United States – This condition makes people in the middle of their age vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease, especially if they come from places where they have poor quality of light at night.
Stronger Risk Factor for Younger Adults Compared to Seniors
A newer study has indicated that light at night is more associated with Alzheimer’s disease in individuals that are 65 years and above as compared to other recognized risks such as alcoholism, kidney disease, depression, and obesity, among others that were revealed by researchers in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on September 5, as reported by HealthDay.
But if exposure to light is increased, especially at night, the brained of persons under the age of 65 are more endangered.
The risk factor was identified as the high intensity of night-time light for developing early-onset Alzheimer’s in that age group.
A Modifiable Environmental Risk
“We show that in the U.S., there is a positive association between Alzheimer’s disease prevalence and exposure to light at night, particularly in those under the age of 65,” said lead researcher Robin Voigt-Zuwala, an associate professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
“Nightly light pollution — a modifiable environmental factor — may be an important risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease,” Voigt-Zuwala added in a university news release.
Mapping Light Pollution’s Impact Across the U.S.
New maps of artificial night-time brightness have been used to assess light pollution across the forty-eight continental states and cross-referenced with data on Alzheimer’s disease incidence in the US and other risk factors otherwise associated with the progressive neurodegenerative disorder.
This means that light pollution might affect Alzheimer’s disease as a risk factor for seniors but not as intensively as other factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and strokes.
But no other risk factor was as strongly associated with light pollution in the under-65 population, the authors discovered.
New findings imply that light during the nighttime affects young people especially, and it is unclear why, according to the researchers.
Unanswered Questions and Theories on Younger Adults’ Vulnerability
Genetics that increase a person’s risk for early-onset Alzheimer’s “impact the response to biological stressors, which could account for increased vulnerability to the effects of nighttime light exposure,” Voigt-Zuwala theorized. “Additionally, younger people are more likely to live in urban areas and have lifestyles that may increase exposure to light at night.”
Accordingly, they said, people may wish to avoid bright light at night to reduce the risk of having irregular periods or heavy bleeding during menstruation, as reported by HealthDay.
“Easy-to-implement changes include using blackout curtains or sleeping with eye masks,” Voigt-Zuwala said. “This is useful, especially for those living in areas with high light pollution.”
Simple Solutions to Reduce Light Pollution’s Harm
As the researchers pointed out, even light exposure inside a home could be as crucial for adequate sleep. They say that a human should avoid blue light as much as possible and that they should also get the dimmers installed at home.