The Importance of a Symbol

On By JoeIn Uncategorized2 Comments

In Owen-Withee there is a garden with my daughter’s name, Kyanna, on it.  On the surface it is easy to recall a 7 year old girl that died of brain cancer, simply because it has her name.  To a point a you would be right in thinking that.  It is a remembrance in a way, but it also a symbol of so much more that you don’t see and is lost.

It is not hard to find the bad in life.  It would seem that by looking at a news feed or even your Facebook feeds that there is bad all over.  Horrible things happening what seems like all the time.   There seems to be an endless supply of this news that we are fed and at least for me after so many years of it, you can get lost in that.   You can start to become more cynical and start to close yourself and may even start to believe all that you read or see in the news, because after all if there was good in the world we would surely hear about it, right?  The good is often overlooked or forgotten.  Finding a symbol of good things is even harder.

For anyone that has received an unfathomable amount of help, it changes you.  It changed me.   When you see people that have no idea who you are and are trying to help for no better reason than that they believe it is right thing to do, that leaves a lasting impression.   You are awed,  humbled, grateful, and can even be meant to feel unworthy of all that has been given to you.  Asking for help is just as hard as receiving it.

When I look at the garden in Owen-Withee I remember my daughter, however more importantly I remember all those that made that possible.  I remember people coming together to make something better, because they felt that a situation was wrong.  I see a symbol of people that care and are trying to make the world a better place.  I see people helping someone else in a time of need.  I see the good in people when I see that garden, and I remember there were many people that made that possible, they are the stars in our night sky.  Simply put, the garden reminds me of the goodness in humanity.  For me, it is a symbol and an embodiment of all things that are good in this world.  I hope when you look upon the garden you will see that as well.

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Flutter Buster Snowshoe Race

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Proceeds from this race will go towards the garden that is in front of the Owen-Withee Schools as well as the Kyanna Joy Darnell Flutter Buster Fund through Eau Claire Community Foundation.  If you are interested in going please fill out and return the form below.  If you are unable to make it for the race you can still make a tax deductible donation to the fund.  To donate click here.

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Simplistic Rules for Shopping

On By JoeIn FoodLeave a comment

January is the time when many will spend a lot of money on things they perceive as healthy.  They will join gyms, buy equipment, and set lofty goals to do a 30, 60, or 90 day challenge; then once done will revert back to before and be back to where they started.   Ironically many do this year after year.  Health is not complicated; it is simple, you just have do it.  The thing that you have the most control over is what you eat and what you feed your family.  The following is what we do.  Really there are only two rules that I follow when I do the grocery shopping.

Rule #1: If it has sugar added to it, don’t buy it.  

Like every parent today, there has never been a time when I was worried that my children were getting enough sugar.  Manufacturers put sugar in almost everything, doubt me? Go and read the labels on the food in your home.  For as simple as this rule sounds, as you start to read labels, you will see how hard this is to follow.  Know that this also includes anything that is a sweetener which would include things like high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, honey, maple syrup, and all of the other natural and artificial sweeteners.  Why do this you ask?  This ties back to the Warburg Effect talked about in the last post.

Rule #2: If you can’t read it or don’t know what it is then don’t buy it.

Since you are already reading the label to see if it has sugar and you come across an ingredient that looks like it should be given in the national spelling bee, then chances are it is not all that good for you.  If you don’t know what the ingredients are then don’t buy it.  For me, if the list of ingredients is really long I don’t even bother to read them, I just put the item back.  The simpler the better.  The litmus test is being able to read the ingredients, however as you go along you will find many things are renamed or called something that is readable.   Be wary of descriptions that are vague–like natural favors, spices, or caramel coloring.   If need be take your phone out of airplane mode and search for the ingredient listed.

If you are trying to apply these rules at all times, then the places that you can eat out at and also the items that you can eat from there just became very, very small.  Traveling was and is the hardest thing to do because of the way we eat.   However, with a little forethought you can avoid having a hungry, angry family.

 

 

Otto Warburg

On By JoeIn EMF, FoodLeave a comment

In the early part of the last century Otto Warburg made an important discovery.  One that was the basis for the way that we treated Kyanna’s cancer, and really how we live our lives now.  Know as “the Warburg effect”, Otto Warburg noticed that cancers cells, even in the presence of oxygen would ferment glucose.  Explained in the most basic of terms, cancer cells use sugar as their fuel.

Your body’s cells have two ways that they can produce energy.  One is through aerobic respiration (with oxygen), the other is anaerobic respiration (without oxygen, ferments sugar).  Under normal circumstances your cells will use aerobic respiration, however in times when you need more energy, your cells will use anaerobic respiration, which is much less efficient but can give you the energy you need in times of need.  Times this is important could be things like running for your life from something, exercising hard, or just under constant stress.  Normally your body will shift between these two modes, but with cancer it seems that it will get stuck in the anaerobic respiration as Warburg found.  The question then becomes how do you get the cells back into aerobic respiration?

With any living organism, if you take away its food source it will have two options, one is die and the other is adapt and eat something else.  For a cell this would mean going back to aerobic respiration.  How do you starve a cancer cell?  In this case you stop eating sugar, anything that will turn into sugar (carbs), and things that are naturally high in sugar (fruits).   Besides cancer cells, your body also needs sugar.  Namely, your brain needs sugar to operate.  However referring back earlier in the paragraph, in the absence of sugar your body will adapt and will produce what are called ketones.  Ketones then act as the sugar that your body needs, and the beauty is that cancer cells are not able to use ketones.  This is the reasoning behind why our family did the Ketogenic Diet, and to some extent continues to do so.  Not only can this diet be helpful for cancer, but also epilepsy and weight loss (since your body is converting fat you eat as well as the fat you have stored into fuel).   You can easily find if you are in ketosis with a simple monitor that will analyze your blood with strips, much like a diabetic strips.  This is something that we monitored with Kyanna every couple of days.

Electromagnetic fields and frequencies (EMFs) in the most simplistic explanation can cause stress on the body.  The stress it causes will range per individual, because everyone reacts to stress differently.  Electromagnetic fields and frequencies are everywhere.  They are inundated in our lives and can be a constant form of stress for people.  It is then best if you can mitigate your exposure as much as possible.   Please refer to previous posts regarding how to mitigate EMFs.  Since there is more than one way to deal with a problem, I am going to address many of the other things that we did with Kyanna and by and large still do.  Many of these are simple things with the hardest part being that you actually have to do them.  This will include such things as diet, therapies, and detoxing that we did and still do.  These are are things we did after we found out Kyanna had cancer.  I wish we had done all these things before Kyanna got sick.  Then if she still would have gotten brain cancer we would know we controlled what we could have controlled.  In my opinion, the best way to prevent cancer would be to act like you already have it.  Make the changes now because these are all things that you can control.  Do not wait until there already is a problem.

For much more information on Warburg’s theory, how it corresponds to current theories, and newer research efforts in cancer research because of it, I would suggest reading Tripping Over The Truth by Travis Christofferson.

The iPhone 7

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http://www.apple.com/legal/rfexposure/iphone9,1/en/

This is a link to Apple’s website that explains the radio frequency exposure, SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) level and steps to take with your iPhone, (these steps can be applied in large part to any phone). This page is referred to in the owners manual, which I am sure everyone has read.  I am going to highlight some key items that you should be made aware of and why.  Anything in bold in this post was just copied and pasted from the linked page above.

Carry iPhone at least 5mm away from your body to ensure exposure levels remain at or below the as-tested levels.

What you should know is that 5 mm is a little less than 1/4 inch, and if you do the conversion is pretty close to 1/5 inch.  This means that if you carry your iPhone in  in your front pocket, your back pocket, your bra, your inside coat pocket, or possibly even your jacket pocket you will be closer than the 5 mm that the manufacturer recommends.  This of course means that you are not using the product as intended and therefore if you were to be harmed by the said product you are going to be hard pressed to receive compensation.   This will also make it hard to call someone since in fact you need to hold the phone.  You might ask ‘how do you carry it then’ and the answer is, when you carry the phone make sure it is in airplane mode.  You will also need to turn off Bluetooth, location, and Wi-Fi (most of these will be turned off when airplane mode is on).  If all of those are turned off, carrying your phone becomes safer.

Cases with metal parts may change the RF performance of the device, including its compliance with RF exposure guidelines, in a manner that has not been tested or certified.

Metal will reflect or block transmission signals.  If your phone is trying to acquire a signal, and you have it in a metal case, it will have to boost its power in order to do this.  This means that you are going to absorb more radio/microwave frequencies.  This of course will mean that you are above the SAR limit that was deemed ‘safe’.  If your iPhone is currently in a metal case, and you plan to be around it, please reread and follow the italics section above.   It would also good to consider a plastic or rubber case, instead of metal.

Here are some other important things to know or consider:

  • The testing for SAR of a phone is done by the manufacturer, not an independent third party, or any government agency.
  • In 2013 the outer ear, called the pinna, was classified by the FCC as an extremity which can be read in this report here.
  • With this classification it means that your outer ear can have the same exposure limits as your hands, wrists, and feet.  Which of course can all be higher than your head.
  • All of the SAR values pertain to an adult, not a teen or child.  Please keep that in mind.

Choosing the Right Light Bulbs

On By JoeIn Uncategorized4 Comments

One of the easiest things that you can do in your home to lower your EMF exposure could be to simply change your light bulbs.  There are basically three types of light bulbs: incandescent, fluorescent, and LED.  The question becomes which one should you get and why.

Fluorescent or compact fluorescent (CFL) should be avoided whenever possible.  Here some reasons:

  1. They give off a frequency that will generate current in your body based on proximity. If you are within a few inches of these (which you can find yourself at times if they are in lamps), you will have more than 18 microamps running through your body.  18 microamps is the point at which biological processes relevant to cancer take place as read here..   If you have been to a workshop I have done, I show this.  I also show you this during a home inspection.
  2. The gas in the bulbs contains mercury. Mercury is toxic.  If you were to break the bulb proper cleaning requires what amounts to a hazmat cleanup.
  3. They produce dirty electricity. All the fluorescent bulbs that I have tested do this.  There may be some that don’t, however I have not seen them.  Yes, filters clean this aspect of the bulb, but it is easier to fix a problem if you don’t create one in the first place.
  4. The ballast in the bulb can give off large magnetic fields. This comes more into play when you are in close proximity to the bulb.

Incandescent bulbs (as well as halogen bulbs) are the easiest thing to replace CFL bulbs in your home with.  They do use more power, however the only thing they emit is heat.  No dirty electricity and no frequencies.  This is what I recommend people to start with.  Any brand of incandescent will do.

The last bulb is LED.  LEDs are tricky because some are good but many are not.  You must test them to find out which is which.  You can’t just look at a description, or tell from looking at the box. Most LED bulbs that I have tested will create varying amounts of dirty electricity.  To test this, you will need at least 4 things:

  1. A microsurge meter which you can buy through here
  2. A lamp
  3. A power strip
  4. An outlet that has a low GS reading (which can be measured with the microsurge meter) at least <50 the lower the better. For some this might mean installing filters in your home to achieve this.  The lower the number the better your results will be.

Once you have these the process is simple.  Plug the lamp and microsurge into the powerstrip, (which is plugged into an active outlet) and then read the number on the microsurge meter.  Turn the lamp on, with the bulb you want to test, and if that number is higher than what you started with then the bulb is no good.  If it stays the same, it is good.  Easy as that.  Please note when you turn on the light the microsurge meter will go up and come back down.  This is due to an arc that happens when you make the circuit which is normal.

In summary: Use incandescent bulbs unless you can test LED bulbs, because some LED are ok but many are not.  If you are looking for place to start with LED bulbs email me at darnell@flutterbusters.com and I can get you pointed in the right direction based on your need.  NEVER USE CFLs, and if you have them in your home now, get rid of them. Replace them with incandescent bulbs.

Building, Buying, or just Living

On By JoeIn EMFLeave a comment

If you are looking at buying a house, building a house, or just living in a house here are some things that you should look at in addition to the normal things that you look at.   Like real estate, this post is all about location, location, location.  With a little planning, all of these can be greatly reduced before there is a problem.

  1. Make sure that the main electrical panel is not located in or under the bedroom.  Magnetic fields found around a electrical panel can easily pass through walls and ceilings.  You want to have the electric panel come in at a location where you don’t spend a lot of time.  If it is already under a bedroom move the bed as far away as possible from it.   A magnetic field will dissipate with distance.
  2.  Stay away from cell towers and radio transmission towers. You can do a simple internet search to see what towers are around where you want to buy/build or live. To find cell phone towers simply type your address here.  To find radio transmission towers in your area type in your details here. The farther you are away from these the better.  Rural will be better than urban.  If you want to do something for the house that you live in, plant trees, preferably coniferous.  Please know with the deployment of 5G there will be many more towers being built.  This means that a good spot today may not be a good spot tomorrow.
  3. Stay away from electrical substations and high voltage lines. Ground current will be higher near a substation than farther away.  In regards to high voltages lines, the taller they are, the farther you want to be from them.  If you currently live next to these, your options are limited since this is out of your control. 

These are simple but very important things to consider if you are buying or building a home.   The best way to reduce exposure to EMF’s is with a little planning and foresight.  Once you are in that home, trying to ‘fix’ these becomes much harder and much more expensive.

The Puzzle Series Part 7: Summary and What to Do

On By JoeIn EMFLeave a comment

When I read the obituaries, the first thing that I do is scan them all, looking at the ages of everyone that has died.  If they were over 70, chances are I don’t read them.  The ones that I read first are kids (anyone under 20), then anyone close to my age.  I try to learn what happened to the child (drowning, cancer, allergic reaction, bike injury), learn from it, and apply it in my life so I can keep my child safe. The explanation of Kyanna’s death was highlighted in really 5 posts.  Like an obituary, it is only highlighting the high points that we wanted everyone to know, to understand the depth of a person or a topic it takes much more time and energy.

The big question is: What do you do about this?  Simply, you need to start being aware of what is going on around you.  If you are interested in knowing what towers are around your address type in your address here.  In this post here there are a number of things that you can do around your home in order to reduce your exposure (there is a short summary at the bottom).   Staying away from ‘smart’ tech is wise and upgrading to wired connections is also better.  That topic is talked about more in detail here.  Start limiting your cell phone use.  Kids shouldn’t have cell phones.  The radiation from cell phones penetrates much deeper into their skulls than it does in adults.   Look at the picture below:

brain-image

If you are going to use a phone, use it on speaker phone at arm’s length.  Never carry it in your pockets when not in airplane mode.  When not in use, it should be in airplane mode with all of the functionality turned off (location, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and anything else).

The biggest thing that you can do is measure your environment or have it measured for you.  Know what you are dealing with and then act in a manner that you are comfortable with.  Measure first, panic second.  If you do this the other way around it will cost you a lot more money.  All of the fields that were harmful for Kyanna are measurable with the right meters, there is no one meter that will measure everything.

If you are looking for what level of exposure is safe, know there are no safe levels.  Zero is safe.  Toxins have no safe levels.  This doesn’t mean I think we should abandon all of the technology that we have.  For example, the legal blood alcohol level in Wisconsin is .08.  This doesn’t mean that at .079 I am safe to drive.  There are some people that are not safe to drive at .04 or even lower.   Do I think we should ban alcohol?  No, though we should use it in moderation and be aware of the effects of overuse.  Use it wisely.  A small amount of alcohol can prove helpful, and large amounts harmful.  It is my belief that the same can be said for EMF’s.

 

 

 

 

 

The Puzzle Series Part 6: Metals, Melatonin, and More Wireless

On By JoeIn EMFLeave a comment

The only problem area left to address for Kyanna is the heavy metals within her system.  Although EMF’s have been shown to redistribute metals within the body, (the summary of effects of EMF’s are gathered here) it is much more likely they came from other sources, such as diet or other environmental exposures.

After learning all of this one might ask: Doesn’t your body have ways to combat these things?  The answer to that is yes.  Your body produces many things to help combat environmental effects.  One of those chemicals is melatonin.  More about melatonin is talked about in the blog post here .  The creation of melatonin though is also affected by radio frequencies, as can be read in a review of many research papers on the topic here.  So not only do EMF’s cause problems, they also inhibit the body from repairing itself.

We first discovered Kyanna had an issue with EMF’s from the blood work that was done in Spain.  In Spain the oncologist (Dr. Raymond Hilu) determined this by looking at Kyanna’s blood under a powerful microscope.  Next is to look at the red blood cells.  In a healthy sample, they are evenly spaced throughout.   In Kyanna’s case, they were all clumped together, signifying an issue with EMF exposure.

Almost all of the known issues Kyanna had can be explained by an exposure to EMF’s from research.  Sadly much of this research was done before she was even born.  Some of it was done before I was born, and yet we still use EMF’s more now than ever.   The more I have learned the more I believe it is not just Kyanna that had issues with EMF’s.  There are many, many people that have these issues.  However, they write it off as a host of many other things, the range of severity different for each individual.  Things like autism have risen right alongside the expansion of our use of EMF’s as can be read here.  Cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and suicide have risen with the electrification of the US as published here.  I don’t think there is a person reading this that is not affected by at least one of those things.  All of these things are here, in our lives and the levels of our exposure are rising.

In the coming years there will be the deployment of 5G.  This will come at an estimated cost of 56 billion dollars for deployment and testing (to make sure it works, not to make sure it is safe from a health standpoint).  They have opened a new band of the electromagnetic spectrum for this to allow faster speeds for wireless.  In doing so, this means there will be more infrastructure built.  This will increase your exposure to more EMF’s.  If you believe that the government has looked into the long term effects of the project, think again.  The chairman of the FCC Tom Wheeler said, “Unlike some countries, we don’t believe we should spend the next couple of years studying what 5G should be or how it should operate.”  In essence they are not waiting for standards, or health concerns. They are not waiting for science to determine anything because companies want to make money.   Since they will be using a new band of the electromagnetic spectrum, all of the research will be done after the fact. Years down the line after companies have made their money, they will then protect their interest, which is making money, as they are now.  Your health and your family’s health are a distant second place to companies’ profits.  What this really means is that you and your loved ones will be part of the experiment going forward.   I hope that it turns out better for you than it did for us.

The Puzzle Series Part 5: Epidemology

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The basic point of epidemiology is to understand which environmental factors can lead to disease.   It is a way of finding a common thread for disease, so that others may not be affected by it.  In particular, it is a way to judge the long term effects of something on a population.  In part 4 of this series, there was a study in regards to dirty electricity.   In this post more papers are presented that are relevant to this topic in regards to Kyanna.

In the recent years some of the most noticeable studies about harmful effects from electromagnetic radiation have come from Scandinavia and other European countries.   One such study shows that the increased risk from brain cancer for children rose by more than 500% if they used a cordless phone or cell phone before the age of 20.  That study can be read here..  There are other studies that show increased cancer rates from living closer to FM transmission stations. Also among these, studies like this one found people living within 400 meters of cell phone transmission towers were three times more likely to develop cancer than those that lived over 400 meters.  All of these pertain to Kyanna as they are present where she lived and all of these items can be measured.   More importantly, you see where towers are located around your home by typing in your address here.

These reports are by no means a smoking gun.  They are a reference point and another piece of the puzzle.  However, they do correlate and fit into the puzzle of a possible means of why Kyanna had a brain tumor and what could have caused it.  What happened to one person can and often does happen to another.  Epidemiology points out hazardous environmental factors that can influence health.   It is because of this knowledge there are limits on things like asbestos, DDT, smoking, and many other things.  The difference is that none of those are/were cornerstones of society like the electromagnetic spectrum is for us today.   Is there then any wonder why we all want them to be ‘safe’?