新香港六合彩开奖结果

Published in听Scientific Reports, the study builds on the team鈥檚 previous work*, which showed daily three-minute exposure to longwave deep red light 鈥榮witched on鈥� energy producing mitochondria cells in the human retina, helping boost naturally declining vision.听听

For this latest study, scientists wanted to establish what effect a听single听three-minute exposure would have, while also using much lower energy levels than their previous studies. Furthermore, building on separate 新香港六合彩开奖结果research in flies** that found mitochondria display 鈥榮hifting workloads鈥� depending on the time of day, the team compared morning exposure to afternoon exposure.

In summary, researchers found there was, on average, a 17% improvement in participants鈥� colour contrast vision when exposed to three minutes of 670 nanometre (long wavelength) deep red light in the morning and the effects of this single exposure lasted for at least a week. However, when the same test was conducted in the afternoon, no improvement was seen.

Scientists say the benefits of deep red light, highlighted by the findings, mark a breakthrough for eye health and should lead to affordable home-based eye therapies, helping the millions of people globally with naturally declining vision.

Lead author, Professor Glen Jeffery (新香港六合彩开奖结果Institute of Ophthalmology), said: 鈥淲e demonstrate that one single exposure to long wave deep red light in the morning can significantly improve declining vision, which is a major health and wellbeing issue, affecting millions of people globally.

鈥淭his simple intervention applied at the population level would significantly impact on quality of life as people age and would likely result in reduced social costs that arise from problems associated with reduced vision.鈥�

Naturally declining vision and mitochondria

In humans around 40 years old, cells in the eye鈥檚 retina begin to age, and the pace of this ageing is caused, in part, when the cell鈥檚 mitochondria, whose role is to produce energy (known as ATP) and boost cell function, also start to decline.

Mitochondrial density is greatest in the retina鈥檚 photoreceptor cells, which have high energy demands. As a result, the retina ages faster than other organs, with a 70% ATP reduction over life, causing a significant decline in photoreceptor function as they lack the energy to perform their normal role.

In studying the effects of deep red light in humans, researchers built on their previous findings in mice, bumblebees and fruit flies, which all found significant improvements in the function of the retina鈥檚 photoreceptors when their eyes were exposed to 670 nanometre (long wavelength) deep red light.

鈥淢itochondria have specific sensitivities to long wavelength light influencing their performance: longer wavelengths spanning 650 to 900nm improve mitochondrial performance to increase energy production,鈥� said Professor Jeffery.

Morning and afternoon studies

The retina鈥檚 photoreceptor population is formed of cones, which mediate colour vision, and rods, which adapt vision in low/dim light. This study focused on cones*** and observed colour contrast sensitivity, along the protan axis (measuring red-green contrast) and the tritan axis (blue-yellow).

All the participants were aged between 34 and 70, had no ocular disease, completed a questionnaire regarding eye health prior to testing, and had normal colour vision (cone function). This was assessed using a 鈥楥hroma Test鈥�: identifying coloured letters that had very low contrast and appeared increasingly blurred, a process called colour contrast.听 听

Using a provided LED device all 20 participants (13 female and 7 male) were exposed to three minutes of 670nm deep red light in the morning between 8am and 9am. Their colour vision was then tested again three hours post exposure and 10 of the participants were also tested one week post exposure.听

On average there was a 鈥榮ignificant鈥� 17% improvement in colour vision, which lasted a week in tested participants; in some older participants there was a 20% improvement, also lasting a week.

A few months on from the first test (ensuring any positive effects of the deep red light had been 鈥榳ashed out鈥�) six (three female, three male) of the 20 participants, carried out the same test in the afternoon, between 12pm to 1pm.听 When participants then had their colour vision tested again, it showed zero improvement.

Professor Jeffery said: 鈥淯sing a simple LED device once a week, recharges the energy system that has declined in the retina cells, rather like re-charging a battery.

鈥淎nd morning exposure is absolutely key to achieving improvements in declining vision: as we have previously seen in flies, mitochondria have shifting work patterns and do not respond in the same way to light in the afternoon 鈥� this study confirms this.鈥�

For this study the light energy emitted by the LED torch was just听8mW/cm2, rather than 40mW/cm2, which they had previously used. This has the effect of dimming the light but does not affect the wavelength. While both energy levels are perfectly safe for the human eye, reducing the energy further is an additional benefit.

Home-based affordable eye therapies

With a paucity of affordable deep red-light eye-therapies available, Professor Jeffery has been working for no commercial gain with Planet Lighting UK, a small company in Wales and others, with the aim of producing 670nm infra-red eyewear听at an affordable cost, in contrast to some other LED devices designed to improve vision available in the US for over $20,000.

鈥淭he technology is simple and very safe; the energy delivered by 670nm long wave light is not that much greater than that found in natural environmental light,鈥� Professor Jeffery said.

鈥淕iven its simplicity, I am confident an easy-to-use device can be made available at an affordable cost to the general public.

鈥淚n the near future, a once a week three-minute exposure to deep red light could be done while making a coffee, or on the commute listening to a podcast, and such a simple addition could transform eye care and vision around the world.鈥�

Study limitations

Despite the clarity of the results, researchers say some of the data are 鈥渘oisy鈥�. While positive effects are clear for individuals following 670nm exposure, the magnitude of improvements can vary markedly between those of similar ages. Therefore, some caution is needed in interpretating the data. It is possible that there are other variables between individuals that influence the degree of improvement that the researchers听have not identified so far and would require a larger sample size.

This research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and Sight Research UK.

To help meet the costs of this research and future research, Professor Glen Jeffery鈥檚 Lab at the 新香港六合彩开奖结果Institute of Ophthalmology receives donations via UCL鈥檚 Give Now platform. To support this work, go to:听

*Declining eyesight improved by looking at deep red light听&补尘辫;听

**听

***Only cones not rods were tested in this study; similar previous research identified a comparable effect on cones and rods, satisfying the team any effect on cones could be translated to rods.

尝颈苍办蝉听

• 新香港六合彩开奖结果Institute of Ophthalmology
• 新香港六合彩开奖结果Faculty of Brain Sciences

Image

• Dr Pardis Kaynezhad (新香港六合彩开奖结果Institute of Ophthalmology) holds a deep red light over her eye, which helps stimulate the mitochondria in her retinal cells.

Media contact听

Henry Killworth听

Tel: +44 (0) 7881 7883274

E: h.killworth [at] ucl.ac.uk