Positive results from a study conducted by City, University of London. Waves of red light interact with mitochondria, the “power plants” of our cells. This makes our glucose metabolism more efficient.
Red light waves could have a therapeutic effect, in particular for the prevention and treatment of diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions. These light waves actually interact with the mitochondria (the organelles inside cells that generate energy), stimulating them. The red light thus acts indirectly on the metabolism, improving the metabolisation of glucose.
This is the conclusion that can be inferred from a study published in the Journal of Biophotonics by researchers from City, University of London, who explored one of the possible applications of this new approach, with extremely promising results.
670 nm of red light: potential impacts for controlling diabetes and blood sugar concentration
Red light at a wavelength of 670 nanometres and its effect on a variety of different conditions has been a subject of study for some time, since it has long been hypothesized that it could increase the amount of energy generated by mitochondria.
The British researchers decided to focus this time on the “power” of red light to affect blood sugar levels, recruiting, as mentioned above, 30 healthy participants (individuals who exhibited no signs of diabetes or blood glucose imbalances). Half of these volunteers were subjected to a 45-minute session of exposure to 670 nm of red light. The other half, meanwhile, received no treatment. All of the volunteers then underwent a glucose tolerance test, during which they were asked to drink a concentrated sugar solution in order to test how it was metabolised. All of them then had their blood sugar levels checked every 15 minutes for the following two hours. It was found that those who had been exposed to the red light before drinking the glucose exhibited an average reduction of 27.7% in blood glucose levels and a 7.5% decrease in maximum glucose spiking compared to the others, a result that definitely warrants further investigation.
At this point, the next step will be to measure the effect of red light on diabetic subjects or on those with prediabetes and metabolic syndromes.
“Our method,” says Michael Powner, the lead author of the study, “has the potential to impact diabetes control going forward, as it could help to reduce potentially damaging glucose spikes in the body after meals.”
We are overloaded with too much blue light
Powner underscores the fact that today we are not exposed to enough red light. This can have serious repercussions. In sunlight, the amounts of blue and red light are in balance, and the light produced by old incandescent light bulbs quite faithfully mimics that same ratio. Now, however, we use mostly LEDs, which emit almost exclusively blue light; this could represent a significant risk factor from a public health standpoint—one which is probably still being underestimated.
While we are awaiting further validation and in-depth studies, it is the English researchers’ belief that 15 minutes of red light exposure before meals would be enough to prevent excessive blood sugar fluctuations.
