Elderly Should Reduce Exposure To Artificial Lighting, It Can Cause Osteoporosis and Fraility

Turning off lights at home is not only energy efficient and cost-saving, but it is also a healthy habit to practice too, according to scientists. 

Scientists claimed that new evidence involving mice showed that artificial lighting is actually making people sick. They exposed mice to constant light for months and found some negative effects. The study is not published in the Cell Press Journal "Current Biology."

"Our study shows that the environmental light-dark cycle is important for health," says Johanna Meijer of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. "We showed that the absence of environmental rhythms leads to severe disruption of a wide variety of health parameters."

The host of negative studies include becoming frail, losing muscles, and even bone strength - which can lead to early signs of osteoporosis. 

Meijer however claimed that these negative effects are not permanent. "The good news is that we subsequently showed that these negative effects on health are reversible when the environmental light-dark cycle is restored," Meijer says.

The findings also implied that elderly people should not be exposed to artificial lighting as much anymore. 

Meijer added that the findings can be considered a breakthrough. "We used to think of light and darkness as harmless or neutral stimuli with respect to health," Meijer says. "We now realize this is not the case based on accumulating studies from laboratories all over the world, all pointing in the same direction," he added.

The scientist also said, "possibly this is not surprising as life evolved under the constant pressure of the light-dark cycle. We seem to be optimized to live under these cycles, and the other side of the coin is that we are now affected by a lack of such cycles."

Earlier this month, it has been reported that artificial lighting can cause permanent damage to the planet. A recent study revealed that artificial lighting has become so omnipresent that majority of humans cannot see the Milky Way anymore. The findings revealed that 83 percent of the world's population cannot see the stars anymore.