Bright Light Therapy and Circadian Cycles in Institutionalized Elders

Would this help with the brain fog lots of stroke patients complain about? WHOM do we ask that fuckingly simple question? No one in stroke leadership seems to want to talk to stroke survivors.  

 

This from April 2017 should have already triggered this therapy since it produces BDNF. But your incompetent hospital didn't have enough brains to extrapolate the benefits of this in rats to humans.  Do you prefer your incompetence NOT KNOWING OR NOT DOING?

Resetting Body Clock May Help the Brain to Heal April 2017 

The latest here:

Bright Light Therapy and Circadian Cycles in Institutionalized Elders

José A. Rubiño¹, Antoni Gamundí¹, Mourad Akaarir¹, Francesca Canellas², Rubén Rial^1* and M. Cristina Nicolau^1*

• ¹Laboratori de Neurofisiologia del Son i Ritmes Biològics, Institut d’Investigació Sanitária Illes Balears (IDISBA), Universitat Illes Balears (UIB), Palma de Mallorca, Spain
• ²Institut d’Investigació Sanitaria Illes Balears (IDISBA), Hospital Universitari Son Espases (HUSE), Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Background: Bright light therapy has been found to be an efficient method to improve the main parameters of circadian rhythms. However, institutionalized elders may suffer reduced exposure to diurnal light, which may impair their circadian rhythms, cognitive performance, and general health status.

Objectives: To analyze the effects of 5 days of morning exposure for 90 min to bright light therapy (BLT) applied to institutionalized elderly subjects with mild/moderate cognitive impairment.

Subjects: Thirty-seven institutionalized subjects of both sexes, aged 70–93 years.

Methods: The study lasted three consecutive weeks. During the second week the subjects were submitted to BLT (7000–10,000 lux at eye level) on a daily basis. Cognition, attention, and sleep quality were evaluated at the beginning of the first and third week. Circadian variables were recorded continuously throughout the 3 weeks. Non-invasive holders and validated tests were used to analyze the variables studied.

Results: After BLT we have found significant improvements in general cognitive capabilities, sleep quality and in the main parameters of the subject’s circadian rhythms. The results show that merely 90 min of BLT for five days seems to achieve a significant improvement in a constellation of circadian, sleep, health, and cognitive factors.

Conclusion: Bright light therapy is an affordable, effective, fast-acting therapy for age-related disturbances, with many advantages over pharmacological alternatives. We hypothesize these effects were the result of activating the residual activity of their presumably weakened circadian system.

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