Sunday, April 14, 2013

Environmental Fields (EMF) Interact with Living Systems to Affect Health (book chapter)



Panagopoulos, DJ. Electromagnetic Interaction between Environmental Fields and Living Systems Determines Health and Well-Being. In Kwang, MH. and Yoon, SO. (eds.) Electromagnetic Fields: Principles, Engineering Applications and Biophysical Effects. Nova Publishers. 2013. URL: https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=37822

This 41 page book chapter can be downloaded from:

Summary (from Abstract)

The chapter presents data showing the electric nature of the natural environment and living organisms and discusses how the interaction between the two, determines health and well-being.

A brief theoretical background of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and the differences between natural and man-made electromagnetic radiation are discussed.

The electromagnetic nature of the natural environment is discussed – terrestrial electric and magnetic fields, natural radiation from the sun and stars, cosmic microwaves and natural radioactivity. All living organisms live in harmony with these fields as long as these fields are within normal levels and not disturbed by changes, usually in solar activity.

The electrical nature of all living organisms is determined by electrical properties of cell membranes, the circadian biological clock, endogenous electric currents within cells and tissues, and intracellular ionic oscillations.

The periodicity of our natural environment mainly determined by movement of the earth around its axis and around the sun implies the periodic function of the suprahiasmatic nuclei (SCN) - a group of neurons located above the optic chiasm - which constitute the central circadian biological clock in mammals. The chapter describes: 1) the probable connection between the central biological clock with the endogenous electric oscillations within cells and organs constituting the “peripheral clocks”; 2) how the central clock controls the function of peripheral ones in the heart, brain, and all parts of the body by electrical and chemical signals; 3) how cellular/tissue functions are initiated and controlled by endogenous (intracellular/trans-cellular) weak electric currents consisting of directed free ion flows through the cytoplasm and the plasma membrane, and 4) the connection of these currents with the function of the circadian biological clock.

Experimental data are presented which show that the endogenous electric currents and the functions they control can be easily varied by externally applied EMF of similar or even smaller intensities than those generating the endogenous currents.

Two possible ways by which external EMFs like those produced by human technology can distort the physiological endogenous electric currents and the corresponding biological/ physiological functions are discussed: 1) by direct interference between the external and the endogenous fields and, 2) by alteration of the intracellular ionic concentrations (i.e. by changing the number of electric current carriers within the cells) after irregular gating of electrosensitive ion channels on the cell membranes.

Finally, the chapter discusses how maintenance of this EMF equilibrium between living organisms and the natural environment, determines health and well-being, and how its disturbance will inevitably lead sooner or later to health effects.

Book’s Table of Contents

Earth’s Natural Electromagnetic Noises in a Very-Low Frequency Band
(Yury P. Malyshkov, Sergey Yu. Malyshkov, Vasily F. Gordeev, Sergey G. Shtalin, Vitaly I. Polivach, Vladimir A. Krutikov, Michail M. Zaderigolova, Institute of Monitoring of Climate and Ecosystems, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Russia, and others)

Electromagnetic Interaction between Environmental Fields and Living Systems Determines Health and Well-Being
(Dimitris J. Panagopoulos, University of Athens, Department of Biology, Athens, Greece, and others)

Thermodynamics of Surface Electromagnetic Waves
(Illarion Dorofeyev, Institute for Physics of Microstructures, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny, Novgorod, Russia)

Magnetic Field Originated by Power Lines
(J.A. Brandão Faria, M.E. Almeida Pedro, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Microwave Heating for Metallurgical Engineering
(Jingjing Yang, Ming Huang, Jinhui Peng, Wireless Innovation Lab, School of Information Science and Engineering, Yunnan University, Kunming, People’s Republic of China, and others)

Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Field and Cytokines Production
(M. Reale, P. Amerio, Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Sciences, Dept. of Aging Medicine and Science (DMSI), Dermatologic Clinic, University "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy)

High Frequency Induction Heating for High Quality Injection Molding
(Keun Park, Seoul National University of Science & Technology, Seoul, Korea)

Electromagnetic Characterization of Electrically Small Piezoelectric Antennas and Waveguiding Devices for Detection of Cancer-Related Anomalies in Biological Tissues
(Diego Caratelli, Alessandro Massaro, Delft University of Technology, Microwave Technology and Systems for Radar (MTS-Radar), Delft, the Netherlands, and others)

Electro-Magnetic Field Induced Entropy Production in a Cell: Its Difference between Cancerous and Normal Cells
(Liaofu Luo, Changjiang Ding, School of Physical Science, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China, and others)

An Evaluation of Neurotoxicity Markers in Rat Brains, using a Pre-Convulsive Model and Exposure to 900 MHZ Modulated GSM Radio Frequency
(María Elena López-Martín, Francisco José Ares-Pena, Morphological Sciences Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and others)

The Effect of Settlement Reoccupation on Electromagnetic Induction Data Sets in Archaeology
(Daniel P. Bigman, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA)

New Cooperative Effects in Single- and Two-Photon Interactions of Radiators with Electromagnetic Bath
(Nicolae Enaki, Quantum Optics and Kinetic Process Laboratory, Institute of Applied Physics, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Chisinau MD)