Saturday, July 16, 2016

Switch off the lights. For health – rmf24.pl

For a list of beneficial to our health behaviors, beyond the proper diet and adequate physical activity, we should add another point: avoiding artificial light. Dutch researchers in a study published in the journal “Current Biology” argue that excess artificial light disrupts the natural circadian rhythm and thereby adversely affect the state of our body.

Researchers University of Leiden these conclusions are based on studies of mice, whose health after months of staying in artificial light significantly deteriorated. As pointed out by the authors of the work, Johanna Meijer of Leiden University Medical Center, observed among other things, increased the severity of inflammation, loss of muscle mass, tentative signs of osteoporosis. The animals showed signs of a weakening of the body, typical of the continuing process of aging.

The authors have, however, and the good news. It turns out that the negative signs of disruption of circadian cycles disappear when the animal returns on standard cycle of light and darkness. Positive change is observed after two weeks.

The mice are obviously the opposite of our daily cycle, are active in the dark, but it is the lack of lighting changes disrupts their internal biological clock and reduces the activity responsible for its maintenance areas brain up to 70 percent. After returning to the cycle of day and night, this activity also back to normal.

The results of these studies suggest that we should pay more attention to how long a day we remain under the influence of artificial light. Especially for the elderly, which the body naturally is already weakened. long believed that artificial lighting is for our health neutral – highlights Meijer. Now, we have more and more evidence to the contrary. It is hardly surprising, moreover, we live on Earth under the constant pressure of day and night, our body is so constructed that precisely these conditions function optimally. Disruption of this cycle turns against us .

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