I’ve been getting questions asking “how” I’m doing since our move. I know that there are other people who check our website with the same question: Has this big change helped significantly in my/our health regarding electromagnetic sensitivities?
The short answer is “yes definitely” and “not fully”! 🙂
IT’S GREAT NEWS!
We’ve seen very significant improvement and are very encouraged by what we notice, and even sometimes actually surprised at how quickly my health has improved, to which we respond with a, “Thank You, Lord, for You knew ahead of time, exactly where we needed to be, and have very much blessed us beyond our expectations!”
TO SAY IT IN A GRAPHIC…
To compare the situation before/after our move, if I were to graph in general, my severity of symptoms of EMF sensitivities along with rate of recovery/healing time when I’m exposed to RF signals (of similar strength/power/level as in the community where we used to live) over this past year, it could look something like the below sketch. This roughly-sketched graph shows the relative speed at which I can tolerate or heal from the damage caused by things like cell phones, cell towers, microwaves, wifi.
Why are there slow, gradual slope sections?
(And why are the lines wiggly? That’s because with EMF (or MCS) sensitivities, a person goes back and forth between symptoms (due to exposures) and healing after those events. But overall sensitivities get affected too, depending on how much the person is able to recover in sensitivities.)
A: Why didn’t the graph rise as quickly immediately after our arrival to our new home, in a community with low cell radiation? Right after arrival, why did it take longer that we guessed? There were a few reasons I can think of:
- Even though we had carefully chosen a route with fewer cell towers compared to what we could have gone near, we still had a much greater amount of exposure (including a bit of 5G levels) just to get here in travelling, thus a greater extent of symptoms to heal from for me. Actually, with all the exposures along the trip east, I added a new symptom (one that I had only very rarely experienced before with RF) and that was a mild but annoying dizziness/unbalance for the first number of weeks, which worsened if I was near the stove, especially if it was “on”. That was in addition to the other symptoms I was healing from. Basically, more RF or more EMF in general = more symptoms = more time to heal.
- My “bucket” was quite “full” before we moved. I had been gradually declining in health with worsening EMF sensitivities, regardless of how much we tried to limit electricity and wireless there.
- Another reason is that our smart meter was still activated, unknown to us, until about 2 weeks after we moved. (Unlike Ontario, smart meters in NS are optional, not required.) I had begun to return to a bit of computer work but was puzzled as to why my eyes were beginning to burn more again, since they had been recovering along with other symptoms from the trip. About half an hour after talking about this concern to my family at lunch one day, a man from the hydro company drove in and went to our meter to work on it. When my husband asked what he was doing, the man replied that he was making the smart meter “dumb”. We had requested it to be “dumbed” before we arrived and had only measured short moments at the meter with our acoustimeter, obviously not when the signal was radiating, so had assumed it was “not smart” for those couple of weeks, but in reality, it still had been. (In Ontario, the acoustimeter used to pick up the smart meter signal about every 12 minutes if one had patience to stand there to measure it. And the strength of the signal could “max out” at 6.0 near it.) My desk area was close to the meter here. After that smart meter was dumbed, my eyes didn’t get re-burned in our house (unless someone showed up with a cell phone “on”). RF is now “nil” in and around our home! 🙂
- We know that higher electrical fields can slow down rate of healing plus cause poor sleep quality* (see note at bottom of post or my brochure). When we arrived, we needed to have our metal roof grounded. It took time to get all of that related work coordinated so while I was recovering slowly from our initial trip plus one to a city to change our addresses, we also were living with high levels of electrical fields. In the house we moved into, about 8V (=8000 mV) was measured on the roof with the gaussmeter) and we simply had to be patient to wait until this work could get done. However, when the transformer and meter were moved away from the house, the meter changed to analog, and the roof was grounded, I immediately felt the difference that day (and onwards), both in brain fog, dizziness/unbalance, and sleep quality. (Those symptoms previously also would disappear if outdoors or if hydro goes out too.) Interestingly too, a number of us also have experienced a gradual but noticeable weight loss/clothing size change from that point onwards, over the winter, despite our diet, habits, activity levels not really changing so it does make us wonder if higher EMF levels are related to weight gain, perhaps related to inflammation/swelling that we were unaware of in the past – it’s something we don’t know for sure but are guessing was a factor in our situation. (Weight has stabilized at a good level now.)
B: Why did the recovery come to a point around mid-February of becoming more gradual improvement, a slow-down slope? Again, I can think of a few good reasons of why it would get to a point and then begin to become more gradual. (But I’m still improving quicker than we originally expected.)
- We still have some work to do to reduce electrical fields further here, some specifics in this house to investigate, even though, yes, we have been able to reduce electrical fields (EF) very significantly in our home. This sort of figuring out of these things take time. (The major reduction of EF took place a few weeks before Christmas. Another major step in reducing my overall exposures to EF just happened a couple weeks ago, which I’ll mention later. 🙂 )
- A very high level of radon was discovered this spring (with values around 1800 on both electronic measuring gadgets for this naturally-occurring radioactive gas). This began to be greatly reduced (through mitigation) just a few weeks ago (down to around 400 thus far). I do not know if/how high levels of radon affect emf sensitivities BUT, logical sense tells me that it likely does contribute at least to keeping one’s “bucket” closer to “full-and-spilling-over-with-symptoms” compared to having less/no radon exposures. (You can read my “bucket analogy” diagrams and explanation on this post here. Some people also would relate this to managing what’s called a “total body burden” of pollution to handle.) I personally think that reducing radon will help us more than just what it is typically known to reduce.
- My level of EMF sensitivities before arriving here was very severe – within the group of 3% of Canadians who experience the sort of severity that I did. I was very much damaged from the exposures of high-EMF. That means that, while I am definitely recovering VERY well here, it generally takes a longer time to heal from all that damage compared to someone who was less severely damaged and/or younger. Also, parts of the body heal from any damage at different rates, for example, it can take up to 3 years to rebuild a liver and about a year for some eye cells. We don’t know how much will turn out to be “permanent” damage – that part will likely be unknown until at least 2-3 years from now.
My guess is that the graph sketch will change again in upcoming weeks and months to look like a steeper line as number 1 and 2 are improved and as number 3 continues to get better.
ALL SYMPTOMS HAVE BEEN REDUCED!
Yes, every single one of the symptoms I’ve experienced at various points in my journey with EMF sensitivities has been reduced as a direct result of our move to the home and community(ies) we live today! Severity and frequency both have decreased and thus, tolerance has increased to a certain extent (although it’s also true that I am also only travelling within a region that almost always has much lower RF radiation compared to where I’d travel in Ontario). When I was sitting in the city, waiting on a family member who was in and out of the hospital for a number of weeks this spring, I made a list of “symptoms” I had had from RF-exposures in the past, many of which I was no longer experiencing, or at least not to the same level of difficulty as I had been these past few years. These are in no particular order but I wanted to emphasize the difference that living in a non-wireless environment and a much-lower RF-community can make:
BEFORE: inflamed eyes (dry eyes, swell/inflammation/burning, burn epithelial layers of cornea, distort vision, inside eyelids stick/rip, extra crumbs which can also scrape across eyeball to add to injuries); short-term functional blindness (a few years ago before I knew about EMF sensitivities and was under wifi, etc. 24/7 – I lost a lot of clear vision (e.g. ability to see details like on my child’s face or reading much, do computer work or peel veggies or even walk without assistance sometimes) until we turned off our wifi and I began to stay home more, then my vision would improve again); eyelids that burn/peel/itch like a sunburn; dry or sore throat due to that irritation can bleed a bit with thicker phlegm as it heals again (some of the most sensitive skin layers in a person’s body are the eyes, eyelids, and back of the throat); headache if too much face swelling; dizziness/unbalance; brain fog – difficulty with listening comprehension (family might need to repeat words more), mix-up/switch words in speech; much slower multi-tasking; inflammation (swelling, bleeding) of gums in mouth when brushing for a few days after being around wifi; inflammation of body in general (more accident-prone/ bruising up to 48 hours after wifi); burning muscles (swell and sometimes pain, muscle-fatigue to limit or prevent climbing stairs or needs aloe vera for relief of the skin); higher immune response which means a quicker recovery to colds if I got them at all (I see this as a benefit); greater sensitivity to slight odors (which also can be a benefit); fingers can swell slightly but enough to limit quick typing/writing/piano playing; tighter socks and shoes/feet more itchy/peeling; intestines affected with many trips to the bathroom (unless probiotics consumed after some RF-exposures); larger “middle” overall (the liver naturally increases when it has to handle more damaged cells; gallstones can form more if liver is overwhelmed), skin on face/neck/tips of ears burn red/peel like a sunburn (yet sunshine helps to heal my burns and I don’t burn easily at all if I’m just exposed to sunshine); poorer sleep for about 3 nights after RF exposures (greater restlessness of muscles/crawling sensations of butterflies/ants, nightmares, increased sensitivity to lumps/wrinkles in bedding (like a “princess on a pea”)); also within 48 hours after RF, a crazy stretch reflex that wants to suddenly hyper-extend back/spine (which can cause further injury to muscles if they get kinks or strained) – if I have quickly flexed the other way (e.g. by “hugging myself”) it prevents that hyper-extension; head/muscle twitches if wearing a shielded (which is metallic-based) headnet and under high electricity (e.g. travelling under high voltage towers); slower to heal from cuts on skin or nails; bothersome to see under CFL bulbs or similar; hair thinned; during days after RF-exposures, I can be especially more sensitive to high magnetic fields which are when using electrical appliances such as the stove, waffle maker (that meant that I was not able to cook/bake as much as I wanted to). Eye drops were used at least daily. Other general healing supportive measures (teas, supplements, and similar) were needed more often. Rate of healing from exposures for symptoms or damage to disappear ranged from 2 days (48 hours) to 14 days (2 weeks) after being around RF and often the symptoms were serious enough to make managing some of my work in the days that followed, challenging. (Yes, the smart meter for hydro would be a continual factor of RF in that situation too although the cell tower radiation reach and neighbourhood wifi were both low values on most areas of our former property.) Eventually, in order to manage symptoms and still be able to do as many things at home for my family and myself as I could, I became affected enough to generally leave my property twice a month (often to church or to a medical-related appointment) and then back again to heal from those exposures. Then we moved, with the hope that I might be able to recover enough to attend church 1x/week with our family plus occasional shopping/field trips with them as the months/years went on.
NOW: Many symptoms are now rare or have been completely eliminated since around Christmas to mid-January. There also has been significant reduction in the severity of symptoms which continue after RF-exposures such as my eye, skin, throat, muscle, sleep and intestinal symptoms and overall inflammation after exposure to wifi or cell phones/towers. My hair is growing thicker little by little, skin healing faster and getting damaged less (thus, less pain), sleep is better, gums don’t usually bleed after low-levels anymore, and I’m able to manage significantly more household tasks again, including cooking/baking on an electric stove. Yes, it still means that my choice is to wear shielded clothing in most places I go to or else end up with more symptoms to deal with in comparison. Yes, I still do get burned and experience limitations after being in RF radiation for a while and when I do, I still use the eye drops, extra antioxidants, etc. to aid in healing. BUT, the severity of the pain and damage has generally decreased and I can tolerate some low levels that I couldn’t have tolerated as well in the past. I still have to be careful to avoid some levels of wifi or cordless phones/cell phones (including on some people’s properties or some stores or a lot of travel), if I want to be able to manage well and serve in my own home/family more. But my recovery stage now does allow me “out” in low-levels quite often and I praise God for this blessing!!! Rate of healing from exposures for significant decrease of symptoms or damage to disappear range now from 2 hours to 5-7 days (maybe a week) and often the symptoms are manageable enough to let me to do more of my tasks in the days that follow Instead of needing to be outdoors in order to manage some symptoms, my “outdoor life” is now more-so a thing to help me recover faster/strengthen compared to needing to be there often to cope with pain or extreme fatigue. I have recovered enough to generally go out typically 3x/week for church-related times plus occasional shopping/field trips and then back again to heal from those exposures (and that’s much more often than initially expected by this point)! And sometimes, because some of the RF-levels in our community can be nil or relatively low, I’m able to handle being in public without shielded clothing, with very mild or no symptoms.
A CHANGE THAT IS RECENT (and fun too)!
I mentioned above that a major reduction of electrical fields (a different part of EMF compared to RF) took place a few weeks before Christmas. And that another major step in reducing my overall exposures to EF just happened a couple weeks ago. This part has to do with homeschooling and we are having fun with this! 🙂 A while before we moved, we did some looking into the idea of assembling a yurt for an extra living space – a four-season “family room” that has zero electrical fields. So THAT is what our recent change is!!!
About a month ago, a platform near our garden was built professionally by a couple of guys on their weekends and then we, plus a couple of other friends from here, assembled a 17-foot diameter yurt in a July morning on top of that platform. When I’m done this blog, I’m getting more of it set-up inside with some “homeschool stuff”! 🙂 But now we have a place to spend lots of time, sheltered from bugs, rain, snow, cold, wind while we have our studies or quilt or friends visit or even can sleep in there… without any EMF of any kind for hours in any season! What FUN!
Of course, we’re also in our house for many activities, like most people. But a yurt homeschool life is what we’re now getting ready to do! 🙂
Other news from this spring, in case you’ve missed it –
- We started a ministry website in May called “The Word In Our Hearts”. See this blog for details.
- We began affiliate marketing with a few special homeschool-related events and products this spring too.
- Speaking and blogging activities: I’ve been speaking more at homeschool events or in groups since moving too, and that has meant less blogging as spring/summer has been a season for speaking to fit in with a busy life here. I hope to return to writing blogs over this summer after returning to a bit of ventriloquism for a VBS (Vacation Bible School) with Rob and the kids. (Some of what I wrote in the blog post entitled “Homeschoolers and Wireless Technology” is included in a speaker session I recorded a few weeks ago.)
My “EMF story” demonstrates that disabilities as a result of too much exposure to man-made electromagnetic frequencies is a REAL and physiological experience. But recovery from the damage caused by such things in one’s environments is also possible – naturally (without gimmicks or stress-techniques) and a recovery that is lead by the living God, the Creator of this world Who sees and understands it all, is the kind of recovery that is blessed with true peace, regardless of what happens in our world and how I am affected.
Dear Reader, do you yourself know this kind of inner peace, this rest for your soul that comes from God, regardless of life’s circumstances? The Word of God states:
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV Bible)
Do you also struggle with environmental sensitivities and find some responses from Christians you’ve met discouraging to you? People aren’t perfect, even when they aim to represent God, and many, many Christians don’t understand about EMF issues yet. (Jesus also tried to talk with religious people and they didn’t always listen well either.) But Jesus understands you and wants to help you. He wants to lift your burden when you come to Him, including your greatest human need for forgiveness of sin. He is the Living God and He loves you! If you want more spiritual direction about having a relationship with God, please see this link on our “Peppermint Stick” website and/or begin listening to audios on our new ministry website, The Word In Our Hearts.
Dear Christian Reader, would your church be an option for an EMF-sensitive person to attend and learn of Christ with others? Or does your church currently enable wifi all the time? When the “world” (for example, the organization that Cece Doucette is involved with at this link) is actively promoting a safer wired technology system which BTW, is also more stable for broadcasting services, can churches and other Christian ministries also consider hard-wiring their equipment, disabling the wifi at least some of the time during the week, and encouraging cell phones to be put on “airplane mode” or completely off? The answer is yes, this is a possibility! Some churches already ask their congregants to put their cell phones “off” or in airplane mode to minimize distracting them from keeping one’s focus on why they are actually at church. And yes, a Bible app WILL still work on “airplane mode”. Wireless technologies are never necessary for a church meeting. Consider what you can do to reach out to these 3% of Canadians, many of whom need to know Christ and are living in the midst of isolating-type circumstances. Of course, remember to do this not a “poor-me attitude” of losing a convenience you happen to be able to tolerate for now but rather with humility and gentleness, like Jesus would do. 😊
Joy
* Note from point A: You can read my brochure here where it mentions on the back page that there IS a relationship between high electrical fields and sleep quality in some people – a decreased Stage 4/deep sleep, and at least some forms of/causes of restless legs syndrome (RLS), chronic fatigue syndrome and/or fibromyalgia symptoms. I’ve read about this relationship of EF and sleep/muscles in one place and discussed this with another EMF consultant to confirm what I had been able to conclude in my own life both current and from life back in university days when I had undergone a detailed sleep study. My specialists at that time, said that “something” was making my muscles twitch/jerk and diagnose me but they could not figure out the “cause”, other than that it was definitely physiological, not psychological. Now, we understand the cause to be higher EF. For me (plus a number of others I know or have personally heard from), any restless legs/muscle twitching/poor sleep completely disappear when I am/they are in environments with zero/nil electrical fields. Symptoms are lessened with low-EMF, greater with high-EMF. The easy way to figure this out if you are also affected is to simply go camping in a tent away from any EMF and see how you rest/sleep. One more note, I don’t want to give the impression that I was ever diagnosed with CFS/fibro – I have been tested at times over the years but the answer always was “no”. I agree with that “no”. It’s a noticeable sensitivity to EMF that can cause those symptoms for me. Thus, I find that a low-EMF lifestyle is a huge benefit and great way to manage symptoms naturally!
Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and cannot diagnose. I am not a professional research scientist either. These comments are only my opinions and telling of my personal journey. These comments are not intended to diagnose or treat anyone. It’s the responsibility of everyone reading on my website to research ideas further elsewhere to come up with their own conclusions.