Study: Cell Phone Radiation Linked to Overeating More Calories Higher Carbs

Apr 8, 2022

A new study Mobile Phone Radiation Deflects Brain Energy Homeostasis and Prompts Human Food Ingestion published in the journal Nutrients finds cell phone radiation increases food consumption and the scientists state that the radiation could be a potential contributing factor to overeating. The single-blind, sham-controlled study using human volunteers found men increased their caloric consumption nearly 30% percent after cell phone radiation exposure (22% and 27%). The men ate higher carbohydrates and also had alterations in the brain – “a deflected cerebral high-energy phosphate metabolism, which is closely related to food intake and body weight” -after mobile phone use. The study concludes that, “therefore, our results identify RF-EMFs as a potential contributing factor to overeating in humans, which underlies the worldwide obesity epidemic. Beyond this, RF-EMF-induced alterations of the brain energy homeostasis, as observed here, may put our data into a broader context because a balanced central nervous energy homeostasis is of fundamental importance, not only for the regulation of food intake and body weight, but also for all brain functions. Therefore, with good cause, the high priority of this research field was already emphasized a long time ago by the WHO Research Agenda for Radiofrequency Fields [65]. Perhaps our data could serve as first step towards deeper insight into this issue and open a new perspective in neurobiological and obesity research.”

The authors also noted that animal studies have also found similar results:

“Our data show that mobile phone radiation by two different phone types leads to higher calorie consumption by 22% and 27%, respectively. This effect was mainly based on an increased consumption of carbohydrates. This surprisingly unequivocal result is in line with scarce previous data from rodent studies, which examined food intake behavior upon RF-EMFs exposure. In fact, Tripathi and co-workers recently found an increased food intake after three weeks of a 2 h daily mobile phone exposure and consequent weight gain in rodents [20]. In another study, Lovely and co-workers observed an increased chow intake after RF-EMFs application of a comparable radiation intensity (915 MHz) to our own experiment [41]. Pelletier and co-workers confirmed this result and demonstrated that continuous RF-EMFs exposure for five weeks causes an increased daytime intake of standard chow by 0.22 g/h compared with a non-stimulated control group [23].”

Obesity and mobile phone usage have simultaneously spread worldwide. Radio frequency-modulated electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) emitted by mobile phones are largely absorbed by the head of the user, influence cerebral glucose metabolism, and modulate neuronal excitability. Body weight adjustment, in turn, is one of the main brain functions as food intake behavior and appetite perception underlie hypothalamic regulation. Against this background, we questioned if mobile phone radiation and food intake may be related. In a single-blind, sham-controlled, randomized crossover comparison, 15 normal-weight young men (23.47 ± 0.68 years) were exposed to 25 min of RF-EMFs emitted by two different mobile phone types vs. sham radiation under fasting conditions. Spontaneous food intake was assessed by an ad libitum standard buffet test and cerebral energy homeostasis was monitored by 31phosphorus-magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements. Exposure to both mobile phones strikingly increased overall caloric intake by 22–27% compared with the sham condition. Differential analyses of macronutrient ingestion revealed that higher calorie consumption was mainly due to enhanced carbohydrate intake. Measurements of the cerebral energy content, i.e., adenosine triphosphate and phosphocreatine ratios to inorganic phosphate, displayed an increase upon mobile phone radiation. Our results identify RF-EMFs as a potential contributing factor to overeating, which underlies the obesity epidemic. Beyond that, the observed RF-EMFs-induced alterations of the brain energy homeostasis may put our data into a broader context because a balanced brain energy homeostasis is of fundamental importance for all brain functions. Potential disturbances by electromagnetic fields may therefore exert some generalized neurobiological effects, which are not yet foreseeable. View Full-Text