As the Atlantic Wire previously showed, anxiety persists over the possibility of cell phones causing brain cancer, despite studies denying a link. That makes this new question all the more intriguing: could cell phones actually help your brain? Discover's Andrew Moseman points to a study showing that cell phone radiation might actually fight Alzheimer's symptoms in mice. Could humans treat Alzheimer's with cell phones? Moseman looks at this possibility:

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here, though. The work by Arendash opens up all kinds of avenues for possible research, but research on the health effects of cell phones seems prone to long, drawn out studies and occasionally contradictory headlines, like those we see about red wine or coffee being good or bad. William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer's Association, warned against self-medicating with extra cell use based on these findings ... The next steps: Other researchers will try to replicate Arendash results in mice, and if they do so, scientists can go on to test whether electromagnetic waves have the same effect on humans.

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Heather Horn