Night light, a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease

2024-09-06 12:16:32

Too much light at night not only disturbs our sleep but, according to a published study ‘Frontiers in Neuroscience‘, predisposes us to disease Alzheimer’s.

In many places in the world, the lights don’t go out. Street lights, street lighting and illuminated signs can make roads and streets safer, however, uninterrupted lighting has ecological, behavioral and health consequences.

The study, conducted in the US, showed that there is a positive association between the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and exposure to light at night, especially in people under 65 years of age.

According to the study’s first author, Robin Voigt-Zuwala, of the Rush University Medical Centernight light pollution, “a modifiable environmental factor, may be an important risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.”

Researchers studied light pollution maps of 48 US states and incorporated medical data on variables known or believed to be risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease into their analysis. They generated nighttime intensity data for each state and divided them into five groups, from lowest to highest nighttime light intensity.

The results show that, for people aged 65 and older, the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is more strongly associated with nighttime light pollution than with other disease factors, such as alcohol abuse, chronic kidney disease, depression and obesity. . Other risk factors, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and strokehas been more strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease than with light pollution.

But for people under the age of 65, the researchers found that higher nighttime light exposure was associated with a higher prevalence of Alzheimer’s than any other risk factor examined in the study.

This may indicate that young people may be particularly sensitive to the effects of light exposure at night, the researchers wrote.

It is not clear why young people may be more vulnerable, but it may be due to individual differences in light sensitivity. “Certain genotypes, which are involved in the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease, affect the response to biological stressors, which may explain the increased vulnerability to the effects of exposure to light at night,” explains Voigt- Zuwala. “In addition, young people are more likely to live in urban areas and have lifestyles that can bring light at night.”

In the house

Additionally, exposure to indoor fire can be as important as exposure to outdoor fire.

Although we did not examine the effects of indoor lighting in the current study, it is known that blue light has the greatest effect on the sun and that using blue light filters, switching to warm lighting, and installing dimmer switches in the home can reduce light exposure effectively. .