Electromagnetic overload & the immune system

The power of love came into me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.

— Rumi, Essential Rumi, tr. Coleman Barks, p. 134







Electromagnetic overload: what role does this play in stress, and illness?

Over the last year I’ve noticed that the phone I use sometimes even makes my left ear hurt when I use it right next to my head. I had chronic congestion in that ear last summer.

It also makes me think about the mystery of the cancer epidemic. We are constantly bombarded with sublethal doses of many toxic chemicals, in our air, water, food, in plastics, carpets, paint. These may have the effect of undermining the immune system such that other stressors — pathogens, psychological, or physical stressors — can get through. There is evidence that viruses play a role in the development of cancer.

Are we that different from the bees?

I like the term ‘toxic stress’— but it is taking on new meaning tonight. ‘Toxin stress’ is part of the picture, too.

More on stress

"People can become obsessed with their own theories and miss the point of everything."

— Sogyal Rinpoche, Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, p. 55




March 2009

on stress:

from the MOFGA newspaper, Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, March-May 2009 issue, p. 38, in a review of a book on Colony Collapse Disorder:

“Jacobsen cites several studies showing that although neonicotinoids may not kill bees outright, so-called sublethal doses cause breakdown of the immune system, making bees vulnerable to disease and other stressors.”

Stressors. Sublethal doses eroding the immune system. The immune system as including that which protects us against toxic levels of stress and its effects.

I had never thought about the immune system as protecting us against stress. That would mean that the mind, the way we think, and in particular our attitudes toward life are part of our immune system.

We all know that stress can lead to illness, that it undermines our immune system. But do I live with the understanding that part of our immune system’s job is to protect us from toxic levels of stress (not the strengthening kind — as in the bushes and trees after the snowstorm)?