EMF Detox and Tech Wellness, with August Brice @TechWellness

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Hello and welcome to this episode of the Feel Freaking Amazing five Journeys Health podcast. I'm Wendy Trubo, my host is Ed Levitian and we have a really special guest today. Her name is August Bryce. She is the founder of Tech Wellness EMF and Digital wellness expert award winning journalist EMF instructor at the Digital Wellness Institute. And her passion is to bring mindfulness and balance to our relationship with technology because I think all of us can agree we are on a runaway train with no breaks. So, August, welcome. We're really excited that you're here, especially in the theme of detoxing your life and detoxing from social media and detoxing from technology.

I hope we're not detoxing from zoom.

We'Re not detoxing from podcasts.

That we just have to do right? And this is one of the great benefits of technology. First of all, thank you so much for having me. You guys. It's such a thrill to be with you. And I do love that you're famous about toxins as well, because that's just one. It's just one toxin that we're overlooking. I think most of the time we.

Don'T talk about this enough and Bruno.

We don't talk about it.

Who's going to sing it?

All right, so what is tech wellness? Because I don't think that's a word that's really out there. So can you define it to us? What is that?

Yeah, that's such a good way to put it. Because what is tech wellness? It's about being well with our technology. Because like we said a minute ago, it's a runaway train. It's not going anywhere. We're all jumping on. So let's jump on in the healthiest manner possible. So basically it's a platform of information. I have wonderful experts that, that basically help me with everything that I post. They look at it, they read it, they make sure that we're on track, it's science backed and we have solutions in the form of things like this, talking podcasts and products that can help you be empowered to live safer and healthier with technology. And there's so many benefits of living well with technology for your mind, your body, your spirit and your safety. Because, you know, if we don't have those things, then we can go towards being unwell. And that just. And for everyone who isn't well right now, because I know you have a lot of people that really just have their health in mind when they're listening to your podcast. Addressing all of these things will Help you in your health journey.

So what are things that you consider to be toxins in the realm of technology?

I love that because so many people are becoming aware, right, of the chemicals in our food and the toxins in our environment. So the tech toxins start with pulsating light. Now, pulsating light can really affect your neurology. And then blue light. And we know the effects of blue light affect our sleep and our metabolism and so many other body functions. EMF. So EMFs are the electromagnetic fields, the invisible energy that come from everything wireless. And then we have to be concerned about privacy issues and cybersecurity issues, because nothing feels more toxic than having someone know everywhere you're going or stealing your identity. So those are what I call the tech toxins.

Can we talk more about EMFs? Because I remember, I have to tell you, August, when I was pregnant with our first child, I mean, I was pretty sick and didn't know it. I had celiac. Except what's crazy is we lived in a house that was really close to these towers. And I didn't sleep in that pregnancy. And the only thing I could come down to was that it was some weird EMF thing that I was reacting to these radio towers. I couldn't figure out anything else because I slept in my second pregnancy, but I was downright nuts by the end of the first one because I didn't sleep for. Well, I didn't have a full term pregnancy. So that was kind of helpful. She was a preemie, but, you know, it was really. I didn't sleep and it was awful.

So cell phone towers. You were near cell phone towers?

Radio. Radio. Cell towers, sure.

Radio cell towers. That's, you know, cell phone makes the connection from the tower to the phone or the WI fi or your Bluetooth device. So that's the main. That's the mothership. That's the main source. And so that source being close to it, of course, you were probably getting exposed to so much more than most of us. But one of the number one symptoms of what we call emf, hypersensitivity syndrome, those are people who can feel the energy. And usually you can feel the energy when maybe you have an autoimmune issue, maybe you have chemical sensitivities because the two run together. So perhaps you were feeling it because one of the number one symptoms is anxiety and insomnia. So insomnia is number one, but also anxiety from what you were talking about. Right.

He always jokes that this podcast is not about me, and yet we always wind up to like every issue I have is something we end up talking about because it's an issue that a lot of people.

Yeah, and they're common symptoms from sensitivity, things that you. That might run in other things that, you know, other illnesses, but they're things like numbness, tingling, heart palpitations, high blood pressure. In fact, a research study just came out last week done in Europe. Over 300,000 people participated in this study. And they found out that especially if you have a genetic tendency towards hypertension, high blood pressure, there's a 12% increase in the first time you get it, the first time you start talking about having high blood pressure if you use the cell phone to talk. They only studied talking and receiving and sending calls. They didn't talk about gaming, they talked about scrolling. Just these things in particular, this was all self reported over five years, a 12% increase in high blood pressure. Wow.

So is there a theory of how that works?

Yeah, there are a few things. We don't know exactly, all the different ways that this invisible radiation affects this. But we do know from several studies highlighted by Martin Paul, that studies that were done way before he looked at them and put them all together, they all said the same thing. Cell dysregulation. Funny. Not cell phone, but cell. Our cell. Our cells in our body dysregulate from, of course, the electrical charge, because we're electrical beings and they don't open and close the way that they should. And so that leads to a cascade of oxidative stress. So we know that for absolutely sure. But we also know that men who carry a cell phone in their pocket will be much more likely to have fertility issues. And we know for sure from a huge study from our government that it's exposure from cell phone radiation that was just nine hours a day. And the study said, the FDA said it's fine because, oh my gosh, no one is exposed more than nine hours a day. But really, I don't know, we were talking about this runaway train. It usually comes with a lot of time online. But they found that there were heart tumors and heart cancers in the rats that were exposed to cell phone radiation for nine hours a day. And so that's a big deal. We've got cancer infertility. We have. And this is interesting, Wendy, that you talked about being pregnant because Hugh Taylor, who runs the OBGYN and Reproductive Sciences department at Yale, he found out he exposed all these pregnant mice to a cell phone, put it in their cage, and just during the term of their pregnancy, when those little Mice babies were born, they showed what looked like ADHD behavior and their brains were different than the mice that were not exposed at all. So we know these things. And to answer your question, this is terrifying, August. It is. Especially if you're trying to heal from any of the states of disease that you talk about. It's like all the toxins you talk about. Right, right, right.

Well, I, I hate to ask, but I'm going to ask anyways.

Oh, go ahead, be a buzzkill.

What generation phone did they use?

And that's such a good question because they were at least 2G is behind. They used 3G technology.

Now, how much more is the 5G? And it's a whole different logarithmic difference.

Exactly. It's a. It's a way higher. Well, it's E and F is kind of complicated really, because it's different spectrum. It's different sets of spectrums of the big electromagnetic spectrum. And that 5G accesses a new wave that we're only exposed to when we walk through those airport security, you know, shells that we have to go through that I don't go through, I pat down. But that's called the millimeter wave, and that's part of 5G. And another part of 5G is that they're just, if you haven't noticed, more antennas everywhere. So we're all being exposed to probably a heck of a lot more than just a cell phone.

Ignorance is bliss, August. I have to say this conversation is horrifying. I never thought about not walking through or not walking through in the airport, but that makes sense, especially traveling. What. Where are you going on this? Do you have to take your phone out of your pocket?

Well, I have to admit something here because so I have here people that are listening won't be able to see. But I had a conference. I had somebody put one of these little things on and they did a muscle test before and after. And the muscle test actually made a big difference when this was on, when the. It's a little tag for the people can't see. A little like a sticker sticker, basically. Yeah, it's.

I mean, as a kid I would have bought it, right? I was totally into stickers. I would have bought a sparkly sticker like that.

So do these things. And there's like a lot of things out there. And I have my little. My phone case, which I know says it's blocks part of it, but it doesn't really because it goes around. So what works? What doesn't work is this all bs like crystals.

I love that you bring all that up because the stickers. So I started having sensitivity 30 years ago and before anybody was talking about it or thinking about it, I was, because I could feel it. And about 20 years ago, onto the market came these stickers that harmonized the wave. And I bought them and I tried them and I thought maybe it was working. But meanwhile, a doctor did a big study where he had people try all these different things. The bracelets, the necklaces, the chips. And by the way, the research on all of these products is very weak. If they're at all, they're usually one person like you that said, hey, I muscle tested better. Okay, well that doesn't get a drug passed, right? So we know that we need to see a really, and I can't wait for it, a wonderful study showing you something that actually does work. Like some globe that you put in the middle of the room, or shungite that you put in the middle of the room, or the crystal or something on your phone. But right now, if you just think about it, it's doing nothing to stop the wave. And as far as harmonizing it, how long could it harmonize it? When would the two waves change in texture? We don't know, do we? We're not sure. And then also, I know you guys really are into research and studying about health and we know placebo is amazingly, wildly effective. There is a new company that's starting to study these things with using the aura photography. I don't know, maybe someday we'll say that that's a valid research tool, but right now I don't think that it is. And then when I do see those studies that, oh, the aura got so much better when they put the sticker on, then I think, well, what about standing outside and grounding? What about thinking happy thoughts? What about taking a deep breath? I mean, all the things that we know really support our immune system and support our well being. But right now, all these things, all these chips are in no way proven in Europe. You have to back your advertising claims. And so we don't really see these chips advertised. And so that's another clue. And then also because I can feel the effects, I can tell you personally, they didn't help me, I'd be selling them if they did. I want everyone to have one. And now your phone case. And you said it, you said, hey, it's partially covered. We call that partial shielding. And people put blankets on. They put the belly bands on when they're pregnant. Some people like to Wear hats. One thing to know is that where that hat is, the absolute, you know, area that it's protected, it's you're protected. Those hats, those shields, they actually do block emf. Any magnetic, any metallic surface will block the wireless energy. However it reflects, it doesn't go away. It bounces. And when it bounces, it can go anywhere. It bounces off metal corners in the room, it can bounce off metal knobs. We just don't know. We can't control it. Many times we're exposing others, or even ourselves to much more radiation on places that are not covered. That's a problem. Like you said, it's coming out and we know for sure this is just physics that when you try to stop an antenna and cover it up and its job is to connect, what's it going to do? It's going to work harder, meaning it's going to send out more energy. And when it sends out more energy, it's sending out more emf. So you are many, many times getting a way higher dose of the EMF at the source of the opening.

So is it hopeless?

No. You know why? Because you can get away from that phone. Do know that if you that your phone, and it's called the near field of the wavelength, and just being a foot and a half away from your phone, you've decreased your exposure by 10 times.

Wow.

Yeah, See that? Did you. That's nice, right? To know that just getting away from the source. And so I know you're probably holding your phone, it's in your pocket. As much as possible, take that phone out, put it a couple feet away. Use your headset like you've got on now. Tap the phone, make a phone call. You are so much safer than if you're holding it. You know, all of our manuals now tell us that in order to even meet the really generous safety standards of our government, which, that's a whole nother story. But it's called standard absorption rate. It just star is what you've seen it called. And I'm, I'm sure that many listeners have seen that term sar. But even to meet those standards, every single phone says be at least 5 millimeters away. Sometimes they say 15, and that means don't ever touch it. What's that about?

So there's a lot in this August. So. So you're not going to harm yourself with these solutions, but there's not good data to support them.

Those are the chips. But you could harm yourself with a shield depending on how it's used, depending On. I mean, if we shield the entire wall behind me and we were only shielding ourselves from what was outside, we'd be. We'd be golden. Because the radio frequencies aren't right up next to the window. They're just out there and they're filtering in. And if it's covered completely, I could get a very, very low EMF environment, however, and I want to bring something inside that environment because I might magnify what's inside. Shielding actually works if used properly, but.

When it has, it's almost like you don't want to shield, you want to absorb.

No one's invented that yet, right?

Like distinct. It's almost like those things to numb the sound between rooms where you have the. It's an absorptive shield as opposed to a reflective shield. That's, I think, the thing that would.

Be impactful and you would think that some engineer would get. Get on that. Right. But so far, that's not happening. And the really interesting thing, too, is magnetic, which is a component of wireless. Magnetic is. Wireless is RF and magnetic. Those are two different kinds of emf, but they both happen at your cell phone. Magnetic, it's found, can't be covered with anything that isn't like a super thick, hard. Like think about the bottom of a thick pan, really thick skillet. That's how thick it would have to be to block the magnetic. Now the thin fabrics do. Is that crazy? That's just to block it. So, yes. Somebody get on that. Let's get that absorption material working.

So we're sitting here podcasting in from our office, and we have newish fluorescent lights. How do you. Anybody, Anybody.

What's a girl to do?

Well, you know, the coating, they. That they coat the fluorescent lights to get at a better, warmer temperature. Right. That mimics more of the warm tones that are anti blue light. But as far as that flickering goes, that imperceptible flickering, it's just not good. And so as soon as you can you turn those lights off, you go to candlelight, you go to natural light. I wish we could bring back the incandescent. I was hoarding them for as long as I could because they just feel so much better. It's like when we were kids when we had those fluorescent lights at school and we got so tired, you know, and it was the. The temperature of the light and the texture with. With the flickering and the pulsing, the constant pulsing. Now, some brands are better than others. There are, you know, lighting companies that try to pay more attention to it, to that flickering. But One thing for sure that you should do is not have a dimmer on those lights, because we know, oh, by the way, your screens are flickering right now. But. But this is such a great thing to do. If you turn your brightness up all the way, meaning your screen gets full power, you get less flickering because the flicker is happening, because it's like searching for power. Just like we can see in a dimmer sometime. You know, we dim our lights and we see that little bit. So that's a good, easy clue.

Great tip. So turn up your brightness on your screens, all your screens, so your phone, your monitor, and any other screen that you have, or iPad, turn it all, all the way up. It's so funny because our kids. I'm always like, I can't see your screen. It's too dark. You know, I'm old, right? So they turn it up. And so now we should tell them, turn it up so that you protect your. Your. Your system.

And get a blue light blocker. Get a. Get something on top of it that will change the color temperature coming out. Because bright often equates to more blue light. I do understand that, but you can even use something like flux, which changes the temperature, and then boost just your little bright toggle on your computer. And you can have both benefits. But I really love the screens, the filtering screens that just add a warm tone to whatever device. It's not to me. It's imperceptible to others. Maybe they see it as being a little amber. But there are two brands that are really the forerunners. One goes for more amber. The other goes for, like, a filtering effect that almost makes things look softer. So. But they're great. Both of them block 35% of that blue that we know, which I think is where you were going. Messes with our metabolism and mostly our melatonin. Anytime we're outside, anytime we're looking at our computer screens, inside, outside, wherever. We're telling our brains to turn off our melatonin makers, right? We're telling the tutor, stop, no melatonin production. And so at night, it's so important, it's uber important to protect your eyes from any blue light by wearing amber glasses. And I love the ones that wrap around because you have to remember that that light is coming from the top, from the sides. You know, it's just because you're looking and it feels better. It's still getting in. So I prefer wraparound.

Are there any stylish wraparounds like that? Will you look like a Lyme patient, right? I Can't stand the light.

I at home.

Are there any brands that you recommend people get?

Well, for? The wraparounds I do have the Tech Wellness brand are the simple. They're $15. They wrap around. They're inexpensive. They're to be worn at home. I did wear them out a couple times because of it. My eyes just really needed it. But then I've got these really cute ones and almost every brand makes these. These are the ones that I sell by Easy peasy. I love them. But These are blocking 40%. Amber glasses. They're blocking 85%. Yeah. So it's a big difference. And then candlelight at home at night, the good reason to have the kids get off their devices a couple hours before bed.

This is great, especially for people who if your kids are playing sports and they don't get home until later. So there's a shorter window between getting off the screens and getting to bed. Those amber glasses seem like a great option or at least getting blue light blocking glasses to prevent the exposure.

I think so too, Wendy. I think especially for kids, I mean, we're just wreaking havoc with their systems. And so just to have them and have a basket of them and everybody grabs one as soon as the sun sets actually is what I really recommend to keep your circadian rhythm on track.

So basically the parents need to grab it too, because the kids will do.

What the parents do or they won't.

Right.

What are these kind of. I know. I believe one of the things you really think, have thought about and think about is kids and how to teach kids and how to take care of kids. So what are kind of the top 3, 5, 10 things that for children think about for. Yeah.

Wow. It's hard being number one. Their first screen use the first time they see screens. The American pediatric Association and Dr. Kimberly Young, who coined the term Internet addiction and had a really great child's guide. They say no screens before three. I know that's really tough.

Holy moly.

Right? But at least no screens at night because let them develop as, you know, just as holistically as you possibly can. We found also in this great study that for some reason going outside and playing can really save children's eyesights. They're less nearsighted just by going outside and playing. They don't know exactly why, but if they're going to be inside doing what's called near work where their eyes. If you watch my eyes, if it gets closer, your eyes will cross eye and that causes nearsightedness. If we Got a kid buried in a screen like this. Make sure that they're balancing it without side time. Also, if you can get them in a habit of, hey, you're at home using your phone, you know, don't do this. Don't put all that pressure on your neck and your back. Put it on a stand, make it easy. Just, just make it more comfortable. Same with their laptops. Right? You don't want to see this at home for kids.

How do you do that? Besides whacking them on the back, which we do.

Can you set up their workspaces that way? So right now I'm on a laptop. My laptop's on a stand. My laptop is plugged into the Internet, so I have zero emf. Nothing. I'm so far away from it, I'm not touching it. I could have an auxiliary keyboard, you know, to use it. Are the kids on computers at all?

All the time.

Oh, then how are they? Are they on laptops?

Usually.

Oh, my God.

Or iPads.

Okay, great. So if they're on, if they're still using a laptop, which is awesome, to get it up on a stand so it's eye level, it's going to help them so much. Have a little timer that says, hey, you guys, we're really into your well being. We want you to be healthy forever. We want you to play sports better, we want you to do better in school. So what we're going to do is every 20 minutes, we're going to take a little break. We're going to look away from our computers. We might get up and dance, you know, but we're just going to take this break because it's so much better for you. And then you get an auxiliary keyboard which you plug into the side. Your computer's hardwired. The keyboard comes out so that they will not have that EMF exposure, which we talked about is very scary. I'm so glad that we're talking about it so we can begin to take it more seriously. Not be afraid of it. Just like work with it. Like touching a hot stove and going, oh, shoot, I. I wish I could touch the stove when I cook. Now.

One of the things that we recently implemented was turning off WI fi at night.

Awesome. And love it.

I don't know if I particularly noticed a difference, but I know it's good for you.

It's so good just not to have. Now the way it works is I love my WI fi switch. Every. This is, this is what I want every family to have is just what you said, a way to turn off the WI fi without getting close to that invisible energy. Because the invisible energy, if you think of it like a fire or a cigarette, it's most. It's dense right at the source. So wherever those antennas are, that's where the flame is or that's where it's happening. And then it dissipates as you get further away. So even getting 25ft away from your wifi is so important. So wherever the WI FI is in the house. Speaking of more things we can do for the kids. Get it away from where they hang out. Put it as far away in the garage as possible. WI fi's are so powerful now. We don't need to have them under our desks or in someone's room. Think of them as what they are, very powerful EMF generating devices. And so when you turn them off, you don't want to touch them. You want to have them plugged into an outlet and be as far away as possible and just use a remote.

You put it on a timer. Right.

You can use.

Goes off automatically and it comes on. Does it come on automatically? I've been. This was like your thing. So I don't really have a lot of awareness of it happened. Magic.

What a good guy. What a good guy.

You're a good guy.

It's so important. Yeah. Some people like the timer because they have. It regulates, you know, and they can. They know exactly when it's coming on and off. Other people like to turn it off during the day. People that have young children find that their children nap better when the WI FI is off. So kids go down for a nap, turn off the WI fi.

Our kids, we have four kids and they're older. And if we turn it off, we're going to be hearing about it.

Mayhem. August, there will be mayhem.

And they can't do their homework and.

They can't do it.

Like there's in this day and age, during the day. I mean, they're not even home.

We can turn it off when they're not home, but when they're home, they're doing their work. And that. That would. They would go nuts. They go ballistic.

Sure. To be off the Internet, but to be off WI fi and hardwired. Have you got considered going back in time and hardwiring?

Yeah, we'd have to hardwire our house. That's the problem. Some places are hardwired, but not every place.

No, but I think that's a great thing for people who are, especially people who are in construction and looking at that to make sure that you build in hard wiring and try to future proof it as much as possible so that you have that ability to get off WI fi and connect directly so that it goes through the wires instead of wireless. That's great.

It's so great. Oh, I just love living in my wired home. I just, you know, the only thing that I would wish more is to have more outlets. We have a WI Fi kit that wires up your WI Fi and then you can operate just from 1 wi fi 8 different items at a time. But if the outlets were everywhere in your home on a new build, you could just plug them in and not have to have so many wires running through the house, which to me say health and well being, but to my husband says too many wires.

Well, the other problem with that is these days, telephones and iPads don't have any. Can't be hardwired.

Oh, no, no. I hardwire my phone and I hire. Oh, for sure. Oh, I have these great dongle adapters that plug into the Lightning Source or the Thunderbolts that go into Androids and most iPads. And just like you hardwire your laptop, you can hardwire your phone and your computer and do everything with it except make a regular phone call. But because I'm such a privacy net, I love signal and I can phone call. I can connect and chat and quote, unquote, FaceTime with Signal using my phone while it's wired.

Interesting. I did not know that. That's really cool.

It's so cool. It's awesome.

So I might have to implement that.

Yeah.

Because part of my challenge is I'm on call for our practice and I can't actually turn off my phone at night.

Right.

And I. So but if I hardwire it, that's a very different story.

Actually, you can't get a phone call. You can, but for some reason, Apple, you know, doesn't program it that way. You can get. If you got, you know, you could forward it to an app. Your phone forward to an app that would tell you you could use like we use Vonage. We have voiceover Internet protocol, which seems like the phone's ringing. So there are workarounds and that's one of them. So, yeah, you can do it. But as far as just getting an ATT phone call or a Verizon call, that's the one thing you can't do when your phone is hardwired. I just want to make sure people know that so that they don't buy them and call you or me.

I think this is fascinating. August.

So glad I like this.

So we've kind of meandered all over technology and EMFs and blue lights. So if we take a step back and we say ok, we're all being bombarded. It's another form of the toxic waterfall that we're standing under and death by a thousand cuts. So you're never gonna be free of tech toxins. What would be the top three things that you would say or recommend people do right now to start having more balance in their technology, exposure and life?

I love that. Well, you can kill two birds with one stone. When you turn off that WI fi because you're blocking, you're not getting the EMF exposure. But remember, also turn off your devices, turn them off, put them away, put them on airplane mode. At the very least, turn down that screen color so you won't be exposed to blue light while you sleep. Just these little fixes can help so much to feeling better. Put the amber glasses on at night to block the blue light. And then when you do not use the WI fi and your phone's not on, you're not being tracked because your location can't be seen, your photos can't be accessed, you can't be hacked. Those are other things. We talk a lot about privacy and cybersecurity at Tech Wellness. Like the air tags. I think one of the things that people ask me most about or find out and are shocked about is the EMF radiation coming from airtags and the fact that they're constantly on and the fact that you don't know if one's around you. You have to go into your app and search for those airtags really on a daily basis to make sure that no one put one on your car or in your bag. So they're a huge, huge tech toxin. So anyway, and then use a wired headset whenever possible, put your phone on speakerphone and get as far from it as you speak on speakerphone as possible. Just know in that foot and a half radius, if you get out of that Radius, you're getting 10 times less exposure. Right. And here's my final when you're not using Bluetooth on your phone, turn it off. When you're not using WI fi on your phone, disable it. You're avoiding at least two antennas if you do it that way.

Wow, that's great. So where can people find more information? Because I know there's people that have questions and there's going to be.

Where can people find you?

Yeah.

Techwellness.com we have over 250 articles right now. We have videos, about 100 videos that help people through this journey to put tech in perspective. Show you how to do a digital detox, which is basically just being away from your phone, even for 15 minutes a day, and your devices. And then we have tech wellness on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and, and I love to give little bite sized pieces of information on a daily basis. So every day there's something new that you can hopefully incorporate into your life. And if you can't do it that day, then you come back the next day.

That's great. August, I love, I love what an expert you are at this and I'm very grateful that you've boiled it down to actionable items people can take because it's, it's, you know, everyone listening. Do what she says. This is, this is for your health. So. All right. So, August, thank you for being here. Our guest for the listeners. Our guest is August Bryce, the founder of TechWellness.com. you can find her there. We'll put everything in the show notes. And thank you all for listening to another episode of the Feel Freakin Amazing podcast. And August, thank you so much for being here today. This is fantastic.

Thank you both so much and be well.

You too. Thank you.