Excessive exposure to screens may lead to obesity, psychological problems: Study

Ever since our screen time has increased people are experiencing a variety of issues and a new study has found that it could also lead to obesity and psychological issues The new study on fruit flies has discovered a new problem the blue light emitted by these devices may have an effect on our basic biological functionsThe findings of the study were published in Frontiers in AgingExcessive exposure to blue light from everyday devices such as TVs laptops and phones may have detrimental effects on a wide range of cells in our body from skin and fat cells to sensory neurons said Dr Jadwiga Giebultowicz a professor at the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University and senior author of this study We are the first to show that the levels of specific metabolites chemicals that are essential for cells to function correctly are altered in fruit flies exposed to blue lightOur study suggests that avoidance of excessive blue light exposure may be a good antiaging strategy advised GiebultowiczTurn off the lightThe researchers at Oregon State University have previously shown that fruit flies exposed to light turn on stress protective genes and that those kept in constant darkness lived longerTo understand why highenergy blue light is responsible for accelerating aging in fruit flies we compared the levels of metabolites in flies exposed to blue light for two weeks to those kept in complete darkness explained GiebultowiczBlue light exposure caused significant differences in the levels of metabolites measured by the researchers in the cells of fly heads In particular they found that the levels of the metabolite succinate were increased but glutamate levels were loweredSuccinate 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 GiebultowiczAnother troubling discovery was that molecules responsible for communication between neurons such as glutamate are at the lower level after blue light exposureAccelerating agingThe changes recorded by the researchers suggest that the cells are operating at suboptimal level and this may cause their premature death and further explain their previous findings that blue light accelerates agingLEDs have become the main illumination in display screens such as phones desktops and TVs as well as ambient lighting so humans in advanced societies are exposed to blue light through LED lighting during most of their waking hours The signaling chemicals in the cells of flies and humans are the same so the there is potential for negative effects of blue light on humans explains GiebultowiczFuture work hopes to study the effects directly on human cellsWe used a fairly strong blue light on the flies humans are exposed to less intense light so cellular damage may be less dramatic The results from this study suggests that future research involving human cells is needed to establish the extent to which human cells may show similar changes in metabolites involved in energy production in response to excessive exposure to blue light concluded GiebultowiczAlso Read Chest pain diarrhoea more common in new Covid19 patients ExpertsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever