Bright Lights May Hold Off Dementia

When it comes to Alzheimer's disease, no one yet knows the best way to halt the gradual slips in memory and other brain functions that are the hallmarks of the disease. But researchers in the Netherlands have found that a simple nonmedical intervention may be just as effective as drugs to keep elderly patients sharp.

Eus Van Someren at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience reports in the Journal of the American Medical Associationthat elderly patients with dementia who were exposed to bright lightsin long-term care facilities scored 5% better on cognitive tests andhad 19% fewer depressive symptoms than similar patients residing inless well-lit facilities. In the study, Van Someren's group used1,000-lux bulbs in overhead lights, which is equivalent to thebrightness of television studio lights, and compared their effects tothose of 300-lux bulbs, which are found in office and retail settings."I was surprised by the results on cognition," says Van Someren. "I hadexpected, based on previous studies, that we would find improvements insleep. But I hadn't expected to see the effect on cognition.