If you’ve been following my health story here you know that I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006. After that initial MS attack I was fairly symptom free until 2014. That’s when things began to get weird.
Non-Toxic Green Building Materials, Check!
We had renovated a 100 year old house in historic Mapleton Hill and moved in during the summer of 2014. I believed we had done a totally green renovation. That’s because I knew nothing about wireless technology. Every single thing in the house from lighting to thermostats to the sound system and more was wireless and ran on electromagnetic radiation. It was the equivalent of living with 300 cell phones in my home buzzing constantly.
For someone with the MTHFR genetic mutation, it was too much. By the spring of 2015, less than two years after we moved in, I was in the hospital with the worst MS symptoms of my life, completely numb from the neck down, along with an array of other concerning issues.
I began doing hyperbaric oxygen therapy and getting weekly IV nutrients. I was stabilizing and not getting worse, but I was not fully recovering which was odd. Things were stagnant in spite of my complete focus and dedication. I had never experienced that before.
Deteriorating Health
Fast forward to the fall of 2016. I knew something was seriously wrong. Before moving into the house, I had lived the full and healthy life of a New York Times best selling author, writing a book for Random House every two years, going on book tours, doing TV and radio, all while posting on my blog a few times each week. I had attended the boys’ sporting and school events regularly. Now I went to doctors and treatments and wrote on the blog every couple of weeks if I was lucky. I watched my life pass me by, missing family events and vacations.
Discovering EMFs and Building Biology
When the fall of 2016 rolled around I had a lucky break. Our HVAC vendor walked in one day and said, the house has too many electrical systems in it and everything is shorting out! And so I began my research. I learned about building biology and electromagnetic fields (EMFs). I discovered the effects EMFs can have on people like me. I found out what had made me so sick, and prevented me from getting well in spite of my best efforts.
Since then we’ve removed all of the wireless systems from our home. On March 1, 2017 I began living in a mostly WiFi free environment. Although my living environment is almost perfect and we’ve removed all of the wireless smart technology, there are small compromises that we make.
Balancing Different Types of Stress
We still let our boys and their friends use their cell phones when they’re here. For me the stress of not having the gang in our home is far greater than the stress of being near half a dozen cell phones a couple of hours per day. That’s a trade I made. The boys have made compromises too. While they can still use their cell phones in the house, they’ve lost their wireless head phones, wireless speakers, and gaming console.
Don’t Make my Mistake
I don’t want you and your family to go through the pain and heartache that we’ve suffered. I’ve lost years of my life so that we could have silly smart systems like lights and thermostats that operated remotely.
Living in a home filled with wireless radiation severely exacerbated the multiple sclerosis I had been diagnosed with in 2006. If you have a neurological condition such as MS, autism, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s, or an illness such as cancer or Lyme disease, you are far more vulnerable to the effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) and may need to take the extra precautions that I outline in my post called Simple Steps to Reduce EMFs.
The Good News
Little by little I’m getting well. It took over a year to get sick so I anticipate I’ll need at least that long to get healthy again. I’m sticking to my program of sleeping as much as I can, eating a low-carb diet, and exercising moderately. The body can heal itself, and now that mine is in a healing environment the sky is the limit!
angela w tsiang says
Hi Alana – thanks for sharing your story. My son became ill at the age of 9 from wireless in 2013, but we didn’t figure out what was causing his problems until 2015. He had sleeping problems, nosebleeds, strange rashes, anger/mood changes, extreme stress and severe neurological problems with concentration and memory. It was a frightening time for our family as we tried desperately to figure out what was wrong. I never even heard that wireless could cause health effects until 2015, and I didn’t want to believe that this miraculous technology that everybody was using could possibly be harmful. I want to share some reputable websites for anyone wanting to learn more about the science on this issue:
http://www.saferemr.com/2014/10/electromagnetic-hypersensitivity_30.html
from Dr. Joel Moskowitz, Director, Center for Family and Community Health, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley
https://ehtrust.org/science/electromagnetic-sensitivity/, founded by Dr. Devra Davis, renowned epidemiologist, toxicologist and Nobel Prize recipient, former health advisor in the US Dept of Health
Elana says
Angela, thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your story. I’m so sorry to hear about all that your son has been through. Thank goodness he has you! We really need to get the word out on the dangers of wireless technology before it’s too late!
angela says
couldn’t agree more! thank you for sharing. hopefully it will inspire others to share!
Tamara says
Hi Elena, I’m here via Dani Spies @ Clean & Delicious.
Glad I found you!
What an ordeal you went through!
Electromagnetic fields can do a lot of damage. For me it was years of infertility until a specialist checked our house and told us to switch off electricity at night and to lose wireless house phones. Three months later, BOOM, pregnant.
Sorry you had to learn the hard way, but YAY for finding out, fixing it and healing!
Elana says
Tamara, it’s so nice to meet you here! Thanks for sharing your story, it’s so important that we raise awareness of the consequences of continuous exposure to electromagnetic radiation and other types of EMF’s!
Shelly says
Thanks for posting that. Unfortunately, no matter how we will shield our homes, Soon the whole world will be covered by smart meters and all of us would be bombered by microwave radiation 24/7. Super sad that the government just letting that happen for the name of grid. I just can’t understand the evil decision behind that.
Since you have so much power, can you help raise awareness of smart meter dangers? Thank you!!!
Elana says
Shelly, yes! That is my goal right now, to promote awareness of the effects of the electromagnetic radiation that comes from smart meters as well as other smart appliances and cell phones, and make the scientific evidence of the impacts more accessible to all!
Angel says
Hi Elana, Thanks for sharing your story. This is the biggest pandemy in this century. Each day there are more and more electrosensitives around the world.It´s really important that famous affected people, inform to the rest of the population. I want to say, that I suffered this problem in my family… My mother killed herself in 2012 due to this horrible impairment. Nobody could believe what nightmare we had to live….
Elana says
Angel, thanks for your comment and my heart goes out to you. I’m so sorry to hear about what you and yours have been through. Yes, this issue is so important and it’s urgent that we get the message out!
c says
Elana, I used to read your blog/column and wondered why you weren’t so active any more. I sort of lost touch…. but found you, and this latest news, when setting up Feedly today. Sorry to hear things have been so difficult.
I am very interested in this. I have a bunch of health issues that have evolved over the years and always need to be cautious. I even was told I had early MS (I don’t. But they took it serious enough to get me into an MS trial…. I had vision issues). Eventually, I got a very different “wonky” Dx that many who also have the same Dx (or their relatives) have received a false MS suspicion or DX. I won’t go into detail (and I do not believe yours MS is false) but I think this EMF issue might be something I may need to manage because MS like symptoms can be developed. My husband works at home all day and is in IT. He LOVES cordless everything. I have some sort of abnormality with my MTHF gene…. but thankfully not the “double-trouble” one. So all this together probably means researching EMFs in my home might be a positive thing.
I’m curious as to how you are sure this is what is making you ill. Like have you confirmed that it makes a difference. If so how? I ask because I recently decided that I need one day a week at the seashore. It’s where I feel whole again, physically. I have begun visiting a place that is a close to being on a boat without leaving land. I’m wondering if that is something that indicates a possible EMF problem where I live.
Please do recommend things that can help with this as I am just learning. I guess from your posters that the Gittleman “Zapped” (?) book is good to get?
It’s lovely to read about you again.
Elana says
C, thanks for your comment and for being in touch! If you get sick enough you become so sensitive that your symptoms happen in the moment. When I got sick enough, I could tell when wireless technology that ran on eletromagnetic radiation was in our house by the pains in my body. But when I look back, I started becoming electromagnetically sensitive less than a year into our time in our smart house. All I can say is don’t wait until you get as sick, and as sensitive, as I was!
Really Organic says
Wow! Thanks for sharing this and raising awareness. I bought a gaussmeter a couple years ago and it has been one of the BEST investments of my life. And then i bought an RF meter and feel exactly the same way. I have the Tri-Field and the Cornet ED78S. Well worth the money! I take them with me to look at EVERY new apartment I consider renting and the Tri-Field has helped me decline several apartments that had a regular reading well over 3 milliigauss (this is measuring non-wireless magnetic fields from power lines, fuse boxes, etc). One house was over 8 milligauss in the bedrooms!
I just turned an apartment down a few days ago because it was over 3 milligauss in most of the apartment. Then i noticed the huge power line running right along the outside wall. That’s the culprit! It scares me to think that whoever rents it will not know this. They will not understand the possible health effects. Studies have shown that the leukemia rate in children doubles from 1 mg to 2 mg (with regular exposure). I won’t consider living anywhere that is much above 1 milligauss.
I have found many ways to hack things in my current apartment, but i sleep in the livingroom because the EMFs in the bedroom are 1.5. it wasn’t like this when I looked at the place, but my landlord illegally monkeyed around with the breakers and switched things up and now it is too high. I have noticed in my town that some blocks seem to have unusually high or unusually low EMFs. It is very intriguing! Here is a video of what happened one night when I tried to rearrange my house and moved the bed to somewhere different: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=T8ZOSLST3Zs
Thanks for all you do!!! I found a link to this blog of yours posted in the Facebook Group called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity – MCS & EHS – UK & INTERNATIONAL
Elana says
Thanks so much for your comment! In our new home the contractor had grounded the water line onto the electrical panel and we had a current of 20 milligauss running through our basement. Thanks goodness our building biologists identified this and we could easily fix it. Incidentally the cost to ground the water line somewhere else was less than $20.
Mia says
Dear Elana,
I am so glad you figured out what was making you sick and that you are recovering.
I also became sick from EMF exposure. I have healed from it only after I found the source and used shielding material to block the bulk of the radiation out of my office. I finally moved out of that office.
I was working in an office for over a decade that was being bathed with radiation from two high voltage cell antennas on a building across the street from my office.
I had symptoms of radio-wave sickness, including a nose bleed that wouldn’t heal, deteriorating memory, rashes, “tinnitus” (I could hear the high frequency radiation), my internal thermostat broke (I couldn’t eat any heat producing foods (garlic, black pepper, chili pepper, ginger). I was basically being baked by the radiation from the cell antennas for many years. I recently talked to an Acupuncturist about my symptoms and she said they were all heat related symptoms.
The only reason I found the source of my illness was because I measured my office with a Radio Frequency meter. I purchased a RF meter (wireless radiation), Gauss meter (magnetic fields), and Stetzerizer meter (high voltage transients on our electrical system or dirty electricity). In the wireless environment we live in, I believe we all need those three basic meters to help us see the invisible frequencies in our work and living environments. Or a good Building Biologist.
After I shielded my office with Swiss Shield Naturell fabric, it took 21 weeks of weekly Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and neurofeedback sessions before I felt like I was getting back to “normal”. I continue to receive Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy weekly. It took 7 years to recover my pituitary/hypothalamus thermoregulation issues. I can finally eat garlic and ginger again!!!
I am happy to report that we can heal from illness caused by wireless frequencies. We just need to find the sources of dirty electricity, EMF/EMR, and magnetic fields and reduce our exposure to them as much as possible. And get effective therapies that can support ones healing process.
I had to give up using my iPhone because it started to burn my fingers when I used it, my thumb joints also became inflamed.
I purchased a Samsung Note 5, because of the dedicated stylus (thank goodness that Samsung fixed their exploding battery issue!). I never have to touch the screen with my fingers. I only hold the phone in my hand when it’s on airplane mode. My fingers no longer burn, the inflammation in my thumb joints went away.
I also use an airtube headset or the speaker phone when I make/recieve calls from my phone.
I am grateful that I can use a “Smart” phone with the least amount of impact to my body.
Also, it’s important to op-out of “Smart” meters on our homes.
I recycled my microwave oven after measuring the radiation leaking from it. I purchased a Cuisinart convection/steam toaster oven to replace it.
Most people do not feel the impact of EMF in the moment. But it is effecting everyone’s biology. There is good scientific research that proves this. The telecommunication industry is suppressing this information, that is why most people do not know of the harmful effects of EMF/EMR, dirty electricity, and magnetic fields.
Thank you for sharing your story, so more people can become aware of this serious issue of our times.
Warm wishes,
Mia
Elana says
Mia, thanks so much for sharing your EMF journey with me! I’m thrilled to hear that you overcame so many obstacles and that you measured and removed EMR and EMF’s properly. I find it so disheartening when people try to put a band aid over the toxic EMF’s in our environment by using necklaces and cell phone shields that have little to no measurable effect. It’s great that you took the necessary steps to remediate and that you shared them here. Let’s keep getting the word out about this!
Mia says
Thank you Elana! Yes, let’s keep getting the word out!
Anna and John Chitty are wonderful teachers of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy in Boulder, CO.
I wanted to introduce you to this resource close to your home.
Warm wishes,
Mia
Elana says
Thanks Mia!
Tori Brixius says
Hi Elana!
I would be very interested in the specifics as to how you shielded your bedroom. I just moved into a 29 unit condo building and my symptoms started to really flare up. I think I have EMF sensitivity. It was under control until I moved into this building:( I have 10 smart meters down the hall from me in the laundry room and so much wifi from all the units. I feel like it doesn’t even matter if I turn ours off at night! My meters are showing that the RF levels aren’t too bad. What is your goal for RF levels? I’m going off of my symptoms though and I’ve had neuropathy, rashes, and insomnia. I have cleaned up my diet a lot and been exercising more and I’m started to feel much better.
Any advice on shielding would be amazing! There’s so much info out there and it’s hard to know where to begin.
Thanks!!
Tori
Elana says
Tori, thanks so much for your comment! I will be writing on that in the near future :-)
Esther Hughes says
Hi Tori
My husband and I run our own small business in the UK. Our main focus is on raising awareness on social media, from our e-commerce shops and by word of mouth. We have over 12 years experience in surveying and diligently advising sufferers of the biological health affects of this insipid technology. We have sourced a range of shielding fabrics and have designed many products which mitigate exposure and have literally rescued very sick people from further deterioration and even put them on the road to full recovery. We also keep our prices as low as possible as we recognize many sufferers are unable to work and even allow payment spreading where necessary. We ship globally and our website is http://www.cell-phone-radiation.com.
Every blessing
Esther x
Elana says
Thanks Esther! I took a quick look at your website and want to mention that I think it’s better to turn off a cell phone or simply put it into airplane mode rather than use a shield for it. Also curious how EMF blocking clothes would work, wouldn’t the metal in them create another conductive surface right next to the body that uses the body for grounding thus directing more EMF’s through it? These are my initial thoughts, but please know I appreciate what you are doing and am open to learning more :-)
Rachel Chevalier says
very reputable company if you are in the US https://www.lessemf.com/
Michele Gelman says
Elana – the exact same thing happened to ur family when we built a house with an extensive smart home system. We all got very sick over 4 years and eventually became very electrically sensitive so that we finally figured out what the cause was. It has taken us years to heal. For a couple of years we couldn’t go anywhere with wifi – no restaurants, hotels or shopping centers without having headaches, nausea, loss of cognition, etc. Our children had to change schools. Our friends all thought we were crazy and doctors were of little help. It was a long road. If you want t talk about it – just reach out. Hope you are feeling better now.
Elana says
Michele, thanks so much for sharing your story here. It really helped to clarify something for me in that there are 3 somewhat distinct components to EMF toxicity –illness, isolation, and denial from the general public. I’m so glad that we can gather here and connect around what may be one of the most important health issues of our time :-)
Michele Gelman says
That is so true! I immediately began share the information with my friends, family and following and was met with eye rolls. One friend told me to just stop talking about it. For another I bought Anne Louise Gittelman’s book, Zapped, because her kids had similar issues and she refused to take it for me, saying, “I don’t have room in my handbag!” Now many friends turn their wifi off at night and have stopped sleeping with their phones by their heads but it has been really hard. So glad you are talking about this.
Elana says
Michele, I’ve had very similar experiences. I bought a dozen copies of Gittleman’s book and have given them all out. Not one has read it yet. Though some of these folks now put their phones on airplane at night or have stopped resting it right next to their heads while they sleep. It’s quite a journey we are on, and I am so grateful to be on it with you :-)
angela says
Dear Elana,
Thanks for sharing your story – hopefully a lot of your readers will see it and if they are having unexplained health symptoms common to EHS, they will make the connection and get better.
Want to share a similar story that happened to Jolie Jones, daughter of Quincy Jones, who was very sick because of wireless EMF’s, for 7 years. Good news is she figured out it was the wireless radiation that was making her sick and she found healing. Here’s an 8 minute video where she interviews Dr. Johannson about the symptoms of illness from wireless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWyT2qRlGZc and here’s where she tells her story https://www.jolietalks.com/ – she wants to increase awareness on this issue and prevent others from becoming ill, just like you.
Elana says
Angela, thanks so much for your comment. I shared Jolie Jones’ story on my Facebook page right before I shared the post above and it received a good amount of attention and support which tells me that the EMF awareness movement is going in the right direction!
https://www.facebook.com/elanaspantry/posts/10158817697255217
Take care!
Elana