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Light -
Medicine Of The Future
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by:
Larry Weber
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Light
- Medicine Of The Future
Naturallighting.com http://www.naturallighting.com 888.900.6830 email:
sales@naturallighting.com
Excerpt from "Light Medicine of the Future" by Jacob Liberman, O.D.,
Ph.D. These findings seem to indicate that full-spectrum lighting may
act to boost the immune system in the same way as natural sunlight.
As researchers isolate the specific part of the sun's spectrum that is
related to health and well-being, we could eventually create the
perfect indoor environment with artificial lighting, until then it's
Vita-Lite. Based on the research of Hollwich and others, the cool-white
fluorescent bulb is legally banned in German hospitals and medical
facilities. Most offices, stores, hospitals, and schools currently use
cool-white fluorescent!
Full Vs. Incomplete Spectrum Lighting
"In 1980, Dr. Fritz Hollwich conducted a study comparing the effects of
sitting under strong artificial cool-white (non-full spectrum)
illumination versus the effects of sitting under strong artificial
illumination that simulates sunlight (full-spectrum). Using changes in
the endocrine system to evaluate these effects, he found stress like
levels of ACTH an cortisol (the stress hormones) in individuals in
sitting under the cool-white tubes. These changes were totally absent
in the individuals sitting under the sunlight-simulating tubes.
The significance of Hollowich's findings becomes clear when the
functions of ACTH and cortisol are examined. Both of these metabolic
hormones play major roles in the functioning of the entire body and are
very much related to stress response. Since their activity increases
inhibitors, this may account for the observation that persistent stress
stunts bodily growth in children. Hollowich's findings clarify and
substantiate the observations of Ott and others regarding the agitated
physical behavior, fatigue, and reduced mental capabilities of
children. He concluded that the degree of biological disturbance and
the resulting behavioral mal adaptations were directly related to the
difference between the spectral composition of the artificial source
and that of natural light.
Since cool-white fluorescent lamps are especially deficient in the red
and blue-violet ends of the spectrum, this may explain why color
therapists have historically used a combination of the colors red and
blue-violet as an emotional stabilizer. Hollwich's work not only
confirms the biological importance of full-spectrum lighting, but it
also reconfirms the importance of specific colors by evaluating the
effects of their omission from our daily lives. Based on the research
of Hollwich and others, the cool-white fluorescent bulb is legally
banned in German hospitals and medical facilities. It has been found
that full-spectrum lighting in the work place creates significantly
lower stress on the nervous system than standard cool-white fluorescent
lighting and reduces the number of absences due to illness. These
findings seem to indicate that full-spectrum lighting may act to boost
the immune system in the same way as natural sunlight. Excerpt from
"Light Medicine of the Future," by Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D.
Shedding Light on Those Winter Blues
Does your spirit wanes with the shortening of days? You may be
suffering from sunlight withdrawal. The syndrome appears with
inevitable regularity. As summer pales into autumn, the victim feels an
ominous sense of anxiety and foreboding at the mere thought of
approaching winter. As days shorten from November into December,
there's a gradual slowing down, a low of energy, a need for more and
more sleep, a longing to lie undisturbed in bed.
It becomes harder to get to work, to accomplish anything when there.
Depression and withdrawal follow. As a Brooklyn, New York, woman
described it, "Everything seems gloomier and more difficult. There is
sadness looming over everything. I can't concentrate at work and feel
like going home afterward to hibernate like a bear."
Just as routinely, as spring approaches and days stretch out, the
sufferer flips into high gear."Once the warm weather arrives, I feel a
burden lifted," says the Brooklynite. "I feel freer and happier."
This is more than a dislike of icy slush and raw winds. Psychiatric
researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have
identified these complaints as a previously unrecognized clinical
syndrome. They call its victims "winter depressives." "It is much more
common than we thought," says Dr. Norman Rosenthal of NIMH. "We
expected to get a few replies from our description of this pattern.
Instead, we received more than three thousand responses from all over
the country. The symptoms described were one after the other very much
the same.
"Some of these winter depressives are being successfully treated, not
with drugs or psychotherapy but with an element common to all our
lives: artificial light. What scientists are learning from the use of
light as it affects health and mood has implications for us all. It
forces us to rethink the way we light up our lives, especially urban
dwellers and workers who spend so much time indoors. Apparently
artificial light does much more than enable us to read and work without
benefit of sunlight. It affects our bodies.
"It is important to recognize that this is a distinct syndrome with a
well-defined cluster of symptoms," says Dr. Thomas Wehr, an NIMH
researcher. "We have measured some very interesting physiological
changes specific to this kind of depression." While typically depressed
people have impaired sleep patterns and usually wake up early, winter
depressives might sleep nine or 10 hours a night, wake up tired, and
take naps. There is a 50% reduction in delta sleep, the deepest, most
restful phase of the sleep cycle. Winter depressives gain weight, crave
carbohydrates, and their libido pales. Their energy levels drop;
monitors on their wrists show that they are less active than in summer.
Such symptoms begin earlier the farther north they live and abate when
they visit sunny climates in the winter. Symptoms peak and wane
according to the length of days. In New York, for instance, on the
shortest day of the year - December 21 - the sun rose at 7:17 a.m. and
set at 4:32 p.m., contrasted to 5:25 a.m. and 8:31 p.m. at the height
of summer, a six hour difference in light. Such a distinct seasonal
pattern implicates the external environment as the culprit, the most
obvious being sunlight. Sunlight has already been shown to trigger
cycles and seasonal behavior in animals, including reproduction,
hibernation, migration, and molting. Animal behavior has been fooled by
artificial light. Could it also fool humans? Apparently. In a recent
NIMH study, a group of these depressives were treated with amounts of
light that simulated that of summer days. Short winter days were
stretched by six extra hours of light. The subjects were awakened
before sunrise to bask in three hours of light, and dusk was delayed
for three more.
Since sunlight is thought to be the missing element, the subjects were
flooded with an artificial light that most closely resembles the full
broad spectrum of the sun. At 20 times the intensity of normal indoor
lighting, the light approximated the sensation of sitting on a shady
porch or under a tree in mid-summer. Fluorescent lamps are roughly
three times more intense than ordinary light bulbs. A bank of eight
4-watt fluorescent bulbs at eye level lit the participants' rooms as
they read, worked, or moved around. Within days this group responded
with measurable mood changes, says Rosenthal. Their symptoms eased and
energy levels rose, while a control group with a different threshold of
light showed no change in behavior.
"Something in the external environment caused these changes," says
Wehr, "but we are not prepared to say exactly what it is at this point.
It is true, though, that waking up these people and exposing them to
this light treated their symptoms. Whether it is the break in sleep
pattern, the wavelengths or intensity of light, or some other factor we
can't say at this point. The intensity of light used in the study may
be well in excess of what is necessary to effect changes, stress the
researchers. So they will continue to experiment with varieties of
light therapy to determine the crucial element. The subjects themselves
feel that sunlight is the missing ingredient.
One said that she felt as if she were in a "lower state of evolution
since I function by photosynthesis." Although these winter depressives
showed an abnormal response to light, each of us responds to it in
varying degrees. External light travels on a direct pathway from the
retina to the part of the hypothalamus believed to be involved in
running our biologic clock, the suprachiasmatic nuclei. The path
continues to the tiny, cone-shaped pineal gland, which secretes the
hormone melatonin. It is thought that melatonin affects the regulation
of behavioral changes in animals, but this has not been clearly shown
in humans. Sufficiently intense light suppresses the secretion of this
chemical, making it a useful marker in determining light's physical
effect on behavior. The secretion of melatonin reflects light's effect
on the hypothalamus, itself highly sensitive to light. This complex
part of the brain regulates a multitude of body functions, playing a
vital role in reproduction, thirst, hunger, satiation, temperature,
emotions, and sleep patterns. Depression is associated with
disturbances in the hypothalamus.
"By stimulating the hypothalamus with light we may be correcting these
disturbances in this group," explains Rosenthal. Most artificial light
differs from natural sunlight in wavelength (color) and intensity.
Sunlight is very intense electromagnetic energy in a continuous
spectrum of colors ranging from the short wavelengths of invisible
ultraviolet light (UV) through blue, green, yellow, and into the
infrared waves. Incandescent bulbs that light through heat light the
majority of our homes. They lack the intensity of sunlight and produce
light that is heavily infrared. "We don't like the incandescent
lights," says Wehr. "It's conceivable for this purpose that they are
not the safest. You can get burned from the heat and the infrared
radiation."
Although some fluorescent lamps are described as "broad spectrum," they
do not have the same distribution of colors as sunlight. Widely used
fluorescent lights peak in the yellow-green portion of the spectrum,
wavelengths to which the eye is most sensitive. That makes them energy
efficient but different from natural sunlight, notably in the
blue-green spectrum where the sun's emission or radiant energy is
strongest. Additionally, conventional indoor lighting lacks the proper
proportion of near-UV radiation of the sun that advocates claim to be
vital to health and well being. Just as overexposure can be unhealthy,
regulated doses of sun and UV can be therapeutic. UV is currently used
to treat psoriasis and, experimentally, genital herpes and some forms
of cancer in the early stages of the illness. Full-spectrum artificial
light is widely used to cure potentially fatal type of infant jaundice.
We need sunlight with its UV rays to metabolize vitamin D, necessary
for the absorption of calcium, especially in growing children and the
elderly.
Some studies show that working under true full-spectrum lights enhances
productivity and reduces fatigue. Even critics concede that many people
who are deprived of natural light, such as night or shift workers,
suffer undue emotional stress. Whether or just how we should alter our
indoor lighting is a question being raised by these studies. As Dr.
Richard Wurtman, professor of endocrinology and metabolism at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been saying for years, we
should not take artificial lighting for granted. Lined up in the
pro-sunlight camp, he has written, "Light is potentially too useful an
agency of human health not to be more effectively examined and
exploited." As researchers isolate the specific part of the sun's
spectrum that is related to health and well-being, we could eventually
create the perfect indoor environment with artificial lighting, says E.
Woody Bickford, environmental engineer with Duro-Test, manufacturers of
Vita-Lite. "Until we know," he points out, "Vita Lite, with its
complete range of visible and invisible light, is what we have to work
with."
For ordinary indoor lighting, two to four 40-watt lamps would provide
some health benefits, he says. "The benefits seem to be proportional to
the amount of light," he adds. "We may need higher intensity in all our
work levels. Perhaps the cutoff point is what you can afford,"
Vita-Lite tubes are expensive, and most of our homes are not equipped
with fixtures that can accommodate them.
Although many lighting experts are skeptical of the entire concept of
light affecting our health, some light manufacturers are beginning to
support research in the field, and one trade association has just
established a new branch devoted to light and health. As the
relationship between light and health becomes publicized, NIHM's
Rosenthal worries that people will try to treat themselves. "With the
winter depressives it's a matter of risks out-weighing benefits. Bright
light can damage the retina; UV can be dangerous. But depression can be
dangerous for them, too!"
Rather than attempting to cure themselves, people who think that they
are winter depressives should contact the NIMH, Bethesda, Maryland
20205, for literature and specific recommendations as they become
available.
As Dr. Wehr puts it, "we are not telling people to hurry and turn
lights - not yet." M.D. Magazine, January 1984, by Patricia McManus.
About the Author
Larry Weber, President. Naturallighting.com
specializes in all types of high quality full spectrum lighting, and
has been in business for 15 years.
http://www.naturallighting.com Toll Free 888.900.6830
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