Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance attributed to Electromagnetic Fields
The symptoms are real and treatable — that the fields trigger them could not be shown in blinded trials.
Also known as: Electrosensitivity · EHS · IEI-EMF · idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields · mobile phone sensitivity
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
People describe symptoms they connect with mobile phones, wifi, phone masts, power lines or screens: headache, disturbed sleep, exhaustion, trouble concentrating, palpitations, dizziness, burning or tingling skin. The symptoms are varied and form no single pattern — one of the reasons no diagnosis has been shaped from them so far. The expert bodies hold that there are no diagnostic criteria, no scientific basis for linking the symptoms to electromagnetic fields, and that electromagnetic hypersensitivity is not a medical diagnosis. The term proposed instead is “idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields” — a name that describes what someone reports without asserting a cause. In Sweden it is handled administratively as a functional impairment rather than an illness; that opens adjustments at home and at work, but says expressly nothing about the cause. The core of the evidence lies in trials in which neither the participants nor the examiners know whether the field is on or off. A review of some fifty such trials reaches the same result: those affected cannot say better than chance whether a field is present. Symptoms arise when an exposure is announced — even when there is none; and they ease when a shield is announced that is not in fact shielding. This is called a nocebo effect: expectation produces bodily symptoms, with no imagining in the everyday sense. Those who doubt it point out that a short session in a laboratory does not reproduce years of exposure, and that the most sensitive people cannot take part in such trials at all. That objection stands too. What follows is the same regardless of the dispute: the symptoms are real and deserve treatment. First to be ruled out is what produces the same picture and can be treated — thyroid, iron deficiency, vitamin B12 deficiency, sleep apnoea, migraine, sleep disorders, anxiety and states of exhaustion. After that, treatment follows the symptoms: sleep, structure of the day, movement, and where it weighs, cognitive behavioural support, which lowers the symptom burden in studies. Shielding measures have not shown an effect in blinded trials; measures that cost little and bring calm — the phone out of the bedroom at night, less screen in the evening — are sensible independently of that.
Thyroid, iron deficiency, vitamin B12, sleep apnoea, migraine, sleep disorders, anxiety and exhaustion produce exactly this picture — and each can be tackled.
The benefit is well established — but it runs through light, notifications and attention, not through the field. The night gets calmer all the same.
Distance, height, brightness, breaks, humidity — burning eyes and taut facial skin often improve markedly.
Fixed times, light in the morning, movement during the day. Of everything that helps here, sleep acts most strongly on headache, exhaustion and concentration.
In studies it lowers the symptom burden most reliably. It treats the handling of the symptoms, not their cause — and does not claim to know it.
In blinded trials no difference has appeared. Anyone shielding can keep the effort small: cost, building work and the narrowing of daily life arise either way.
Moving house, giving up work and withdrawing weigh heavily and are hard to undo. Such steps are worth a second opinion before they are taken.
Feeling dismissed keeps people searching — and often ends up with expensive measures that do nothing. A doctor who listens and still says plainly what is established is the biggest gain here.
There is no treatment for it. Shielding materials, mains disconnect switches and protective stones did not change the symptoms in studies — what the studies showed is that the symptoms are real and weigh heavily, while they do not coincide with the radiation actually present. What helps addresses the symptoms themselves: sleep, headache, tension, together with behavioural therapy. Taking the complaints seriously while leaving the explanation open is not a contradiction here.
About one to ten in a hundred people describe themselves as electrosensitive, depending on the survey. The complaints usually begin within minutes and last hours. In more than forty blinded trials, those affected could not tell better than chance whether a field was on or off — the complaints occurred equally in both cases. In Switzerland the limits for mobile phone installations lie well below the internationally recommended ones.
More than sixty different symptoms are reported, and they differ from person to person. That is exactly what makes it hard to form a clinical picture from them.
Most often named: poor sleep, headache, exhaustion and trouble concentrating. These four together have many treatable causes.
Above all on the face and hands, often at screen work. Dry air, long screen hours and rare blinking produce the same thing.
In trials they appear when an exposure is announced — even without one — and ease with an announced shield that is not shielding. This is no accusation; bodily symptoms really do arise.
Not proof of EHS. To exclude: a thyroid disorder explains exhaustion, disturbed sleep, palpitations and concentration together — and is treatable.
To exclude: iron deficiency causes fatigue, headache, poor concentration and restless legs — often long before the blood count changes.
To exclude: a deficiency causes tingling, trouble concentrating and remembering, and is easy to correct.
To exclude: a marked deficiency goes with exhaustion and muscle complaints. Proof of nothing — just one of the possibilities that is easy to check.
A lack causes exhaustion, problems concentrating, low mood and forgetfulness — and it is one of the few causes that can be found and put right with a single blood draw.
Low values are common with low mood. Whether correcting it lifts the mood is not settled; that it makes sense in winter at our latitudes is.
An empty store causes tiredness, lack of drive and problems concentrating long before any anaemia becomes visible. In women of childbearing age the most common single reason.
A building block of the cell coverings in the brain. The studies on mood are inconsistent; as part of a good diet it belongs there anyway.
Needed for making the messengers in the brain. It runs short with alcohol and under certain medicines — and it is always judged together with B12.
The complaints are real and burdensome — headache, disturbed sleep, exhaustion. What the studies did not achieve is the assignment: in blinded trials those affected could not tell whether a transmitter was on or off. That does not devalue the complaints, but it shifts the question: what else stands behind them, and what of that is measurable?
Sleep is here almost always what hurts most. Small amounts — 0.5 to 2 mg, one to two hours before bed — help falling asleep and shift the inner clock; more does not act more strongly. Screen light late in the evening cancels one’s own production, independently of any transmitter.
Exhaustion, headache and poor sleep are at the same time the picture of an iron deficiency. Having measured ferritin and thyroid makes one’s own reading stronger, not weaker — one then knows what it is not.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
Clearly worthwhile and well studied when deficient; fewer data for the wider uses. Fat-soluble — check blood levels at high doses.
Effects on inflammation and triglycerides established; cardiovascular prevention is mixed. Watch quality and freshness.
In pregnancy clearly established against neural-tube defects, otherwise mainly with deficiency. Can mask a B12 deficiency — watch both.
The question whether radio fields dampen melatonin production has been studied repeatedly; the results show no effect. What demonstrably lowers the value is light in the evening — the screen, not its transmitter.
The complaints are real and measurable — headache, exhaustion, racing heart. In controlled trials they occurred regardless of whether the field was on or off. Both belong said together: take the suffering seriously and look for the trigger where it is.
The described complaints — headache, restlessness, disturbed sleep — often also have everyday amplifiers. Late caffeine and too little sleep are the most common and the easiest to change.
The described complaints improve for many when sleep improves. Taking the device out of the bedroom works through quiet and light, regardless of radiation.