Is your screen slowly damaging your eyes — and can your diet actually protect them? In this episode, we sit down with Yaw Buabeng, a doctoral candidate in the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at the University of Georgia and optometrist-turned-researcher originally trained in Ghana, to break down the real science behind blue light and your vision. Yaw shares what makes blue light uniquely harmful, how it penetrates deep into the eye, and its link to age-related macular degeneration.
Transcript:
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, Dr. Buabeng, it’s so great to see you. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning.
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
Thank you so much, Jeffrey, for having me again. I’m excited to be here and to talk to you about my research.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, let’s talk about this, but kind of, I want to back up because I think what’s really interesting about your career is that you were or are an optometrist by trade and now you’re working on your doctorate. Can you give us a how you kind of made the segue from optometry and then going back to work for your PhD?
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
Yeah, thank you. So I think when I was, so I’m originally from Ghana, so that’s where I got my optometry degree. So I had encounters with patients treating, managing and diagnosing ocular conditions, but it got to a point I wanted to do more to help people than just treat them.
So I was thinking about how can I contribute to science, right? Because we have certain conditions, all we know is about this treatment, all we know is about we have to do X, Y, Z, but I wanted to contribute more than what we have in the market now. So that kind of decision made me transition from being a clinician to a researcher because as a researcher, what I can do is I can work on different projects and these different projects can be applied to these products that we have in the market and thereby we can improve the quality of life of people or patients.
So that was basically that kind of transition. It was more or less, seeing patients became more or less like a routine, but now I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to contribute to science and help people see better.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Okay, so I can respect that and I appreciate that, but I would say as a former practitioner, that probably lends itself well to the research that you’re going to be conducting because you actually have practical experience working with patients. So with that all in mind, doctor, let’s talk about this study because you studied the effects, the impact of blue light. So just for the audience and my edification, when you’re talking about blue light, what does that mean?
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
Okay, thank you for that. So when we talk about blue light, so blue light is an antenna generated color, that antenna generated color by the brain. So what actually we refer to as blue light are wavelengths.
So we have shorter wavelengths and we have longer wavelengths. And as humans, what happens is that there is a band of spectrum, what’s called the electromagnetic spectrum, and what we are able to see is visible light. So within the visible light, that’s when we see, that’s where there is shorter wavelengths and it goes on to longer wavelengths.
But in shorter wavelengths, our brain reflects this as blue light. So that’s how we see things as blue, that’s how the blue light conception is more or less like we have certain cells in our body that constructs that blue light, but they are basically wavelengths and that’s how we perceive those wavelengths as blue. So blue light can be simply put as shorter wavelengths.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Okay, so shorter wavelengths and my understanding, and again, this is not my research, it’s yours and you’re the expert, a lot of our devices, including the ones that we’re using to talk to each other, it’s kind of ironic we’re talking about blue light yet the devices that we’re using are actually, I believe, emitting blue light. So what in our normal day-to-day activities would emit these shorter wavelengths or blue light?
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
So the shorter wavelengths or the blue lights, the greatest source of the shorter wavelengths is from the sun. So that’s why we see the sky as blue. So what happens when the sun emits these radiations, they encounter a whole lot of particles and you see the sky as blue.
Similarly, due to advancement of science, so there was a Japanese scientist who brought out the LED, but before the LED came in, the blue LED, before the blue LED came in, what happened is that we were able to see just black and white screens, but through his invention with blue LED, now we’re able to see different forms of colors, different forms and shades of colors that, and sorry, we’re able to see things in color, like when you’re looking at a screen, when you’re looking at your laptop, your mobile phone.
So through that invention, what happened was like, now most of our light source and that invention revolutionized how we see, because we move from seeing in black and white, that’s seeing television in black and white, to seeing television in color. So that was a, that was a, that was a great invention, but as we went over through that invention, most of our light sources are filled with blue LEDs. So these blue LEDs, we are almost encountering them, we are almost encountering them.
So that’s how these light sources, all these tablets, devices, that’s your phones, your TVs, your computers, your laptops, they are emitting these, these, all these blue light components for us to see. So even though there are other forms of wavelengths that are being emitted, the blue light components is being emitted the most. That’s why it accounts for that.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So it sounds like it’s naturally occurring, blue light naturally occurs, because we’re getting it from the sky and the sun.
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
Right.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
But, but now we’ve, the pendulum has swung in all the way where, I mean, as I was joking, we’re talking to each other on a, on blue light screens, we, we in our day-to-day life are getting blue, shorter wavelength blue light. Is it, is that a negative? Does that, does getting all that blue light outside of what the sun and the sky provide, does that have a negative impact on our vision?
Could it cause us to lose our vision, reduce our vision, be blurry in the future, or do we, do we not know?
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
That’s a very, very good question. So one thing about blue light or shorter wavelengths is they have, they have a very high energy, right? So they are high energy wavelengths.
And what they do is when you are being exposed to blue light all the time, due to these high energy levels, they, they destroy the cells in our eyes, that makes us see. So at the long run, what happens is that blue lights are able to destroy these cells, then it affects our visual performance. So there is a condition called age-related macular degeneration.
So with the age-related macular degeneration, what happens is that now you are being exposed to blue lights from the sun. Secondly, our devices are coming out with blue lights all the time. So that continuous exposure, how do you, how should I, how should I put it together?
So that continuous exposure compounds over time, then destroys our, our, our cells that makes us seem very clean. And also, secondly, blue light is more or less like what we said, or what we’ve shown is that blue light causes most catching of light. So when you are, when you have all these wavelengths, so you have the shorter wavelength, you have the middle wavelength, and you have the longer wavelength, or you can think about blue, blue lights, green light, middle light, red lights, and white lights, all these things.
So white light is basically all the wavelengths put together. But what you do with research, research has shown that exposure to blue light can cause an increased amount of scattering. So increase, it can cause increased amount of scattering in our eyes.
For instance, when you are driving at night and you are seeing a car headlight, you experience this daily. And because these light sources are filled with mostly blue LEDs, what happens is that they, they increase the amount of scattering in our eyes. So that effect affects our visual performance.
But also, even though there are negative parts of these blue lights, the research has also shown that there are positive parts of blue light. So positive parts of blue light is they can be used, they can be used in, in treatment of, let’s say, a condition like jaundice. So that field is called photobiomodulation, using different wavelengths of light to treat a particular condition.
So for instance, jaundice, yellow light, and we have what we call the blue light therapy. So the blue light therapy, what it basically does is it breaks down the cell, the cells that are causing the jaundice. So even though there are negative parts of it, there are also some positive parts of it.
But the downside of it is continuous exposure becomes a problem. So we, and now through advancement of technology, we are always at the screen, we are always at the, not even in the screen, we are always, we are always working around. And even with the high amount of scattering that we encounter because of blue lights, that affects our visual performance.
For instance, my research also looked at even if the, even if these blue lights are of fine, even these blue lights are, or even if these blue lights are being emitted by just a small point, or let’s find details, do they still cause more scattering? And that’s how my research came in. So when, so with my research, I was looking at fine tiny details, like just two sources of light or two point tiny details.
And even with that, even in that low, low, low, in that low blue light emission, they caused most amount of scattered and abrasions, and that really affects our visual performance. So yes, go ahead.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Go, no, I was going to say, finish your statement, please, doctor.
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
So yes, so yes, there is a downside of blue light, which is the continuous exposure. Secondly, there’s a field called photobiomodulation where we can use blue light to treat other conditions.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So, okay. So there’s some good and there’s some not good. I don’t know if it’s bad, not good.
So let’s talk about in the remaining time, we’ve got about two or three minutes left. Let me ask you about protection, because if I go to get a new pair of glasses, or if I go online, there’s often, and I know your research may not have covered this, but I just, you know, you’re a former practicing optometrist. So I want to ask you about how do we protect our eyes?
How do we make sure that we don’t have the deleterious or negative effects of blue light?
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
Okay, thank you very much. And that’s, that’s the most important, that’s the most important part of this research. So this research was to create awareness.
Next, how do we deal with it? So we have what we call the blue light filtering glasses. So we have these blue light filtering glasses.
What happens is that we are able to block this amount of blue light that our eyes are being exposed to. So we encourage, or we try, and so when I was practicing as an optometrist, I myself, I didn’t wear blue light filtering glasses, just to reduce the amount of blue light that gets into our eyes. So secondly, our diet plays a key role.
You are what you eat. So our eyes, through evolution, you know, when you look at the sky, when you look at the earth from space, they are all, they are all blue. So the earth can be called a blue marble, because they are all blue lights coming in and everything.
So we are all filled with blue light. So during evolution, our system, our body system adapted to, you know, compensate for that amount, the enormous amount of blue light that we are being exposed to. So we have what we call macular pigments in our eyes.
And these macular pigments, what they do is they are very, they are basically dietary carotenoids. So we get them from bright, brightly colored fruit and dark green leafy vegetables. So that’s kale, spinach, broccoli.
So what happens is that if you are, if you are, if you continuously taking those brightly colored fruits and dark green vegetables, you are going to increase the amount of macular pigments that you have in your eyes. And these macular pigments has been shown in research. I did a research on that.
I saw that they absorb these excess blue lights. And there has been extensive research on that, be able to absorb these excess blue lights, protect our eyes, and even help us see. So at the end of the day, the recommendation is one, you can get a blue light filtering glasses, filtering glasses to protect your eyes.
Secondly, as you are doing that trend, it’s more fruits and vegetables, dark green leafy vegetables, and that can actually help you and prevent these deleterious effects of blue lights on your eyes.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
You know, it’s interesting, you know, I understand the blue light filter glasses, but it’s just interesting how what you eat has an impact on not only how much you weigh and your body composition, but it impacts so many aspects of your life and your body, including your eyes. Dr. Bobling, we’re going to have to leave it there. Great research.
Thanks so much for joining us and sharing with us your insight. And we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon, sir.
Yaw Buabeng, University of Georgia
All right. Thank you, Jeffrey, for having me. I’m excited.
I’m excited to be here.
