In many ways we are only just beginning to appreciate the healing properties of light. Just a few weeks after the news that light therapy presents a viable treatment for early prostate cancer see our recent blog, scientists have now revealed that early stage research on mice shows that flashing lights may halt the development of proteins which cause Alzheimer’s.

The research, carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and published in the journal Nature, involved exposing mice to flickering light. The results showed that brain waves that are known to be disturbed in Alzheimer’s patients were stimulated. This in turn appeared to act as cue for the brain’s immune cells to absorb the proteins that proliferate in the brain of Alzheimer’s sufferers.

But the authors urge caution in assuming that the human brain would react in the same way. The next stage would be to test the hypothesis. To that end, the lead scientists in the trial have started a company called Cognito Therapeutics to pursue tests in humans. If successful, the future could see the possibility of non-invasive treatments for the disease.

Sources:

1. The Guardian:
   Strobe lighting provides a flicker of hope in the fight against Alzheimer’s.

2. The Alzheimer’s Society:
   Flickering lights, gamma waves and Alzheimer’s disease.