The Effects of Exposure to Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields in the Treatment of Migraine Headache: A Cohort Study

Abstract

1. Introduction

Migraine is one of the most common causes of headaches. Its prevalence is 17 vs. 6% for women and men, respectively (1). Usually, its severity affects daily performance capabilities and function of individuals (2). Although, several studies have been carried out to explain pathophysiologic mechanism in migraine, it has, in general remained an enigma However, most researchers believe that the disturbance of the neuro-electrical activity related to brain cells, increases the sensitivity of the cerebral cortex and brain vascular changes with potential genetic susceptibility factors, and plays an important role in migraine headache (3). To initiate and accelerate these events some environmental and behavioral factors act as a potent trigger for migraine attacks (3). Recently, an epidemiologic study indicated a higher occurrence of migraine attacks in mobile users (4). The matter has created genuine concern regarding the extensive exposure of individuals to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF), due to the worldwide comprehensive expanse of mobile telecommunication technology (5). There are some suggested hypotheses that the electromagnetic waves affect various aspects of human physiology by interaction with cellular electromagnetic events (6). One of the most important alterations induced by electromagnetic fields is the disturbance in brain function because of the close contact of these devices to the head (7). Previous studies have shown that these waves influence regional cerebral blood flow and electroencephalographic (EEG) wave power (7). Also, some people have claimed that they had electromagnetic hypersensitivity and experience some symptoms such as headache, tinnitus, sleep disorders and other neurological complaints when exposed to these fields. Overall, headache is the most frequent symptom induced by RF-EMF (8). Based on the mentioned facts, RF-EMF can be regarded as a probable environmental trigger for migraine headaches. Such issues will raise the question of what the potential effect of this environmental risk factor would be, on the patients’ response to treatment regimens. To the best of our knowledge, there was no study to investigate the effects of RF-EMF on the treatment response in migraine individuals. Therefore, we designed this study to determine the effects of RF-EMF on therapeutic response of migraine headache patients.

2. Material and Methods

3. Results

Overall, 114 individuals participated of which 82 (71.9%) were female and 32 (28.1%) cases were male,. The mean age was 30 ± 9.8 years with age range from 15–50 years. Most of participants (90.4%) were from urban areas. Based on disease severity 29 (25.4%) patients were treated with Nortriptyline and Propranolol, 35 (30.70%) with Propranolol, 35 (30.70%) with Acetaminophen, and 15 (13.2%) patients received Nortriptyline. The expectation of the number of headaches, the number of mild, moderate and severe headaches, the number of migraine attacks and the severity of headaches decreased significantly at the end of the study. Chi-square test showed that the different levels of Wi-Fi usage were the same in different categories of drugs (p=0.7) (Table 1). The average mobile use, SAR was also equal in the categories of drugs. ANOVA tests confirmed that the p-values were 0.5, 0.12, 0.35, 0.42 and 0.08 respectively. A total of 46 participants did not use Wi-Fi, while 32 (28.1%) cases used one to four days per week, and eighteen (15.8%) of the participants used Wi-Fi most of the days. The chance of increasing number of headaches and the level of severity of headache for persons who had high use of Wi-Fi were significantly higher than the persons with low use of Wi-Fi. The use of Wi-Fi had no significant effect on the number of migraine attacks. Most patients (n =112, 98.30%) used a mobile phone with median time equal to 58.57 min call (0–360 min). Increase of mobile usage had a significant effect on the number of moderate headaches and the number of migraine attacks, and severity of headache. One more minute of mobile use, enhanced the possibility of a moderate headache and the number of migraine attacks 0.2%, and also increased the chance of level of severity 0.1%. Sixty individuals (52.6%) reported that the distance of mobile phone to their head was less 1 meter, during night sleep. It had no correlation with severity and frequency of migraine headaches and treatment outcome (p> 0.05). Overall, 111 (37.97%) patients used fixed-line telephones during the day with average use 53.29 ± 41.72 min per day. The usage of fixed-line telephone had no significant relationship with study variables (p> 0.05).

4. Discussion

Currently, the growing number of telecommunication devices such as mobile phones and Wi-Fi have led people to increased exposure to RF-EMF (12). This matter had raised challenging questions. From these inquiries, the important problem is clarifying whether these electromagnetic waves that emitted from mobile phone and Wi-Fi antenna cause side effects on our body, and especially the CNS. These concerns have originated from some studies that have shown notable evidence of RF-EMF effects on brain tissues (13). Unfortunately, the answers to these questions remain unclear, but some evidence supports the adverse effects of RF-EMF on some neurological symptoms. Based on our result, we found significant correlation among mobile phone and Wi-Fi usage with more frequency and severity of migraine headaches. In agreement to our findings, several studies had shown that more mobile phone use was concordance with increasing rate of migraine headaches, tinnitus, and fatigue (10). Redmayne et al. showed that Wi-Fi use could be associated with sleep disturbance (12). The previous studies implicated that the electromagnetic waves spectrum of Wi-Fi could increase the power of alpha waves during sleep (14). This information suggest that extrinsic RF-EMFs can impact neurological functions. There are attractive theories for explanations of related mechanism. In accordance with the Tsong hypothesis, RF-EMF can be introduced as language of cells (15). We suppose that interaction between the external source of RF-EMF, and RF-EMF emitted normally from the brain cells, leads to dopamine-opioid system disturbances, as well as the blood brain barrier involvement (16). This mechanism explains some well-known pathophysiological processes involved in migraine headaches based on the dopaminergic system (17).

In contrary to our findings, Berg-Beckhoff et al. demonstrated RF-RMs emitted from mobile phones had no adverse health effects (18). Additionally, most mobile phone and Wi-Fi users usually have more stress, and the stress is an important trigger for migraine headaches. Now, a difficult question arises. Is this effect contributed to more exposure with RF-EMF, or due to the stress effect per se (19)? In fact, the answers are controversial; however, some researchers proposed restriction of the unnecessary exposure to any RF-EMF sources, until arriving at a clear answer to this question (16). There is a completely contrary view to our study. In accordance to this view, Sherman et al. applied pulsing electromagnetic fields (PEMF) as a migraine treatment in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. They demonstrated that actual exposure of the inner thigh to PEMF over a three week period, led to decreased headache and acted as an effective intervention for migraine treatment. Researchers attributed these effects to increased peripheral blood, induced by PEMF. We suppose these differences are due to the different frequency of waves used in the two studies (20). The frequency of waves used for PEMF was significantly less than mobile phone and Wi-Fi modems. It seems that EMF had dual effects, based on some properties such as frequency of waves and exposure duration (20). Current study is the first investigation performed on the effects of RF-EMF on the treatment outcome in migraine headache patients. We believe that present research is the beginning of a new approach as the first step. However, our study had some limitations due to confounding factors. Firstly, we had no sufficient equipment to design our investigation based on dosimetry methods. Secondly, our data collection relies on self-reported questionnaires.

5. Conclusions

Our study showed that the number and severity of migraine headaches were concomitant with more use of mobile phone during the day and Wi-Fi per week. These findings indicated that some RF-EMF may be correlated with more severe migraine headaches. It is recommended that patients with migraine headaches restrict using mobile phone and Wi-Fi and replace them with a fixed-line telephone for their daily telecommunications. We advise other researchers to continue without the limitations that we had and based on dosimetry methods and provocation protocol.

Acknowledgments

Footnotes

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