House of blue lights possible problem
Q: The amount of time my 10-year-old son spends staring at a screen is out of control. I have heard that the blue light from digital devices can cause all kinds of problems, from eye damage to sleep disturbances. Should I get him some blue-light-blocking glasses? — Janine R., Salt Lake City
A: You’re right that blue light from digital devices can cause sleep disturbances. During the day, most blue light comes from the sun — and it stimulates parts of the brain that make you feel alert, raising your body temperature and heart rate. But at night, blue light keeps the body’s internal clock from releasing melatonin at get-ready-for-sleep times, keeping you awake.
Eye strain from staring nonstop at a screen is also real. It comes from the lack of exercising your eye muscles and focal powers. Every 20 minutes, you should stop and look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. As for serious eye damage, there’s not solid evidence of that from blue light.
Q: My mom is 94 and has dementia, but not Alzheimer’s, according to the doctors. She is taking a whole medicine cabinet full of medications, and I think they actually make her fuzzier. How should I talk to her various doctors about what she is taking and if she can get off some of the meds? — Gary R., Denver
A: Many dementia patients are taking what docs call a polypharmacy — that’s three or more medications that affect their central nervous system. And we really don’t know how that mixture actually affects different individuals.
A new study in JAMA Network looked at more than a million Medicare patients and found that almost 14 percent of them were taking such a potentially harmful mix of antidepressants; antipsychotics; antiepileptics; benzodiazepines, such as Valium and Ativan; nonbenzodiazepine benzodiazepine receptor agonist hypnotics, such as Ambien or Sonata; and opioids.
Your best steps are, first, to make sure all her doctors are aware of all the medications she is taking. Second, ask if there are some meds that she may not need anymore but that have been continued automatically. Then ask the doctors to tell you what they know about the side effects of each and the combinations. Discuss the possibility of weaning your mom off of one or more to see if her alertness improves. Do not stop having her take any of those meds abruptly — the reaction could be hard on her or even dangerous.