Cellphone Radiation Aids Sick Mice

Jakarta Forum, Alzheimer's and Cell Phones: Radiation associated with long-term cellphone use appears to protect against and reverse Alzheimer's-like symptoms in mice, according to a study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. Mice genetically engineered to develop brain impairments similar to Alzheimer's in humans were divided into two groups. One group was exposed twice daily to hour-long electromagnetic fields akin to those created during cellphone use. Mice in the other group were not exposed to the radiation. After seven months, young mice in the first group fared significantly better on cognitive tests than their unexposed littermates. Older mice, which had already developed symptoms of Alzheimer's, exposed to the radiation for eight months in a subsequent experiment also performed better than older nonexposed mice. Mice, younger and older, not engineered to develop Alzheimer's also appeared to benefit from the radiation. Biopsies suggested such exposure might fight Alzheimer's by inhibiting the buildup of certain protein plaques in the brain, the researchers said.

European Pressphoto Agency (mouse), Reuters (phone) composite by WSJ

Mice seem to reap cognitive benefits from cellphone electromagnetism.

Caveat: Additional, and larger, studies in mice are likely needed before researchers attempt to replicate the findings in humans. Because the mouse version of Alzheimer's lacks certain key features of human Alzheimer's, the results must be extrapolated with caution. Previous Alzheimer's therapies that have appeared to work in mice have failed in humans.
Title: Electromagnetic Field Treatment Protects Against and Reverses Cognitive Impairment in Alzheimer's Disease Mice
Published: 1/6/2010
Heart Health: Low levels of vitamin D appear to explain much of why self-identified black Americans are more likely than white Americans to die from cardiovascular disease, according to a study in the Annals of Family Medicine. Previous studies have linked vitamin D deficiencies to higher rates of death from heart attack, stroke and other forms of cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D is much less concentrated on average in blacks than in whites, partly because melanin, which makes skin appear dark, hampers the activation of vitamin D. In this study, researchers examined data on 15,363 Americans, 933 of whom died from cardiovascular disease during a follow-up period of about 10 years. An initial analysis (adjusted for basic factors like age, sex and region) found that blacks were 38% more likely than whites to die of these diseases. But when the researchers accounted for vitamin D levels, the excess risk decreased to 14% and the difference lost statistical significance. When the researchers accounted for poverty, the excess risk between white and black subjects disappeared entirely.
Caveat: Unmeasured variables could have distorted the findings. For instance, poor health prior to testing could have led subjects to receive less sun exposure, and thus less vitamin D, than other subjects.

Title: Vitamin D, Race, and Cardiovascular Mortality: Findings From National US Sample
Published: 1/11/2010
Treating Tinnitus: Customized music therapy helped reduce symptoms of tinnitus, a chronic ringing in the ears, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Earlier studies have estimated that tinnitus is severe enough in 1% to 3% of North Americans to decrease their quality of life. In this study, researchers determined the pitch of the ringing for 16 tinnitus patients. For half of the patients, the researchers filtered out that frequency from each patient's favorite music, and re-recorded those tracks. For the other half, a placebo group, the researchers filtered out random, non-tinnitus frequencies. After listening to the music about 12 hours a week for one year, all eight patients in the first group said that their tinnitus had become quieter, by nearly one-third on average. The brain activity corresponding to those frequencies also decreased. The placebo group experienced no statistically significant improvements.
Caveat: The study was small, and it is unclear whether the treatment was more effective with some types of music or frequencies than with others.
Title: Listening to tailor-made notched music reduces tinnitus loudness and tinnitus-related auditory cortex activity
Published: 12/28/2009
Bone Formation: The brain adjusts bone growth based on appetite, diverting energy from bones in times of hunger, according to a study in PLoS ONE. Bones grew twice as quickly in mice genetically engineered to lack neuropeptide Y, a brain-signaling molecule that becomes more concentrated during fasting, as in standard lab mice. When the researchers injected standard mice with a virus that increased levels of the neuropeptide in the brain, they lost one-fifth of their bone mass after four weeks, despite gaining body weight. The findings make neuropeptide Y receptors a potential target for osteoporosis treatments, though much more research is needed.
Caveat: Additional experiments suggested that levels of neuropeptide Y outside the brain could also play a role in bone formation, but the researchers could not pinpoint the mechanism.
Title: Neuropeptide Y Knockout Mice Reveal a Central Role of NPY in the Coordination of Bone Mass to Body Weight
Published: 12/22/2009
Infant Care: Girls whose mothers received free nurse visits during pregnancy and through infancy were one-third less likely than a comparison group to be arrested by age 19, according a study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Researchers randomized 400 women in rural New York to receive the frequent visits—during which the nurses dispensed health and family-planning advice—either from pregnancy through the child's second birthday, only during pregnancy or not at all. Girls born to low-income, single mothers in the first group experienced additional gains: by age 19, they had fewer children of their own and were less likely to need Medicaid than girls born to low-income, single mothers in the nonvisited group. The researchers found no lasting effect of the program on boys' criminality or on high-school graduation rates for either gender.
Caveat: The follow-up data were based on the children's self-reporting, which could be biased. Because minors' arrest records are sealed, the researchers could not validate the reports.
Source: JEREMY SINGER-VINE The Wall Stree Journal