After reading comments on another site about electric fields, I'm a little concerned about our electric mattress pad, telephone equipment, electric clocks and any other electric things we are exposed to. Does anyone know anything about this? Could it possibly contribute to AD?

I have, over the years, heard about electric currents, like don't stand in front of your microwave when it is running and don't live beside a high-powered electric line, etc.
I don't know if there is anything to it but I tend to believe there may be some truth in it.

My fil always told us to place our bed with the head to the north because of polar something. I usually have to place my bed where it will fit in the room and it is usually not north. Right now it is west. To head it north would put it in the room with the head toward the door.

I always have heard there is something about pyramids.

A friend of mine went to the Chirapractor today for severe stabbing pain in her head.
She said he adjusted her neck then took a tuning fork and tapped it against something and held it to her head and she said her sinius completly and suddenly cleared up. She was amazed and the
dr. gave her an explanation of how it happened. She said this evening her sinus is starting to stop up again.

My granddaughter has had severe corn allergy. She is in her 20's and the last few years she has carried her own special prepared food with her everywhere plus her special toilet paper - everything. She read about a clinic on treating allergies last fall through her corn allergy message board and went there to try for herself. They treat you non-invasive through the electric currents flowing through your body. Two treatments and she is going out to eat some now and seems cured of her allergy. It has been 3 months now and I think this is truly amazing. I hope it lasts. I have the web address if anyone is interested.

i have read articles on electric fields,like don't live close to an electrical station,move you electric clock away from your bed so you're not exposed to it all night,etc. these were articles about cancer and brain tumors,but i don't remember where i read them. there is no telling, in the future what will be found to cause health issues,but electrical fields seem a plausible cause for problems with our health,along with plastics,aluminum,pesticides,water we drink,things that we as a advanced,civilised society use and ingest everyday,not only are we killing ourselves and future generations,but we are killing our earth also. this is just the way i have come to feel about alot of our conveniences and things that we take for granted are okay for use because the FDA or some company says its safe.how many things have had to be recalled because they were dangerous? how many things weren't found,or covered up? it sure makes me wonder. we need to think outside the box. i think cell phones are a source for health problems that are untold as of yet,i wonder if we will ever learn the extent of the damages of our modern conveniences. jav

Every medical student has to come up with a hypothesis and put together statistics to prove it. Some have way out theories, others just try to prove what they believe. Some are then published in the medical journals, and then released as news stories by the press. I have become so blasted cynical that I don't believe any of them! One year A is bad for you and the next A is good for you but B is bad; then the following year C will kill you, etc....

I agree with Briegull on the cell phones.

One day we took a hike along a beautiful trail under the power lines. The park department had returned the land to nature with the exception of the power lines. I was telling some friends how much we enjoyed the wildlife, the plants, and ponds, etc. They told me not to walk there anymore because it would make me sterile.How do you respond to something like that? :)

I grew up next to power lines, played around them and never had problems. I do believe that those that keep their cell phone glued to their ear may have problems. Ear plugs and bluetooth are no better. Years ago I worked at McDonald's. The lady who worked drive thru lost some of her hearing in one ear. The doctor said it was due keeping the headset on that ear every day for 8 hours that caused it. I can only imagine what the bluetooth are going to do to ones hearing.

My mother live to 92. She did what she wanted without regard to power lines, alcohol, fat, etc. She was pretty cognizant until the end. I'll go with that.

In response to dear Dazed's concerns, I have delved into the question of whether electromagnetic fields (EMF) might trigger Alzheimer's.

Talk about a controversial subject ... !!!

It appears that there have been just enough studies reporting a link between EMF and various diseases to be dangerous in the hands of someone who is not experienced in evaluating the conclusions drawn from original research.

The most intensively studied diseases have been Alzheimer's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease), and cancer.

The most compelling conclusion I found was from a 2006 workshop involving experts in this field:

http://oem.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/66/2/72

which says: "The occupational epidemiological literature on extremely low frequency electric and magnetic fields (EMF) and health encompasses a large number of studies of varying design and quality that have addressed many health outcomes, including various cancers, cardiovascular disease, depression and suicide, and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). At a 2006 workshop we reviewed studies of occupational EMF exposure with an emphasis on methodological weaknesses, and proposed analytical ways to address some of these. We also developed research priorities that we hope will address remaining uncertainties.

"Broadly speaking, extensive epidemiological research conducted during the past 20 years on occupational EMF exposure does not indicate strong or consistent associations with cancer or any other health outcomes...."

I have requested a copy of the full paper from the corresponding author, just to see what it says about AD in particular.

However, I also found quite a few other reviews which reported that, despite numerous studies on electromagnetic fields and AD, *no* conclusive link has been established. A handful of studies appeared to find a link when workers who would have been exposed to very high levels of EMF for extended periods of time (e.g., power plant workers, and welders) were investigated. However, these studies were seriously flawed. For example, they tended to be small, and/or to rely on a *definition* of a worker's job or his occupation, rather than on actual exposure to EMF. Other studies determined that the exposure of a worker (or of someone in the general population) could be wildly variable, making any study based on occupation or retrospective analysis unreliable. Another flaw in some studies was that there did not appear to be any evidence of a dose-response relationship. (I.e., one would expect a higher incidence of AD for longer exposures and/or higher levels of EMF, which was not seen.) Plus, to date, no one has come up with a plausible hypothesis as to why exposure to EMF could trigger AD, either.

Most significantly, several reviews noted that the data from these studies would just as readily support a link to socioeconomic, education, and/or intelligence factors, rather than to EMF. See, e.g.:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17043077

Moreover, studies which appeared to find a link were refuted by other, more recent, studies, which appeared to be better designed. See, e.g.:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17626136

You will be pleased to learn that a position paper representing the the Australian medical profession, published every two years (most recently in 2007), states flatly, " There is no evidence that mobile phone or computer usage increases AD risk." <grin>

Thank you, Sunshyne. I'll keep our electric mattress pad. It feels so good and relaxing to crawl into a nice warm bed at night. We turn it off after we get in bed, and we'll keep our electric, glow in the dark clock. I use my cell phone a lot but I don't sleep with it like some of the teenagers do. My teenage grandchildren mostly text anymore instead of talking. That may be safer than having the phone glued to their ear all the time.

So funny, Bettyhere ... my mother constantly had a hissyfit if I went outside in cold weather before my hair was dry, or without wearing what she considered to be a sufficient number of layers of clothing. My father (the doctor) finally told her to lay off. I obviously hadn't died of pneumonia from doing that yet, so he didn't think the odds were very high that I would in the future. <grin>


Anyway, back to EMFs. The nice author of the workshop findings has already sent me a copy of the paper, and it was really quite interesting. While confirming that there is no conclusive evidence that EMFs can be linked to Alzheimer's, it did discuss in more depth what some researchers feel to be an *apparent* link between EMFs and ALS (which has been studied even more than Alzheimer's.)

The studies appeared to show a link only when electric utility workers were involved -- which was, of course, intriguing because lots of other workers are exposed to EMFs.

This led to a series of studies which concluded that it was not the EMF exposure that was triggering ALS but, rather, repeated exposure to electric shocks. The rate at which the workers developed ALS was higher in those who had reported getting multiple shocks, and was even higher when the workers had experienced electric shocks producing unconsciousness. Furthermore, experimental animals had accelerated demyelination and neuronal death after exposure to electric shocks.

It goes to show you that you have to ask the right questions to get the right answers...