Every human, with a human body, suffers from what we call symptoms of life, occasional fatigue, headaches, joint pain, stress, etc.

But some who feel these insist that the explanation must lie in an undiagnosed, unrecognized medical condition.

And for many, they have decided that they have electro-magnetic hypersensitivity, literally an allergy to technology.

And that's coming up today on Skeptoid.

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Today we're going to put on a suit made of metal screening to shield us from electromagnetic radiation and walk around looking like Robby the Robot.

For today's topic is one of the latest FAD illnesses caused by the evils of our modern technological society, electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

You've seen them on the TV news and on the internet. Thousands of people worldwide, though mostly concentrated in the United Kingdom and Sweden,

who believe that their bodies are being afflicted by the electromagnetic radiation put out by computers, wireless data networks, cell phone networks, radio and television broadcasting, power lines, and virtually anything that uses electricity.

Mass media trumpet the alarmist headlines, like one article that proclaims, for years, opponents of cell towers and wireless technology have voiced concerns about potential health effects of electromagnetic fields.

Once ridiculed as crackpots, they're starting to get back up from the scientific community.

Generally called electro-sensitivity, or ES, for short, the condition manifests itself in sufferers as skin sensitivity and blemishing, light sensitivity, fatigue, high blood pressure, headaches, joint pain, dizziness, and a whole array of associated symptoms.

Interestingly, these are also the exact same symptoms caused by simple stress. We'll come back to that later.

There is no cure that is broadly accepted among ES advocates, but they do agree on one point, shielding, or complete removal from the environment, is the only sure-fire way to alleviate the symptoms.

Brake spear hospital, located in Hertfordshire, UK, advertises itself as the world's leading facility for the treatment of ES, among other things.

On its list of treatments for ES, unfortunately, is chelation therapy, a dangerous and tedious drug-based treatment for removing heavy metal contamination from the body.

People who choose this option should be aware that the drugs used in chelation therapy are approved only for use in cases where a blood test has proven acute heavy metal contamination.

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