Microwaves and the Heart By Mrs Vera West

     I recently wrote a blog piece discussing the issue of the health threat of microwaves on the heart. To the editor’s surprise, the blog was drawn to the attention of some medical researchers who are at the cutting edge of this research, and they kindly forward a research paper. The paper is: “Cardiovascular disease: Time to identify emerging environmental risk factors,” by  Priyanka Bandara and Steven Weller, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 2017, vol. 24(17) 1819–1823. Not having any access to a university library, I could not provide a link for readers. But, we did have provided a useful press release, so, as we are legitimate journalists:

“This paper was prompted by a new Australian study that found an increasing proportion of heart attack patients without the established risk factors: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. Cardiology researchers led by Prof. Gemma Figtree investigated patients reporting with a first-time heart attack at the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH), a major Australian tertiary hospital of the University of Sydney. Their research found a clear increase in the percentage of patients from 2006 to 2014 whose heart attacks were poorly explained by the standard risk factors. Based on their own data and complementary data from elsewhere, they emphasised the need to identify new risk factors. The link to RNSH study: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2047487317720287 Bandara and Weller draw attention to their recent review of experimental studies that have investigated oxidative stress: “In our latest review, 242 RF-EMR studies that investigated experimental endpoints related to oxidative stress (OS)16 were identified.

A staggering 216 (89%) of them found significant effects related to OS, similar to a previous review17. These are being further analysed following presentation at the recent Australasian Radiation Protection Society conference 18”. The authors propose that oxidative stress induced by exposure to RFEMR mechanisms is a plausible risk factor for CVD: “OS is known to be implicated in CVD and therefore, RF-EMR, a new ubiquitous environmental exposure, may contribute to CVD by maintaining chronic OS, and thereby causing oxidative damage to cellular constituents and altering signal transduction pathways”. This paper provides important insights into the scientific evidence linking wireless radiation and CVD. It discusses the need for more research as well as measures to reduce public exposure to RF-EMR by promoting the use of safer wired communication systems over wireless.” Thanks to: OCEANIA RADIOFREQUENCY SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY ASSOCIATION INC.

     The take home message is therefore to be very careful with wireless radiation, especially personal devices. But, I acknowledge that I do not know how one can do this in our modern world which is bathed in radiation. Do what one can to minimise exposure.