Bright light accelerates ageing in mice

[Gert van der Hoek]

Bright light accelerates ageing in mice

July 14, 2016

This article courtesy of Nature News.​

Exposure to artificial light weakens rodents’ muscles and bones, but risks to people are less clear.


Eliane Lucassen works the night shift at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, beginning her day at 6 p.m. Yet her own research has shown that this schedule might cause her health problems. “It’s funny,” the medical resident says. “Here I am, spreading around that it’s actually unhealthy. But it needs to be done.”



Lucassen and Johanna Meijer, a neuroscientist at Leiden, report today in Current Biology that a constant barrage of bright light prematurely ages mice, playing havoc with their circadian clocks and causing a cascade of health problems.
Mice exposed to constant light experienced bone-density loss, skeletal-muscle weakness and inflammation; restoring their health was as simple as turning the lights off. The findings are preliminary, but they suggest that people living in cities flooded with artificial light may face similar health risks.
“We came to know that smoking was bad, or that sugar is bad, but light was never an issue,” says Meijer. “Light and darkness matter.”

Many previous studies have hinted at a connection between artificial light exposure and health problems in animals and people. Epidemiological analyses have found that shift workers have an increased risk of breast cancer, metabolic syndrome and osteoporosis. People exposed to bright light at night are more likely to have cardiovascular disease and often don’t get enough sleep.

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