Study: looking at red light can improve declining eyesight
It will be as easy as brushing your teeth or shaving, and as long as future studies support it, it just might save your eyesight.
A few minutes of looking into a deep red light could have a dramatic effect on preventing eyesight decline as we age, according to a new study published this week in The Journals of Gerontology.
If the results are replicated in future studies, and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, the light could augur a new era in which millions of people have access to the easy home-based therapy. It would give them a new layer of protection against the natural aging processes that steal our eyes’ sensitivity to light and ability to distinguish colors.
“You don’t need to use it for very long to start getting a strong result,” said lead author Glen Jeffery, a professor of neuroscience at University College London’s Institute of Ophthalmology.
The science works, Jeffery said, because the light stimulates the health of mitochondria, which are like batteries in our cells.
And because mitochondria are implicated in a broad range of diseases, insights like these could help lead to new treatments for diseases including Parkinson’s and diabetes.
All it takes is a few minutes
The study was small, a pilot study to test the concept. Researchers recruited 12 men and 12 women, whose ages ranged from 28 to 72. Each participant was given a small handheld flashlight that emitted a red light with a wavelength of 670 nanometers. That wavelength is toward the long end of the visible spectrum, and just short of an infrared wavelength, which tends to be invisible to the human eye.
They spent three minutes each day looking into the light over a period of two weeks.
The lights work on both cones and rods in the eye. Cones are photo receptor cells that detect color and work best in well-lit situations. Rods, which are much more plentiful, are retina cells that specialize in helping us see in dim light, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Researchers measured the cone function in subjects’ eyes by having them identify colored letters with low contrast. And they measured their eyes’ rod sensitivity by asking them to detect light signals in the dark.
There was a 14{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} improvement in the ability to see colors, or cone color contrast sensitivity, for the entire two dozen participants.
Improvement, however, was most significant in study participants over age 40. For those ages, cone color contrast sensitivity rose by 20{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117}over the course of the study.
That age bracket also saw significant increases in rod threshold, which corresponds to the ability to see in low light. Study participants under 40 also experienced some improvement, but didn’t see the same jump as older subjects. Younger eyes haven’t declined as much as older eyes.
“The retina ages faster than any other organ in your body,”Jefferysaid. “From an evolutionary perspective, we fundamentally have never lived past 40.”
Now, of course, we regularly live well beyond that age, and need ways to nurture the organs that for millennia have been the most likely to wear out earliest in life.
Researchers from University College London used small red lights like this one to stimulate retina mitochondria with the goal of stoppying eyesight loss.
Adults ages 40 and higher are are at the highest risk for eye diseases such as cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These diseases can occur in young people but their prevalence increases with age. At the beginning stages, these conditions are treatable, although they can start creeping in before symptoms appear.
That’s why the AAO recommends increasing regular eye exams to every two to four years for people once they cross age 40, and to increase exams to every one to two years at age 65.
The CDC notes that the progression of these diseasescan also be slowed by eating a diet rich in antioxidants and maintaining normal levels of blood sugar, body weight and blood pressure. If those indicators get out of normal range, they can further degeneration by breaking down blood vessels in the eyes, the American Heart Associations says.
It’s easy and safe to use
This new study in humans builds on results in fruit flies and in mice, which also showed that red light could improve the functioning of mitochondria.
For instance, a 2015 study showed that near-infrared light could spur energy production, improve mobility and extend the lifespan of fruit flies. And a 2017 study of visible red light at the edge of infraredreported a 25{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} improvement in the functioning of retinas in mice.
Longer-term independent safety studies of red lights in humans would have to garner similar benefits for this method of eyesight protection to be approved by the FDA. If so, you’d still need to use a properly vetted product under a doctor’s supervision.
For example, while the laser pointers approved by the FDA for sale in the US don’t cause eye damage, a 2018 case study in the New England Journal of Medicine outlined how a boy in Greece permanently injured an eye by pointing a green laser pointer into it.
One of the best assets of the red lights they used is that they are safe, Jeffery said. The researchers all tested the red lights on their own eyes before beginning the study and have found no ill effects. The research subjects in the study also reported no ill effects.
“If you use this every day, we have no evidence to say it’s detrimental,” Jeffery said.
That fits with prior research, in which the safety of red lights has long been established, explained Dr. Raj Maturi, an associate professor at Indiana University School of Medicine.
“It would be a very easy pathway to FDA approval,” he said.
Read more at edition.cnn.com
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Andy Rowlands
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This is very interesting. My Mom has age-related macular degeneration, and is having retinal injections to keep it stable. I will mention this red light to the hospital next time I take her for an appointment.
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T. C. Clark
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I will investigate further….but avoid blue light….maybe its red light good….blue light bad.
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Duane J. Robinson
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European businesses, before the shutdowns, were replacing white light bulbs with red light bulbs in their bathrooms.
Drug addicts always tried to use the bathrooms of European public businesses to “shoot up” and many would also leave their their trash and used needles behind.
BY switching to red light bulbs, the drug users cannot find their veins under the red glow; thereby stopping them from taking up the bathroom for shooting up, and preventing them from leaving their waste behind as well!
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Duane J. Robinson
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NOTE: This is why submarines are lit at night with red lights; the watches eyes adjust faster when they go up on deck for watch duty (when the submarine is on the surface), and they also know it is night in the submarine when the ‘red light’ switch is made.
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John Vrabec
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This is true. This is the same reason why astronomers always have red flashlights near their telescope so they don’t destroy their night vision. Red prevents that even though studies in the last few years have shown that actually orange prevents destruction of night vision better than red.
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