Electromagnetic cues

Westerners have considered electricity and magnetism to be vital to life processes for at least 200 years (e.g., by Mesmer and the 18th-century vitalists). Almost 200 years later, further development of the understanding of electric forces in biology - healing processes above all - opens a new pathway for organ regeneration in humans (numerous examples can be found in the book by Robert O. Becker [11], a pioneer in this field. Who incidentally started his career as a doctor at the same New York’s Bellevue Hospital as Dr. Thomas whom we quoted at the very beginning). C. W. Smith (from the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Salford) describing the results of his co-operation with R. Choy and J.A. Monro (from the Allergy and Environmental Medicine Unit at the Lister Hospital in London) over the past three years writes: “Man has evolved in an environment flooded with electromagnetic radiation of all frequencies, but during the past century various forms of highly coherent electromagnetic radiation’s have appeared in the environment. Living systems may already utilise coherent oscillations for their own control purposes, thus there are many ways in which coherent oscillations in the environment may interfere with a living system to give rise to an abnormal reaction which may be considered as an allergic response in the widest usage of the term” [12]. In this work, external electrical stimuli are shown to initiate changes in the body's general homeostasis, including electrical. In a given patient, the symptoms provoked electrically are similar to those provoked chemically and those provoked by the patient's environment. Electrical and chemical stimuli and neutralisation appear to be interchangeable [12].
Despite direct observations of the changes in the skin's resistance [13] or Kirlians’ electrography (named after its Russian inventors) [14], the naturally occurring fields around biological objects were taken into consideration mostly for nervous system or ECG studies until recently. However, EMF sensitivity is found to be a real phenomenon in some environmentally sensitive patients. For example, a multiphase study was performed at the Environmental Health Centre in Dallas to find an effective method to evaluate the electromagnetic field sensitivity of patients. Square wave frequencies from 0.1 Hz to 5 MHz were tested and signs of neurological (most common), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, dermal and ocular changes were checked [15] to show that the preponderance of reactions occur at 1 - 10 Hz, though many reactions also occurred at 50 and 60 Hz and some up to 5 MHz. M. Blank in [16] discusses two types of electromagnetic (EM) field effects: 1) the environmental aspect, where the alarming possibility of cancer development in children occurs, and 2) a medical aspect, where one can accelerate growth and healing. He cites the results of a very-well-controlled study from Sweden, based on actual electrical power used, which has shown that leukaemia increases to an odds ratio of approximately 2.7:1 at a magnetic field strength of 0.2 T (the background exposure is on the order of 0.1 T in homes in the USA). And at a value of 0.3 T, the odds ratio jumped from 2.7:1 to 3.8:1. Also included were data on adult occupational exposure that indicated health effects. However, it may be that very high exposures (e.g., for those who live directly underneath high power transmission lines) do not have large biological effects because of so-called “windows effects”, i.e. there appears to be specific (and restricted) ranges of frequency and amplitude where effects occur [16].

Human beings’ attachment to the natural environment is most explicit from the everyday-life observations of circadian rhythms that are shown to be of endogenous origin [17]. Multiple studies of light emission from unicellular organisms up to primates [18, 19] make it possible to introduce (by F. -A. Popp) the notion of biophotons (in order to emphasise their endogenous origin and substantial role in biological communication) as well as to apply the optical part (visible, ultraviolet and infrared light) of the electromagnetic spectrum for therapeutical purposes [14, 20]. Meanwhile, in [21] the circadian rhythms of two groups of human subjects (one of the groups living in a room carefully shielded against natural electric and magnetic fields) are studied to show that natural electromagnetic fields (of lower than optical range frequency) can accelerate the free running rhythm, reduce inter-individual differences and prevent internal desynchronization. The same effects are found by applying a weak alternating electric field [21]. This supports the occurrence of the endogenous mechanisms of the modulation of the electromagnetic signals in a broad range of frequencies (at least, from the order of 1015 Hz (ultraviolet light) to the order of single units of Hz (Schumann earth/ionosphere cavity resonance [22] that come into play at the threshold of biological communication.
The endogenous modulation of electromagnetic signals gives rise to natural ac electrical oscillations in cells. Cells, which grow in a polar manner, are known to develop endogenous electric currents [23]. These currents still exist even after the time of pole induction [24]. Protons or Ca2+ ions are identified as the main charge carriers in different cells [24, 25]. Electric currents being a consequence of the non-uniform distribution of ion transport systems in plasma membranes.

It is important that static fields around cells will drop to zero within a few nanometers) while alternating fields may extend to some micrometers [26]. Extraordinary long-range electromagnetic interactions between living erythrocytes are found in [27]. The formation of periodic acidic and alkaline patterns along the basal part of bean roots at distances of a few centimetres which remain stable over more than 2 hours is revealed in [28] in good accordance with electric loops in this region.

Experimental methods of detecting endogenous ac electrical oscillations in cells are developed in the works of C. Smith, S. Webb, H. Pohl, etc., by directly measuring the dielectrophoresis (the action of non-uniform electric ac fields on neutral particles) or electrorotation of cells [13, 29-32 and references therein]. In order to study the signals detected by Smith and Pohl in yeast cells in more detail, a measuring system with an improved signal-to-noise ratio using a high impedance preamplifier for electronic detection of the endogenous ac fields was developed by R. Hölzel. Discrete bands of endogenous oscillations in the range of 1.5 MHz to 34.8 MHz with the amplitudes of 0.5 - 7.0 mV in various yeast cells were detected [23]. These studies revealed that the endogenous fields are strongest when cell metabolism is most active. No signs of ac oscillations are found in dead or heavily poisoned cells [23]. The measurements of ac electric fields around cells make it possible for H. Pohl
to assume that endogenous oscillations must accompany cellular reproduction, and vice versa - the reproductive process cannot proceed without endogenous ac oscillations [32]. This may be due to the deep involvement of electromagnetic field interactions (within and between cells and organisms) in metabolic energy exchange and transformation.

At the microscopic level, numerous attempts to elucidate the extremely-low-frequency (ELF) signal transduction pathways of the interactions with cell membranes and subcellular components are made by measuring various cellular and subcellular characteristics while exposing the studied systems to experimentally generated external ELF fields. Physically, magnetic field exposure results in an internal magnetic field, internal electric fields and internal currents [33]. A system which makes it possible to generate magnetic fields from the T range up to 0.14 T and separate the bioeffects of magnetic and induced electric fields in the frequency range of 4-100 Hz is described in [34].

It is noteworthy that observable responses of biological systems to electromagnetic field treatment occur from altering field exposure, as no marked difference in various cell characteristics (rate of cell proliferation, histogram of the nuclear DNA content, rates of lactate production and glucose consumption and the ATP content) of exposed and intact cells is obtained by using static magnetic fields [35]. Moreover, many processes turn out to be frequency dependent with thresholds or some peculiarities at certain values of external fields. Some of these results are summarised in the table below (EMF = electromagnetic field; MF - magnetic field; DC - direct current; AC - alternating current). (More experimental evidence of the EMF influence on metabolic, genetic and general structure formation processes in cells and cell populations may be found in [51] and in the proceedings of the meetings of the American Bioelectromagnetic Society [44].)


Feature studied EMF range
studied Parameters of the applied EMF at which the effect occurs Reference
The inhibition of human lymphoblastic and human carcinoma cell growth 60 Hz,
430-1200 V/m 950 V/m,
(no effect at 700 V/m) [36]
Stimulation of polypeptide synthesis occurs below
300 Hz [37]
Na, K-ATPase inhibition 30-300 Hz 100 Hz [38, 39].
Increase in H2B and c-myc transcript basal levels in HL-60 cells 60 Hz, 1 mV- 1V, 0.07-70 A/cm2 depends both on field strength and time of exposure [40]
Distribution patterns of proteins synthesised by Sciara salivary gland cells 60 Hz,
0.8 - 800 T fraction ratio in the 30 kDa and 70 kDa ranges shows alternating zigzag pattern as a function of stimulus intensity [41]
Rb+ accumulation in erythrocytes 60 - 3000 Hz occurs at 1000 Hz [42]
Incidence of mammary tumours in rats
Increase in the weight of tumours AC 50 Hz - MF
DC MF and gradient MF AC-MF, 30 mT
DC-MF, 15 mT
(no effect at grad.
AC-MF 0.3-1 mT) [43]



Information obtained thus far is still insufficient to offer a reasonable mechanism for EMF interaction with biological tissue. Nevertheless, we would like to emphasise some general features of such kinds of interactions, above all, frequency and power windowing in tissue interactions with weak EMF. W. Adey [45] realised the windowing effect after studying the behavioural and neurophysiological effects of extremely low frequency (ELF) and modulated radio frequency (RF) fields as well as the responses of calcium ion binding in tissues to ELF and RF fields [46, 47]. The occurrence of such “biological” electromagnetic windows [48, 49] testifies to the necessity of the application of the natural (endogenous) EMF in the studies of the role of electromagnetic oscillations in the organism's processes. The natural dynamic complement of the inherent and environmental electromagnetic signals (frequency, amplitude, phase and the composition of complex signals) ensure a very fine selectivity of the available information from the electromagnetic noise as well as preventing a “dissolving” in the environmental electromagnetic fields.
Alternating currents are shown to affect also ion transport and ATP splitting via changes in the activation of the membrane of Na, K-ATPase. Both processes vary with frequency [48], and can be explained by the effects of the ionic currents on ion binding at the enzyme's active sites. These could account for the effects of EM fields on cells, as the transmembrane enzyme can convey the effect of an extracellular signal into the cell via ionic fluxes.
The works of M. Blank and co-authors from Columbia University (New York) deal with EM field effects on protein synthesis and the Na, K-ATPase function in cells. They emphasise that in the debate on the biological effects from environmental, non-ionising electromagnetic waves, probably the strongest experimental evidence has come from studies of changes in biosynthesis. The magnetic field, or more likely induced currents, may effect certain processes when the DNA is already unravelled to some extent and in the process of forming messenger RNA (mRNA). An effect may also occur in the cell when this message is read and different amino acids are being added to the growing protein chain. Changes occur at the level of transcription (formation of mRNA) or translation where the message is made into a protein.
Results of [52] show that the steady state levels of some RNA transcripts are increased when cells are exposed to ELF electric or magnetic fields. Experiments have exposed a variety of cell types, including dipteran salivary gland cells, yeast and human HL-60 cells. These data suggested that the physiological mechanism involved in the cellular response to ELF electromagnetic fields may be similar to or mimic the response to heat shock and that one effect of EM fields is directly at the transcription level. As expected, the transcription response was similar to the generalised response of cells to stress (these results point to a possible link between EM field exposure and malignancy through the over-expression of stress genes and increases in stress proteins). Both electric and magnetic fields appear to stimulate the same genes.
The authors of [53] also support the idea that integral membrane enzymes may couple to the electric field vector of an alternating electromagnetic field. This is limited to membrane-bound proteins that undergo large conformational changes during catalysis [53]. However, the results in [54] show that an intact membrane is not an absolute requirement for transducing magnetic bio-effects. In this work, plasmids containing the , or both the ’ sub-units of the RNA polymerise from E.coli were placed into a cell-free expression system which was exposed to a 72-Hz sinusoidal magnetic field in the range of 0.07 to 1.1 T for periods of 5 min. to 1 h to show the elevated level of gene expression. For 10 min. of field exposure, the threshold for an effect is 0.1 T. According to the authors of [54]; it is not immediately evident whether the increased levels of protein observed are a result of alterations in transcription, translation, or both. Alternatively, the stability of the mRNA might also be affected by field exposure.
Higher magnetic fields can affect fast biochemical reactions of electron and spin transfer. A change in radical pair recombination rates is one of the few mechanisms by which a magnetic field can interact with biological systems. More than 20 enzymes are thought to incorporate radical chemistry in the conversion of substrates to products [55, and references therein]. The enzymes, which utilise spin-correlated radical pair intermediates, should be sensitive to an applied magnetic field. Another example of a biological system that is sensitive to an applied magnetic field through electron spin sensitivity is the triplet yield and emission intensity of the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center [56]. For instance, the magnetic field dependence of geminate radical pair recombination following the photosis of adenosylcob (III) alamin (AdoCblIII, relevant to B12 enzymes - natural antioxidants) has been studied in [56].
The rate or product distribution of reactions that involve geminate radical pair or biradical intermediates can be altered by a magnetic field which changes intersystem crossing (ISC) rates between singlet and triplet spin-correlated states [55]. A geminate radical pair born in the singlet spin states after bond homolysis will readily recombine to reform starting material. If ISC to the triplet Spin State occurs, the Pauli exclusion principle prohibits recombination to the starting material. To allow for electron spin recombination, a geminate radical pair must be held close for 10-10 - 10-6 s. In exceeding this time, interactions with solvent and neighbouring atoms will lead to spin randomisation. Thus, only biochemical reactions that occur in this time domain may exhibit a magnetic field dependence through the radical pair spin exclusion mechanism [55].
The quoted examples basically employ the so-called lock-and-key paradigm of biochemistry [57], according to which, any biochemical reaction needs a specific arrangement of the reacting molecules. We do not have in mind to argue this paradigm (per se, it is rather well proved) however, it overestimates the “chemical essence” - moreover, the local specific features of life processes, healing among them. Meanwhile, a living organism and its functions cannot be reduced to a set of chemical reactions, even if it were possible to account for all of them. Continuous adaptation to changing conditions - hence continuous readjustment of the parameters of the biochemical reactions inside the body - is characteristic for living matter. Any fast change (with a rate exceeding a certain threshold determined by the adaptability of a particular organism) is considered as a perturbance of a living system, irrespective of whether this change is intended to cause or prevent illness. This constitutes a serious problem of any acute treatment. Any illness - actually illness in general - generates a kind of communicational gap within the organism’s functional network. Since living beings are highly integrated open dynamic systems, their health - all health in general - is supported by a permanent mass, energy and information exchange. The dynamics of communication thus is vital for organisms. As one can see from the shown examples, the communication between cells, organs and even organisms has an essentially electromagnetic nature.