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.