In a study published today in Scientific Reports, researchers reported that exposure to a short wave of red light in the morning improves deteriorating eyesight, which may provide a simple, safe, and easy-to-use treatment to maintain strong vision as you age.
3 minutes
In tests with 20 participants exposed to three minutes of 670nm deep red light in the morning between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., vision improved 17 percent and persisted (at a lower level) a week on average, and in some volunteers, the improvement reached 20 percent.
These results are consistent with what scientists have found in previous animal studies, in which the visually impaired were only exposed to red light once; The daily exposure that required less red light energy than before.
“Using a simple LED device once a week recharges the degraded energy system in retinal cells, like recharging a battery,” says neuroscientist Glenn Jeffrey of University College London in the UK.
He adds in a press release: “Exposure in the morning is key to achieving the desired improvement. As we have seen previously in flies, mitochondrial disruptions have shifting patterns and do not respond in the same way to light in the afternoon.”
Mitochondrial diseases are defined as a group of disorders resulting from a defect in the function of the mitochondria (also called the mitochondrion), an organelle that produces energy for the cell. Mitochondria are found in every cell of the human body except for red blood cells and serve to convert food molecules into ITP energy that nourishes the cell.
In the eye, mitochondria, often called the centers of cell power, are the answer; These bacilli are recharged with red light so they can produce more energy.
“Mitochondria are particularly sensitive to long-wavelength light, which affects their performance. Longer wavelengths from 650 to 900 nanometers improve the performance of mitochondria to increase energy production,” Jeffrey says.
aging
Scientists say that aging reaches human retinal cells as soon as we reach the age of 40, and aging results in part from a slowing of the mitochondrial energy supply; And because the photoreceptors in the retina require more energy, they tend to age faster.
The simple, low-power LED device used in the study may be an affordable vision therapy that people can quickly apply. It’s probably safe to use as well, as the 670nm infrared light isn’t much different from that found in the natural environment.
According to the researchers; It will take some time to develop a complete device for widespread use, however, and the researchers caution that there is variation in the level of improvement among participants, noting that future studies should look more closely at other variables that may influence the results.
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