Introduction
In a world increasingly inundated with health advice that demands rigorous workouts and strict dieting, a groundbreaking study offers a refreshingly effortless alternative for those concerned about Type 2 diabetes. This new approach, remarkably simple and universally applicable, doesn’t require breaking a sweat or forgoing favorite foods. Instead, it hinges on one of our most basic daily routines.
Preventing diabetes is an issue that concerns many people who are concerned that they may develop type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is also called non-insulin dependent. In this disease, the pancreas continues to produce insulin, but the main problem is that the cells do not respond well to the interaction with insulin. Therefore, sugar from the blood cannot fully penetrate into the cell, and the blood sugar level remains elevated. It is this type of diabetes that is most common in the world and is largely a consequence of excess weight and a sedentary lifestyle. In this case, the disease is often detected unexpectedly, during a random examination, or already in an advanced form when complications arise.
It cannot be said that type 2 diabetes is a disease that is easily controlled. It can significantly reduce the patient’s quality of life, so it is critically important to pay attention to the prevention of this disease, especially for those people who have risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes. In this article we will consider not only traditional, already well-known methods of preventing diabetes, but also the latest data, such as the connection between the risk of developing diabetes and exposure to light at night.
Classic Prevention
Nutrition plays an important role in preventing diabetes. People who tend to be overweight should never go hungry (hunger significantly increases the level of insulin in the blood); they need to eat small portions at least 5 times a day.
You should try to reduce your carbohydrate intake so as not to overload the pancreas, and also reduce the number of calories you consume daily. To prevent diabetes, you need to minimize or completely remove easily digestible carbohydrates from the menu, such as sugar and any products containing it. The basis of nutrition should be complex carbohydrates and foods that include plant fiber. The method of cooking also matters. It is preferable to boil, bake or stew foods, avoiding fried foods.
The second way to prevent diabetes, which endocrinologists never tire of repeating, is the need to lead at least a slightly active lifestyle. It is not necessary to play sports and load your body with exhausting workouts. Even if you spend half an hour or an hour a day walking, you will already reduce the risk of developing this unpleasant disease. Use the elevator less, give preference to the stairs, do a warm-up during work, during your lunch break. Whenever possible, engage in any physical activity that you enjoy. This could be gardening, cycling, hiking, walking the dog.
Many researchers emphasize that mental balance plays a role in the prevention of diabetes. Since regular stress is one of the reasons contributing to the development of the disease, prevention includes control over the emotional state. If the situation is especially difficult, you should not neglect the help of psychologists.
Of course, for people at risk, diabetes prevention necessarily includes medical examinations, namely, testing at least once every six months. This will allow you to monitor the dynamics of prediabetes, adjust your prevention strategy, or calm down if the result shows that your sugar levels are normal.
New study on preventing Type 2 diabetes
Published in The Lancet Planetary Health, the study presents compelling evidence linking nighttime light exposure to a heightened risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.The study, published in the journal Lancet, found that people who are exposed to the most light from approximately 12:30 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. are one and a half times more likely to develop diabetes than those who remain in the dark during this period of time. In this case, it was not the influence of outdoor lighting on urban development and its inhabitants that was studied, but the individual impact of light on the experimental subjects. Light levels were measured directly using a scientific sensor. Devices logged light and accelerometer data at 100 Hz. This is a very solid study, in which almost 85,000 people took part. To date, no other study of this magnitude has examined the association between diabetes risk and nighttime light exposure. (Image from thelancet.com) 
Sensors attached to the hands of study participants recorded day and night light coming from all sources, be it lighting fixtures, street lamps, gadget screens, sunlight, daylight. The study was characterized by a long time span. Participants were followed for 8 years after the end of the active phase of the study. The results were quite clear. Those who were exposed to more light at night had a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. At the same time, a close relationship was observed between the degree of risk and the brightness of the light. The brighter the light, the higher the risk of diabetes. If we take complete darkness as zero risk of developing diabetes (although this is a simplification of the situation and does not take into account individual characteristics of metabolism, diet and level of physical activity), then exposure to light such as dim overhead lighting increased the test subject’s likelihood of developing diabetes by about one and a half times.
How Does Light Exposure Relate To Diabetes Risk?
Exposure to light at night disrupts the body’s circadian rhythms. This condition is one of the risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, despite the fact that until now scientists had no idea about the connection between the incidence of diabetes mellitus and people’s exposure to light at night. It should be noted that the study even took into account factors such as socioeconomic status, smoking, level of physical activity and shift work. However, even after taking all these factors into account, the association between nighttime illumination and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes remained quite significant. What are circadian rhythms and why are we talking about them in connection with diabetes? Basically, circadian rhythms are daily cycles that determine the standard biological processes that occur in our body. These include various cycles, such as sleep-wake, hunger-digestion. The main feature of circadian rhythms is their cyclicity within one day.
Circadian rhythms are important for many types of biological processes in our bodies, not least the way the body manages blood sugar levels. A person’s peculiar internal clock regulates food intake, sugar absorption and insulin secretion. Disruption of circadian rhythms is associated with insulin resistance, a precursor to type 2 diabetes. Melatonin, a hormone from the pineal gland, also plays a role here, one of whose functions is to control our response to glucose and insulin. Chronic exposure to light at night reduces melatonin levels, which in the long term can lead to poor metabolic health, weight gain, mood disorders, and insomnia. At one time, melatonin was wanted to be used as a treatment for diabetes, but this substance turned out to be ineffective for its treatment or prevention.
Since light exposure patterns are a modifiable external factor that affects internal circadian physiology, they may also be a modifiable risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes.
Avoiding Light at Night as New Strategy against Diabetes
First of all, it has already been proven that during sleep, exposure to any kind of lighting, be it LED lighting, bedside lamps, lighting coming into the room from the street, or the glare of an electric fireplace, can reduce the production of melatonin. This causes our sleep to be weak, intermittent, or leads to the fact that after even a long sleep a person doesn’t feel rested.
It is worth noting that, despite the fact that man today has moved further away from nature than ever before, he moves primarily not on his own feet, but with the help of various types of transport and means of individual mobility, and spends the lion’s share of his life in activities that are not for us nature did not provide for it – for example, in the office behind papers or in front of a computer – from an evolutionary point of view, seconds passed, not centuries or millennia.
Our body is not adapted to the conditions in which we place it. Nature did not expect that people would spend their nights in front of glowing gadget screens or that the lights of big cities would penetrate the windows of their apartments. The natural conditions for healthy and sound sleep for a person are complete darkness. Therefore, no matter from which point of view – from the point of view of ensuring healthy sound sleep or from the point of view of preventing type 2 diabetes mellitus – all people are recommended to maintain a healthy lighting regime at night, which involves the complete absence of light sources and wakefulness during daylight hours, and not at night. It’s free, effortless, and definitely won’t cause any harm to your health. Therefore, following this advice is much easier than even recommendations to adjust your diet.
Study Results
On the scientific side, the study concludes that more research, scientific work and long-term experiments are needed to confirm whether behavioral strategies such as complete exclusion of light, including LED indicators, night lights and any other light sources, can or using blackout curtains, reduce the risk of developing diabetes.
Although there is now not enough scientific evidence that can definitively answer the question of how effective avoiding light at night is in preventing diabetes, there is no reason not to follow the absolutely reasonable recommendations for maintaining a healthy lighting regime during sleep.
As the study authors themselves claim, Type 2 diabetes risk was higher in people exposed to brighter night light, and in people exposed to light patterns that may disrupt circadian rhythms. Avoidance of light at night could be a simple and cost-effective recommendation that mitigates risk of diabetes, even in those with high genetic risk.
