A recent study into the impact of exposure of electromagnetic frequencies on blood sugar regulation has uncovered some surprisingly positive benefits. In a fortunate accident, a collection of genetically altered mice borrowed from another study left researchers utterly baffled.
Sunny Huang at the University of Iowa, a research student interested in metabolism and diabetes, approached a colleague to arrange an opportunity to practice drawing blood from mice and measuring the blood sugar levels. The colleague, Carter, offered to let her borrow some mice from a study he was running on the effects of EMFs on the brain and behaviour.
Both anticipated the predictable results of high blood sugar, since the mice were genetically modified to make them diabetic. What Huang found was that the rodents exposed to EMFs had normal blood sugar levels. With this puzzling find, they designed a new study to test this revelation.
By exposing the diabetic mice to a combination of static electric and magnetic fields for a few hours per day, their blood sugar and insulin resistance was normalised, thus confirming their suspicions.
In effect, these two PhD students had stumbled upon a non-invasive method of remotely controlling type 2 diabetes.
One of the study’s authors, Professor Val Sheffield MD PhD, from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, said; “Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) for relatively short periods reduces blood sugar and normalises the body’s response to insulin. The effects are long-lasting, opening the possibility of an EMF therapy that can be applied during sleep to manage diabetes all day.”
This remarkable discovery would indicate that electromagnetic frequencies impact the redox reactions (influence the balance of oxidants and antioxidants) in the liver, allowing the body to respond more efficiently to the natural release of insulin. The scientists believe that this balance is triggered by small reactive molecules that behave like magnetic antennae.
To gain a better insight, the team collaborated with Douglas Spitz and Gary Buettner, University of Iowa professors of radiation oncology, and Dr Jason Hansen from Brigham Young University, all of whom are recognised experts in redox biology. Together, they undertook further experiments into the actions of an oxidant molecule called superoxide, a key chemical in type 2 diabetes.
Their findings suggested that EMFs alter the signalling of superoxide molecules in the liver, leading to an extended antioxidant reaction in response. This reaction has the effect of rebalancing the system, thus allowing for a better response to insulin in maintaining normal blood sugars.
“When we remove superoxide molecules from the liver, we completely block the effects of the EMFs on blood sugar and insulin response. The evidence suggests that superoxide plays an important role in this process,” Carter explains. These exciting results spurred the team on to treat human liver tissue with EMFs for six hours, before testing the efficacy of a specific marker for insulin sensitivity. Again, their findings were encouraging, indicating that EMFs may also have a similar antidiabetic influence over humans as mice.
Although the World Health Organisation classifies low energy EMFs as safe for human health, this latest study would appear to prove them wrong.
If EMFs on a relatively low scale can have such far reaching effects as altering our blood chemistry, what would higher powered EMFs do to us?
In Carter’s own words; “EMFs may interact with specific molecules. There are molecules in our bodies that are thought to act like tiny magnetic antennae, enabling a biological response to EMFs. Some of these molecules are oxidants, which are studied in redox biology, an area of research that deals with the behaviour of electrons and reactive molecules that govern cellular metabolism.”
Let’s face it, many organisms in nature are either highly sensitive to, or can even control static EMFs, such as homing pigeons’ innate navigation using the Earth’s magnetic fields, or electric eels with the power to discharge up to one thousand volts of electricity. It’s not such a leap to suggest that human tissues would also be vulnerable to fluctuations in frequencies.
Despite a growing number of studies indicating sensitivity to EMFs, the world’s technology continues to evolve faster than our understanding of its affects. All electrical appliances, from cell phones to power cables, emit EMFs. We have immersed ourselves in competing frequencies that increase in strength almost daily.
Given that glucose metabolism is inextricably linked to low level EMFs, surely it is now time to stop and consider what other vital human biochemical processes may be influenced by them, and what the impact potentially harmful doses of high-powered frequencies might have on our health?
In their study, Carter and his colleagues set parameters to discover whether a combination of EMF fields were necessary to initiate the antidiabetic effect. Some mice were exposed to a static magnetic field, some to an electrostatic field and another group to both. They found that the static magnetic field on its own, significantly worsened glycemia and glucose tolerance, whereas the electrostatic field failed to have any impact at all.
Surely, this proves how incredibly sensitive organic tissue is, if a carefully measured combination of both fields is required to induce a positive response to insulin modulation? None of us can shield ourselves from the all-pervasive EMFs of differing strengths and frequencies as we go about our daily lives. While our desire for ever more data hungry devices continues unabated, law makers and politicians will go on ignoring the studies that indicate a danger to our health.
What will it take for us all to pay attention to this invisible threat? Will we have to wait until a vast swathe of the population is suffering from some form of biochemical disorder before politicians put health before economics? The time to speak up is now.