Horror heart attack and stroke warning over link to how often you use your mobile phone

A new study has warned that those who use mobile phones regularly have a "significantly higher" risk of a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke compared to those who use their devices less than once a week.

Researchers found that increased mobile phone use was "positively associated" with the risk of cardiovascualr diseases, with the risk higher still in smokers and people with diabetes.

The Canadian Journal of Cardiology study, which surveyed over 440,000 British adults without a history of cardiovascular diseases, also attributed the risk to poor sleep, pyschological distress and neuroticism.

Dr Yanjun Zhang, of Southern Medical University, China, said: "Mobile phone use is a ubiquitous exposure in modern society, so exploring its impact on health has significant public health value.

"Radio-frequency electromagnetic fields, or RF-EMF, emitted by mobile phones cause disregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, inflammatory responses, and oxidative stress, and are therefore expected to affect a variety of organs such as the heart and blood vessels.

"However, whether mobile phone use is associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases remains uncertain."

Co-investigator Dr Ziliang Ye, also of Southern Medical University, said: "We aimed to assess the prospective association of regular mobile phone use with incident cardiovascular diseases and explore the mediating effects of sleep and mental health.

"We found that compared with non-regular mobile phone users, regular mobile phone users had a significantly higher risk of incident cardiovascular diseases."

Those who participated in the study gave data of their mobile phone usage from 2006-2010.

In order for their usage to be considered regular, they had to use their mobile phone to call at least one person per week.

Researchers then compiled data using hospital and mortality records, looking to see who had suffered strokes or heart disease, in order to ascertain how each person's health was about 12 years on.

Nicholas Grubic, from the University of Toronto, emphasised that further research needs to be done on the conclusions, however.

"While the current study suggests that using a mobile phone may moderately increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, more conclusive evidence with valid measurements of mobile phone use is needed before this association becomes a concern for the general public," he said.

"Maintaining responsible mobile phone habits should be a valuable component of an all-encompassing approach to supporting cardiovascular health.

"Before diving into hours of mindless ’doom-scrolling’ on your smartphone today, consider redirecting this time toward a more heart-healthy activity."