EMF and Your Immune System: How Radiation Exposure Harms Your Health

Science has demonstrated a wide range of numerous negative health effects resulting from exposure to EMF radiation"Radiation" in the context of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) refers to the process by which energy is emitted and transmitted through space or a material medium in the form of electromagnetic... More, ranging from sleep disruption to cancer. Among those negative health effects are several ways that exposure to EMF radiation can harm your immune system. And that, in turn, makes your body more vulnerable to ill health, disease and allergies.

EMF and Your Immune System

The role of your immune system is to patrol your body, actively seeking foreign microbes (such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi). If your body’s immune system finds something unrecognizable, the immune system will immediately launch an attack in an attempt to neutralize the foreign objects.

Scientists have found that prolonged exposure to EMF from every day technology like your cell phone and your microwave oven disturbs your immunity pattern. This can make it respond in different ways than it should.

See, a properly functioning immune system is tuned to respond appropriately– not overreacting reacting to threats to your health, or under-reacting and ignoring threats to your health.

EMF exposure can throw your body’s immune system out of tune. The immune system loses its ability to judge between the safe cells and microbes that are harmful. This means it can over-react to some threats, and under-react to others. 

If your immune system under-reacts to a threat, we say that is a suppressed immune system. And it will not respond with the appropriate force to threats it should detect and fight. This can lead to, for example, more frequent and severe colds and illnesses, as well as an increased time to recovery.  

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However, sometimes the body reacts to EMF exposure by over-reacting– responding with more force than is necessary to a threat, and sometimes even responding to something as a threat, when no threat to your health is present. This can make the immune system attack your healthy cells because everything is a threat in its impaired judgment. This leads to increased allergies (reacting to external objects that aren’t actually a threat) and autoimmune problems (when your body attacks itself!).

EMF and Immunosuppression

Immunosuppression is the suppression of your immune system. When it happens, your immune system isn’t as strong as it should be, and your body’s systems do not respond to threats to your health with sufficient vigor or strength.

Now, sometimes we want immunosuppression. For instance, it is part of how we treat cancer. A healthy immune system doesn’t allow certain medicines to work on cancer patients. So doctors give these patients immunosuppressive drugs. Doctors give patients these drugs to weaken their immune systems, so they do not fight the medicine.

Now, that’s a very specific example. And in general, we don’t want our immune system to be suppressed. But I bring up the cancer example, because researchers have found that EMF radiation shows similar traits as these immunosuppressive drugs.

In a healthy person, immunosuppression exposes the body to threats from various diseases. These are diseases that, when your body is working properly, would be able to fight and fend off and heal from. When your body’s immune system is impaired, your body may not have the ability to defeat the disease, or it may take longer to recover.

A simple example of immunosuppression is catching a common cold and not being able to recover for a long time. Similarly, if your immune system is weak, even a small cut on the skin can develop to a state where it requires critical medical attention.

EMF and Autoimmune Function

So that’s what can happen when your immune system is weakened. Another way in which your immune system can malfunction from EMF exposure is when it reacts to stimuli that it should not; a condition we call autoimmunity.

Autoimmunity is a medical condition that makes your body attack its own cells and tissues. And there are several studies in which researchers found a correlation between exposure to EMF radiation and autoimmune diseases.

Obviously, we do not want our immune system fighting your own body. That situation is very self-destructive. 

Under normal circumstances, a well-functioning immune system can tell the difference between foreign cells and your body’s own cells (that work for your body and are not harmful). And it knows only to attack foreign entities, and not your own body.

However, the exposure to EMF impairs the immune system’s decision-making ability to a point where it may even begin attacking your skin and joints.

Whenever the immune system detects a foreign element, it launches a protein called antibodies. These antibodies are there to destroy the foreign element, and as there is no foreign element to destroy, it ends up attacking your own body.

Here is the list of some common autoimmune diseases include:

• Type 1 diabetes: High blood sugar level
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA): Redness, warmth, stiffness, and soreness in joints.
• Psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis: Causes multiplication of skin cells, which builds up and form inflamed red patches on the skin.
• Multiple sclerosis: Damage in the protective coating that surrounds the nerve cells in the central nervous system.
• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): The immune system attacks the tissues.
• Inflammatory bowel disease: Causes inflammation in the intestinal wall.
• Addison’s disease: Affects the way the body uses carbohydrates and sugar (Glucose).
• Graves’ disease: Attacks the thyroid gland in the neck, causing it to produce too much of its own hormones.
• Sjögren’s syndrome: Attacks the gland that provides lubricant to the eyes and mouth.
• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: Thyroid hormone production slows to a deficiency.
• Myasthenia gravis: Affects nerve impulses that help the brain control the muscles.
• Autoimmune vasculitis: The immune system attacks the blood vessels.
• Pernicious anemia: Causes deficiency of protein.
• Celiac disease: Causes digestive disorder with an abnormal immune reaction to gluten.

All of these are examples of conditions that can result from autoimmunity. And autoimmunity can result from EMF exposure (and, in fact, science has demonstrated that protecting yourself from EMF can reduce autoimmunity).

EMF and Allergies

The condition of autoimmunity happens when your immune system reacts to your own body as a threat. In other words, your immune system interprets something that is not a threat as a threat. We call that hypersentivitity.

Autoimmunity is not the only way in which hypersensitivity occurs. Your body’s immune system can also react to non-threatening foreign entities as a threat. And when that happens, your body has what we call an allergic reaction. The manifestation of allergies is another way in our immune system can malfunction.

Now, many of us have allergies. Whether we’re talking about hay fever, cat allergies or peanut allergies, these are all examples of our body’s immune system reacting negatively to objects that are not, under regular circumstances, harmful to our health.

And when this happens, our the reaction of our body’s own immune system becomes the threat to our health.

EMF Causes Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS)

As I just mentioned, allergies are a type of hypersensitivity of our immune system. And there is a specific type of hypersensitivity whose incidence is increasing globally. That is electromagnetic hypersensitivity. And in fact, this condition is sometimes referred to as ‘wifi allergies.’

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a medical condition in which a person is so sensitive to electromagnetic fields that their body starts showing alarming symptoms.

The symptoms of EHS are similar to an allergic reaction, like redness, tingling, and burning sensations. It also causes issues like tiredness, fatigue, difficulties in concentration, dizziness, nausea, heart palpitation, and digestive disturbances.

In most of the cases, the EHS is mild, and it can be easily prevented by avoiding EMF exposure. However, in some cases, the effects of EHS are so severe that a person needs to change his/her entire lifestyle. And in the most extreme cases, people find they must upend their lives and move to EMF free zones.

EMF Can Supercharge Disease

As we’ve just seen, exposure to EMF can have many negative impacts on your body’s immune system, negatively impacting your health. In other words, EMF exposure can make you more vulnerable to disease by making your body weaker.

Another way in which EMF can make you more vulnerable to disease is by boosting the power"Power" in a scientific context refers to the rate at which work is done or energy is transferred. In simpler terms, it's how fast something is using energy. For example,... More of the disease itself. Microbes multiples faster, and grows more virulent and stronger when they’re exposed to EMF.

And one example of that is with lyme disease. 

The leading cause of Lyme Disease, as identified by professionals, is a spirochete. A spirochete is a spiral-shaped group of bacteria that is a pathogen for a human. 

Early signs of Lyme disease, according to CDC, are fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph. If the disease is untreated and it has been more than 30 days after the bite, the symptoms may grow to:

• Neck stiffness and headaches
• (Erythema multiforme) EM rashes on other areas of the body
• Loss of muscle tone on one or both sides of the face
• Severe Joint pain and swelling on the knees and other large joints.
• Intermittent pain in Joints, muscles, tendons, and bones
• Irregular heartbeat (Added beat or skipped beat)
• Shortness of breath or Episode of dizziness
• Inflammation of the spinal cord and the brain 
• Nerve pain

According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghard, one of the main contributors to the rise of Lyme disease is electromagnetic pollution. 

He said, 

“I personally suspect that the exposure to electromagnetic fields in the home and the microwaves from cell phone radiation are driving the virulence of many of the microbes that are naturally in us and makes them aggressive and illness producing.”

Dr. Dietrich Klinghard

Correlation Between Mold and EMF

Lyme disease is curable, but it takes a long time, as several issues prevent the patient from completely recovering. One of the things that can delay the recovery from Lyme disease is toxic mold.

Molds are microscopic organisms that are found in homes, which survives by consuming organic materials and humidity.

According to Dr. Raj Patel (Medical Options for Wellness in Foster City, CA), half of the Lyme Disease cases that are unresolved are because of mold Illness. Lyme disease and mold illness have similar symptoms, so sometimes it is hard to distinguish between these two types of conditions.

Scientists have observed that EMF increases mold growth. A mold can produce 600 times more biotoxins (the substance which is toxic and has a biological origin, like snake venom) in the presence of EMF. If a Lyme disease patient has this amount of Mold growing in their home, it interferes in the treatment process, and it may take longer for the patient to recover.

Reducing EMF Can Boost Your Immune System and Improve Your Health

Your body’s immune system determines whether and how quickly you can recover from a disease. Having a well functioning immune system is crucial to our survival. And when your immune system is impaired, weakened and/or malfunctioning, you are much more vulnerable to diseases and conditions that, under normal circumstances, would have fewer and weaker symptoms, or from which you would recover much more rapidly. 

To be clear, there are many ways to improve your body’s immune system. Maintaining a proper diet and exercise regimen are two of the most important.

But reducing your exposure to EMF radiation is an often overlooked means of boosting the power and function of your body’s immune system. Exposure to electromagnetic radiationElectromagnetic radiation refers to the waves of the electromagnetic field, propagating through space, carrying electromagnetic radiant energy. It includes a wide range of electromagnetic waves, from very long radio waves... More impacts your body’s immune system in ways we are only just beginning to realize. 

And with the ever-expanding rollout of EMF-emitted technology around the world, even ambient levels of EMF (the type we see in our normal, every day environments, even when there is not a “large” source of EMF nearby) are high enough to cause this type of damage.

So, to improve your health, and your body’s natural defenses against disease, start reducing your exposure to EMF radiation. And, as I always say, the best EMF protection is free, and you can start right now.

Published Laboratory Science on Immune System Effects from EMF Exposure

This post, like many of my posts that you will find on this website, attempts to express critical aspects of EMF science in a way that most people can understand. My content is not intended as a comprehensive review of established science.

However, in this case, and because of the importance of this topic, I am including a list of published science on the question of how non-ionizing EMF exposure– like from a cell phone– can impact your immune system.

Because I think it’s useful for people– even people who do not spend time reviewing published research papers– to have a sense of the sheer scope of the body of scientific knowledge that demonstrates these harmful effects on our bodies. This isn’t just one or two studies– this is over 30 published experiments. And these negative health effects are shown at very low levels of power (well within legal limits) of cell phone, cordless phone and WiFi radiation.

This work was compiled by Cindy Sage of Sage Associates and Stephanie Kerst, Certified Electromagnetic Radiation Specialist on March 27, 2020.

Immune System Effects from EMF Based on Power Density Exposures

Almost each of these studies measured negative health outcomes at exposures to EMF with power density"Power density" is a key concept in the fields of physics and engineering, referring to the amount of power (time rate of energy transfer) per unit volume. In more practical... More notably lower than what is considered to be a safe level of radiation.

Immune System Effects from EMF Based on SAR Exposures

For reference, in the United States, the legal maximum radiation that can be absorbed from a cell phone, in a SAR laboratory test, is 1.6 W/kg. As you will note, most of these studies demonstrate negative outcomes at levels much lower than the legal limit.