Make a call, cure disease. A tantalizing new study credits cell phone use with abolishing Alzheimer's.
In the study -- cell phone use stopped Alzheimer's in its tracks, improving brain function. It also prevented the disease from taking hold in the brain. But the study was done in mice.
Studying their brains doctors with the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center were able to make the call ... cell phones help fight Alzheimer's.
The mice were bred to have Alzheimer's Disease. Then they were exposed to two hours of high frequency electromagnetic waves per day for seven to nine months. Those with Alzheimer's got better. Those who never had it, never got it.
Seemingly exciting news for a disease that afflicts 5.3 million people in this country. But doctors say the study results may not necessarily translate to people.
Dr. Dean Hartley, Assoc. Professor of Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center: "Always you have to be concerned this is the very first study. It has to be replicated. The second concern, you always have to worry about it's done in mice. Mice we use because they can reproduce some of the pathology we see in AD, but there are some things that are not reproduced. Some of the later cell death, some dementia that you actually see. But there are many things that are similar when it comes to the circuitry, some of the pathology that you do see. You can see plaques, you can see tangles."
For that reason there is great intrigue along with a lot of skepticism. Surprisingly, this sudy finding was opposite of what researchers thought they would discover when exposing mice brains to electromagnetic waves.
But in the past potential therapies that have been successful in animals have not worked on people. And when it comes to cell phones emitting radiation, scientists don't know how well cell phone generated waves will penetrate the much thicker human skull.
In the study -- cell phone use stopped Alzheimer's in its tracks, improving brain function. It also prevented the disease from taking hold in the brain. But the study was done in mice.
Studying their brains doctors with the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center were able to make the call ... cell phones help fight Alzheimer's.
The mice were bred to have Alzheimer's Disease. Then they were exposed to two hours of high frequency electromagnetic waves per day for seven to nine months. Those with Alzheimer's got better. Those who never had it, never got it.
Seemingly exciting news for a disease that afflicts 5.3 million people in this country. But doctors say the study results may not necessarily translate to people.
Dr. Dean Hartley, Assoc. Professor of Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center: "Always you have to be concerned this is the very first study. It has to be replicated. The second concern, you always have to worry about it's done in mice. Mice we use because they can reproduce some of the pathology we see in AD, but there are some things that are not reproduced. Some of the later cell death, some dementia that you actually see. But there are many things that are similar when it comes to the circuitry, some of the pathology that you do see. You can see plaques, you can see tangles."
For that reason there is great intrigue along with a lot of skepticism. Surprisingly, this sudy finding was opposite of what researchers thought they would discover when exposing mice brains to electromagnetic waves.
But in the past potential therapies that have been successful in animals have not worked on people. And when it comes to cell phones emitting radiation, scientists don't know how well cell phone generated waves will penetrate the much thicker human skull.
