Dr. Josh Axe (0:00)

Welcome to Dr. Josh Axe show, where each and every week I dive deep into the science and principles behind how to grow in body, mind, spirit and take your health and your life to the next level. Today I'm going to be diving into a topic that's gaining more attention as we become more connected through technology. It is EMF radiation, and I'll be going through exactly what you need to know how to protect yourself and really, how dangerous are EMFs exactly? Well, I will tell you from the star. Some of it is hard to know, but there are studies now and more emerging in terms of some of the dangers around emf. And here's the reality. You're exposed to electromagnetic fields every day from your smartphone in your pocket to your laptop computer to wireless earbuds. And we'll break down why this is a problem and explain practical ways to stay safe. Plus, stay tuned because at the end of this episode I'm going to be interviewing an expert on on this topic who's going to share his top tips for reducing EMF exposure. We know, listen, we're all going to be exposed to EMF radiation. The key is lowering it and only having it certain periods of time, which we'll get into. Before I dive into the content though, make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the link on the show notes to subscribe to my weekly wellness newsletter if you want to get my top tips for for natural healing delivered straight into your inbox on a weekly basis. So here's what EMF stands for. It's electromagnetic fields. These are invisible energy waves or currents and a type of radiation. And they're emitted by electronic devices, especially those that rely on WiFi. And they allow devices to communicate via WiFi, Bluetooth and cellular signals. And there are really two main types of EMFs. There is non ionizing radiation. These are low level EMFs from Wi Fi, Bluetooth and cell phones. And then there's ionizing radiation. These are known as high level EMFs and you're going to find these in X rays and UV rays. And ionizing EMFs like those found in X rays and CT scans are known to be more dangerous due to their DNA damaging potential. Whereas non ionizing EMFs like those found in WI Fi and cell phones are typically less harmful but are now thought to pose a if exposure levels are high over long periods of time. And here are some of the everyday devices that emit this non ionizing EMF on a regular basis. Cell phones, laptops, Tablets like iPads, WiFi routers, Bluetooth devices such as headphones, speakers and watches, smart home devices, and microwaves and other household appliances. Whereas environmental sources include power lines, smart meters and 5G towers. Now, with the rapid increase in wireless devices, EMF exposure levels are higher than ever before. I mean, think about it. If I go back and I think about when I first got a cell phone that would have been back in, I want to say it was 2002. So that was about, it was a little over 20 years ago, okay? But if I had to go back 25 years, I mean our exposure was almost, it was very low, Very, very low. Almost nothing. Now I think about the average person and you have a cell phone sitting in your pocket for most people or their purse on them almost all day long. And then you've got a computer and then you've got television, wifi going around your house. And so I mean, it just today we're bombarded with probably 100 fold EMF exposure. Now here's what some of the statistics say. The average person spends over 10 hours per day on electronic devices such as a phone, TV and computer. And about 95% of Americans are exposed to daily radio frequency radiation from cell phones. And EMF exposure from WI fi and cell towers has increased considerably in the last two decades as we've been talking about, especially in cities and crowded areas. You know, we were recently on a ski trip to Park City and it was so crazy because I tried to use my phone and I could hardly use my phone there. And I'm like, this is so crazy. And this is people out snow skiing. Okay, so everybody's snow skiing, but there's not a single person on the lift or at the bottom of the hill or even people at the top of the mountain who aren't filming themselves out there or having a conversation on a phone. It's sort of crazy, you know, rather than sort of basking and taking it in, I needed to call Chelsea just to check in on the two girls. And that's just an example of how much radio frequency there is, especially in more crowded areas like cities. Now here is something that you need to be aware of. There's ongoing research focused on the potential negative impacts of EMF radiation exposure, especially long term. And studies have linked EMF exposure to headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbances, which I think is maybe the single biggest thing. So sleep disturbances, issues with brain function and development, including during pregnancy and childhood fertility issues, and higher risk of certain types of cancer. And in July 2024, over 250 scientists signed a petition calling for stronger regulations on products that emit EMF radiation. This is based in a journal called Science Based Medicine. And a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple and Samsung claiming some of their devices emit radiation above the federal safety limits. And the University of Colorado biochemistry professor Jeremy Phillips explained placing the air pods in the ear canal exposes the tissues in the head to high amounts of radio frequency radiation. And Philips says this increases the risk of tumors and other conditions linked to abnormal cell function. And I just want to share something personally. I've used airbuds in the past until I saw some of the research here on how much radiation exposure it could be having. And now what I have is I actually have a simple, like I had in the past. It's Bose. It's like a wire. It's a wire cable that actually plugs into my phone. And so anyways, just being more cautious and conscious about using things like earbuds and some of these other. Again, anything that's using in higher doses, this radiation exposure. Now let me say this, I think if somebody's using earbuds for 30 minutes a day on occasion, and I'll get into this in a minute, your body can deal with a certain level of toxicity. Your body can deal with a certain level of radiation. However, some people are wearing them all day, every day. And that's what this really, I guess this is the warning I have for all of you is that your body can deal with some wifi, your body can deal with some emf. Okay? Our bodies are really resilient to certain levels of toxins. I mean, listen, we're exposed to toxins every single day. There's hardly a person watching or listening to this that doesn't drink plastic on a regular basis or doesn't breathe in fumes from cars, these environmental pollutants constantly. I mean, so our bodies can deal with a certain level of radiation. One of the things that starts to happen with most people is what they call it the bucket effect, where, okay, you have this radiation that is adding to your toxicity in your bucket. And then you're drinking from plastic bottles and then you're using parabens and all of these other chemicals, and then you're getting a lot of these PFAs from Teflon Pans and finally your bucket overflows and you come down with a toxic illness, okay? And that overwhelms your liver and your lymphatic system and your kidneys and actually making your organs sick and diseased. Now, again, having almost none is the best. But I think for some People, you can tolerate a level of toxicity because God created our bodies to be able to deal with a certain level of pathogens and invaders and toxins. However, know that most people, this is adding to your toxic load. To be on a device for over 10 hours a day and to be wearing earbuds or all these other things for several hours a day is absolutely adding to this toxic burden of your body. And the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified these ELF EMFs as possible carcinogenic to humans based on limited evidence linking EMFs to childhood leukemia. In 2018, the National Institute of Health study here's what they found. A 10 year old study, the most comprehensive one to date on emfs, found a significant link between high EMF exposure, like Those involved in 3G cell phone networks, and increased cancer risk in male rats. The exposed rats were more likely to develop cancerous tumors in their hearts and brains, according to the 10 year study. So listen, there is evidence and anyone who says otherwise isn't reading up on all the research. There is evidence that EMF radiation over long periods of time can cause cancer along with other neurodegenerative and toxic illness. And what happens with emf? So I wanna explain how this works is it disrupts your cellular communication. And by the way, cellular communication is really one of the hallmarks of, of aging or anti aging. And so if you are aging more quickly, your body has poor cellular communication. In fact, one of the things that medicinal mushrooms do, if you've ever used anything like reishi mushroom or cordyceps or chaga or done any sort of medicinal mushrooms, is they enhance and support cellular communication because they have a unique type of polysaccharide called beta glucans. And these have benefits for this. Well, what EMFs do is they damage and disrupt that for the negative, not allowing your cells to communicate in a healthy way. So if you think about this, your body responds via electrical signals, okay? And via chemicals. Well, radiation is a form of energy that disrupts that, okay? And so imagine that you've got a, if you've ever tried to use your cell phone when you're in a parking garage or in an elevator, right? You're in an elevator, all of a sudden it goes out, it stops working. Think about EMFs the same way they keep your hormones, everything from thyroid hormones to testosterone to estrogen signaling properly, it keeps from the brain sending signals to your lungs and to your bowels to move and to just for your body to function properly. So think about EMFs in that way. They are disrupting cellular communication. And studies suggest that EMFs can cause increased oxidative stress and inflammation due to how it alters cellular communication. And this has also been linked to DNA damage. This is why, again, it's one of the hallmarks of aging when you disrupt cellular communication. A review in the International Journal of Oncology found that chronic exposure to EMF can damage your DNA strands and also it harms neurodevelopment. Some research links EMF exposure to sleep disruption, brain fog, and anxiety. And that is one of the key signs that you have poor cellular communication. Number one would be poor sleep. If you are not sleeping properly, there tends to be a issue with your circadian rhythms, which is connected to your cellular communication. Another one is brain fog. Another one is mental issues like anxiety and depression. There tends to be issues with those cellular communication. And then the other one is hormone imbalance, if you have major hormone issues that can be linked to that as well. Now, as we're talking about hormone imbalance, there are studies proving this as well and some evidence that EMF exposure may not be noticeable in the short term, but can have cumulative effects on your health, especially with sleep, fertility, and mood regulation, as I mentioned. So fertility is another big one, and it impacts your endocrine system. Emfs can disrupt melatonin production, leading to poor sleep. That disrupts your other hormones like cortisol, causing cortisol to rise, which then disrupts insulin, which causes inflammation and balancing your blood sugar. And we've talked about this before, and I've talked about this many times on the podcast, that when you tip off one hormone like cortisol or insulin or others, it literally impacts every other hormone in your body. And so that's what's happening with these EMF signals. It's, you're putting your body, certain organs, you're putting yourself in an elevator. And now communication isn't happening between the different systems and the different organ systems of your body. And so that builds up this disease in your body. And one of the big things is disrupt sleep and hormone imbalance. And there's a great study to prove this on sleep. There was a study published in Environmental Health Journal, and they tested sleeping in a bed that protects against electromagnetic fields. And after two months of using an EMF blocking bed, participants experienced increased levels of dhea, serotonin, norepinephrine, melatonin, oxytocin and testosterone, along with reduced cortisol and improved cortisol to DHEA balance. Participants showed a reduction in biological age as measured by the immunity clock model, indicating A slowdown in the aging process. While the placebo group showed no changes whatsoever. The EMF blocking bed improved the stress response, sleep quality, hormonal balance, and suggests potential benefits for longevity as well. And so, as we're talking here, these different types of EMF exposures from your cell phone, from your computer on a regular basis, they disrupt cellular communication and cause hormone imbalance. If you're a person with hypothyroidism, infertility, pcos, or low testosterone, you want to move the phone away, move the computer away, do as much as you can to limit your exposure and protect yourself, which I'll get to. More in here in a minute. Next up is male fertility concerns. A number of studies have found that EMF exposure causes reductions in sperm count. Men who check their cell phones more than 20 times per day have been found to have reduced sperm motility by up to 3 30%. Also for women out there, reduced pregnancy rate. A 2024 meta analysis in the Environmental International journal found that 110 animal studies found that EMF exposure was linked to a reduced pregnancy rate and reduced sperm count. As we talked about. Also, a 2023 study showed that EMF may increase the risk of miscarriage. This study found that wireless devices may increase the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women. Women with high exposure had a 1.69 times higher risk of miscarriage. And again, we're talking about cellular communication here, which is then disrupting your hormonal signals. If you're disrupting estrogen, progesterone, oxytocin, some of these other hormones, it's going to increase the risk of everything from decreasing conception to increasing miscarriage. And so we really want to do everything we can to limit our exposure. Now, I want to talk about children for a minute and then get into practically how to do this and then do the interview here, where I'm bringing on the expert to go through how to limit your exposure. Children are commonly exposed to EMF due to their use of electronic devices for school entertainment and just regular communication. According to a review in the Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics Journal, a child's developing nervous system absorbs more ems than adults do. So did you hear that? Children on devices are absorbing more of the radiation than adults do. Now, part of it is due to their brain isn't fully formed or their skeleton, their skull. Some of these other protective bones in the body are more cartilaginous and they allow more through. And research shows that EMFs can impact children's nerves and muscles and cause body temperature. Increases such as warmth from a phone or laptop use. Long term effects potentially linked to neurodevelopment disorders such as hypersensitivity of numerous things, maybe even food sensitivities. Animal studies show prenatal exposure may cause brain cell loss, memory impairment and changes in the blood brain barrier. And of course there is the study or multiple studies showing EMFs increase the risk of leukemia in children. But there haven't been consistent findings in that. But again there are several, not just one, several studies proving that. Now let me go through ways to reduce EMF exposure. Okay, number one, know this distance matters. Avoid holding your phone directly against your ear or laying it directly on your body, such as having it in your pocket, even if it's a few feet away on your desk. It's much better men than having it in your pocket by your testicles. Again, this is going to reduce sperm count according to the studies. So you don't want it touching your body. Ideally a few feet away actually makes a significant difference. Number two, avoid wearing Bluetooth devices for long periods. You know, use speaker mode on your phone instead of actually having those earbuds in your ear. Okay. And this is, this is how I walk around oftentimes when I'm on my phone. A lot of times I have my phone on speakerphone or again I have those other headphones plugged in. But I do speakerphone probably more than anything myself. And that is probably one of the best things you can do. Next here is limit your call times. Avoid long phone calls that are near your ear. Again, the better thing is have it on speakerphone. Here's another big one. Keep WI fi routers away from bedrooms. Now, when we had our first daughter, Arwen, when she was born, Chelsea and I actually got a EMF detector in our home and we tried to have our, our nursery and kids bedrooms away from that electronics closet with the WI fi. And then here's another thing we did. We actually put a timer on our wifi. So it was something like at 9pm every night the wifi shut off and around 7am every morning it turned back on. So while we were sleeping there was absolutely no wifi in the house and everything was on airplane mode. And that's really the key here. Listen, you are not going to, 99% of you aren't going to completely eliminate all WiFi and all EMF exposure. However, if you, while you're sleeping. And for us it was really, like I mentioned, it was probably about 10 hours in a row. We had almost no exposure in our home. And around us because we had turned everything off. We had a timer that shut it all down. That is significant. And that's what you want to do is again, you're not going to completely eliminate. You want to reduce your exposure as much as you possibly can. And again, at night, it's just that simple. Put your phone on airplane mode, shut your wi fi off, put it on a timer. It's that easy. Now, here's another thing is you can hardwire whenever possible, switch to Ethernet cables instead of WI fi for work setups. It's a great thing to do. And here's another one. Use EMF protective gear. EMF shielding stickers, cases and grounding mats can also help reduce exposure. I would just say think the long game. I mean, having something on your phone for one day may not make that difference. But if you think about it right now, let's say some of you are, I'm 43 years old. Let's say I'm going to be using, I don't know, wifi stuff for, let's say, at least another 50 years. Well, 50 years of reducing the exposure makes a big difference, right? So you want to think about the long term for your kids, the long term for you. This is why I do like these EMF protection cases and stickers in order to protect yourself. You know, I want to also mention just another expert here who has shared a colleague of mine his opinion about EMF exposure. It's Dr. Andrew Huberman. He's a neuroscientist at Stanford University, and he's emphasized EMF management, he says, rather than complete avoidance. He says there is sufficient data suggesting that proximity matters. Keeping devices away during sleep is one of the easiest ways to lower exposure. And so very similar thing to what I mentioned. He also advises limiting its nearness to your reproductive organs, especially your brain and again, your reproductive organs, keeping those away. He also recommends putting your phone out of reach or turning it on airplane mode whenever possible. So very similar recommendations to what I had there as well. When you're looking at the other people that are looking at the research and wanting to be protective of you in the community, let me say this too. There are scientists out there. There are people in the scientific field who say, well, there's really not much evidence against EMF exposure. These people remind me of the food dye people that are like, hey, use as many food diets as you want in kids cereal. It's a very similar thing. Well, it's only minimally damaging or only in high doses. Well, if kids eat this every day. And they're getting multiple doses and they're, you know, and they're five years old. Well, you know, and they do this constantly until they're 95. Well, first off, they likely won't live to 95, but you know what's going to happen by the time they're 35 and 45? You're aging them faster, right? We even saw EMF here. You're aging yourself faster. And so all that being said, the people that are minimizing things out there and saying, well, again, a little bit of food die, a little bit of EMF exposure every day, all day isn't that big of a deal. I know that. I wholeheartedly disagree with them, along with a lot of the other scientific people out there who are looking at the medical journals and saying, you know what, first off, we only have a lot of short term studies here, but the long term studies show, yes, there is some damage, even if it's minimal. When you add that minimal damage on top of glyphosate in our food and all the plastics and all the other things, it all adds up over time. And this is where I've taken care of tens of thousands of patients. And I've seen this is that they have had, okay, they took a few antibiotics when they were kids and then they took some aspirin and then they started a lot of EMF exposure and then this and then this. And then finally they come down with an autoimmune disease or brain fog or chronic pain or some sort of major medical issue, hypothyroidism. And they can't figure out why. Well, it tends to be all these things added up over time. So I know this will make sense to you. As we've been talking about now, I do want to mention a few foods and things that I think can reduce your toxic load and can support you along the way. If you want to support and heal your body and you know, you've been exposed to a lot of different radiation, One of the best things you can do is seaweed, spirulina chlorella, sea moss, different forms of algae. Doing these greens is very supportive of helping cleanse your blood. And they've been used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine and Ayurveda and even Western medicine today, showing that there is some level of absorption there or protection against heavy metals and radiation. So I'd encourage you doing things like super greens powders is a great thing to do. Also just increasing your consumption of steamed vegetables. They are very detoxifying for your body. Fasting at certain times can also be beneficial as well. And then herbs like milk thistle and dandelion and burdock and schisandra and turmeric also are good for cleansing the body and supporting liver and lymphatic detoxification as well. All right, I want to talk to you about some of these EMF blocking tools. And they're designed to reduce your exposure to these electromagnetic fields by either blocking or absorbing or even redirecting EMF waves. And here's how they typically work. So I want to go through if you're interested in using any EMF blockers or protectants, how those work. Number one are some of these EMFs. They have shielding materials. And EMF blockers often use conductive metals like copper, silver, aluminum or special fabric blends. And these materials create a barrier that reflect or absorb EMF radiation. An example would be EMF shielding blankets and curtains. These contain metal fibers that create a Faraday effect to block signals. And phone and laptop cases lined with conductive layers reduce exposure to the body as well. And another one I really like are EMF stickers. These use a small amount of metal to reflect EMFs away as well. Another one is Faraday cages. A Faraday cage is a structure or enclosure made of conductive material that blocks these electromagnetic fields. When emfs hit the cage, the electronic charges in the metal disrupt and cancel the wave inside. EMF blocking pouches or cell phones and wallets act as mini Faraday cages to block these signals. And you can get these sort of cages or these stickers that work as well. Number three is grounding and absorption. Some tools like grounding mats or anti radiation pads aim to absorb EMFs and reduce their impact. So grounding mats can be a great thing as well. This is something actually my mother in law bought Chelsea and I grounding mats for Christmas, which is something we now have on our bed as well. And you have. Grounding mats are great as well. Number four, reducing signal strength. You guys. By the way, you all should see my Christmas list every year. It's always, you know, it's got a lot of this sort of stuff on it, so. All right, number four, reducing signal strength. Some EMF protective tools just simply reduce the strength and dampen these wifi signals. Number five, specialize paint and fabrics. Again, they may have things like carbon or certain metals in them or again, like we talked about with clothing, these fabrics that reduce or absorb EMF exposure. And one particular device or tool that I really like, I want to share with you. It's called WaveBlock. This offers easy to use EMF protection stickers for phones, laptops, and wireless earbuds. In fact, I remember this is years ago, my wife bought waveblock and we put it on our phones. This was years ago and we've been using them ever since. And one simple application can significantly reduce your radiation exposure. In fact, lab tests show that EMF meter readings dropped from 452 to just 56 after applying wave block stickers. And this is something I've put on the back of my cell phone here that we've used on a regular basis is these wave block stickers. And wave block stickers break up EMF radiation waves, dispersing them into smaller, less harmful particles before they reach your body. Sort of picture yourself standing on a beach as a massive wave approaches. If you're in the water, the wave could knock you down, but if you're on the shore, you only feel a harmful mist. So they don't block 100%, but they block a large majority of the radiation exposure. And this is patented technology. WaveBlock is the only company with a patented solution for radiation exposure. So when my wife Chelsea was doing the research and brought it to me and I read the research, I was so impressed with them because they actually have a patent on this and they've done extensive testing. Their stickers are tested by the FCC accredited labs to ensure they deliver on their promises. And so again, I really, really love this as an example of something that is a great tool that's so easy, buying a sticker, putting it on your computer, putting it on your iPad, putting it on your cellular phone of something that is going to greatly, greatly reduce this exposure. So I want to take a moment now and bring on Ben Salem. Ben Salem is the founder of waveblock. I'm gonna have him share right now for a little bit exactly what WaveBlock is, how it works, and how it can reduce EMF exposure and help protect you and your family. Go ahead and take a listen right now. Today's episode is brought to you by waveblock.com, your go to resource for EMF protection. Did you know that wireless devices emit radiation that can negatively impact your health? WaveBlock offers lab tested and verified stickers that reduce EMF exposure on AirPods, cell phones, iPads and MacBooks without compromising performance. They're simple to apply, effective and deliver peace of mind. Visit waveblock.com to learn more and use the code AXE. That's AXE at checkout for a special discount, join tens of thousands of people, including myself, in using WaveBlock for protection. You'll be glad you did it. I'm excited for the health and protection this is going to bring to you and your family. Myself, my wife Chelsea, and all of my patients, I encourage to use WaveBlock to protect themselves from radiation from devices. Hey, everybody, we have Ben Salem here, as I promised from waveblock. Ben, welcome to the show.