The new study has found that exposure to outdoor light at night could be a significant risk factor in Alzheimer’s disease.
The study, conducted at Rush University System for Health and published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, revealed that there’s a link between the light pollution and Alzheimer’s disease. Though light pollution is often associated with various diseases and disorders, its association with Alzheimer’s disease is a new finding.
For the study, the researchers collected satellite-acquired light pollution data from the US, and combined it with Medicare data on Alzheimer’s prevalence and other important medical data to identify the potential risk factors.
“Our research shows that there is an association in the U.S. between Alzheimer’s disease prevalence and exposure to light at night, particularly in those under the age of 65, Nightly light pollution – a modifiable environmental factor – may influence risk for Alzheimer’s,” stated Robin Voigt-Zuwala, PhD, an associate professor at Rush.
Researchers also discovered that night-time light has a stronger connection with Alzheimer’s than other several known risk factors, such as alcohol abuse, chronic kidney disease, depression, heart failure, and obesity.
For individuals under 65, higher night-time light intensity is associated with a higher Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than any other risk factor. This indicates that younger individuals may be more sensitive to the harmful effects of night-time light exposure.
“Certain genes can influence early-onset Alzheimer’s, and these same genes may cause increased vulnerability to the effects of nighttime light exposure. Additionally, younger people are more likely to live in urban areas and have lifestyles that may increase exposure to light at night,” added Voigt-Zuwala.
Exposure to night-time light can disrupt a person’s circadian rhythm, which will later result in inflammation, making a person less resilient and more susceptible to illness and disease.
Voigt-Zuwala stated that, “The good news is that simple changes can be made with minimal effort to reduce exposure to light at night – adding black out curtains or sleeping with an eye mask.”
The research has its own limitations and requires further studies to better analyze the connection between the night-time light and Alzheimer’s disease.
