Health & Fitness

Oxalate, also known as oxalic acid, is found in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. While not harmful in and of itself — your liver actually produces oxalate naturally¹ — oxalates can cause problems when they over accumulate.

Over accumulation can occur either from overconsumption, or because your body either absorbs exceptionally high amounts of soluble oxalates or overproduces oxalate (primary hyperoxaluria²), or if you excrete excessive amounts of urinary calcium (hypercalciuria³).⁴

An over accumulation of oxalate in your kidneys can lead to the development of calcium oxalate kidney stones, the most common type of kidney stones.⁵ The stones form when your urine becomes highly concentrated, allowing the calcium and oxalate from your diet to crystallize.

If you are predisposed to kidney stones or have calcium oxalate stones already, your doctor may recommend avoiding foods rich in oxalates, such as dark green vegetables (especially spinach and Swiss chard), bran, rhubarb, beets and beet greens, chocolate, nuts (especially almonds, cashews and peanuts) and nut butters.^6,7

Is Calcium and Oxalate in Combination Good or Bad?

In the past, kidney stone sufferers have also been warned to avoid foods rich in calcium. However, as noted in a 2004 paper in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, this strategy was never actually proven to reduce the risk.⁸

"By contrast, already in 1969, a Ca-restricted diet was shown to increase the gastrointestinal absorption of oxalate, leading to increased amounts of oxalate in the urine and an increased risk of the formation of Ca oxalate stones," the paper states.⁹

Today, experts have largely abandoned the recommendation to limit calcium, as we now know this may do more harm than good. A 1997 study¹⁰ in the Annals of Internal Medicine that looked at 12-years' worth of data from 91,731 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study concluded:

"The relative risk for stone formation in women in the highest quintile of dietary calcium intake compared with women in the lowest quintile was 0.65. The relative risk in women who took supplemental calcium compared with women who did not was 1.20.

In 67% of women who took supplemental calcium, the calcium either was not consumed with a meal or was consumed with meals whose oxalate content was probably low …

High intake of dietary calcium appears to decrease risk for symptomatic kidney stones, whereas intake of supplemental calcium may increase risk. Because dietary calcium reduces the absorption of oxalate, the apparently different effects caused by the type of calcium may be associated with the timing of calcium ingestion relative to the amount of oxalate consumed."

Why Increased Calcium Intake Actually Lowers Your Risk of Kidney Stones

While increasing calcium in your diet may seem counterintuitive, seeing how calcium is the largest component of these stones, the answer to this paradox is that high dietary calcium actually blocks a chemical action that causes the formation of the stones in the first place. As explained by the Cleveland Clinic:¹¹

"Low amounts of calcium in your diet will increase your chances of forming calcium oxalate kidney stones … [C]alcium binds oxalate in the intestines. A diet rich in calcium helps reduce the amount of oxalate being absorbed by your body, so stones are less likely to form.

Eat calcium rich foods and beverages every day (2 to 3 servings) from dairy foods or other calcium-rich foods. Also, eating high calcium foods at the same time as high oxalate food is helpful …"

World's Healthiest Foods further explains:¹²

"[O]xalate only gets absorbed from our digestive tract when it is in soluble form. Sodium oxalate and potassium oxalate are the predominant soluble forms. By contract [sic], calcium oxalate is insoluble, and magnesium oxalate is poorly soluble. So the form of the oxalate is important in the absorption process.

Second, our gut bacteria turn out to play a critical role in the amount of oxalate available for absorption since numerous species of gut bacteria are able to break down oxalate. These species include Oxalobacter formigenes, numerous species of Lactobacillus, and several species of Bifidobacteria …

Third, research has shown that the overall combination of foods that we eat during a meal (including both oxalate-containing and non-oxalate-containing foods) can significantly impact the amount of soluble oxalates available for absorption from our digestive tract.

We've seen a study on Indian cuisine, for example, in which multiple-ingredient dishes like spinach (palak) also containing Indian cottage cheese (paneer) lowered the amount of soluble oxalates available for absorption by about 15-20%. So, as you can see, the relationship between dietary intake of oxalates and oxalate absorption is complicated …"

Dairy Reduces Oxalate Uptake From Spinach

A 2003 study¹³ demonstrated the difference calcium makes in oxalate uptake. Spinach contains both soluble and insoluble oxalates. In this study, they used frozen commercially available spinach bought in New Zealand, which was found to contain 736.6 milligrams (mg) of soluble oxalate and 220.1 mg of insoluble oxalate per 100 grams, along with 90 mg of total calcium, 76.7% of which was bound to insoluble oxalate and hence not bioavailable. As explained by the authors:

"When frozen convenience food is grilled there is no opportunity for the soluble oxalates to be leached out into the cooking water and discarded. Soluble oxalates, when consumed, have the ability to bind to calcium in the spinach and any calcium in foods consumed with the spinach, reducing the absorption of soluble oxalate."

Ten volunteers ate 100 grams of grilled spinach either alone, or with one of the following:

• 100 grams of cottage cheese
• 100 grams of sour cream
• 100 grams of sour cream with 180 grams of Calci-Trim milk¹⁴
• 20 grams of olive oil

Urine oxalate output was measured over a 6-hour and 24-hour period after eating. According to the authors, "Addition of sour cream and Calci-Trim milk reduced the availability of the oxalate in the spinach significantly in both the 6-hour and 24-hour collection periods."

Other Conditions Involving Oxalates

Painful kidney stones are not the only problem that can be caused by an accumulation of oxalate crystals. While your kidneys are the most commonly affected organ, oxalates can affect other organs and conditions as well. Examples include fibromyalgia and vulvodynia (vulvar pain).¹⁵

Oxalate stones can also be a source of inflammation and significant oxidative damage.¹⁶ Oxalate also impairs the absorption of nonheme iron and can lower your iron stores,¹⁷ needed for red blood cell formation.

What's more, oxalates have the ability to chelate a number of toxic metals, including mercury and lead. Unfortunately, they do this by trapping the heavy metals in your tissues, which makes it difficult to eliminate them.¹⁸

Oxalate Absorption Is Dependent on Daily Calcium Intake

Another study,¹⁹ published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology in 2004, notes that "2 to 20% of ingested oxalate is absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract of healthy humans with a daily 800 mg calcium intake," and that "Calcium is the most potent modifier of the oxalate absorption."

I regularly consume two foods that are high in oxalate: our fermented beets that I use to increase my nitric oxide and sweet potatoes. I add one-half teaspoon of finely crushed egg shells to bind to the oxalates when I eat these foods.

In the 2004 study, to assess the exact correlation between calcium intake and oxalate absorption, healthy volunteers were given 0.37 millimole (mmol) of soluble salt sodium oxalate. Their calcium intake ranged from 200 mg to 1,800 mg.

"Within the range of 200 to 1200 mg calcium per day, oxalate absorption depended linearly on the calcium intake," the researchers state.²⁰ "With 200 mg calcium per day, the mean absorption was 17% … with 1200 mg calcium per day, the mean absorption was 2.6% …  

Within this range, reduction of the calcium supply by 70 mg increased the oxalate absorption by 1% and vice versa. Calcium addition beyond 1200 mg/d reduced the oxalate absorption only one-tenth as effectively.

With 1800 mg calcium per day, the mean absorption was 1.7% … The findings may explain why a low-calcium diet increases the risk of calcium oxalate stone formation."

When Eating Oxalate-Containing Food Take It With Your Calcium Supplement

As noted in the 1997 Annals of Internal Medicine study²¹ mentioned earlier, dietary calcium and calcium supplementation do not have identical effects. Whereas calcium-rich foods lowered the risk of kidney stones by 35%, calcium supplements raised it by 20%.

To reiterate, the reason for this discrepancy appears to be because most people either take their supplements on an empty stomach or with breakfast, which tends to be low or void of oxalates. Few actually eat veggies for breakfast.

That said, you can avoid this heightened risk by making sure you take your calcium supplement with lunch or dinner instead, which hopefully includes some leafy greens and other vegetables (i.e., oxalate-rich foods).

This will allow the calcium from your supplement to bind with the oxalate from the food in your intestine, and be safely eliminated through your stool rather than accumulate (and potentially crystallize) in your urine. Another alternative would be to take your supplement with a green smoothie or fresh-pressed vegetable juice in the morning.

While we're on the subject of calcium supplements, an inexpensive and all-natural alternative to calcium tablets is to grind clean, discarded, dried egg shells into a fine powder that you can then add to foods, smoothies and green juices.

According to one study,²² consuming just half an eggshell can supply you with the recommended reference daily intake of calcium (1,000 mg) for adults (age 19 to 50).²³ You can read more about this technique, and its benefits, in "Is Eating Eggshells Beneficial?"

Preventing Kidney Stones

To summarize, if you're taking a calcium supplement, take it with lunch or dinner to minimize your risk of kidney stones. If you don't take a calcium supplement, consider eating your veggies (and other high-oxalate foods) with a calcium-rich food. Examples mentioned included eating cooked spinach with some cottage cheese or sour cream. A glass of raw, organic milk or some organic raw butter could also do the trick.

All of that said, the No. 1 reason for kidney stone formation is dehydration, so staying well hydrated should be at the top of your list. If you aren't drinking enough water, your urine will have higher concentrations of substances that can precipitate out and form stones. As noted by the National Kidney Foundation:²⁴

"Urine has various wastes dissolved in it. When there is too much waste in too little liquid, crystals begin to form. The crystals attract other elements and join together to form a solid that will get larger unless it is passed out of the body with the urine… In most people, having enough liquid washes them out or other chemicals in urine stop a stone from forming."

The American College of Physicians' guidelines²⁵ recommend drinking enough water to produce at least 2 liters of urine per day. Sugar (especially processed fructose), and hence processed foods are other contributing factors that are best avoided if you're concerned about kidney stones.^26,27 Limiting animal protein and supplemental vitamin C is also recommended for those at risk of stone formation.²⁸

Also be sure to get plenty of exercise to keep your body's fluids moving. Lastly, make sure you're getting adequate magnesium and vitamin B6 in your diet, as these nutrients may help prevent kidney stone formation.²⁹

The combination of potassium citrate and magnesium citrate has also been shown to be "an effective countermeasure for the increased risk of renal stone disease associated with immobilization," according to one study.³⁰ Another found potassium/magnesium citrate "effectively prevents recurrent calcium oxalate stones," and when taken for up to three years can reduce your risk of a recurrence by 85%.³¹

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Cleaning the house is no one's favorite job, and dangerous cleaning products worsen the task by posing risks to you and the environment. An extreme example occurred earlier this year at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Chlorine gas produced when the cleaners Super 8 and Scale Kleen were unintentionally mixed killed the general manager¹ and sickened 10 others.² The gas "generates a noxious mixture of hydrochloric acid, hypochlorous acid, hypochlorite, and other corrosive compounds" according to Chemical and Engineering News.³

While the Buffalo Wild Wings event was an accident, not everyone realizes that adding two cleaners together does not make a stronger cleaner and can create dangerous compounds.

In this case, the sodium hypochlorite (liquid bleach) in Super 8 interacted with the phosphoric acid and nitric acid in Scale Kleen with disastrous consequences.⁴ Similarly, mixing bleach with ammonia produces the toxic gas chloramine, and mixing bleach with hydrogen peroxide can create an oxygen gas explosion.⁵

Of course, most harm from chemical cleaners is much less dramatic, but it still exists. Using cleaning products once a week for 20 years is considered equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 10 to 20 years, according to research in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.⁶

While oven, drain and toilet bowl cleaners are the most dangerous cleaning products, even milder household cleaners have been linked to breast cancer,⁷ brain, immune system, hormonal system and liver effects, and are suspected of contributing to asthma, lower sperm counts, early puberty in girls, autoimmunity and possibly autism.⁸

Household cleaning products also contribute to air pollution in the home and in the environment. And, since they invariably come in plastic packaging or containers, they add to plastic and litter pollution. Luckily, there are safe and effective cleaning products you can make at home that pose no health risks and cause no pollution and no litter.

Lemon Juice for Whitening and Adding a Fresh Scent

Lemons are effective deodorizers for your garbage disposal, humidifier and refrigerator, and are a great laundry additive. They also have excellent cleansing properties that match or even exceed harsh, chemical cleaners. Here are a few of the many cleaning jobs lemon juice can take care of:

Furniture polish — Combine lemon oil, lemon juice and olive or jojoba oil to make a homemade furniture polish. Simply buff with a cloth.

Windows — Lemon juice combined with cornstarch, vinegar and water cuts through grease and grime on windows and glass.

Coffee maker — Run a cycle with plain water, then add a mixture of lemon juice and water, letting it set before running a cycle through. Wash to remove lemon scent.

Silverware polish — Combine 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1.5 cups of water and one-half cup instant dry milk. Soak silverware overnight, then rinse and dry.

Dish soap booster — A teaspoon of lemon juice added to dish soap helps cut through grease and increases effectiveness.

Toilet — Adding half a cup of lemon juice to your toilet, then letting it set prior to scrubbing, will help remove stains.

Shower doors — Dip the cut half of a lemon in baking soda, then rub into on the glass to remove water stains.

All-purpose cleaner — Combine water, baking soda, vinegar, lemon and lemon essential oil for a wonderful kitchen or bathroom cleaner.

Hardwood floors — Combine lemon and vinegar to make a grime-fighting nontoxic floor cleaner.

Hydrogen Peroxide — An Effective Disinfectant and Sanitizer

For cuts and scrapes I have always recommended hydrogen peroxide over rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol because it is both safer and more effective in killing bacteria. ( I also travel with peroxide for quick cleaning of stains on clothes.)

Whether large or small, wounds heal faster when there is plenty of oxygen available, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) contains one more oxygen molecule than water (H2O), making it more oxygen-dense.

The additional oxygen molecule causes the bubbling you see when you apply hydrogen peroxide to a cut or scrape — it breaks bacterial cell membranes open by attracting electrons, and they release the enzyme catalase. This unique antibacterial action of hydrogen peroxide also makes it ideal for general cleaning around the house!

For cleaning greasy surfaces like your kitchen counters, put 20 to 30 drops of citrus essential oil in a spritzer bottle with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Spray surface and wipe off. Hydrogen peroxide is also a disinfectant. A study in Food Microbiology found spraying vinegar, followed by hydrogen peroxide, was effective for killing a variety of bacteria, including E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella.⁹

White Vinegar Removes Foul Smells and Much More

There are many different kinds of vinegar — some with impressive health benefits when taken internally, such as cider vinegars made from fermenting fruits like apples. Other vinegars, such as white vinegar and true vinegars made from distilling grain alcohol, are the best choice for household cleaning jobs.

Many of us remember our mothers or grandmothers washing windows with vinegar so the windows would become squeaky clean, or even rinsing our hair in vinegar. But vinegar's acidic PH does not fully explain its many cleaning and disinfecting benefits.

Research in the Journal of Applied Microbiology found a mixture of 50% distilled white vinegar with club soda and tea tree oil was more effective against E. Coli than bleach.¹⁰ To clean sinks, tubs, tile floors and other surfaces, the vinegar should be diluted with water by as much as 50-50. Baking soda can be added for extra "punch." (More on that later.)

A vinegar and water mixture also makes a great all-purpose countertop cleaner and for stone counters. Rubbing alcohol or vodka mixed with water can also be added with positive results. For heavier-duty cleaning, such as mildew and bathroom grout, you can spray vinegar straight onto the area and let it set for 30 minutes.

You should then be able to remove the mold or grout stains with a scrub sponge and warm water — an infinitely better solution than harsh, chemical cleaners. White distilled vinegar along with ice cubes will also get rid of foul smells in your garbage disposal when you turn the disposal on.

Baking Soda for Scrubbing, Deodorizing and Unclogging Drains

Baking soda, also known as nahcolite because it comes from the natural mineral natron, has centuries of use in both cooking and cleaning. This inexpensive, versatile and safe product has many personal care uses, which I have written about before. But just as impressive are its many household cleaning uses. Here are some of them:

Kitchen and bath — Baking soda is great for scrubbing your bath and kitchen. Put it in a glass, grated-cheese container with a stainless steel top that has holes in it, and sprinkle the baking soda on the surfaces and scrub. You may add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to this. Lavender and tea tree oil have potent antibacterial qualities.

Clogged drains — Sprinkle baking soda down a clogged or slow drain, add apple cider vinegar and let it bubble for 15 minutes. Then rinse with hot water. This is a safer alternative to dangerous drain cleaners.

Pots and pans — Soak pots and pans in hot water and baking soda for 15 minutes to easily wipe away baked-on food.

BBQ — Use baking soda to scrub your barbecue grill.

Toys — Clean baby toys in a mixture of 4 tablespoons of baking soda and 1 quart of water.

Laundry — Baking soda can also be used as a fabric softener in your laundry, or to get your clothes whither and brighter (add 1 cup to your laundry load).

Carpets — Baking soda is a natural carpet cleaner. Sprinkle it onto carpets, let it set for 15 minutes, then vacuum it up. Your carpet will be clean and fresh smelling.

Shoe deodorizer — Sprinkle baking soda in your shoes for a natural deodorizer.

Grease fires — Baking soda will help smother out the flames in the event of a minor grease fire in your kitchen.

Fruit and veggie cleaner — Remove dirt and residue from fruits and veggies by sprinkling them with baking soda and rubbing with a vegetable brush.

Organic Essential Oils Can Replace Toxic Deodorizers

There are so many household uses for organic essential oils, they are limited only by your imagination. In addition to their pleasant fragrances, many essential oils have antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activity and can be added as a boost to your homemade cleaners.

Moreover, they do not pollute the indoor and outdoor environment or cause plastic waste pollution. Here are a few suggestions:

• Antibacterial cleanser — To make a homemade cleaning scrub with antibacterial activity, simply add a few drops of lavender oil to baking soda. Some of the most popular essential oils for cleaning include lemon, peppermint and tea tree, which shows antiviral activity against viruses like influenza.¹¹ Sweet orange is another option that has been shown to work against E. coli and Salmonella.¹²
• Aromatherapy — Diffuse essential oils around your home for a natural, therapeutic air freshener which benefits your mood and stress levels and avoids toxic sprays.
• Air freshener — Unlike synthetic fragrances, which pollute your air, essential oils may improve indoor air quality. For example, heartwood, marjoram, cinnamon, lemon basil, caraway, bay tree, peppermint, pine and others all have antifungal properties.¹³
• Laundry — Freshen your laundry by spritzing your wet clothes with a mix of water and a few drops of essential oil before placing it in the dryer. Alternatively, add a dozen or so drops to an old wool sock or wool dryer balls, and put it in the dryer with your laundry. For more information on the properties of individual essential oils, be sure to check out our "Ultimate Guide to Herbal Oils."

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Prior organic farming practices and plantings can have lasting outcomes for future soil health, weeds and crop yields, according to new research.

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New research from neuroscientists shows that the brains of adolescents struggling with mental-health issues may be wired differently from those of their healthy peers.

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Researchers have discovered how a brief disruption to a molecular pathway in the guts of mice before they are born can compromise adult immunity to a common and often deadly intestinal virus.

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Rice provides a daily subsistence for about three billion people worldwide and its output must keep pace with a growing global population. In light of this, the identification of genes that enhance grain yield and composition is much desired. Findings from a research project have provided a new strategy to enhance grain yield in rice by increasing grain size and weight.

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Students attending a high school in Germany can decide whether to begin the schoolday at the normal early time or an hour later. According to chronobiologists, the measure has had a positive effect on both their sleep and learning experience.

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New research could lead to an improved vaccine to protect against the bacterium, Neisseria meningitides that causes sepsis and meningitis.

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Why do we move our eyes fast in the paradoxical sleep -- in that sleep phase, in which most dreams take place? The secret is not yet fully aired, but we are on his track: A team has identified the nerve cells behind this curious phenomenon.

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Popular gym chains across the country capitalize on the broad desire to get healthy in the New Year with persuasive post-holiday marketing campaigns, but they're also undermining public health warnings about the dangers of indoor tanning, according to a new study.

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Engineers have come up with an alternative to conventional ultrasound that doesn't require contact with the body to see inside a patient. The new laser ultrasound technique leverages an eye- and skin-safe laser system to remotely image the inside of a person.

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Men are twice as likely as women to consider themselves to be good at lying and at getting away with it, new research has found.

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The examination of Haplotypes makes it possible to understand the heritability of certain complex traits. However, genome analysis of family members is usually necessary, a tedious and expensive process. Researchers have developed SHAPEIT4, a powerful computer algorithm that allows the haplotypes of hundreds of thousands of unrelated individuals to be identified very quickly. Results are as detailed as when family analysis is performed. Their tool is available online under an open source license.

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Rice provides a daily subsistence for about three billion people worldwide and its output must keep pace with a growing global population. In light of this, the identification of genes that enhance grain yield and composition is much desired. Findings from a research project have provided a new strategy to enhance grain yield in rice by increasing grain size and weight.

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Scientists have discovered a new subtype of muscle stem cells. These cells have the ability to build and regenerate new muscles, making them interesting targets for the development of gene therapies.

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A comprehensive map of genes necessary for cancer survival is one step closer, following validation of the two largest CRISPR-Cas9 genetic screens in 725 cancer models, across 25 different cancer types. Scientists compared the consistency of the two datasets, independently verifying the methodology and findings. The study will help speed the discovery and development of new cancer drugs.

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A group of scientists showed for the first time that in red algae, an enzyme that is usually involved in cell division also plays a role in replication of mitochondria -- a crucial cell organelle. Moreover, they discovered a similar mechanism in human cells, leading them to believe that the process by which mitochondria replicate is similar across all eukaryotic species -- from simple to complex organisms.

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An observational study of academic working hours has identified large differences in how researchers around the world manage their work-life balance.

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Children allergic to cow's milk are smaller and weigh less, according to a study of growth trajectories from early childhood to adolescence in children with persistent food allergies.

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In a study of rats, scientists found that caffeine limited weight gain and cholesterol production, despite a diet that was high in fat and sugar.

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Coffee can help reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes -- but only filtered coffee, rather than boiled coffee. New research show that the choice of preparation method influences the health effects of coffee.

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Children allergic to cow's milk are smaller and weigh less, according to a study of growth trajectories from early childhood to adolescence in children with persistent food allergies.

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In a study of rats, scientists found that caffeine limited weight gain and cholesterol production, despite a diet that was high in fat and sugar.

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By Ronnie Cummins

As noted in "Ditching Nature in Favor of Fake Food Is Not the Solution to Destructive Factory Farming" by Dr. Joseph Mercola:

"Industrial agriculture is one of the most unsustainable practices of modern civilization. The 'bigger is better' food system has reached a point where its real costs have become readily apparent.

Like water running down an open drain, the Earth's natural resources are disappearing quickly, as industrialized farming drives air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, rising carbon emissions and the depletion, erosion and poisoning of soils.

The long-term answer, however, lies in the transition to sustainable, regenerative, chemical-free farming practices, not in the creation of food manufacturing techniques that replace farms with chemistry labs, which is the 'environmentally friendly' alternative envisioned by biotech startups and its chemists."

As a campaigner for organic and regenerative food, and a critic of fast food, GMOs and factory farms for over 40 years, I am alarmed and disgusted by the degenerate state of food and farming in the United States.

Not only are misguided farmers, ignorant and corrupt public officials, greedy investors, food corporations and mindless consumers destroying their health and the health of their families through their everyday production practices and food choices, but our Fast Food Nation is rapidly degrading the health of the environment and the climate and life-support systems of our planet as well.

Corporate America's trillion-dollar taxpayer-subsidized system of industrial food and farming, represented most graphically by factory farms and feedlots, is literally killing us, whether we're talking about our food-related public health emergency or the fact that our chemical and fossil fuel-intensive system of industrial agriculture is belching out 43 to 57 percent of the greenhouse gas pollution that has dangerously destabilized our climate.¹

(The percentages are estimated amounts according to the United Nations Conference on Trade of Development, 2013,² in which the conference members added food waste, food production, processing, transport and deforestation together.)

The malevolent driving force of Big Food Inc. and their army of chemical farmers, food processors and marketers is the idea that maximizing short-term profits trumps all other considerations — including health, economic justice, animal welfare, environment and climate stability — and that convenient, cheap, artificially flavored fast food and commodities represent the pinnacle of modern agricultural production and consumption.

Boycott Factory-Farmed Food

It's time to disrupt and take down our suicide economy and our degenerate agricultural and food system. A good starting point is to join the growing movement and consumer boycott of all factory-farmed meat, dairy and poultry products, not just at the grocery store, but in restaurants as well — and not just occasionally, but every day.

Factory farms inhumanely confine, feed and drug 50 billion of the 70 billion farm animals on the planet,³ supplying McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, et al., and the supermarket chains with the cheap, artery-clogging meat and dairy that are destroying our environment, climate and health.

Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and the GMO soybean and corn farms that supply them are the No. 1 source of water pollution in the U.S.,⁴ as well as a major source of air pollution. Monsanto/Bayer's GMO soybeans and corn for CAFO animal feed are the No. 1 destroyer of grasslands and forest in the Amazon basin and other areas.^5,6

U.S. and international factory farm meat and dairy operations are also major drivers of global warming and climate change, spewing out massive amounts of CO2, methane and nitrous oxide emissions⁷ into the atmosphere from giant feedlots, hog and chicken complexes, manure lagoons and the chemical-intensive, GMO grain farms that supply "CAFO Nation" with millions of tons of taxpayer-subsidized animal feed every year.

Besides degenerating the environment and climate, CAFOs are primary drivers of our deteriorating public health as well. Filthy, inhumane, polluting, greenhouse gas-belching factory farms mass produce approximately 90 to 95 percent of the meat and animal products consumed in America today.

The average U.S. carnivore now supersizes and toxifies themselves with approximately 200 pounds⁸ of CAFO meat a year, loaded with bad fats (low in omega-3 and other key nutrients) and laced with antibiotic, pesticide and hormone residues that substantially increase a person's chances of getting cancer, suffering from obesity, dying from an antibiotic-resistant infection, developing Alzheimer's or having a heart attack.

Approximately 75 percent of all the antibiotics⁹ in the U.S. today are dumped into factory farm animal feed and water to keep the animals alive under the hellish conditions of intensive confinement as well as to force the animals to gain more weight.

This massive, reckless and often illegal use of antibiotics on factory farms (along with routine over-prescribing of prescription antibiotics by doctors) has begun to spread deadly antibiotic-resistant pathogens into our food, with an average of 90,000 Americans dying from antibiotic-resistant infections on an outpatient basis every year, according to the latest calculations by Cambridge University researchers, who noted that they believe the 23,000 deaths often quoted are far underreported.¹⁰

Based upon a study commissioned by the U.K. government, multidrug-resistant infections are projected kill 10 million people a year across the world — more than currently die from cancer — by 2050 unless significant action is taken.¹¹

False Solutions No. 1: Fake Meat

Although I share the same disgust and hatred of factory farms and CAFO meat as my vegan and vegetarian brothers and sisters, I am nonetheless disturbed to see a growing number of vegan activists, Silicon Valley tycoons, genetic engineering cheerleaders and even some climate activists joining together to promote fake meat products such as the "Impossible Burger," as a healthy and climate-friendly alternative to beef.

Even worse are the growing number of vegans, climate activists and high-tech/GMO enthusiasts who claim that abolishing livestock and animal husbandry altogether will solve our health, environmental and climate crises.

The Impossible Burger, made from a highly-processed mix of soy, wheat, coconut oil, potatoes and genetically engineered (GE) yeast, is Wall Street's latest darling and a heavily-hyped menu item in many vegan restaurants. As Mercola has previously pointed out:

"The Impossible Burger resembles meat "right down to the taste and beeflike 'blood,' The New York Times notes,¹² and has become a hit in some circles. So far, the company has raised $257 million from investors,¹³ who include Bill Gates, Khosla Ventures, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz's Open Philanthropy Project, Li Ka-shing (a Hong Kong billionaire) and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, Temasek Holdings."

Unfortunately, it appears the Impossible Burger and other fake meat are neither healthy nor, in the case of the Impossible Burger, even proven safe.

Mercola pointed out that fake meat such as the Impossible Burger is nutritionally inferior to real, non-CAFO meat such as 100 percent grass fed beef, which "contain a complex mix of nutrients and cofactors that you cannot recreate by an assembly of individual components.

While it's true that millions of carnivores, especially in the U.S., are supersizing and poisoning themselves with two or three times as much CAFO meat, dairy and poultry as a natural health expert would recommend, a moderate amount of grass fed or pastured meat and dairy (especially raw milk dairy products) are actually very good for your health.

So, if you want a healthy meal, skip the Impossible Burger and other fake meat and go for a 100 percent grass fed beef, lamb or buffalo burger instead. If you prefer to get your protein boost from seafood, skip the farmed fish and go for wild Alaskan salmon.

If you're determined to eat a veggie burger, skip the GMO yeast and fake blood and flavors and choose a healthy meat alternative such as an organic tempeh burger, made from fermented soybeans, or a bean burger, made from all natural, organic ingredients.

False Solution No. 2: Abolishing Livestock

Even more bizarre, elitist and uninformed is the recent trendy chorus basically calling for the elimination of the planet's 70 billion livestock as a major solution to the climate crisis.

These "no livestock" fundamentalists basically ignore the fact that over a billion people, especially in the developing world, rely upon, for their food and survival, raising livestock on the billions of acres of pasture and rangeland that are simply not suitable for raising crops, but which can and do support properly grazed livestock.

Besides providing about one-third¹⁴ of the world's protein, animal husbandry and livestock today provide 33 to 55 percent of the household income for the world's 640 million small farmers, 190 million pastoralists, and 1 billion urban peasants, more than 66 percent of whom are low-income women.¹⁵

Shall we just tell these billion "backward" peasants to go into town and line up for their GE Impossible Burgers and forget about raising their cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, ducks and chickens like their ancestors have done for thousands of years?

Global Warming and Catastrophic Climate Change: The Animals (and Regenerative Food and Farming) Can Save Us

Perhaps the most fundamental reason why we need to preserve and promote a regenerative system of animal husbandry across the planet on millions of farms and ranches is the little-known fact that properly grazing animals (as opposed to animals imprisoned in factory farms) are the key to sequestering excess carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere and storing this carbon in the world's 4 billion acres¹⁶ of rangelands and pasturelands. As world-renowned climate scientist James Hansen, Ph.D., puts it:¹⁷

"If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current levels to at most 350 ppm…"

A growing corps of climate experts have warned us repeatedly that we must stop burning fossil fuels; eliminate destructive food, farming and land use practices; and draw down enough carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Earth's atmosphere through regenerative farming/ranching and enhanced natural photosynthesis to return us to 350 parts per million (ppm) or, better yet, to pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm.

About half the total human greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming today come from burning fossil fuels¹⁸ (coal, oil and gas) for transportation, heating, cooling, electricity and manufacturing. The other half, however, unbeknown to most people, comes from degenerative food, farming and land use practices.¹⁹

These greenhouse gas-polluting, climate-destabilizing food, farming and land use practices include the massive use of fossil fuels and synthetic, climate-destabilizing chemicals on the farm, including diesel fuel, pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

They also include energy-intensive food processing, packaging, long-distance transportation of foods, confining billions of methane-belching animals in factory farms, dumping rotting waste food and organic garbage into landfills instead of composting it, and wasting 40 percent²⁰ or more of all the food we grow.

These fossil fuel-intensive food and farming practices are compounded by degenerate land use practices, including clear-cutting forests, draining wetlands, degrading marine ecosystems, destructively tilling the soil, dumping soil-killing pesticides and chemical fertilizers on the land, and destroying grasslands.

These degenerate farming and land use practices degrade the natural ability of plants, pasture, rangeland, wetlands, and trees to draw down enough CO2 from the atmosphere (via photosynthesis) to keep the soil, atmosphere, ocean, carbon and hydrological cycles in balance.

So how can we avert climate catastrophe and the collapse of human civilization? Regenerative food, farming and land use, especially grazing and pasturing animals properly on the world's 4.3 billion acres of pasture and rangeland, is the key to ending CAFO (and GMO grain) emissions and drawing down enough CO2 to reverse global warming.

As Judith Schwartz explains in detail in her recent book, "Cows Save the Planet," holistic rotational grazing, especially in pastures where perennial trees and plants are growing, is the key to averting climate catastrophe.²¹ Most people do not yet understand the central role of regenerating the soil and supercharging plant photosynthesis in order to stop and then reverse global warming.

Even fewer understand that the major solution to greenhouse gas pollution and degenerative factory farm and grain-growing practices are properly grazed livestock in perennialized pastures, managed by regenerative ranchers and farmers, supported by conscious consumers who refuse to eat factory farmed meat, dairy and poultry or nonorganic vegetables, fruits and grains.

Plant Photosynthesis and CO2 Drawdown

The most important thing about regenerative food, farming, ranching and land use is that these practices qualitatively increase plant photosynthesis, with a potential to drawdown all of the excess carbon (200 to 250 billion tons of carbon) in the atmosphere that is causing global climate change.

In other words, if the levels of carbon sequestration now being put into practice by thousands of advanced regenerative farmers and ranchers (1 to 10 tons of atmospheric carbon sequestered per acre/per year) can be scaled up globally, we can draw down enough excess carbon from the atmosphere to reverse global warming and restore climate stability.²²

Through the miraculous process of photosynthesis, plants (including pasture grasses) have the ability to breathe in CO2 and transpire or release oxygen, simultaneously turning atmospheric CO2 into a form of "liquid carbon" that not only builds up the plant's above ground biomass (leaves, flowers, branches, trunk or stem), but also travels though the plant's roots into the soil below.

Exuded or released from the plant's roots, this liquid carbon or sugar feeds the soil microorganisms in the rhizosphere, the soil food web that not only sustains all plant and animal life, including humans, but also regulates the balance between the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and the carbon in our soils.

Regenerative food and farming, coupled with 100 percent renewable energy, not only holds the potential — through qualitatively enhanced soil health and supercharged plant photosynthesis — to mitigate global warming by drawing down several hundred billion tons of excess carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil, but also to actually reverse global warming while simultaneously restoring the environment, improving the nutritional quality of our food, and regenerating the economic vitality of small farmers, herders and rural communities.²³

Michael Pollan, perhaps America's best-known food writer, explains how enhanced plant photosynthesis, as generated through healthy soils and forests and 100 percent grass fed holistic grazing is the key to drawing down excess carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in our soils in order to reverse global warming:²⁴

"Consider what happens when the sun shines on a grass plant rooted in the earth. Using that light as a catalyst, the plant takes atmospheric CO2, splits off and releases the oxygen, and synthesizes liquid carbon — sugars, basically.

Some of these sugars go to feed and build the aerial portions of the plant we can see, but a large percentage of this liquid carbon — somewhere between 20 and 40 percent — travels underground, leaking out of the roots and into the soil.

The roots are feeding these sugars to the soil microbes — the bacteria and fungi that inhabit the rhizosphere — in exchange for which those microbes provide various services to the plant: defense, trace minerals, access to nutrients the roots can't reach on their own.

That liquid carbon has now entered the microbial ecosystem, becoming the bodies of bacteria and fungi that will in turn be eaten by other microbes in the soil food web. Now, what had been atmospheric carbon (a problem) has become soil carbon, a solution — and not just to a single problem, but to a great many problems.

Besides taking large amounts of carbon out of the air — tons of it per acre when grasslands are properly managed … that process at the same time adds to the land's fertility and its capacity to hold water, which means more and better food for us ...

This process of returning atmospheric carbon to the soil works even better when ruminants are added to the mix. Every time a calf or lamb shears a blade of grass, that plant, seeking to rebalance its 'root-shoot ratio,' sheds some of its roots. These are then eaten by the worms, nematodes and microbes — digested by the soil, in effect, and so added to its bank of carbon. This is how soil is created: from the bottom up."

The Regeneration Revolution Is Long Overdue

After decades of working alongside vegans and animal rights activists in campaigns such as the McDonald's Beyond Beef campaign (which I organized with Jeremy Rifkin and Howard Lyman in 1992 to 1994), the campaign against Monsanto's recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) from 1994 until the present, and most recently working with consumers and farmers in campaigns against GMOs, pesticides and factory farm dairy, poultry and beef, I believe the time is long overdue for everyone concerned about food, farming, health, climate and humane treatment of animals to connect the dots between our common concerns and build a powerful united front to take down factory farms and carry out a global Regeneration Revolution.

Breaking through the tunnel vision and self-righteous walls between our issue silos (i.e., my issue is more important than your issue, and my solution is the only solution), and uniting to build a new "Beyond USDA Organic" system of regenerative food, farming and land use, we can bring down the factory farm and GMO behemoth.

Working together rather than rallying behind false solutions such as fake meat and abolishing livestock, we can popularize and scale-up humane, healthy and climate-friendly solutions to our hydra-headed crisis.

We can promote and implement real, positive, shovel-ready solutions rather than promoting simplistic and indeed destructive "silver bullets" such as genetically engineered fake meat and "pharm animals," that not only fail to address the real roots of climate (and the health) crisis, but ultimately threaten the livelihoods of a billion small farmers and peasant women across the planet.

So, forget about the Impossible Burger and other fake meats and the elitist notion of getting rid of the world's 70 billion livestock. We're all in this together, and it's going to take a regeneration of all living creatures — humans, wild animals, livestock, plants, trees and soil microorganisms — working in harmony to build a new world on the ruins of the old.

Given the horrors of factory farms and factory-farmed food, we need a global boycott of the multitrillion-dollar CAFO industry. Please sign up here to stay in touch with the news and campaigns of the Organic Consumers Association.

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More and more of us, conscious consumers and farmers, alarmed by the accelerating climate crisis and the degeneration of the environment, public health and politics are coming together under the banner of regenerative food, farming and land use, the most important new current in the food, farming and climate movement. Please join us today.

About the Author

Ronnie Cummins is international director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a nonprofit consumer advocacy and grassroots organization, and a member of the Regeneration International (RI) steering committee.

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Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can cause severe oxidative stress and biological damage. I discuss this in detail along with what you can do to protect yourself from them in my latest book EMF*D which is now available for preorder.

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Here to address what you can do to remediate that influence is Lloyd Burrell, who has been an advocate for EMF safety and consumer education for the last 15 years.

Like so many others, Burrell's interest and subsequent expertise was the outgrowth of facing personal health challenges. He describes himself as being EMF-hypersensitive, and had to figure out how to deal with living in the modern world, surrounded by wireless technology and electrosmog.

Burrell's Journey

Burrell's journey began in 2002, when he suddenly started having strange reactions to his cellphone. He tells the story:

"I remember very clearly the day … One minute I was fine; the next minute, I had this kind of bizarre, altered spatial awareness, slight dizziness, not quite sure what to make of it. And then it went from the bizarre to a rather unpleasant burning sensation in my ear, then all over the side of my face.

I was running a rental business at the time. The cellphone was great because I could work outside and take the calls. I wasn't a particularly heavy user. I'd been using it about four years … But I did get quite a lot of calls for a certain period of the year to make bookings for these rentals.

It went from unpleasant to unbearable, literally in a matter of days … It got so bad that I actually went to see my doctor … He was very sympathetic. When he couldn't find anything wrong with me, other than I'd gotten slightly high blood pressure, he sent me off to do various tests.

Over this time, it just went from bad to worse. He told me to take a week off work, which I did. I went away with the kids. I was fine. I came back the Monday morning. I answered my phone and then, boom, there it was again.

That's when it began to dawn on me … Not only was I reacting to my cellphone, I was reacting to my computer. I was reacting to the TV. I was reacting to the radio in the car. I was beginning to react to everything electrical, even my corded landline phone."

Identifying the Cause of His Problems

For the next two years, he sought help from a number of different specialists. Meanwhile, the symptoms turned chronic. "Fatigue, pain all over my body and digestive problems. I really was in a bad way, and it was just getting worse," he says.

The medication he was given turned him into "a zombie" and ultimately didn't help. Then one day he read a newspaper article about Brian Stein, a CEO of a big food group in the U.K. who, like himself, could not use his cellphone or computer.

"He was dictating everything to his secretary, driving around in a battered, old car with no electronics. He was sleeping in a room with no electricity. They gave a name for that. That was electrical hypersensitivity.

For me, that was like, 'Eureka! I'm not going crazy.' I literally thought I was going crazy because everybody, the people in the white coats, particularly, the authority figures, were telling me 'There's nothing wrong with you.' Some of them were even ridiculing my story.

That was a turning point. That was when I began to look at this thing called EMF, which did not really interest me at all. I was just wanting to buy something and fix it so I could get on with my life. But it didn't work like that."

Burrell started a website, ElectricSense, in December 2009, initially simply warning people about the folly of allowing young children to use and carry cellphones.

"It was very amateurish at the time … I just tried to share the truth really. It was about letting off steam, this video. Immediately, it caught people's attention. I started getting a lot of interaction on it.

It just grew from there. It grew into this mission of raising awareness and sharing solutions, because I realized I can't be this guy going on and on about the problem. I need to share the solutions. That's how it all started," Burrell says.

Understand, Measure, Mitigate

One of the things Burrell now does is assess the value of various remediation strategies and products. For example, he offers guidance and recommendations for EMF meters, which is necessary to assess your EMF exposure. It can be a complex process, and he has created several excellent videos on this topic, explaining the different options available.

"To be clear, I no longer have the debilitating symptoms, so I'm able to live a normal life," he says. Ultimately, this is the goal for anyone struggling with EMF hypersensitivity, and Burrell is proof positive that it's possible.

"My approach could be summarized as follows: First, understand what these exposures are … I've been doing a podcast for about five years … It's not something you can learn in five minutes. It takes a bit of time …

Second thing is to measure … Like I said, I just wanted to buy that gadget or gizmo that would make it all OK and I wouldn't feel [EMFs] anymore. I never found that. Eventually, I bought a meter. Because I'm a bit of a cheapskate, I bought the cheapest meter I could find, which was worthless.

That led me down a garden path for six months to a year. Then I bought the Acoustimeter … It's a great meter. The meter is super important … At some point, we need to get an EMF meter, or possibly two, because a lot of them are multifunction… Lastly, mitigate. Those are the three steps: Understand, measure and mitigate."

As explained by Burrell, there are three main categories of EMFs that we want to assess: radiofrequency (RF) radiation; magnetic fields; and electric fields, plus dirty electricity, which is a subset of electrical fields. These are all on the electromagnetic spectrum and are measured in terms of frequency and wavelength.

Turn Off, Increase Distance, Shield

The reason you want a meter (or several different types) that can measure all four of these EMFs is because you want to be able to identify the hotspots in your home and areas where you spend a lot of time. Your bedroom is of principal importance, as this is where you spend a significant portion of your life.

Once you know where the hotspots are, you can figure out how to mitigate, i.e., lower the EMF level, in those areas. Keep in mind that there are no "safe" readings. Whether a reading is "too high" is rather subjective, depending on your sensitivity.

"So, in terms of the mitigation, we don't have a safe level," Burrell says, "but we're trying to get to what I call benchmark levels … about 0.02 volts per meter … It's not as if when you achieve those readings that it's safe. There's no 'safe/not safe.' Just get it as low as you can."

One of the easiest ways to lower the EMF level is to turn off whatever is generating the EMFs. For example, you can turn off your cellphone when not in use, especially at night when you're sleeping. Ditto for your wireless router. Ideally, hardwire your home and forgo wireless altogether.

Many "smart" devices can also generate high RF radiation, and you might not realize this unless you measure it. Your dishwasher could be giving off RF radiation, or your washing machine. If you can't turn the device off, then increase the distance between yourself and the device. As a last resort, install some kind of shielding.

"That, in a nutshell, is my approach to dealing with these electromagnetic fields, these non-natural frequencies, this pollution that's impacting all of us. On the mitigation: Turn off, increase distance and shield as a last resort."

Do EMF-Shielding Gadgets Work?

Chances are, you've seen various EMF harmonizers or gadgets, that promise to protect you against harmful EMFs. The question is, do they actually work? From my perspective, they might be dangerous because they clearly do not shield you from the radiation. They may alleviate symptoms, but they do not address the biological damage occurring. Burrell weighs in:

"Some of them are effective. There are scams, and then there are not scams. There are people who are genuinely developing devices that work in this subtle energy realm [and] … some of these devices work to a certain extent. My view is that's all fine and dandy, but what you need to do is this foundational … EMF protection.

This is what I've laid out [above] ... Do the classic, rigorous EMF protection, and then if you want to add this into the mix, go ahead … But I know of no device that protects you from all the adverse biological effects at the cellular level, the DNA, the mitochondria."

Thousands of Studies Show EMF Harms

One of the sections in Burrell's book, which is available on Amazon here, discusses and dispels a variety of common myths. One of them is that EMF exposure cannot cause biological damage.

This is a myth that must be dispelled, seeing how 5G is already being implemented in many areas around the world, and will dramatically increase exposures and, with it, likely unleash an avalanche of trouble.

"This thing is just getting out of control," Burrell says. "We're told by industry pundits that these exposures are safe, and this whole ionizing/nonionizing thing confuses people too … What's happening with the internet is getting crazy, with what Google is doing. People are not getting reliable information.

I mean, who reads the studies in any case? That's the problem. I wouldn't have gone and read the studies if it hadn't have happened to me. So, what can I say? All I can say is there are thousands of studies on this, going back to like the 1880s.

D'Arsonval and Nikola Tesla, in 1891, did a study. They found EMF exposure impacted respiration, perspiration and body weight. The Soviets did a lot of studies, particularly on wireless, [in] the 1930s … But we don't really see those because they're not in English.

More recently, we have the BioInitiative Report, published in 2007, which was … about 600 pages [summarizing] … the 2,000 studies that were available at that time. There was an update in 2012, which reviewed 1,800 studies [published] between 2007 and 2012.

We've got big studies like the WTR study, which came out in the 1990s — the Wireless Technology Research project, headed by Dr. George Carlo. It was funded by the cellphone industry to show that these exposures were safe. Unfortunately, things didn't work out [as] planned. They came to just the opposite conclusion."

Among the most recent studies is the National Toxicology Program study, funded by the U.S. federal government to the tune of $30 million, which found 2G and 3G wireless radiation triggered DNA damage and deadly brain and heart tumors. Note that the more dangerous present 4G and even more dangerous 5G frequencies were not tested in this study.

Within months, these findings were reproduced by the Ramazzini Institute in Italy. I review the findings of both of these studies in "Cellphones Strongly Linked to Cancer — New Study Reproduces Government Findings."

Defunding Research Is a Common Ploy to Hide Harms

In an effort to delay safety regulations and keep the public in the dark, the industry will often simply strip researchers of their funding when studies turn up problems. Burrell says:

"We've seen that time and time again. The 1950s, Milton Zaret was studying radar operators who were getting cataracts on their eyes. The study's funding was taken away from him.

Henry Lai, the brilliant work that he was doing on children — how they're being impacted, how children are way more vulnerable than adults to these exposures — he got his funding taken away. This is just so shady. It needs to be talked about.

People need to know why they're not being told the truth on this. Because the most concerning thing is our kids. That is what concerns me the most. They're the victims in all of this. We need to protect them."

Power Versus Modulation

While the cellphone industry spends a lot of time talking about the power, and are making their phones less powerful, Burrell points out that this isn't the main problem. The most harmful aspect of cellphone technology is the modulation, the mix of frequencies. He explains:

"You've got this carrier frequency, which depends on where you are, but it's 900 megahertz or something, or 1.8 gigahertz. And then you've got this modulation, this superimposing, rhythmic chopping of the frequency, which is how they put on the data.

That is totally unnatural. It's all evolving all the time. Most people have probably 3G phones or 4G phones. We're going towards 4G LTE and 5G … It's another layer of exposures. It's increasing the density of this electro smog, which you can't feel, which you can't see, touch, taste, which most people aren't aware of. It's nevertheless there."

It's really important to understand that just because you can't feel it doesn't mean you're not being impacted. This is what the studies are telling us. Everyone is impacted by these frequencies, whether you feel it or not.

In some respects, EMF hypersensitive individuals are at an advantage, as the discomfort they feel spur them to take remedial action. People who (as of yet) cannot sense EMFs never feel the need to protect themselves and are therefore at increased risk for damage.

5G Explained

In October 2019, SpaceX petitioned to launch another 30,000 satellites,¹ which would bring its low-orbit Starlink broadband network for 5G coverage up to 42,000 satellites. The main hazard of 5G, aside from the fact that it adds another layer of frequencies onto everything we already have, is that it uses higher frequency millimeter waves (MMW).

Please understand, it's not the internet that is problematic. The problem is the wireless connection. We have the capacity to increase the bandwidth and achieve the same kind of effect as 5G using fiber optic cables, but the industry wants to use wireless because they can make more money that way.

"Everybody's saying how great [5G] is, that it's going to be faster, it's going to be bigger and better. You're going to be able to download a Hollywood movie at the blink of an eye. We're talking possibly 10 to 100 times faster than existing technology, the 4G that went before it.

OK. But do we really need it? Even if we do really need it, if we really understand the science that we have already … it's absolutely in-your-face obvious that for our health and the health of the planet, the ecosystem, plants and insects, everything, [5G] is big-time bad news," Burrell says.

"Particularly, the satellites in space, that is really bad news, because of the subtle energy thing. Because I'm a very sensitive person, I feel energies, I really feel my connection with the earth. I don't particularly feel it with the cosmos, but I know it's there. I think a few people are aware of this. It is wrong and it needs to be stopped."

Unfortunately, unlike the tobacco industry, the wireless industry has the full support of the federal regulatory agencies. That makes it even more challenging, as the public health authorities and federal regulatory agencies promote that it's safe. It's going to take a lot to overcome global implementation of 5G. There could potentially be a lot of dead people in the streets before they start to wake up and realize how damaging this plan is for life on this planet.

Remediation Strategies

The good news is there are ways to protect yourself, and many strategies are free. They do require a bit of effort on your part, however. Again, turning devices off or increasing your distance from them are your first alternatives. As a last resort, you may need to shield, and the cost of this can vary widely.

"Again, the most important thing is where you sleep, your bedroom," Burrell says. "Create a sleeping sanctuary. That is the most important thing. It's not like eight hours in your bedroom is equal to eight hours during the day. There's a whole load of bodily processes, rejuvenation, regeneration, cellular processes, hormonal processes that are going on when you sleep.

This time is just so important. And making all these little changes over time — baby steps, folks — then you will increase your resilience. That's my experience. I mean, honestly, it's been transformational for me. That is the foundation."

Following are some suggestions that will help you create a healing sleep sanctuary:

More Information

To learn more, be sure to check out Burrell's website, ElectricSense.com. Also consider picking up a copy of his book, "EMF Practical Guide," which is available on Amazon. It's an excellent companion to my upcoming book, "EMF'd," which is coming out in 2020. In closing, Burrell notes:

"The airplane mode [on your cellphone] is super important. Don't obsess about EMFs. Again, we've got all those people who couldn't care less. And then we've got this group of people who have been impacted or educated about this. Those people are taking the steps [to protect themselves].

The danger is when one day you're suddenly impacted like I was, that you become obsessive. Don't, because when you become obsessive, you become fearful. This all works against you. Don't do that, people. It's a question of taking the steps without becoming obsessive.

If you are going to be obsessive about anything, be obsessive about that airplane mode. Be obsessive about your bedroom, about creating that low-EMF sleeping sanctuary. Those are the two things [to focus on] if you are going to obsess. Even then, obsessing about this is not going to help you."

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