Sure, we've heard of cellphones causing all sorts of medical troubles when not conjuring cancer in your ear, but the latest report of everyday consumer electronics wreaking havoc on humans comes from where else but the UK. Curiously, this isn't the first time England has been the site of allergic reactions to electromagnetic fields (EMF), and Manchester's Debbie Bird has been forced to make outlandish alterations to her home (and way of life) in order to avoid intense headaches, painful skin rashes, and bizarre eyelid swelling. Among the items she can't use are microwaves, BMWs (saywha?), and cellphones, and she has also coated her walls in pricey black carbon paint, covered her windows in "protective film," and weirdest of all, sleeps under a "silver-plated mosquito net" in order to curb her reactions. Now, what type of hidden superpowers are in her arsenal to counter such strange deficiencies?

We may not know whether your phone is going to kill you, but we can tell you that it excites your brain. This, uh, exciting news comes to us from a team at Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan, which used transcranial magnetic stimulation to monitor brain activity during subjects' phone calls. More often than not, brain cells adjacent to the phone went into an "excited" state during the call, but returned to normal within 45 minutes. What this means for your long-term health we're not exactly sure -- and neither is the Italian group. They do note that it might be of special relevance to folks with epilepsy, since excited brain cells have been linked to the disease. "It should be argued that long-lasting and repeated exposure to EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) linked with intense use of cellular phones in daily life might be harmful or beneficial in brain-diseased subjects," says their report. "Harmful or beneficial" -- thanks, guys; that really clears things up for us.

[Via I4U News]