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Morning Exposure to Deep Red Light Improves Declining Eyesight

AHA Publisher — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 08:00:11 +0000

University College London via Newswise – Just three minutes of exposure to deep red light once a week, when delivered in the morning, can significantly improve declining eyesight, finds a pioneering new study by UCL researchers. Published in Scientific Reports, the study builds on the team’s previous work*, which showed daily three-minute exposure to longwave deep red light ‘switched on’ energy producing mitochondria cells in the human retina, helping boost naturally declining vision. For this latest study, scientists wanted to establish what effect a single three-minute exposure would have, while also using much lower energy levels than their previous studies. Furthermore, building on separate UCL research in flies** that found mitochondria display ‘shifting workloads’ depending on the time of day, the team compared morning exposure to afternoon exposure. In summary, researchers found there was, on average, a 17% improvement in participants’ colour contrast vision when exposed to three minutes of 670 nanometre (long wavelength) deep red light in the morning and the effects of this single exposure lasted for at least a week. However, when the same test was conducted in the afternoon, no improvement was seen. Scientists say the benefits of deep red light, highlighted by the findings, mark a breakthrough for eye health and should lead to affordable home-based eye therapies, helping the millions of people globally with naturally declining vision. Lead author, Professor Glen Jeffery (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology), said: “We demonstrate that one single exposure to long wave deep red light in the morning can significantly improve declining vision, which is a major health and wellbeing issue, affecting millions of people globally. “This simple intervention applied at the population level would significantly impact on quality of life as people age and would likely result in reduced social costs that arise from problems associated with reduced vision.” Naturally Declining Vision and Mitochondria In humans around 40 years old, cells in the eye’s retina begin to age, and the pace of this ageing is caused, in part, when the cell’s mitochondria, whose role is to produce energy (known as ATP) and boost cell function, also start to decline. Mitochondrial density is greatest in the retina’s photoreceptor cells, which have high energy demands. As a result, the retina ages faster than other organs, with a 70% ATP reduction over life, causing a significant decline in photoreceptor function as they lack the energy to perform their normal role. In studying the effects of deep red light in humans, researchers built on their previous findings in mice, bumblebees and fruit flies, which all found significant improvements in the function of the retina’s photoreceptors when their eyes were exposed to 670 nanometre (long wavelength) deep red light. “Mitochondria have specific sensitivities to long wavelength light influencing their performance: longer wavelengths spanning 650 to 900nm improve mitochondrial performance to increase energy production,” said Professor Jeffery. Morning and Afternoon Studies The retina’s photoreceptor population is formed of cones, which mediate colour vision, and rods, which adapt vision in low/dim light. This study focused on cones*** and observed colour contrast sensitivity, along the protan axis (measuring red-green contrast) and the tritan axis (blue-yellow). All the participants were aged between 34 and 70, had no ocular disease, completed a questionnaire regarding eye health prior to testing, and had normal colour vision (cone function). This was assessed using a ‘Chroma Test’: identifying coloured letters that had very low contrast and appeared increasingly blurred, a process called colour contrast. Using a provided LED device all 20 participants (13 female and 7 male) were exposed to three minutes of 670nm deep red light in the morning between 8am and 9am. Their colour vision was then tested again three hours post exposure and 10 of the participants were also tested one week post exposure. On average there was a ‘significant’ 17% improvement in colour vision, which lasted a week in tested participants; in some older participants there was a 20% improvement, also lasting a week. A few months on from the first test (ensuring any positive effects of the deep red light had been ‘washed out’) six (three female, three male) of the 20 participants, carried out the same test in the afternoon, between 12pm to 1pm. When participants then had their colour vision tested again, it showed zero improvement. Professor Jeffery said: “Using a simple LED device once a week, recharges the energy system that has declined in the retina cells, rather like re-charging a battery. “And morning exposure is absolutely key to achieving improvements in declining vision: as we have previously seen in flies, mitochondria have shifting work patterns and do not respond in the same way to light in the afternoon – this study confirms this.” For this study the light energy emitted by the LED torch was just 8mW/cm2, rather than 40mW/cm2, which they had previously used. This has the effect of dimming the light but does not affect the wavelength. While both energy levels are perfectly safe for the human eye, reducing the energy further is an additional benefit. Home-Based Affordable Eye Therapies With a paucity of affordable deep red-light eye-therapies available, Professor Jeffery has been working for no commercial gain with Planet Lighting UK, a small company in Wales and others, with the aim of producing 670nm infra-red eye ware at an affordable cost, in contrast to some other LED devices designed to improve vision available in the US for over $20,000. “The technology is simple and very safe; the energy delivered by 670nm long wave light is not that much greater than that found in natural environmental light,” Professor Jeffery said. “Given its simplicity, I am confident an easy-to-use device can be made available at an affordable cost to the general public. “In the near future, a once a week three-minute exposure to deep red light could be done while making a coffee, or on the commute listening to a podcast, and such a simple addition could transform eye care and vision around the world.” To read the original article click here.

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Red Light Therapy: Benefits for Mental Health, Sleeping Issues, Traumatic Brain Injuries, and More!

The AHA! Team — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – It is important to remember, however, that red light therapy can be an incredible tool when it comes to our mental and physical wellbeing, but it should be used as part of a “toolbox” of lifestyle changes if we really want to improve the way our brain and body functions. If you have followed my blogs and podcasts for a while, you will know how much I love my infrared sauna! It is an integral part of my mental self-care routine, especially with my hectic work and travel schedule, and something I recommend to everyone who asks me what I do to stay healthy. In this week’s blog and podcast, we will be discussing red light therapy, which, as numerous studies have shown, is oneway we can help heal and improve our mental, cognitive and physical health. Of course, as I have said many times before, there is no “magic bullet” when it comes to the mind and brain. Living a life of mental self-care means paying attention to all aspects of our mental and physical health, including what we think, what we eat, our sleeping patterns, how much we exercise and so on. And, as part of this balanced, mind-centred approach to living well, red light therapy can be a real plus! Wes, who works at Joovv, a company that sells red-light therapy products, describes red light as the “body’s forgotten nutrient”: it can positively impact the surface of the body, as well our internal health. The company actually began when Wes’ sister Melissa, who suffered from eczema, started using red light therapy to help heal her skin. In just 4 sessions, she noticed dramatic changes, and never looked back. Joovv now sells high quality, affordable, red light therapy products that have helped many people around the world. So, how does red light therapy work? The spectrum of light associated with red light therapy has the unique ability to stimulate our cells, and, in particular, our mitochondria (the power houses of our cells), which creates more energy in the body through increased adenosine triphosphate production, allowing it to function on a higher level. This enhanced mitochondrial function and increased blood flow can potentially lead to reduced inflammation, better sleeping patterns, healthier-looking skin, improved muscle recovery, less joint pain, better moods, enhanced memory and much more! The great thing about red light therapy is that it enhances the way our body functions, rather than adding foreign substances into the body. This is so important in today’s world, which, as Wes notes, is overloaded and overstimulated with unhealthy bright light sources from our many devices and indoor environments, which can upset our circadian rhythm. This, in turn, can have a negative impact on our mental and physical health. Healthy doses of red light, on the other hand, can potentially stimulate our serotonin levels, which can improve our mood and transition us into a para-sympathetic, non-stress state that relaxes the mind and body and can help us recover and regenerate, both mentally and physically, by improving our sleeping patterns, memory, energy levels and so on. Red light therapy can also help heal the brain and body, especially in cases associated with Traumatic brain injuries and memory loss. It does this by stimulating the body’s natural restorative powers, healing tissue damage in a shorter period of time. In fact, a growing body of research (including studies being done by Wes and his team at Joovv) suggests that red light therapy can even improve cognitive function and memory-recovery in people who suffer from Alzheimer’s and the dementias (for more on age-related memory loss and how to prevent it, see my recent blog and podcast on the topic). If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of red light therapy, I highly recommend listening to my full interview with Wes on this week’s podcast. It is important to remember, however, that red light therapy can be an incredible tool when it comes to our mental and physical wellbeing, but it should be used as part of a “toolbox” of lifestyle changes if we really want to improve the way our brain and body functions. This is why, alongside my own research and work, I have teamed up with several great companies that focus on what we put into our bodies, like Four Sigmatic, which creates superfood lattes that can help boost brain function (you can get a 15% discount off your order at foursigmatic.com/DRLEAF, or use coupon code DRLEAF at checkout), and how you use your brain, such as Blinkist, which teaches you key ideas from thousands of bestselling non-fiction books in a short period of time (for free week go to Blinkist see: https://blinkist.com/drleaf). To read the original article click here. To read more articles by Dr. Leaf click here.

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