Fuck me another tin foil hat wearing medical conspiracy take. How many times have we seen this bollox now?
This is so typical of medical scaremongering – someone suffering from debilitating symptoms self diagnoses their problem and wants the whole rest of the world to change to accommodate their perceived treatment plan. Studies done by respectable international research bodies find no evidence of the issue but agree that more research should be done (shocking – research organisations always think more research is a good idea). Oh and throw in some local commentary from someone tangentially related to the issue – in this case it’s a senior eye surgeon stating the obvious “bright light can be bad for the eyes.”
And somehow all of this is supposed to make us all think this poor women is right and that her self assessed bullshit plan for treatment should take priority over the rest of the world doing something positive for energy efficiency. The woman has migraines, that sucks, I totally understand that sometimes medicine doesn’t do a good job of helping people with migraines but there’s no justification for linking those migraines with the type of lights we are using.
I know it seems weird, but I’d have a tendency to believe her, If you’re sensitive to it then certain lights or lighting can indeed be a migraine trigger. Migraines are a weird thing, I had issues with being in a state of chronic migraine years ago, but I didn’t have headaches, instead I had all kinds of problems with my balance and vertigo. There were times when bright daylight or fluorescent lighting were impossible to function in. Even after recovering, there are still days when I struggle with bright light or certain types of lighting that make me feel nauseous.
But, in saying all that, it sounds like she might need to get some treatment for a chronic migraine issue this severe and she’s possibly barking up the wrong tree by trying to stop the lighting issue instead of getting treatment for her own issue. I don’t know, maybe she has tried, migraine without a headache can go missed by your GP, I was dismissed as just anxious by many until I finally got to the right person.
I do think this brings up a wider conversation about how far we go to accommodate people with disabilities in our society. What is reasonable and what is not? Should we study the effects of LED lighting more or not, what’s reasonable there? What I’ve learned as someone who is high risk in the pandemic, is that a lot of people in general are not too willing to accommodate certain types of disability unless forced to (by government mandates etc) and it’s been very eye opening. We definitely have some problems with ableism in our society.
Again, just want to reiterate that I don’t really agree with this woman. But I do think it brings up some interesting points. And I think it’s interesting that the impression of her here is that she’s a bit of a conspiracy theorist. Sometimes without experiencing disability or chronic illness, you’ve no idea what it’s like to have to live with it, and being dismissed as crazy because of a very real problem for you must be painful.
I can see tablets and smartphones doing it to people, as we spend a lot of time using those now, you can get eye strain and things like that, but most of those have filters to protect from that, however street lights, led strip lighting or other types have never had a problem with them
It all depends on how widespread the problem is.
If you research hard enough, you can find something supporting even the most craziest claim. The evidence can be of different quality, and the highest quality is obviously rare. But with so much research, you can find pretty much anything. A lot of the research will be rubbish of course, but an average Joe will never know anyway.
If a problem affects a very insignificant percentage of people, then perhaps it is not a problem at all? If an X causes Y in very few people, it is no different from Y happening randomly in a very few people statistically.
Is it worth researching? When it affects very few people?
Recently got them installed into the office I work in, they’re on a sensor and adjust according to the sunlight coming in so they’re never blinding!
Well, tbh I get ocular & aura migraines from LED and fluorescent lighting, especially lighting with the base colour being blue.
My TV, phone and tablet need eye sensitivity settings or to be dimmed.
Working in offices is a b1tch.
LEDs on cars should be banned, fuckin’ blinded by the things.
They’re in a few of the newer states around me and they are rotten compared to the old yellow lights. Idk if I’d go as far as to say I get nausea but I’d rather they used softer light.
Led lights on cars absolutely blind me. Especially with cars that are higher up. I legit can’t see for a few seconds some times.
Definitely is exasperated by astigmatisms.
Certain frequencies of light do cause headaches and nausea. Particularly over exposure to blue light. So just turn them off after a certain time or put a blue light filter on what is causing the problem.
With LED lights, I find I need to use them coupled with a dimmer or I’ll have a headache within an hour or so. Nothing sinister, literally just frequency sensitivity.
12 comments
Maybe she should stop staring intensely into the lights and it wouldn’t cause so many headaches
The American Chiropractor has it featured too:
https://www.americanchiropractors.org/headaches/campaigner-claims-that-led-lighting-may-cause-nausea-and-headaches-the-irish-times/
Fuck me another tin foil hat wearing medical conspiracy take. How many times have we seen this bollox now?
This is so typical of medical scaremongering – someone suffering from debilitating symptoms self diagnoses their problem and wants the whole rest of the world to change to accommodate their perceived treatment plan. Studies done by respectable international research bodies find no evidence of the issue but agree that more research should be done (shocking – research organisations always think more research is a good idea). Oh and throw in some local commentary from someone tangentially related to the issue – in this case it’s a senior eye surgeon stating the obvious “bright light can be bad for the eyes.”
And somehow all of this is supposed to make us all think this poor women is right and that her self assessed bullshit plan for treatment should take priority over the rest of the world doing something positive for energy efficiency. The woman has migraines, that sucks, I totally understand that sometimes medicine doesn’t do a good job of helping people with migraines but there’s no justification for linking those migraines with the type of lights we are using.
I know it seems weird, but I’d have a tendency to believe her, If you’re sensitive to it then certain lights or lighting can indeed be a migraine trigger. Migraines are a weird thing, I had issues with being in a state of chronic migraine years ago, but I didn’t have headaches, instead I had all kinds of problems with my balance and vertigo. There were times when bright daylight or fluorescent lighting were impossible to function in. Even after recovering, there are still days when I struggle with bright light or certain types of lighting that make me feel nauseous.
But, in saying all that, it sounds like she might need to get some treatment for a chronic migraine issue this severe and she’s possibly barking up the wrong tree by trying to stop the lighting issue instead of getting treatment for her own issue. I don’t know, maybe she has tried, migraine without a headache can go missed by your GP, I was dismissed as just anxious by many until I finally got to the right person.
I do think this brings up a wider conversation about how far we go to accommodate people with disabilities in our society. What is reasonable and what is not? Should we study the effects of LED lighting more or not, what’s reasonable there? What I’ve learned as someone who is high risk in the pandemic, is that a lot of people in general are not too willing to accommodate certain types of disability unless forced to (by government mandates etc) and it’s been very eye opening. We definitely have some problems with ableism in our society.
Again, just want to reiterate that I don’t really agree with this woman. But I do think it brings up some interesting points. And I think it’s interesting that the impression of her here is that she’s a bit of a conspiracy theorist. Sometimes without experiencing disability or chronic illness, you’ve no idea what it’s like to have to live with it, and being dismissed as crazy because of a very real problem for you must be painful.
I can see tablets and smartphones doing it to people, as we spend a lot of time using those now, you can get eye strain and things like that, but most of those have filters to protect from that, however street lights, led strip lighting or other types have never had a problem with them
It all depends on how widespread the problem is.
If you research hard enough, you can find something supporting even the most craziest claim. The evidence can be of different quality, and the highest quality is obviously rare. But with so much research, you can find pretty much anything. A lot of the research will be rubbish of course, but an average Joe will never know anyway.
If a problem affects a very insignificant percentage of people, then perhaps it is not a problem at all? If an X causes Y in very few people, it is no different from Y happening randomly in a very few people statistically.
Is it worth researching? When it affects very few people?
Recently got them installed into the office I work in, they’re on a sensor and adjust according to the sunlight coming in so they’re never blinding!
Well, tbh I get ocular & aura migraines from LED and fluorescent lighting, especially lighting with the base colour being blue.
My TV, phone and tablet need eye sensitivity settings or to be dimmed.
Working in offices is a b1tch.
LEDs on cars should be banned, fuckin’ blinded by the things.
They’re in a few of the newer states around me and they are rotten compared to the old yellow lights. Idk if I’d go as far as to say I get nausea but I’d rather they used softer light.
Led lights on cars absolutely blind me. Especially with cars that are higher up. I legit can’t see for a few seconds some times.
Definitely is exasperated by astigmatisms.
Certain frequencies of light do cause headaches and nausea. Particularly over exposure to blue light. So just turn them off after a certain time or put a blue light filter on what is causing the problem.
With LED lights, I find I need to use them coupled with a dimmer or I’ll have a headache within an hour or so. Nothing sinister, literally just frequency sensitivity.