What is it with former 90's celebs who all of a sudden think they have a PhD in medicine?
First, Jenny McCarthy rewrites the medical journals with her no-science approach to curing autism, and now Sheryl Crow is an expert on the brain. Yesterday on Katic Couric's talk show, the singer said she believes her benign brain tumor was caused by frequent cellphone use. Sure, Crow admits that no doctors will confirm it, but she thinks it's possible her meningioma, is related, since she used to spend hours on the "old, archaic cellphones."
Scientists say evidence linking cellphone use to brain tumors has been inconsistent, and most studies have not found a link. About 6,000 people are diagnosed with meningiomas in the US annually according to the National Cancer Institute. And it just so happens that Crow falls into the group that is most prone to developing meningiomas - women in their 40s and 50s.
Here's a little background science for ya: Cellphones emit radiofrequency energy, which can be absorbed by tissues, but the only known biological effect of this energy (like the kind emitted by microwave ovens), is a tiny rise in temperature. That is not known to damage DNA the same way as the ionizing radiation in X-rays, and damage to DNA is considered a necessary step to cause cancer.
A Danish study of nearly 2.9 million people published in 2011 found that those who used cellphones for 11 years or more were no more likely to develop a type of benign brain tumor than those who used cellphones for a shorter period, or not at all.
Another study from Denmark found no link between the location of brain tumors called gliomas and the regions of the brain that are exposed to the highest levels of radiofrequency energy.
In addition, between the 1987 and 2007, a period when cellphone use rose rapidly, there was no increase in the incidence of brain cancer in the United States, the NCI says.
So there is no conclusive evidence that cellphones cause brain tumors. Sheryl Crow's music however...
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