Posted on 09/20/2024 2:48:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Light pollution a new Alzheimer’s risk factor.
Nowadays, artificial lights ubiquitously illuminate our indoor and outdoor spaces. Artificial outdoor lights provide safety, convenience, and aesthetics, but excessive artificial light at night is called light pollution. Exposure to artificial outdoor light at night is associated with numerous detrimental health effects, including sleep disruption, obesity, depression, anxiety, memory dysfunction, atherosclerosis, and cancer, but little is known about the impact of light pollution on Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
A new study led by University of Cambridge scientists evaluated the relationship between outdoor nighttime light exposure and AD prevalence in the United States. The scientists used satellite-acquired outdoor nighttime light intensity and Medicare data.
This is the first time that light pollution has been associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Lead investigator Robin Voigt-Zuwala, PhD, an associate professor at Rush, said, “Our research shows that there is an association in the U.S. between Alzheimer‘s disease prevalence and exposure to light at night, particularly in those under the age of 65.”
“Nightly light pollution — a modifiable environmental factor — may influence risk for Alzheimer’s.”
Scientists studied light pollution maps across the lower 48 states and examined medical data on Alzheimer’s disease. They split the data into five groups based on light intensity. They found that higher nighttime light levels were linked to more cases of Alzheimer’s disease, even when other known risk factors were considered.
While the cause isn’t clear, the study found that higher nighttime light levels were linked to more cases of Alzheimer’s in people under 65. This suggests that light exposure at night might affect younger people more than other risk factors.
Voigt-Zuwala explained, “Certain genes can influence early-onset Alzheimer’s, and these same genes may cause increased vulnerability to the effects of nighttime light exposure.”
“Additionally, younger people are more likely to live in urban areas and have lifestyles that may increase exposure to light at night.”
Artificial nighttime lighting, whether indoor or outdoor, disrupts circadian rhythms. Scientists did not examine light inside the home at night or how it might impact health.
Voigt-Zuwala said, “The good news is that simple changes can be made with minimal effort to reduce exposure to light at night—adding blackout curtains or sleeping with an eye mask.”
Journal Reference:
Robin M. Voigt, Bichun Ouyang, Ali Keshavarzian. Outdoor nighttime light exposure (light pollution) is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2024; 18 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1378498
I think this is gas-lighting.
Bonfires cause sunburns.
Very confusing article. Who has “artificial light” at night? What does that mean? Street lamps? Can’t people just close their doors and window shades?
They are grasping at straws.
this pure BS. Thre was no artificial lighting until 150 yearn ago? viz: “The word ‘dementia’ appeared first in the record of mankind in around 600 A.D. Saint Isidore (560–636 A.D.), the archbishop of Seville, used the term ‘dementia’ for the first time in his book, ‘Etymologies’.2 o to:
HISTORY OF DEMENTIA
Dementia has occurred in human history long before it was named. In about 2000 B.C., the ancient Egyptians were already aware that memory declines as people age.3”
there was no artificial lighting, electric nor flourescent in Rome..
Whoever came up with this must not be very “bright”!
Not that it means anything, but my mother suffered from Alzheimer’s. She lived in tiny town in the middle of nowhere in western Colorado her entire life.
Yeah, the Inuits are known for their high rate of Alzheimer's. /sarc
So my porch light and my little solar lights can cause Alzheimer’s? And a whole plethora of other maladies?
Light pollution baloney as well.
Places with “light pollution” are also known as “cities”. Could cities - and how people live in them - be a risk factor for dementia? Given how most cities vote, I’d say “YES!”
They use the words higher and more without any assessment of statistical significance.
My first questions I always ask are who paid for the study and how do they benefit?
Could just be a PhD thesis passed by an unprofessional review committee. I sometimes wonder if universities include anyone capable of rigorous thought.
Adam Smith said, “The average university is a sanctuary in which exploded systems and obsolete prejudices find shelter and protection, after they have been hunted out of every other corner of the world.”
So now, my senile dementia when it happens, is going to be called Alzheimer’s instead if the product of old age? Go pound sand overly educated idiots.
People had heart attacks before fast food, but that doesn't mean that living on a diet of Big Macs and fries won't increase your chances of having a heart attack.
It is possible that artificial lighting at night increases your risk of Alzheimer's. That doesn't mean that it is the only cause or even a contributing factor in most cases.
There is no question that the number of Alzheimer's cases has skyrocketed in the last 20 or 30 years. There are likely many contributing factors, the primary one being that more people are living long enough to get it.
The effect is real, but with a chain of causation that requires other factors. The abnormal oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction noted in Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurodegenerative disorders can best be explained as the result of a combined Vitamin D and magnesium deficiency. In such a state, more light at night means less recuperative sleep, extra mental activity, and more oxidative stress, compounded by impaired enzyme processes in brain cells due to inadequate magnesium.
What I want to know is what is not a risk for Alzheimers or dementia.
How about falling down your steps at night because you can’t see? Or being attractive to burglars because they like to work in the dark? I think this study is ridiculous.
This is what passes as science today.
Reminds me of a similar study from several years back that made people think that a nightlight in a kid’s room led to myopia.
Correlation is not cause.
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