A weekly dose of deep red light in the morning may protect fading eyesight as people age, as per a new study. The researchers at University College London wanted to assess the effect of a single three-minute exposure to deep red light once a week.
The study included 13 women and 7 men, aged 34 to 70, who had no eye disease and normal colour vision. The participants were exposed to three minutes of LED deep red light in the morning between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Their colour vision was tested again three hours after that exposure, and 10 participants were also tested one week after the exposure.
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There was a significant 17% improvement in colour vision, which lasted a week. Some of the older participants had a 20% improvement that lasted a week. However, instead of the morning, when the same experiment was conducted in the afternoon, there was no improvement in colour vision.
This simple intervention applied at the population level would significantly impact on quality of life as people age. It can also reduce social costs that arise from problems associated with reduced vision.
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