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Published in Scientific Reports, the study builds on the team's previous work*, which showed daily three-minute exposure to longwave deep red light 'switched on' energy producing mitochondria cells in the human retina, helping boost naturally declining vision.
For this latest study, scientists wanted to establish what effect a single three-minute exposure would have, while also using much lower energy levels than their previous studies. Furthermore, building on separate UCL research in flies** that found mitochondria display 'shifting workloads' 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' 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.
[...] "This 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."
[...] Professor Jeffery said: "Using a simple LED device once a week, recharges the energy system that has declined in the retina cells, rather like re-charging a battery.
"And 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 – this study confirms this."
Journal Reference:
Shinhmar, H., Hogg, C., Neveu, M. et al. Weeklong improved colour contrasts sensitivity after single 670 nm exposures associated with enhanced mitochondrial function [open]. Sci Rep 11, 22872 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02311-1
(Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Sunday February 12, @09:13AM
You can create your own red-light devices using LED strip lights. I've made some of these devices. I'm hopeful the 'light napkin' for my mother who has glaucoma. My dad had digestion issues. He did use the light napkin briefly and it seemed to help.
These days, you get 'gel-covered' insulated light strips. These are very handy.
https://www.google.com/search?q=insulated+red+LED+strip+light&tbm=shop [google.com]
Caveats
Someone mentioned in comments below about a Russian paper that said red light increases intra-ocular pressure (ie. that'd be bad for glaucoma), and green light decreases it. I did read a paper from the 50s/60s that someone pointed to (not the Russian paper mentioned in comments below). When I read the content of that other paper, it did not show an increase in intra-ocular pressure with red light.
Anyway, the max intensity is under 25 mW/cm^2. Also, I used an RGB strip, so I can swap red light to green with a click of the remote.
One thing to consider is this -- consider NOT using red-light strips directly where you want the body to NOT function especially well. For instance, directly on a subdural hematoma - red light is known to stimulate cell proliferation for wound healing, but a patient may have an active bleed. Instead, red light on another part of the body (e.g., the gut may be a better option) I'm also not sure about red light and cancer: however this paper is encouraging: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3423866/ [nih.gov]
Light Hat
You can create your own red-light devices using LED strip lights. For example, see https://redlightsonthebrain.blog/. [redlightsonthebrain.blog] You basically wrap the LED strip to shine on the inside of a DIY 'hat'.
Light Napkin
Another technique is making a flexible 'light napkin' or 'light mat'. Ab LED strip roll is designed to be cut into sections. These sections can be joined by connectors you can buy on Amazon, Alibaba, Ebay. For instance, I ordered this set of 4-pin connectors on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B072KRCJLD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 [amazon.com.au]
Only after the connectors delivered did I realise my LED strip had an incompatible 5-pin interface. So I went bought a set of 5-pin connectors on Alibaba instead.
Once you got the connectors, cut the LED strip into sections. Join the sections with connectors. Test the lighting works. Wrap the connectors (little plastic boxes) in insulation tape. Then stick the sections in parallel onto a cloth napkin (like a large kitchen napkin). Test the lighting again. Finally, then hotglue the junctions onto the napkin. (At this point, you **must** have wrapped connectors in insulation tape as described above -- otherwise, I found hot glue infiltrates the connector and shorts out the junction). Optionally, sew some loops to hold the connectors onto the cloth napkin tightly. Do a final test of the lighting.
The Theory
The technique is referred to as 'Low Level Light Therapy' or 'Photobiomodulation'.
Search for papers by Andrei P Sommer
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Andrei+P+sommer&btnG= [google.com]
I'd start with this one:
Quantum biology in low level light therapy: death of a dogma
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7210155/ [nih.gov]