Blue Light & Circadian Biology
What is Blue Light?
One of the biggest assaults against us in the modern world is artificial lighting. All modern lighting can have a biological effect, some worse then others. LED, Fluorescent, and CLF bulbs are found to have a color spectrum that is blue. Most installations have a very high Kelvin (color scale) for example - a bulb with 6500K tells our body that it is noon all day. They can also flicker which also causes added biological stress.
Natural light from the sun has a spectrum of colors where the blue is always balanced with red. Before indoor lighting candles or fire was the only source of lighting at night. The progression of the disease processes have skyrocketed with artificial lighting. There have been many books written over the last 30 years warning of the negative health effects, yet industry pushes forward and has any oversight blocked.
Evening exposure from lighting, phone and tablet screens, television, street lights, etc negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness. Blue light also breaks the melanopsin/retinal linkage leading to loss of vitamin A, in turn Vitamin D, then destroying your photo-receptors.
What does all that blue light exposure really lead to?
- Skin damage, including color changes, inflammation, and weakening of the surface
- Loss of melatonin - dementia, some mood disorders, severe pain, cancer, and type 2 diabetes
- Loss of vitamin D - low levels associated with all disease processes, curvature of the spine, dental decay,
stunted growth, muscle cramps, spasms/twitching, Osteoporosis, Rickets
- Loss of vitamin A - night blindness, rashes, impaired immunity, retarded growth, fatigue, skin dryness, lack
of motor control, stomach problems, insomnia, loss of appetite, taste and smell
- Weight gain and increased blood sugar
What can you do to protect yourself and family?
- Removing all LED, fluorescent, and CLF bulbs in your house. Going back to incandescent or halogen with a
Kelvin under 2700.
- Install low watt red incandescent bulbs so to minimize the effects of bright light on your melatonin
- Daytime blue light blocking metal free glasses that blocks 100% of artificial blue light from 400nm – 450nm
- Avoiding screen time after dark of any kind
- Use blue blocking metal free glasses that block 100% of blue and even green spectrum - 400-550nm
- Cover your skin and thyroid when under artificial lighting
- Downloading Iris software on your computer to block blue light and stop flicker
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4259558/?fbclid=IwAR02UID3cJ0TL8f4L9JQlm-ZbGW0vHjzpJN7FifLn3w8TmSjdmSRywIINl8 - Pulsing blue light through closed eyelids: effects on acute melatonin suppression and phase shifting of dim light melatonin onset
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038456/ - Potential Biological and Ecological Effects of Flickering Artificial Light
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28254-8 - Blue light excited retinal intercepts cellular signaling
https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-reveals-prolonged-exposure-weight-gain.html - Study reveals why prolonged light exposure leads to weight gain
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29180820 - Subcutaneous white adipocytes express a light sensitive signaling pathway mediated via a melanopsin/TRPC channel axis
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-08-links-body-clock-obesity-diabetes.html?fbclid=IwAR1M-pcpsBS6lyi-Qs_EdKlvnZxLPpG0XVawof8jHmscXdzpm6TUb1oRRmIj - Study links body clock to obesity and diabetes
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7032303/LED-lights-irreversibly-damage-eyes-French-health-authority-warns.html - LED lights in your house can cause irreversible damage to the eyes and lead to a vision-robbing condition, French health authority warns
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es101052q - Potential Environmental Impacts of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs): Metallic Resources, Toxicity, and Hazardous Waste Classification
https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-adopts-guidance-reduce-harm-high-intensity-street-lights - AMA adopts guidance to reduce harm from high intensity street lights
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25863264 - Retinal damage induced by commercial light emitting diodes (LEDs)
Health Effects of Artificial Light
http://theconversation.com/seeing-without-eyes-the-unexpected-world-of-nonvisual-photoreception-79166 - Seeing without eyes – the unexpected world of nonvisual photoreception
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4303996/ - Opsin Expression in Human Epidermal Skin
https://neurosciencenews.com/neuropsin-retina-molecular-clock-2771/ - How Neuropsin Allows The Retina to Set its Own Biological Rhythm
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16689-4 - Subcutaneous white adipocytes express a light sensitive signaling pathway mediated via a melanopsin/TRPC channel axis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3643261/ - Is It Time to Consider Photobiomodulation As a Drug Equivalent
https://www.academia.edu/5672136/The_Dangers_of_LED-Blue_light-Melatonin-Insomnia-Cancer-_RSH - The Dangers of LED-Blue light-Melatonin-Insomnia-Cancer- RSH
https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-reveals-prolonged-exposure-weight-gain.html - Study reveals why prolonged light exposure leads to weight gain
https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/4/1232.full.pdf - Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4851763/ - Is it Blue Light or Increased Electromagnetic Fields which Affects the Circadian Rhythm in People who Use Smartphones at Night
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24772943 - Critical time delay of the pineal melatonin rhythm in humans due to weak electromagnetic exposure
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side - Blue light has a dark side
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26935586?fbclid=IwAR118p2ATFcOS95_M3D3G7krnN6kX_VADz-mcJ7tkZTYDFy-KIrWwFjTRsA - Melanopsin retinal ganglion cell loss and circadian dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (Review)