Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder of Mercola.com. An osteopathic physician, best-selling author and recipient of multiple awards in the field of natural health, his primary vision is to change the modern health paradigm by providing people with a valuable resource to help them take control of their health.

Due to his tireless efforts in disseminating important health information to the public, Dr. Mercola has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2009, he was named the top Ultimate Wellness Game Changer, which awards "100 innovators, visionaries and leaders in 10 categories who are harnessing the power of new media to reshape their fields and change the world."

He also has received prestigious awards from Emord and Associates P.C. for his contributions to holistic medicine, including the Sacred Fire of Liberty Award, Excellence in Health Journalism Award and the Freedom of Informed Choice Award.

LEARN MORE AT:

www.mercola.com

emf.mercola.com

SHOWNOTES

​2:05 - IF Biohackers: Intermittent Fasting + Real Foods + Life: Join Melanie's Facebook Group For A Weekly Episode GIVEAWAY, And To Discuss And Learn About All Things Biohacking! All Conversations Welcome!

2:20 - Follow Melanie On Instagram To See The Latest Moments, Products, And #AllTheThings! @MelanieAvalon

2:40 - BEAUTYCOUNTER: Non-Toxic Beauty Products Tested For Heavy Metals, Which Support Skin Health And Look Amazing! Shop At Beautycounter.Com/MelanieAvalon For Something Magical! For Exclusive Offers And Discounts, And More On The Science Of Skincare, Get On Melanie's Private Beautycounter Email List At MelanieAvalon.Com/CleanBeauty! Find Your Perfect Beautycounter Products With Melanie's Quiz: Melanieavalon.Com/Beautycounterquiz

Join Melanie's Facebook Group Clean Beauty And Safe Skincare With Melanie Avalon To Discuss And Learn About All The Things Clean Beauty, Beautycounter And Safe Skincare!

EMF*D: 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself (Dr. Joseph Mercola)

6:35 - Dr. mercola's introduction to EMF

8:00 - Heavy Metal and EMF 

8:15 - what is eMF, why are they problematic?

9:45 - X-Rays and microwaves

10:20 - NAD to repair damage done from EMF

10:50 - SELF DECODE: Get All Of Your Nutritional Questions Answered With Self Decode's Comprehensive Genetic Reports! Go To MelanieAvalon.Com/Getselfdecode For 10% Off With The Coupon Code Melanieavalon And Don't Miss A Thing By Signing Up For Melanie's Private Email List At MelanieAvalon.Com/EmailList!

The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast Episode #29 - Dr. Chris Shade

The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast Episode #17 - David Sinclair

13:25 - What Does EMF Do to the cell?

14:50 - how acute is the damage compared to distance from exposure

15:15 - cellphones

17:25 - Oura Ring EMF

The Melanie Avalon biohacking Podcast Episode #76 - Harpreet Rai (Oura Ring)

18:05 - CGM EMF

20:00 - how industry covers up eMF Harm

25:10 - FEALS: Feals Makes CBD Oil Which Satisfies ALL Of Melanie's Stringent Criteria - It's Premium, Full Spectrum, Organic, Tested, Pure CBD In MCT Oil! It's Delivered Directly To Your Doorstep. CBD Supports The Body's Natural Cannabinoid System, And Can Address An Array Of Issues, From Sleep To Stress To Chronic Pain, And More! Go To Feals.Com/Melanieavalon To Become A Member And Get 50% Off Your First Order, With Free Shipping!

The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast Episode #77 - Dr. Jason Fung

28:00 - future awareness of EMF

29:15 - mitigating wi-Fi Harm

29:40 - ethernet cables

Fat Cat 6 Ethernet Cable 50 ft White

31:55 - How does Bluetooth compare?

32:20 - 5G and 5G Wi-Fi

34:10 - dirty electricity

34:50 - grounding mats

35:05 - EMF Canopy

36:45 - eMF clothing

38:00 - headphones

EMF*D: 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself  (Dr. Joseph Mercola)

39:00 - Smart Meters

The EMF Safety Shop

39:30 - EMF hypersensitivity

TRANSCRIPT

Melanie Avalon: Hi, friends, welcome back to the show. I am so incredibly excited and thrilled about the conversation that I'm about to have. You guys have been begging, begging for a show on this topic. It is something that I personally take very, very seriously. It is something that I think has such a profound effect on our health and yet, I think, is often not appreciated the extent because it's something that we can't actually see, at least not when we're just walking around in our day-to-day lives. That is the dangers of electromagnetic fields. I am here with one of the most amazing authorities to talk about the subject. I'm here with Dr. Joseph Mercola. You guys probably are all familiar. He doesn't even need an introduction, but I will give it anyway. He's a physician and a New York Times bestselling author. He actually is the founder of the most visited health website, Mercola.com, which I have been-- I mean, I've perused that website for years and years. He's been all over the news. He has a myriad of books. His most recent one is EMF*D: 5G, Wi-Fi & Cell Phones: Hidden Harms and How to Protect Yourself. Basically, guys, I'm so excited about this conversation. Dr. Mercola, thank you so much for being here.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Thank you for having me, Melanie. Appreciate it.

Melanie Avalon: To start things off, normally I ask about your personal story and history and all of that, but actually what I'm really curious about is because you have a vast breadth of work with everything that you've done, what brought you to your interest in EMF’s specifically? Is it something that had been brewing or that you've been aware of for years? Was it more recent? What was the journey to that?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: I've been aware of it for decades and been writing about it on my site, but was only intellectually recognizing that I didn't believe that I was dangerous, like most people felt that because of my healthy lifestyle, I was immune to the impact. Then, I realized that was a sad mistake, so I corrected it. Basically, under the encouragement of Dr. Klinghardt, one of the leaders in this field and has really done a lot of pioneering work in educating individuals and treating individuals with damage from excessive exposure to this. I've stopped seeing patients about a dozen years ago now, but he's still seeing people and he refuses to accept new patients into his care unless they agree to reduce, if not eliminate as much as possible their exposure to the EMFs. He finally convinced me that it was worth exploring, and I took up on a three-year journey to write the book.

Melanie Avalon: Now I'm already on a tangent question, but I am a huge fan of Dr. Klinghardt’s work. Has he found a lot about heavy metal relations to how we react to EMFs?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: It exacerbates the toxicity from heavy metal exposure.

Melanie Avalon: Yeah. I personally had mercury toxicity, so that's always been on my radar. I feel this is such a basic question, but I want to just provide a nice foundation for listeners before we dive too deep into anything. What are EMFs? Obviously, there are more intense forms now. What are EMFs? What are the different types? Why are they a problem now?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: There's a wide spectrum of them. Some, as you mentioned, are normal. Sunlight is an example healthy EMF, so we should have exposure to it. Most of our exposures, after, in the last 20, 30 years or so have been from artificially induced frequencies that really exist very rarely, if at all, in the natural world. These would be like microwave radiations in the gigahertz frequencies, even some of the megahertz frequency. It exposures that as much higher than our cells are used to. As a result of this stress, it can cause oxidative damage to cells, very similar with slightly tweaked different mechanism as the dangerous natural EMFs, which would be against sunlight, like UVB with really high intensities and exposure. So, you know if you don't have much of a tan, and you go out in the beginning of the summer or the spring, you're going to get burned and that's dangerous, and that's causing big-time damage. It's just a matter of moderating the dose. Even beyond that frequency, you have ionizing radiation-- and actually UVB is ionizing radiation too, that's where it starts, like x-rays or gamma rays, so that can cause DNA breaks, because of the energy and the frequencies.

Even though the non-ionizing radiation like microwaves are touted as being non-dangerous because they don't cause this DNA breaks directly like the ionizing radiation does, they cause it indirectly by causing oxidative damage and basically cause the identical DNA damage and protein damage, cell, membrane damage, fats and just all down the line, increasing your oxidative stress, depleting important biomolecules like NAD, because you require NAD as a fuel substrate to activate an enzyme called PARP, which is short for Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, which repairs the DNA damage from either ionizing or non-ionizing radiation. As I said, it causes it pretty similarly, similar types of damage, so become NAD deplete and I suspect your audience is familiar with the importance and the complications of not having enough NAD, especially as you get older.

Melanie Avalon: Yes, NAD. It's one of our favorite topics around here. For listeners, if you aren't familiar, I'll put links in the show notes to other episode interviews that I've had on NAD. Quick question about the ionizing versus non-ionizing. What happens to the cell?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: It's not known quite for certain, there's some theories, but the prevailing one seems to be that it causes intracellular calcium levels to rise substantially because the levels are about 50,000 times higher outside the cell. When you have high levels inside the cell, it causes an increase in the concentration of two free radicals called super radical, or speroxide, and nitric oxide, which combined virtually instantaneously to form peroxynitrite, which is not a reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species. That lasts a lot longer than the pernicious one most people are familiar with, hydroxyl free radical. The disadvantage of that is because peroxynitrite lasts so long, it can travel-- hydroxyl can only literally travel the distance of a protein or two, whereas peroxynitrite because it lives like a million times longer and can travel actually outside the cell in a different cell, so it carries its free radical potential damage throughout the body much more effectively than hydroxyl free radical. That's why it's so much more dangerous.

It's essentially increasing the peroxynitrite, which has a downward cascading effect, it actually kicks off carbonyl free radical, which then causes damage to the cell membrane, stem cells, proteins, DNA, mitochondria, so it just really impairs biological health.

Melanie Avalon: Speaking to that systemic effect, I guess it depends what type of EMF and the source-- I don't know, I guess this is a question, what type of EMF and the source that you're exposed to, but how acute or local, is the damage from a given source? Like a cell phone, for example, is it pretty much hitting your whole body?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Radiation intensity decreases with the distance, so if you have a cell phone in your pocket, obviously the area that your cell phone is next, who's going to get the most damage, but then it does and will affect other ares of the body. Now, the cell phones on the table, and you're three feet away, it's going to affect most of your body symmetrically relatively that rather than locally, so it depends on your distance from the exposure as its point source. Most of our sources like Wi-Fi, or someone else's cell phone, or if you're going out or in your car, they're now point sources where that you're sitting on or having next to your body, so they're away from you, so it's pretty homogenous exposure.

Melanie Avalon: Okay. This is a question that I've had about cell phones. I'm just trying to understand it for the longest time. Does the cell phone both-- is it always giving out EMFs and receiving EMFs?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, of course, it is. There's two components. One is the cell phone tower, which emits a signal which is a big issue, because you don't even have to have a cell phone [unintelligible [00:08:40] isn't a problem. If you have a cell phone on, which is more of an issue, it's like a little Wi-Fi tower in your pocket. When it's sending [unintelligible [00:08:45] a signal to the cell phone tower, it's definitely emitting radiation. Even if it's on and the phone isn't in a call, it's still emitting signals on a regular basis. So, you're getting exposures all the time. That's why the best strategy is to keep it in airplane mode as much as possible. The benefit of that is that your battery will last much longer. Do you know how long my battery lasts before I have to recharge it?

Melanie Avalon: How long?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Take a guess.

Melanie Avalon: Okay, let me think, is it days?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yep. It's over a week, sometimes two.

Melanie Avalon: Wow.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: I don't have an external battery pack attached to it. It's just the regular battery.

Melanie Avalon: You keep it in airplane mode, what percent of the day?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: My average amount of minutes on the cell phone is typically three to four a day. That's typically when I have to download or upload my data from my Oura ring to the device. That's about the only time. Now, there are other times when I'm communicating with internet applications that require some sort of external security that requires a text, which just annoys me to heck, but nevertheless, I have to engage in that dialogue, and then I have to turn my phone on.

Melanie Avalon: I actually just interviewed Harpreet, the founder of Oura, and I was really impressed with everything that he had to say about the EMF, because that was actually one of the main reasons I didn't get an Oura ring for the longest time.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Since this is in start, it’s had the ability to put it in airplane mode, but they don't do a great job of educating people about that. People just assume as the case, but you actually have to go in there and turn it on.

Melanie Avalon: Yeah, I've got my system down.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, it's not that hard, but you do have to take the extra step.

Melanie Avalon: Yeah.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Just do it automatically..

Melanie Avalon: I've also been wearing CGMs recently, have you worn those before?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah.

Melanie Avalon: I really like them because you can put the apps into airplane mode and all of that, but apparently, CGMs are moving towards Bluetooth.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Basically RFIDs, so it's a passive device, and they don't really emit radiation unless you're scanning them.

Melanie Avalon: Apparently, the companies making the CGMs are moving towards like a Bluetooth-type situation. I was like, “No.”

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Most of them use Bluetooth now, but it's still only-- or actually not necessarily Bluetooth, they use NFC. Essentially, because it's such a tiny device, I mean, that sensor is extremely small, it's really hard to have an active radiation of emission. There's no battery in that thing. It's a very passive thing. The sensor embedded your under your skin isn't really a big problem. You're only exposed to it when you put your phone over to grab the data, which sometimes has to be like-- some people end up checking a few times an hour, which is the benefit of having it but the downside is you have the RF exposure.

Melanie Avalon: Did you think when they do make the updates where it's constantly updating it--

Dr. Joseph Mercola: It doesn’t update. It only updates when you [unintelligible [00:11:41] over.

Melanie Avalon: They're not out yet, but in the future, the companies want to make it, so that it's constantly updating.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: I'm not aware of those designs. I haven't seen or heard about them yet, but it doesn't make much physical sense, as I said, because the sensor is so small, it's embedded under your skin, and you'd have to have a battery as a power supply. Unless they have some type of circuitry that's going to take power from your body, which is possible. As far as I know, that's not being deployed. I've not seen any evidence of this happening.

Melanie Avalon: Well, hopefully. Okay, that's good news, then, because I was like I better just use the CGM now until that happens, and then I'll have to--

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Well, that’s the old ways to do it. I really think they're going to change. There's really no reason for it. There's the convenience is already there with the NFC chip.

Melanie Avalon: True. Speaking of companies, so one of the most fascinating discussions all throughout your book, EMF*D, is the pretty shocking measures that have been taken by companies to downplay the risks of EMFs. I was wanting to tell listeners a little bit about the potentially sneaky things that go on in the industry. You compare it to cigarettes, and what happened with all of that, for example?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: You have a whole chapter about that in the book, and they basically copy the playbook from the tobacco industry, even to the extent of hiring the same public relation firms that were responsible for essentially delaying the widely adopted acceptance of the dangers of smoking for five decades, 50 years. There's the same issue. Basically, they create doubt. There's been a book written about this and, I think, a video too or movie or film. It's called Merchants Of Doubt, what goes into this with the tobacco industry, not the cell phone industry. In fact, I contacted the authors of the books and asked them if they wanted to do an update to extend it to the cell phone industry. But the telephone industry has actually quite a significant lobby, and they actually improve the whole tobacco play because the tobacco industry hadn't essentially captured the federal regulatory agencies, like the CDC and the FDA, because when tobacco was out, the Surgeon General and the CDC were opposed to it, they gave warnings, yet so people continue to smoke because of the effective strategies that the tobacco industry was deploying.

The telephone industry or actually the lobbying telecommunications industry, have captured the FCC and the FDA, and all the public health authorities, including the CDC and the EPA, that they don't perceive this as an issue. They actually adopt the industry’s belief or propaganda that it's safe. That makes it exponentially more difficult to fight this. In fact, I think, it was under the Obama administration, the head of the FCC, the individual’s name escapes me, but he was the head of the lobbying industry for telecommunications prior to being appointed by Obama to the head of the FCC. The most egregious example of the fox guarding the henhouse. You get the very federal regulatory agencies that are assigned to protect the public being run by the very industry they're supposed to regulate. It's just beyond atrocious. In some ways, that's why this book is such a challenge because not only do you have the regulatory problems with the Feds and not being essentially captured by the industry, but you also have the-- something that cigarettes never did.

Cigarettes really never offered anyone convenience, an extraordinary convenience. It was more of a hassle, everyone had to pay for, it was an addiction. Everyone pretty much understood that it was causing them become sick eventually. even though they didn't believe it until the close of the 20th century, most people. But radiation is completely different. It offers enormous convenience. This changed most people's lives. If you have a cell phone and have a supercomputer to dialogue with, and interact with the web and pull stuff up when you need it, it's just an enormous, and Google Maps and all these conveniences. It's extraordinary convenience that essentially motivates or impairs the ability to want to consider this as a challenge, like I was. Most people weren’t living a healthy lifestyle like I was, and so they didn't necessarily have a justification for believing that wasn't hurting them, although it's still a similar process, thought process, they just didn't believe it at all. Even if there was a shred of evidence that it could be, they just discounted because it's too damn convenient for them.

Going back to the telecommunications’ strategy, they create doubt, by funding studies that they pay for that essentially counter what the credible scientists who are committed to truth identify as significant health challenges. This conflict, apparent ostensible conflict confuses the public and they think, “Well, if the scientists can't figure it out, then how am I supposed to figure it out? I'm just going to use it.” Those are the challenges that prevent most people from accepting this, and I don't know, it's going to be a long, long time before I think the culture really appreciates the dangers of this.

We're exposed to so much stuff-- and it's really taken a backseat. My book came out right when the COVID-- I started writing to three years ago, actually four years ago now, but it came out right before COVID. There was obviously much higher priorities at the time when you have a-- what apparently is an existential threat to your resistance with this pandemic, at least that's what the media wanted you to believe. The concerns about EMF exposure really takes a backseat.

Melanie Avalon: It's so true. I also recently interviewed Dr. Jason Fung and he released his book about cancer at the same time, and it was the same thing. All of these really big issues got lost.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Took a backseat. Yeah.

Melanie Avalon: I was actually going to ask you, do you think in the future that there is a potential for awareness to happen? Or, do you think because of how it is so tied into, like we said, our lifestyles on what we need that, unlike cigarettes, it might never come to light? What's actually happening?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, I don't see it happening for a long, long time because of the convenience issue. Fortunately, there probably are some technological workarounds where you can minimize the dangers, but the industry has to accept that there's a danger here. If they don't believe it isn't-- because all these modifications and adjustments in the future require some investments in infrastructure and technology to change things, and there's not really commitment or willingness to explore those. I don't know. Thankfully, it's still a free country and you can take steps to address it yourself personally, which I do, but it still makes life a bit more of a challenge. There's no question because one of the most important things you can do if you believe this is to not have Wi-Fi on in your house ever. You just get rid of it from your house. If you're on the internet a lot, and obviously you don't want to go on your phone, that means you've got to use ethernet cables, which is what pretty much everyone did in the 20th century.

When you’re online, you did not go online through a wireless connection. People just seem to forget that conveniently, that they didn't do it, they use a wire. That's the only way you got on. In the earlier 90s, to the mid-90s, it was through a telephone cable modem. Then, it eventually progressed into the ethernet cables later 90s, early 2000s. Then do wireless, so which is where we're at now and everyone's using wireless.

Melanie Avalon: Actually, I have really quick question about the ethernet. Are some cables themselves, they release more EMF than others?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: They're pretty much good. From the radio frequency perspectives, some of them carry current from the line so they have electrical fields., so you can get a shielded ethernet cable which is a little better, and they're not much more expensive. It's just as best to get a shielded ethernet cable. The flat cables which they actually-- They're relatively inexpensive, just within the last year or two, since the book came out, they had these flat-- and they can be long, 50, 100 foot so you can put them a long way. They're Cat7 shielded cables, and they're basically the same price that the Cat5 unshielded cables used to sell for just even a year ago.

Melanie Avalon: Perfect. For listeners, again, I'll put links to all this in the show notes.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: The flat cables take up much less space. They're not a round, hard cable, so they're much easier to conceal.

Melanie Avalon: I'm looking at mine right now. That's what I have. Yeah, it works really well. For the Wi-Fi, because I do have to randomly turn on the Wi-Fi. When I turn it on, when I leave to activate my security system--

Dr. Joseph Mercola: There's a workaround, you should probably find it. I mean, you shouldn't have to do that. Just get a box, push-button box. That's crazy that you have to use wireless to turn your security system on.

Melanie Avalon: It's for the self-installed security system, like for the cameras. It's only if I want to run the cameras that I have to have it on.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: I definitely would look and explore an alternative to that.

Melanie Avalon: Actually that's a really good question. Is that a problem when I'm not in the apartment and the Wi-Fi is on, and then if I turn it off, when I--?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: No. You're exposed to it needlessly, every time you turn it off and on.

Melanie Avalon: Yeah, that's so true.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Sometimes, you don’t have a choice, like your Oura ring, it's not a choice. You may not realize that you don't only need to use Bluetooth on your cell phone to upload your data from the Oura ring. I didn't realize that for a long time. I would put my whole phone out. Now, you're not going to upload your data to the cloud unless your cell phone is physically on, and that's good for backup if you want to view your data on the web. You just need to pair it, all you need is a Bluetooth.

Melanie Avalon: How does Bluetooth compare?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: It's pretty comfortable RF exposures Bluetooth Air Pods or iPods? Air Pods.

Melanie Avalon: Air Pods. I shudder whenever I see those.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, it's right in your brain. I mean, it goes in your ear canal, which is inside your head.

Melanie Avalon: At Christmas, everybody was getting them. I was like, “Stop, stop Don't put that in your head, family.” Wi-Fi the difference between the different Gs, is it a big difference as far as its potential for health issues?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Potentially, we don't know yet because they really haven't done the studies. I mean, it takes them literally a decade to do the studies. Most of the studies are just done on 3G, they didn't even really finish the 4G study, let alone 5. I don't know that it's going to be significantly different and it's the same ways to remediate against both. The key is basically just don't turn your cell phone on. The new 12-- is it the 12 series iPhone? I think they have a 5G chip, and I know that 11 didn't, that’s the year I have. I like iPhone better than any Android, because it's not Google, it's the primary one, and Apple has far better privacy.

Melanie Avalon: Also, in that world of the Gs, it's like I said, right now I am turning on my Wi-Fi while I'm not here. I had to actually call the company to get them to disable 5G in my router, so it doesn't turn on 5G when it's Wi-Fi.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Simple thing to do, because most of them-- if they have the capacity, if there's a chip in there that can broadcast Wi-Fi, then dump that router, throw it away, and buy one that doesn't. Because if it does, you have that capacity, there's a software upgrade over the air that they will change it and it will default back to the-- it will set it back to default, which is on, and you'll have to check it every day. If it doesn't exist to begin with, you don't have any problems, so just get a device that doesn't broadcast and does not have the potential, the chip’s not there. They do make them.

Melanie Avalon: I'm looking around to other things that I have going on. I have these Greenwave, I think it's the brand.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, those are filters, they're for dirty electricity.

Melanie Avalon: Yeah, so what is dirty electricity?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: High-voltage trenches in the line that can cause some biological impacts. Dave Stetzer makes series and Sam Milham who is an MD, PhD wrote a whole book called Dirty Electricity, which goes into great detail. Of course, I discussed it in the book.

Melanie Avalon: Do you find those devices are pretty effective for mitigating that?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, they seem to work. They pretty much reduce it. They're not the best way is to stop the source to begin with. Things like fluorescent light should not be used because they're a high source of it. Inverters for solar panels would be another one, DC to AC inverters.

Melanie Avalon: Then, how about grounding mats? How do you feel about those?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Those don't work in North America.

Melanie Avalon: Why?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, because the ground is contaminated with dirty electricity.

Melanie Avalon: Oh. I should not be using grounding mats?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Not unless you go to outside of North America.

Melanie Avalon: Oh, wow. Okay. I have an EMF canopy. I got it and I put it up and I was testing it with my EMF meter and it seemed to be reducing.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah. They're really good.

Melanie Avalon: But then, I got really freaked out because I was reading, and it was saying, if it's not properly installed and everything's perfect, then you might actually be making everything way worse. I was like, “Oh, goodness.”

Dr. Joseph Mercola: No, that's just not true. The most common mistake is to complete a Faraday cage, you need it on all sides, which includes the bottom, even if you live on the ground floor because the radiation comes through the ground and up into your system. You’ve got to put a shielding fabric below your bed and then connect it to the other sides, so you have a complete cage.

Melanie Avalon: See, I had put it on a ground while-- but now I know the problems with the grounding, I put it on a grounded sheet.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: No, it's not going to do a damn thing.

Melanie Avalon: I need to get grounding--?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: The manufacturer of the canopy should be familiar with it, because they may not recommend it for ground floor installation, but certainly for second floors because it's going to obviously come through the floor, but it comes through the ground too.

Melanie Avalon: The fabric that I had, it was a similar material I thought as the canopy, but it needed to be grounded, so that's not the same thing, I'm assuming.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: They depend materials, some of the fabric shielding material can be grounded. Some can't. There's a benefit to grounding, and if you can, because then not only blocks radio frequency fields, but also blocks electrical fields, if you're grounded and if the fabric can be grounded, some of the fabrics can't be.

Melanie Avalon: What about-- I have like EMF “blocking pajamas?”

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, problem is with all the clothing is that they don't protect the most important part of your body.

Melanie Avalon: Your brain?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Your head, yeah. I've contacted one of the manufacturers and they had to make me-- what looks like a beekeepers mask, that I put over my head when I travel with my clothing, and people just think I'm an excessive COVID concern.

Melanie Avalon: It's probably easier now because now you can do all the things.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: There's no way. You would get arrested if you did it before.

Melanie Avalon: I know. [laughs] Oh, my goodness.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Interestingly, I’ve flown once since COVID started, and the airlines will not accept that mask. They had me put a mask on underneath that hood. I would go to a medical facility where they have nurses and stuff and they would accept it. I didn't need a mask, and I was fine. It was really odd.

Melanie Avalon: That's really funny.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, but the airlines wouldn't allow it. Even if it's not over your nose. It slips over your nose, and they get on you. It's like, “Whoa,” they're really serious about this. Obviously you don't fight with them unless you want to get grounded and never be able to fly that airline the rest of your life.

Melanie Avalon: Not grounded in the good way, like we've been talking about. Okay, and then for headphones, I actually wear the ones you make, like the tube headphones. How do those compare to normal headphones?,

Dr. Joseph Mercola: It's a little bit better. There's no electrical connection there to transfer the current to your brain. If you're going to use it, those will be the best.

Melanie Avalon: Those are what I'm using right now. Are there any other practical tips?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: There's a lot of them. You can go to emf.mercola.com. This gives a summary of the book. That would be the best thing. It's the book best book written on EMFs.

Melanie Avalon: Yeah, 100%.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Yeah, and it will be for quite a while. I haven't seen anything better. I read almost every book out there before I wrote it, so I knew what was available and where the holes were, but it compiles it into a really easy to read, lots of illustrations and graphics, that communicates the message. It's not just this long, complex text that goes into electrical data that has your head spinning, as you know if you read it.

Melanie Avalon: You've provided all of the information, I felt like I needed about EMFs. How big of a deal are smart meters?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: They're a big deal. You shouldn't have them.

Melanie Avalon: For people who live in apartment, is there anything they can do?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: There are shields you can buy. I forget the name of the company. There's a Canadian company that I like, is pretty good. It's [unintelligible [00:29:07] and it's three letters. I think it's lessemf.com. I can't remember the three letters, but it's a pretty good one and they've got a lot of different shielding strategies for smart meters.

Melanie Avalon: Okay, perfect.

Dr. Joseph Mercola:  It's in the book. I just don't remember.

Melanie Avalon: Are some people more EMF sensitive than others?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: Sure. There's a small percentage of the population who is hypersensitive to it. I would definitely recommend the book because it goes into all the details. I think even the questions you asked, and I'm not sure, but if you look in the book, you'll probably find the answer there.

Melanie Avalon: Perfect. Well, thank you so much. The last question I always ask every single guest on the show and it's just because I realize how important mindset is. What is something that you're grateful for?

Dr. Joseph Mercola: I'm grateful for challenges because they catalyze me to explore the workarounds and come up with a creative solution.

Melanie Avalon: I love it. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Mercola. I look forward to your future work. This has been absolutely fantastic and enjoy your weekend.

Dr. Joseph Mercola: All right, you, too. Thanks.

Melanie Avalon: Bye.