A Conversation with Sarah Bly’s FA Teacher-Trainers and Katie Singer
June 1, 2015 * Notes compiled by Katie Singer
www.electronicsilentspring.com
When I started teaching Fertility Awareness in the mid-1990s, at least one third of my students had irregular cycles. They weren’t ovulating; or they weren’t ovulating regularly. They had extremely low waking temperatures (lower than 97.0). When they came off of the Pill or Depo Provera or had an IUD removed, their signals were often impossible to read for as long as a year. Some students had taken the Pill since their teens–for more than ten years straight. Doctors often gave women Clomid (to increase production of mature eggs at ovulation) for a dozen rounds–even though the manufacturer warned against more than three rounds, and even though some women gained 50 pounds and developed insulin resistance while taking this “treatment.”
My students wanted to know how to encourage healthy cycling–without pharmaceuticals. I asked about their diets. Mostly, they ate muffins, tuna fish, chips and soda. I wondered if they might try organic butter and eggs for breakfast. And some kind of greens. Quickly–often within a cycle or two–they started ovulating. Everyone was amazed and delighted.
I also learned about sleeping in the absence of light except during nights 13-15. This do-able remedy also encouraged healthy cycling. Often, women reported that it mean turning off their TVs. Apparently, lots of people fall asleep with their TV on. Yikes. Exposure to light at night inhibits melatonin production.
So FA has always supported my interest in health. For me, that’s what FA is about. And–no one can use charts to prevent pregnancy or to time the best chances of conceiving unless she’s got healthy cycles.
Learning Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act
A year or two after I published The Garden of Fertility, I learned Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It states that no health or environmental concern can interfere with the placement of a cell tower.
I was shocked.
Then I learned more federal rules and regulations that exclude health. Or, they only consider the immediate, thermal effects of exposure to electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted by a cell phone on a 200-pound male mannequin; and they do not consider effects when exposure lasts for more than six minutes, comes from multiple sources (i.e. a cell phone, Wi-Fi, a cell tower, a transmitting utility meter and/or a baby monitor), begins in utero or takes place during childhood while brains are developing.
I learned about damage caused by EMR emitted by powerlines, transmitting utility meters, switch-mode power supplies in digital devices, mobile phones, cell towers, DECT cordless telephones, baby monitors and Wi-Fi. I read studies about EMR causing DNA damage, damage to sperm motility, changes in blood-glucose metabolism, blood-brain barrier leakage, increased cancer risk, increased behavioral problems (as much as 85% increased risk when a woman uses a cell phone during pregnancy), dementia (including dementia among teens), insomnia, addiction (including toddlers addicted to iPads), harm to wildlife (including bee colony collapse), malfunctioning of medical implants and much much more.
My orientation to health felt zapped.
Good News: A Free EMR-Reducing Protocol
When people reduce their use of electronics, they also reduce their EMR emissions and EMR exposure. People often report improved sleep and less anxiety and less headaches when they reduce their use and exposure.
In Fall, 2014, I reported on the work of Dr. Toril Jelter, a Bay Area pediatrician who works with families with children with autism. (In 2012, the CDC reported that one in 54 boys had autism. Two years later, the numbers had increased by nearly one third: one in 42 boys had autism. Incidences with girls are also increasing.)
Dr. Jelter offers families this free protocol:
* Turn Wi-Fi off at night for at least 12 hours while you sleep.
* Don’t let children within eight feet of a cordless phone or wireless device.
* From the breaker box, turn electricity off to the child’s bedroom while s/he sleeps.
One family, who lived on a military base (with lots of background radiation), had a 10 y.o. boy who’d never spoken. He screamed nightly from 10pm until 3am. The parents simply turned off their Wi-Fi; and within three days, this boy spoke a complete sentence. They kept decreasing their electronics use and EMR emissions, and Dr. Jelter put him on a therapeutic-grade fish oil. Within three weeks, he slept through the night.
My report has several success stories like this. I find the protocol really encouraging–and you don’t need autism to try it. https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/calming-behavior/
RECOMMENDATIONS
I’d highly recommend Dr. Jelter’s protocol for couples who want to conceive, who have conceived, who have small children. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants improved sleep, menstrual cycling, digestion or general wellness. Just try what you can of the protocol for two weeks. If you like the results you get, keep going. Continue decreasing your EMR-exposure as you can.
Recognize that using a mobile device in a moving car (or train or bus) means that your phone connects to a new cell tower every mile. It goes to maximum power at each new connection. It also has to go to maximum power to penetrate the vehicle’s metal. Much of the EMR emitted by the phone or Pad gets trapped inside the vehicle and bounces around.
So don’t use a mobile device in a car.
Don’t use baby monitors.
How/does an FA teacher bring this info to students?
Unless we introduce the info gracefully, people will shut down, dismiss it, even ridicule it. Already, several teachers feel they already push the envelope–just by suggesting people not buy plastic bottled water, quit sugar substitutes or notice changes in our food supply. As we create a tech-dominated environment, it’s a strange time to be human (and fertile).
What do we choose? Can we unplug and maintain membership in society? Could apathy be a reasonable choice?
Most people are completely plugged in to wireless devices. How/does a teacher reduce her own use?
I’d say: Start by eliminating Wi-Fi while you sleep. See if you notice a difference. One step at a time.
More Ideas
Since few media report on the dangers of EMR exposure, anyone aware of it and working with people who aim to conceive…has a strange responsibility.
If a student perceives she’s got a problem (i.e. anovulation, migraines, not conceiving), then perhaps a teacher can gracefully suggest turning Wi-Fi off at night, not using in a car, using corded landline telephones and speakerphones for two-to-three months, and tracking symptoms.
If it’s true, share that you’re struggling with reducing your EMR exposure.
Eliminating EMR exposure while sleeping is especially important. Besides turning off Wi-Fi, keep electronics (like alarm clocks, cordless phones, cell phone chargers, mobile devices and televisions) away from your bed and your head. Better yet, unplug electronics. Get a wind-up or battery-operated alarm clock. Restore corded landline telephones. Keep electronics away while you sleep.
Keep them away from pregnant women and children as much as possible.
Students can try some of these changes in conjunction with the night-lighting technique I describe in my books, and decreasing or eliminating sugar substitutes and food with GMOs.
If a woman perceives she’s totally healthy, then perhaps keeping quiet is the teacher’s most graceful option…until the student wonders about remedying a problem.
OR, if you’ve got a section about endocrine disruptors, perhaps you could show the video at www.babysafeproject.org. I guarantee it’ll provoke interesting discussion.
More notes from Katie
I’ve never met a gizmo I can endorse. I’m considering endorsing some meters that measure magnetic, electric and radiofrequency fields emitted by devices. Meters offer a more reliable way of determining EMR exposure.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no safe way to use a wireless device. Further, even if we developed technology that eliminated EMR exposure (a very big if), we’d still have technology’s dehumanizing aspects. I, for one, still vote for eye-to-eye contact, voice-to-voice contact, screen-less childhoods. (In Taiwan, anyone who exposes a child to a screen of any kind before the age of two is fined the equivalent of $2000.)
More questions from the group
* How are wildlife affected? Please read the wildlife chapter in An Electronic Silent Spring. I’ve also posted it: https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/primers/wildlife/wireless-devices-wildlife/
* Are there success stories of people reducing their exposure and still making a living? I vote that you start reducing your exposure at home and at night. Just start there and see where it takes you.
RESOURCE LIST
for people learning about the health and environmental effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted by electronics
Cell Phones Cause Cancer Based on his experience and research, attorney Jimmy Gonzales warns others not to use cell phones. https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/gonzales/
www.babysafeproject.org (Dr. Hugh Taylor, head ob/gyn at Yale Med Schl, warns pregnant women and children to avoid wireless tech.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpsixxrZrDg
Safer Solar Power https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/safer-solar-power/
Calming Behavior in Children with Autism and ADHD https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/calming-behavior/
Children, Radiation and Health: A Talk by Erica Mallery-Blythe, MD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNFdZVeXw7M
Aiming to First Do No Harm: The Education of Electronics Users
(Describes history of electricity, electronics, regulation–and electronic interference between common devices and medical implants.) https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/primers/medical-implants/
Model Letter by Katie Singer To Teenagers Wanting Wireless Devices. https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/a-model-letter-to-teenagers/
Also: Model Letter To School Superintendents, Principals. https://www.electronicsilentspring.com/model-letter-schools/
An Electronic Silent Spring by Katie Singer (SteinerBooks, 2014). http://www.amazon.com/An-Electronic-Silent-Spring-Creating/dp/1938685083
www.bioinitiative.org (Thousands of peer-reviewed studies about exposure.)
www.saferemr.com (More studies, posted by the Schl of Pub Health at UC/Berkeley.)