This Free Technique Could Enhance Brain Health & Response Time, Study Finds

It’s always wise to keep an eye out for treatments that seem too good to be true. Practices or therapies framed as cure-alls or magic bullets are all too common these days. And then there are the therapies that seem ridiculously simple but actually pack a powerful punch in terms of health benefits.

One study in the journal Science Advances1 suggests that light therapy could be one of them, especially when it comes to the health and activity of brain cells.

Lights, cells, action!

Conducted by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, this study investigated optogenetics, the use of light to stimulate or inhibit neurons (the main type of brain cell).

While light therapy has been studied many times before—in fact, optogenetics was first developed more than 20 years ago—this study tested a technique that aims to cause long-term changes in neuron activity by altering something called neuronal membrane capacitance, which refers to how quickly a brain cell can respond when it receives an input.

The study found that this technique can indeed lead to long-term changes in neuron behavior that don’t require any other interventions.

At the moment, researchers plan to use the technique as a research tool to better understand what’s happening in the brain, but hopefully, in the future, it can be used therapeutically for brain-related conditions like Alzheimer’s or psychiatric diseases.

Light therapy: Is it legit?

As we alluded to before, light therapy is one of those treatments that may sound a little well…iffy. Shining light on your body or brain cells just doesn’t seem like it could possibly be a scientifically backed medical invention. But according to this study—and many that have come before it—light therapy has significant potential. Past research has shown that light therapy can:

Actions as simple as getting morning sun exposure may also benefit your sleep and daytime energy levels, as melatonin (the main “sleep hormone”) is inhibited by light and produced when you’re in a dark environment.

So while we’re still a ways away from using the light therapy tested in this study to treat brain disorders, it adds to a growing body of evidence that says light therapy is, in fact, legitimate.

How to support brain health today

Since we’re a long way off from using light therapy to change the brain in more significant ways, it’s worth asking: What proven alternative methods can we start using today to benefit brain health and response time?

Another great practice for promoting brain health is meditation. Meditation has been shown to keep your hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and emotional regulation, healthier, and some studies have found it can help decrease brain cell volume in the amygdala, which is the part of the brain responsible for fear, anxiety, and stress.

The takeaway

Science says that light therapy is a promising treatment for brain health and can cause lasting changes in the way brain cells behave. That said, we’re still a ways off from that reality, so for now we can focus on other ways to support brain health daily.

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