Crunchy Stewardship

Living in a Microwave? Practical & Free Ways to Reduce EMF Exposure

• Katie Jones & Chrissy Rombach • Season 2 • Episode 33

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0:00 | 1:06:43

In this episode, Katie and Chrissy reunite to tackle a topic that is invisible but everywhere: Electromagnetic Frequencies (EMFs). From cell towers to the phone in your pocket, we are constantly exposed to radiation. But instead of living in fear, the ladies break down exactly what EMFs are and share simple, budget-friendly strategies to mitigate them in your home. Plus, they kick things off with a Random Revelation about the brand new "Food Pyramid" that is flipping the script on nutrition!

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • The New Food Pyramid: Why the government's new "Real Food" guidelines are a huge win for holistic health (and how they differ from the carb-heavy 90s pyramid).
  • EMF Basics: Understanding the difference between ionizing radiation (X-rays) and non-ionizing radiation (Wifi/Bluetooth) and why both matter.
  • The "Distance" Factor: Why keeping your phone just a few inches away from your body can drastically reduce exposure.
  • Medical Scans: When to ask for an MRI instead of a CT scan, and why you should still ask for the lead apron at the dentist.
  • Sleep Sanctuary: How to turn your bedroom into a low-EMF recovery zone without spending a dime.
  • The Bluetooth Debate: The risks of wireless earbuds and smarter alternatives.

Resources mentioned:


Chapters
00:00 Living in a Microwave? Practical & Free Ways to Reduce EMF Exposure
00:33 Introduction and Weather Update
01:10 Random Revelation: New Food Pyramid
02:56 Impact of the Old Food Pyramid
06:36 Personal Experiences with Diet Changes
11:45 Main Topic Introduction: EMFs
13:26 Understanding EMFs and Their Impact
22:58 Does Reducing Exposure Make A Difference?
27:29 How Much Radiation Are YOU Exposed To?
32:24 Practical Tips to Mitigate EMF Exposure
37:31 Phone Cases and EMF Exposure
38:39 A Family Story: X-rays and Leukemia
40:46 X-rays, MRIs, and Radiation Exposure
48:22 Day-to-Day EMF Reduction Tips
52:07 Bluetooth and EMF Concerns
55:03 Setting Up a Low-EMF Home
01:05:02 Unexpected Benefit From Limiting EMF Exposure


Remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)

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Chrissy

Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. I'm Chrissy Roach.

Katie

And I'm Katie Fiola Jones. We are cousins on a mission to honor God by stewarding our health spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Chrissy

From ancestral nutrition and natural remedies to biblical finance and holistic health, we are digging deep into how God intended us to live.

Katie

So grab yourself a raw milk latte and join us as we unpack the ins and outs of crunchy stewardship.

Chrissy

We are back today on this beautiful Saturday morning. It is currently 70 degrees and sunny here in North Carolina what, 10 degrees and snowing in Michigan.

Katie

I don't know if it's quite 10 degrees, but it is chilly. It is, I think 31 degrees, but yes, we have had a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of snow, and I am not quite used to that yet, but here we are.

Chrissy

So our climates are completely opposite right now. But nonetheless, we are together and we are recording this awesome episode that we have in store for you guys today. But first, before we get started on it, Katie, today is your turn to share our random revelation of the week. So what's been on your mind this week?

Katie

Ooh, yes. Yeah, my random revelation of the week is actually sharing a Maha win. So just this past week. I believe it was on like the sixth or seventh. So actually as we're recording this, it is still January, but as you are listening to this, it's going to be February. So this is kind of old news, but maybe it's new news to you because you haven't heard it yet. But my random revelation of the week is the new food pyramid that came out early January, and if you haven't heard about this, it is a huge deal for our country and honestly for the world because a lot of people look to America when it comes to food and regulations. And so this is a really big deal because the. You know, it's, these are the dietary guidelines for Americans. And so these guidelines impact school lunches. They impact what we feed to our military professionals. They impact what we, what, what is approved for snap, uh, benefit, uh, receivers. And so anyone who is impacted or receives any kind of government food, government provided food will be impacted by this new food pyramid. And I'm really excited about this because they, the new food pyramid is awesome. It's like actually getting to. Like what actually is healthy for us? So many of us grew up in the, uh, nineties and early two thousands, um, after they created the food pyramid at the time. This was in 1992, that they originally made that first food pyramid that so many of us saw in school, in our health classes and everything. And if you remember, at the very bottom was the largest portion of what they recommended that we eat in our diets. And it was made up of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta. So these are like highly processed foods and often white. Uh, flour created foods, and that was like the largest serving size that was recommended after that was smaller serving portions of vegetables and fruits, and then even smaller serving portions of, uh, fats or I guess not even fats. Technically, they, they classified it as milk, yogurt and cheese group. And then, um, on that same level is the, like proteins. And then I think that's maybe where, no, they had like, uh, meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts in that one group. So I guess both the milk, like the dairy one and the, the protein one includes some fats in it. Um, oh, I guess, but at the very top, that's where they say like, fats, oils, and sweets. So they even included sugar in the pyramid. So now. If you go Google this and I'll, I'll, I'll share a link to it'cause it's now on the government website. It's real food.gov. You can go and check out the new food pyramid and it's completely flipped upside down where the biggest portions are on the top. And at the very bottom is the point. So it's an upside down triangle now. And you have at the very top your proteins and healthy fats alongside of vegetables and fruits. And so the way that they've actually created it is almost like in a three portion system where they have, instead of like pyramids where you have like the levels and I, here I am like showing my hands to Chrissy of like, here are the, here are the bars, here are the lines. You have to go Google it and look it up.'cause it'll make sense as I'm describing it. But they have like two portions of. Like proteins and healthy fats combined and then vegetables and fruits combined. And then at the very bottom, which is the smallest amount, it's the point of the triangle at the bottom, they have whole grains. So that's like switched from all these refined flour products basically. And they say whole grains. And then if you go and actually read the dietary recommendations, they talk about how ultra processed foods are really bad and can impact your health. They talk about how sugar really shouldn't be a part of a healthy diet at all. And they emphasize things like switching back to whole milks and having healthy fats such as butter and tallow in our diets or avocado oil or um. Olive oil. And so they have this, they've basically flipped it upside down to what truly will keep people healthy. And this is a huge win because a lot of people will be impacted by this. And I'm excited just to see how this will change things, especially like for school kids, you know, who are dependent on the food system inside of their schools to provide their meals every single day. So yeah, I'm, I'm excited about it. That, and I'm curious to know what you guys think. So if you have thoughts on it, join us in our Facebook group to let us know.

Chrissy

You know what's wild also is I'm just looking at the two food pyramids on my laptop just

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

by side next to each other right now as you're saying it. And the old one just kind of looks, I look at that kind of food and I'm like, if I think about how my body feels when I incorporate a ton of carbohydrates and lots of fruits and. More just like fruits and carbs essentially. Like I just feel so run down

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

I've even noticed, I told Max today, he offered me some blueberries and I was like, you know what, honestly, fruit recently has like given me stomach eggs because of the sugar content in the fruit because it's so incredibly sweet and like. Pungent in my mouth now, now that I've taken sugar out of my diet. I don't know if you guys haven't necessarily been on this journey with us very much, but I've been doing a full gut reset, um, in an attempt to balance my hormones. And, uh, my husband and I, we brought our diets all the way down to just meat and vegetables. And one of the biggest parts was taking out everything that had sugar in it, other than 25 grams of fructose from fruit each day. since doing that, like don't even desire fruit really. I don't desire the sweet stuff. It's just, it's so kind of aggressive when I eat it. And so looking at this old food pyramid, I look at the bottom two levels and I'm like, wow, if I ate like that, that would just. It just looks like a stomach ache to me. looking at the new food pyramid and I see the carrots and the broccoli and the squash and the tomato, and I'm like, wow, tho, like that's what I snack on now is like carrots and peanut butter, you know, or celery and peanut butter. Those are, that's my favorite go-to snack of getting like the vegetables, the protein, and the fat altogether. And so yeah, the new food pyramid, just looking at it makes my tummy feel happier and better than looking at the old food pyramid I had. I can like see food and know exactly how it's going to make me feel when I eat it. It's actually kind of wild once you really start paying attention to the food you eat and being intentional with what you put into your body, you can really start to tell how each type of food individually affects your energy levels, affects even your congestion, things like that, like dairy products tend to make you more congested. Um, affects your acne, your mood, your yeah, just everything all the way around. So I'm, I'm really excited about this new food pyramid. I'm really hoping that it kind of gains traction really quickly in like the larger corporations and things like that, and doesn't take too much time to gain traction.

Katie

Yeah. Yeah. It's really sad when you actually go onto their website too. They, they talk about this a bit more, but the food pyramid that we had followed for so many decades was actually a marketing scheme basically for like cereal companies, because cereal is literally listed on that major portion there for the food pyramid. They're like, eat cereals. And I watched this documentary, I may have mentioned it many, many months ago. It's been about a year ago since I watched it, but it made a bit impact on me and, uh, gosh, I think it was called Real Food or I don't, I don't remember. I'll have to look it up. Do you remember?

Chrissy

watched it. Uh oh shoot.

Katie

I'll look it up. It basically followed some families that they were, they, they were kids who were trying to lose weight.

Chrissy

oh, it's not to die for.

Katie

No, but that one is the food Dies one,

Chrissy

Yeah.

Katie

which is also really good.

Chrissy

All. Yes, very true.

Katie

lots of really good documentaries. The one that I'm thinking about is this one where they followed families whose kids were severely overweight and we're trying to lose weight. And the kids are talking about how they, they're trying to do everything that they can. They're following the food pyramid. And so, so many of these families believe that having a bowl of cereal with skim milk is considered a healthy meal. And that is like so wrong on so many levels, but so many people think that the government had been, they believed the government that they were putting out these good. Healthy food, dietary recommendations. And unfortunately it was just all something that had been conceived of by these big corporations who are just trying to make money off of us. And it's really unfortunate and I, I've seen how it's impacted our family. We did all the like skim and low fat stuff as well, and I've seen how it's impacted people around the world. And now we wonder why we're so sick here in America, and maybe it's because our food pyramid was severely distorted, so yeah.

Chrissy

Very much so. Very much so. Well anyways, our, our main. Topic of conversation today is not necessarily mostly

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

although it can be related to food in some way, shape, or form. Um, today we're actually gonna be talking about EMFs, which are electromagnetic frequencies. These are all over the place, everywhere. No matter where you're walking, your body is getting hit with these electromagnetic frequencies. Now, essentially what they are is waves that are going through the air. We're talking cell signals, wifi signals, satellite signals, electricity. I don't know if you've ever walked underneath power lines or nearby power lines and like heard the buzzing of the power lines, or right when you turn on a light, you can hear the buzzing a little bit of it. Um, I know personally in my own home I can hear my husband's computer buzzing and. We do have it in our bedroom just because we live in a small one bedroom apartment. And so the office in the bedroom have to share and everything gets unplugged at the end of the night before we go to bed because I have woken up multiple times in the middle of the night hearing ringing from his computer. So today we're just gonna talk about what is EMF, what do they do to us? How do they affect our bodies? And what are some things that we can do to protect ourselves And, um, just be aware of them around us and take little steps to, um, combat them and mitigate them as best as we can. So.

Katie

It's one of those topics that as I dive into it, it is, I, I, I will say I have had a lot of fear over EMFs because of what I have learned about all of it, especially because I feel so powerless against them because, as you say, Chrissy, these EMFs are literally everywhere and they actually come in forms that were have been around forever, including ultraviolet light, is technically on the frequency levels of EMS. So you think about like the sun actual visible light that is created. With EMFs and, and they are kind of technically a level of EMFs. There is like an actual range of the impact of, or like the high frequencies of EMFs. And so you think of something like actual radioactive waste being like kind of the worst of the worst. So that, that is kind of the worst. The second level kind of comes into like things like x-rays, so I guess what radioactive waist is gamma rays. Let me, let me pull up this. I have a, a scale here, so, okay, so on the worst side you have gamma rays, which can be like those radioactive waist you think of like stuff that you see in sci-fi movies where it turns people into like a alien or something. Maybe not an alien, but like a lizard. Yeah, exactly.

Chrissy

like the entire city's wiped out by this radiation went through and everyone got cancer.

Katie

Yes. So that's like the worst of the worst. We, all of us kind of know, like that stuff is really bad. X-rays is actually right after that. So whenever we get an x-ray for a broken bone or a body for whatever reason that is in kind of the second level, then you actually have ultraviolet, which is kind of one of those things that we maybe don't realize, but it depends on like the, like how close it is to us when it, like, how it makes that impact on our bodies. And that goes for all frequencies. If they're further away, obviously they're not impacting us as greatly as like if we're standing directly next to radioactive waste, obviously that is going to impact us more if than if it's on the other side of the world. Then you have infrared, then you have microwaves, which many people kind of know microwaves have that radiation to it. And then you have things radio frequencies. So radio frequencies are common. They're pretty much everywhere. They are impacting us constantly and probably are the most like used around the world. Um, so you think of like cell phones and cell phone towers. Obviously radios themselves or TVs or computers, all of those things are kind of in that radio frequency level. That also includes like Bluetooth devices. Um, and so. Then you get further down and there's, uh, like lower levels, things called lfs, vfs and lfs, which I'm not super familiar with. But this scale is showing me that there's like the power lines that, um, are above and below ground. So obviously the ones that are below ground are a little bit better because they're not like,

Chrissy

I think the is low frequency and VLF is very low frequency.

Katie

that makes sense. Yeah. There we go. So the point is that. They're everywhere. We really can't avoid them, especially when we depend on them, right? So many of us obviously use cell phones and laptops, and we use the wifi, and we, even if, even if we don't have a smartphone or we don't have a laptop, we're using some of these frequencies in, in some way, shape, or form, because even just electricity gives off these EMFs as well. And so I started diving deeper into it and understanding, okay, we're, there's nowhere you can go that you can completely hide from these things. So what, what is the risk of all of this? And so when I started diving into more of that, like. Actual impact on the body. It freaked me out even more because there, it really depends on who you talk to, because now I, I, I was talking to one of Wes' cousins who was like, oh, well, you know, is it just a drop in the bucket that these things are impacting us? Or is it really making a big deal or not? So there's a lot of research out there that some people believe and some people don't. Now, again, it really depends on who you're asking. But EMFs now have been linked to a lot more things such as cancers, and especially things like brain cancers, which is really scary. Um, brain cancers as well as like blood cancers. And so you think about these EMF, like these frequencies impacting your body and what they might be doing. Like you just think about like, even like a microwave. When you put something in a microwave, it, there's something weird going on with the food when it is in there and you wonder kind of what it is. And so if you think about we are kind of living in a giant microwave with all of these EMFs around us, what is happening to the insides of our bodies because of that? And so. Yeah, cancer's all over the place, and especially in much younger ages. I mean, I, I had one of my best friend's, uh, brothers just passed away from brain cancer and he was in his thirties and it's like a 30-year-old should not be getting brain cancer. And then if you see like kids younger and younger and younger who are getting all sorts of various cancers and you're like, why is this happening? Obviously I think there is a lot that, a lot of different toxins that impact our lives, but EMFs are one of those ones that just in the last, like decade alone, have. Uh, like severely increased in our world. And so you think of all, all the like towers that are going up everywhere to make internet service better and to make cell phone reception better. And you think, oh, wow, that's great. Now I'll be able to talk on my phone while I'm hiking in the middle of nowhere. But at the same time, that means that there are more frequencies everywhere and impacting us all the time. And they're, they're more potent and more toxic as they kind of get combined into us, you know? So.

Chrissy

Yeah, yeah. story that you just said. Uh, cell towers going up everywhere. Made me think of, uh, my mom's house actually. So they moved into this house probably three years ago, they were one of the first homes built neighborhood, and there was not a cell tower anywhere nearby when they moved in. And recently the elementary up, they built an elementary school in that area and a bunch of the parents and teachers started complaining to the city that there was no cell signal at this elementary school. And it was a security risk. It was a safety risk because if there was an emergency, they couldn't call 9 1 1 essentially because there's no cell signal at the school. And so the city decided we are going to build a cell tower, and they put it right on the other side of the fence from the elementary school. But with that, the parents then again complained and kind of threw a fit. My mom was really happy about it because she got cell signal finally in her neighborhood for two weeks until everybody at the elementary school started throwing a fit about it because the cell tower was too close to the elementary school that it was exposing all their children to these radio frequencies. Throughout the entire day while they're at school and they have no option essentially. So I think there's, there's a really good balance where like, yes, we really do need these radio waves. We've built an entire society around them that we need them in order to contact emergency services and communicate with one another and things like that. But at the same time, like let's be really wise about it and where we put the strongest of these waves and what we do with it. So there are some strategies we can take as consumers in our day-to-day that are very small, very cheap, but also very effective depending on where you live. Now, something that will be super effective for Katie is not necessarily gonna be super effective for me because she lives on what, two acres kind of in rural Michigan.

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

I live in an apartment complex with 400 people.

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

There, it's very, very different what's going to work for different people. But I would encourage you guys, like both Katie and I had a lot of fear when we started looking into these and things like that. But I would encourage you, instead of taking on a spirit of fear, we can be hopeful that God has given us resources to protect ourselves and we can use that wisdom that God has given us to take steps for our protection, um, and not expose ourselves any more so than is necessary.

Katie

Yeah. And so I, I had another thought as we get into some of these things that we can do, um, to help mitigate. And reduce the impact or exposure to EMFs because going back to that conversation I had with Wes' cousin, he was asking me, does it really make an impact to, you know, use your cell phone on speaker versus using it against your head? And I, first off, I guess, you know, long story short, I believe there is an impact based on some of the research that I have been doing now, I've been following someone, this guy called, he calls himself the EMF guy and he shares tons and tons of research out there about the impact of EMFs. And one thing that he brings up in some of his information and, and his emails and all that stuff, I, I read a lot of this stuff. One of the things he mentions is that a lot of the studies that are currently out there. Study the impact of cell phone radiation when a cell phone is about three feet from you. So they'll say, oh yeah, long-term use of a cell phone is fine. Like, here's the impact it has on you. But when you go and actually look at the information, the studies are done on a cell phone that is three feet or more away from you. Now, most of us don't use a cell phone three feet away from us during the day. In fact, most of us keep our cell phone directly in our pocket, or it's right next to us on our desk, or it's right next to us while we sleep. It is not three feet or more. And so what we need is better studies that are done showing what the impact is. Of people who are using phones on a consistent basis when they're directly next to us. Now more and more people are doing that, but kind of the, the information that you Google and will find will show you, oh yeah. These studies show that the impact of cell phone radiation is not that bad. Well, it's kind of like the vaccine studies. When you look, when you start to look at how they actually did vaccine studies, doctors will say, oh yeah, these vaccines have been placebo tested. Well, when you actually look to see what was that placebo that they tested a vaccine against, the placebo was just a different vaccine. And so they, they have never really done actual true placebo tests on vaccines. And so you can't ever say what, how does a vaccine impact you compared to just not taking a vaccine? And so it's kind of the same thing with these radio frequency, like cell phone radiation studies that they've been doing is they study them against. Situations that just don't exist for us. Of course, all of us use our cell phones less than three feet away from us, like all throughout the day. So my point is that if you right now go onto Google and look at some of these studies, you might just look at the kind of summary of them and, and it'll say, oh yeah, they're fine. But then you start diving into how they did the study and it just, it's not like a gold standard study because none of us use our cell phones that way. So all that to say, I do believe that we can actually make an impact with small steps that we can be taking in order to reduce our levels of like the radio frequencies in our lives. Because the reality is that the. It all compounds, right? We, we get it from everywhere. We get it from all of our appliances in our house. We get it from our wifi, we get it from the cell towers nearby. We get it from our cell phone, we get it from our laptop. And Mo, many of us live in households that have several of these devices. So you think about all of the radiation that is happening at all times. It's nothing like when most of us were kids. Like, I mean, cell phones were not yet a thing when I was really little and the internet was just becoming a thing. So our children these days are literally growing up in microwaves. Like our house is like a giant microwave. And that's what I keep thinking is like Malachi's childhood is so different than my childhood, just because we have all these things. So now let's talk about, unless you had anything else to say, Chrissy.

Chrissy

Yes, I did actually. I wanted to, um, show enlighten. Express, I wanted to share, um, exactly how you can find how much EMF your phone puts out at any given point in time, so you can actually go into your settings on your phone. I have an iPhone 12, 13, I don't even know getting up there. It's getting old, you can go into settings and search in the settings, search bar RF exposure, that's radio frequency exposure, and it'll come up with a tab and it talks about how Apple, at least on my iPhone, has gone through the studies and. Really tested their products to make sure that they meet radio frequency requirements. So SAR is the specific absorption rate. I'm reading this specifically off of my phone. On the settings app refers to the rate at which the body absorbs radio frequent energy. The a r limit is 1.6 watts per kilogram. Um, in countries that set the limit, averaged over one gram of tissue and two watts per kilogram. In countries that set the limit averaged over 10 grams of tissue. So I don't know exactly what that means, but essentially your limit is 1.6 watts per kilogram. You're exposed to. And then it goes on to say, during testing, iPhone radios are set to their highest transmission levels. An SAR is evaluated in real time over time intervals as specified by applicable regulations. iPhone is evaluated in positions that simulate uses against the head with no separation and when worn or carried in the torso of the body with five millimeters of separation. So essentially this is saying that Apple products passed their. Radio frequency exposure limit studies where the phone was separated from the body for at by at least five millimeters, which is half a centimeter. Now, I don't know about you guys, but if I am talking in a loud room on the cell phone, I don't have a five millimeter separation between the phone and my ear. That phone is smack up against my ear, up against my face. When it's in my back pocket. That phone is smack up against my butt. You know, like there is not five millimeters of separation between my skin and my phone. So now we have to take into account that even though these companies have done the research, like Katie was saying, the research has been done and they say that they're passing. It's not necessarily completely accurate because the studies were done at least with Apple at half a centimeter away from the skin rather than touching the skin. And you can even do the test on your own. There, there are little like, um, EMF testers that you can buy off of Amazon. You just turn'em on and they will buzz super loud and tell you the frequency of whatever thing you were nearby. So you can take it and like put it right up against your phone and see exactly how much, um, are coming from your phone at any given point in time. Um, if you use this, this product, I don't remember exactly what it's called. Do you know what it's called? Katie?

Katie

Um, are you talking about just like the EMF radar thingies? That, so this one, are you talking about like a specific brand or just like, what is this device called?

Chrissy

Just what

Katie

So this, I, I was actually googling something else, but this was on the, the webpage. It's, um, they're just like meters detectors, like EMF detectors. So yeah, if you, this one recommends a brand called this Tri Field Meter, or maybe it's just Tri Field, T-R-I-F-I-E-L-D. But for some reason they put this in front of it, I dunno. And yeah, just EMF readers or devices. I'm sure if you put any of that into Amazon, you'd find it. But there's a website that I've looked at for a lot of different things when it comes to tech like health. Um, they're, they're actually, the website is called Tech Wellness uh, dot com. And so they have,

Chrissy

I love that website.

Katie

yeah. Is that the one you were talking about earlier? To me?

Chrissy

Yes.

Katie

Okay. I was googling something and then I recognized the website when it came up and I was like, oh, I've been on this website a lot actually, because I was looking up, uh, blue light glasses before and was looking up. Well, there was, there was some device I was looking up recently. Um, oh, I've been looking for actually like a cell phone case for my phone now. We'll, we'll kind of start to get into some of the things that we recommend based on what we've learned. Obviously, we're not experts, but this is what the experts tell us that we should do. So we're passing this information onto you guys. So these are some ways that you can help mitigate the impact or reduce your exposure to EMFs. And one of the things is using a, uh. Wifi blocking phone case or like radio EMF blocking phone case. And I actually don't have an iPhone. I have a Google Pixel and they are less common than iPhones. And so when you go to look for EMF blocking phone cases, the ones that they have are Google pixels are all the ugly ones. And it's so dumb because I'm like, I don't want this ugly red case. The one, they only have like red or black and I would love like gray or blue or something besides red or black. Anyway, it's just funny. So I've been looking everywhere and this was one of the websites I stumbled upon when I was looking for just different devices or different phone cases for my device. So that's one thing. But Chrissy, you brought up earlier something about phone cases that you were concerned about.

Chrissy

when I was looking through EWG, which is the environmental working group, they're a very qualified group of people who go through and test a lot of our environment for toxins and things like that. Mostly in terms of personal care and sunscreen and food and things like that. But they also have an EMF section of their website and on their cell phone guide that they say, they say to actually skip the radiation shield because using a radiation shield such as an antenna cap or a keypad cover reduces the connection quality and transmits greater energy. They say in another part of this area, that lower cell signal actually emits greater EMFs from your phone because your phone has to work harder to find the signal. I think in terms of like. An EMF blocking phone case. I we're, I'm kind of at like a crossroads of, okay, well this one person says that you want to block the EMFs from your phone so that they're not hitting you. But then this other person says, well, it's just gonna make your phone work harder to find the And so it's gonna release more EMFs. And so I'm kind of at this crossroads, okay, I have these two different pieces of information that seem to be contrasting each other. What do I do about it? And at this point in time, my answer has been I haven't changed my phone case. I don't really plan on changing my phone case just because. I really like my phone case. It's got flowers on it and it's clear, and I have a green phone and it's cute, I have taken steps to reduce how much radiation or EMFs I actually receive straight to my head and my body. So it's often, instead of putting my phone in my back pocket, I'll put it in my purse or in whatever bag I happen to be carrying at that time. That gives a little bit of distance between my phone and my human. And then when I'm talking on the phone, I prefer to talk on speaker phone anyways. It's just easier for me because I don't like my phone screen getting all greasy from my cheek or my ear because that always happens. But if I'm. Talking on the phone in a public setting and I can't really put it on speaker phone. I will hold my phone with my fingertips kind of in front of the screen as, as we're, I'm talking about this. I'm literally showing Katie what I do as I kind of make my hand into a c shape and hold my fingertips past the screen so that way when I put my phone up to my head, I have probably about an inch of my fingertips touching my head and my phone isn't actually touching my head at all. So

Katie

like that.

Chrissy

that. It works pretty well. I can still hear the conversations just fine if I'm in a public setting that's quiet enough. Um, like if I'm calling people from my office, that's always really awkward to call people while I'm

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

'cause I feel like the entire office can hear me. But I've done that. Um. And those, I think at least personally, are the most realistic strategies that I can take for my phone to limit exposures from this phone specifically. Now, there are other things, um, in and around our house, Katie, if you wanna touch on some other things that you've done. Yeah.

Katie

Yeah, I, I wanted to recommend first if you are looking to get a phone case, if you do choose to go that route. That's honestly, so I have seen that the EWG group does not recommend that and, and that kind of surprised me mostly because a lot of the other EMF peoples out there, like the EMF guy specifically who I read a lot of his stuff, he does recommend using a phone case. So if you do choose to get one, and so does tech wellness.

Chrissy

the phone case also. In

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

tech wellness recommends the phone case with a stylus. They

Katie

Yeah. Like not touching it.

Chrissy

finger. They say, use a stylus instead. It, it's

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

much, literally just like a little bit of space between you and this product causes great changes in your exposure.

Katie

Well, because again, like I said, like there's been a lot of blood cancers and you think about the F like radio frequencies, like the actual EMFs that your blood is exposed to. When it's touching it, it's just like it insane. Like some of the studies that I've seen, the changes in people's blood makeup or I don't even know exactly how it works, but that's, that's why.

Chrissy

Okay. Crazy thing that you just said that, have you ever heard the story of how so backstory? Our moms have a brother who died as a child from leukemia,

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

Katie, have you ever heard the story of grandma's theory as to why he got leukemia?

Katie

Hmm. Enlighten me'cause I don't know if I remember.

Chrissy

Okay, so about, I wanna say like six months to a year before he got leukemia, he swallowed like a penny or a paperclip something like that, grandma brought him to the doctor and they did multiple x-rays on him in a row watching this penny or a paperclip or something, travel through his digestive system until it came out and it was lots of x-rays. I don't know exactly. My mom was I think four or five when he was diagnosed with cancer. So

Katie

Uh.

Chrissy

speaking 55 years down the line from the perspective of a four or 5-year-old, but. She said they did a bunch of x-rays on him to watch this paperclip go through his body to make sure it didn't get stuck anywhere. And then soon after he was diagnosed with leukemia. And so my mom told me that grandma always had a suspicion that all of those x-rays were related to his diagnosis. Fun

Katie

That's so wild. I, no, I have not actually heard that before. But

Chrissy

Yeah.

Katie

mean, mother's intuition is, there's something to be said about it where you, something happens and then a child is changed after that and you're like, well, here's that one factor that was very different. That could have been that moment and Wow, that's really fascinating. I should talk to my mom about that.'cause she's the oldest and she might have more memories, but she's never told me about that herself. So,

Chrissy

I

Katie

very fascinating.

Chrissy

a better understanding of what

Katie

Yeah,

Chrissy

she like 10 or 12

Katie

yeah, yeah. She was a little bit older, so Yeah. I'll have to, I'll have to ask her. But cool. Yeah. Well, e the, any kind of x-ray is obviously on the, the further line of radia, you know, radio exposure, the actual EMF exposure. So if you can avoid getting any kind of x-ray as much as possible, that's the best.

Chrissy

Now, I would also give this recommendation an MRI. Um, magnetic resonance Imaging does not use radio frequency waves to find the images. So

Katie

Hmm.

Chrissy

do PET scans do x-rays do, but MRIs do not. They use magnets to create the images.

Katie

Oh yeah.

Chrissy

if a doctor recommends a CT scan, now there are reasons for cts versus MRIs. They have a lot of different. Criteria. Cts are much faster, but give a little bit of a more blurry image. MRIs take 5 million years and you have to lay still for like an hour and it's really loud and obnoxious, but they get a much clearer image. So I would encourage you as a consumer, as somebody who's keeping an eye out for your health, if you have a non-urgent scan that's being done. Obviously PET scan is very different because that's looking at cancer and it shows things show up differently on a PET scan. But if a doctor recommends a CT scan and for a non-urgent issue, I would encourage you to ask the doctor if you could have an MRI instead, because you are not going to be exposed to nearly as much radiation as you would be getting a CT scan just saying.

Katie

I didn't know that. That's really fascinating. I have had both of those. I've had pretty much all the scans. Not a PET scan, but I've had the CT and MRI, and I've had x-rays and stuff, but I didn't know. About that. And the reason I did have the CT scan was in the hospital when I needed it more urgently. So that makes a little bit more sense than the MRI when I had my knee, you know, my ACL, which I'm sure you had at the time when you had your ACL stuff and yeah, I didn't know that.

Chrissy

Yeah. Yeah. So, and also for patients who are hospitalized for long periods of time, they do, actually, I was very encouraged by this. They do keep track of how much radiation exposure a

Katie

Hmm,

Chrissy

gets during their time in the hospital. And so especially patients who are admitted for long, long periods of time, six months to a year, um, they'll keep track of how much radiation they expose'em to, and they'll postpone scans and um, scans and things like that merely just because of the risk of radiation exposure. Additionally,

Katie

smart.

Chrissy

is that, um, or staff and radiation staff, like x-ray staff, CT staff, things like that, they wear, um, radiation sensors essentially underneath their lead. Uh,

Katie

Apron.

Chrissy

guess lead aprons. And so that additionally tracks how much radiation they're exposed to through x-rays, cts, things like that, that they're

Katie

Wow.

Chrissy

on a regular basis. And I have also heard that women who are early in their pregnancy are not always allowed in certain kind of surgeries, especially like a cath lab surgery, where

Katie

Oh

Chrissy

x-ray to do the entire surgery.

Katie

yeah.

Chrissy

women are not allowed to be a part of that surgery because of the risks of the radiation to the baby. So

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

there I am encouraged that there are even like precautions that are being taken because like industries do recognize that these are dangerous. Um, so I'm encouraged that. There are processes and things that are in place to protect us. Um, one thing I'd also encourage you, I know my dentist told me this the last time I went to go get

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

oh, you don't need the lead apron anymore. Our x-rays have changed and they're better. You don't need the lead apron.

Katie

What

Chrissy

Please ask for the lead apron. Yeah, asked for it anyways. I said, I don't care. I want it. they were like, okay. They looked at me kind of weird, but um, yeah, you go to the dentist, maybe make sure they still give you the lead apron for your x-rays for your teeth.

Katie

we actually switched to this like very cool, holistic dentist or like their. They're really nice. They, they try to limit all toxins and stuff, so they only use fluoride if necessary. They only do fillings if absolutely necessary and they only use certain products or fillings, blah, blah, blah. But when we went in for the first time, they didn't have my X-rays yet from my previous dentist in Colorado. And I was like, if we need to do them, I was like, I'm pretty sure I got them right before I left, but I can't really remember. And they were like, we'll just wait. We don't wanna have to expose you to the radiation if we don't have to, so we'll wait to get them and then if you need them next time, we'll do them then. So I was like, I really appreciated that instead of just zapping me again just because they wanted the x-rays at that moment. So I really appreciated that, just sentiment. But um, also I realized that I haven't mentioned the phone cases that I was going to tell people that if you wanted to get a phone case, the two we started talking about so many random things.

Chrissy

distracted you.

Katie

It's great. And I was like, I was just thinking about it.'cause I was looking at my list and I was like, I don't think I actually said the phone cases was. So the two that I know of that are, are typically the most recommended are the brand Safe Shield and Defender Shield, I think are the names of them. So you can look'em up, they're, if you go and just Google EMF blocking phone cases, those are typically the two that come up. Um, and they're the ones that I've seen most recommended by all these professionals. But, so anyway, phone cases trying to avoid x-rays. People do, if you go to the airport, obviously you're going through those scanners, you can actually like opt out of those and ask for just a pat down. So I've never actually done that. I do know some pretty crunchy people who choose to do that when they go to the airport. So instead of getting scanned, you could just do the pat down. It's kind of awkward, but then you don't get that extra radiation. So that's another option.

Chrissy

thing if you have TSA pre-check or if you get lucky and the airport's just super busy when you're there.

Katie

Mm,

Chrissy

Just walking through the scanner

Katie

the metal detector one.

Chrissy

Yeah, the metal detector a lot less exposure than actually putting your arms above your head. Although actually they just changed it, isn't it? Now you stand with your arms out towards the

Katie

I don't know, maybe. Does that change the machine?

Chrissy

I have no idea. Apparently the machines are better now. They just keep changing them and I never know what the process is going to be at whatever airport'cause it's all different. And then all the TSA

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

look at me like I'm crazy. Like I've never done this before. And I'm like,

Katie

Uhhuh.

Chrissy

you guys are all different at different

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

But anyways, beside the point. But anyways, yeah, if you have the option to get TSA pre-check, just going through the metal detector is better than doing the whole x-ray thingy Ma, bob. Um, you get less exposure that way.

Katie

So those are some of the more like that's the higher end, but like I think where you can make some of the bigger impacts is on your day-to-day stuff. Obviously doing things differently with your phone is going to make the largest impact, so trying to keep your phone away from you as much as possible, or even if you have the option or ability to turn it onto airplane mode as much as you can during the day. When Malachi and I are playing and I know that I don't need to be getting calls from anyone, or if I'm like, I don't want to get calls from anyone right now or check my phone, I actually do turn it onto airplane mode, especially when we're like outside playing because I often keep my phone in my pocket so I don't like lose it or leave it at the park or something. I actually turn it into airplane mode in those times so that if it's in my pocket, it's not receiving the signals at the time. I know that's not an option for everybody because maybe for your job or for emergencies or something, but just. If you can, those are some of the best options for day-to-day usage. Again, Chrissy said, using it away from your head, putting it on speaker phone. Um, the other big thing is the frequency level is increased for any device while it is plugged in. So when your cell phone is plugged into the wall or when your laptop is plugged into the wall, or when any device is plugged into the wall, it increases the frequency of like the EMFs and stuff. I don't know how it exactly works, but apparently when, if you get one of those like radar thingies that Chrissy was talking about, checking your phone while it's plugged in versus not, the frequency actually increases. So if you are using your phone, don't use it while it's charging. Same thing with your laptop. That's hard for me because I often keep my laptop just plugged in. Like right now it is just plugged in. And that is one of those things where I'm like, la.

Chrissy

Not me checking my laptop battery and seeing that it's full and promptly unplugging my laptop as

Katie

Exactly, so, and that's a big deal too, like if you keep your phone in your bedroom at night, if it is not on airplane mode, it has higher frequencies coming towards it, and it likely is at your nightstand next to your bed. Chrissy, I used to, when I was younger, I used to sleep with my phone under my pillow. And like thinking about that like kills me because in college at times I didn't have a nightstand and like the way that our rooms were set up, I didn't have something right next to my bed. And so I used to just like put it under my pillow and I turn it like on silent mode or something, so it wouldn't like wake me up if someone called, but it wasn't on airplane mode. So I'm like, oh my gosh. I literally was like sleeping on top of this radioactive thing basically.

Chrissy

You know, I used to do that in third grade to listen to Hannah Montana. While I was going to sleep, I would put my iPhone under my bed, or not my

Katie

Okay.

Chrissy

under my

Katie

So speaking, speaking of our wonderful sweet grandma, I did learn that when, whenever grandma was going to sleep, so she had, you know, like the old headphones, um, that kind of look like my headphones, but they're like the plugin ones and they had those like fuzzy covers on them and they're just like plasticy. Well, she apparently had a headphone that was like broken in half, so it was just one side of it and she kept it inside of her pillow to listen to like piano music or classical music. There was this one radio station. And so anyway, my, my mom used to tell me that, um, to help me go to sleep, I could listen to music like that, like grandma did. So anyway, I,

Chrissy

we're just

Katie

that's actually,

Chrissy

new things about our grandmother.

Katie

I know that's actually, it's probably better. So speaking of headphones. Bluetooth is also a huge issue when it comes to radio frequencies and EMFs, you know, specifically. So with with the headphones, you think about all the radiation that's going directly into your head when you're using Bluetooth. Now my caveat,'cause Chrissy's kind of chuckling at me, I am wearing Bluetooth headphones as we speak. Um, I really only use my Bluetooth. Oh yeah, you're using your little pods. I can barely see them. Um, I only use mine for things like this or when we're traveling and so I, out of like the 365 days of the year, I only use them a few times and so I kind of tell myself okay, it's not, it's not a like constant exposure versus like cell phone stuff. However, if you are someone who is using Bluetooth headphones consistently for work or just to listen to things all day, or even, um, I learned because I was talking about this with a friend of ours at church, the, what are they called? Hearing aids, hearing aids these days have Bluetooth and just like work as headphones. And so our friend at church was like, yeah, my brain is probably fried because I just leave these in all day all the time and, and just constantly using it with my cell phone and with all these things. And I'm like, it's probably cooking you. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So there's a lot of Bluetooth exposure, so I try not to use them as much. I, I talked to Wes about it and I noticed he has not said anything. And I, I mentioned it to him the other day'cause I was like, huh. He started using his old headphones that plug into his phone versus the Bluetooth ones. And I think it's because I mentioned to him the Bluetooth has more radiation. And then we found out, you know, our friend's brother had brain cancer and I was like freaking out about brain cancer and all this stuff. And one day he just started using them and I'm like, Hmm, I wonder if that's because of what I said. So I was like, good for you buddy. And.

Chrissy

That's

Katie

just don't have any,'cause they don't use my phone.

Chrissy

one

Katie

Go ahead.

Chrissy

learned, especially when it comes to earbuds, is the EMF exposure is greatly increased if you have both Bluetooth earbuds in because not only are they talking to your phone, they're also talking to each other through your brain. Um.

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

Mm-hmm. Versus if you just have one in, it's still not great, but it's limiting that exposure. Now,

Katie

didn't even think about that.

Chrissy

Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. Think of like how many students, I just like, remember back to high school, how many kids walked around all day long with

Katie

Totally.

Chrissy

in

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

time. But going back to, um, keeping your phone out of not next to your bed as you're going to sleep. So Max and I actually bought a, we call, we call it our technology station. It's essentially just like a little box that has a bunch of slots on top and a bunch of cords. And every single night we put our two personal phones and my work phone on that. It is out in the kitchen. It's not even in our bedroom. And we bought ourselves a. Plugin slash battery operated. It can be battery operated. Um, but we leave it plugged in for the most part. But it's an old school alarm clock essentially,

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

using that instead of our phones. So first off, we're not tempted to be looking at our phones right before bed because

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

the kitchen. We're also not tempted to look at our phones first thing in the morning because they're all the way in the kitchen. And third off, we're not receiving the EMFs by our phones being right next to our heads all night long as we sleep. Additionally, like I mentioned earlier in this episode, um, so we live in a small apartment, um, Max's office is in a corner of our bedroom just because of limited space. And so before we go to bed, every single electronic item in our bedroom, the printer, the desktop, the laptop, the light, even like the lamp on his. Uh, desk and the shredder all get completely unplugged. We will unplug the entire power strip from the wall every single night before we go to bed, because even if the screen is turned off from the desktop, like I can actually still hear the little buzzing and it'll wake me up at night. So those are some strategies that we've taken. I have also heard out doing this strategy for us wouldn't really do anything just because of where we live in an apartment complex. But a lot of people also turn off their wifi at night.

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

set it easily to turn off at 10:00 PM and turn back on at 6:00 AM or something like that. You're not using your wifi while you're sleeping, so it doesn't need to be on. so for someone like you, Katie,

Katie

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy

in rural Michigan in a

Katie

The middle of nowhere.

Chrissy

In the middle of nowhere. That's probably gonna be a huge success in

Katie

Yeah.

Chrissy

your EMF exposure versus me, I open up my internet on my phone and I can connect to six different, um,

Katie

Internet wifi is, yeah.

Chrissy

at once. So wouldn't be super effective to help me per se, because I think my neighbor's wifi router is the same different distance from my bed as my wifi router.

Katie

Yep.

Chrissy

that is one thing super helpful for those who live in a house not as helpful for those who live in an apartment, but

Katie

Yeah,

Chrissy

a strategy you can take.

Katie

we're doing a lot with our wifi stuff. So I've mentioned before on in our previous season that while, you know, we're moving into a new house, we're not yet in it, unfortunately, but we're, we're doing a lot to set it up as like healthy as possible. And one of the things that I did learn about internet is that if you can get a true fiber optic internet, it is a lot better for. Uh, limiting EMF exposure than a non fiber optic one. And so what that means is that there's a bunch of these, what is it, like internet power line kind of things that run through

Chrissy

ethernet cords.

Katie

but like, do you know what I'm talking about? It's like the ones that are all through the, the city and stuff. Like all in the roads and stuff?

Chrissy

that the lawn people always cut on accident?

Katie

Yeah, maybe. But anyway, it's just like the, the cords that run the internet through town, they, they go all through the streets and everything. With a lot of internet companies, they stop, like the actual power lines for them will stop at the end of the road, like at, before your house. And then from the end of that line to your house, it uses some kind of like wifi. Connectivity to get it to your wifi router versus a true fiber optic is, is what they call fiber to the house, FTTH. And that means the line continues, it goes straight to your house, and then you actually don't have a traditional router box. So there's like the, or there's the, what is it, the wifi router and then there's the wifi. What is it? There's two boxes. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Chrissy

There's a modem, the

Katie

Modem? Thank you. You don't have a traditional modem in your house. You have a box that is what the internet comes into. And then you have a wifi router that if you wanted wifi through the house, you can use that. So the modem that is, again, it has a different name, but it's basically a modem, um, that allows you to use ethernet throughout the house, wherever you can plug it in. So if you ever see where you have ethernet. Like boxes, like the outlets. Thank you. I'm like trying to think of words, outlets, when you have the ethernet outlets, those are much better because the internet is going directly into your computer versus through a signal from the wifi router. So we will also have a wifi router, but we're going to try to, as much as possible, just use the Ethernets when using our laptops, which means that we'll likely only be using it in a certain select areas like the office, and maybe we'll get an ethernet plug for the living room or something. But those will be the only places that we will try to use our laptops and then turn off the wifi as much as possible when we really don't need it. We'll keep it on when guests come over, but then like at night, we'll have it off maybe during the day when Malachi don't, Malachi and I don't really need it. We'll turn it off. And so it gives you better control over the internet and radiation that's happening during the day. This sad thing, so I've talked about this in the past too, so Bluetooth devices also speak to one another using all these frequencies, and I have always been a huge fan of all of the smart home stuff, like the ring doorbells and the thermostats that you can program from your phone and having cameras around the house and all the stuff. We've literally had all of it and. We're probably not gonna set up all that stuff because again, it's just, it's more exposure to the radiation and yes, it is super convenient to see who's at my doorbell before I actually walk to the door. Yes, it's super convenient to be able to program my thermostat before I get back home from a vacation. Yes, it is convenient to tell Google to start playing a song while I am in the other room and just shouting like, Hey, Google, play this song. You know, I, I love being able to do that. I love the convenience of it, but is the convenience more important than. Our health, and especially I think about Malachi like my son. Am I, do I want him to grow up inside of a microwave constantly cooking, or do I want to limit his exposure to all of the radiation? Because the reality is no matter where else we go, there's all this exposure to, and so at home I can try to limit it as much as possible. So those are some of the like things that I am planning on doing, um, at home. Uh, it's again, it, who knows if it makes a big difference or not, but the more that I, I can do to limit our exposure, I think the better. So. That's, that's kind of my take on it. And it helps us to be less attached to our phones. Like when I'm like, Hey, I don't want the exposure. I'll leave my phone in the kitchen and we'll be playing over here. And I can still hear it if it rings, but I don't need it on me constantly. You know, it's, it's a different way of living, so it's hard, but I think it's worth it.

Chrissy

I agree. I agree for sure. And you know, this is that it's, it's a lot of baby steps that you kind of just like stack the baby steps on top of each other, on top of each other. And it's one of those things where step might seem like a drop in the bucket, that it's not really doing a. But when you turn around and look at of the strategies that you've implemented, months later, you can realize how each drop in the bucket eventually fills the bucket, and you will be better off in the end. So, um, I would encourage you guys this week as a, an action step to go from this episode take one step towards limiting your EMF exposure, whether it be turning off your wifi at night, or moving your phone into the kitchen, or unplugging lamps or computers or things from outlets in your bedroom, something like that. I would just encourage you to do one thing this week to decrease your exposure to the EMFs around you, and in the end, it'll be, you'll be better for it. So.

Katie

Yeah, and I think one of the really awesome things about this area of wellness is that so many of these options are completely free. I mean, turning your cell phone off is free, turning it into airplane mode is free. Putting it across the room, it's all free. Sure. If you wanna get a phone case, that's going to cost you a little bit of money. And unfortunately, those phone cases are pretty expensive, but most of the stuff that you could do in this area of wellness is all free. And honestly, other areas of your life and health will benefit. Like, like I said, we don't use our phones as often because we're trying to limit our exposure and so we're just not as attached to it. So we spend more time talking or reading or doing things together. So I would say that this area is, has surprisingly impacted other areas that. We just didn't expect. And that's been a huge benefit for our family, and I think it can be a really great benefit to your family. So yeah, tell us what you guys choose to do and what's working for you and maybe what other tips did we miss? Like what other things did we forget about? So we'd love to hear about that over in our Facebook group. Crunchy Christian Mamas on a budget. If you're not already there, please join us. Um, yeah, did you have any other thoughts or things that you wanted to share, Chrissy, before we head out?

Chrissy

The last thing I just wanna say before we head out is, remember what Paul said in one Corinthians Corinthians is, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Just keep that at the forefront as you're making these changes in your life,