Environmental Toxins: Part 2 – EMF
EMFs are a hot topic in the health space in recent years and for good reason… EMFs or electromagnetic fields are all around us and taking a toll on our health. Reducing exposure to environmental toxins is an important aspect of living a healthy lifestyle.
The goal with EMFs (and any environmental stress on the body) is to minimize what you’re exposed to, so you can live life without symptoms and disease holding you back.
It’s important to keep your environmental stressors in check so that your body is able to cope with what’s coming in at a fast enough rate. Otherwise, your system will become overwhelmed.
Computers, Wifi routers, cell phones, Bluetooth, Smart meters, and anything else that’s electronic or wireless has EMFs. In modern society, it’s impossible to avoid all exposure. The good news is that there are simple things you can do to significantly reduce your exposure.
See Part 1 of this series for a more in-depth explanation of how environmental toxins affect us and can contribute to imbalances, dis-ease, and illness.
Simple Strategies to Reduce EMFs
There are many things you can do to decrease your exposure, which means this post could go on for weeks. To make this topic more manageable, I’m going to focus on basic strategies to reduce wireless EMF exposure.
But know that there are other strategies available to further protect you from wireless and non-wireless EMFs.
Any action you take will reduce your exposure and can have a positive impact on your well being. Collectively, these actions can have a major impact on your health and can help to prevent future health challenges.
1. Turn Your Wifi Router off at Night
Turning your router off at night is a great place to start and also inexpensive. The easiest way to do this consistently is to put the router on a timer.
You don’t need a fancy timer. We’ve used an outlet timer, but I’ve heard of people successfully using Christmas light timers as well.
Set the timer for when you consistently won’t need the internet, and that’s it. It’ll go off at night and you can heal, restore, and renew that much more while you sleep.
2. Hardwire Your Home with Ethernet/CAT5 Cables
This is the best option for minimizing Wifi exposure. It takes effort to get it set up, but once it’s done, it’s really nice and easy. My husband is a web designer, on his computer for his entire workweek and he says our internet is faster now that it’s hardwired.
We’ve managed to wire our Sonos speakers and connect them through our network so we can easily control them from both our laptops and our phones.
We still have access to our Wifi and it’s easy to switch it on when we have company or if we want to use our computers in a different space. We had to adjust to having a cord attached, but now that we’re used to it, it’s no big deal.
3. Keep Your Cell Phone Away from Your Body
Distance makes all the difference with EMFs. You can keep your phone in your purse or across the room. If you need to have it in your pocket, try putting it on airplane mode.
And Yes! it’s the same when you talk on your phone. Using air tube headphones or putting it on speakerphone are great options to create distance between you and the device.
When you’re using the phone, the signal will be that much stronger as it tries to keep a solid connection. If you need to have the phone closer to your ear, you can try to keep it at least an inch away from your head.
From what I understand, cell phones and other wireless devices can affect children more than adults, and women more than men, due to their head size. Being mindful of these devices around children can have a major impact on their well being.
4. Put Your Cell Phone in Airplane Mode When Not in Use
I invite you to try and keep your phone in airplane mode when it’s not in use or you’re not waiting on a call. This habit is not only amazing for protecting you from EMFs but will do wonders for your focus and productivity. Life may feel less stressful and busy when this constant distraction is reduced.
If you work in a job or are in a situation where you need to have your phone on, then do the best you can. We all have different needs and therefore, we each have to find our own balance.
Another option is to buy an anti-radiation cell phone case. The one I trust is by a company called Safesleeve, but I’m sure there are other effective ones out there. You can use the case both for talking on and carrying your cell phone and the case is designed to divert the radiation coming off the phone.
5. Use Airtube Headphones
Airtube headphones are the safest type for reducing EMF exposure because there’s no direct transmission from the phone to your ear. This is an easy and inexpensive solution that can make a big difference.
6. Use a Corded Phone (No Joke!) or Internet Line for Calls
I know, I know it’s super old school. But, if you sit at a desk all day, this is a really convenient solution. We use an internet phone and Google Voice number for our home phone. We have a corded phone attached to this line, which helps us to drastically reduce the use of our cell phones.
7. Stay Away From Smart Appliances
Smart appliances are another thing to be aware of. They connect and send wireless signals throughout your home. The more you move back to the basics, generally the better it is for your health and well being.
8. Swap Out Your Smart Meter
Check your electric meter to see if you have an analog or smart meter. If you have a smart meter, it’s connecting to a wireless connection constantly throughout the day.
You can ask your electric company to swap it for an analog meter, and my understanding is that they have to comply. It’s more work for them, but much less exposure for you. I’ve heard plenty of stories of people removing these and feeling relief from chronic symptoms.
Congratulations!
I know this isn’t an easy topic to take on and I applaud you for taking the time to educate yourself on this constant source of stress on your gut, mind, and body. Now that you have the awareness of the electromagnetic fields that surround you on a daily basis, I hope you’re feeling empowered to take action towards decreasing exposure.
It’s about the proximity of EMFs to your body, along with the sheer quantity that we absorb into our systems. Our bodies can handle some exposure, but we’re in a world where this insult to our system is continuous.
When your body doesn’t have a break from the stress, it never has time to recover and heal.
Any of these actions, no matter how big or small, will move you in a positive direction and help to reduce your exposure to the EMFs that surround you. To prevent overwhelm, do it in bite-sized chunks rather than trying to tackle the whole list at once. I invite you to pick one thing and take action.
If you found this post helpful, stay tuned for more on the topic of environmental toxins. You can subscribe to my newsletter by filling out the form for my free gut health guide below this post, so you don’t miss a thing.
Here’s To Your Health!
