The Cell Phone Health Debate and Unnecessary Surgical Breast Biopsies - Snapshot of this week's news stories
Cell Phones - Hazardous to your Health?
With everyone from pre-teens to great-grandparents and everyone in between using cell phones these days, the issue of radiation continues to be in hot debate. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the first and largest study focused on whether cell phone exposure affects brain activity. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study found that 50-minute cell phone exposure was associated with increased brain activity in regions close to where the phone antenna is held against the head. However, what this means is not clear - it is not known whether these changes have any effect on a person’s overall health. While this study is preliminary and does not address any potential health issues, it definitely will ramp up the debate about radiation safety and will likely result in additional research and studies conducted on the safety of cell phones. Interestingly, according to the head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse – the authors of the study - if there aren’t negative long-term effects, cell phones have the potential to be used as a non-invasive method to therapeutically stimulate parts of the brain for treatment for conditions such as depression. We’ll keep our eyes on this hot topic and report updates.
Unnecessary Surgical Breast Biopsies Being Performed
While medical guidelines state that surgical breast biopsies should only occur 10 percent of the time or less, a study found that 30 percent of the breast biopsies conducted in Florida between 2003 and 2008 were surgical. These results would likely be replicated in other areas of the country which according to the New York Times translates into more than 300,000 women a year having unnecessary surgery at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. The study published in The American Journal of Surgery found that other methods can be used such as needle biopsies which could lead to a reduction in unnecessary operations in women, improved patient care and a reduction in breast health care costs. While a needle biopsy requires only numbing with a local anesthetic – not sedation or general anesthesia like with surgery –and uses a tiny incision and carries less risk of infection and scarring, the increased use of surgery is not known. Some surmise that it is because some physicians may not be keeping up with the latest medical advances or may not want to refer patients to a radiologist. Interestingly, some hospitals are starting to put in place a surgical biopsy ban unless they are truly necessary and many doctors are telling women that if they are told they need a surgical biopsy they should ask why and consider a second opinion.
Posted by Lauren Arnold on February 25, 2011 at 12:09 PM
