“Why Don’t I Know More Cases Like Yours?” (Variability)

Why don’t we hear about more cases like yours?

EMF sensitivities is usually said by researchers to be around 3% for severe cases (I’d be within that 3%) in North America and maybe 50% or higher for mild cases. That “3%” is higher in some other countries, such as within Europe and Asia. (** See reference note at bottom of this post.)

Here are seven reasons related to why good recovery stories are not communicated much…

“Invisible Disabilities” –

You might say, “I haven’t seen other cases like this before” and I also agree. They might be more hidden yet. This can reflect the fact that, at present, most people with EMF sensitivity in North America, can camouflage their sensitivity better than I can in public. I would say that most of these people, could say they have “invisible disabilities” – of dealing with fatigue or pain or fogginess. Most seem to not have the level of symptoms which need a face covering to prevent visible burning/swelling, etc..

While I’ve known personally of a small number of people who get dry eyes and/or facial skin burns relating to using a wireless device, the severity of eye symptoms that I’ve experienced in my story is not as common and I personally have not met another person with that. Yes, it exists in scientific literature (definitely indicating there are other people in the world who have suffered similar to me in that aspect) but it is not as often mentioned for emf sensitivities. That symptom seems to be more rare yet.

But, in a small community almost 10 years ago, my parents saw (and perhaps also greeted) a man wearing the same kind of shielded fabric headnet like I do as he quickly came in and out of a fast-food restaurant to get his lunch. And a few years ago, an optometrist of mine mentioned that there was another patient of his who had eye and emf issues similar to mine so he had attended a professional seminar to learn more about emfs.

So yes, most people with sensitivities can hide the wearing of shielded clothing or cope-enough yet with anti-radiation skin creams or moisturizing eye drops or reducing their overall exposures. They are not as easily noticed and can blend into society, even if they are still suffering.

And to be honest here, many of us would prefer not to let you know that what YOU are using and enjoy, hurts us or is a real problem even to you. We don’t desire to offend you or correct you. We highly value being around friends and family and others. We are inwardly guarding against ridicule (from people who might think we’re crazy) as well as guarding against being isolated and left out of participating in community with others.

Most people suffering with EMF sensitivities try to be quiet about this matter, more often than not.

But there are also more reasons related to why good recovery stories are not communicated much…

Drained, Distressed, and maybe even Depressed

• People with ES (environmental sensitivities) often are very tired (exhausted). One is less likely to tell their story if they’re just trying to cope with daily life. Furthermore, depressed people don’t tend to want to hear a story of hardship either so why would they tell one? They also are simply looking for something to mend a broken heart, something that is encouraging, restful, and hopeful. Relationships can be strained or lost as well so fewer might speak out on another’s behalf.

Dead –

• 1. With severity of pain, isolation, etc., some sadly choose to end their life rather than to tend their life. Sadly this choice is sometimes suggested by our health “care” system while others feel too hopeless and think this is a way to stop their pain and loneliness (which, it isn’t).
• 2. The liver is a main organ in the body that looks after eliminating toxins from what comes into the body “from outside” (e.g. intake of substances, environmental hazards) as well as processing damaged cells no longer useful to the body. The liver can get overwhelmed with too much work for the health of it and so there can be things such as liver disease, liver failure, and multi-organ failure. (I have heard of environmental sensitivities ending with liver/organ issues when the body simply cannot keep up with this function, although not much. I think most of the ES sufferers either die with an additional, possibly-related thing or are living in one of the other categories, and most are not as severe yet; ES is still a relatively new thing for general society, although it seems to be increasing in impact.)

Deceived –

Sadly, many people struggling with environmental sensitivities slide into occultic/spiritual/magical techniques and gadgets. The Bible indicates that it is quite possible for people to experience ‘healing’ through demonic powers and I think this seems to be going on more openly nowadays. See 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Matthew 7:22-23, Exodus 7:11, 2 Thessalonians. 2:9, Acts 8:9-11. Most websites (and I would guess that most stories told online of “recovery”) dealing with environmental sensitivities and solutions for it that are not clearly scientifically-proved, are in this category.

Distant –

People who aim to recover properly typically look to move to a place of refuge somewhere. They are more distant from mainstream society, either living in a basement perhaps in a city or moving to a less-populated area like we did. Few of those might still use a computer and even fewer might have a website blog or ability to write/publish a book.

Duration –

This point has two aspects to consider –

• How long and/or how strong have OTHER people experienced exposures to higher levels of various emfs?
  • I think I may have become an “earlier” case of emf sensitivity because, at the time I was growing up, I had less-common emf exposures of the kind which can cause more harm. I’ve had a number of years and experiences which I think got me to the level of “over-exposures” sooner in comparison to others who did not during that same period of time. (See my post called “How Come?!” if interested further on that.)
  • Yet, nowadays, emf exposures have greatly increased to the general population; and we now can see the numbers of cases of emf sensitivities rising rapidly, in direct correlation to increased exposures. Exposures of being indoors around electricity more often than outdoor activity, and to wireless emfs which are more prevalent than ever before, often in 24/7 amounts. And even exposures to more chemical concerns in manmade products which can also damage and weaken the cells of one’s body, have greatly increased in recent decades.

• It takes time – to understand one’s own experiences in living life with sensitivities. People can experience severity within a short or longer period of time but it takes time to understand those experiences to be able to write about them better. Our English teachers used to tell us “to write about what we know”. I’ve not only had 20-30 years of experiencing various symptoms to various kinds of exposures, I’ve also studied various explanations, research articles, took time to have a background in science, etc.. One reason it takes so long to get things up on this website is because I’m limited in how much time I now spend at a computer and I’m outdoors more often. Another reason is that it simply takes significant amounts of time to go through the various articles and notes I’ve collected over the decades of learning about these things, to organize it AND to pick out the better sources to share with others. It takes time to learn, gather, and communicate effectively.

Diagnosed Differently –

Since some of the symptoms are the same as some other medical conditions, the main cause can be “masked” as “looking like” something else. Sometimes the person might actually NOT have that “something else”. But an environmental cause to his or her symptoms might not even be considered! (EMF and MCS symptoms do not always show up as “typical allergy symptoms” and even doctors have very little, if any, knowledge about the physiological causes of EMF sensitivities or multichemical sensitivities; nor does the general public. So such can easily be missed in being thought of.) How many medical conditions get diagnosed is by “ruling out” other conditions, readily seen in blood tests, scans, and/or checking nerve signals for dysfunction. There might be something definite that shows up in those tests OR an “educated guess” is made as to “why” something in the body (or mind) isn’t functioning in a healthy manner. I write more about the challenges of different diagnoses in two of my posts – “What is EMF Sensitivity? An Injury, Not a Disorder” and “Environmental Sensitivities and Other Conditions” (linked here hopefully when it gets posted).

A: A person could be “misdiagnosed” as having some condition, not have it, but rather “simply” be showing an environmental sensitivity because they are a “canary in a coal mine”.Here are just a few examples:

• Example 1: People might be diagnosed with depression or migraine conditions because they have the symptoms of very poor sleep (rather than realizing that the poor sleep, caused by wireless signals and/or stray voltages or environmental chemicals, is causing the chronic headaches, poor sleep, etc.).

• Example 2: People who get the skin burning symptoms might be diagnosed with rosacea (and told to stay out of the sunshine).

• Example 3: People might be suspected as having MS (multiple sclerosis), Parkinson-like (or PD symptoms, or other neurodegenerative conditions when they might have some “come-and-go muscle-related” symptoms (depending on the environment they are living in). Yes, environmental sensitivities with continued damaging exposures to harmful levels of emfs or chemicals CAN turn into a neurodegenerative condition as a result of permanent damage. (I mention this on my post called, “What Can Happen?” linked here hopefully when that is posted). But the patient might not have one of those conditions – at least, not yet, and perhaps the environmental sensitivities can be managed well-enough to avoid turning into that kind of permanent damage!
  • An hypothetical example using real-life situations I’ve heard of, “In my home, stairs are getting more difficult to climb and I slide my feet more when I walk. So how I manage is to work on my laptop (on wireless setting) in a recliner or bed. Maybe this is early-onset PD.” (One mom I read about became more and more muscularly unable to get out of her bed…until a tech guy came to fix or replace her router and wondered where it was in the house. It was under her bed! When it was moved to be away from her sleeping area, she ended up recovering her ability to walk, etc..)

B: A person could be “under-diagnosed” (i.e. no one able to determine the full cause of problems) and so kind of partially-diagnosed as a “medical puzzle”.

It is then logical that if a full or correct diagnosis ISN’T KNOWN to the individual and medical staff, then other people don’t get to know that this person is suffering symptoms for environmental reasons either. Thus, it doesn’t get reported about and society doesn’t realize how prevalent environmental damage really is.

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A corneal specialist once told me that their clinic sees several others “like me” in that city… and that their attempt to help those people with treatments (including surgery) for severely-painful recurring peeling off of the corneal epithelial layers only helps around half of the patients! I asked what happens to those “other cases” but shoulders were shrugged because they didn’t know.

A skin specialist once told me that their clinic sees “lots of people” like me in that city these days… and that the usual prescription (medication) that she can give doesn’t cure it but only helps “some” people. (Those it helps would be those who actually have a different skin condition than mine.) She also refused to acknowledge that wireless technology could be the cause of a burned/swollen face. I had just gotten burned again that day when I walked around 4G and 5G downtown without my headnet over my face so that I’d have something to show her. I left her trainee with a couple of studies from Olle Johansson to learn from. My swollen, burned face improved within hours of leaving the city and healed within days of returning to a no-RF-EMF environment and spending some time outside in the sunshine to speed the healing. I write more about emf and skin sensitivities on another post to be linked here when it gets posted.

You might say, “I haven’t heard of other cases like this before” when actually, you may have known of people with it but it was not understood as an environmentally-caused condition where a change in the environment would help significantly!

Have you noticed more “foggy people” in society?

They could be showing symptoms of being affected by emfs – in other words, showing a sensitivity that manmade electromagnetic frequencies actually DO affect them negatively!

We have noticed BIG societal changes over the past 10-20 years, bigger cities and then also creeping into our smaller communities. It used to be just a few occasional annoyances that we might roll our eyes at. But now, almost everyone has accepted a crazy preference of tech over people –

• Have you seen various signage warning about “cell phone zombies” (e.g. as this Wikipedia page explains)? That sort of thing used to be laughed at in comics/funnies, portraying them as ridiculous situations of people who lacked self-control to simply leave their technology at home and live in the real life moments. A few comics still poke fun at the ridiculousness of the virtual trap but now to try to jolt people back to what’s natural for human activities.
• People don’t tend to talk as much to one another in waiting rooms or in stores but instead pull out their phones to pay attention to. This wasn’t observed much for the OB appointments for our first few kids. But when we were expecting baby #5, we really noticed the change. Suddenly, most parents-to-be didn’t seem to want to talk with other parents-to-be while waiting there.
  • Later, after baby #8, we were in southern Ontario waiting in a line to pay for our groceries. Another person was remarking that it was so nice to see strangers as well as a cashier, interacting. We were alert and talking with each other, like normal.
  • When our family would sit to eat in a restaurant more than 10 years ago, we’d often get strangers coming over to us to comment how encouraging it was us all interacting at the meal with each other, instead of pulling out our phones. Now our older kids remark to us how stupid it looks to them when they observe the typical family eating or shopping – the people who can’t be bothered to pay attention to their children or if they do, it’s to show something on a phone. They’re teaching them to expect to stare off into a virtual world.
• When people visit their friends and family at a home or at a church, almost without fail, at least someone “just has to” bring out their phone to check something, show something, etc.. They can’t have a regular conversation without referring back to their phone! They can’t leave their phone at home even if they’re going a short distance within their own community of friends who would help them if there was any need! If a note is to be written for a reminder or an appointment, pen and a paper notebook or calendar seems to be rarely used. It’s as if it is some foggy habit to make sure they grab their phone, without thinking, “Do I actually need to bring this item, this time?”

Yes, more people are getting foggier these days!

Here is a funny animation showing embarrassing brain fog and lack of sleep after a dog and farmer play lots of video games: Shaun the Sheep – S7E14 – Sleep On It | Knowledge Kids.

Have you noticed a general increase of people talking about needing eye drops (for “dry eyes”) or probiotic yogurts (to help with digestion)?

I have.

They might think it’s something like age or something they’ve eaten or just the amount of screen-time, instead of the RFs emitted in their environment from their devices, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cell towers.

I think that some of those people are actually trying to manage symptoms of emf sensitivity without realizing the wireless cause.

That’s what I was doing too, before I knew that wireless tech could directly cause those dry eyes or digestive symptoms.

Variability for Symptoms?

(If you haven’t already, you can also read a related webpage on this called topic called, “Sequence of Noticing” where I also write a bit about variability.)

I know of other people who are sensitive to EMFs, not just myself. But they usually have the fatigue and/or perhaps inflammation, headache or digestive symptoms. These are people who live in cities or in small communities like myself, although those from cities would tend to be more-affected because of heavier exposures usually there.

When I think of individuals (outside of my immediate family members) who have (or their parents) talked or written to my family or myself about their sensitivities to emfs, only about 1/3 of those people are of middle-aged to senior citizen; 2/3 of them are younger than middle-age! This represents two dozen people whom I can readily remember; most of these have noticed a problem with RF wireless signals and a few or so with higher levels of electricity.

(Of course, there are other cases I know about through studying about these sensitivities or hearing from people I know about ones they’ve known.)

Variations Exist!

Yes, we share similarities for some points or aspects of it but each person is an individual, with unique experiences and backgrounds. Sensitivities can only be predicted to a certain extent and will NOT be exactly identical person-to-person. The variability of factors is too great for that. It’s somewhat like predicting the weather.

Weather has lots of factors and sometimes shows more different twists, variability to it than initially scientists expected. Those twists are still within the explanation of science, within normal expectations, and remain real, and not a perception/reaction of one’s mind. Variability exists and it is accurate and scientific to accept that it does.

We should be thinking of EMF MCS as a normal response (to various specifics or combinations of factors within an environment) of individual bodies which have unique backgrounds of exposures. For more about this point, you can also go to my post entitled, “What is EMF Sensitivity? An Injury, Not a Disease” here.

There are multiple factors for individuals.

The weather outside your window today is likely different in your community, at least a little bit, in comparison to my community.

Likewise, there are multiple factors for each individual….

…unique backgrounds and experiences for housing, work, school, regional environments (i.e. to what and how much was someone exposed to for emfs or chemicals or molds or diseases or injuries that weaken one’s body in specific ways), co-existing medical conditions, as well as the usual variances that are sometimes considered, such as stage of development, gender, size of person, etc..

Things have variability in the environment itself.

Tuberculosis, diabetes, rickets, etc. have less variability for a simple cause and common development and thus, these are more predictable for how such will progress. But, as mentioned at this link, EMF sensitivity is NOT a disease.

For multi-chemical or emf sensitivities, the technologies or ingredients of products themselves tend to be very complex, not simple. There are different wavelengths, in oodles of combinations, with various factors in the environment (e.g. distance from, strength of), etc..

• As an example, with a cell phone, there isn’t just “one type of RF wavelength/frequency” — wireless devices are made with 1000s of different frequencies/wavelengths from a range on the electromagnetic spectrum. There are lots of combinations of frequencies and strengths of them! Additionally, information gets put on those wavelengths – pulsations to carry the information, not just the frequencies of wavelengths themselves going through the air.
• (This is one reason why scientifically, a gadget that can precisely emit and identical opposite set of frequencies and strengths to match each frequency and wave of a wireless signal in a room in order to “cancel them out”, is rather a goofy idea and not based on real science. Unless things exactly match, cancellation of wavelengths doesn’t happen with the laws of physics. Harmonizers and neutralizers do not work from a scientific principle.)

Plus, environments themselves are changing, and at different rates, as communities and individuals have many options marketed in recent decades. How this amount of changes in environments can impact a person is still relatively new to learn about. And it keeps changing at various rates as products and services change in the society.

If environments themselves have great variability, why would we expect that every case from environmental impacts would look identical?

About “Range” –

When testing for some chemical sensitivities of cells in a lab setting, it can be understood that a “range” can be involved.

For example, from my university days many years ago and relating to sensitivities, I heard of a few cases where cells from a biopsy were immersed in a bath of a specific chemical.

1. In one case, the cells reacted quickly and very strongly, like a 9/10 type of strength of reaction. That person was considered “positive” for the sensitivity of course. And clinically, that person was also known to have very severe reactions to that chemical if it was in a significant concentration (but low for average people) in her environment. (She was well-known at a city hospital for having stiffened muscle reactions so severe that her joints could pop out and need surgery to wire them apparently.)
2. In another case, the cells reacted quickly and strong enough to call it a “positive” (6/10 or 7/10). That person had some severe reactions to that chemical in the environment but not for as many years as the first mentioned case and not as severe in symptoms either.
3. In another case, the cells reacted in the chemical bath but did so more mildly, like a 4/10. That person was considered “negative” for the sensitivity and clinically, was not known to react much to things in the environment. YET, obviously, that person’s muscle cells still reacted – they were not just lying in the solution doing nothing.

Would a reason that not as many people with environmental sensitivities are known about yet be because there is a range of sensitivity going on – one that has more people in the low end of that range but who could eventually become more noticeable if exposures to pollution (including emfs) increase in their daily lives?

That is what I saw happen with multi-chemical sensitivities. When I was younger, I only knew of a few “old” people with MCS and I’m not sure it was even a common term back then. But nowadays, I think we could say that most people are aware of people with sensitivities to things like some perfumes, cleaners, soaps, etc. to the extent that many would not consider it such a rarity anymore. Something has happened in our society to cause this kind of suffering and most would think it is due to exposures to problematic products which have been manufactured and widely-distributed.

Q: Did I know others “like me”?

A: Sort of and no.

For knowing about MCS years ago, I knew of a few older people with that, but we thought I was too young and that my experiences “weren’t enough like those other people to be the same thing”.

It was a doctor at a university clinic who noticed a few similarities of another student she knew comparing that with what I told her (since at the time, I was a medical puzzle) and guessing I maybe should see the other student’s specialist for a less-common test. It was something like we were both science students, we both had come-and-go symptoms which were not anything commonly tested for, we both had been thought of as puzzling, and maybe one or two other similarities. In other words, not much was exactly identical – just enough similarities to make her wonder.

Another piece of the puzzle was partially figured out when my sister went to a seminar put on for the public about some sleep-related disorders and purchased some research booklets to read. She then urged a specialist of mine to refer me there because I suffered with a lot of fatigue.

However, both specialties considered me a ‘rare bird’, with only some similarities to previous case studies.

Again, it shows that a person’s background of experiences and exposures for environmental sensitivities will have some similar patterns but also can be a unique story that isn’t fully identical to others!

Years later with new symptoms for eyes and skin, I was again in the midst of months without answers to “what” this was. Specialists couldn’t figure out why. Recently I was asked by a new person at an optometry appointment about how we discovered emf sensitivities.

Had I known of people with this before? No.

People were praying for me those months. And I told again my basic story to the person who was asking me…how I was worsening to the point of functional blindness and needing eye drops about every 2 hours night/day. And how one night at bedtime, I was in so much pain, that I asked my husband to find me a yogurt recipe or similar for soothing my burning/peeling face. He found a website and told me to squint at the page while he went for a shower.

I couldn’t read much anymore and I couldn’t find the word yogurt on that webpage. However, I did see a few other words that caught my attention. It was something about a mom saying that some people get burned on their face from cordless phones as well as other kinds of emfs.

I knew I had had that experience years prior, with my kids thinking it was funny that I’d get a number pad burned onto my cheek if I talked on the phone for long. So we had switched back to a corded phone and didn’t think further about it.

When my husband came out to see me, I told him and he sat down and skimmed the article, suddenly exclaiming, “Why didn’t we think of that?!”

He quickly ran to unplug our wireless tech and told me to stay home for the weekend to see what might happen to my face and eyes. Then he explained that the severity of my eye/face symptoms had essentially began at the same time our ethernet had broken months earlier, and that he hadn’t replaced it yet but had changed us over to wireless instead.

And yes, within 2-3 days, my face and eyes were healing, etc..

The person I was telling remarked, “THAT had to be God!” And I agreed! We would not have known what this was except that God answered our prayers that day.

How did I notice my sensitivities were real issues affecting me personally?

It was because God led us to know, often after waiting a very long while. And I am confident that God has arranged these to be a part in my life for His purposes.

I come from the perspective that our Creator, God, has a personal plan for each person. He sovereignly permits and even sometimes designs specific happenings in the life of an individual.

This is often seen as we learn about various characters in the Bible and even people in history. Sometimes we can see how God planned for certain things in our lives and prepared us for a task without us thinking about that at the time. Sometimes, God uses circumstances to move us, change us, grow us, in directions which we would not have thought of.

Why isn’t everyone “like me”?

Well, even though danger remains real, not all soldiers on a battlefield get injured. And those who do, might not get injured in the same way. We know this isn’t because the uninjured soldiers are healthier in their daily routines or are around weapons more often to get used to them. And it isn’t due to luck or fate either.

God holds each of our lives in His hands. He has determined our days. He has determined our steps for where we live. (I’ve provided Bible verse references for these on another post linked here. We have choices for how we respond for coming to Him with our needs.)

God can take anything in our lives and determine how much, how little, how often, and also, how noticed.

I think especially of these Bible verses:

“Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.” Psalms 139:16-18a (NIV’84)

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NIV’84) (in context of verses 19-39)

“From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:26 (NIV’84)

A Song –

Sometimes God calms a storm of questions or problems in our lives; other times, He calms the person who is going through a situation without answering every question or fully taking away the problem yet. Both are truths that I can identify with. Here is a song about that –

“Sometimes He Calms the Storm“ (written by Scott Krippayne, 1995; sung by The Ball Brothers on the linked audio/video)

** Note regarding statistics:

The BioInitiative Report 2012 includes several statistics and references for various studies worldwide, compiled into a document of 1500+ pages. If you’re looking for technical studies which mention the prevalence, check there – it’s available online.

It’s easier to point to summaries from those reports for the estimated prevalence of EMF sensitivities. One example of an author who has summarized this information is Swedish researcher Olle Johansson, such as in his short video that I included in my post, “What is EMF Sensitivity?” linked here. Another author is a (now retired) Canadian professor, Dr. Magda Havas.

One of the documents is also from the Environmental Health Clinic of Women’s College Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, 2021. Search for the percent symbol % in that document to see the numbers, alongside more detail than what I have provided on my post.