Building up cellular resilience against pro-inflammatory effects of EMFs (Part II)

how silica-rich water can help, but there's more to the story...

In Part I, I’ve described a sequence of molecular events that link cellphone radiation to the thyroid gland inflammation and its destruction (thyroiditis). Briefly, an immediate cause of thyroiditis appears to be pyroptosis (death by inflammation) of the thyroid follicle cells; however, the underlying cause is the release of DAMPs (damage-associated molecular pattern molecules) from necroptotic cells elsewhere in the body. Necroptotic cells are cells that are dying and leaking their contents in response to a pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha, which is induced by cellphone radiation in multiple tissues tested.

I used the thyroid gland pathology as a specific example of EMF-related damage, but I want to underscore that the negative effects of EMFs are systemic and clearly not limited to just one tissue or organ. Hence, counteracting EMF-induced chronic TNF-alpha surge would be beneficial for everyone and not just for patients with thyroiditis.

One way to lower EMF-induced TNF-alpha levels is by drinking silica-rich water. This recommendation is based on a Serbian study documenting that silica-rich water lowers serum levels of TNF-alpha in research animals exposed to chronic 900-MHz cellphone radiation (ref). The study measured serum levels of TNF-alpha and the effects of EMFs (with or without silica-rich water consumption) on peritoneal macrophages, but didn’t test tissue levels of TNF-alpha.

The story of putting out the fire of EMF-induced inflammation with silica-rich water could end right here. Or this could be an Introduction to the real story.

Let the real story begin.

To make it more fun, let’s designate the butterfly-shaped thyroid gland to be the Princess in this story, and TNF-alpha to be the Dragon that breathes fire, which can eventually destroy the Princess’s land and castle. In this story, the evil EMF spell from the Dark Side makes the Dragon grow bigger and more destructive.

Who then is the Knight in shiny armor equipped to tame the Dragon and rescue the Princess’s land from destruction?

The Knight - or rather the brave Firefighter - is… cortisol. Yeah, that’s right. You might be surprised that the ‘stress hormone’ is doing such a noble task of keeping the Princess and her land safe from the Dragon’s fire. Let me explain.

The way cortisol works is by binding to its receptor inside the cells called the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) - like a horsemen mounts a horse - and together they tame the TNF-alpha Dragon by suppressing its pro-inflammatory gene expression program (ref). Neither cortisol nor its receptor, GR, can achieve this task alone — but together can they override TNF-alpha and prevent undue inflammation in our tissues.

The TNF-alpha Dragon, however, fights back and tries, in turn, to inhibit the GR-induced gene expression (ref). Who wins in this tug of war, the Horseman on the horse or the Dragon, determines our health outcomes. There are also little forrest dwellers (which I will introduce later) that can help attenuate TNF-alpha by selectively strengthening anti-inflammatory GR effects to help ensure that the Dragon doesn’t win.

TNF-alpha has its own sneaky ally in promoting necroptosis. This ally is insulin (the Mountain Troll). In addition to its better known effects on glucose uptake, insulin also increases the production of very-long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) via its intermediaries - transcription factors called SREBPs (ref). VLCFAs destabilize cell membranes and make cells more susceptible to necroptosis (ref). But a little forest dweller betulin (found in the bark of the birch tree, Mother Betula, and in chaga mushrooms that grow on birch trees) can inhibit SREBPs (ref), thereby thwarting insulin’s destabilizing effects on cell membranes.

One could lower insulin spikes after meals by avoiding high-glycemic index/load foods - please don’t feed the Troll! This would mean following a low-carb or ketogenic diet. The Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet would also fit in the category of a low/no-insulin stimulating diet.

But a sizable proportion of the population has already developed pre-diabetes, a condition that includes insulin resistance and chronic hyper-insulinemia, with insulin staying high even in between food consumption. The Troll is out of control!

If you want to learn how to reduce insulin resistance (and the accompanying hyper-insulinemia), you can watch my video below or read the original study (ref). The method is alternate-day fasting (ADF) that includes 25% calorie consumption on a ‘fasting’ day. This makes ADF way more doable than a strict water fast and it is still effective in reducing insulin resistance.

But even if insulin resistance is all sorted out, there are other issues that need to be addressed for the Dragon to be subdued effectively. These issues are glucocorticoid (GR) resistance and/or adrenal insufficiency.

If your body’s cortisol receptor, GR, is not available or not functional, then you are in a state of GR resistance. It’s like having the Horseman without a horse. GR resistance can develop when the body chronically produces excess levels of cortisol (as in chronic stress) or is subjected to frequent corticosteroid injections for medical (immune-suppressing or pain-suppressing) purposes. In the state of GR resistance, you may have high levels of cortisol in the serum with little or no anti-inflammatory effect, which further drives your cortisol levels up in a futile cycle.

Another situation is the reverse of the above: when the horse (GR) is there, but the Horseman (cortisol) is nowhere to be found. This can occur if you have developed adrenal gland insufficiency or adrenal exhaustion.

Interestingly, a study in rats shows that under the influence of cellphone radiation, the adrenal gland undergoes hypertrophy of the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex (hypertrophy means enlargement) (ref). The adrenal cortex is the region of the adrenal gland where cortisol is produced. Cortisol levels go up in response to EMFs, possibly as a desperate protective measure against TNF-alpha induced by that same radiation. But this hypertrophy is likely to exhaust the adrenals in the long run, leaving you with adrenal fatigue.

In the old days, patients who were diagnosed with neurasthenia, meaning “weak nerves,” were very sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, as described in the book by Arthur Firstenberg, The Invisible Rainbow. But I suspect they may have had weak adrenals rather than weak nerves.

Now you may start to realize that your inner resilience against the effects of EMFs depends on how robust your cortisol-GR system is, including not only the health of the adrenal glands but also the availability and functionality of the cortisol receptor, GR, inside each cell of your body.

If you start out with robust adrenals and you are not prone to stressing out, EMFs could be eroding your health at a much slower pace such that it is not very noticeable. And if your adrenals are weak to start with and you are a habitual worrier, EMFs can erode your health pretty quickly. But nevertheless, we are all in the same predicament. Sooner or later we are bound to end up with a bouquet of cortisol resistance, adrenal fatigue, chronic inflammation and an autoimmune disease, such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, or any other comorbidity.

Unless we do something about it.

Given that we are not likely to permanently shut down our cell phones and all other electronics, take down all electric wires and go back to the Stone Age or go live with the Amish, our more realistic goal could be to counter-balance EMF effects at the cellular level within our own bodies.

Luckily, Mother Nature has provided us with powerful herbs that contain “selective glucocorticoid receptor modulators with anti-inflammatory effects.” One of these herbs is ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) with its active constituent withaferin A, holding the above status (ref).

Interestingly, in two separate clinical trials, ashwagandha has been shown to improve subclinical hypothyroidism (ref) and to lower stress-assessment scores and serum cortisol levels in subjects with a history of chronic stress (ref). Could these effects be related?

While research on ashwagandha has been more advanced, there are other natural compounds with a similar selective GR modulating anti-inflammatory potential, such as alpha-boswellic acid from Frankincense (ref), betulin (ref), and berberine (ref).

Approaching GR resistance from a different angle, a study on Cushing disease shows that GR resistance can also be caused by excess of HSP90 (ref), a chaperone protein that binds to GR in order to ensure its proper folding. High levels of HSP90 prevent cortisol from binding to GR - a situation where you have both the Horseman and the horse, but the two don’t connect due to an overzealous chaperone. HSP90 can be inhibited by silibinin, an active constituent of milk thistle, to increase GR sensitivity by making HSP90 yield the spot on GR to cortisol (ref). Additional adaptogens that can positively influence the cortisol-GR system are eleuthero, rhodiola, and schisandra (ref).

In the end I want to say a good word about TNF-alpha. It’s not all bad. In small amounts, it activates an important cytoprotective antioxidant pathway in cardiomyocytes (ref). Killing the Dragon altogether will break the Princess’s heart quite literally, as low levels of TNF-alpha are needed for cardiovascular health. And this is the reason why we should not target TNF-alpha with such drastic measures as anti-TNF-alpha pharmacological drugs.

To sum it up, there are some dietary changes and herbal aids that can help us build up our inner resilience against EMF-induced inflammation and tissue damage. These are:

• silica-rich water - to lower TNF-alpha serum levels

• alternate-day fasting (ADF) - to lower insulin resistance and hyper-insulinemia

• low-carb diet - to prevent overstimulating insulin, which leads to the build-up of cell membrane-damaging VLCFAs

• betulin (chaga mushroom) - to further inhibit the production of VLCFAs

• ashwagandha (or frankincense, betulin, berberine) - to help engage the anti-inflammatory GR effects

• milk thistle - to reverse GR resistance due to GR chaperone overactivity

• adaptogens (eleuthero, rhodiola, or schisandra) - to strengthen the cortisol-GR system during times of stress