Skepticism

I have the cure for the common cold!

By tkingdoll.

All weekend I’ve been feeling really rough. Headache, exhaustion, sore eyes, painful skin. I just want to go to sleep. I can’t concentrate and I feel particularly dull-witted.

Here’s another fascinating fact about me. At the latest count, I have the following WiFi devices in my home:

My laptop, which I work on 18 hours a day
My hubby’s laptop
My PC
The Wii
The PSP
The Nintendo DS
My PDA/phone

Add to that hubby’s mobile, his Blackberry, the cordless house phones, the microwave, stereo, large LCD TV, the PS2, iPods, digital cameras and docking stations, etc, and there’s only one conclusion for my illness.

I am electrosensitive. From that link, I have all the symptoms:

  • An unnatural warmth or burning sensation in the face.
  • A tingling, stinging or prickling sensation in the face or other areas of the body.
  • Dryness of the upper respiratory tract or eye irritation.
  • Problems with concentration, dizziness and loss of memory.
  • Swollen mucus membranes.
  • Feeling flu like symptoms of headache, muscle and joint pains.

And it’s that simple. Ignoring the fact that I also have all the symptoms of an impending cold, I can join the ranks of the frustratingly paranoid ‘electrosensitives’ who are best (and least charitably) described as ‘neurotic idiots’. Fortunately Ben Goldacre is here to mock and inform in equal measures. Here’s his Bad Science article on the subject of electrosensitivity.

There have been 36 such studies published to date. This is very active work. This field has not been neglected. Thirty-three have shown that the subjects were unable to tell if the signal was present or absent, and the other three were flawed

So it occurred to me that as the symptoms of WiFi allergy bear a striking resemblence to the sniffles, we can simply declare that all colds are in fact electrosensitivity, and behold! the common cold is no more. Banished, just like that. I think it’s a good move, because colds clearly belong to a medieval age of natural illnesses, and it’s about time we updated our medical complaints to be a bit more hi-tech and trendy.

I’m off to remarket my handkerchief business as ‘radiation-extracting face shields’. Or I would if I wasn’t so ill…

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12 Comments

  1. Hmmm. Any chance there's, well, pollen around your home? It is allergy season after all. :-)

    Great post.

  2. Good point, it did just get very hot in the UK so it might be hayfever, but the aches seem more indicative of a cold. I wonder how many pollen-allergy-sufferers will self-diagnose as electrosensitive this year.

    micronix, I am married, but several of the skepchick contributers to this blog are not, including Rebecca, so cheer up :)

  3. I wore a magnetic bracelet only once and I have never suffered the effects of electro sensitivity! So the magnets must work!!

  4. The biggest problem wtih any of these issues is you have to find a way to politely say 'its not that, it just that you're a bit of a fruitbat' or words to that effect.

    Its a tough sell.

  5. * An unnatural warmth or burning sensation in the face.

    * A tingling, stinging or prickling sensation in the face or other areas of the body.

    * Dryness of the upper respiratory tract or eye irritation.

    * Problems with concentration, dizziness and loss of memory.

    * Swollen mucus membranes.

    * Feeling flu like symptoms of headache, muscle and joint pains.

    Hmm. It looks like you also found the cure for falling in love. ;)

  6. tkingdoll said,

    Wait…to which mucus membranes are you referring?

    The very ones you're thinking of! Unless you get a runny nose when you're in love/lust? ;)

  7. I wish I was electro-sensitive: would save opening up my PowerBook at Starbucks. Maybe WiMax will be the breakthrough on this issue.

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