Fun with Science Club®


			Can bright lights be better for digestion? Carrie Straight 06.08.01 In the past scientists discovered that bright light compared to dim light is better for people's bodies. They documented how it helped a person while they slept. The bright light helped some body systems, so some scientists wanted to know how it affected a person's digestive system. Could bright light during the day help someone digest their food better? Scientists from Japan found 10 volunteers to help them test their idea. Each volunteer ate the same food. This helps assure that digestive differences were not caused by differences in the people's diet. Then each person spent time during the day under either bright or dim lighting conditions. The researchers measured the different chemicals in each person's breath. By measuring the amount of hydrogen in a person's breath, scientists can actually tell how well we are digesting our food. The scientists compared each volunteer's dim light digestion to their bright light digestion. They found out that the morning after a volunteer spent time in a dimly lit room, the volunteer had higher levels of hydrogen in their breath. This means that the person had difficulty digesting their meal from the night before.


			Lee, Young-Ah, Ki-Ja Hyun, Yoshiaki Sone, and Hiromi Tokura. 2001. Effects of bright or dim light during the daytime on digestive activity in humans. Naturwissenschaften 88: 126-128.