Researchers warn that eye damage caused by screen time can damage other organs of the body.

Experts warn that too much screen time can harm not only your eyes but also the rest of your body’s processes and potentially even shorten your lifespan.

Researchers at the Buck Institute, a Bay Area nonprofit that studies the issues of aging and age-related diseases, have found that exposure to eye light can disrupt the circadian rhythm and ultimately cause or exacerbate chronic disease.

Unlike many other organs, the eyes are constantly exposed to the outside world, so their immune systems are more active. Overactive defense mechanisms can disrupt the body’s internal processes and thus damage other organs.

While most people pass by the screen, which is a natural part of the digital world, researchers warn that too much exposure to light every day can have disastrous long-term consequences.

“Looking at computer and phone screens and being exposed to light pollution late at night are very destructive conditions for the circadian clock,” he said. Pankaj Kapahi, the institute’s professor and nutritionist, said in a press release.

“It destroys eye protection, and this can have consequences beyond just vision, it can damage the rest of the body and the brain.”

The research team notes that previous research has shown a link between poor health in general and eye disease.

An example is diabetic retinopathy, which is responsible for approximately 3.9 million cases of blindness worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Dr. Pankaj Kapahi (pictured) warns that excessive use of electronic devices such as cell phones can have a truly negative impact on a person’s lifespan.

The condition is a complication of diabetes where high blood sugar levels damage parts of the eye and eventually lead to blindness.

Usually, however, these instances run from the body to the eyes, and problems in the body cause vision problems as a side effect.

However, Buck Institute researchers found that some trends can work in the opposite direction, as eye health affects nearly every cell in the body.

“We always see the eye to provide the vision we need. We don’t see it as something that needs to be protected in order to protect the whole organism,” Kapahi says.

Dr. Brian Hodge, a researcher at the institute, explains that every cell in the body works on a circadian clock.

These clocks operate in 24-hour cycles and are evolutionarily adapted to the day-night cycle.

Almost all cells in the body operate on this cycle in some way, causing this cycle to affect every bodily function.

However, many people’s circadian rhythms are disrupted as life stresses, device use, and other factors cause people to sleep less than before.

Light, in particular, can further disrupt these cycles.

The researchers explain that the eyes become inflamed when exposed to light, which is a normal bodily process for organs facing the outside world.

Problems arise when the eyes are inflamed for too long, which can cause or exacerbate certain chronic diseases.

Kapahi and Hodge discovered this when they joined fruit flies research to see how exposure to food, light, and other factors would affect their lives and body processes.

Dr. Brian Hodge (pictured) explains that every cell in the body works on some kind of circadian rhythm that can be interrupted by light.

“The fruit fly has a very short lifespan, which makes it a very nice model that allows us to scan many things at once,” says Hodge.

A group of flies was divided into two groups. One could eat unlimited, the other could only consume ten percent of the daily protein like the other group.

This led researchers to explore the cyclical nature of some of these hormones, how they work, and how their activity changes throughout the day.

The team found that the most active genes in the diet-restricted flies were related to photoreceptors in the eyes that respond to light.

Further research has found that flies kept in the dark live longer than their peers, suggesting that effects on the circadian cycle can have negative effects on a creature’s lifespan.

This is particularly worrying news stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, where screen time has skyrocketed – especially among young people who now watch screens, twice as long before the virus infects much activity in early 2020.