Renegade Neurologist

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment:
This is pretty ridiculous

From LATimes.com:

Poor cellphones. They get blamed for causing brain tumors, reducing bone density, prompting headaches and dizziness, and more. Though most rigorous research has exonerated the phones (not to mention the laws of physics), many people remain unconvinced.

Now comes a study from the University of South Florida that links cellphones to Alzheimer’s disease. But there’s a twist: The researchers found that radiation from the phones protected mice from the disease, and might even reverse the symptoms.

These surprising results were not found by engineering tiny iPhones and holding them up to the rodents’ ears. Instead, researchers at the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center arranged about 70 mouse cages in a circle around a central antenna that emitted electromagnetic waves typical of what would emanate from a phone pressed to a human head. They were exposed to the radiation for two hours a day over seven to nine months. About two dozen other mice served as controls.

Some of these mice were normal, but most of them had a genetic mutation that caused them to develop the amyloid plaques that build up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Among these mice, some were old enough to exhibit the dementia associated with Alzheimer’s and others were still young and healthy.

The researchers found that the memory problems of the older Alzheimer’s mice disappeared over the course of the study. Younger Alzheimer’s mice who were asymptomatic maintained their cognitive function, and the normal mice actually got a memory boost from the cellphone antenna.

It appears that the electromagnetic waves somehow broke down the beta-amyloid plaques in the mouse brains or prevented them from forming in the first place, the researchers said. It’s not clear how this happened, but they found that the temperature of the brains of the Alzheimer’s mice rose by more than 1 degree Centigrade when the cell antenna was turned on. The scientists speculate that the temperature increase caused the mice’s brain cells to release the plaques, which were then flushed from their systems.

The results “suggest that high frequency [electromagnetic field] exposure could be a non-invasive, nonpharmacologic therapeutic against [Alzheimer’s disease], as well as a means to enhance memory in general,” according to the study, which was published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The researchers are now investigating that possibility, especially since Alzheimer’s has proven to be stubbornly resistant to pharmaceutical treatment.

William Thies, the chief medical and scientific officer for the Alzheimer’s Assn., called the results “interesting though very preliminary.”

“This idea deserves further study,” he said in a statement. In the meantime, Thies advised Alzheimer’s patients and other would-be memory boosters against “self-medicating” by spending extra time on their cellphones — especially if they are driving.

Sound advice, to be sure. But if the Florida researchers succeed, perhaps someday your cellphone bill will be covered by health insurance.

Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute on Aging and the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute.

From NaturalNews.com:

A group of international scientists released a report last week that again raises concerns about cell phone usage and brain tumors, noting that one recent Swedish study saw a 400% increased risk for teenage cell phone users.

The 37-page report, from a group calling itself the International EMF (Electromagnetic Field) Collaborative, summarized what it said are the dangers of cell phone use, especially for children, and attempted to blunt an upcoming study being developed by the wireless industry in 13 countries, mainly in western Europe.

“Some countries are already banning cell phones over health concerns, with France saying children in elementary schools can only use them for texting,” said the report’s author, Lloyd Morgan, in an interview.

“Cell phones can be used appropriately and have a certain usefulness, but I fear we will see a tsunami of brain tumors, although it is too early to see that now since the tumors have a 30-year latency,” he added. “I pray I m wrong, but brace yourself.”

However, John Walls, vice president of public affairs for the CTIA, a group representing wireless carriers and handset makers in the U.S., issued a statement saying “peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk.” He noted that the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have all concurred that wireless devices are not a public health risk.

Morgan, a retired electronics engineer based in Berkeley, Calif., and a member of the Bioelectromagnetics Society, wrote the report, Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern , with the endorsement of 43 scientists and experts from the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. Groups endorsing the findings include the EMR Policy Institute, the Peoples Initiative Foundation, ElectromagneticHealth.org, The Radiation Research Trust and Powerwatch. A copy of the report and a short video are available at RadiationReserarch.org .

Morgan said the most damning research linking cell phone usage to brain tumors was noted in a study published in May 2009 in the International Journal of Oncology by a Swedish team of scientists led by Professor Lennart Hardell. It noted that digital cell phone and cordless phone use by users who started when they were teenagers or younger led to a 420% increased risk of brain cancer. Hardell had earlier found that analog cell phones caused a 700% greater risk of cancer, although today’s digital phones lessen the power requirements and reduce the risk.

The higher cancer risk comes from holding a cell phone close to the head over longer periods of time, the Collaborative study notes, and recommends eight steps for reducing exposure to cell phone radiation for adults and children. The steps include using a wired headset on a call, not a wireless headset, or sending messages by texting. Also, the study recommends keeping the cell phone away from your body, including in pockets, and avoiding use in a moving vehicle, since that tends to increase the power and the radiation required as the device moves farther from a cell tower.

The study also recommends using the cell phone like an answering machine, keeping it off until the user is ready to return calls. Avoiding use inside a building will reduce the power and radiation needed, ithe study said. It also urged using a corded, landline phone whenever possible. The study further recommended that children not be allowed to sleep with a cell phone under a pillow and cautioned parents not to allow a child under 18 to use a cell phone except in an emergency.

A significant point of the collaborative study details 11 flaws in the upcoming Interphone study, which is due out this fall from major carriers in 13 countries, not including the U.S. The flaws of that Interphone study, based on components already published, include that it eliminates subjects who use portable phones, even though those devices also emit microwave radiation as cell phones do. The collaborative said the Interphone study also excluded many types of brain tumors from study and eliminated subjects who died or were too ill be interviewed. The Interphone study also does not include children and young adults, who are more vulnerable, it said

From nytimes.com

Senator Barack Obama used one to announce to the world his choice of a running mate. Thousands of Americans have used them to vote for their favorite “American Idol” contestants. Many teenagers prefer them to actually talking. Almost overnight, text messages have become the preferred form of communication for millions.

But even as industry calculations show that Americans are now using mobile phones to send or receive more text messages than phone calls, those messages are coming under increasing fire because of the danger they can pose by distracting users. Though there are no official casualty statistics, there is much anecdotal evidence that the number of fatal accidents stemming from texting while driving, crossing the street or engaging in other activities is on the rise.

“The act of texting automatically removes 10 I.Q. points,” said Paul Saffo, a technology trend forecaster in Silicon Valley. “The truth of the matter is there are hobbies that are incompatible. You don’t want to do mushroom-hunting and bird-watching at the same time, and it is the same with texting and other activities. We have all seen people walk into parking meters or walk into traffic and seem startled by oncoming cars.”

In the latest backlash against text-messaging, the California Public Utilities Commission announced an emergency measure on Thursday temporarily banning the use of all mobile devices by anyone at the controls of a moving train.

The ban was adopted after federal investigators announced that they were looking at the role that a train engineer’s text-messaging might have played here last week in the country’s most deadly commuter rail accident in four decades.

A California lawmaker is also seeking to ban text-messaging by drivers, a step already taken by a handful of other states. “We have had far too many tragic incidents around the country that are painful proof that this is a terrible problem,” said the legislator, State Senator Joe Simitian, who wrote the California law requiring drivers who are talking on a cellphone to use hands-free devices.

The fight against text messages is also reaching beyond the realm of public safety. The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s board recently upheld a 2007 ban on all text-messaging by coaches to student recruits.

“The student athlete advisory committee believed that it was unprofessional, intrusive and expensive,” said Erik Christianson, a spokesman for the N.C.A.A.

Theaters, too, long accustomed to chiding cellphone users as well as people who crumple their cough drop wrappers, have taken on texting. And, assisted by cellphone service providers, parents have moved to limit the hours in which their children can get and send text messages.

Text-messaging, also known as S.M.S. messaging (the abbreviation stands for short message service), first took off in Japan, cellphone technology experts say, in part because the cost of texting there was less than that of making cellphone calls.

In the United States, the practice has accelerated greatly in the last few years, as the technology has improved with the introduction of products like the Apple iPhone. In June, 75 billion text messages were sent in the United States, compared with 7.2 billion in June 2005, according to CTIA — the Wireless Association, the leading industry trade group.

The consumer research company Nielsen Mobile, which tracked 50,000 individual customer accounts in the second quarter of this year, found that Americans each sent or received 357 text messages a month then, compared with 204 phone calls. That was the second consecutive quarter in which mobile texting significantly surpassed the number of voice calls.

The lure of texting is self-evident. It is fast and direct, screening out the pleasantries that even standard e-mail messages call for, like “how are you.” It is used to blast information among co-workers and inform parents of their children’s whereabouts, and, as Kwame M. Kilpatrick demonstrated en route to his downfall as mayor of Detroit, is useful in expressing feelings of romantic desire. (Object lesson No. 2: text messages are also subject to subpoena.)

“It is just a super useful tool,” said Caitlin Williams, a San Francisco bakery owner whose outgoing cellphone message encourages people to send her a text.

“You can kind of cut to the chase,” Ms. Williams said. “Sometimes you just want your questions answered without having to answer a lot of questions about how your day is.”

For all her love of texting, Ms. Williams says she has seen the underbelly as well.

“Of course there is the dangerous driving while texting,” she said, “and the obnoxious person in front of you texting instead of ordering their coffee, which happened to me yesterday. We are not at a point where there are a whole lot of rules for proper etiquette for texting. I think as it becomes a more acceptable form of communication, people will regulate themselves a little more.”

Teenagers and young adults have adopted text-messaging as a second language. Americans 13 to 17 years of age sent or received an average of 1,742 text messages a month in the second quarter, according to Nielsen. And according to one survey commissioned by CTIA, 4 of 10 teenagers said they could text blindfolded.

Kyle Monaco, a 21-year-old student in Chester, Pa, estimates that he sends 500 text messages a month, compared with 50 phone calls. “It’s not that I don’t like to talk on the phone,” Mr. Monaco said. “Sometimes I just want to see what’s going on, as opposed to having a conversation. So it is easier to send a text.”

Parents are often torn between their love of instant access to their children and their loathing of others’ having the same. In August, Verizon began offering a service that blocks texting during certain times of the day.

“Usage controls were developed at the request of customers,” said Jack McArtney, associate director of advertising and content standards for Verizon. “We know of some people who want to keep the kid’s phone from buzzing all night. They want them to get some sleep.”

And texting at the wrong time can be extremely dangerous. Over the last two years, news accounts across the country have chronicled the death or serious injury of people who walk into traffic while texting or who drive while doing so. Police officials said last year that a crash that killed five cheerleaders in upstate New York might have been linked to texting. A recent Nationwide Insurance survey of 1,503 drivers found that almost 40 percent of those respondents from 16 to 30 years old said they text while driving.

On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said its investigators had determined from phone records that the commuter-train engineer in last week’s disaster had sent and received text messages during the run in which the train ultimately collided with a freight locomotive. Twenty-five people were killed in the crash, and more than 130 injured.

Further, a group representing emergency room doctors issued a warning in July against texting while doing other activities, citing a rise in injuries and deaths seen in emergency rooms around the country stemming from texting.

As policy makers consider their options, use of the technology shows no sign of ebbing.

Joanne Kent, 62, found herself flummoxed when her two granddaughters sent her text messages she did not know how to retrieve. So Ms. Kent, a retired physician’s assistant, attended a class held by AT&T at a seniors center in Wallingford, Conn., hoping someone there could show her how.

“They’d send me a text saying, ‘Have papa come pick me up,’ and I couldn’t open it,” she said of her granddaughters. “They finally told me I had to learn.”