Zapped by Your Own Cell Phone?

EMFs are the newest and may be the most dangerous pollutants.

Odorless, colorless, and invisible, electropollution is probably enveloping you right now as you read these words. “It cannot be seen, felt or heard. It is tasteless and odorless. It is in our food and in the air; it is in our blood and in our bones and can remain in our ashes to go on to contaminate someone else,” Sara Shannon writes in Technology’s Cure: Diet for a Toxic Planet about low level radiation from electromagnetic fields (EMFs).

EMFs are a form of radiation produced by our cell phones, PDAs, wireless networks, cell and broadcast towers, power lines, fluorescent lights, microwaves, and even the electrical systems that power our appliances, TVs, computers, and bedside alarm clocks. These devices clearly make our lives easier. But they also assault us 24/7 with an unprecedented number of artificial frequencies and wavelengths.

“Cells in the body react to EMFs as potentially harmful, just like [they do] to other environmental toxins, including heavy metals and toxic chemicals, and produce a biochemical stress response,” says Martin Blank, PhD, an associate professor of physiology and cellular biology at Columbia University.

Consider these facts:

• Researchers have linked living near electrical transformers, cell towers, military radar and communications bases, and even much lower-level power sources to brain tumors, leukemia, and other malignancies (including breast cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, and cancers of the bone, kidney, lung, and ovary).
• A large population study in Sweden shows that using a cell phone for 10 years on the same side of the head increases the risk for certain types of brain tumors, which take 15 to 20 years to develop.
• Numerous investigations suggest that even minimal EMF exposure can cause brain wave changes, cardiac arrhythmias, chronic fatigue, headaches, immune system suppression, and memory problems.

“The DNA in living cells recognizes electromagnetic fields at very low levels of exposure and produces a biochemical stress response,” Dr. Blank adds. “The scientific evidence tells us that our safety standards are inadequate and that we must protect ourselves from exposure to EMFs due to power lines, cell phones, and the like.”

Dr. Ann Louise’s Take:

Today, 84 percent of Americans own cell phones, which emit EMFs that can enter the brain when these phones are held against the ear. No wonder Maine lawmakers are considering warning labels on cell phones. And San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom plans to introduce a bill requiring cell packaging to display the amount of radiation these phones emit.

By 2012, the wireless industry is expected to become a larger sector of our economy than agriculture and automobiles. By some estimates, we’re already exposed on a daily basis to as much as 100 million times more electromagnetic radiation than our grandparents were. It flows around us, in us, and interferes with some of the fundamental forces of life, including the communication between our cells that tells them how to grow, develop, divide, even when to die.

The Body Electric
Because the human body is 75% water, you are a very effective conductor of EMFs. Remember when you used to touch “rabbit ears” on your TV to bring in a better picture, only to lose that clear image when you stepped back? For the instant that your hand brought in a better picture, you were the antenna!

Got metal in your mouth (like gold or amalgam fillings)? This also generates a charge, something you may have felt if you’ve ever bitten down on aluminum foil or a silver spoon. Many minerals (like copper and iron) in the body that are essential to a variety of human functions may be disturbed by increased electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in the bloodstream.

Un-Zap Yourself
First of all, use the speaker-phone function on your cell phone. Its electropollution irradiates everything within 6 to 7 inches. Check out the specific absorption rate (SAR) of your cell phone: The lower the SAR rate (like 0.5), the better! Also use the speaker mode on cordless phones, which emit EMFs too.

Melatonin, the antioxidant hormone that helps protect cells from DNA damage, is able to cross the blood-brain barrier, actually breaching the membrane designed to prevent toxins from entering your brain. Because it has been shown especially effective at preventing free radical damage to cell membranes (one of the prime targets of EMFs), I recommend taking 3 to 15 mg of melatonin (preferably in a time-release form) daily.

Calcitrol, the active form of vitamin D3, is an ideal radioprotectant, even against low-level EMFs. It helps facilitate communication between cells, which is interrupted by electropollution, and also activates the immune response, which can be tamped down by exposure to radiation. Take 5,000 IUs of Vitamin D daily (up to 10,000 IUs if you’re EMF sensitive, as a growing number of people are).

Since EMFs target your cells—the membranes in particular—you must keep your minerals at top-notch levels 24/7 to protect and defend yourself from cell collapse, which in turn can create potential disease challenges. Make sure you get sufficient levels of calcium, chromium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sulfur, and zinc in your diet and daily multi.

If you are one of the sensitive individuals who cannot tolerate dietary supplements—as crucial as they are—you can use Trace-Lyte Minerals. This homeopathic form of organic minerals restrengthens the cell walls to protect against electropollution and other environmental toxins.

Sources:
www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/us/02cell.html
www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/10/26/cancer-cell-phone-115875-21774016/