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EMF Reduction for Autism

Over the last 15 years I have helped my children recover from autism and have watched them develop into really remarkable young men.  10 years ago, I was able to quit my job and focus on their recovery full time.  I have the time, money and access to some of the best experts in the world. I have looked at the wide range of theories around autism and talked to parents whose children have regressed into autism and also recovered.  

The question to ask is not can children recover, but what are the most simple and effective protocols for recovery?  Families with autistic children are already overburdened and overloaded on all levels. They need something simple and effective that they can try for free.

That protocol now exists and most children who try it improve.  After everything I've done over the the last 15 years, this has been the most effective, and in retrospect, if I had known about it at the beginning, I would have started with this protocol.  It is fairly simple and can be taught to children.  The hard part is believing that it will work and changing a long held assumption that electromagnetic fields and wireless radiation are completely safe.  This is something that I truly believed as an engineer and designer in Silicon Valley.  It took me several years to release this tightly held belief.

For a period early in my career I was a troubleshooter in customer support for a company that made high-end workstations and supercomputers.  When something was broken, we'd replace the most likely suspect parts.  If the first couple board replacements didn't work, we'd systematically replace every part until the system worked perfectly.   If a larger problem happened in manufacturing and the defect rate of a new product increased, again, we would systematically look at everything that changed, not only with every part, but also with the manufacturing environment.  The first clean rooms were built in Silicon Valley to reduce chemical contamination and electrostatic discharge.  Along the way, as chips became smaller and smaller, special rooms had to be created to minimize vibration, electrical noise and micro-surges that interfered with the machines that traced the microscopic circuits and wires that make up the chips and boards inside the computers.

Many things in our environment have changed and made it harder for our children to develop normally and to their full potential.  Our children are now born with, on average, almost 300 man-made chemicals in their bodies. My experience is that efforts to reduce toxins are effective, but also take a great deal of time, effort, diligence and cost.

Dr. Toril Jelter in California has pioneered a simple protocol to reduce exposure to constant sources of wireless radiation and electrical noise. Over 80% of her patients show measurable improvement in 2 weeks.  This protocol is simple enough that you can do it on your own:

Turn these four common sources of constant wireless radiation and electrical noise off at night for at least 12 hrs:

1) Baby monitors: Unplug for the duration of the trial.

2) Cordless phone base stations: Unplug the cordless phone base station (the largest unit that usually has the answering machine and physical phone line going into it.) Some people put this on an electrical timer.

3) Wi-Fi: Use a timer for the plug or software configuration to turn off at night.

4) Bedroom electrical circuit breaker: Find the circuit breaker that controls the electrical outlets in the child's bedroom.  Turning that off at night will reduce the majority of exposure to field effects and electrical noise (commonly called "dirty electricity").

Before you do these things, you may want to get some baseline data on your child. Take a few photos and some videos to document how your child moves.  Dr. Jelter asks her parents to fill out this survey before the trial and again after two weeks.

What to Expect

The majority of children will slowly and steadily improve as they sleep better.  We know that wireless exposure can drive down melatonin, glutathione and increase oxidation and inflammation.  For most children, removing this constant interference allows their bodies to heal and become more coherent.  A small number of children will show a dramatic improvement after just a few nights of sleeping well.  One non-verbal autistic boy actually spoke a complete sentence for the first time after 3 days on this protocol.

83% of the children in Dr. Jelter's trials have shown measurable improvement after just 2 weeks, and the improvement continued on for months after the trial.  The 2 week trial was designed to convince skeptical parents, many of them who are engineers in high tech, that this would work.  Once they see that it does, they often go on to reduce other sources of wireless and EMF.  

In 17% of the cases, the children showed no measurable improvement.  This does not rule out EMF exposure as a factor.  It may mean that EMF levels are from other less common sources, or from external sources in the neighborhood, such as a neighbor’s wi-fi signal, or a cell tower. In these cases, a building biologist or other professional trained in EMF measurement and mitigation might be required to evaluate the home.  If EMFs are fully eliminated, then one should continue to evaluate other functional medicine factors such as toxins, diet, gut health, infections and inflammation.
 

If this protocol works for you, please share this document with your network.

References

Autism and EMF? Plausibility of a Pathophysiological Link, Part 1 and Part 2 by Dr. Martha Herbert (pediatric neurologist at Harvard Medical School) and Cindy Sage (co-editor of the BioInitiative Reports) in Pathophysiology 2013

Calming Behavior in Children with Autism and ADHD by Katie Springer (2014)

Additional Resources

Find a local Building Biologist to test for EMF's in your home

The Real Reason Electronics Are Effecting Our Sleep by Peter Sullivan (2014)

Clear Light Ventures - Social Venture for Environmental Health

Videos

Understanding Autism - Peter Sullivan (2013) 

Dirty Electrical Noise - Peter Sullivan (2013) 

The Real Reason Electronics Are Affecting Our Sleep - Part II

Some people may still sleep poorly even after following the basic tips from "The Real Reasons Electronics Are Affecting Our Sleep." In 2005, I was sleeping so poorly that I had to be hospitalized.  I tried everything I could find: doctors, medicines, supplements, neurofeedback.  I saw some minor improvement, but nothing really restored that deep rejuvenating sleep I had known for years.

One day, on vacation, I realized that I could actually sleep well in some places. What was different?  My bedroom at home was pretty quiet, except for a subtle high pitched noise.  I became convinced that the noise was the cause of my sleep disturbance.  It took me three years to find the source of it.  The most helpful person was a building biologist who helped measured EMF (electromagnetic fields), wireless radiation and electrical noise (dirty electricity) on our household wiring.

We put in a few dirty electrical noise filter plugs and I noticed the pitch of the noise I heard at night changed and I finally started to sleep better again. Eventually, I turned off the wi-fi permanently and switched to wired ethernet for all of our computers.  We also replaced our cordless phone with a corded phone.   Additionally, we reduced levels of magnetic fields and electric fields (EMFs) in our bedrooms.  The fields "carry" the noise - just like a speaker transmits sound. When the fields are lower, it's like lowering the volume of a stereo speaker.

The hardest part of the experience for me was recognizing that technology could be a problem.  I worked in Silicon Valley and had always viewed technology as good and completely safe.  This belief proved to not entirely correct.  I now fund work to raise awareness about wireless safety and the safety of EMF (electromagnetic fields), including their potential role in the rising autism epidemic (Autism and EMF? Plausibility of a pathophysiological link - Part I).  

Sadly, like me, most people have assumed that this is all completely safe and well tested.  Some sleep labs at very elite universities even advertise that they have Wi-Fi in their labs.  I have yet to find a study that demonstrates Wi-Fi does not effect sleep.   The emerging data on wireless and EMF shows that our biological processes are impacted at very fundamental levels.  

Here are some more advanced tips for sleeping well without interference from wireless radiation and EMF:

-Measure the level of electrical noise in your home's wiring with a Stetzerizer or Greenwave meter.  Use the meter to locate high sources of electrical noise and find devices that might be generating it.

-Don't sleep with your head near a power panel or circuit breaker box.  These are sources of high magnetic fields.

-Consider moving your head away from the A/C plugs around the wall or try sleeping with your head toward the middle of the room.

-If you have a smart meter, consider opting out.  They emit a wireless pulse every 6 seconds and the switching power supply in the units can increase the dirty electricity noise in your home.

-Look for other sources of constant wireless radiation: alarm systems, wireless weather stations and bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices.

-Hire a building biologist or environmental consultant come to your house to measure EMF levels and look for other sources of wireless radiation and EMF. Some sources of exposure may be outside your home and they can help you shield your home from those exposures.

Almost everyone is now effected by this rising threat to deep healthy sleep. Most people know something is wrong, but have failed to find the invisible factor effecting sleep.  I hope after reading these articles, that this factor is now clear, and that you will take action to mitigate it to improve your sleep and your family's sleep.

Peter Sullivan is an environmental health advocate, autism funder and writer.  He lives in Los Altos, California with his wife and two boys.

The Real Reason Electronics Are Affecting Our Sleep

Many people are now noticing that they do not sleep well after using electronic devices late at night. Some have attributed the sleep disturbance to exposure to blue light, since it is stimulating and known to reduce melatonin levels at night. But that is only one part of the problem. 

It is important to understand that wireless radiation and EMF (electromagnetic fields) emitted by these devices are basically light with a frequency that is below what our eyes can perceive.  We know that exposure to EMF can also draw down our melatonin levels, just like exposure to visible light at night.  So, it may be helpful to think of wireless and EMF as invisible lights that should be turned off at night before bed, just like we naturally turn off visible lights.

Here are some basic tips for reducing exposure at night:

-As a general rule, keep electronics out of the bedroom: TVs, cordless phones, cell phones and chargers.  Corded phones that don't need to be plugged into power outlets are OK.

-Move digital LED (Light Emitting Diode) alarm clocks away from your head.  They generate very large magnetic fields.   Ideally, move the clock to the other side of the bedroom or replace it with a battery powered analog or LCD clock.

-Unplug reading lights close to your head.  Even lights that are not on will generate electric fields and bring electrical noise closer to your head.

-Turn off cordless phone base stations at night.  The cordless phone base is the one that has the physical phone line going into it.  Unplug the unit or put it on a light timer.  The wireless signal from these base stations is constantly on and has a large reach, so turn it off even if it's far from your bedroom.

-Turn off your Wi-Fi at night.  You could put the Wi-Fi router's plug on a light timer, or some routers have a software configuration that will allow you to turn it on and off at specific times.  You could also use a remote switch to turn the plug and Wi-Fi on only when you need it for a limited duration of time.

These simple steps will help you avoid the most common electronic and EMF (Electromagnetic Fields) problems that can interfere with your sleep.  When you are ready, there are even more steps you can take to reduce your exposure: The Real Reason Electronics are Effecting Our Sleep - Part 2.