The Complete Guide: Are You Sensitive to Electromagnetic Fields?

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UPDATED 15/4/2026

  • What is Electromagnetic Sensitivity or EHS?

  • My EHS Story

  • What Causes Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity or EHS?

  • Who Is Most Electrosensitive?

What are EMFs?

EMFs, or electromagnetic fields, are invisible areas of energy. Anything that is electrically charged can generate EMFs, everything from the sun to your cell phone.

But we are talking about manmade EMFs here, often associated with aforementioned cell phone, as well as electrical power.

In my assessments, I cover four specific types of this artificial radiation.

We can also think of EMFs as low frequency and high frequency. The low-frequency EMFs come from electrical sources such as power lines, electrical wiring, and appliances such as your washing machine, air-con, and refrigerator. On the other hand, high-frequency EMFs are emitted by wireless devices, including your cell phone, iPad, and Wi-Fi router.

In this article, I focus on the symptoms of EMF sensitivity. Once we learn more about what EMFs are, their sources (ubiquitous and probably in your own hand right now), and their potential effects, we understand more about our health.

What is Electromagnetic Sensitivity or EHS?

This is the term given to people who report health issues asociated with EMFs, often to debilitating effects.

These Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) created by devices like smartphones, WiFi routers, and home appliances in the form of wireless radiation. They may be other forms of EMFs such as magnetic and electrical fields created by other appliances and structures such as power lines.

These energy fields are invisible and can affect our health in ways we may not immediately recognise.

Symptoms of EHS

To understand By now you might be familiar with the common symptoms of EHS: headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbances, skin irritation, dizziness, and difficulty concentrating.

But aren’t these common health issues anyway?

Here is how to tell if your symptoms are related to EMFs.

1—Headaches

Our brain is a massive energy hog. Even mild thirst or when your body is dehydrated (doesn't get the fluids it needs) can cause headaches.

If your headaches are frequent and/or severe, often worsening with increased EMF exposure, they are likely related to EMFs..

2—Fatigue

If you wake up still feeling tired, you might be sensitive to EMFs, because they disrupt circadian rhythms by interfering with melatonin production and altering sleep patterns.

When you are struggling with EHS, you feel persistent tiredness that does not improve with rest.

3—Sleep Disturbances

Relatedly, you find it difficult to go to sleep, or even stay asleep. You wake at night, even though you’ve the best blackout curtains. Such difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, often linked to the presence of electronic devices.

4—Skin Irritation

The skin is related to our gut, which is why food allergies manifest as eczema, psoriasis, etc. EMFs, too, can trigger the skin directly. Symptoms may include redness, tingling, or burning sensations on the skin.

5—Dizziness

You get a sense of sensation of lightheadedness or imbalance, particularly in environments with high EMF exposure. You might actually get dizzy to the point of fainting.

6—Difficulty Concentrating

You might have trouble focusing or maintaining attention, which can affect daily activities.

We talk about generation brain rot. But it is no coincidence that our youth are the first ones growing up in a digital era.

Gen Z grew up in a screen-saturated world. Compared to Gen Z, many Generation Alpha children (born during 2013) were given iPads around the age of 2 to 4, growing up with a tablet already in front of them.

The science is clear on how screen overuse leads to concentration problems

7—Mood Swings

It is not right to feel your emotions swing. You might feel mood swings with rapid changes in mood, including irritability or anxiety, even anger.

8—Muscle Pain

This is generalized pain or discomfort in muscles, without any other cause. You have not recently hurt yourself. You’ve not been working out too much, etc. Sometimes the pain resembles fibromyalgia.

9—Heart Palpitations

You might feel noticeable changes in heart rhythm, which may occur in high EMF areas.

10—Sensitivity to Noise

You develop a sensitivity to sounds, which you have never had before. This can be any sound, whether crowded malls or people talking normally nearby, which can exacerbate feelings of discomfort.

There are many other symptoms. These are the EHS, Electromagnetic Sensitivity, or EMF exposure are confirmed in the research below:

  • Headaches [6]

  • Lack of Appetite [1]

  • Digestion problems [2]

  • Anxiety [1,5]

  • Sleep Difficulties [1,2,3]

  • Unstable moods and Bursts of anger Due to Poor Sleep [1]

  • Depression [1]

  • Fatigue [1]

  • Lack Of Concentration [1,6]

  • Irritability [1]

  • Memory problems [1,6]

  • Visual problems- blurry vision [1,2]

  • Vertigo or Dizziness [1,2]

  • Tinnitus or Ringin In The Ears [2,3,6]

  • Abdominal Swelling [2]

  • Burning pain in hands, shoulders, legs and feet [2]

  • Itch [4]

  • Edema, swelling, bloating [2,4]

  • Chills [2]

  • Photosensitivity

  • Tachycardia [2,5]

  • Heart Palpitations [2,4,5]

  • Difficulty Breathing [2]

  • Cystitis [2]

  • Skin Rashes [1,4]

  • Heightened sensitivity to touch, smells, chemicals, light, and noise [6]

  • Weakness [6]

These symptoms can occur immediately, minutes or hours later, or over months or years.

When exposure continues, you develop a higher risk of brain and gut issues, reduced cognition, and cancer.

My EHS Story

For example, I lived with near-daily bouts of dizziness, headaches, and even migraines. When I got my first iPad, I developed heart palpitations, although I still did not put two and two together.

When I got pregnant, these symptoms magnified seemingly overnight. Some grew louder over subsequent weeks. Other symptoms emerged: extreme fatigue, difficulty concentrating, digestive issues. The doctors assured me that most pregnant women feel awful.

But my symptoms did not alleviate throughout pregnancy, nor after giving birth. They seemed to increase or decrease inexplicably. Until I connected them to my environment, especially my home and my workspace.

What Causes Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity or EHS?

These sources can be outdoors, but are more often than not found indoors in your own home.

Indoor sources:

  • Cellphones

  • Wi-Fi

  • Smart meters

  • Microwave oven

  • Alarm systems (i.e., motion-detectors)

  • LED lights, dimmers (emit unclean electricity)

  • Cordless phones

  • Washing machines

  • Electric heating located under your floors

  • Plasma TV monitors

  • Any other “Smart” appliances

  • Electric Blanket

  • Wired Clock Radio

Outdoor sources:

  • power lines

  • cellphone towers

Electric vehicles are another source of EMFs. You could argue that they an indoor source since they affect you sitting inside.

Who Is Most Electrosensitive?

Children are more susceptible to the potential effects of EMFs due to their developing bodies and brains. Their skull is thinner, their brain contains more water and fat, and their nervous system is still developing.

In fact, studies have shown that kids can absorb twice as much radiation in the head, and ten times as much in the bone marrow, compared to adults.

Children are also growing up in a wireless radiation soup. Science has shown how EMFs weaken the blood-brain barrier, alter gene expression, and interfere with hormone production.

This is why EMF awareness is crucial to secure our health today and that of future generations. This is why EMF awareness IS protection for children.

Simple strategies are:

  • limiting screen time

  • keeping wireless devices out of bedrooms

  • using wired devices whenever possible

These to help protect your children from some excess EMF exposure.

But children need protection from the environmental stress caused by invisible EMF fields. This means rethinking what’s in your home and what’s near your child 24/7. This is why I include other components of a calm safe home in an EMF-focused consultation; they go hand in hand.

On top of that, EMFs may be invisible but we can talk about it. Educate your children about the potential risks of extended electronics usage and encourage safe technology use.

Given the proliferation of digital infrastructure and the very real ways we are seeing degenerative health in digital lifestyles, I am so glad to more awareness is growing about this topic.

But we can do more and change the one place that we spend our lives and create most of our core memories with—the home.

Building Biology Home: Creating the Home to Protect Our Families
If you are serious about raising healthier kids in a wireless world, you are in the right place.

If you want to learn more about EMFs and building biology principles to create a calm home, subscribe to my newsletter. I share how to create a calm with practical truth, not fear.

Get started now with my EMF Bootcamp to eliminate, once and for all, the most common toxin in your space. In this bootcamp, you will understand the importance, types of EMFs, and effective strategies for your defense against EMF exposure.

Do you want an EMF-safe home? Work with me.

References and resources about EHS symptoms:

[1] Gómez-Perretta cell radiation exposure study 
[2] Piras et.al. Fibromyalgia and EHS Study 
[3] Bhat, Kumar Gupta Study of the Effects of Radiations Study of the Effects of Radiations  
[4] Johannson Immune system and electromagnetic fields study             
[5] Magda Havas Wireless Radiation and Autotomic system study 
[6] Gunnar Heuser Functional MRI and EHS Study

Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS): Why Is It So Common & What Can You Do About It?

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Updated 4 August 2024.

Electro-sensitivity symptoms are becoming commonplace—reflecting the increasing digitisation of our lifestyles and digital infrastructure with 5G and the IoT. What’s causing this? Learn more, plus find out how to advocate for yourself.

First, what is Electromagnetic Hyper Sensitivity (EHS)?

EHS is also called Electromagnetic Sensitivity, electro-hypersensitivity, electro-sensitivity, electrical sensitivity (ES) and “Idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF)”.

EMF is an "electrostatic" field or electromagnetic field that comes off any electronic device that emits energy, frequencies, radiation, or field of energy of any type.

Back in the 1970s, EHS was known as “microwave syndrome", clinically characterised by the a wide spectrum of symptoms affecting various organs, typically including central nervous system symptoms. The vast majority of electrohypersensitive (EHS) patients complain about headaches on contact with an electromagnetic source.

A report from the former Soviet Union described it as “microwave syndrome”[r]. The Soviet military recognised early on the possible side-effects from radar and radio radiation. Medical diagnoses frequently noted various symptoms typically including central nervous system symptoms, that occur following the patient's acute or chronic exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Statements on EHS by health organisation

Austria is the only country with a written suggestion to guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems. Apart from this, EHS is not recognised as a specific diagnosis in the rest of the world.

However, institutions such as the WHO, the European Environment Agency (official advisory body to the European Union), and many research and scientific organisations have proposed and advocated for recommendations around EMFs.

This includes the groundbreaking Bioinitiative Report was published by scientists, public health and public policy experts to document the scientific evidence on electromagnetic fields. It has since been updated over the years 2014-2019. (Download the Bioinitiative Report 2014-2019 updated edition.)

In 2015, the Fifth Paris Appeal Colloquium showed a focus on electromagnetic fields and EHS. You can watch Dr Lennart Hardell’s presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JehrGVPTUos

What are the Symptoms of EHS?

Patients can have neurologic, neuro-hormonal and neuro-psychiatric symptoms [1] following exposure to EMF as a consequence of neural damage and over-sensitised neural responses, including: headaches, concentration difficulties, sleep problems, depression, a lack of energy, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms.

Studies conducted in 2001 and 2002 revealed that people reported symptoms most frequently due to exposure to cell phone base stations (74%), cell phones (36%), cordless (DECT) phones (29%) and power lines (27%) visual displays and fluorescent lighting (1.9%), electrical factors and also chemicals or smells (2.4%).

Symptoms, their duration, and their impact on the person’s quality of life and ability to function in daily life. Mild EHS may manifest with mild symptoms such as prickling or burning sensations that disappear within seconds or minutes after EMF exposure (e.g. using a cell- phone) has stopped. With moderate EHS the severity, frequency and duration of the symptoms increase. For example, a headache may persist for several hours after using the cell-phone. With severe EHS the problem becomes chronic and persistent.

A study, mandated by the Swiss Federal Government and performed by the University of Bern in 2004, Swiss doctors working with complementary diagnostic and therapeutic tools reported that 71% of their consultations related to EMF.

This facts are jarring, but what’s even more worrying is that the majority of these symptoms are accepted as nothing out of the ordinary or a matter of lifestyle fatigue, and is thus usually ignored.

Often electromagnetic hypersensitivity exacerbates any systemic health issues that you already have, including heavy metals and mercury toxicity, Candida yeast infection (moulds and fungi), bacterial or viral infections, bio-toxins or parasites [4].

Learn more about wireless harms and the symptoms at the advocacy group. This page highlights studies that establish wireless technology radiation can create cognitive effects such as ADHD and other behavioral disorders. https://wearetheevidence.org/wireless-harms/ I also share important research about fertility and children’s health here.

Who is most vulnerable? What are the signs in Children?

Studies show that children are especially vulnerable to developing chronic health conditions from EHS, like obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease—all things that can disrupt their mental and emotional growth and development.

One case report detailed how two 15-year-old male students and one 47-year-old female teacher who expericienced health effects like headaches, difficulties concentrating, tachycardia, poor memory, or dizziness when exposed to Wi-Fi in school [3]. This study highlighted the potential health impacts from increasing RF exposure of students and teachers by Wi-Fi.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified EMFs as a "possible human carcinogen” after consistent epidemiologic evidence of an association between childhood leukemia and exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields [2].The first study between the link was in 1979! The evidence has grown to cover associations with other childhood cancers.

What is behind the treatment disparities?

While there are many factors that affect how EHS is seen and addressed, whether by the individual him/herself or in medical field, it is clear there is rising recognition and evidence in the biological harm of EMFs.

The WHO recommendations are based on based on currents induced in the body (ELF) and thermal effects (RF). It does not consider long-term non-thermal effects.

The BioInitiative reports are global groundbreaking milestones comprehensive review of biological effects and health effects of low-intensity electromagnetic radiation, including thousands of published studies on: gene and protein expres- sion, DNA, immune function, neurology and behavior, blood-brain barrier, brain tumors and acoustic neuromas, childhood leukemia, melatonin, Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, fertility and reproduction, fetal and neo- natal disorders, and autism.

The European Environment Agency compared the risks of non-ionising radiation (EMF) to other environmental hazards such as asbestos, benzene, and tobacco, urgently recommending to implement a precautionary approach regarding EMF.

Many countries have taken their own initiative to reduce EMF exposure, especially to their most people.

For example, Belgium has banned the advertising of mobile phones for children under seven. France banned Wi-Fi in nurseries for children under the age of 3 and to enable Wi-Fi at primary schools with children under the age of 11 only when used specifically for lessons. Public places offering Wi-Fi must clearly advertise this fact on a sign.

References & Resources

  1. The microwave syndrome or electro-hypersensitivity: historical background. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26556835/

  2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32289567/

  3. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1201/b16968-13/childhood-leukemia-extremely-low-frequency-magnetic-fields-critical-evaluation-epidemiologic-evidence-using-hill-framework-leeka-kheifets-john-swanson

  4. http://www.stralskyddsstiftelsen.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/hedendahl_hardell_2015.pdf

  5. See what happens when micro-organisms are exposed to harmful energy and what causes electromagnetic hypersensitivity: https://youtu.be/qMAV-pZMlZs

  6. Greco F, Garnier O, Macioce V, Picot MC. Prevalence of Migraine Disease in Electrohypersensitive Patients. J Clin Med. 2023 Jun 16;12(12):4092. doi: 10.3390/jcm12124092. PMID: 37373785; PMCID: PMC10299347. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37373785/