Electric Hypersensitivity Caused By Bacteria?

[Changexpert]

I get zapped very easily and it happens all year long, although it does get worse during winter times when my skin becomes dry. It feels like my body is statically charged all the time and releases that charge when I touch other people. When the symptom was at its worst, I could barely use touchpad because it was zapping me and I could actually feel the electric current flow on the touchpad/keyboard. It looks like there are many terms for this condition like high voltage syndrome, electric hypersensitivity, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, etc (Source: http://weirdcommunity.wikia.com/wiki/High_Voltage_Syndrome).

Some doctors say that this is caused by bacteria and we build up negative ions (electrons) when we breathe out positively charged ions (caused by bacteria/lung damage). I do have very shallow breathing pattern and tend to breathe out longer than to breathe in. This theory looks good on paper, but I am not sure if this is feasible. Also, our body system is designed to deal not so well with electricity (Source: http://amasci.com/static/e-disease.html).

Two questions came to my mind as I was digging into this topic.
1. Can this negatively charged ion buildup (lots of electrons!) serve as an antioxidant (electron donors)? If our body cannot function properly with excess electricity, would excess intracellular antioxidants (glutathione, ubiquinol) hurt us in the long run? Excess extracellular antioxidants can become pro-oxidants, but I thought intracellular antioxidants were supposed to help regardless of the quantity.

2. If excess negatively charged ion buildup is bad for health, can this serve as a connection for why some people react so negatively to methylation or antioxidants?

Electric hypersensitivity is definitely not imaginary and I zap everybody as if I am holding a magical wand. Is it even possible for a person to be negatively charged all the time? Does anybody know any studies, treatments, threads, or theories for this condition? I read a thread on earthing, but I am not convinced that the protocol is nothing more than placebo. I would sincerely appreciate your insight.

 

[Hip]

On my website some years ago there were two women posting who caught a virus which seemed very similar to the one I caught (my virus is likely an enterovirus such as coxsackievirus B).

After catching their virus, both developed a condition in which they said their bodies frequently became electrically charged, such that little sparks would emit from their fingers when they touched things. This did not occur before catching the virus.

My first thought was that they must have changed the carpets in their house to a nylon or wool carpet, which are known to generate electric charge in the human body via the friction between the feet and the carpet when walking; or that they started wearing nylon shirts, skirts or tights, which can have a similar static electricity-generating effect through the friction of body movement.

Friction is actually a common way to create a build-up of electric charge on a body or object. For example, if you briskly comb your hair with a plastic comb, this will cause an electric charge build-up on the comb, and you will notice that afterwards, the comb will attract tiny pieces of paper towards it, as a result of the attractive effects of the charge on the comb.

In a similar way, the friction of walking over a nylon or wool carpet can build up static in the body. Plastic floor tiles can also do this.

However, these two women said that they had not changed their carpets, and had not started wearing nylon clothing.

They also told me that the static electricity was so great that they were regularly destroying the delicate electronic components in items such as TV remote controls. Certain types of electronic chips and components (especially CMOS chips) are very sensitive to high voltage static electricity, and can be destroyed with just one tiny spark from a finger. One said she wrapped the TV remote in a plastic bag to try to prevent the static from her hands from destroying it.

I was highly skeptical at first that a virus could promote this static electrical charge build-up. I thought that there would have to be another explanation.

I started doing a little research on the plausibility of this phenomenon, and came across this study that observed coxsackievirus B alters the functioning of potassium ion channels in human cells. Ions are of course electrically charged atoms or molecules.

So I initially wondered whether this alteration of cellular ions channels and ion flow in the cells might possibly change the electrical properties of the body in a way that more readily allows a build-up of electric charge through the friction of walking. Electric eels actually use ion channels on specialized cells to generate the 600 volt charge they produce on their body which stuns their prey.

However the voltage level found in static electric sparks from the human body is much higher: at least 4,000 volts. And with the body being a good conductor of electricity, there can be no purely internal mechanism that would cause this build-up of static. It has to be an external mechanism related to friction.


So a simpler and much more likely explanation is that since viruses like coxsackievirus B can cause chronic neurological infections that lead to ME/CFS, possibly due to fatigue or neurological effects, the walking gait of a person with this virus might change into a more shuffling gait, leading to more friction and rubbing between the feet and the carpet during walking, which would tend to generate more static electricity in the body.

 

[JaimeS]

Let me start off by saying that I believe this is happening to you; let me add that a lot of the stuff about "high voltage syndrome" is from sources that don't back up their claims with evidence.

Wildly hypothesizing, anything that caused the body to develop a preponderance of negative ions could increase one's static charge! Okay, brain fog, so I've gotta work out the second half to your question - should antioxidants have negative affects on these people? (Negative... no pun intended.)

Oxidizing = the opposite of reducing
reducing refers to charge going down, i.e. more electrons
Antioxidants reduce the charge of other chemicals, so they increase the number of electrons...

...theoretically yes? Antioxidants donate electrons, or tend to or they wouldn't be called antioxidant. (This doesn't mean they're necessarily negatively charged from the get-go.) However, this does imply that metal ion supplementation could possibly help?

This is the most slipshod science I have ever scienced. Keep in mind this is off the cuff and I could be talking out my bum.

-K

 

[Hip]

One way to reduce this static build-up would be to use leather-soled shoes, rather than rubber or plastic soles. Rubber or plastic soles electrically insulate the body from the ground, and so prevent any electric charge in your body from escaping to earth. So then with this insulation the charge builds up and up, until it finally escapes to earth via a spark jumping between your hand and a metal doorknob for example.

In the house, you can go barefoot, as this will provide a better connection to earth.

 

[Gondwanaland]

@Changexpert I think you need to balance your electrolytes. More magnesium perhaps?

 

[Antares in NYC]

I get zapped very easily and it happens all year long, although it does get worse during winter times when my skin becomes dry. It feels like my body is statically charged all the time and releases that charge when I touch other people. When the symptom was at its worst, I could barely use touchpad because it was zapping me and I could actually feel the electric current flow on the touchpad/keyboard. It looks like there are many terms for this condition like high voltage syndrome, electric hypersensitivity, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, etc (Source: http://weirdcommunity.wikia.com/wiki/High_Voltage_Syndrome).

Wow!!!!
Check, and check! And I thought I was the only one!

Yes, I get zapped several times a day, and it's quite unpleasant. It's something that has increased over the years, to the point that it's now so common I'm starting to get used to it.

Also my skin, specially my hands, get so dry in the winter that my fingertips literally bleed. I always have one or two fingers bandaged.

Never thought either one of these two could be related to ME/CFS.

 

[Gondwanaland]

Have you guys ever been zapped by kissing? I have

 

[Hip]

let me add that a lot of the stuff about "high voltage syndrome" is from sources that don't back up their claims with evidence.

Absolutely, there seems to be a lot of nonsense in this area.

I was recently watching a TV program about people who build up lots of static electricity in their body. It's easy to appreciate how such static could destroy delicate electronic equipment such as TV remotes that are handled, as certain electronic chips will instantly be zapped even by the smallest static spark.

In fact if you have ever bought a CMOS integrated circuit for an electronics project, you will know that it comes wrapped in aluminum foil to protect it from static, and when you handle this CMOS chip, you must earth your body beforehand, to ensure that you have no static charge in you that could destroy this delicate chip as you touch it.


However, the claims that these people can suddenly turn off the street lights as they walk down the road (see "SLIders") does not add up. I think once you see yourself as having some "special electrical quality" in your body, ie, this static charge build-up, you may tend to interpret any electrical event around you as a manifestation of your "special electric quality".

So for me, I tend not to get any static electricity in my body, and thus if a light bulb blows, or if my tablet computer suddenly stops working as I pick it up (which happened yesterday), I don't go around ascribing it to some electrical quality that I possess.

 

[Hip]

Can this negatively charged ion buildup (lots of electrons!) serve as an antioxidant (electron donors)?

It does not necessarily have to be a build-up of negative charge (excess electrons); it can also be a build-up of positive charge (deficiency of electrons).

When static is created through the friction of two materials rubbing together (triboelectricity), the type of charge created (+ or -) depends on the materials involved.


Not sure about static electricity electrons acting as an antioxidant, but I found this intriguing article about antioxidant-covered surfaces dispersing static electricity.

 

[Antares in NYC]

Have you guys ever been zapped by kissing? I have

Oh yeah! I now have to touch some metal before kissing. Otherwise it can get unpleasant!

 

[Changexpert]

Let me start off by saying that I believe this is happening to you; let me add that a lot of the stuff about "high voltage syndrome" is from sources that don't back up their claims with evidence.

Unfortunately, that was the best "source" I could find. This is a widely known/happening syndrome, but people dismiss it easily.

Oxidizing = the opposite of reducing
reducing refers to charge going down, i.e. more electrons
Antioxidants reduce the charge of other chemicals, so they increase the number of electrons...

I totally agree with you that antioxidants reduce oxidation level and oxidation puts stress on the body, resulting in damage and aging. However, certain extracellular antioxidants (the ones that your body does not naturally create like vitamin C, E, A, beta carotene, etc) can become pro-oxidants, meaning they cause oxidation, when taken excessively. There are several medical studies done on this topic and use of high extracellular antioxidants for "reverse aging effect" is highly debatable.
(Source: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10715769609149066?journalCode=fra
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21782615)

Since extracellular antioxidants can exert oxidation stress in excess amount, I was curious if intracellular antioxidants can do the same. I am still reading some papers on this topic, but just like everything else, balance seems to be the key and too much antioxidants (GSH) or too much oxidative stress byproduct (GSSG) can be a problem. (Source: http://www.jbc.org/content/275/28/21130.short)

All this information about antioxidant may be completely irrelevant for frequent static charge symptom. Maybe extra charges stored in the body do not form any oxidative reactions. The mechanism behind excessive static charge and their effects on our body could be totally different.

 

[Hip]

@Changexpert

The term electrical hypersensitivity (aka electromagnetic hypersensitivity) is not actually the same thing as the tendency to build-up static electricity in the body — the phenomenon you are experiencing.

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is the purported triggering of symptoms from exposure to electromagnetic fields such as WiFi, mobile phone radiation, or cordless phone radiation.


By the way, where did you read about the bacterial connection to static build-up that you mentioned above?

 

[Gondwanaland]

I would like to recommend the reading of this very interesting discussion:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/the-electrical-apocalypse-can-we-avoid-it.26545/

 

[Changexpert]

@Changexpert

The term electrical hypersensitivity (aka electromagnetic hypersensitivity) is not actually the same thing as the tendency to build-up static electricity in the body — the phenomenon you are experiencing.

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is the purported triggering of symptoms from exposure to electromagnetic fields such as WiFi, mobile phone radiation, or cordless phone radiation.


By the way, where did you read about the bacterial connection to static build-up that you mentioned above?

I thought electromagnetic hypersensitivity and electrical hypersensitivity were two different concepts. The ones you mentioned about wifi or cell phone is definitely electromagnetic, and AFAIK, ones related to current and electricity can be attributed to electrical sensitivity. To be honest, I could not really find the right terminology for this frequent static charge syndrome, and the closest one I could find was high voltage syndrome.

The bacterial connection is given in the original post. The author calls them spores from viruses and microbes

 

[Hip]

@Changexpert
Yeah strictly speaking the purported sensitivity to WiFi, etc should be called electromagnetic hypersensitivity, rather than electrical hypersensitivity, but people do seem to use the latter term as well.


There isn't really a special term for static build-up in the body, which is perhaps not surprising since it occurs in everybody under the right circumstances. Most people have probably experienced a static shock while shopping in the dry air conditioned environment of department store, and touching the metal supports of the display stands.

Dry air from air conditioning definitely promotes static build up, and shops often have hard-wearing nylon carpets that create lots of static while people walk on it.

 

[Hip]

By the way, @Changexpert, do you tend to walk with a slightly shuffling gait perhaps as a result of fatigue and low energy? If so, that rubbing friction of the shoes against the carpet produced by a shuffling gait could explain the static build-up you are regularly experiencing.

 

[Changexpert]

By the way, @Changexpert, do you tend to walk with a slightly shuffling gait perhaps as a result of fatigue and low energy? If so, that rubbing friction of the shoes against the carpet produced by a shuffling gait could explain the static build-up you are regularly experiencing.

Yes, totally! However, my static charge frequency was at its highest when I lived in an apt with hardwood floor. I did not have much clothing on due to hot weather, so it can't be related to clothing either. Recently, the frequency has come down quite a bit, and I have no idea why I am getting less zaps than before. I've been travelling to north side on weekly basis, but rarely got static charges this past winter. I wonder if parasite/gut repairing protocols I've been following for past three months had anything to do with it.

 

[Hip]

I read that if the wooden floor is lacquered, this acts as an electrically insulating layer which then promotes static generation. Whereas oiled wooden floors do not generate static.

 

[Dufresne]

Dr Shoemaker theorizes people suffering biotoxin illness are more susceptible to static shocks. I just very quickly pulled the following from Mercola's site but he goes into it in greater depth in 'Surviving Mold'.

"With MSH, this is a master hormone—it regulates other hormones, especially antidiuretic hormone—you'll see people that are thirsty. They urinate more frequently. And they get static shocks, interestingly. It's wild. Folks will turn on light switches with their elbows, because they get zapped all the time... When you fix antidiuretic hormone/osmolality relationships, as our fourth step, you'll have a lot of very happy people," Dr. Shoemaker says.

 

[brenda]

I used to suffer from this, all of my life, before changing my diet to a much healthier one. I used to get zapped frequently, when touching car doors, supermarket trolleys, all sorts of things. Nowadays it never happens and I am much less electrically sensitive overall and much less chemically sensitive.