Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS) Info Sheet

Hello! Freeman here. I wrote this info page to help my friends, family, and health care team understand my condition, and my needs around wireless tech and electricity so that I can live a life of celebration, despite my disability. Thank you for reading it. :)

This stuff can get complicated and very involved. I’ve done my best to simplify the info, give what’s most crucial to understand, and answer the most common questions asked. To use this page, you can either read the whole thing, or read the answers to the heading questions that interest you.

To understand the harms of EMFs and how to mitigate them in all of their overwhelming complexity, read Dr. Joseph Mercola’s book EMF*D: 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself.

WHAT IS ELECTROMAGNETIC HYPERSENSITIVITY SYNDROME OR EHS?

Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS) is a condition where people have adverse reactions to electromagnetic fields (EMF) at levels well below the levels permitted by national and international radiation safety standards.

EMFs that affect me include:

• Radio frequency (RF) fields – Emitted by wireless, smart, or Bluetooth devices and operating microwave ovens. Cell phones, smart watches, item-trackers like Airtags, and a variety of other commonly-used devices emit RF, even when not actively being used. RFs pervade our modern world making it difficult for me to go anywhere.

• Extremely low frequency (ELF) fields – Emitted by fuse boxes, electrical wiring in the walls, appliances, lamps, and other devices plugged into the walls, as well as by the overhead powerlines that crisscross our communities and line our freeways. Electrical wiring in the walls radiate ELF fields 6 to 8 feet into a room, whereas high powered powerlines can radiate ELF fields a much greater distance.

• Very low frequency (VLF) fields – Produced by current distortions in electrical wiring due to old or faulty wiring, and the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs, dimmer switches, air conditioners, inverters on solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and other electrical devices like TVs, monitors, and computers. VLFs are also referred to as “dirty electricity,” and like ELFs, they radiate into the space around their source.  

All together, these human-generated electromagnetic fields are called “electrosmog.” My ideal exposure to electrosmog is zero, and the less I am exposed to it, the better for my health and wellbeing.

WHAT ARE YOUR SYMPTOMS?

The brief, but intense blasts of RF emitted by cell phones, smart watches, Airtags, and other devices can cause me to become unfocused, disoriented, confused, unable to remember things, irritable, and exhausted.

Once away from the electrosmog, I experience an “electrosmog hangover” that leaves me in “zombie mode.” When in zombie mode I require copious amounts of sleep, although sometimes I cannot sleep. While awake, I feel mental and bodily exhaustion, the brain fog makes me stupid -- decision-making becomes overwhelming and I lose the ability to remember words, names, memories, etc. -- the fatigue makes me apathetic and incompetent. (None of this is said in a judgmental way, but in an effort to better communicate the felt and lived experience.) When in zombie mode, normally simple tasks --like getting dressed, talking with a person, responding to an email, or grocery shopping -- become overwhelming and extremely difficult.

Depending on the severity and duration of the electrosmog exposure, electrosmog hangovers can last for hours, days, or weeks, before I regain energy and mental functioning. A short trip to the library and grocery store often results in a 3-to-5-hour hangover. An evening visiting friends or family at their homes when they make no accommodations for me, causes an electrosmog hangover that can last for two to four days.

(By the way, I don’t drink alcohol or use drugs, so my electrosmog hangovers are not related to that.)

Meghan O’Rourke speaks for many chronic disease sufferers, when she writes in her book The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, “The hardest thing to convey to doctors of friends was the debilitating fatigue, which many other patients I knew experienced as well…. But the fatigue of physical dysfunction, I came to recognize, is as different from normal sleep deprivation as COVID-19 is from the common cold.” (p. 48)

WHY ARE YOU SO CONCERNED ABOUT CELL PHONES AND SMART WATCHES?

Cell phones and smart watches regularly transmit a lot of RF, even when they are not in use. While resting, they regularly transmit RF to search for WiFi routers, Bluetooth devices, and the nearest cell tower to see if there is new content for the apps.

To get specific, these devices regularly emit more than 6 volts/meter (V/m) of RF. In comparison, the RF from the radar station when it hits my house is typically about 1.4 V/m, while my faraday-cage bedroom reads less than 0.02 V/m, and my basement dance studio/party room typically reads 0.23 V/m. Businesses with no accommodations made for me often range in the 1 to 4 V/m range. All this to say that cell phones and smart watches emit a lot of RF, even when not in use.

On top of that, 5G cell phones and watches, with their ability to transmit more data, more quickly, generate even more RF than previous generations of devices.

Furthermore, people carry their cell phones and watches on their person. To talk with people who have these devices at a socially-appropriate distance, puts me mere feet away from these high-RF-generating devices. And when smart phones and watches operate inside a car or bus, their RF becomes amplified as the signals ricochets off the metal frame, hitting occupants multiple times.

This is why it is important to observe phone and watch etiquette around me.

BESIDES CELL PHONES, AND APPLE WATCHES, ARE THERE OTHER DEVICES THAT HAVE A SURPRISINGLY HIGH RF OUTPUT?

Yes! Roombas, Apple TV devices, computer printers, computers, and many smart TVs. Many smart TVs, even when turned off, emit lots of radio-frequency (RF) radiation. The only way to get them to stop generating RF is to unplug them from the wall.

HOW CAN I BE AN ALLY?

IN GENERAL...

• Believe me. Trust what I am telling you and offer me some empathy and compassion. This condition has made me a prisoner of my own room. The longer I am outside of my room, the more I suffer for it. Simple trips to the grocery store or library, have deeper consequences for me. I am grieving the loss of being able to socialize with my friends and family outside of the home, of being able to go to dance clubs, of being able to bike and use public transit to get places, of being able to attend Minnesota’s wonderful festivals like Open Streets, Art Shanties, Veg Fest, and group bike rides. Your empathy and compassion are appreciated.

• Be willing to meet me in parks or at the beach. Parks and beaches tend to be much lower in electrosmog than houses and buildings. Plus, nature! :) My favorite parks to go hiking include Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan, Murphy-Hanrehan Regional Park in Burnsville and Savage, and Alimagnet Park in Burnsville which has a frisbee golf course.

• Visit me at my house. My family has done a lot to limit my electrosmog exposure at home, so it is a safer environment for me to be in. We can talk and hang out, dance, take a dance class, do strength training with bands, play board games, card games, ping pong, or foosball, make a meal, or watch a documentary, show, or movie. We could also play tennis and pickleball at a nearby court. Or we could go for a swim and/or sunbathe at Crystal Lake beach.

• Speak up for my needs in group settings. When in pain, depressed, or confused with brain fog/the stupids, it can be challenging to rouse the energy, and emotional and mental clarity necessary to advocate for my own needs. Your help in this is appreciated.

WHENEVER WE ARE TOGETHER...

• Power down your cell-phone and smart watches before meeting me. Or put them in "airplane mode" and deactivate mobile data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, near field communication (NFC), and the Find My Phone app in the settings. If you need to use your phone, please turn it on and use it at least 50 feet away from me. And turn it off or put it in airplane mode before returning to me.

• Leave Fit Bits, item-trackers (like Airtags), laptops, and other smart devices at home or in your car. Fit Bits and Airtags often cannot be put into airplane mode, and they emit a lot of radio frequency EMFs.

• Friendly touch helps counteract the mental irritation and depressed mood that results from electrosmog exposure. So, let’s have a conversation about what kinds of touch we would both be comfortable sharing with each other: arms around the shoulders? Holding hands? Arm in arm? And so on. Unfortunately, friendly touch does not negate the hangover affects from electrosmog, and it is not a substitute for limiting exposure as much as possible.

WHEN I VISIT YOU AT YOUR HOME...

• Please unplug your wireless router, and any smart devices such as speakers, printers, TVs, Apple TV device, Roombas, personal assistants (Dot, Alexa, etc.), and so on.

• Turn off computers, laptops, and tablets or disable their WiFi and Bluetooth so they stop acting as antennas, and unplug them from the wall.

• Power down your cell-phone, smart watches, fit bits, and Airtags in my presence. Or put them in "airplane mode" and deactivate mobile data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, near field communication (NFC), and the Find My Phone app in the settings. If you need to use your phone, please turn it on and use it at least 50 feet away from me. And turn it off before returning. If you have roommates or other guests, please ask them to do these things as well.

• Some devices like Fit Bits and Airtags cannot be powered down easily or put into airplane mode. Please put them in an aluminum-lined box, as far away from me as possible.

• Unplug as many electronic devices especially laptops and lamps in the rooms where we will be hanging out. Better yet, turn off the breakers in the fuse box that electrify the wires in the walls where we will be.

• Standing next to fuse boxes; appliances like refrigerators, electric stoves, toasters, lamps, and microwaves; and even walls with electrical wiring can be problematic for me. Please support me in my efforts to position myself in the least problematic area within a house or room, and in plugging dirty electricity filters into your outlets while I am there.

• Ask any other guests or family members to observe phone, watch, and wireless etiquette too.

• Know I will probably bring my meters and do a walk-through of your place to identify any remaining sources of electrosmog or problematic areas.

• I know this is a lot to ask, so we can always just go for a hike, visit at my place, or do phone or video call.

WHEN RIDING IN YOUR CAR...

Most freeways and roads are now lined with cell phone towers, radio towers, high-voltage power lines, businesses, apartment buildings, and other sources of electrosmog, making it important for me to limit my travel on roads. Still, in those situations where we do carpool, please:

• Power down your cell phones and smart watches.

• Disable the car's Bluetooth and ability to connect with smartphones.

• In high-tech cars, it may make more sense for me to sit in the back seat.

• Using GPS systems and radios are fine. They act only as receivers. Transmitters are the problem.

WHEN WE MAKE PLANS TO MEET OUTSIDE MY HOME...

• Remember that I do not use a cell phone like other people. My phone is always in airplane mode. I use apps like Facebook’s messenger, Signal, and texting from my computer. I call people from a land line. Know that once I leave my house to go meet you, I will not be accessible by phone and text, nor will I be able to reach you. Therefore, when we make plans, it helps me to confirm all details such as where to meet and when.

• It also helps to establish a contingency plan. If you or I are running late what will we do? Will we wait for 20 minutes before leaving? I really appreciate having solid plans and contingency plans.

Why do you ask people to turn off their Find My Phone app?

When the Find My Phone app is active, your phone will continue to emit significant RF signals even when it is completely powered down, as well as when it is in airplane mode. Because of this, I have a box wrapped in industrial-grade aluminum foil that I have people put their phones in when they visit me. The RF signals cannot penetrate the foil and this may be easier for some people than disabling their apps.

CAN YOU USE A COMPUTER?

I have made several modifications to be able to use my computer more safely, although the less I am on it, the better. The modifications made include:

• I have disabled the WiFi and Bluetooth. The Internet is accessed using grounded and shielded ethernet cables.

• The computer runs on battery power when I use it. Meaning it is not plugged in. This decreases the ELF and VLF it generates. In addition, the computer is grounded which helps channel EMFs to the ground. Finally, I have an EMF shield that covers top, bottom, and side of the laptop’s keyboard, and I use a corded keyboard and mouse so I can sit several feet away from the device itself.

• When the laptop needs to be recharged, I put it in another room and far away from me to do so.

CAN YOU USE A CELL PHONE?

No. My cell phone is always in airplane mode. I don’t use it to make calls, text people, or access the Internet. If you call me, I talk to people on a land line. If you get messages from me, I send them from my computer.

HOW DOES TEXTING WORK FOR YOU?

Poorly. I am able to text a few iPhone owners from my computer, but not many. I prefer to use the app Signal or FaceBook's Messenger to send and receive messages. I can use these apps from my computer without the need to have my phone out of airplane mode.

HOW AND WHEN DID YOUR EHS START? WHY DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE EHS? 

In June of 2019, I moved into a downtown loft apartment in Minneapolis. The longer I lived there, the sicker and more zombie-like I became. My body was experiencing all kinds of bizarre sensations. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew I needed to leave that loft.  

I moved back in with my parents, where I had lived before moving downtown. Although their place was better than downtown, it was now intolerable for me. The bizarre sensations and symptoms continued, but not nearly to the same degree as they had while I lived downtown.

Not much later, I was leading a retreat at a retreat center. It was heavenly there. My symptoms went away. I felt rested. I could think. I was functional.

I still had no idea what was going on, but I did have one clue. While living downtown, I developed a unique headache. I had only ever experienced this kind of headache when I would call people on my cell phone and keep the phone close to my head. To prevent the headaches when calling people, I started using earbuds so I could keep the phone away from my head, and that stopped my symptoms. This made me consider that maybe my symptoms had something to do with the radiation emitted by cell phones and other wireless technologies.

I purchased a radio-frequency (RF) meter and found that the loft apartment (and all of downtown Minneapolis) had extremely high RF readings, my parents place (prior to all of the accommodations we made) had moderately high RF readings, and the meditation center had zero background RF radiation.

This strong correlation I found between high EMF-exposure and my symptom development/intensity led me to suspect that my symptoms might be related. As we made accommodations to limit my exposure to EMFs at my parent’s house, living there become tolerable again.

Much later, I learned that in April of 2019, a few months before I moved downtown, Verizon started rolling out their installation of hundreds of 5G antennas in downtown Minneapolis, making Minneapolis one of the first cities in the world where this technology was available. This is part of the reason why all of downtown Minneapolis had such extremely high RF readings.

Over the years since then, I’ve seen this pattern of EMF-exposure and poor health numerous times. When I act as if I have EHS, and take appropriate precautions, it gives me more power to navigate life with more health and wellbeing.

All of this, and more, has led me to conclude that I have EHS.

IS THERE A CURE FOR EHS?

No.

Some people find EHS to be temporary and they get better if they avoid all exposure to EMF for an extended period of time. I have yet to find a place with no human-generated EMFs where I could live for six months, but I am seeking out such an opportunity.

As it stands, there is no known cure for EHS. The European Academy for Environmental Medicine (EUROPAEM) state in their article EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses that, "The primary method of treatment should mainly focus on the prevention or reduction of EMF exposure, that is, reducing or eliminating all sources of high EMF exposure at home and at the workplace.” That is why people with EHS do what they can to limit exposure to EMFs.

WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE MORE SENSITIVE THAN OTHERS?

Nobody knows. Several theories have been proposed, but there is no consensus.

Some think physical, chemical, or psychological trauma to the brain may predispose a person to EHS. I have had two sharp hits to the back of my head, and once my car was totaled when an impaired driver rear-ended my car on the freeway. I have also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Another theory is that exposure to extreme levels of electrosmog may predispose a person to the condition. Before it was called EHS, the military called it "radio sickness" as the people who worked close to radio transmitters would often complain of strange symptoms.

EHS also seems to manifest differently for different people. For many, a restful night’s sleep in an EMF-free environment allows them to tolerate the EMFs they encounter in their daily life without too many problems. For others, exposure to any EMFs debilitate them. My EHS tends seems to be on the more severe end of that spectrum.

HOW COMMON IS EHS?

Given that most doctors haven’t heard of it, or know how to diagnose it, it is hard to accurately estimate how many people suffer with it.

DO YOU KNOW OF OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAVE EHS?

Yes. I am not the only one. Click here to read many other stories of people suffering with EHS.

CAN YOU TELL WHEN YOU ARE BEING EXPOSED TO RADIO FREQUENCIES FROM WIRELESS TECH?

Not always. With lower levels of RF, symptoms come on slowly and are hard to distinguish from being tired, frustrated, or irritated. With higher blasts of RF, sometimes I may feel more dramatic sensations in the head and neck (tingling, sharp pain, pressure) that alert me that I am being exposed, but by the time I start feeling symptoms, the damage is done, and I will experience an electrosmog hangover.

It is best if an RF-meter is used to help find and deactivate sources of RF in places where I visit, and on people with whom I visit or who visit me.

I encourage my friends to learn how to use the RF-meter by downloading and using these instructions. LINK

WHAT ARE COMMON RF-EMITTING DEVICES?

RF-emitting devices are ubiquitous in our modern world.

Those commonly found on a person include cell phones, smart watches, item-tracking devices like Airtags, fit bits, Bluetooth earbuds and speakers, and laptops. Most of these devices emit RF even when not in use, and the amount of RF emitted increase when they are used.

RF-emitting devices commonly found in a home or business include WiFi routers and extenders, smart TVs, Apple TV boxes, Roombas, voice assistants such as Echo, Dot, and Alexa, smart speakers, printers, computers, and tablets. Many of these devices emit RF even when not in use, and some, like smart TVs, even emit RF while off. When a microwave oven is in use, it will also emit RF.

Common RF-emitting devices found in the community include cell towers, radar stations, radio towers, airplanes, and cars. My meters pick up RF from airplanes that are taking off and landing. Some new cars emit RF constantly and cannot be disabled. Others have the ability to disable the RF through their panel settings.

RF-emitting devices are common and ubiquitous in our society making it very difficult for me to go anywhere if I want to be healthy and functional.

CAN YOU TELL WHEN YOU ARE BEING EXPOSED TO ELF AND VLF?

With ELF and VLF, depending on the amount of exposure, the symptoms come on slowly and get progressively worse. When symptoms are subtle, it is hard to know if I’m being exposed. 

The initial symptoms include pressure throughout my head, burning in my neck and top of my head, stiffness in my neck, my teeth start to ache (possibly exacerbated by my metal fillings and permanent retainer?), and lately my left forearm starts to burn. The hangover symptoms are as described above.

To mitigate my exposure to ELFs, I turn off the electrical wires surrounding my room from the breaker box at night while I sleep and during the day as much as possible.

To mitigate my exposure to VLFs, I plug dirty electricity filters into many outlets, which helps to limit the amount of dirty electricity.

WHEN I SEE YOU, HOW COME YOU SEEM FINE?

I have what is known as an “invisible disability.” When I have the strength to be in public, I look healthy, functional, and happy. This condition is very isolating and I see my friends far less than I want to. When I do see them, I often get a rush of happy brain chemicals that contribute to my looking healthy, functional, and happy. Still, I suffer from a debilitating condition that cannot be identified by my appearance alone.

It is a common occurrence for the health needs of people with invisible disabilities to be ignored, disregarded, and disbelieved by family, friends, and even health care providers. Some of my experiences confirm this to be true.

What people don’t see are the hours, days, and weeks I spend at home in bed as an unfunctional zombie recovering from electrosmog hangovers.

HOW HAS EHS IMPACTED YOU?

• The ubiquity of electrosmog in our communities has meant that since contracting EHS in June of 2019, I could no longer work my jobs as a figure model, a house and dog sitter, and a pedicab driver. I now live off food stamps, pandemic stimulus checks, the gifts I receive from being a volunteer mindfulness teacher with the Boundless Love Project, and my parents’ good graces as they allow me to live with them rent free.

• The savings I had was burned up purchasing items needed to make the room I sleep in and the technology I use safer, and in exploring different healing approaches.

• Attempting to heal easily become an expensive, all-consuming, full-time job attempted in-between the numerous hours, days, and weeks of incapacitation. Between therapist and doctor appointments, researching and implementing supposed treatments, implementing programs, and engaging in health practices like meditation, sun-bathing, exercise, cooking all my food from scratch (necessary because of my food intolerances), and trying to eke out a minimal social life, for years there has been little time for much else in my life.

Because I don’t know if I will ever find a cure, I have now made a conscious decision to figure out how to live a full life with this condition. I still investigate and try health approaches that seem promising, but no longer allow those efforts to consume most of my functional life.

• Whereas I used to have the freedom to go anywhere and do anything, now such “freedom” extracts a heavy toll to my health and wellbeing. Going grocery shopping, picking up a book at the library, mailing a package at the post office, or buying something at a store. These are no longer simple errands. They all include a big hit of EMF that my body will pay for in exhaustion, dysregulation, and dysfunction.

• Despite all of the work and effort that my family and I have put into accommodating my needs, I still feel like I am barely eking out an existence. The needs of this body are completely at odds with how society has come to operate. This makes me feel like my needs are endless and impossible to meet. Despondency and hopelessness are common companions.

• This condition is severely isolating. The living situation most conducive to meeting my social needs was when I lived in the dorms during college. I loved eating all of my meals with friends, and spending time with my friends every day. For the first few years with this condition, my feelings of loneliness and isolation drove me to get together with friends as often as once a week. I did little to ask for accommodations for my EHS, and I would generally get a big (for me) dose of electrosmog. At the time, I was working the Dynamic Neural Retraining System program, and part of that program is exposure therapy which encouraged me to remain calm, peaceful, and content while being exposed to the problematic stimuli. Despite my best attempts, and persistence, my symptoms never lessened. Attending those weekly events with friends would give me electrosmog hangovers that would dysregulate me for days.

• In August of 2022, I embraced the difficult fact that I may have this condition for the rest of my life. Given this reality, how can I build a life that allows me to thrive? This question has made me realize I can no longer put myself through the torture and misery of exposing myself to high-EMF environments.

Therefore, out of love for my body and quality of life, I no longer attend events that can’t, or won’t, accommodate me. This is a bitter pill to swallow, as I will miss many parties, gatherings, festivals, dances, bike rides, concerts, and travel with family and friends that bring me joy and connection. Yet, for now, this is the only approach I know that will allow me to adapt and thrive while having EHS.

As a result, I have put more effort into hosting events and inviting friends over. Yet even though I am not working, there are limits to my energy. Not including my parents, whom I live with, I may interact with people face-to-face only 1-5 times a month.

• This condition is confusing, frustrating, and bewildering. To understand it in all of its complexity, one needs to be an electrician, which I am not. And when I try to learn the stuff, I soon feel out of my depth. Still, my health and wellbeing seem to depend on it, so I will keep doing my best to learn more.

• There is so much about this condition and the technology I don’t know. VLF meters need a live wall outlet to work, yet I have been affected by VLF when no live wall outlets are present, so how do I measure that or the VLF of the different light bulbs we use? What is the tolerable amount of electrosmog that my body and mind can safely handle?

• Because society has decided to basically give wireless technology free reign with few restrictions, RF levels are high or extremely high nearly everywhere in the modern world. And given how complicated, confusing, and ambiguous my condition and the technology is, I have found it excruciating attempting to explain my situation, figure out boundaries, and communicate and enforce those boundaries with others. This is complicated by the fact that new technologies continue to be rolled out that emit electrosmog in new and different ways, so as I feel I have a handle on the big emitters, some new app or device changes things again.  

• When I am in high electrosmog areas and most need my mental faculties to explain my boundaries and enforce them, my mental faculties are often not available for that.

WHAT HAVE WESTERN DOCTORS TOLD YOU?

Because the widespread adoption of wireless technology is relatively recent, EHS is also a relatively new condition. Most research on it has been done by researchers in other countries. All practitioners of western medicine with whom I’ve worked (with the notable exception being my psychiatrist), do not recognize EHS as a bona-fide condition, and seek to find other causes to explain my symptoms to no avail.

They have diagnosed me with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety – all of which I am actively treating, and none of these treatments have yet to alter my EHS-symptoms. Of course, if you can’t diagnose the disease correctly, how can you expect to treat it effectively?

Doctors have done extensive blood work, EKG brain scans, mental aptitude tests, and other tests that show me to be the picture of health.

In The Invisible Kingdom: Reimaging Chronic Illness, Meghan O’Rourke writes “modern medicine’s stigmatization of patients who lack clear-cut test results continues to be a chief shortcoming of the American health care system, which, in its understandable embrace of authoritative answers, struggles to acknowledge what it does not know” (p. 44). She also says it is common for health care workers to diagnose patients who have vague, unexplainable symptoms with anxiety and depression when they don’t know what is going on (p. 104). I believe this has happened in my case as well.  

HOW DOES EHS RELATE TO YOUR OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS? HOW DO YOU KNOW IT IS NOT SOMETHING ELSE?

Before knowing about EHS, I had numerous food intolerances that contributed to eczema, rashes, fatigue, brain fog, and exhaustion. I also suffer from extreme allergies to mainly birch and oak pollens in the Springtime and ragweed pollens in the Fall.

Exposure to allergens in my food and pollen caused me major fatigue, brain fog (which I nonjudgmentally call “the stupids” to help people better appreciate how debilitating this symptom is), and exhaustion. Numerous diets, drugs, and other treatments did little or nothing to improve the situation. The only thing that worked well was avoiding problematic foods and pollens.

As a result of my frequent bouts of exhaustion, since 2009, I have not worked a full-time job. I made sure to take jobs where I could set my own schedule and work only a few times a week. Any more than that, was beyond my capacity and unsustainable.

Before learning about EHS, I figured my bouts of exhaustion were all related to my food intolerances. Now I wonder if I was already sensitive to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and they contributed to this chronic exhaustion all along? Given that using a cell phone close to my head gave me headaches, I also suspect that I may have always had EHS, but just been less sensitive to it before June of 2019.

Because of the similarities of their symptoms, I have a sense that the EHS, food intolerances, and seasonal allergies are connected somehow. Maybe they are all attempting to use the same biological pathway in my body that is not functioning correctly?  

Some researchers hypothesize that EMF’s damage the gut lining, increasing one’s likelihood of developing food intolerances. It makes me wonder: is EHS the source of all of my health issues? Have I been sensitive to EMFs for all of my life, but it just wasn’t an issue before the explosion in the use of wireless technology? And now that my condition has mushroomed into full EHS, is there a way to get me back to where I was only as sensitive to it as I was before June of 2019?

Moreover, when I look at the symptoms for disease like Fibromyalgia and me/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, they are very similar to the symptoms that I experience. It makes me wonder, are people with those conditions actually suffering from EHS but don’t know it because they are always swimming in varying degrees of electrosmog?

Of course, I don’t really know what the root source of my chronic health problems are, and I have been considering and investigating the following possible root sources: PTSD? Brain injury? EHS? Fibromyalgia? Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? And autoimmune disorders?

Of course, it may even be something else entirely. Still the question remains unanswered: Which health issue is the root source of my various health issues, and what is the best way to treat that?

There is still so much that my health team and I don’t know. I remain open to all avenues of inquiry, while doing my best to notice what helps and what doesn’t, and implementing what helps.  

HAVE YOU TRIED ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE?

Yes. Outside of western medicine, there are literally thousands of people selling all kinds of (often expensive) therapies, supplements, diets, devices, and procedures to help heal me or to help “neutralize” the electrosmog around me. I’m sure many are well-meaning, but much of it seems like “snake oil,” and none of it is covered by insurance.

Still, out of desperation, when I find something reasonably priced, highly-recommended, gifted to me, or that has a money-back-guarantee, I have tried them. Of those things I’ve tried, none have made me less sensitive to EMFs. They may have positively impacted other aspects of my life, but they have not made me more tolerant of EMFs.

WHAT ARE YOUR NEXT STEPS?

Despite all that my parents, friends, health team, and I have done so far, my body and mind still struggle to have energy and function. Here are some next steps I would like to explore:

• Finding a remote location free of RF-radiation (and people with their RF-devices) where I can retreat to, to find some rest and recover. Sadly, the retreat center that in 2019 I found to be heavenly, is no longer the EMF-free sanctuary it once was.

• Removing all metal from my body – which for me would be the metal fillings and permanent retainer in my mouth. The metal can conduct VLF and ELF charges and may be magnifying my EHS problems. Some people with EHS have found their symptoms go away after doing this.

• Replacing my bed with one that has no metal parts in the mattress or bedframe. Again, sleeping on items that conduct electricity may exacerbate the situation.

• Try Network Spinal Analysis. A met a friend who suffers from similar issues as relates to food intolerances and seasonal allergies, and she has had much luck with this chiropractic technique.

• Try Matrix Repatterning. A friend who has suffered multiple concussions has had much success finding health and wellbeing using this healing technique.

• Wearing more RF-shielding clothing. So far, when tested, much RF radiation gets through the fabrics of these clothes. They seem to work best deflecting low levels of RF radiation, making them a helpful supplement to the accommodations that people make for me.   

I'VE HEARD EHS IS PSYCHO-SOMATIC, NOCEBO, OR "ALL IN THE PERSON'S HEAD." HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THIS?

There is a lot about EHS that we don't know. It is possible that a nocebo effect accounts for all, or more-likely, part-of the symptoms associated with EHS. Still, just as doctors don't know how to create placebo effects which miraculously heal people, they don't know how to stop or treat nocebo effects which cause great harm. (See UPDATE below)

Unfortunately, many in the general public hear EHS is psychosomatic or nocebo, and blame the EHS sufferer for their condition, mistakenly believing that if EHS sufferers simply “changed their beliefs,” the issue would go away. Unfortunately, there is no evidence supporting this theory, and blame and judgment adds to the burden of EHS sufferers.

Additionally, there are numerous health issues that are "all in one's head" such as PTSD, phobias, and depression, but that does not erase the problematic nature of their symptoms, nor does it make treating them simple or effortless.

Furthermore, this nocebo theory does not explain how I developed EHS before I believed that exposure to electromagnetic fields could harm me.

In addition, there are many medical researchers who completely reject that EHS is exclusively a nocebo effect. The European Academy for Environmental Medicine (EUROPAEM) state in their article EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses that, "The primary method of treatment should mainly focus on the prevention or reduction of EMF exposure, that is, reducing or eliminating all sources of high EMF exposure at home and at the workplace.”

[Full citation: Belyaev I, Dean A, Eger H, Hubmann G, Jandrisovits R, Kern M, Kundi M, Moshammer H, Lercher P, Müller K, Oberfeld G, Ohnsorge P, Pelzmann P, Scheingraber C, Thill R. EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses. Rev Environ Health. 2016 Sep 1;31(3):363-97. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2016-0011. PMID: 27454111]

Finally, Meghan O’Rourke wrote in The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness these words that I completely resonate with:, “Worrying that your symptoms are psychosomatic--or even imagined--is part of life for many people with poorly understood illnesses. Although the experience of illness is not just in the head, it is also not just in the body. The person enduring such an illness faces a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, she must advocate for herself, even when doctors are indifferent or ignorant, and not be deterred when she knows something is wrong. On the other, she also must be willing to ask whether an obsessive attention to symptoms is going to lead to better health. The patient has to hold in mind two contradictory modes, in other words: insistence on the reality of the disease and resistance to her own catastrophic fears.” (pp. 47-8)

UPDATE - NOV 27, 2023

I recently learned that there are doctors who treat psychosomatic disorders. Because “psychosomatic” has so many negative connotations in our culture, such as: the person is making it up for attention, their pain/symptoms are not real, the person is to blame for their condition, etc. — many doctors now call them “bodymind” conditions. I am reading through these doctor’s books, implementing their practices, working with a doctor who treats “bodymind” disorders, and will see how it goes over the next few months. Books that address this topic, that I highly recommend to those suffering with chronic illness, include:

• The Way Out by Alan Gordon

• Decode Your Fatigue by Alex Howard

ANY BOOKS YOU RECOMMEND ON THE PROBLEMS OF EMF AND HOW TO PREVENT EMF-EXPOSURE?

Yes. There are many researchers and health practitioners who believe that electromagnetic fields harm everyone, not just those like me who suffer from EHS. To learn more about what you can do to protect yourself, read Dr. Joseph Mercola’s book EMF*D: 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself.

I also recommend Meghan O’Rourke’s book The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness for a window into the very real structural difficulties and emotional challenges that come from having a poorly-understood chronic disease and trying to navigate the modern health care system.

WHAT IS THE RESEARCH ON EHS?

There is actually quite a lot of it, but it seems that few health professionals that I know are reading it.

For example, this 2020 article from the International Journal of Molecular Science titled, “Electrohypersensitivity as a Newly Identified and Characterized Neurologic Pathological Disorder: How to Diagnose, Treat, and Prevent It”

And this article: EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses

You can find many more articles at PubMed or on any other medical research databases. Try using the following search terms:

• Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS)

• Electrosensitive (A term used to refer to people with EHS)

• Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance due to electromagnetic fields, abbreviated IEI attributed to EMF (This is how the World Health Organization refers to EHS)

• Radio sickness (a term used by the military and coast guard to describe the bizarre symptoms that people who work near radio transmitters develop, and another name for EHS)

• Microwave sickness or microwave syndrome (an older name for EHS)

• Neurosthinia (an older name for EHS)

WHAT TREATMENTS HAVE YOU TRIED?

DIRECTLY ADDRESSING EHS

• Annie Hopper’s Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) program. It did not work for me. During the exposure therapy part of it, we are supposed to gradually increase our exposure, but generating a precise amount of EMF to gradually increase the exposure is very hard to do.

• Prescription medicine. My former psychologist, who is aware of EHS and the research on it, had me try several antipsychotic medicines including Abilify (Aripiprazole – 2 mg) and Lexipro (Escitalopram – 5 mg). His hope was to find one that my body tolerated and then gradually up the dose until I was taking a very high dose.

At a very low dose, Abilify was amazing at helping me be more effortlessly functional and productive. When the dosage was increased, it caused insomnia which took away all of its benefits up until that time. After a break, I tried it again at the original low dose, and it no longer had the same beneficial effects.

On low-dose Lexipro my mood bottomed out – I experienced a horrendous bout of depression, apathy, and intrusive suicidal ideation that made me way worse than before I took it.

• I take the supplements recommended by Dr. Joseph Mercola in his book EMF*D: 5-G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself. They include:

         - 25 mg/day of Niacin
         - 400 mg/day of highly usable Magnesium
         - 1 or 2 doses of hydrogen water/day

• Energy work. Several healers have taken a stab at using energy work to address my EHS with no discernable difference.

• Lightwork. Another kind of prayer-based healing modality that a friend used to help me.

• Orgonite. These objects filled with precious metals and crystals supposedly purify and transforms EMFs so they are no longer harmful to your system. I find them to be very expensive paperweights that do nothing.

ADDRESSING BRAIN TRAUMA

Because of my two previous concussions, I have also looked into healing the brain on a physical level by implementing the recommendations of Dr. Daniel G. Amen found in his book The End of Mental Illness. As part of that, I tried his Brain and Memory Power Boost supplement for nine months. A daily serving provides 666 mg acetylcarnitine, 400 mg n-acetyl-l-cystine, 200 mg alpha lipic acid, 120 mg ginko bioloba extract, 100 mg phosphotidylserine and 100 mcg huperzine a.

ADDRESSING TRAUMA AND PTSD

One theory I’ve pursued is that trauma, or unresolved stress cycles trapped in the body, interferes with my brain and body’s ability to function healthfully. Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski, in their book Burnout, Resmaa Menakem in his book My Grandmother’s Hands, and Bessel Van Der Kolk in his book The Body Keeps the Score, list numerous approaches to help resolve trauma. The main ones I have tried include:

• Therapy. For years, I have had monthly or weekly therapy sessions. The focus has been on talk therapy, Brain Spotting, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and incorporating Polyvagal Theory. IFS has been quite helpful as it dovetails exceptionally well with my meditation practice and healing ceremonies.

• Regular daily meditation. This has been the most helpful coping mechanism I have had for dealing with the chaos of living with EHS in this modern world. It helps me stay grounded in my true self as formless awareness, and the mindful observer of the drama of the body and mind.

• Regular daily exercise including dancing, stretching, strength training, jogging, and lake swimming. Strength training and stretching seem to be most productive in helping with the somatic releasing, and dancing brings joy into my life, and helps me complete unresolved stress cycles. The challenge is that more recently, I often don’t have the energy to do these things, or, when I do have the energy, these activities (especially strength training or high-intensity interval training) can totally wipe me out and require a 2-3 hour nap during the day to recover.

• Positive social interaction, affection, and laughter. EHS is extremely isolating because to leave home means I will pay the price with an electrosmog hangover. I’ve adapted by calling friends more, inviting friends over more, and hosting more events. I have been hosting cuddle parties with friends where we get together, talk, cuddle, and laugh. These have been extremely healing on a variety of levels and have also helped with somatic release efforts.

• Healing ceremonies. Through these ceremonies, I have experienced the most wonderfully aggressive somatic releasing compared to all other modalities. I hope that at some point I will have a ceremony without any somatic releasing, and that will signal to me that all unresolved traumas have been resolved.

OTHER HEALTH PRACTICES

• Grounding/Earthing – The idea is that the electrical charge of the earth is healing for the body. I sleep on a conductive grounding pad that is grounded to the earth. After numerous tests, I find that the grounding pad allows my body to better heal and recover from my daily stress and injuries. When I don’t use it, I will sleep for an extra hour or three and still wake up more groggy, sore, and achy, and be way more prone to injuries.

However, if the room where I sleep has a lot of dirty electricity (VLF) or other EMFs, being grounded may make me a lightning rod that attracts electrical fields as they seek a source to ground themselves. So, it is important that I use the grounding sheet in conditions free of EMFs.

Another way to ground ourselves is to walk barefoot on the earth, preferably on wet earth or with wet feet, which I try to do when and where possible.

• Cold Exposure. This includes ice baths, cold showers, wearing a vest filled with ice packs, polar plunges, and other activities that expose my body to the cold. Cold exposure helps trigger somatic releases, and when the exposer is cold enough, or of a long enough duration, afterwards the body can get a nice boost of energy. I continue to use this approach to help me increase my energy levels. 

• Doing all in my power to promote health in this body: quality sleep, regular meditation, eating a whole foods diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, time with community, and regular exercise from dancing, stretching, and time in nature.

• In this land of having a hard-to-diagnose, poorly-understood chronic disease where I have lived for over a decade now, many possible sources are frequently identified as the culprit: chronic Lyme disease, leaky gut, fungal infections, thyroid problems, Candida, etc. I have tried numerous diets, supplements, medications, and treatments for all of these with no real improvements.

Despite all of my attempts at healing, nothing has made me more tolerant or less sensitive to EMFs. All I know is that my body and mind thrive way more when I avoid exposure to EMFs. This has been the only thing that has worked so far.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your love, compassion, and help as I struggle with this unusual condition. It means so much that my friends, family, and health partners are willing to make accommodations for me, so I can live with more health and wellbeing. Thank you!