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Earbuds Beat Depression by Shining Lights Into Your Brain

• By Charlie Sorrel
• January 12, 2011  | 
• 6:33 am  | 
• Categories: R&D and Inventions

The concept for the Valkee sounds like the worst kind of snake-oil: It’s a little box that combats the dark blues of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) with bright lights. Nothing new there, except it shines the lights into your head through your ears.
Winter depression, in the form of SAD, has been treated with bright lights since forever. Researchers at the University of Oulu, Finland, say t’s not the eyes that need the light, it’s the brain. The ear canal is a convenient hole in the head through which to shine light, so the Valkee uses a pair of earbuds to light up the inside of your head, and stimulate photo-sensitive parts of the gray matter.
That’s the theory at least. Tests run at the University of Oulu confirm its efficacy, offering relief to nine out of 10 subjects with a daily 8- to 12-minute dose for four weeks. And not everyone is as skeptical as me. Valkee has received angel investment from such smart people as Esther Dyson and ex-Nokia boss Anssi Vanjoki.
Proper clinical trials are running now, which further inspires confidence. And for those in northern climes, where the winter months can bring nights that last weeks not hours, this 185-euro light box could prove to be a life saver. Available now.
Valkee product page [Valkee via Oh Gizmo!]
See Also:

• Topic Page for Mood Disorders

Tags: earbuds, Finland, lights, medicine

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Related Topics:

• Anssi Vanjoki, 
• Depression, 
• Esther Dyson, 
• Health and Fitness, 
• Mental Health, 
• Mood Disorders

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• Ed 5 hours ago

  I believe it.
  
  On a similar note, I've been feeding myself lately by rubbing mashed potatoes on my elbows. Less cavities.

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  uno2tres and 10 more liked this

• cwfrederick 10 hours ago

  was this study randomized placebo controlled? i highly doubt it. you have rods in your eyes that are specifically designated to detect light, and send that signal to your pineal gland. "photo sensitive parts of the grey matter" sounds completely retarded. these "scientists" seem to have a significant grey matter deficiency. It makes no sense, the ear canal is completely surrounded by the temporal bone. If you want light to get to the brain it would make more sense to stick those lights up your nose, but it still won't do any good. What gullible morons in the Finnish government subsidize this nonsense? Somehow I'm not surprised, these are the same fools that are destroying economies (and neglecting real environmental issues) to decrease the earth's temp by one tenth of one degree in 30 years for the global warming bs.

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  IM1 and 4 more liked this

• J 3 hours ago

  So they are already available for sale, but actual testing has not been completed yet. Yup, it has the usual markings of snake oil to me...

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• uno2tres 4 hours ago

  but do they play music???

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• Eletruk 7 hours ago

  I've heard of something similar, using red light and the back of the knees. Not sure of it's efficacy. I'm more interested in this device for Tinnitus sufferers. I've heard some research involving red light shone in the ear can provide some relief by stimulating repair of the auditory cillial cells.

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• J242 2 hours ago

  This is utter nonsense. The issue of Seasonal Affective Disorder is due to the lack of SUNLIGHT not allowing your skin to absorb the light it needs to convert to nutrients that the overall ecosystem of our body needs to function at top performance. There are incredibly expensive LED bulbs you can purchase which mimic true sunlight enough to help your body combat SAD but shining generic LED light into your inner ear canal? Snake oil and nothing but. Shame on you Wired for publishing this as a legitimate story.
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