“A good digestion turneth all to health”
George Herbert
Do you trust your gut instincts? If both ancient wisdom and science are to be believed, you should.
Because there’s growing evidence that the old adage about relying on our gut is based on unshakeable biological science. Our gut - or the gastro-intestinal tract - is intimately tied to our overall well-being, affecting not only the robustness of our physical but also our emotional and mental health.
However, the harmony of our digestive wellness is facing potential disruption from an unlikely source - EMF radiation from wireless devices. Today, let’s find out how wireless radiation impacts this vital bodily function, and what implications it has on our overall health.
Why Is Gut Health Important?
Before we talk about its importance, let’s quickly share what we mean by the ‘gut.’ To put it simply, our gut is one long tube that starts from our mouth, continues down to the stomach, our small and large intestines, and finally ends in the anus. There's a fascinating world of 'good' micro-organisms that live throughout our gastro-intestinal tract, which are indispensable for its healthy function (more on that later).
On the surface, it may seem that this organ system is only responsible for processing and digesting our food. After all, that’s what we learned from our school textbooks.
While it’s true that the gut’s duties include breaking down food and drink, assimilating nutrients, and pushing out the indigestible bits via the excretory system, science has finally started uncovering just how important our gut health is to several critical functions of our body.
Gut Microbiome & Immunity
Did you know that a healthy human body plays host to colonies of ‘good’ microbes that number in trillions? Yes! Composed of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and archaea, these complex colonies of microorganisms live harmoniously in our skin, nose, ears, and most importantly - in our gut.
This diverse and complex gut microbiome not only assists with digestion but has also been found to control inflammation along with regulating our metabolic, neurological, and hormonal functions. And most importantly, it has been found that our gut microbiome plays a critical role in protecting us against several acute and chronic diseases and pathogens.
In fact, scientific research now indicates that the majority of our body’s immune system resides in our gut!
The Gut-Brain Connection
Conventional science will have us assume that our brain is the sole control center of the body. That the commands always come from the brain to the gut. It turns out that this channel is far from a one-way street!
There’s a reason why our gut is often called our ‘second brain!’ Our brain and gut are connected with over 500 million nerve cells, including the vagus nerve - the biggest nerve connection between the two.
And - are you ready for this one? - far more nerve channels lead from the gut to our brain rather than the other way around. This means that our gut is very much a command center in itself, and its functioning affects our brain activity.
How The Gut Affects Our Mental & Emotional Health
Here’s another shocker - the nerve cells and microbiome in our gut produce neurotransmitters that control some of our most basic emotions! This includes happiness, fear, and anxiety.
For example, a large proportion of the hormone serotonin is produced in our gut, which is responsible for promoting feelings of well-being, stability, and happiness. It also plays a role in regulating our body clock.
In addition to serotonin, our gut produces a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) which helps us control feelings of anxiety or fear, along with helping to regulate our sleep cycle.
So you can see how our mental and emotional well-being is intimately tied to the smooth functioning of our gut. There is promising research encouraging clinical psychiatrists to incorporate a gut-microbiome focused strategy to support their patient’s mental health treatments.
How EMF Radiation Affects Our Gut Health
With the above facts laid out, it’s easy for us all to see that a healthy gut means a healthy mind, body, and soul. This also implies an important corollary - that anything disturbing the smooth functioning of our gut can disrupt every single aspect of our well-being.
Over the last few years, there is growing scientific evidence showing how EMF radiation can disturb our gut health. The following are a few of the aspects by which this disturbance is reported to occur:
Disruption of Gut Microbiome
A study conducted in 2017 analyzed how our skin’s healthy microbiome gets affected in the presence of static magnetic as well as EMF radiation. They found that the radiation emitted by cell phones and other wireless devices clearly disrupted the delicate host-microbiota relationship of the skin. The growth patterns of the microbial cultures were significantly changed in the presence of EMF radiation than when they grew in its absence.
Christine Rosche, a certified nutrition specialist and digestive microbiome health expert has over 25 years of experience researching the role of gut health and the vagus nerve in the occurrence of diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia, multiple sclerosis, and more. Ms. Rosche has gone on record to state that EMF exposure from our cell phones as well as Wi-Fi can have a ‘double whammy’ effect on our gut microbiome. This encourages the growth of bad bacteria and inhibits the natural growth of the good microbiome. Over time, this can severely disrupt our gut health and make us prone to several chronic diseases.
Immune-Suppressing Behaviour
By now, we know how our gut is the powerhouse that is majorly responsible for our immune system. By disrupting our gut microbiome, EMF radiation can have a cascading effect on our immunity - leading to a rise in auto-immune disorders, allergies, gluten intolerance, and oxidative stress.
Dr. Trevor Marshall is a biomedical scientist from Australia and director of the Autoimmunity Research Foundation. His career-long research on the rise of autoimmune disorders over the last few decades can be linked to the rapid proliferation of low-level EMF radiation which he terms the ‘electrosmog’. His study has shown that even very low levels of EMF radiation can be linked to the occurrence of chronic disease. Further, his work has shown that protection from EMF radiation has helped people with autoimmune disorders in healing and reducing their symptoms.
Increase in Antibiotic Resistance
Most of us know that there is a growing problem of antibiotic resistance these days. And most of us are being told that this antibiotic resistance is primarily because doctors are overprescribing antibiotics to their patients.
What most journals and media are choosing to ignore is how EMF radiation exposure is making bacteria more resistant to several types of antibiotics!
Scientific studies have shown that when bacteria are exposed to low-level ionizing or non-ionizing radiation, this increases their multi-drug antibiotic resistance. These studies linking EMF radiation and antibiotic resistance have evaluated not just EMF radiation emitted by mobile phones, but also those from base stations, laptops, mobile phone jammers, and even MRI scans - and they all point to the same results. This EMF-induced antibiotic resistance can encourage the growth of bad bacteria in our bodies and have serious implications on public health.
Final Thoughts
If there was ever a time to listen to our gut, it is now. There is clear evidence that shows how EMF radiation can disrupt the delicate balance of our gut microbiome - and in doing so, can have important consequences on our overall well-being. This realization definitely warrants a newfound appreciation of our gut’s role in our overall wellness. But more importantly, it should encourage us to take the steps needed to protect our gut’s complex and diverse flora from the impact of wireless radiation.
Citations:
- The Human Gut Microbiome – A Potential Controller of Wellness and Disease
- Presence of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria on Mobile Phones of Healthcare Workers
- Response of human bacteria to static magnetic field and radiofrequency electromagnetic field
- Electrosmog and autoimmune disease
- Effect of Radiofrequency Radiation on Antibacterial Susceptibility of Pathogenic Bacteria
- www.electricsense.com/emfs-zap-microbiome/
- www.electricsense.com/emfs-microbiome-solutions-chronic-disease/
- www.foodsmatter.com/coeliac-disease/general-articles/gluten-intolerance-electrosmog-09.html
- www.glutenfreehelp.info/autoimmune-disorders/emfs-and-your-gluten-free-health-quest/