Early Puberty Surged During The Pandemic, And This Could Be Why

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by the ScienceAlert.

Among the laundry list of health problems COVID inflicted on the world’s population, one of the more perplexing was an increase in the number of children experiencing what is known as idiopathic precocious puberty – abnormally early onset of puberty.

More than one study spotted the spike in numbers of this typically rare condition, highlighting a potential link between the virus and a trigger for early adolescence.

Rather the time spent during lockdowns scrolling through smart devices for hours on end could have been to blame, research suggests.

In two separate studies published in 2023, the researchers exposed immature male and female rats to the light emitted by LED screens, finding those bathed in the blue-tinged light for longer bouts showed the hallmarks of maturity sooner than the rest.

“We have found that blue light exposure, sufficient to alter melatonin levels, is also able to alter reproductive hormone levels and cause earlier puberty onset in our rat model. In addition, the longer the exposure, the earlier the onset,” Gazi University endocrinologist and lead author Aylin Kilinç Uğurlu explained when the team’s initial results on female rats were revealed.

Though the results couldn’t conclusively determine why more children around the world were experiencing early puberty, it’s a finding that should be taken seriously as we become increasingly reliant on personalized digital technology.

This research was published in The Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology and Frontiers in Endocrinology.

Source: ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/early-puberty-surged-during-the-pandemic-and-this-could-be-why