It Is Not All In Your Head

Electrical hypersensitivity triggers and treatment.
I’m concerned. No – make that worried. Really worried.

With the debut of the iPhone 4S, the breaking news about how children absorb 50% more microwaves than adults is truly alarming.

So, I turned to EMF expert Melody Chan Graves to give us an update on the latest research regarding electrohypersensitivity and what cutting edge environmental docs like Dr. Bill Rea of the Environmental Health Center in Dallas, TX are really seeing with their patients.

By the way, Melody Chan Graves herself overcame a debilitating case of fibromyalgia with the help of alternative treatments and building biology. Because of her remarkable recovery after eliminating electromagnetic radiation exposure in her home, she became not only passionate about spreading awareness for electrical hypersensitivity syndrome, but now specializes in electromagnetic radiation detection and mitigation in clients’ homes (www.ecodynamicliving.com).

Here’s Melody’s report:

People who find themselves sensitive to electrical fields and wireless devices have a difficult struggle ahead of them, as the US has yet to recognize electrical hypersensitivity as an official medical syndrome. Sweden has already recognized this illness, and the government gives electrically sensitive individuals access to low-exposure housing and the right to claim the illness as a disability.

But the majority of people who have electrical sensitivity (ES) in this country often have other chronic illnesses linked to ES, such as fibromyalgia. They are often written off as malingerers or psychiatric cases because their symptoms can mimic a variety of other conditions, and the medical community is hesitant to recognize new syndromes, citing the need for more epidemiological studies.

At the 2011 Institute of Baubiologie™ and Ecology Conference this past September in Tucson, Arizona, renowned environmental medicine pioneer Dr. William Rea shared insights about electrical hypersensitivity gleaned from nearly thirty years of working with environmentally ill patients.

Rea opened by saying that human beings are all antennas with different levels of sensitivity, and finding safe places for sensitive people is like trying to “reinvent the cave.”

He described his 1989 study designed to evaluate the electrical sensitivity of patients, in which twenty-five patients reacted to electrical frequency stimulation but did not react to placebo. Sixty-four percent of those patients had documented changes in their autonomic nervous system, and the affected group responded with 100% accuracy when challenged a second time with the same offending frequencies. It became evident to Dr. Rea that these patients were telling the truth and electrical sensitivity does exist.

He has observed a high correlation with sensitivity to metals like zinc, copper, stainless steel, titanium, molybdenum, manganese, and magnesium. Metal implants like dental fillings, metal jaws, shoulder joints, etc. will contribute to electrical sensitivity, because they act as antennas.

Underscoring the synergistic relationship between different types of environmental exposures, Dr. Rea remarked that 80-90% of ES is preceded by multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), and pesticide exposure is the initiator in 80% of patients seen. Moreover, food and chemical sensitivities show up in 90% of ES patients’ breath, blood, hair, and urine samples.

A growing area of concern is chemical exposure from fracking associated with natural gas wells. Dr. Rea is convinced that whatever is in the gas line is present in the air around the gas well and is being inhaled by occupants inside the fracking zone. He attributes this to the use of hydrochloric acid in conjunction with toxic chemicals in the fracking fluid. This can be confirmed through a breath analysis that he performs on patients at the clinic. In other words, he can detect specific fracking chemicals in the exhaled breath of patients living in fracking zones, thereby linking toxic chemical exposure to individuals living in supposedly safe areas within a gas field.

Because of this, he has now ranked natural gas drilling as the second most prevalent trigger to electrical sensitivity in the patients he has seen in his clinic. The four major triggers are listed below:

Four Major Triggers to Electrical Sensitivity

1. Exposure to Pesticides, Molds, and Mycotoxins
2. Fracking from natural gas drilling
3. Formaldehyde
4. Technology, such as occupational exposure to high levels of electromagnetic fields

He also shared the methods of treating electromagnetic sensitivity he had developed over his many years in practice.

Treatment of Electromagnetic Sensitivity

* Live away from electrical and pesticidal areas in regions like West Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
* Live in areas where it is difficult to pick up Wi-Fi, television, cellular service, etc.
* Live in areas where grounding is feasible, and avoid underground wires, cables, metal, pipes, etc. ES patients must be grounded.
* Inside, decrease your toxic load.
o Pay attention to your building materials and design. Build with wood, ground rods, a floor raised off the ground, not situated over iron veins or old railroad tracks. Choose low-terpene woods.
o Shield the computers and TV.
o Shield building wiring, and try to have some walls in each room with no interior wiring.
o Place the bed in the middle of the room. This aids in reducing exposure to any electromagnetic fields coming from your existing house wiring.
o Choose a hardwood or ceramic floor. These are the materials least likely to trigger chemical sensitivities.
o Sleep on a wooden bed frame made of hardwood, not pine or cedar. Pine and cedar are high in natural terpenes, which often trigger reactions in sensitive people.
o Use cotton or silk bedding (no wool). Most commercial wool and some eco-wool is still treated with toxic fire retardants.
o Sleep on a “metal-free” bed. Dr. Rea’s clinic uses rawhide springs in the box springs of their beds.
o Eat organic foods and adhere to a rotary diet to minimize food sensitivities.
o Drink spring, distilled, or filtered water. Some ES patients can tolerate distilled water better because of its lack of minerals.
o The best spring waters are as follows:
+ Mountain Valley Springs Water (Hot Springs, AR)
+ Evian
+ Some German waters
+ Some British waters
o Various treatments he uses at his clinic include:
+ Neurotransmitter supplementation
+ Magnesium, multivitamin, multimineral, and lipid/oil supplementation
+ Oxygen and hyperbaric therapy
+ Immune modulators
# Gammaglobulin replacement
# Autogenous Lymphocytic Factor (ALF) for improved T-cell function
+ Traditional sauna treatment with wood and glass or ceramic sauna

When asked to describe the end result of ES, Dr. Rea said the syndrome most definitely telescopes into a fatal disease. He stated that ES has a genetic component waiting for a trigger, and that Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dead nerves in the brain, and heart arrhythmias are all examples of end results of ES patients left untreated.

Despite the rather gloomy news about ES, he expressed hope at the continued growth of the environmental medicine field. Currently, there are three physician’s organizations dedicated to environmental medicine, and there are about 5,000 complementary doctors worldwide. Please visit www.buildingbiology.net for more information.

-Edge On Health, Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman