Electro-Pollution (EMFs) Are Taking Your Energy

Nicolas Pineault

Hey. Thanks so much for having me.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes, I’m so excited to have you here. You are the EMF guy. You are the number one bestselling Author of The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs. This book I have here, I recommend this book to everyone going through my course programs, and everybody who works with me. This is an incredible book. I actually found you a couple of years ago. I bought this book on Amazon. I read this book cover to cover in a day because I could not put it down. And the reason I could not put it down is because you make it so simple. You have this sense of humor and you wrap up the science and common sense and humor. And I literally laughed through the whole thing and I learned a whole bunch. And of course, I put my little sticky notes and dog ears and wrote notes in it and this is my go-to resource. So thank you for what you have done to make all this easy because this is boring, confusing stuff honestly, unless-

Nicolas Pineault

It is. It can be. Yeah. EMF can be something. If you type EMFs in Google, you are going to find one of two things. One is, there is no effect whatsoever so do not worry about it. You can be exposed all day, every day. Your cell phone, the Wi-Fi, the Bluetooth no problem. And some people like, to stay there with their research and maybe they are better off for it. Because once you actually look at the actual science on EMFs, like I did in my book, you cannot go back. And that is kind of why one Amazon reviewer put it in a very smart way. He said, “This book might save and ruin your life at the same time.” Yeah, that is pretty much it. Because the reviewer said, I wanted to turn off WiFi at night but my wife got angry. This is the kind of stuff that can happen once you start reducing EMFs, but you are doing it for the right reason. The second type of information you can find online about EMFs is sometimes a little bit hyperbolic. You can find things that will say, you are exposed to EMFs you are damaging yourself. And these words that are used, this is very dangerous. It will kill you. It is not like that. EMFs are electromagnetic fields. It is a long-term damage agent. It is a stressor. So a stressor says it is not something you want more of. It is something you want less of but at the same time, it is not because you are exposed to a stressor that you will be permanently damaged with a small exposure. It is more of something you want to think of long term. Yeah, we should not freak out about it but it is important when it comes to mitochondrial health, to think about it. And a lot of people prefer to ignore it and I do not think that is the smartest strategy.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Well, also, we live in a fast-paced modern culture. None of us are going to get rid of our phones. It is our lifeline to our families, our friends. Ironically, the people watching this interview right now are on their phone or their laptop.

Nicolas Pineault

Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Or their iPad. My phone is sitting here right next to me. I’m working right now. I’m in work mode. I’m interviewing you, I have got my team talking to me. This is how I conduct my business. So this is not going away. So how do we live smart and healthy? What I really want to do today is unpack some simple things that we can do to protect ourselves, because it is not going away. Realistically, we are not going to go live in the middle of the woods where there are no cell towers. Maybe some people are and more power to you. But the majority of people watching this interview are not going to be doing those things. Today we are really going to get into how these EMFs are zapping your energy. We are going to talk about the connection between that and lowering your energy, your mitochondria energy production, and some of the sources that we need to really think about, especially now that we have got 5G everywhere and this is not going away. So let us jump into this because I know our audience has lots of questions and so do I. So first, can you start with the sources? How do we get exposed to this? And what do we really need to be thinking about right now?

Nicolas Pineault

I think the biggest sources that you need to think about are the ones that are very close to your body. Let us start there. So if you have a phone in your pocket, got a phone on your face, or even people will hate me for that but the Bluetooth headphones are deep into your ear. These are sources of exposure that are very close to your body. So it means that a greater intensity will be emitted towards your body. Whereas if you have a cell phone tower, yes, they do, we do have scientific studies that say if you live near a cell phone tower, you might have, for example, an increased level of stress. And it also translates into lowered mitochondrial energy and lowered reserves of different antioxidants. For example, glutathione is lower in people who live closer to cell towers. And that is a finding that is been pretty consistent in science. So it just shows you that overall, living in a highly electro-polluted environment is a stressor and so is living in a city because of the air pollution you are getting. So, it is not that different. But what can you do about cell towers? Not much like you mentioned. You can move away but for a lot of people that is impractical. But let us not focus on the towers so much because the towers are far away. Therefore, the quantity of intensity of energy that your body is getting is tremendously lower than your own phone. But the good news about the phone is you can control it. So really, the sources you need to think about and to really worry about when it comes to certain aspects of your health. Because I can make it funny, but there is also the reality that for some people they have been or at least they think that their cell phone has caused a brain tumor and that is nothing to laugh at. 

In certain situations, there are many people who claim that a brain tumor or tumor of the head, including parotid gland, including acoustic neuroma that can lead to complications. Officially, it is not a malignant tumor but still, it can be quite dangerous and even lead to death. These have been exacerbated or caused in certain situations, according to these people’s doctors, by the use of a cell phone to the head. For that reason, scientists classified, or at least the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2011, so that is several years ago, more than a decade now has classified DCMS as a class 2B carcinogen and it means that the research is still early, we need more studies. 2B is a low level of classification. However, we now have new data, including animal studies and including epidemiological findings in populations that make scientists say that this should be reclassified as a class 2A or one carcinogen. If it is a class one carcinogen, this is a definite carcinogen that IARC and it puts it in the same category as tobacco, smoke, and asbestos. So if you understand that I should quit smoking and I should not be exposed to asbestos, it means that we have to be consequential about it. So do not use the phone like this, use it from a distance. At least just doing just simple action steps using wired earbuds, for example, or a speakerphone will remove most of the risk that you could have if you have this intensity very close to your face. So that is number one for cell phone placement. 

Number two, I have to mention it because more and more scientists are now recognizing that the cell phone if you place it in your pocket instead, is what many people do, men, women, and even children now. It will impact your fertility and I say it will, it may impact your fertility. But the research is increasingly clear on the lowering of sperm quality in men. And in women, it is not as clear but there is a big concern as well because you get one set of eggs for your entire life. Whereas men can renew their sperm after a little bit. So you get DNA damage in sperm, also oxidative stress in sperm. So what does it mean if you do not want children? “Oh, no thanks. I already have teenage kids and I’m done with that”. Well, we also know that it can impact your testosterone. And now all the men are like,” Oh, no, my testosterone. My precious testosterone.” Not only that but recently I read a paper that reminded me that EMF is considered a classic endocrine disruptor and that is not something I included in my book. But you got to think about EMF as and also an invisible but energetic endocrine disruptor. It means that it can negatively impact your hormones, including testosterone but other hormones as well, just like BPA does. Bisphenol A, a lot of people talk about plastics. You should avoid plastic bottles, especially if you keep it in the sun and maybe use BPA-free. And now in my research, I also discovered more than 10  years ago that it is not that better because you have BPB and BPC and BP, whatever. So anyway, long story short, we avoid plastics for those reasons. I’m sure a lot of people listening do so. But keeping a cell phone in the pocket might be just as bad. It might be one of the factors that is toying with your mitochondrial energy and one of the consequences of that is hormonal disruption. Instead of keeping it in the pocket, where do you keep it? Well, what you are doing right now is good. You are keeping it in front of you. A lot of people would instead tuck it in yoga pants or even in the bra, something we see quite often, especially in women who work out or have sports bras. They will be right there next to the breast area. It might be linked also to an increase of cancer in the chest area, which is a big concern. So right there, if you change how you use it, how you talk on the phone, and how you carry it, or at least when you are not actively walking with your phone, you put it in front of you on a desk. I think that you are eliminating seriously most problems associated with cell phones that have been identified in scientific research.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Absolutely. Just a few points that you made here. We do see an increase in infertility. And historically it is been a problem with the woman’s reproductive system and what we are seeing quite frequently now is a sperm problem. Oftentimes, the female’s reproductive system is just fine and it is the male partner that is preventing the ability of the couple to conceive. And I have seen that in my own friends and family as well. To your point, many people watching this summit are beyond reproductive age. They have had their families but there are other things to be concerned about in terms of keeping that phone on your body. 

Now, my community is really good at eliminating plastics like BPA that you talked about. They are really good at eating organic food and looking for toxins but I feel like a lot of us, myself included, a little bit, put our heads in the sand about the EMFs because we do not want to deal with not having it. It makes our life so convenient. Like, fine, I can switch plastic bottles to glass bottles. I can get my own water purification system in my home and carry my own water with me everywhere. And that is pretty easy. I can switch out all my Tupperware plastic for glass containers. I can easily buy organic food. I do not have a substitute for this thing, though. So we tend to be like, Well I can not do anything about it anyway but it is just not true. So, thank you for sharing. Distance is really important. You can also get cases and different apparatus to put under your laptop, around your tablet, or around your phone to help mitigate those EMFs from coming right to your body as well.

Nicolas Pineault

Yes, there are several good things, but I have to mention something before you even rely on these different modalities. I think a case is a good idea. If you have a cell phone, you have to keep it near your body because it is maybe part of your job. You are a realtor or attorney or it is always on you. So either you carry it in certain bags that exist where it is shielded to one side, you have kind of a special bag or even like a banana bag or backpack that can be shielded. Shield Your Body is one of my favorite companies that sell these kinds of things. But before thinking about that, I want you to think about an Internet cable. And that is not like, going back to cables for some people, kind of seems like a back, like a step backward. Like, oh, my god, this is so old school. Do these even exist anymore? Yes. Remember before Wi-Fi, if people listening to this are old enough to remember, I am just 35, before Wi-Fi every computer that had the Internet was plugged in. There is a plug RJ45. That is the Internet cable that goes from the router to the computer. If you are near the router in your job or in many situations, if it is in the living room right now I’m in an Airbnb recording this as I’m traveling around the world this year and here in Budapest in this Airbnb, there is a router right over there and I have a 10-foot cable that I plug into this computer. So now not only am I eliminating my cell phone exposure, but also my laptop exposure because I turn off the Wi-Fi on this laptop that is about a foot and a half from my face that would expose me to these EMFs constantly every time I sit at the computer, which is a lot of hours in my week because I’m an author, this is what I do. I do interviews, I upload large files. So it would be blasting me all the time. So if you can wire in your technology, whether it is a computer or even your phone, it is possible to use an Ethernet cable on an iPhone or Samsung equivalent or Huawei or whatever. All of these can be wired in if you have a special plug that is RJ45 to Usb-C or The Lightning Port for your iPhone, for example. So you can do that. And I think that a lot of people that do that in an office environment, even a home office get a lot of benefits because even if it has to run in the corridor, fine. It is a little bit annoying, especially for your kids and spouse. That trip over it and they might not like it as much. But you can also ask an I.T. company to have these cables go from your router in the walls and the ceiling, and then you get a nice plug in your work environment. 

And when you are wired in, the big advantage is that you get good quality instead of spotty Wi-Fi. You get good quality and something that you can rely on for downloading, uploading, streaming video, and even playing video games. If that is your thing, you have stability. And in my office set up back in Montreal, I was just getting frustrated with the Wi-Fi. I’m here at the EMF Guy getting angry at Wi-FI. We all get angry at Wi-Fi at times if it is not perfectly aligned. And my corridor went a certain way, 15 feet that way and then there is a nail and it was just spotty, very frustrating. And since I was running an Ethernet cable in the corridor and tucked it to the side of the wall, now it is perfect. So eventually we can have these cables run in the walls and have an office set up that is perfectly fast, secure, reliable and has zero EMFs. So that is really something that is underrated, how cool it is to be wired in.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It is so cool. I love that you are traveling with a 10-foot cord to your Airbnb.

Nicolas Pineault

I have three. Sorry. Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So all of us in the health and wellness space, we have our travel kits. The things that we travel with.

Nicolas Pineault

That is true.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

In hotels and Airbnb’s. I have got my whole coffee set up where I have silicone, coffee, a water kettle where I boil my water into a pour-over and.

Nicolas Pineault

That is nice.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

They use those coffee machines in hotels. I do not, so I have got my whole setup and I travel with my special food. The EMF guy travels with his 10-foot cords. It is so good. I mean, anything is possible. I will tell you. So let us talk about sleep. We know our body restores and repairs at night while we sleep. We do need to protect that sleeping environment. So why is reducing EMF exposure so important at night? And why should we be really paying attention to this in our bedrooms? Because people sleep with their cell phones next to them for alarm clocks now. Have you tried to buy an alarm clock in a store? There are, like two options that, you do not have an aisle of alarm clocks. 

Nicolas Pineault

Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You are lucky if you go to the store to find an old-school alarm clock. It is almost impossible.

Nicolas Pineault

Yeah, they are increasingly hard to find. And then some of them that you find are Bluetooth enabled. So you replace your cell phone, you try to cut down the EMFs, and then next thing you know, you replace it with another source of EMFs and that thing with the Bluetooth alarm clock is that even if you do not connect anything to the Bluetooth. It is not connected to your phone to maybe sometimes the alarm clock can act as like a Bluetooth speaker. Even if you are not doing that, then, no, I won’t participate in this technology. Well, the Bluetooth chip inside is designed in such a poor way, it is always emitting, always emitting a signal. And the moment it is plugged into the wall, it is always emitting. So, the technology is so poorly built that I do not recommend buying anything Bluetooth because a lot of times you cannot stop that signal from pinging. So it can interfere with your sleep. And you can have your phone on airplane mode and still use it as an alarm clock. So airplane mode if you make sure that the Bluetooth icon is crossed off and the Wi-Fi icon also is crossed off. If you make sure that you do not have a signal that comes from your cell phone, then it is probably fine. You keep it at a certain distance, one two feet from you on your nightstand. It is fine on the airplane.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Under your pillow. Is it okay?

Nicolas Pineault

No, it is not. Having electronics so close to your body is just nonsensical and under the pillow. It is true that a lot of people tuck it in. Maybe they fall asleep. Even some people want to do good. You know, a lot of people listening to this do a lot of things right. But maybe they use a meditation app that needs to be online and then they kind of start feeling drowsy and then they are like, okay, cell phone. Now you go under the pillow. No, that does not work. You got to hit that airplane mode button. Or if you want, I know you have kids. Maybe you have kids in their teenage years. They are going out with friends, maybe a little bit later than you’d like. And you want to be there. If they have an emergency, keep your phone as far away as possible from your pillow. So it means that you are on a phone before bed, which I do not recommend, but still grab a book instead. But most people are on their phones before bed now. I know. I know. I know.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

But I have an 18-year-old and those nights where she goes out because, in the old days when I mean, I’m 50. So we had landlines with cords. We had old-school phones even before cordless phones existed. So if your kid was out at night, you know the house phone could ring if they need to. And so those nights where she is out, I have to have my phone on.

Nicolas Pineault

Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

In case she needs me. And so I’m putting it as far away as I can.

Nicolas Pineault

That is perfect. 

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah, but it is still on anyway. It is a whole thing.

Nicolas Pineault

I know, but, if it is 10, 15 feet from your pillow, compared to the background level that you are getting from neighbors and whatnot, it is almost a non-issue, to be honest. So do not worry about it too much if you have to do that. And I understand that a lot of parents listening to this will have to keep one of the phones in your couple like, one phone will be open if you’d call. If the first phone does not work, call the second. But we are going to keep it open, but it is just on the other side of the room. Also, if you have problems waking up in the morning at a certain time, maybe because your mitochondrial energy is so down, well, put your alarm clock at the other side of the room and now you have to get up and you can not snooze. That is a neat trick for people who. 

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. I used to do that.

Nicolas Pineault

What is that?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

In High school, I put my alarm clock across the room to force me to get out of bed.

Nicolas Pineault

That is a good one. Yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So, can you talk about EMFs and how they impact those little teeny tiny mitochondria in our cells that are producing energy? We are here on the mitochondrial energy summit. Why is this so critical?

Nicolas Pineault

Yeah, there are different theories about how it is possible that you have such low-level energy compared to sun rays. That is a lot of people who fall into the mistake of thinking that it is all about the power or intensity of a certain electromagnetic field. And that will determine its impacts on our bodies. So, for example, if you have extremely high energy like gamma rays, obviously we know that this damages the human body almost instantly and it can literally kill you almost instantly in certain situations if you are exposed to nuclear radiation. But we also know that even EMFs in the visible light spectrum can greatly reduce it and can increase oxidative stress in the form of blue light emitted by screens. There is a link with macular degeneration, and yet this is visible light. And we say how is it that visible light is damaging us? We have been exposed to visible light. Yes. But we are talking about artificial visible light. 

And the reason that I wear these even during interviews or when I work, is that they slightly reduce how many of these Blu-rays, especially the blue color spectrum, will be emitted towards my eyes. So what happens is that I feel better during interviews and have less eye strain, but especially if I work in the evening, it will not interact or interrupt my circadian rhythm and disrupt it as much. So that is really the rhythm of your sleep and wake cycle. So it will have a hormonal effect again by visible light. And will come to Wireless next. It is a long-winded answer but stay with me here. So the visible light plays tricks with your body and tells you that your screen basically makes your body think that it is noon when in reality it is 8:00 P.M. So next thing you know, you are tossing and turning in bed at midnight. So that is because you have circadian disruption. This can and will lower your sleep quality. It will take you more time to fall asleep. 

Next thing you know your mitochondrial energy reserves will go down. It is very difficult to stay healthy if you do not have good sleep. Berman’s is easy to understand. I’m sure most people listening to this already appreciate that. But what a lot of people forget is that it is not just about the EMFs that you can see. The EMFs that you do not, that are below in frequency, below the visible light spectrum. For example, cell phone radiation can do the same. Some researchers think that it is literally your pineal gland, which is that small gland that releases melatonin basically is tricked into thinking that your cell phone signal is light. That is one of the theories around why it might interfere with our melatonin production. So that is one aspect to it. There is also the fact that overall cell phone radiation seems to be a source of oxidative stress. And too much oxidative stress is not initially a problem when you can recover from it. But I guess it is high oxidative stress is not necessarily a problem if you can recover from it, but too much over time, all the time then becomes a problem. And what it means for mitochondria is that we see that over time that stressor makes your mitochondria start lowering their energy production and you do not have as many antioxidant reserves to keep those mitochondria healthy also. So you do have a strong link between not only EMF exposure on just on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday but more like over a year will lower your energy production because this is just a stressor. It is not the same thing as the everyday stressors that might boost your mitochondrial energy, such as, for example, cold exposure. 

Getting yourself in an ice bath, for example, is something increasingly popular. Even breathing techniques or certain bouts of exercise, like high-intensity interval training can increase your mitochondrial energy because they are hermetic stressors. So hermetic stressors you get a high-stress period, then you get a recovery period, and then the benefits. EMF is high-stress. There is a real benefit. It is just all the time. And if we do not give our body a break, we basically have a breakdown of these defenses over time. So there are a lot of different theories which we can get into, but it all comes down in the end to the lowering of mitochondrial energy production. And one researcher in particular who if you are a mitochondrial energy geek you might appreciate, is Dr. Paul Heroux from McGill University he is a French Canadian fellow from Montreal, and he identified that in his opinion, what is happening is on the mitochondrial level you have what he calls it will impair the flow of protons to the ATP synthase. 

So basically what he says is that now you get dirtier energy production in the mitochondria and he says that you have an increase of 70% in how many or what these is the amount of reactive oxygen species that are created when you create that energy. So it is how I see it because I’m not a mitochondrial expert, but how I see it is that you have got clean fuel and you have got dirtier fuel and EMFs will make it so that is your system, which is usually optimized to try to be as clean as possible, burn that fuel, create that energy and that energy and the mitochondria and create as little possible oxidative stress. Now it gets dirtier. And next thing you know, for the same amount of energy that your body requires, you are creating a lot of oxidative stress. So it is not only oxidative stress that is created inside your body also. So it is fundamentally changing how your body utilizes that energy or let us say, the cost of creating that energy in the first place. So his research is very fascinating. And he is someone who also has expertise in cancer research. So you looked at how cancer cells react to certain types of mounds and kind of deducted things from there. But I think it is very fascinating. It in our eye, biology is so sensitive to even, you know, mind you, to mounds of signals.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

The research does not exist at this point to put regulations on the use of EMFs. There is a lot of money wrapped up in cellular companies and technology companies, and it is not going away. So you need to do what you can to protect yourself. Nick, you are a wealth of knowledge. There is so much we could do four more interviews and just keep going here and dive in deeper. So tell us where our audience can find your work. And I know people are going to want to get a hold of that book. The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs, which I love. And I know you are writing another book also, so tell us more about where we can get in touch with you.

Nicolas Pineault

Sure. You can find all my resources, courses, my book, and whatnot on the book on Amazon Worldwide. And I’m not a huge fan of Amazon except for the part that they pay me for my book and they are easy to ship and all this. So I have to mention it is basically one of the sources of funding for my writing, so I still appreciate them. Thank you so much, Amazon. On my website, theemfguy.com, this is where you can find all my resources. I now have a course specifically designed to help you tackle these different sources of EMFs at night. I have also started talking about light a little bit more because that is something that when I first wrote, I was writing my book and I did not appreciate it as much. Now, talking about blue blockers and sources of artificial light, because it is also a type of EMF that a lot of people nowadays start to appreciate a bit more and realize that if you stare at a screen and you wonder why you are insomniac now people are a little bit more realize put two and two together and they say maybe I should stop staring at screens because clearly there is a detrimental effect. So all of this is there and you can find my latest research on my newsletter.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Thank you so much, Nick. It is always a pleasure to connect with you.

Nicolas Pineault

Thanks so much for having me.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Take care now.