This is an introduction to what happened to me and why I have a blog section on my website for this topic.
EMF sensitivities (EHS) is real, happening to people who are overexposed to manmade electromagnetic frequencies. People can suffer with “visible” and/or “invisible” symptoms which go away when the environment has significantly fewer or no exposures of the offending electromagnetic frequencies.
It was a long year plus of personally learning about EMF sensitivity (also known as electromagnetic hypersensitivities) which erupted in the midst of my attempt to re-design our education website. Yet through all of this, we sensed that God wanted us to continue with “Peppermint Stick” online, regardless of how bleak the future using technology can initially look for someone who is super-sensitive to manmade electromagnetic frequencies.
My computer work area has been set up in a special manner so that I can return to work at it for periods of time and I am grateful for that. I do appreciate all of you who have patiently waited along with us.
Overexposures
How did I get so sensitive? That remains partially a mystery although we have some clues, especially given our experiences and investigations since.
However, what happened to me can happen to anyone, including any other homeschooling mom, dad, or child, particularly the part about the RF-EMF which seems to have a wider impact.
The most common reason we have seen in knowing of others with it is simply “over-exposures” to the things a person is now sensitive to. For example, too much cell phone or wireless laptop usage, etc. can result in EMF sensitivities (also known as EHS).
It is rare to hear about it yet but it IS a growing issue across North America and around the world (Europe, Asia, etc.).
Not Always Recognized
Because good information is slow to be spread about EMF sensitivity, it may not be initially recognized to be what it really is. (There is quite a mixture of good and bad information online.)
It also seems more common that the effects from EMF can sneak up on a person, although for me, it was dramatically apparent.
I’m guessing that the reason we could pinpoint things so clearly once we learned about it was because we had been a family who had been slow to have new technologies change our daily lives (even though we regularly used a computer at home – often without wireless though).
So when we were more-suddenly exposed, we saw the results suddenly and knew something was amiss and had changed drastically.
Women tend to be more affected than men, possibly due to the types and lengths of exposures they experience in comparison to men. (I would add that childhood exposures can also have quite an impact on both males and females.) Women’s College Hospital in Ontario is one place to find medical research information on the Electromagnetic Field Hypersensitivity tab here. Yes, EMF sensitivities is a real, physiological condition.
EMF sensitivities seems to hit at the parts of us that are weaker or the people who have had longer or more high of levels of things which damage the body’s cells. Examples:
- From childhood, my skin was sensitive to some synthetic products. I was also exposed to manmade EMFs more than some others in my generation. My experiences give us a clue as to “how come” I became sensitive sooner in comparison to some other people.
- Another example of why certain areas of the body can appear more affected than others is the design of our bodies – eyes, facial skin, and the throat have some of the most sensitive areas of epithelial cells in anyone, compared to our feet, etc..
- Sleep patterns in anyone are also easily affected by things like EMFs since the brain wave pattern for sleep stages includes the same frequencies our regular electricity emits into our indoor sleeping areas. Decreased melatonin levels have been noticed with RF exposures as well. Sleep issues seem to be one of the most common symptoms with emf sensitivities.
- My EMF brochure (at the bottom of this page) has more links for similar scientific information.
Yet people who just get used to a pattern of expecting that things like poor sleep, dry eyes, or digestive issues are “normal”, might not guess that things can be improved if wireless technology is minimized. I mean, how many people are just “tired all the time” and “need coffee” to keep them going??
Since I am sensitive/allergic to certain treatments, I couldn’t just have the typical stuff that could have masked the eye/skin problem. But how many people nowadays think it is “normal” to “need” eyedrops, probiotic yogurt, specialty skin creams, etc. to try to manage symptoms?
For us, we had to keep pressing for a cause and explanation for my symptoms.
Interestingly, I sometimes hear medical professionals mention to me that they see people with “similar symptoms” to mine. Sadly, the professionals don’t always like to recognize this condition like it is. So, it sounds like others get misdiagnosed too often. And others get misled into unscientific “solutions” trying to figure things out themselves.
What Happened to Me?
Our former home had been on a property known as a “black hole”. It was kind of funny in the sense that to use a cell phone very well, you had to be in the middle of the driveway to catch a strong-enough signal. It was frustrating though too since our business managed under “dial-up” and stuff for homeschooling might need a trip to use the internet at the town library. It could take all night or even a couple of nights in order to upload stuff onto our website back then. (Shortly after we moved away, that area got a new cell tower.)
Where we lived in a trailer park while we built our next house, was known as THE section that had “no Wi-fi”. So we’d have to walk down to a wireless zone to get our e-mails that summer.
Even at the new house, due to the trees and steep terrain of a valley, signals couldn’t go well through land or trees so outdoors was fairly good for me, in comparison to what it could have been.
And indoors at the new home was generally OK too. That is until….
our ethernet cord broke towards the end of our school year and we decided to become a wireless household!
That threw my dry eyes into ripping and peeling, resulting in very poor eyesight (a kind of functional blindness), and quickly added peeling eyelids and facial skin that refused to heal! Very painful and very tough on getting enough sleep.
Various Responses from Others
Does having EMF mean a person is crazy?
No, not at all! But some people claim that EMF sensitivity is “all in the head”.
My story is a bit different than the usual EMF reports in that, because many of my symptoms were very visible – so it flies against those erroneous ideas that claims that EMF sensitivity is due to the nocebo effect.
In other words, it makes no logical sense that this is just something that can be overcome if I change my mind about it. Or that my mind caused it to begin with!
Many of the common symptoms for EMF sensitivity are typically invisible ones (e.g. sleep quality issues, headaches, poor digestion, dizziness that goes away “on its own” but is doing so because of recovering in a lower-level of EMFs). Still, an environmental change causes the change of symptoms in those cases.
So it might take more patience to convince someone that this kind of radiation can cause a real, cell-damaging injury to a human body.
After all, people like the convenience of their technologies. They don’t like to hear that it could be something they should lessen.
It’s quite normal to hear responses that have a simple misunderstanding or ignorance and query. That’s OK and somewhat expected initially, at least from people who have not read any research on it yet.
But the pathetic excuse from the “people-who-should-know-better” (e.g. health officials in the government who have had research submitted to them by real scientists and health care professionals who claim to know that they know about these kinds of case histories) insisting that someone is crazy if they are sensitive to some electromagnetic frequencies – well, that excuse exemplifies one of three foundations:
- an economic interest (governments and companies make a lot of money selling wireless technologies or benefiting from its advertisements and/or sponsorships)
- a lack of willingness to learn with an open-mind, and/or
- a glued attraction/addiction to the technologies themselves to the point of caring more about devices and convenience instead of a community of people.
(Yes, Health Canada and several other relevant places have already been informed from science researchers. They have known that numerous studies exist, even if, to date, they do not want to understand them.)
I am very grateful that almost everyone whom I have talked to about our situation believes this to be a real problem with our environment instead of just “in my head”. I recognize that a number of other people with EMF sensitivity have not faced such an encouraging response from their communities.
I have no greater craziness than the person who sputters over second-hand cigarette smoke or has a severe food additive allergy.
Nor does anyone else who is sensitive to environmental hazards.
One of the nicest comments I’ve heard from more than one person who came to measure with engineering and electrician tools at our house was, “First I want you to know that I believe you.”
Even though the various people involved in our situation didn’t understand everything about it, they were willing to admit that some people are indeed sensitive to cell radiation or certain levels of electricity, etc..
So at least the people testing things might see the truth, even if not all officials who make the rules and standards might not yet admit it.
What is Happening?
This is a very real physiological problem and it is caused by something outside of yourself.
The body is doing what it is designed to do – to react to something that is injuring it.
Most of the people that I meet or who have known of my situation thankfully are very willing to consider the possibilities of the environmental pollution of this kind. Strangers often comment, “I’ve sometimes wondered about how safe these things are.”
Some folks might see or hear my acoustimeter as it demonstrates what our natural eyesight cannot see with sound. I have been met with a lot of kindness and honest questions, some of which I have no answers for but I am always happy to hear them anyways. (Note: Another RF meter that is more available these days and called the “Safe and Sound Pro II” meter shows similar things.)
A number of people knew about my functional blindness and skin peeling before we had any clue as to its cause and they know the difference it made when we turned off our wireless at home and then experimented with various exposures in public. They saw the difference in my face!
The church we attended at the time had installed Wi-Fi at the same time I began to have really dry eyes (plus noticeably lower energy until midweek). Once we knew the cause of my burned eyes and skin, they promptly turned the Wi-fi off for services and created a policy which encouraged attendees to turn their cell phones in airplane mode or off unless they’re “on-call” for other needs. And after we moved to a different community, people also do similar.
(And yes, people can still use a Bible app or type-in sermon notes with airplane mode/Bluetooth disabled and that is far better compared to texting or going online. Of course, the simplest idea is to bring a paper Bible to read instead.)
(Note: Due to the changing of how wireless settings are in some newer devices, if not simply turned “off”, the settings should be changed to not just “airplane mode on” but also “Bluetooth disabled”. Some devices do that in a two-step function while others do it all in one-step. I write about this here.)
My Intro. to EMF Brochure
When I’m out in places, I sometimes offer my basic story in brochure format so that people can learn more about EMF sensitivity. To download it (pdf format), you can click here or on the graphic. It is printable on 8 1/2 x 14″ (legal-sized) paper.
What is my ‘knowledge’ background?
I ended up attending a couple of universities, earning a Bachelor of Science degree. Many courses I took were in the pre-medical sciences because back then I was aiming to work as a researcher and helping patients in a practical way. (You can see a list of those courses here if that interests you.) Specifically, I was heading towards being a physiotherapist or perhaps a medical doctor in research.
To be honest, I’m thankful I didn’t get to be a PT or MD and I’m happy being a homeschool mom who writes and teaches instead. But at the time when I could choose my courses towards a degree, I wanted as many pre-medical ones as I could fit in because I really liked taking those studies. It’s helped too – having that sort of background helps me grasp the gist of numerous journal articles and recall science concepts, to sift through what makes sense and what doesn’t.
I’m not alone in my research as there are various family members looking at the same sorts of things that I look into and we discuss things together. For many years now, we have gathered and shared information together as well as learned through our experiences.
So this is my background of learning, presenting information, and still growing in knowledge and experience. I write also from the perspective of a Christian mom and teacher, an ordinary person, etc. so please consider any of my writing on this website as informal and sharing personal understandings to the public. I am not a medical professional nor am I a building biologist. I just happen to have some understanding of matters within those fields. The extent of my official science training is earning a B.Sc. degree years ago.
