EMFs & the Subliminal Stress Response  

The following excerpt is from Electromagnetic Fields by B. Blake Levitt (p.128-130). It describes how subliminal stress affects animals (including humans) even when they are unaware that they are stressed.

Another important aspect of EMFs in relation to the endocrine system involves a more general physiological response. There is ample evidence in test animals that EMFs increase the levels of adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone released from the adrenal glands, which are located on top of the kidneys.

Stress is primarily mediated through the adrenal, pituitary, and thyroid glands, and plasma cortisol is a substance produced by the adrenal glands during stress conditions. Test animals continuously exposed to high-frequency microwaves of 2.45 gigahertz at about 0. '> milliwatts per square centimeter (0.5mW/cm2), approximately twenty times lower than what is considered a safe thermal exposure, were found to have a fourfold increase in cancers of the above-mentioned glands and increased levels of plasma cortisol. Benign tumors of the adrenal glands called pheochromocytomas, which can cause the chronic increase of blood pressure to a dangerous level, also showed a significant increase in test animals.

Similar studies investigating EMFs and stress present several interesting paradoxes. Test animals appear not to know they are stressed, yet blood tests show high levels of cortisone, a substance released in the body under conditions of long-term disease, as opposed to adrenaline, which is released in a fight-or-flight response.

Monkeys exposed to a 200-gauss magnetic field for four hours a day showed a generalized stress response for six days, which then declined, suggesting that the animals had adapted to the exposure. Researchers who stop experiments at that point can reasonably conclude that there has been no long-term damage. However, in subsequent experiments, it has been found that when the exposure continues, hormone and immune levels will fall far below normal and remain there. The immune system becomes exhausted and unable to rebound, opening the body to infectious diseases and an inability to fight malignancies.

Russian studies in the 1970s found that rats exposed very briefly to even small amounts of microwaves released stress hormones; the same results have been found at the 50-hertz frequency. Other studies found an exhaustion of the adrenal cortex with exposures to 130-gauss magnetic fields at the 50-hertz frequency. One thorough Russian biophysicist, N. A. Udintsev, found not only the slow stress response but also an adrenaline release in test animals exposed for just one day. Hormone levels did not return to normal for nearly two weeks. He also found a rise in blood-sugar levels and an insulin insufficiency at the same frequencies. Russian research has repeatedly reported high blood pressure and cardiac irregularities in humans exposed to microwave frequencies.

In 1976, J. J. Noval, at the Naval Air Development Center in Johnsville, Pennsylvania, solved the puzzle of how high-stress chemicals could be present in animals who did not appear to be feeling stressed. Noval found the same slow stress response that others had observed at very weak electric fields of around 5 thousandths of a volt per centimeter, but he determined that when this vibrated in the ELF ranges, the level of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine increased in the brain stem. This occurred in a way that sent a subliminal stress signal throughout the body without the animal's being aware of it.

The implications of EMFs in relation to subliminal stress are important for several reasons. Stress is often thought of as a purely emotional state, but it is also a chemical one and creates a whole cascade of chemical responses in the body. Prolonged chronic stress is detrimental to every anatomical system, including the reproductive one.

Subliminal stress may affect fertility and elevate blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and strokes, as well as suppress immune function . People may be unaware of these chemical alterations. Even short EMF exposures, like the use of a cordless phone on and off throughout the day, could cause spikes in such hormone levels.

More tests need to be done on a 24-hour basis that truly represent the way we interact with the various fields we are constantly exposed to. In addition, female test animals showed hormonal stress responses (such as fur discoloration) to magnetic fields, which male animals did not show. It is known that women react differently to stress than men do. What are the implications of this for infertility and reproductive problems in female office workers, for example?