Electromagnetic Fields

An Electromagnetic Field (EMF) is a physics’ phenomenon, a wave of energy that moves at the speed of light.

Visible light, X-Rays, Gamma-Rays, and Radio waves are examples of EMFs.

Radiofrequency Radiations, which include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, can cause brainfog in sensitive individuals, even well within safety standards’ power limits.

For simplicity, in this page we'll consider the previous statement as a fact. Please see the section https://wiki.brainfog.top/index.php?title=Electromagnetic_Fields#Research_on_EMFs_and_Health Category:Research_on_EMFs_and_Health

Although not yet recognized by the medical community and currently under researched, “Radiowave Sickness”, then “Microwave Sickness”, and now “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity” was described since the 1950s in military Radar operators, and then in the general public with the advent of cellphone communication; The main symptoms these conditions presented with were cognitive problems and memory issues.

Introduction

EMFs are divided into categories by their oscillation frequency.

The ones that can cause brainfog are Radiofrequency radiations (RF), with a frequency between 20 Kilohertz and 300 Gigahertz. RF are emitted by cellphones and any device that uses wireless communication.

Radio waves also come from other electric appliances, which emit radio waves as a side effect, one such device is the common energy saving lamp.

To deal with brainfog, you will have to avoid being exposed to sources of RF as much as you can. Signal power decreases by a lot with distance, so the worst offenders are the sources under your control: your phone, computer, smart tv, wifi router. Switching to wired ethernet connections and keeping your phone in airplane mode when not using it will remove a lot of symptoms and the Brain fog will improve rapidly. Sources not under your control, like cell towers, neighbours’ Wi-Fi, digital TV signal, will still affect you but to a lower extent.

Brain fog will come and go with exposure to EMF, there is no trick or cure, RF radiation is a toxic environmental agent.

Heavy brain fog is the easiest to deal with, will go away with avoidance of obvious sources. Unfortunately to really “unlock” your full brain potential you’ll need to be in a place with almost zero EMF levels, which is a very difficult task.

The other harmful category of EMF are Extremely Low Frequencies, 0 hertz to 20 kilohertz. This category pertains less to brain fog but is still associated with a number of symptoms and diseases, and usually people sensitive to RF are sensitive to ELF as well. These are emitted by any house appliance, wiring in the walls and high voltage power lines.

Symptoms

EMFs cause a variety of symptoms in sensitive individuals, everyone experiences a subset of the following (non exaustive) list:

Brain fog. Anxiety. Depression. Fatigue. Heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat, chest pain. Headache. Skin issues. Sleep issues. Tinnitus. Visual disturbances. Derealization. Dizziness. Mood swings. Decreased Libido.

How to test

Testing if you are sensitive takes a bit of time, but the good news is that it’s free.

Don’t try to guess if Wi-Fi is on or off, you are not familiar with the sources, you don’t know how long it takes for symptoms to come and go, you may have problems recognizing symptoms, and hidden sources may muddy your experiment.

Failing the experiment may give you a false negative.

Treat it as an allergy. Some days you are more reactive, some days less. Some times you sneeze as soon as you see pollen, some others you are not bothered. Some times symptoms last 10 minutes, some times one full day.

How to test:

Start avoiding exposure to the best of your ability, and pay attention to your ability to think. If Brain fog goes away when you are in EMF-free environments you are on a good path. If it doesn’t there are three possibilities:

1) The environment is not really EMF free, something you don’t know is emitting RF (Most likely).

2) The environment is EMF free, but symptoms are lasting more than usual.

3) You are not EMF sensitive.

Keep practicing avoidance for a week. Change places, go to the park on the other side of town, to the beach or other. After one week weigh the evidence. Was there a pattern in your symptoms? If yes you probably are EMF sensitive.

The more you try the more you’ll be certain of the result, wheter it’s positive or negative. With this condition you can’t have a straight and rapid yes or no, but trust me, if you did things right you’ll definetely feel the fog lifting when in the right conditions.

In a truly EMF free environment brain fog should lift in 30 minutes at most, but keep in mind, every day is different.

Avoidance

This section is will give you rhe basic tools to deal with EMFs. To cover all different best practices, all the sources of EMFs, and how to mitigate and create more tolerable setups would need a much bigger space, please refer to the help section if you want to know more.

If EMF is what gives you brain fog, every time you are exposed to a source you’ll get brain fog in a few minutes, it will go away just as rapidly if you go in an EMF free environment.

You can’t heal from this condition, but the more you avoid the less your symptoms when you are exposed.

The goal is to limit as much as possible exposure, possibly 24/7. You’ll choose personally what is worth for you. Brain fog is just a symptom and goes away, but more serious damage could be done after years of EMF exposure, and no one knows what will happen with the high levels of EMF we have today.

Some people have no problem going out with friends and family, some others can’t leave their home.

Try to create an EMF free environment in the places you sleep and work.

Distance is the most powerful tool.

Wireless devices under your control:

Phone: keep it in airplane mode.

Wi-Fi router: disable it and switch to ethernet.

Smart home: disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi from any smart device, like smart tv, oven and so on.

Other: get rid of airTag, bluetooth headphones and so on.

Wireless devices not under your control: This category includes things that will create a backgrounf RF level. Background RF may be extremely high or negligible depending on your specific case.

Smart meters: in the US many complain of these devices, it’s a wireless device from the electric company that for some reason creates a lot of symptoms. If you have one, search online for mitigations.

Cell towers.

Radio and Tv towers.

Neighbours Wi-Fi.

To avoid these, you will have to move or install some shielding solutions that block RF signal. Unfortunately these are expensive and many (most?) complain of increased symptoms.

Sources that emit RF as a side effect: Modern electronics manipulate electricity in complicated ways, this creates RF fields, which is a by-product, as not necessary for the object to do its task, in contrast to Wi-Fi in which RF emission is intentional.

These will give you brain fog as well, but a bit less than Wi-Fi etc.

Smartphone: It deserves a second entry. The complex cicuits in your smartphone will make it emit EMF as a side effect. Keep it away from your body whenever possible, when not using it put it one meter away from you.

Energy saving lamps: unfortunately CFL lights and Led lights emit a lot of radiofrequency radiation. Safe models may exist, but the best choice is to go back to incandescent light bulbs.

Tv: tv itself emit radio waves as a side effect.

House appliances: all house appliances may emit some EMF, even when powered off. Better to unplug them when not using and don't sleep next to electronics or bedside lamps.

Wiring in the walls: these emit ELF, they also emit radio waves. Originally in the wires there was only 50-60hz electricity, but modern electronics manipulate electricity and disrupt the normal wave as a side effect. Distantiate the bed from the walls (1 meter).

Computer: the circuits and screens in the computer emit radio waves as a side effect.

Ethernet: this is your best choice to use internet. Unfortunately it can emit radio waves, and can increase the RF coming from things connected.

This list will be useful when trying to understand if you are sensitive, please refer to the Help section for further instructions on complicated topics.

What to Expect

If you are EMF sensitive you can have a normal life, just do what you can to avoid exposure and manage symptoms.

Some job positions may be off limits for you, for instance working in a retail shop with fluorescent lights and Wi-Fi is probably a bad idea.

Others, like software developer or graphic designer are perfectly ok if you create a healty work station and work from home.

If symptoms are bad you may have to move.

You will have to change some habits, less screen time is a good idea, although with some effort you can create more tolerable setups for watching tv and gaming.

This said, once you realize the vastness of symptoms that EMF create beyond brain fog, you will likely want to reduce EMF to the minimum in everything you do.

Help

Don’t panic! If you have EHS, join the facebook group and meet helpful people.