Dirty Electricity & Diabetes.
(Adapted from an article appearing in the PN Magazine)
Diabetes incidences have soared in recent decades due to bad diets, sedentary lifestyles, and numerous other factors, including, as evidence suggests, sensitivity to the ever-growing electromagnetic pollution of our modern age.
Although the emergence of countless electronic devices have transformed our lives, we are now immersed within an electromagnetic cloud - one in which our ancestors never had to weather and our bodies never had the chance to evolutionarily adapt.
At almost all biological levels, including the subtle electromagnetic bonds that determine the structure and expression of our all-important DNA and proteins, we are electromagnetic beings. We have evolved over the eons to resonate with Mother Earth's faint electromagnetic whisper. Unfortunately, it's hard for our bodies to tune into this life-synchronizing whisper when surrounded by today's electromagnetic cacophony, a discordance biologically affecting us in many different ways. So to speak, this cacophony tweaks the direction of our physiological steering wheel, a change appearing trivial at the time but miles down the road it results in our arrival at a destination more inviting to various disorders, including diabetes.
Diabetes
In brief review, with diabetes, the body has difficulty properly using glucose, our metabolic fuel. Under healthy conditions, the hormone insulin controls blood-glucose levels. Produced by the pancreas, insulin flows through our blood to various tissues, binding to receptors on the surface of cells, which, in turn, results in the uptake of glucose into these cells, ultimately fueling metabolic processes.
In Type-1 diabetes, the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin, while with Type-2 diabetes, cells become less responsive to the insulin that is produced. Diabetics often monitor their blood-glucose levels several times a day, experts recommending a fasting level of less than 130 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL).
Due to the physiological and metabolic shifts that occur after injury, individuals with SCI (Spinal Cord Injury) are especially likely to develop diabetes. For example, research indicates that only 44% of veterans with SCI ( Spinal Cord Injury) have normal glucose metabolism compared to 82% without SCI.
Dirty Electricity
Dirty electricity represents electricity degraded through the use of electronic devices, such as computers, TVs, appliances, etc. Theoretically, electricity powering our homes and offices should have a smooth sine-wave pattern that goes up and down 60 times/second. However, the sine-wave pattern of dirty electricity is contaminated by micro-surge fluctuations called transients.
If you are electromagnetically sensitive to such transients, you don't have sell your house, quit your desk job and move off the grid to an isolated mountain cabin to avoid the problem. You can minimize difficulties by installing dirty-electricity filters, small devices, which plug directly into an outlet, like a cell-phone charger, and contain a capacitor that shorts out dirty-electricity transients. In my case, I've installed these filters in outlets serving my computer, television, and certain kitchen appliances, greatly reducing the problem-causing transients.
Case Studies
In a 2008 article published in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, Professor Magda Havas (Ontario, Canada) summarized dirty electricity's influence on blood-sugar levels in several diabetically inclined individuals:
Case 1 was a 51-year-old man with Type-2 diabetes. Generally, when working in a dirty-electricity environment (e.g. at his computer), his blood sugar increased, lessening again after getting away from the situation. In one representative example, his blood sugar rose after entering a medical clinic due to the clinic's high density of electronic equipment. Specifically, when his blood sugar was measured immediately after entering the clinic, he was classified only as a pre-diabetic, but after 20 minutes of immersion in this dirty-electricity location, his blood sugar rose to a level that now defined him as a Type-2 diabetic.
Hence, to prevent misdiagnosis, double-check your blood-sugar levels in an electromagnetically clean setting.
A 57-year-old woman with Type-2 diabetes, Case 2's blood sugar trended upwards in a dirty-electricity environment and decreased in a clean setting. For example, when she went walking outside, her blood sugar dropped from 212 to 130 mg/dl; however, when exercising on a treadmill, her blood sugar increased from 180 to 211 mg/dl.
The lesson here is that if you want to lower your blood sugar through exercise, don't do it in a dirty-electricity environment.
Case 3 was an 80-year-old Type-1 diabetic. After dirty-electricity filters were installed in her house, her blood sugar decreased from an average of 171 to 119 mg/dL, allowing her to half her insulin dosage.
Case 4 was a 12-year-old boy with newly diagnosed Type-1 diabetes. After filters were installed in his house, his blood sugar dropped, permitting him to cut his insulin.
Although we shouldn't over-extrapolate the results of these anecdotal cases, given that many of us are, indeed, electromagnetically sensitive, a considerable number of diabetically inclined individuals may be pushed into an actual diabetic state through exposure to dirt electricity.
Biological Mechanisms
Research suggests that electromagnetic pollution may raise blood-sugar levels by 1) reducing pancreatic insulin secretion, and 2) causing conformational changes in the structure of insulin molecules so they can no longer effectively bind to their receptors on cells - sort of like a bent key unable to fit into a door lock.
What to do?
If you suspect that your blood-sugar levels are influenced by dirty electricity, measure them in a variety of settings, e.g., working at the computer versus being outside, etc. If the measurements suggest you are sensitive, consider installing dirty-electricity filters. As Havas concludes: "Reducing exposure to electromagnetic pollution by .filters may enable some diabetics to better regulate their blood sugar with less medication and borderline or pre-diabetics to remain non-diabetic longer."
Resources: Dirty-electricity filters are readily available online; e.g. Google "dirty electricity filters." more