2023-11-12 02:42:04
According to a recent study from Maastricht University, exposure to natural light is beneficial for metabolism and could help with the treatment and prevention of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions, such as obesity.
Improving blood sugar control may be inexpensive, as may increasing daytime exposure to natural light, which may even help treat and prevent type 2 diabetes, new research presented at the meeting suggests. annual event of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), which is being held these days in Hamburg (Germany).
“Natural light is the most powerful environmental signal of the circadian clock, but most people spend many hours indoors and therefore under constant artificial lighting,” according to Ivo Habets of Maastricht University. (Netherlands), who co-led the research, focused on finding out whether increasing daytime exposure to natural light would improve blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes.
To explore this hypothesis, Habets and his team carried out a series of metabolic tests on a group of people with type 2 diabetes when they were exposed to natural light and when they were only exposed to artificial light and compared the results.
Participants were exposed to two lighting conditions during office hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) in a randomly crossed fashion: natural window light and artificial LED lighting. There was an interval of at least four weeks between the two interventions, each lasting 4.5 days. During the natural light intervention, the light intensity was usually highest at 12:30 pm, with an average reading of 2453 lux. The artificial light was a constant 300 lux.
The nights were spent in low light (less than 5 lux) and the sleeping period (from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.) in darkness. Participants received standardized meals, meaning they ate the same meal in both interventions. Blood sugar levels were recorded continuously using upper-arm monitors, and a series of other tests were performed on the last day and a half of each intervention.
On day 4, 24-hour substrate metabolism, resting energy expenditure, and respiratory exchange rate (this provides an indication of whether fat or carbohydrates are being used as an energy source) were measured every five hours and extracted. blood to evaluate circulating metabolites. Core body temperature was measured for 24 h. Substrate metabolism, resting energy expenditure, respiratory exchange rate and core body temperature follow a 24-hour rhythm and the researchers wanted to see if this differed in the two conditions.
On day 5 (the last half day), a fasting muscle biopsy was taken to evaluate clock gene expression, the activity of genes known to be involved in the circadian clock. A mixed meal test (MMT), a measure of insulin production, was then conducted.
Blood glucose levels were within the normal range (4.4-7.8 mmol/L) for longer during the natural light intervention than with the artificial light intervention (59% of the 4.5 days vs. 51%).
The respiratory exchange rate was lower during the daylight intervention than during the artificial light intervention, indicating that participants found it easier to switch from using carbohydrates to fats as an energy source when exposed to natural light .
Resting energy expenditure and core body temperature followed similar 24-h patterns in both light conditions. Serum insulin levels, measured during MMT, were similar in both light conditions, but the pattern of serum glucose and plasma free acids was significantly different between conditions.
Benefits
The results, particularly the improved blood sugar control, during the invention of natural light, suggest that exposure to natural light is beneficial for metabolism and could therefore help with the treatment and prevention of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions, such as obesity, according to Habets.
“Our research shows that the type of light you are exposed to is important for your metabolism. If you work in an office with almost no exposure to natural light, it will have an impact on your metabolism and your risk or control of type 2 diabetes, so try to take advantage of as much natural light as possible and, ideally, go outdoors when can,” he added.
The authors believe that more research is still needed to determine the extent to which artificial light affects metabolism and the amount of time needed to spend in natural light or outdoors to compensate for this. RV. Ana Mera, pharmacist. Barcelona
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