According to a study published in Diabetologia, increasing exposure to artificial evening illumination is connected with an increased risk of diabetes. According to the study, LAN exposure is to blame for more than 9 million diabetes cases in China. The study was carried out by Dr. Yu Xu and his colleagues from China’s top two institutions.
Dr. Yu Xu, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases at Ruijin Hospital, explained that because the prevalence of diabetes in China has steadily increased over the past few decades, the team decided to investigate the impact of artificial LAN.
Since light disrupts the body’s production of melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate our circadian rhythms, those exposed to the most light were 28 percent more likely to develop the metabolic condition “cycles, and growing evidence suggests that our always-on culture is wreaking havoc on our health.
The data from nearly 98,000 Chinese participants in the China Noncommunicable Disease Surveillance Study were analyzed in this study. Researchers purposely subjected research subjects to the same degree of LAN use, on average, based on data collected in the United States. Satellites in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) were classified into one of five categories based on their exposure to artificial light.
Those with the most exposure to artificial LANs were 28 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those with little exposure.
Higher levels of exposure were associated with a higher BMI, but lower levels were associated with more physical activity. Chronic exposure to artificial outdoor illumination in residential areas has been associated with an elevated risk of diabetes, hyperglycemia, and insulin resistance, according to research.
According to the study, people in China who encountered high levels of evening light pollution were about 28% more likely to acquire diabetes than those in the least polluted locations. The authors believe that outdoor light pollution at night may be responsible for more than 9 million instances of diabetes in Chinese adults aged 18 and older. They predict that this figure will rise as more people relocate to cities.
According to the study’s authors, exposure to LANs outdoors is responsible for more than 9 million cases of diabetes in Chinese adults aged 18 and older. This figure is expected to rise further due to China’s rapid urbanization and the ongoing migration of rural residents to the country’s major cities. Light pollution affects over 99 percent of people in the United States and Europe, demonstrating the problem’s global scope.
These findings add to the growing evidence that LAN harms health and suggest that it may be an independent risk factor for diabetes. To determine whether or not LAN exposure is causally linked to diabetes, the authors state that “further investigations incorporating the direct assessment of individual exposure are required.”
