Blue Light: Do we need digital detox to save our skins?

More interest in melasma and hyperpigmentation tied to blue light.

A study asked “Can Light Emitted from Smartphone Screens and Taking Selfies Cause Premature Aging and Wrinkles?”.[1]

We’re not getting enough natural light during the day, but are overexposed to very high levels of artificial light at night. Our skin is a major target of oxidative stress and the link between aging and oxidative stress is well documented. And obviously, what we call “aging” by looking at the skin is caused by oxidative stress.

What is blue light?

Blue light has shorter wavelengths (400-490 nm) and the photons in blue light have higher energy, so it has the potential to do more damage in the upper layers of the skin.

Blue light in the evening is associated with an increased risk of obesity, poor metabolic and cardiovascular health as well as poor sleep in general. “Light is important, but the timing of it is also crucial,

Blue light emitted by screen devices disrupts our circadian rhythms, leading to mitochondrial health disasters. Article says "still a great deal of controversy" blue light, but we know LEDs directly affects cellular function.

Why is blue light a concern?

It is stating the obvious but we evolved under the Sun with exposure to broad-spectrum light during the day, followed by a rest and repair cycle at night. Now we have round-the-clock exposure to light sources we’re still learning about.

Blue light from the sun always comes balanced by red light.

In fact, it is only around 2011 that LEDs were introduced to the market and became popularised for households!

The unnatural exposure to intense blue light is already associated with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, obesity, insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes, and cancer — all linked to mitochondrial dysfunction.

However, one most substantial evidence for electronic blue light’s impact on skin is how it creates hyperpigmentation.

In 2023, a study of 41 women found that exposure to low doses of blue light triggered or worsened pigmentation in those who tanned easily – Fitzpatrick skin types three to six. (The Fitzpatrick scale measures the risk of sunburns on skin tone, with Fitzpatrick 1 denoting extremely fair skin and Fitzpatrick 6 denoting extremely deep skin.)

Worse, blue light damages the extracellular matrix, which is the collagen layer, through oxidation.

In a 2018 article, an article published in the Journal of Biomedical Physics and Engineering found that as little as one hour of exposure to electronic devices is enough to generate reactive oxygen species, triggering inflammation and exacerbating skin ageing.

“Selfies can age the skin”

Due to detrimental effects of irradiation with electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and visible light (VL), frequent exposure to VL and EMFs produced by smartphones can lead to skin damage and accelerated ageing (promoting wrinkles). In an evocative piece, Sarah Knapton, the Science Editor of the Telegraph idescribed how “Selfies can age the skin and cause wrinkles, warn dermatologists”, published on June 17, 2016.

“It’s not documented,  but in my clinical observation, I can tell whether someone uses their right hand or left hand to hold their phone. You start to see dull dirty looking texture that you cannot identify on one side of the face.” — renowned dermatolgist Dr Zein Obagi, founder of the Obagi Skin health Institute in Beverly Hills.[3]

By the time you’re seeing damage manifest on your skin, you know it is already harming your biological systems.

Currently in the world of skincare, conventional advice continue to be sunscreen. Mineral and physical blockers, such as titanium dioxide and iron oxides provide better protection than chemical blockers, which are often chockful of other problems. Other products include blue light protective facial mists, expensive serums and lip glosses with patented ingredients that claim to “shield” us from screen damage. The beauty industry is an eye-watering multi-billion-dollar industry, and serums and moisturisers that include simple antioxidants such as vitamin C, which scavenges free radicals generated by blue light, and niacinamide, which has anti-inflammatory benefits.

sunscreen at home does not help

So we see the creep of skincare and beauty used to be for “a day or night out”, and then to mitigate outdoor pollution and stress, to mitigate toxic exposures at bed. It used to be that we bought antioxidants during the day to protect from pollution, and ingredients like retinol at night. Now, there’s more oxidative stress in our home environments, so it’s worth including antioxidants in your nighttime routine. You’ll find beauty articles describing the best routine to offset melasma risks from blue light from screens and laptops, by needing sunscreen application both indoors and outdoors.

But blue light from devices is a different wavelength of radiation so sunscreen will not block it.

You could try to saturate your skin with anti-oxidants to mop up the free radicals, to try to help prevent DNA damage from electronic devices. But the artificial electromagnetic field is altering the minerals in the skin. A sunscreen will not protect you.

Rather than going beyond skin-deep to explore the deeper effects of blue light on our bodies, we’re running off for another band-aid to patch what we perceive as only ugly sights.

References

1. Arjmandi N, Mortazavi G, Zarei S, Faraz M, Mortazavi SAR. Can Light Emitted from Smartphone Screens and Taking Selfies Cause Premature Aging and Wrinkles? J Biomed Phys Eng. 2018 Dec 1;8(4):447-452. PMID: 30568934; PMCID: PMC6280109.

2. Impact of blue light on skin pigmentation in patients with melasma. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10315449/

3. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/06/17/selfies-can-age-the-skin-and-cause-wrinkles-warn-dermatologists/

Biological Implications of Circadian Disruption By Dr. Laura Fonken (Book)

If you know anyone working shift work or living erratic schedules, you need to read this book.

Dr Laura Fonken has been studying the impact of circadian rhythms on health for over a decade now. She wrote her PhD on how circadian rhythms can make you gain weight, increase inflammation, develop diabetes.

She even showed how artificial light environments such as in a hospital environment hindered healing after surgery. published over sixty academic papers and reviews, twenty of which are focused on circadian regulation of physiology and behavior. You can cheeck out some of them on this blog.

She's published her research thus far in a book. This is an epic read into how our lives have dramatically shifted since the 19th century and the advent of artificial light.

You'll learn how shift workers and others exposed to high levels of light at night are at increased risk of health problems, including metabolic syndrome, depression, sleep disorders, dementia, heart disease, and cancer.

All life on earth evolved under a consistent cycle of light and darkness caused by the earth's rotation around its axis. It's given us our 24-hour circadian system in organisms, ranging all the way from fungi to humans. With the advent of electric light in the 19th century, cycles of light and darkness have drastically changed.

Check out the book here: Fonken, L.K. and Nelson, R.J. (2023). Biological Implications of Circadian Disruption: A Modern Health Challenge. 9781009076685. Cambridge University Press.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014488624000517

Blue Light Is Torpedoing Your Sleep and Human Health

Can’t sleep?

Slept, and still feel tired?

Your mind isn’t working anywhere you want it to be?

You probably have a blue light problem.

Blue light is epidemic.

The blue-spectrum light now glowing 24/7 from energy-efficient, light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Since 2011, LEDs are the predominant light source brightening homes, businesses, cities, and the screens of literally billions of electronic devices. That represents a big swathe of humanity — 3.8 billion smartphone users in the world.

A blue light problem is a hormonal problem.

Exposure to high-energy blue light upsets circadian rhythm and can lead to the development of insomnia and other sleep disturbances.

When you live on your LED lights after sunset, you are suppressing melatonin,

You increase alertness, and you don’t even feel like going to bed. You think you’re being so productive staying up into the night on your laptop, but you’re frying your metabolic circuits.

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanepe/PIIS2666-7762(24)00122-4.pdf

Even a small speck of blue light has an effect on your body

Even a single speck of LED blue light shining from some electronic component in the corner of the room at night will contribute to poor sleep.

Even if you cover your eyes.

In 1998, there was scientific study done in 1998 because researchers wanted to find out how light really impacted circadian rhythms. They chose to shine it on the back of the subjects’ knees because it was an area they could expose to light while shielding the subject’s eyes from the light.

They used this to try to bring shift forwards or backwards circadian rhythms in people.

Those treated with the light had their biological clocks advanced or delayed up to three hours, enough to overcome the fatigue associated with familiar forms of jet lag or insomnia.

Are you living under blue light?

Dr Laura Fonken was one of the researchers who discovered that blue light can create diabetes symptoms.

They wanted to the effects of light at night on body mass in male mice.

They found that mice exposed to a dim light at night gained 50 percent more weight over an eight-week period than mice that spent their nights in total darkness.

Mice housed in either bright or dim light at night have significantly increased body mass and reduced glucose tolerance compared with mice in a standard light/dark cycle, despite equivalent levels of caloric intake and total daily activity output.

Dr Fonken warned: “In many ways, our society now functions on a 24-hour-a-day schedule. These results suggest that such a schedule may impact metabolic function.”

If you really care about your health, you’d take care of the number one thing that helps your body rest, recover, and reset day after day, and that is your sleep.

If you’re letting in blue light into your sleep routine, you are sabotaging your health efforts. Light is the stealth torpedo in your sleep routine that you don’t even know about.

It’s time to think about the light that you sleep in.

The Dark Side of Blue Light: Maui Says No to Excessive Blue Light

Have you tried driving at night under LED streetlights?

Trying to keep your lane as your eyes adjust to the glare of lights from what seems like every which way—car head lamps, highway lamps, city LED advertisements. to your phone showing the local streetmap.

It’s awful.

Blue light is not always “convenient”

Communities are grappling with how to reduce the impact of artificial light at night.

It feels like it’s been around forever, but LEDs only came to the fore in 2011, when Philips was able to manufacture a possibly commercially viable LED bulb.

And a new generation of outdoor lights spreading across landscapes require greater scrutiny to reduce harm to wildlife.

Scientific studies have shown that high levels of blue light content adversely affect wildlife, such as birds, insects, and turtles.

LEDs disrupt the human circadian rhythm at night and increase glare, which compromises visual acuity for motorists and pedestrians.

Outdoor environments are changing rapidly and in ways that can impact wildlife species.

Maui says no to excessive blue light

To protect wildlife, Maui has passed an ordinance saying outdoor lighting must be shielded from shining upwards and contain less than 2% blue content from 400-500nm.

The ordinance went into effect on 1st July 2023.

According to the bill, all outdoor lighting fixtures, except for neon, must limit short wavelength content to no more than 2% of blue light. Mercury vapor must not be used for new outdoor lighting fixtures.

Bright, onshore lighting confused endangered turtles on Maui and they travel inland, sometimes crossing roads and getting hit by cars or attacked by dogs or others predators.

Seabird fledglings, too, get disoriented by bright lights while making maiden voyages from burrows out to sea. If the young birds tire and fall to the ground, they can get injured or eaten by rodents, feral cats or other animals.

This isn’t the first time that blue light is being contested. Environmentalists brought a lawsuit against Grand Wailea resort on Maui, a luxury beachfront hotel surrounded by a sprawling 40 acres of lush tropical landscape. It aims to protect endangered Hawaiian petrels by forcing the hotel to change its lighting. That suit is currently in the settlement phase

People are waking up to the harms of blue light

Similar efforts are underway in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, and South America.

But what they still don’t know is that not only will this protect wildlife, it will also protect the health of their human residents.

Artificial blue light HURTS your health

Check out this graph about how much blue light are in different types of light sources.

That’s the the percent of blue content between 400nm and 500nm.

If you’re concerned about blue light dangers to your health, maybe the angle you need to take with your local government is how outdoor artificial light at night hurts animals.

Many people treat their pets better than they treat themselves.

Many companies are recognising the demand for actually-safe LEDs and are racing to make them. For an outdoor artificial lighting in a city that will be acceptable to those who still want a safe-energy energy LED, you can check this company out—https://lumileds.com/technology/led-technology/nightscape/.

Are you also affected by artificial outdoor city light blaring into your bedroom at night?

You need to move. It’s no small matter that your health hinges on your circadian rhythms. If your day-night cycles are out of whack, your hormones can never be optimal, leading to chronic metabolic issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Research is even linking blue light to cancer.

Get black-out curtains. Try these http://bluelightdiet.com/links

Use a sleep mask. http://bluelightdetox.com/manta

Get blue light blocking glasses https://bluelightdiet.com/blog/topfivebl.

What are you doing to mitigate the blue light toxicity in your environment?

Five Ways Artificial Blue Light Is Not Your Friend

What is blue light?

Blue light is a high-energy visible light with a wave length between 400 and 450 nanometers (nm).

From a natural source, such as the Sun, the shorter, high energy blue wavelengths collide with the air molecules causing blue light to scatter. This is what makes the sky look blue.

Artificial blue light comes from light-emitting diodes (LEDs), often used in energy-efficient light bulbs, as well as the lighting in our electronics, laptops, phones, TVs, tablets – anything powered by electricity likely has blue light.

Artificial blue light is quite different from blue light received from a natural source (like the Sun) as part of a balanced light spectrum. Although an LED bulb and an incandescent lamp might both be rated at the same brightness, the light energy from the LED might come from a source the size of the head of a pin compared to the significantly larger surface of the incandescent source. Looking directly at the point of the LED is dangerous for the very same reason it is unwise to look directly at the sun in the sky.

Sources of Blue Light Exposure

Most of us are exposed to much more blue light that we realize. Sources include:

• Sunlight (the biggest source)

• Electronics like TVs, phones, tablets and computers

• Light bulbs and other sources of artificial lighting: fluorescent light, compact fluorescent light bulbs and LED light (LED bulbs are especially harmful)

Blue light at night messes up your circadian rhythm

Research has demonstrated that nighttime light exposure suppresses the production of melatonin, the major hormone secreted by the pineal gland that controls sleep and wake cycles. 

Do you remember when nighttime lights were a cosy hue of amber and orange?

Until 1879 when Thomas Edison patented the electric lightbulb, artificial lighting didn’t exist and after sunset, people relied on candles, lanterns, and fires for light. Blue wavelengths of light that are absent in light sources like candles, lanterns, and fires.

Today’s new lighting tech in LEDs have almost nothing BUT blue wavelengths of light. In many countries, night street lights that were once orange-coloured emissions from older sodium lights are rapidly being replaced by white-coloured emissions produced by LEDs.

Local LED street lighting has dramatically reduced even nocturnal insect populations.

The lower your melatonin levels, the greater your risks of cancer.

Blue light at night ruins your sleep

30,000+ cells in the eye sense blue light and these cells signal the pineal gland to suppress the secretion of the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is necessary for sleep, and when it is suppressed at night, when it should be increasing, it literally affects yoru sleep quality.

Light at night is part of the reason so many people don’t get enough sleep,

blue light can cause immune issues

A study found a direct link between blue light exposure and an increased risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer. People exposed to high levels of outdoor blue light, like street lights, at night had a higher risk of developing breast cancer and prostate cancer, compared with those who were less exposed.

Blue light can cause diabetes

A Harvard study looked at the connection of blue light at night to diabetes and possibly obesity. The researchers put 10 people on a schedule that gradually shifted the timing of their circadian rhythms. Their blood sugar levels increased, throwing them into a prediabetic state, and levels of leptin, a hormone that leaves people feeling full after a meal, went down.

Quality light is life

The light you live in is directly related to your quality of life.

that light and sleep are two of the most under-used tools for improving health (and that improper management of both are two of the biggest reasons for many health problems)

References & Resources

1. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/14/increase-in-led-lighting-risks-harming-human-and-animal-health

2. Towns and cities reversing their decision on LEDs to mitigate the harmful impacts on health and ecology https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/19/good-heavens-north-yorkshire-village-hawnby-switches-to-dark-sky-friendly-lighting

3. 10 ways to protect yourself from blue-light exposure and melatonin suppression

Blue Light Can Shorten Your Lifespan and Harm Your Brain

Blue light can cut your lifespan. We already know too much blue light from too much screen use has been linked to mitochondrial issues such as obesity and psychological problems. But did you know blue light can cut your lifespan short? 

What Is Blue Light?

Blue light is very high-energy short-wave light. Vibrating within the 380 to 500 nanometer range, it has the shortest wavelength and highest energy.

In Nature, the only source of blue light is from the Sun, but it always comes balanced with other colour spectrums. So is any blue light coming from traditional heat based lights. 

Artificially, however, fluorescent bulbs and LEDs, mobile phones, computer screens, and flat screen televisions emit high amounts of blue light. 

Check out the colour spectrum from the Sun — it offers the full spectrum of colours of the rainbow. Heat-based light bulbs provide a warm glow with relatively balanced light and almost no blue light. See the colour spectrum from a standard LED. It is practical nothing but blue light.

The image shows comparative spectra for different types of light.

Blue Light Accelerates the Biological Aging Process in Fruit Flies

A problem with LEDs and many of the screens and devices we are surrounded by is that they have a blue spike. I've read various articles on the biological effects of too much isolated blue light on people

One huge study discovered how blue light emitted by phones, tablets, televisions, and other gadgets can substantially accelerate the biological aging process in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). 

They found specific metabolites (cell essential chemicals) become altered in the cells of fruit flies exposed to blue light. 

One metabolite they found was that the levels of the metabolite succinate were increased, but glutamate levels were lowered:

“Succinate is essential for producing the fuel for the function and growth of each cell. High levels of succinate after exposure to blue light can be compared to gas being in the pump but not getting into the car,“ said Giebultowicz. “Another troubling discovery was that molecules responsible for communication between neurons, such as glutamate, are at the lower level after blue light exposure.“

These specific metabolites – essential chemicals for cells to work correctly – have the same function in humans, so if you are looking at good anti-aging strategies, avoiding excessive blue light exposure is a simple but powerful idea. 

Artificial Blue Light Is Detrimental to Cell Function

Blue light given off over long periods at short distances from electronic screens could meddle with normal cellular processes and disrupt our natural circadian rhythms.

Blue light from everyday devices, such as TVs, laptops and phones, has been observed to produce detrimental effects on practically every type of cell in our body, from skin and fat cells, to sensory neurons. 

These days you’ll notice plenty of skincare companies claiming their products can protect you from the effects of blue light. They probably don’t; blue light can activate genes associated with inflammation and photoaging (skin damage) and typical sunscreens do not block high-energy blue and visible light damage.

Most of Us Are Living in a Pervasive Blue Light Environment

If you’re not using your devices much and spending most of your time outdoors, where your cells are synced with the natural circadian rhythms of the Sun, you probably don’t have much to worry about in terms of whether your lifespan is getting cut shorter and shorter.

But if you’re like most folk, you’re living and working under LEDs, using screen devices, and spending most of your time indoors. Screens are everywhere, and people worldwide already spend an average of 6 hours and 37 minutes looking at them daily.

(Note that this is far more than the 2 hours limit recommended by The recommended screen time worldwide is 2 hours a day for adults and children.

80% of American adults who use digital devices do so more than two hours per day (according to the Vision Council). Nearly 67% use two or more devices at the same time. Fifty-nine percent have symptoms of digital eye strain, which is a marker for high oxidative stress in your retinal cells.

If you hadn't thought about blue light and its effect on your life before, perhaps now you can picture how living under the wrong type of light can literally cut your lifespan short.