Abstract

The prevalence of artificial lights not only improves the lighting conditions for modern society, but also poses kinds of health threats to human health. Although there are regulations and standards concerning light pollution, few of them are based on the potential contribution of improper lighting to diseases. Therefore, a better understanding of the health threats induced by light pollution may promote risk assessment and better regulation of artificial lights, thereby a healthy lighting environment. This review is based on a careful collection of the latest papers from 2018 to 2022 about the health threats of light pollution, both epidemiologically and experimentally. In addition to summing up the novel associations of light pollution with obesity, mental disorders, cancer, etc., we highlight the toxicological mechanism of light pollution via circadian disruption, since light pollution directly interferes with the natural light-dark cycles, and damages the circadian photoentrainment of organisms. And by reviewing the alternations of clock genes and disturbance of melatonin homeostasis induced by artificial lights, we aim to excavate the profound impacts of light pollution based on accumulating studies, thus providing perspectives for future research and guiding relevant regulations and standards.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1001074222003291

The post Understanding light pollution: recent advances on its health threats and regulations appeared first on EMFSA.

Alexandra Chung and colleagues call for governments to prioritise child obesity as they implement measures to recover from the pandemic

Extract

Healthy school food and physical activity environments

As part of government efforts to reduce the spread of covid-19, schools and early childhood education and care settings have sometimes been closed for long periods. More than one year into the pandemic, school closures continue for millions of children worldwide.11 As a consequence, many schools have turned to home learning, with reduced opportunities for physical activity and a reliance on screens for education and communication.121314 Excess sedentary time and inadequate physical activity are known risk factors for the development of childhood obesity.

Recognising that covid-19 restrictions differ between countries and have been periodically lifted and reinstated, early childhood and school settings have a dual role: to help children to eat well and be physically active at home; and as children return to campus, provide nutritious food and drinks and physical education curriculums. Read more at https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n1716

Conclusion

The covid-19 pandemic has shown that governments can act swiftly to protect health and healthcare services. Leaders worldwide have gone to unprecedented lengths in the interest of public health during the covid-19 crisis, restricting societies in ways never witnessed by this generation. As a result, risk factors for the development and progression of childhood obesity have been exacerbated. As societies build back from covid-19, it is time to focus on childhood obesity risk factors amplified by the response, and to leverage growing support for public health action to promote population health. Priorities for action include promoting healthy school food and physical activity environments; reducing children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing; and imposing taxes on sugar sweetened beverages. These actions are successful, cost effective, can improve health equity, and contribute to a comprehensive approach to prevention of childhood obesity. The covid-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for governments worldwide to prioritise action as we rebuild economies and public health systems to deal with the problem of childhood obesity effectively and equitably.

The post Reducing risk of childhood obesity in the wake of covid-19 appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

Sleep is a biological necessity, and insufficient sleep and untreated sleep disorders are detrimental for health, well-being, and public safety. Healthy People 2030 includes several sleep-related objectives with the goal to improve health, productivity, well-being, quality of life, and safety by helping people get enough sleep. In addition to adequate sleep duration, healthy sleep requires good quality, appropriate timing, regularity, and the absence of sleep disorders. It is the position of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) that sleep is essential to health. There is a significant need for greater emphasis on sleep health in education, clinical practice, inpatient and long-term care, public health promotion, and the workplace. More sleep and circadian research is needed to further elucidate the importance of sleep for public health and the contributions of insufficient sleep to health disparities. https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.9476

PDF available at the link.

Copyright 2021 American Academy of Sleep Medicine. All rights reserved

The post Sleep is essential to health: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

Exposure to light at night is not an innocuous consequence of modernization. There are compelling data linking long-term exposure to occupational and environmental light at night with serious health conditions, including heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. However, far less is known about the physiological and behavioral effects of acute exposure to light at night. Among healthy volunteers, acute night-time light exposure increases systolic blood pressure and inflammatory markers in the blood, and impairs glucose regulation. Whether critically ill patients in a hospital setting experience the same physiological shifts in response to evening light exposure is not known. This paper reviews the available data on light at night effects on health and wellbeing, and argues that the data are sufficiently compelling to warrant studies of how lighting in intensive care units may be influencing patient recovery.

Extract

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8174656/

The post Medical hypothesis: Light at night is a factor worth considering in critical care units appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

Mammals receive light information through the eyes, which perform two major functions: image forming vision to see objects and non-image forming adaptation of physiology and behavior to light. Cone and rod photoreceptors form images and send the information via retinal ganglion cells to the brain for image reconstruction. In contrast, nonimage-forming photoresponses vary widely from adjustment of pupil diameter to adaptation of the circadian clock. Nonimage-forming responses are mediated by retinal ganglion cells expressing the photopigment melanopsin. Melanopsin-expressing cells constitute 1–2% of retinal ganglion cells in the adult mammalian retina, are intrinsically photosensitive, and integrate photic information from rods and cones to control nonimage-forming adaptation. Action spectra of ipRGCs and of melanopsin photopigment peak around 480 nm blue light. Understanding melanopsin function lets us recognize considerable physiological effects of blue light, which is increasingly important in our modern society that uses light-emitting diode. Misalignment of circadian rhythmicity is observed in numerous conditions, including aging, and is thought to be involved in the development of age-related disorders, such as depression, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and cancer. The appropriate regulation of circadian rhythmicity by proper lighting is therefore essential. This perspective introduces the potential risks of excessive blue light for human health through circadian rhythm disruption and sleep deprivation. Knowing the positive and negative aspects, this study claims the importance of being exposed to light at optimal times and intensities during the day, based on the concept of the circadian clock, ultimately to improve quality of life to have a healthy and longer life.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41514-017-0010-2

The post Global rise of potential health hazards caused by blue light-induced circadian disruption in modern aging societies. appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

Environmental studies, metabolic research, and state of the art research in neurobiology point towards the reduced amount of natural day and sunlight exposure of the developing child, as a consequence of increasingly long hours spent indoors online, as the single unifying source of a whole set of health risks identified worldwide, as is made clear in this review of currently available literature. Over exposure to digital environments, from abuse to addiction, now concerns even the youngest (ages 0 to 2) and triggers, as argued on the basis of clear examples herein, a chain of interdependent negative and potentially long-term metabolic changes. This leads to a deregulation of the serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitter pathways in the developing brain, currently associated with online activity abuse and/or internet addiction, and akin to that found in severe substance abuse syndromes. A general functional working model is proposed under the light of evidence brought to the forefront in this review.

View full-text https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3240/htm

Excerpt:

4. Conclusions

This exploratory focused review of critical elements from the current literature shows quite unequivocally that the projection of increasingly excessive time spent online indoors [167] by increasingly younger children is likely to put their physical and psychological development and general health at risk, in both the short and long term. Early childhood myopia, disturbed circadian rhythms, sleep loss, depression, and ultimately, addiction and the deregulation of central control functions in the brain, initiated by lack of exposure to healthy outdoor light conditions, are the main risks identified here.

The post Children’s Health in the Digital Age appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

Emerging evidence has identified sleep as a significant, but modifiable, risk factor for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and obesity. Leptin, an adipocyte-derived peptide and a regulator of food intake and energy expenditure, has been shown to be associated with a short sleep duration in the pathophysiology of obesity and consequently type 2 diabetes. This review focuses on the current evidence indicating the effects of a short sleep duration on the regulation of leptin concentration in association with obesity and diabetes mellitus. In summary, the evidence suggests that sleep deprivation, by affecting leptin regulation, may lead to obesity and consequently development of type 2 diabetes through increased appetite and food intake. However, findings on the role of leptin in diabetes due to sleep deprivation are contradictory, and further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm previous findings.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33756469/

The post The Role of Sleep Curtailment on Leptin Levels in Obesity and Diabetes Mellitus appeared first on EMFSA.

The endogenous timekeeping system evolved to anticipate the time of the day through the 24 hours cycle of the Earth’s rotation. In mammals, the circadian clock governs rhythmic physiological and behavioral processes, including the daily oscillation in glucose metabolism, food intake, energy expenditure, and whole-body insulin sensitivity. The results from a series of studies have demonstrated that environmental or genetic alterations of the circadian cycle in humans and rodents are strongly associated with metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Emerging evidence suggests that astrocyte clocks have a crucial role in regulating molecular, physiological, and behavioral circadian rhythms such as glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity. Given the concurrent high prevalence of type 2 diabetes and circadian disruption, understanding the mechanisms underlying glucose homeostasis regulation by the circadian clock and its dysregulation may improve glycemic control. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the tight interconnection between the timekeeping system, glucose homeostasis, and insulin sensitivity. We focus specifically on the involvement of astrocyte clocks, at the organism, cellular, and molecular levels, in the regulation of glucose metabolism.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.662017/full

Copyright © 2021 Barca-Mayo and López.

The post Astrocyte Clocks and Glucose Homeostasis appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

This ecological study examined whether geographical differences in the physique of Japanese children and adolescents can be explained from the perspective of photoperiodicity induced by effective day length (light duration exceeding a certain threshold of illuminance) using prefecture-level anatomical data and Mesh Climatic Data. Multiple regression analysis for height prediction demonstrated that when controlled by weight, effective day lengths of the longest and shortest months were inversely correlated with height distribution. Conversely, for weight prediction, when controlled by height, the effective day lengths of the longest and shortest months were positively correlated with weight distribution. The regression coefficients were greater for the effective day length of the shortest month in both height and weight prediction. This phenomenon where the same two explanatory variables are negatively correlated with height and positively correlated with weight in a significant manner is rare, and there may be no physiological interpretation of this phenomenon other than one based on changes in thyroid hormone signaling. These distribution characteristics are common to the photoperiodicity by which seasonal breeding vertebrates reciprocally switch thyroid hormone signaling according to prior photoperiodic history through epigenetic functions. From these perspectives, thyroid hormone signaling in a certain region was assumed to be activated in summer according to the prior shorter winter day length and inactivated in winter according to the prior longer summer day length. Regarding the prevalence of obesity, the coexistence of longer summer and winter day lengths was thought to set body composition to be short and fat in early adolescence.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33664773/

Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s).

The post Regional Differences in Height, Weight, and Body Composition may Result from Photoperiodic Responses: An Ecological Analysis of Japanese Children and Adolescents appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

“Life is an instantaneous encounter of circulating matter and flowing energy” (Jean Giaja, Serbian physiologist), is one of the most elegant definitions not only of life but the relationship of redox biology and metabolism. Their evolutionary liaison has created inseparable yet dynamic homeostasis in health, which, when disrupted, leads to disease. This interconnection is even more pertinent today, in an era of increasing metabolic diseases of epidemic proportions such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. Despite great advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms of redox and metabolic regulation, we face significant challenges in preventing, diagnosing, and treating metabolic diseases. The etiological association and temporal overlap of these syndromes present significant challenges for the discrimination of appropriate clinical biomarkers for diagnosis, treatment, and outcome prediction. These multifactorial, multiorgan metabolic syndromes with complex etiopathogenic mechanisms are accompanied by disturbed redox equilibrium in target tissues and circulation. Free radicals and reactive species are considered both a causal factor and a consequence of disease status. Thus, determining the subtypes and levels of free radicals and reactive species, oxidatively damaged biomolecules (lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids) and antioxidant defense components as well as redox-sensitive transcription factors and fluxes of redox-dependent metabolic pathways will help define existing and establish novel redox biomarkers for stratifying metabolic diseases. This review aims to discuss diverse redox/metabolic aspects in obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, with the imperative to help establish a platform for emerging and future redox-metabolic biomarkers research in precision medicine. Future research warrants detailed investigations into the status of redox biomarkers in healthy subjects and patients, including the use of emerging ‘omic’ profiling technologies (e.g., redox proteomes, lipidomes, metabolomes, and transcriptomes), taking into account the influence of lifestyle (diet, physical activity, sleep, work patterns) as well as circadian ~24h fluctuations in circulatory factors and metabolites.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213231721000355#undfig1

The post Redox changes in obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes appeared first on EMFSA.