4G Cell phone feature and Seizures

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Hello, I'm Mali

I'm 32yrs old and I had never had a Seizure in my life until a year ago, a few weeks after i began using my new 4G enabled cell phone.

First they began as Simple Partial seizures and slowly progressed to Grand Mal seizures. After the first Grand Mal my husband and I eliminated everything it could possibly be, Family history - diet - stress, etc. We concluded that it had to be the new 4G feature on my cell phone.Though I'd began experiencing Simple Partials during parts of my day when i wasn't using my cell phone (during sleep especially), I did remember them starting while being on my phone.

Regardless, we turned the 4G feature on my phone off and the seizures immediately stopped. I went 8 or 9 months without 1 seizure.

2 months ago (February 2013) I had to Factory Reset my cell phone and did not realize that the 4G feature had been turned back on.

A few days later the Simple Partial seizures began again. I immediately turned the 4G feature off. A day later I suffered a Grand Mal seizure. I later realized that I in fact had not turned the 4G feature completely off and it was still running in the background of my phone.

After a short stint in the E.R, (which provided zero answers as to why I was having seizures), I came home turned the 4G off of my phone (correctly this time) and haven't suffered a seizure of any kind since.

I saw a neurologist and he ran the normal gamut of tests, CAT scan, EEG, MRI. He found nothing. He said he could find no reason as why i was having seizures.

My husband and I are convinced that the 4G feature on my phone was causing it. And as we believed as long as i keep that feature off, the seizures do not occur.

I am sure that a number of people in situations like mine aren't making the correlation between the 4G feature on their phone and their newly developed seizures. Many of them aren't even aware that they are having seizures.

In New York (where i live) I've seen 2 too many reports of people driving and having seizures and either killing themselves or others and I am almost positive that these people are suffering from 4G induced seizures and they have no idea.

Maybe if the correct information is HONESTLY and BLATANTLY put out into the world regarding the possible risks of 4G and seizures, what to look for, etc, more people would be aware and take precautions just as I did. The Solution is as simple as turning a feature off.

My goal is not to stop the use of cell phones but to make people aware of the possible risks and the simple steps they can take to rectify the problem.
 
Hi Mali --

I don't have a cell phone (I'm probably the last person on earth), but this should be very interesting to members who do. Certainly it's a simple enough thing to try turning off the 4G feature to see if it makes a difference in seizure frequency.

I'm curious -- at any point did you try using your phone with a headset or on speakerphone to see if that helped? For some folks who have complained of headache from cellphone use, a headset has been the fix.

This may be of interest: http://www.epilepsy.com/node/987859
 
Hi Nakamova

At the time i was switching between using the phone and a bluetooth headset. It didn't seem to matter, as long as i had the 4G feature on the seizures came. That's why we decided to simply turn it off. the faster downloading speed really wasn't worth it :o)
 
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