and skin for me is a tell-tale reason. And when measurements are taken or devices found “on” instead of “off”, the reason is confirmed. I don’t have a phobia to wireless – I have a real emf sensitivity.

A note about STRESS –

Stress can make anything feel worse or even become worse. Think of how worries can impact sleep, eating properly, activity levels, etc..

If a person is under lots of emotional stress, even overtired, when he/she stubs a toe, that toe could feel more painful than if that person isn’t under much stress that day!

So stress, can be a factor in any real physiological condition, including EMF sensitivities. (But stress is not the cause of EMF sensitivities – stuff in the person’s environment remains the cause.)

Some people think that “stress” is the main cause behind most health-related conditions. I would disagree strongly.

The idea that stress “causes most sicknesses” has been popular since psychology grew to be a go-to cure for relieving almost any problem. It correlates with the idea that people can blame people or circumstances and call it a medical syndrome to be treated by stress-relief and psychiatric treatments or attention.

If stress is the cause behind sickness, then you would expect that everyone would be sick, because stress is normal in human life. You’d also observe that people with more stress would be sicker than people with less-stress.
We can easily observe that many health conditions, including injuries, affect people regardless of their personality types, satisfaction in relationships, or other emotional attitudes.

Central Sensitivity Syndrome?

Some environmental health clinics in North America fit multi-chemical sensitivities and electromagnetic sensitivities into this category that I’ve abbreviated CSS.

Essentially, CSS is a sort of “catch-all” name or model of explanation to include a bunch of chronic symptoms that the professionals diagnosing such haven’t figured out how to control in a traditional or alternative medicine sense (e.g. there is no pill or supplement that can cure it). So they place the blame on the body being out of control and hyperactive when they think “it shouldn’t be”.

CSS could possible co-exist with real emf sensitivities, just like a phobia or asthma or a flu bug or anything else could. But one of the problems with the CSS diagnosis is that it is far too broad to be used for defining environmental sensitivities. CSS simply is the wrong category for real emf (or mcs) sensitivities! Why?

It blames the person (rather than the environment) for reacting to something that is harmful and they are sensitive to AND ARE continuing to be exposed to.
- CSS is described as something different than a psychosomatic diagnosis because CSS will agree that something in the past has actually caused an injury or pain to that person…. in the past. So they might try to console the person by saying, “It’s not all in your head. The past was real and did real damage…. back then.”
- CSS is determined to deny the common sense logic that a person can and should continue to react to triggers which have damaged their body in the past. They do NOT understand the “continue” part. (Why would such “continue”? It continues whenever the exposure occurs again, of course!)

It assumes that a person should have “learned to adapt” and tolerate/accept triggers.
- Note: Ordinary people see this as a strange expectation since we do not ask a person with a peanut allergy to have a peanut butter sandwich years later! The comeback seems to be something along the lines of, “Well, you know, EMF sensitivities aren’t the same sort of allergic reaction involving the immune system.” (Otherwise, they could prescribe an epi-pen or anti-histamines and have a plan for you.) “So yah, you should adapt to what you think is pollution.”

It denies the harm in the environment and sees the triggers as either neutral or perhaps even beneficial. In their minds, emfs are not a problem, or at least, not much of a problem. So they might not see much of a need of building biology standards, linked here. (They actually do not understand the science. If we applied their reasoning to the ants, bees, etc. then we could expect that those critters could adapt to emf problems through changing their little minds about emfs!)

The treatments for Central Sensitivity Syndrome thus are aimed at trying to help the patient “accept” the stuff that they are sensitive to as “OK”.

They do this by trying to “rewire the mind” to “think differently” (“change the mind”) about what they are continuing to believe to be harmful stuff. Therapies or coaching can involve:

using stress-management techniques such as mindfulness, yoga – see this page on our website for a more-detailed explanation of these.
prescribed a sort of placebo to swallow or similar. The person could take this, for example, before shopping. If while shopping, the person notices symptoms again, even to a triggering chemical scent, he/she can remain in the environment (the store) and carry on to finish their shopping, instead of “having to leave” for fresh air. Placebos can “work” to reduce a body’s reaction to stress by calming a person through deceit. It’s telling oneself that he/she doesn’t need to go from danger (because CSS do not agree that it is actually dangerous).
It’s practicing the message of “I’ll be OK” over and over until a person adapts to believe that message. But is that message the TRUTH for people with real chemical or emf sensitivities? No!
- So if you care about avoiding self-deception, you’d flatly reject such an idea as a really stupid idea. (A researcher and retired medical professional told me on the phone that such an idea was not only really dumb and dangerous to accept for advice, it was “snake oil”!)
neuroplasticity – In the context of CSS, this word means similar to the other treatments mentioned above. It’s basically just another word that is more scientific-sounding.
- Can neuroplasticity work to decrease symptoms? Yes, I think it’s possible BUT, what is the reason why it might work?

Self-delusional thinking…

If the person is dealing with something that is actually harmful/damaging (which, typical levels of RF-EMFs are, according to Building Biology Standards) and they get to the point of believing that such isn’t harmful, they have fallen into a trap of self-delusional thinking. (You can believe something sincerely but you can be sincerely wrong.)

Even if some symptoms have “disappeared”, the damage is STILL occurring regardless of how they feel and will be silent damage.

This is because making choices to deceive oneself will NEVER end in something good!

God is never the source of a deceitful method of healing. But He will allow what appears to be “good” (e.g. healing) to sometimes occur if the person is willing to be led astray into something that isn’t based on truth (2 Corinthians 11:14-15, Matthew 7:21-23).

To sum up this post –

There is a different and better model to explain EMF and MCS sensitivities in my opinion. CSS is only one model and I think for environmental sensitivities, it is a very misleading one. EUROPAEM Guidelines (medical and science researchers in Europe) provide a more reasonable explanation.

Scientists, educators, health care workers, and even some Christians, are getting swept into confusion – partly because these are sensitivities which are relatively new (related to products/services which have not existed for a long time) and partly because their grasp of some foundations things are rather wobbly. The world of studying “science” is rapidly changing to include things which have not historically been part of the logic of the scientific method and laws of science.

I’d like to repeat a bit from our “EMF MCS Start Here” page:

About TRUTH –

It is important for us to understand what is real truth.

Real truth will be supported by real science. Only what is based on real truth will ever actually work to benefit people in the long-term.

False ideas lead down wrong paths which might look great for a time, but in the end, leads to harm – physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The God of truth (the One Who created the heavens and the earth and all living things) will never be the source behind deceptive techniques or solutions! All of His work is only done in truth! Psalm 33:4.

God cares. Call out to Him.

Find people who personally care about you too.

There truly is HOPE amidst these troubles!!