Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang announced today on Twitter that his famous Dad had lost his arduous, years-long battle with cancer.
TMZ reports that Van Halen passed away at a Santa Monica hospital with his two sons and wife Janie by his side. Actress Valerie Bertinelli, Van Halen’s ex-wife, shared their son’s heartbreaking message on her own account. The two were married for 20 years. (1)
In 2015, Van Halen revealed in a Billboard magazine interview that the cancer started in his tongue. (2)
Treatment for the condition required surgery, which removed one-third of the tongue. Tragically, the cancer continued to slowly spread, later metastasizing to his esophagus.
Though a heavy smoker for many years, Van Halen surprisingly did not blame cigarettes because his lungs were totally free of cancer.
Instead, he believed it was the metal picks that he held in his mouth while playing music for hours at a time, day after day, in EMF saturated recording studios.
Van Halen thought that these metal picks served to concentrate the EMF-heavy environment in which he worked to the exact spot on his tongue where the cancer started.
I used metal picks — they’re brass and copper — which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer.
Plus, I basically live in a recording studio that’s filled with electromagnetic energy. So that’s one theory.
I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it’s possible. (3)
While shocking, Van Halen’s theory is not so far fetched. Even his doctors admitted that it was plausible.
With most urban areas awash in electromagnetic radiation 24/7, a growing number of functional physicians are expressing concern that metal in a person’s mouth can attract and concentrate this energy in very vulnerable areas of the body, effectively causing a person’s head to attract radiation like a cell phone antenna.
Metal in the mouth was never a health risk before the advent of cellular, Wifi, and on the horizon, more powerful 5G technologies.
Savvy biological dentists have been counseling their patients for some time to avoid any type of metal in or around the head area. This includes:
- Metal braces
- Titanium implants
- Permanent wire retainers
- Silver fillings
Inert materials such as ceramic, rubber, silicone, and others are becoming more popular and widely available to avoid the suspected risks.
This list of 25 ways to reduce EMF exposure at home highlights other ways of self protection.
Studies on EMFs and Cancer
It’s important to note that it isn’t the metal itself in the mouth that is the problem. It is the metal combined with heavy exposure to EMFs. Two studies thus far have linked proximity to EMFs and cancer. Metal in the mouth would serve to heighten the exposure.
In a German study, doctors examined close to 1000 patients to see if living at the same address close to a cell tower for 10 years affected cancer risk.
They discovered that the proportion of newly developed cancer cases was three times higher for those living within 1300 feet (a quarter of a mile) of a cellular transmitter compared to those living further away. In addition, they found that the patients became ill with cancer on average 8 years earlier.
A distance of 1300 feet (400m) is of particular importance. This is because computer simulation and measurements used in the study indicated that the radiation at that distance or less (the “inner area”) is 100 times greater than emissions beyond that distance (the “outer area”).
Another important observation from the research is that for the first 5 years of living near a cell phone tower, the risks were no different than someone living far away from one. However, in years 6-10, the cancer risks jumped more than threefold for those living a quarter of a mile or less from a mobile tower.
Israeli research conducted by Tel Aviv University confirms a similar pattern. In this study, 622 people living 1148 feet (350m) or less from a cell phone transmission station for 3-7 years were compared to 1222 controls living further away.
Out of the high exposure group, 8 cases of cancer were diagnosed within just one year. 3 cases of breast cancer and 1 case each of ovarian, lung, bone, kidney and lymphatic cancer.
In the control group, only 2 cases of cancer occurred even though the control group was roughly twice as large as the highly exposed group.
Based on these results, the researchers calculated the relative risk of cancer to be over four times higher for those living 350m or less (about one-fifth of a mile) from a cell phone antenna or tower.
Was Eddie Van Halen Right?
Was Eddie Van Halen’s hunch about the cause of his cancer accurate?
Was it caused by his many years of holding metal against his tongue in EMF-saturated recording studios?
While we likely won’t ever find out the answer to this question, his words are certainly a cautionary tale in this world where it is virtually impossible anymore to avoid 24/7 exposure to EMFs of all kinds including cell phone towers, antennas, smart meters, personal health devices like fitbits, dirty electricity, and Wifi…with more to come.
Heeding the advice of forward-thinking physicians and dentists by avoiding any type of metal appliances in the mouth seems to be a commonsense move at least until more research on the subject is done.
References
(1) Van Halen Dies of Cancer at 65
(2) Van Halen on Surviving Addiction
(3) Eddie Van Halen, Legendary Rock Guitarist, Dead at 65
(4) Eddie Van Halen photo credit
I find this theory highly plausible, just based on my own experience of incidentally finding myself in an extremely high level of both EMFs and RFs. I literally could no longer stay in my home after 5g launch became widespread and had to leave it – that is – if I wanted to function as a human being and continue living.
In terms of where I ‘felt’ EMF and RF prior to acquiring meters to do readings – I was 100% dead on in terms of high levels of electro-pollution locations in my own apartment.
Yet I am not even entitled to know if I was ‘only’ sleeping on top of a basement power line or if there are also smart meters below my apartment unit. That’s right – by law I have zero rights to know if I am sleeping on top of around 10-20 meters that would be for all the other units in the building by Chicago law. So I continue to pay rent on a place I can’t live in with management treating me like a non-entity.
Meanwhile, in looking for a safe place to live in Chicago, while measuring, I saw that RF radiation is very much persistent at harmful levels – both inside and outside.
Further, the higher you go in a building, the more accumulation based on my measurements.
I figure this accounts for the loss of bees, etc – the RF pollution – and that is what it is – pollution in a new form – is killing off the smaller of us faster. I am sure this combines with known air pollution in effects, but is still of itself a serious, serious problem which is largely unacknowledged. When I even bring it up – I am laughed at.
I believe it will eventually get the bulk of us – me included – if they keep up the insanity of the 5g rollout. Very, very strong microwave currents are emitted pretty consistently.
Urban areas get the worst hit from the high radiation due to concentration of antennas, WIFI, and 4g-5g devices, but as I already left the city I still feel these effects where I am now.
Further, since I’ve moved to this new location (far-ish from Chicago) I’ve experienced two rounds of new RF increases since some new meter was placed very close to where I am now (just since mid-August). Then they came through and signal boosted within the past two weeks, such that I will not stay long in the backside of the house I am now in (which has zero visual barriers to this bizarre new suburban housing development electric meter installation). It’s just hard for me to describe this. Plus I am near a town water tower and a cell tower poll and I think I am within 1200 ft of both.
I now have cluster headaches starting with the Chicago official 5g launch timeline. Never had many prior and these are a new type for me – like I am being stabbed in the head. Very localized pain, frequently at the crown. Also, from the EMF I have experienced much nausea and illness. It says a heck of a lot when leaving your apartment makes you feel better. Then on top of that – we’ve been ordered to stay at home inside these highly toxic apartment units due to COVID-19. Very concerned while most walk around cluelessly getting microwaved to death albeit slowly (unless you are a bee or a bird with your tiny little body).
Having a physics degree I’m a bit skeptical about his theory too. Electromagnetic radiation tends to travel in a straight path until it hits something. Metal doesn’t somehow magically attract it. Just look around you, are all metal objects glowing because light is being attracted to them?
Of course, if there was something in the studio that was generating electrical or magnetic fields, then this could have induced small currents in the pick and caused it to release small amounts of low frequency radiation. Still, I think the other commentator’s theory about nickel and cobalt seems more plausible. I’ve experienced heavy metal poisoning for myself from very small quantities, I know how bad they are!
If metal doesn’t “magically attract” EMR, please attempt to debunk antenna theory. I’m waiting (with my own physics degree…)
I lived in Pasadena around the time David Lee Roth and Van Halen used to play in backyards( short lived as the cops always were shutting them down). I had always wondered why Eddie had early tongue cancer until Sarah(thanks for posting) posted this article. Metals make great grounds for EMF’s, and as educator for introducing practitioners to a metal detecting device called the Oligoscan(Spectrophotometry) we always are curious of the source when we see elevated metals. In administering a test to a male construction worker, one metal was extremely elevated, kiddingly I ask if he kept nails in his mouth, which he replied that he kept a nail in his mouth all day long. Sublingual metal salt we’re dissolving into his lymphatics and picked up by the Oligoscan. Another is a clinical trial Herbalix funded for women with fibrocystic breast issues using Thermography, where mixed metal earrings were found to dissolve in from the ear lobes, down the neck and into breast tissue. We also know from the Oligoscan that smokers retain heavy metals especially aluminum, cadmium which attracts EMF. Cadmium depletes zinc, and zinc is needed to detox heavy metals. Eddie probably was a non-excretor for heavy metals. Hands probably were conductors on the guitar and electric loop to pick in mouth. Anyone out there want to test that?
very interesting feeback Michael. This makes a lot of sense
Most of these cancers are linked to hpv-16– a version of the human papilloma virus. It’s pretty common in white males in their 60s. My husband was treated at Vanderbilt Medical Center, and they’ve seen lots of it. They are one of the top treatment centers in the US.
Oral galvanism — voltage/current due to the ‘battery’ that is made in the mouth when saliva acts as the electrolyte between metal plates (ie, amalgam filling or crown AND the metal pick), leaving the tongue in an unenviable situation. Being in a heavy EMF environment will frazzle the Blood-Brain-Barrier and allow improper substances to enter the brain and get into mischief, including metal elements such as mercury, aluminum (and one might suppose nickel and cobalt from the strings. He probably also had a perpetually messed up melatonin cycle (from staying up late at night under bright artificial lighting) which works nightly to repair cancer damage while we sleep. Perhaps the three phenomena could have been at play. Probably never will know.
Please do an article about ways to protect against EMFs. I am always trying to avoid but likely not fully informed! I had 5G removed from my house but a year ago came to the whole neighborhood.
Very disconcerting! My kid has a metal plate expander, even though we avoided braces opting for myobrace instead, it was only partly successful and then palate expander was recommended.
There are numerous articles on this site about how to protect yourself from various types of EMFs.
While the copper and zinc (brass) pics are both made of material that is healthy in trace amounts and therefore likely not contribute to cancer, guitar strings are often made of nickel and cobalt. Strumming those strings with the pick would doubtless scrape off tiny amounts of those toxic metals, and when placing the pick back in the mouth, would be easily washed off by saliva. Over time, a toxic amount of the metals could accumulate.
Could that be a possibility doctors are missing?