Talking on a mobile phone can improve memory and might even help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, recent research suggests.

Cell phone use could help prevent Alzheimer's? Photo credit: Hugo Pacheco

According to findings by scientists at Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre, exposure to the radiation of cell phones had a positive effect on the mind, which contradict previous studies suggesting mobile phones can cause Alzheimer and brain cancer, the BBC reported today. Mice genetically altered to develop beta-amyloid plaques in their brains, a markers of Alzheimer’s, did just as well on memory and thinking skills tests as healthy mice, after being exposed to electromagnetic waves such as used in mobile phones. The mice were exposed to the electromagnetic field equivalent to those of a cell phone for two hours daily over seven to nine months.

Professor Gary Arendash of South Florida University, who led the research, told The Telegraph: “It surprised us to find that cell phone exposure, begun in early adulthood, protects the memory of mice otherwise destined to develop Alzheimer’s symptoms. It was even more astonishing that the electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones actually reversed memory impairment in old Alzheimer’s mice.”

However, The Telegraph cautioned, it took months for the mice to show any results, indicating that it would take years of usage for a similar positive memory effect in humans to show up.

Arendash and his team will try to modify the experiment to see if they can get faster results and begin testing humans, The New York Times said.