skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Mobile phone use may increase brain cancer risk.
Apr 10, 2009
Kundi, M. 2009. The controversy about a possible relationship between mobile phone use and cancer. Environmental Health Perspectives. 117 (3): 316-324.
Synopsis by Jonathan Chevrier, Ph.D.
An analysis of previously published studies suggests that long-term mobile phone use may increase the risk of brain cancer.
While the number of people who own mobile phones has dramatically increased in the last decade, so has the controversy about the possible relationship between cell phone use and brain cancer risk.
The electromagnetic field that mobile phones generate is suspected of causing brain cancer.
Most of the studies investigating the effect of using mobile phones for less than 10 years found no association with brain cancer risk. However, the risk of glioma, a type of brain cancer, was increased by 50 percent in people who used mobile phones for 10 years or more relative to people who never used mobile phones. Risks of other types of brain cancers, such as acoustic neuroma and meningioma also tended to increase with mobile phone use.
Although a 50 percent increase in brain tumors would have significant impacts in terms of public health, Micheal Kundi, the author of the report, indicated that the individual risk would remain low given that lifetime brain tumor risk is only 4 to 8 per 1,000 persons in industrialized countries. More research on long term mobile phone use is however needed as these types of cancers take many years to develop.
Kundi reviewed results from 25 brain tumor studies published between 1999 and 2008. The information in those studies was collected through in-person interviews, computer-assisted interviews or mail-in questionnaires. Researchers then assessed mobile phone use in those with brain cancers relative to those without (controls).
Source
Irradiated Foods Cause Severe Neurological Damage
In a study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) report on cats developing severe neurological symptoms due to a degradation of myelin, the fatty insulator of nerve fibers called axons. Because myelin facilitates the conduction of nerve signals, when it is lost or damaged there can be impairment of sensation, movement, thinking and other functions, depending on what particular nerves are affected. This loss of myelin is found in several disorders of the central nervous system in humans -- the best known being multiple sclerosis (MS).
So what caused the cats to develop neurological problems? Although the researchers' statement to the media practically buries the fact, a close read shows the animals were fine until fed irradiated food. What's more, when they were taken off the irradiated diet, the animals' nervous systems began healing.
The new study took place when the researchers were faced with reports of a mysterious illness in pregnant cats. A commercial company had been testing various diets on the animals to see how the food impacted growth and development in the felines. The food used, it turns out, had been irradiated. Irradiation, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for many human as well as animal foods, involves exposing foods briefly to a radiant energy source such as gamma rays or electron beams in order to kill bacteria.
Some of the cats eating the irradiated cat food exhibited very severe neurological symptoms, including movement disorders, vision loss and even paralysis. "After being on the diet for three to four months, the pregnant cats started to develop progressive neurological disease," said Ian Duncan, a professor of medical sciences at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and an authority on demyelinating diseases, in a statement to the media.
The sick cats were shown to have widely distributed the very severe demyelization of the central nervous system. Their neurological symptoms were very much like those seen in people with MS and other demyelization disorders. When the felines were taken off the irradiated foods, they began to recover slowly. However, according to Dr. Duncan, the restored myelin sheaths were no longer as thick as normal myelin sheaths.
The finding is important, the scientists concluded in their study, because it shows the central nervous system retains the ability to reestablish myelin -- so strategies that could be developed to spur the growth of new myelin sheaths anywhere nerves themselves are preserved could be a possible therapy for treating a host of severe neurological diseases in humans. "The key thing is that it absolutely confirms the notion that remyelinating strategies are clinically important," Duncan stated.
Curiously, although the scientists' related their findings to possible human applications, they were quick to dismiss a possible connection between people, irradiated food and health risk. "We think it is extremely unlikely that (irradiated food) could become a human health problem," Duncan explained in the media statement. "We think it is species specific."
However, not everyone agrees irradiated food is fine for humans or animals. According to the Center for Food Safety, studies have shown irradiation produces volatile toxic chemicals such as benzene and toluene, which are known or suspected to cause cancer and birth defects. A 2001 study found an association between colon tumors and 2-alkylcyclobutanones (2-ACB's), a new chemical compound detected only in foods that have been irradiated.
For more information:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/...
http://firedoglake.com/2008/08/23/n...
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/catalog/i...
Source
Women who suffer from migraines may be able to reduce the intensity of their pain and their risk of depression by regularly taking part in a simple exercise and relaxation routine, according to a study conducted by researchers from Innsbrook Medical University and published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine.
Thirty women migraine sufferers were randomly assigned either to stay with their normal migraine treatment or to supplement that treatment with specific routine involving 45 minutes of aerobic exercise and 15 minutes of progressive muscle relaxation two times per week. After six weeks, the women who took part in the exercise and relaxation routine reported significantly less intensity of migraine pain than the women in the regular treatment only group.
Women in the exercise and relaxation group also reported significantly fewer symptoms of depression after six weeks than women in the control group. Overall, however, the level of psychological well-being was found to be the same in both groups.
Previous research has suggested that while exercise appears to have no ability to prevent migraine attacks, it does appear to reduce the intensity of pain experienced -- a conclusion supported by the current study.
The researchers were unable to determine the reason for the exercise and relaxation therapy's effect on migraine pain, but they speculated that the treatment might improve feelings of self-efficacy and thus improve people's ability to cope with pain.
Up to 28 percent of people will suffer from a migraine attack at some point in the course of their lives. In any given year, 6 to 15 percent of adult men and 14 to 35 percent of adult women will suffer from at least one migraine attack.
People who suffer from migraines - especially young adults, women who use hormonal contraception, and women who suffer from migraine with aura - have two to three times the risk of undergoing a stroke as those who do not experience migraines.
Source
Posts
