Beyond Radiation

Alzheimer, EMFs, Mechanisms and Prevention

In our presentation (p.89) in the Kuopio Alzheimer Symposium 2012 we talked about prevention. Therefore I will discuss in this blog posting about Statistics related to neurological illnesses + Mechanisms behind (especially) alzheimer + Prevention strategies.

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Professor Colin Pritchard of Bournemouth University has recently pointed out: "Brain diseases are affecting more people and starting earlier than ever before". He also listed heavily increased non-ionising radiation / EMFs as one possible explanation for this increase of dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Update 19th July 2019: In their recent publication, Pritchard, Silk & Hansen point out the rapid increase of neurological mortality:

Pritchard, C., Silk, A., & Hansen, L. (2019). Are rises in Electro-Magnetic Field in the human environment, interacting with multiple environmental pollutions, the tripping point for increases in neurological deaths in the Western World? Medical Hypotheses, 127, 76–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2019.03.018

Especially Total Neurological Deaths (TND) have greatly increased, starting from year 2013 and they suggest that the exposure to radiofrequency (RF) radiation is one of major reasons for it.

Prevention in mind, I will next look at risk groups . Thereafter, I will list some suggested mechanisms which operate in the radiofrequency (RF) and extremely low frequency (ELF) range.

A. RISK GROUPS

In certain occupations, there is an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease , this has been shown by epidemiological studies and meta-analysis. (Garcia et al. 2008).

Occupational risk groups include (among others) welders, locomotive drivers, seamtresses , Power&IT&Telecom -employees.

People who live close to power lines have an increased AD risk (Huss et al., 2009), though there is a small number of epidemiological studies focusing on AD. Memory problems close to cell towers (Khurana et al., 2010 ; Chronic Exposure, 2013) come up in epidemiological studies. However, there is not a single AD-study directly related to cell towers / mobile phone base stations . Similarly, there seems to be only 1 cohort study focused on long-term mobile phone use, with strange results, since it is based on the dubious Danish cohort study. 

 

B. MECHANISMS

Several mechanisms of actions are discussed in the literature:

 

MECHANISM 1 . Amyloid beta (Aβ) increases in brain cells because of Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) -leakage and nerve cell damage.

Electromagnetic fields (EMF), especially pulsed and heavily modulated microwave radiation affect BBB, but this effect is not linear and the greatest power densities do not make the BBB leak  (Frey, 1975 ; Frey, 1998; Nittby et al., 2008).

Most research is done on rats and this research can not directly extrapolated to humans. However, the newest research papers show clearly this nerve cells damaging effect (Tang et al., 2015 ; Sirav & Seyhan, 2015 ).

In the following, edited video professor Leif Salford goes through BBB-studies and research challenges. 

 

 

In a more recent presentation, adjunct professor Dariusz Leszczynski describes the importance of proteomics research and how it is related to blood-brain barrier leakage.

 

MECHANISM 2. Increased peripheral or brain production of Aβ as a result of magnetic field exposure cause voltage-gated calcium ion channels to be open longer than normal.

This results in abnormally high intracellular levels of calcium ions, which in turn results in the production of Aβ and that is quickly secreted into the blood and is then transported through the BBB perhaps best chaperoned by the 4 isoform of apolipoprotein E (apoE).  (Davanipour and Sobel, 2009; BioIniatiative, 2013)

MECHANISM 3. Positron emission tomographic (PET) studies of cerebral glucose metabolism have shown high diagnostic specificity in distinguishing among the degenerative dementias and differentiating between AD and normal aging (Smith et al., 1992).

 

Volkow et al. (2011) have showed through a PET study that 50-minute mobile phone call increases glucose metabolism in the brain. This finding is similar to Huber et al. (2002), while Kwon et al. (2012) showed decrease in glucose metabolism.

MECHANISM 4. A substantial body of literature has suggested that the memory and learning deficits associated with Alzheimer's disease and aging are attributable to degeneration of the cholinergic magnocellular neurons of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (nbM) (Muir, 1997).   EMF exposures decrease acetylcholine levels in brain in animal studies (Modak et al., 1981, Kunwiljar & Behari, 1993). Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzymatic activity increased of 1.4-fold in PC12 cells exposed to 217-GSM signal for 24 h (Valbonesi et al., 2016). These results provide the first evidence of effects on AChE activity, related to in vitro exposure to the RF-EMF generated by GSM mobile phones, at the time-averaged SAR value (2 W/kg) recommended by ICNIRP as the safety limit for mobile phone emissions (ICNIRP 2009). Human studies are still missing, as far I know.

MECHANISM 5.  EMFs affect pineal gland and decrease its melatonin production (which may increase the risk of AD) (Srinivasan et al., 2006). Blood tests provide valuable risk-indicators (Noonan et al., 2002).

 

Summa summarum, the EMF exposure seem to have a link to Alzheimer's Disease. This exposure extends from mobile workplace to living environments. However, the mechanism(s) are not clear and need to be researched further.

After-thought: While attending the Kuopio Alzheimer Symposium, I noticed a very small focus on preventation. These events are heavily sponsored by pharmaceutical companies and the main focus in the symposium was on drug pilots & related presentations.

Update: During 2013 the discussion internationally has been about digital dementia.  Perhaps those neuroscientists, neurosurgeons  and psychiatrist could look at EMF-exposure closer?

 

Video: Professor in psychiatry, Manfred Spitzer discussing about digital dementia (in German).

 

Video: Profesor Manfred Spitzer about addiction and digital dementia (in English)

Manfred Spitzer's e-learning and digital dementia focused research paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211949314000350

 

 

By focusing on prevention (minimizing EMF exposure of children, educating about safer ways of using mobile devices) would make enormous cost savings and avoid individual tragedy in later life.

As far as I know, only the Russian National Committee of Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (RNCNIRP) has clearly indicated Alzheimer and Dementia risk of children , pages 3-4, link updated). Other nations should perhaps follow their example?

Every comment on Alzheimer's disease and related topics is welcome.

 

mLearn 2012 - Tackling Health Risk of Mobile Learning?

The biggest mobile learning research conference took place in Helsinki, Finland:

"mLearn 2012 - the  11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning"

Surprise: I and Tarmo Koppel (Tallinn Technical University) had the only presentation and paper about health risks of children. 

This paper of ours is called "Mobile learning and health-risk management of pulsed microwave technologies"

We measured several Wi-Fi access points, compared our resulth with health studies and provided recommendations at the end of the paper.

If I look at the heavy sponsoring programs of service providers (teleoperators), I have a feeling that with hype papers and related presentations it would be much easier to get research funding ;-)

Well, hopefully the time comes when IAmLearn (International Association of Mobile Learning) will finally addresses health risks.

Every comment about our research paper is welcome.

 

We got it - The Best Paper of The Year - Emerald Literati Network

With my friends PhD Maria Antikainen and researcher Marko Mäkipää we are happy to receive the following award:

Outstanding Paper Award: European Journal of Innovation Management. 

By Emerald Literati Network.

Our title: "Motivating and supporting collaboration in open innovation"

Good to know: The best papers are often originally rejected, improved and again re-modified :-)

Lots of patience is needed in science...

 

Speaking In the Wireless Humanity conference, Oslo, Norway

Wireless Humanity - El Symposium Conference, in Oslo, Norway 16th-19th September 2010 .

Special focus on: Brain Research, Building Biology, Power Quality and Electrosensitivity.

Full program: http://www.elsymposium.org/ --> Click 'Program' and select a day. 

 

Update: I was there. Talked about power quality + base stations. (Please, check my previous postings). It was be a nice gathering near Oslo, in relaxed atmosphere :-) Thanks to Ralph-Raphael och Marianne Kleimann (organisers). Norway is fantastic:

My favourite presentations were:

Günther Haffelder: Optimising learning, preventing learning problems

Alexander Popp: Biophotons

 

Perhaps in Autumn 2011 I will again partipate the El Symposium?! Let's see.

Any other similar events in Central, Eastern or Nordic Europe?

Chronic Exposure - New Service about Basestations and Health Effects

Mikko And Friends Proudly Present:

 

The Chronic Exposure service - http://www.chronicexposure.org

It contains possibly the most comprehensive research overview about base stations, masts and health effects.

If all this sounds too academic, please, check the News-section, videos and doctor initiatives.

Why did we build this service? To show how risky the current and future mobile phone base station infrastructure is. Especially, when siting decisions are not based on science and public health. Together with my friends we just can not understand why base stations are built on top of schools and kindergartens.

Please, inform rectors and headmasters about the Chronic Exposure service. Similarly, let your friends know about this and tweet/blog/digg about Chronic Exposure. Thank you kindly. 

Khurana et al. (2010) Epidemiological Evidence for a Health Risk from Mobile Phone Base Stations

A new journal paper is out by Vini Khurana,  Lennart Hardell, Joris Everaert, Alicja Bortkiewicz, Michael Carlberg and Mikko Ahonen. This paper was published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. Update 25th August 2010: The PDF.

We looked at epidemiological studies of mobile phone base stations and found out that 8 out of 10 studies indicate increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500 meters from base stations.

"While the mechanism(s) by which base station EMFs might cause neurobehavioural symptoms remain(s) conjectural, it is notable that Science Magazine has recently acknowledged that there are several peer-reviewed papers from laboratories in at least seven countries showing that cell phone or similar LEMFs can, contrary to the expectations of such “non-ionizing” sources, damage or structurally modify DNA" [1].

Definitely, comprehensive epidemiological studies of longterm mobile phone base station exposure are urgently required to more definitively understand its health impact.

I would personally hope that independent research of base stations would be supported and not hindered by corruption, narrow-mindedness or political games. 

Research Inspiration From Russia - Voltage Transients and Health Effects

In April 2010 I had a priviledge to visit Moscow State University. The МГУ campus (picture), excellent medical library (ЦНМБ), RNCNIRP-colleagues and professors at the university inspired me to write a short paper. 

"Voltage transients and possible effects on health  through cell membrane functionality disturbance" (PDF)

Update: This paper was be presented in the 4th International HYVITE Symposium on Wellbeing Technology, 9th June 2010, in Tampere, Finland.

(See also a related slide show).

 

Update 2nd February 2011:

In October 2010 I once again headed to Moscow, to the 6th Radiation Research Conference (VI СЪезд по радиационным исследованиям). This time I was financed by the Finnish Work Environment Fund.  The conference paper & presentation was called:"Voltage Transients and Effect on Health" ("Переходное напряжение и его эффекты на здоровье").

I wrote the paper together with professors Maksim Trushin and Roman Muhin (Kazan State University). It was fascinating, my first research paper in Russian and additionally I presented it in Russian :-)

Professor Yuri Grigoriev (RNCNIRP) was in the audience and provided (again) very valuable comments. I am also thankful to professor Igor Belyaev for raising important questions.

 

Any comments about the research paper or generally about this voltage transients / power quality topic?

In Educational Technology Conference - Koulusta turvallisempi työympäristö lapsille ja opettajille

Koulusta turvallisempi työympäristö lapsille ja opettajille

View more presentations from Mikko Ahonen.

A presentation in Finnish in the ITK Educational Technology conference. Topic: Schools, children, health risks and mobile technologies.

Mass-Customization MCPC2009 + EMF & Health Business in Drucker framework

The 5th World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization (MCPC2009) will be arranged between 4th-8th October 2009 in Helsinki, Finland. This conference gathers together a nice mixture of people (architects, business executives, designers, artists, researchers, etc). What I like in this year's MCPC, is the ability to co-create and customise the actual conference with a toolkit! During the years, I have tried to stay tuned what is happening in this fascinating mass-customization scene [1].

If you are curious about this mass-customisation and personalisation area, I recommend the blog of professor Frank Piller. Frank always has interesting things going on and he is good in telling business stories :-)

My presentation and paper in this year's MCPC2009 Conference is called:

"Sources of Innovative Opportunity and Mass-Customization
 – An Analysis of EMF & Health Business Area"

Abstract (updated): "Systematic innovation means monitoring changes in existing business structures and early entrepreneurs often take risks in entering a new business area. Therefore, the Seven Sources of Innovative Opportunity, an innovation monitoring framework from Peter Drucker is presented. Within this paper we investigate how this framework is related to mass-customization and personalization. First we test this framework in real context by evaluating three health product companies and their innovation activities. These companies operate in a new business area called the EMF (Electro-Magnetic Fields) and Health. Recently, several scientists, governments and the European Parliament have emphasized precautionary principle and indicated health risks in mobile phones, base stations and other technologies. At the same time authorities and standard setting bodies (like ICNIRP, IEEE and WHO) have not officially recognized such risks. This tension provides a starting point for the evaluation. At the end of this paper we discuss how crowdsourcing and mass-customization toolkits could be utilized more effectively by entrepreneurs. Open innovation paradigm and the challenges in knowledge brokering in R&D are also introduced."

Update 4th October  2009:  My paper in PDF format can be found here. The presentation in the MCPC2009 will take place on Tuesday, 6th of October 2009, starting at 13:45.

Update 19th October 2009: An interesting concept was mentioned in the MCPC2009: Continuous Innovation. This happened in Joseph Pine 's presentation:"Future of mass customization". I need to focus on this in the future.

Comments about the paper or about the conference are welcome!

Moscow - Return to Russia's Creative Dynamo + RNCNIRP

20 years ago, in 1989, I visited previous time Moscow. It was a summer full of strong emotions, youth and great adventure in Soviet time. Now, when I returned in May 2009 the landmarks like Moscow State University (Московский государственный университет имени М.В.Ломоносова) were still in my mental map and my expectations from the new visit were high. To understand Russia, you just need to understand the Russian soul [душа], music and culture. I am slowly learning these elements and perhaps my Carelian roots help me in this process ;-) So, I had a feeling like coming home :)

During my life I have had the honour to have many excellent mentors and hosts. This visit was no exception. Professor in physiology, Osmo Hänninen originally invited me to Moscow in the Environmental BioIndicators conference and the Kotelevtsev family was a great host on site.

Update 25th May 2009: My presentation in the Environmental BioIndicators conference partly focused on:

A) Abnormal growth caused by RF radiation in plants, insects, animals and humans

B) The consequences of ultra-high guidance levels in fostering abnormal growth and other side effects

C) Siting and configuration of base stations and other wireless technologies to minimise damage

D) Interplay of chemicals and RF radiation (and how little we know about it and why for example EU's NORMAN-network and ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) should focus on it).

So, I didn't choose the easiest topic and the knowledgeable audience provided me important feedback and new insights.

Meeting with professor Yuri Grigoriev (Юрий  Григорьев) was  memorable, we talked (in Russian), eat and drink for many hours. As the head of Russian National Committee of Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (RNCNIRP) Yuri has amazing experience:
- Being a medical officer already in the 2nd World War
- Developing artificial, natural-like electro-magnetic fields to space ships (Sputnik-programme)
- Being one of the first doctors/professors in Chernobyl in 1986 to investigate the catastrophic situation
- Understanding early how the effects of non-ionising radiation are not just ... thermal [Russian research about biological effects[1], Update: see also examples in English : [1],[ 2],[3],[4] . Update 29th July 2009: Check those reports RNCNIRP provided to WHO [1],[2]. Already in 2003 RNCNIRP commented that ICNIRP guidance levels are out of date and children and pregnant women [1],[2] should be protected.

Update: Many times during our discussion Yuri emphasised that children's risks are much greater when it comes to microwave and especially mobile phone exposure [1],[2].

So, we had both serious and non-serious topics.