Will your cell phone fry your brain?

Listen to Dave’s Commentary: Will your cell phone fry your brain?

If cell phones can disrupt a guidance system even when you’re nowhere near the cockpit what might it do pressed against your temporal lobe?

There’s been all sorts of speculation, so the National Institutes of Health conducted an elaborate study this year to determine the actual physical effects of cell phones on the brain.

Subjects had identical cell phones strapped to their heads, one turned off, one turned on but muted, so you couldn’t tell. And sure enough, when messages were sent to the activated phone, the part of the brain nearest the antenna started metabolizing glucose faster…about 7 percent faster.

Cell phones stimulate glucose consumption. But does that fry your synapses, or just give you a hankering for a Snickers?

We don’t know, and we will probably not find out anytime soon.

Because studies like this are rare. Scientists don’t like to study the effects of cell phones. Which is frustrating to some doctors who worry about the effects.

But I understand! Scientists realize these studies are ultimately futile because nothing is going to get people to stop using cell phones. This is like telling us computer keyboards make your fingers go numb, or that driving causes global warming, or that owning a gun makes you less safe, or that a lawnmower can cut off your foot, or that barbecue ribs make you fat.

What’s the point of trying to scare us about behaviors which we are not going to change?

Our bodies simply have to evolve in a way that accommodates modern life.

I do know this, whether the cell phone fries your brain or not, using one as you drive could send your brain crashing through the windshield.

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