Light
therapy is a new field of Medicine that is being used in surprising ways. This
as the human body is effectively opaque to light and light is a form of
electromagnetic energy. So photons are the equivalent of an electric jolt for
certain cells in the body not exposed to light.
So
it comes as a surprise that using flickering light can help to reverse the
effects of Alzheimer’s as reported in
the article “Light
therapy could break down Alzheimer’s brain deposits”, published 7 December
2016, New Scientist.
Researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) led by Dr. Li Huei Tsai and Dr. Ed Boyden recently published their research in the Journal Nature titled Gamma frequency entrainment attenuates amyloid load and modifies microglia.
The
researchers exposed mice to light flickering at 40Hz, which is just 20Hz below the
60Hz frequency at which an incandescent bulb flickers on and off. They
discovered that the flickering light triggered gamma waves in the brains of
mice that seemed to remove beta-amyloid plaques.
This
plaque is symptomatic of Alzheimer’s and can be removed once ultrasound is used
to open up the blood-brain barrier as I’d pointed out in my blog article
entitled “University
of Queensland's Ultrasound reversal of Alzheimer's - Neurotoxic amyloid-ß
plaques Removal with MicroBubbles”.
So
what does Gamma Waves in the brain have to do with beta-amyloid plaques? And
when can this be applied to humans?
MIT’s 40 Hz flickering
Light - Gamma Waves in Lucid Dreaming a Alzheimer’s Cure
Alzheimer’s
disease is a form of dementia that is a global problem without an effective cure
or treatment. The Global health cost of treating the disease is expected to
reach US$2 trillion by 2013, dwarfing cancer and heart disease health costs in
the US of A!
Dr.
Li Huei Tsai and her team discovered that by exposing mice to light flickering
at 40Hz for 1 hr a day for a week. Their work was built on the research of Dr. Li
Huei Tsai, who made the link between gamma wave and Alzheimer’s when her
research team discovered decreased Gamma Wave activity in hippocampus of mice
with Alzheimer’s disease!
They discovered that the flickering light caused brain cells in the animals’ visual cortex to oscillate together. This resulted in the creation of Gamma waves that seemed to boost the cells that clear beta-amyloid plaques, decreasing the production of beta-amyloid plaques in the process.
The
Human Brain produces the following Brainwaves which consist of three (3) types
of brainwaves named after letter in the Greek Alphabet:
1.
Alpha Waves (8 to 12Hz) are associated
with relaxation
2.
Beta Waves (13 to 30Hz) are associated
with concentration
3.
Gamma Waves (31 to 130Hz) are associated
with consciousness during wakefulness i.e. Lucid Dreaming
It also reduced the number of tau tangles in
this section of the brain.
This exciting discovery does not mean that they've found a cure for Alzheimer’s. After all, the effect on the reduction of beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles was noted in the cells in the animals’ visual cortex, not the memory areas that Alzheimer's damages first. Also the mechanism by which this occurs is still unknown.
Still,
this research suggests that a basic treatment for humans could involve
expensing humans to a flickering 40Hz light source for 1 hr for a week or more
to produce similar results. So getting grandma a go-go LED flasher similar to
the Lifx Color 1000 bulb as described in
my MICO Wars blog article
entitled “How the
US$60 Lifx Color 1000 makes Lighting a Strip Club easier” may be just the
thing the doctor orders in the future!
It
also implies that inducing gamma waves via electrical stimulation not only
helps with Lucid dreaming as noted in my blog article
entitled “How
Frankfurt University's Dr Ursula Voss Electric Shocks induces Gamma Waves for
Lucid Dreaming”, but could
potentially be another treatment for this debilitating memory disease.
No comments:
Post a Comment