Health & Wellbeing

EMF Radiation - Your iPhone and Your Health

Today’s blog post might be a new topic for some of you, it certainly was for me until a short while ago, but I think it’s important to keep asking questions and expanding our knowledge when it comes to health and wellbeing. So today, I’m going to discuss EMFs.

EMF stands for Electromagnetic Force, and they come from mobile devices like laptops and phones, WiFi towers, 4G (and worryingly also now 5G) radiation and power lines, to name a few. EMFs are man-made, non-ionising radiation otherwise known as non-native EMFs. Research into these non-native EMFs has been going on for a long time, in fact even before World War Two, scientists had already found evidence that artificial EMFs had significant effects on life.

The reason that electromagnetic radiation has an effect on us humans is because we are bioelectrical beings - all parts of our bodies work on electricity from our brains to our hearts, and when we are ‘grounding’ outdoors with our feet on natural ground there’s electron transfer going on between us and the earth.

Because we come into contact with natural sources of EMF in our environments, it’s easy to say that the frequencies we also come into contact with via our devices are nothing to worry about. However, there is research to suggest otherwise with reported complications including cancer risk, cellular stress, genetic damages, increase in harmful free radicals, changes in fertility, learning and memory deficits and neurological disorders . Of course, it would be impossible now to exist in a world without mobile phones, WiFi, bluetooth etc., but there’s definitely an argument for reducing our exposure to these frequencies.

Similarly, in 2007, a team of researchers form Imperial College London and the University of Washington’s Department of Environment and Occupational Health Sciences concluded in a study that the electromagnetic frequencies we’re exposed to indoors increase our risk of infection and stress and reduce oxygen uptake and energy levels.

“The nature of the electromagnetic environments that most humans are now regularly exposed to has changed dramatically over the past century and often bears little resemblance to those created in Nature”.

So actually, that argument of ‘but it’s fine because EMFs are naturally occurring’ is perhaps unfounded. It’s also important to note that EMF safety standards have not been updated since 1966 but that since then we’ve adapted to live multi-device lives, to be online and connected at all times. Moreover, these 1966 guidelines were based on short-term exposure to one device only. Tell that to your bluetooth headphones, in-car bluetooth connection and the WiFi router that stays on 24/7.

This might all be one step too far for you in your wellness journey, and I do think there’s such a thing as information overload! But why not try sleeping with your WiFi off at night? You might just have the best sleep of your life! Other simple things to reduce exposure are to turn your phone onto airplane mode if it’s in your pocket and therefore in very close proximity to your body.

Here are a few other useful tips if you are keen to reduce your exposure to potentially damaging EMFs:

Grounding. Get outside and get your feet on the ground as much as possible. Man evolved connected to the earth and it’s naturally protective to allow that electron transfer between the soles of your feet and the soil. These days we live high above the ground (shoes, sofas, beds, high rise flats) so we’ve become disconnected and unprotected.
Disable 4G on your phone, the lower the number (eg 3G over 5G then the less potentially damaging).
Turn your WiFi off at night.
Invest in some EMF blocking tech like this mat to sit your laptop on and this beanie hat.
Go old school and use a cable to connect your headphones to your phone.