The researchers summarized findings of their own investigations and extensive foreign experience, medical statistics and data of experiments carried out on rodents. Permanent bright light suppresses synthesis of melatonin, the hormone that impacts the endocrine system work and prevents cancerous growth formation and development.
Light pollution has become almost an integral part of contemporary life. Bright electric light pours on the people who have to work on night shifts, pilots and stewardesses, who often travel from one time zone to another, and inhabitants of the North (where white nights take place in summer). Normal functioning in humans requires regular changing of day and night, light and darkness. In the dark, the epiphysis (the pineal gland) synthesizes the melatonin hormone, but the influence of light at night hours suppresses this synthesis. Melatonin is also a well-known biological blocker of malignant neoplasms.
The more intense the night-time light, the stronger it suppresses the melatonin synthesis. Some people are more sensitive to night-time illumination’s action than others, for example, women are generally more sensitive than men. Light pollution can cause premature reproductive system ageing, and increase the risk of breast cancer and large intestine cancer in women. Night workers and pilots more often suffer from large intestine or rectal cancers. In addition, irregular light can causes sleep disturbance, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases, metabolic derangements and, possibly increase the likelihood of developing diabetes.
This is confirmed by results of experiments with rodents, which react to permanent light in the same way as humans do. Cancerous growth occurs more often with mice and rats under permanent light conditions, being more susceptible to chemical carcinogens and malignant cell inoculation. Mice suffering from cancer die more often in light pollution conditions than in controls with undisturbed day and night. A similar phenomenon is also recorded by clinicians: according to some observations, patients with large intestine cancer who retain the 24-hour rhythm of activity live longer than the patients with disrupted rhythms.
Cancerous growth behavior is closely connected with the melatonin concentration in the serum. It usually changes depending on the time of the day, but with oncological patients and laboratory animals, the diurnal rhythm of melatonin in serum is significantly disrupted, and its concentration is below normal.
Nadezda Markina | alfa
New method uses just a drop of blood to monitor lung cancer treatment
19.10.2018 | Osaka University
Photoactive bacteria bait may help in fight against MRSA infections
12.10.2018 | Purdue University
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz (Germany) together with scientists from Dresden, Leipzig, Sofia (Bulgaria) and Madrid (Spain) have now developed and characterized a novel, metal-organic material which displays electrical properties mimicking those of highly crystalline silicon. The material which can easily be fabricated at room temperature could serve as a replacement for expensive conventional inorganic materials used in optoelectronics.
Silicon, a so called semiconductor, is currently widely employed for the development of components such as solar cells, LEDs or computer chips. High purity...
Augsburg chemists present a new technology for compressing, storing and transporting highly volatile gases in porous frameworks/New prospects for gas-powered vehicles
Storage of highly volatile gases has always been a major technological challenge, not least for use in the automotive sector, for, for example, methane or...
When we put water in a freezer, water molecules crystallize and form ice. This change from one phase of matter to another is called a phase transition. While this transition, and countless others that occur in nature, typically takes place at the same fixed conditions, such as the freezing point, one can ask how it can be influenced in a controlled way.
We are all familiar with such control of the freezing transition, as it is an essential ingredient in the art of making a sorbet or a slushy. To make a cold...
Thin organic layers provide machines and equipment with new functions. They enable, for example, tiny energy recuperators. In future, these will be installed...
Das Zusammenspiel aus Struktur und Dynamik bestimmt die Funktion von Proteinen, den molekularen Werkzeugen der Zelle. Durch Fortschritte in der...
17.10.2018 | Event News
16.10.2018 | Event News
02.10.2018 | Event News
23.10.2018 | Studies and Analyses
23.10.2018 | Earth Sciences
22.10.2018 | Ecology, The Environment and Conservation