My Favorite Smarter Meter

I often think about how important the electrosmog meters I use have become to me, but the fact is, I've found my health gradually improve as I've identified and eliminated superfluous sources of EMR from my life. Although, my recovery has been very difficult to prove or quantify, until now.

Nearly two years ago, I discovered I was being zapped by radio frequencies and had a worsening case of microwave sickness. Before then, my experience was that landlines and ethernet connections simply worked better. I had owned a pay-as-you-go cell phone for a few months, but the frustration of trying to find places it would work and the cost of adding minutes eventually led me to abandon it and return to a reliable copper connection. Wifi was widely available at work, but I had multiple ethernet jacks under my desk and (luckily) my office didn't provide me a laptop. At home, I was still dialing up for internet, so enabling wireless there would have been pointless.

Sometimes I wonder if my general and accidental avoidance of microwave technology actually helped me put together this complicated puzzle called electrosensitivity. When I was near transmitters and radio emitting appliances, I could tell something was wrong. Sometimes I would get dizzy, lose my balance, or I'd hear a rhythmic clicking sound that seemed to originate from within my ears. (This is known as the Frey Effect.) The most noticeable symptom was a relatively instantaneous reduction in my concentration and memory, accompanied by a distinct anxiety that was difficult to describe because I didn't know what I was anxious about. Once I started measuring electromagnetic fields, I was shocked to find that the same places I was having these repeating and often scary health effects also had elevated levels of EMFs.

So began my quest to quantify my electromagnetic environment in the hopes of learning exactly what range of exposure I was getting, and what is "normal." Through measuring the fields, I learned that the surest way to feel better was to spend time in areas with RF field strengths below 50 millivolts per meter and AC magnetic fields lower than 2 milligauss. It was affirming to find organizations online with similar recommendations, not just for people suffering from EHS, but everyone, especially children and pregnant women.

Like most people who have made a clear connection between EMR and health, I have completely changed the way I live. I never use a microwave oven. I only use cell phones in emergency situations (maybe 10 times a year). I have ethernet cables winding through my house plugged into a router with wireless disabled. I avoid certain roads because I know I'll be passing through strong fields created by cell towers or wireless broadband. Above all, I've had to find work that allows me to avoid electromagnetic radiation as much as possible, which has been no easy task, especially in the current economy.

One thing I've experienced on occasion were heart palpitations, or atrial fibrillation. A fluttering or increased heart rate is a startling thing to experience, especially for someone in their early thirties and who is relatively healthy. It wasn't until a couple months ago that I realized I should probably own a heart rate monitor in addition to the half dozen EMR meters I use on a regular basis. I found a $70 blood pressure monitor at CVS that displays BP, HR, and has an added feature that tells you if your heart is beating irregularly.

On average, my blood pressure is about 125 over 70, with a resting heart rate of between 55 and 65 beats per minute. As is clearly indicated by the meter, this is borderline pre-hypertension. After a little exercise, I would find my blood pressure the same or slightly lower and my heart rate between 75-85 BPM.

Then I went to an environment with Wifi and fluorescent lights and was shocked to find my resting levels rising to the 140-150 over 80-90 range, with a heart rate often exceeding 85 BPM. Riding in a car while someone else was on a cell phone generated similar results. The most interesting thing was that in these settings with elevated radio, magnetic, and/or electric fields, the irregular heart beat indicator would come on about 90% of the time. When I am in a natural/ambient RF/EMR environment, my heart beat is regular nearly 100% of the time.

This simple meter that's available "over the counter" in nearly every major drug store in America makes it possible for anyone to determine if they are electrosensitive. If you find that your BP and HR is normal in places without a lot of electrical appliances or transmitters and higher or irregular near Wifi routers, cordless phones, fluorescent lights, cell phones or smart meters, that's a good indication that those pesky man-made fields are coagulating (cooking) your blood, making your heart work harder and undeniably causing bio-electrical interference.