EMFs: How WiFi Impacts Your Health and Practical Ways to Address It

Whether you believe that WiFi is the worst thing that’s ever happened to humans or the best thing that ever happened for business, you’re right.  Well, using extreme words like “worst thing ever” may be excessive because who’s to validate the superlative?  Either way, it DOES impact you in a POSITIVE and NEGATIVE way.  I like to do some simple education about what something is, connect some dots around your health concerns, and give you practical advice on how to do your best without living in a bubble. 

What are Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs)?

The word EMF is simply referring the radiation that’s being emitted from something, and there are 2 forms: ionizing and non-ionizing. Non-ionizing is generally seen as safe and ionizing is categorized as toxic for humans due the DNA damaging abilities (think cancer). It may make you feel warm and fuzzy to know that most of your electronic devices fall in the non-ionizing category, but as research is evolving and more patients are being treated for EMF sensitivities, many countries are taking measures to remove their citizens from this exposure for health reasons.

In fact, in 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified EMFs from cell phones and wireless devices to be potential human carcinogens.

How does this impact your body?

Let’s just make a list:

  • Using your cell for a minimum of 30 minutes a day on one side of your head for 10 years increases your risk of brain tumor formation by 40-170%.  That’s a broad range because 3 studies that have been conducted have varying outcomes, but all show increased risk.
  • WiFi decreases melatonin production which is NECESSARY for sleep and is a very powerful hormone and antioxidant in the body impacting virtually everything.  This is a large reason why sleep issues are often connected to EMF as an environmental issue for patients.
  • EMFs increase free radicals in the body, which basically means increases damage from oxidative stress, driving systemic inflammation
  • EMFs contribute to leaky blood brain barriers, allowing toxins the ability to encounter the brain when the barrier would normally keep it safe and secluded
  • In the case of heavy metal issues in a patient due to amalgam fillings, consuming fish with mercury regularly, or heavy metal exposure due to where they live, work, or play, you see increased sensitivity to EMFs
  • If you have a metal surgical implant, it basically acts like a radio frequency antenna, causing major symptoms in some patients, especially those with implants in/near the spine
  • Children are at much higher risk of forming long term health issues due to exposure…

3G wasn’t a thing until about 2005, and the latency period for brain tumors is about 25 years.  Do the math.  Data will come.

How you can decrease risk without living in a bubble:

  • DISTANCE! As you double your distance from a device, you decrease exposure by 75%.  Try your best to stay 1 meter away from your devices, minimally…that’s about an adult male arm’s length.
  • Text. Don’t call.
  • Turn off your wireless router when you aren’t using it. In addition, the router is a big source of EMF, so place it in a room you don’t use much.
  • Ditch wireless baby monitors. 
  • Move your bed away from any walls that have a fridge on the other side. 
  • Don’t carry a cell phone on your person.  Men, you’re the biggest offender here because you don’t carry purses.  They have even shown bone density changes in the femurs on the side of the cell phone pocket.  My guess is that you store yours next to other important bodily parts.
  • Do not allow cell phones in the bedroom.  You spend 20 years of your life there….
  • Turn your phone on airplane mode when you don’t need to use it.
  • Disable blue tooth capabilities.
  • Ditch wireless headphones.

I know this seems like a lot, but when you consider the timeframe of wifi and cell phone existence, we’ve done a pretty great job existing without these things for a long time.  Just like you, I work and conduct business via electronic devices, and I couldn’t be happier to have information from all over the world at my finger tips (it beats that encyclopedia set I had to use in school).  However, the little things you can implement to decrease load will only contribute to your health, the health of your kids, and the health of your neighbors (have you ever tried connecting to their router?! We’re in this together). Especially if you have headaches and sleep issues that don’t improve despite living a healthy lifestyle, you may want to take inventory of the home.


Histamine Intolerance: What You Need to Know and Why Antihistamines Aren’t the Solution

Most of the time, when the word “histamine” comes up, people are speaking about the dreaded symptoms that present with IgE-mediated allergies, like runny nose, itchy eyes, and sneezing.  These types of allergies tend to be seasonal for most people, and they are typically quite predictable.  However, histamine can be a part of so many more problems than just those associated with seasonal allergies.  Elevated histamine levels in the body can contribute to indigestion, GERD, rashes, migraines, and even pain.  Because these issues tend to be so global, it can be a misdiagnosed or undiagnosed problem that is fairly easy to solve!  Now, take that with a grain of salt because while explaining the issue and how to correct it is fairly simple, actually taking the steps to do so can be more difficult.

Where does histamine come from?

Histamine lives abundantly in immune cells called mast cells.  When mast cells burst, they release all of their contents, including copious amounts of histamine.  Anyone who has true seasonal allergies knows exactly what that feels like because when you breathe in allergens, they attach to the outside of mast cells and cause them to burst open.  Boom.  Itching, watering, misery.  Over the counter meds, antihistamines, try to address all that excess floating around; however, supplements actually stabilize the mast cell, so even in the presence of allergens, the mast cell doesn’t burst.  This allows patients to feel relief of symptoms without having the drowsy-inducing chemicals that cross the blood brain barrier.  Not that that topic isn’t important, BUT, we are here to talk about all the reasons someone can have histamine issues WITHOUT seasonal allergies. 

There are tons of things that cause mast cells to explode and release all their histamine:

  • Stress
  • Heavy metals such as aluminum and mercury
  • Infections
  • Autoimmunity

Now, histamine doesn’t just live in mast cells.  We eat food with histamine every single day!  Most of us know nothing about this because when it reaches the intestines, our body produces an enzyme called diamine oxidase (DAO) that breaks it down and we never feel any ill effects from it.  However, many people have damaged gut linings where that enzyme is made and that means that when they eat foods high in histamine, it goes unbroken down and ends up in our system, causing issues like indigestion, brain fog, migraines, pain, or rashes.  You may be thinking: “Can’t I just take that enzyme and be good?!” or “Can’t I just avoid histamine foods and be good?!”  The answer to both of those questions is “You could absolutely take DAO or avoid histamine foods to decrease histamine load in the body, but that doesn’t fix the problem and is a very expensive or difficult-to-sustain bandaid.  The better solution is to reestablish the health of your gut lining, so your body makes enough of its own DAO, and you no long have unbroken down histamine causing issues.

High histamine foods:

  • Alcohol
  • Mature cheeses
  • Shellfish
  • Beans
  • Nuts
  • Chocolate
  • Processed meats like sausages and lunch meats
  • Leftover foods
  • Fermented foods

You can see how avoiding this list may be challenging, not a long-term solution, and may even contribute to nutrient deficiencies!

What are the symptoms of histamine intolerance?

  • Skin issues (eczema, hives, rashes, itching)
  • Diarrhea
  • Dizziness
  • Headaches or migraines
  • Joint pain
  • Racing heart
  • Anxiety
  • Allergies

What are natural ways you can decrease the histamine load and heal the gut?

  • Stabilize mast cells with supplements containing quercetin and consuming plenty of onions, kale, broccoli, and asparagus
  • Healing gut cells by consuming bone broth daily and/or taking supplements with glutamine
  • Getting your gut bugs in check by consuming probiotics and/or eating fermented foods if tolerated
  • Treating any infections with antimicrobials like berberine
  • Do yoga or meditation to decrease stress
  • Cut out alcohol for a period of time
  • Take B-vitamins or eat lots of colorful plants because many medications deplete b-vitamins which are necessary for DAO to function and breakdown histamine.  Think birth control, blood pressure meds, and mood regulators
  • Try to decrease the intake of high histamine foods because histamine is dose dependent.  That means a little isn’t an issue, but it just takes a little once you’ve reached the threshold to cause a response.
  • For a supplement protocol suggestion, visit the link here for products and tips!

It shouldn’t be any surprise that, once again, lifestyle choices matter for you to live a life free from histamine intolerance.  There’s no magic bullet.  There’s no quick fix.  It takes a few months before you can really see optimized gut restoration, so give yourself 3 months before assessing your progress.  Hope this was helpful, and if you want to establish if this information pertains to you prior to trying the things listed above, I encourage you to meet with a knowledgeable functional medicine doctor.


Headaches and Migraines: Exploring the Cause and Solution

I was recently asked to write an article covering headaches and migraines. When I posted this suggestion, there was a number of people that also wanted this article! I didn’t think this was that big of a topic, but apparently, we have people who need help with this! So, first things first: I am a chiropractor that practices functional medicine. That means that while my doctorate is in manual medicine, I have spent a lot of years focusing on things outside of adjustments such as herbal therapy, nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and supplementation for restoring health. Why not pharmaceuticals? Because I found all too often that prescription and OTC medications were really good at symptomatic relief, but lacked in their ability to really get rid of the underlying issues. Add side effects on top of that, and I just feel more confident in my ability to RESOLVE a patient’s issue without the use of medications. Now that you have a little background on my philosophies, let’s talk about headaches and migraines.

What’s the difference between a headache and a migraine?
A LOT! A headache is annoying, painful, and while it is pain in the head, it is not a intense or debilitating as migraine. For the purpose of this post, we will classify migraines as severely disabling headaches. Migraines are often accompanied by something called an aura or a feeling of fog that denotes it’s onset. These patients also have light sensitivity, they may feel very nauseous, and it is very difficult for them to complete simple daily tasks while one is occurring. While this is awful, the really awful part is that this can last for hours or days! This makes life pretty difficult while you are experiencing a migraine, and that is why many people will turn to prescriptions when this happens. At that point, you will do whatever it takes to get relief and be able to accomplish daily responsibilities.

What’s wrong with my prescriptions for migraines?
The prescription medications used to treat migraines are often chemicals who’s original purpose had nothing to do with migraines. They may be blood pressure medication, antidepressants, anti-seizure medications, and even your favorite wrinkle treatment known as BOTOX. These medications do “alright” at best for making a patient able to tolerate and function during an episode, and may impact frequency for some, but they certainly don’t treat migraines. These medications all come with their own set of side effects that under longterm use may require another medication to address the side effect of the migraine medication. This is nothing new in the pharmaceutical world, and before you know it, you are a customer buying 5 medications when you thought you started with a simple problem.

What causes headaches and migraines?
There are so many sources of etiology for this type of issue that it’s hard to treat for that reason. If you haven’t done your due diligence digging around for the culprit, you will never find the root cause. Root causes that I see being most common for MIGRAINES are:

  • food sensitivities (especially things like gluten, lactose, and eggs)
  • diet sweeteners (check labels for sucralose, aspartame, truvia, equal, etc)
  • caffeine (coffee, soda, chocolate all have caffeine and this can be a trigger for those that don’t metabolize it well)
  • hormones (especially when progesterone is low or women find migraines cyclical to their menstrual cycle)
  • stress (this is a seriously overlooked trigger for tons of health issues)
  • magnesium deficiency
  • underactive mitochondria due to chronic diseases such as autoimmunity, cancer, or chronic infection

Root causes I see being most common for HEADACHES are:

  • postural issues
  • cervical subluxations
  • blood sugar issues
  • blood pressure issues
  • stress
  • eye sight issues

So, the first step in diagnosis and treatment is deciding if you suffer from a HEADACHE or a MIGRAINE.  If you suffer from headaches, then often times, they can easily resolve with:

  • visiting your chiropractor for an adjustment (this fixes misalignments that cause nerve discomfort causing headaches)
  • visit your massage therapist (muscle tension can occur from poor posture or subluxations and soft tissue work especially on the suboccipitals can work wonders.  Just tell your massage therapist to work on your cranium, jaw, suboccipitals, and muscles that elevate the shoulders)
  • ergonomics (position your desk, move frequently, and don’t look down at your phone constantly)
  • eat balanced meals low in refined carbs (this will help keep blood sugar stable)
  • check your blood pressure (identify if this throbbing is coming from how hard your heart is pumping)
  • adopt stress relief techniques like going for a walk, doing yoga, reading, enjoying hobbies
  • talk to an essential oil rep that can point you in the direction of a diffuser and use lavender specifically
  • get your eyes checked (if you find yourself squinting a lot or if you notice most headaches are in the afternoon it could be because of screen time)

If you suffer from migraines, then it may take some digging to find the cause.  You may want to consider the following testing or supplementation:

  • supplement with magnesium (300mg/day) (you could incorporate Epsom salt soaks too for transdermal absorption)
  • eliminate common allergens from your diet (I would start with gluten, dairy, and eggs)
  • remove all diet foods and MSG from your diet
  • get your hormones checked (especially if you are a woman or notice they have a pattern around your period)
  • supplement with nutrients targeted at helping your mitochondria function (this could be especially helpful for those with a concurrent chronic infection.

Hopefully this answered some of your questions!  There are tons of things you can do to self-treat headaches, but if they persist beyond those efforts, then I suggest finding good doctors to work with!  This is an area where alternative medicine shines and you will never regret going that route.  If you find you need further direction on your case, I would be happy to set up a consult or point in the direction of someone near to you that I trust!

*feel free to call or text 574-635-5808 to set up a 30-min phone consult: $75

*feel free to email angela@angelalucterhand.com to set up a consult or request links to the products I would recommend to my patients.