You might recall days seemed brighter as a child, but George C. Brainard has the research to prove it. He is a professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University’s Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and one of the world’s leading experts on how light affects human biology by entering the body through our eyes.
His studies show that children absorb a broader range of light than adults, but he said everyone on the planet is a candidate for using light to improve health and wellness.
“Of course, light is a stimulus that gives us the ability to see,” said Brainard, the keynote speaker during the recent International Light and Sound 2000 Conference at Dominican University in River Forest. “But light also comes into a neuroanatomical pathway that affects a non-visual part of the brain.”
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Doctors and other professionals gathered at the conference to make presentations and compare notes on how this pathway can be manipulated by light therapy to treat physical and mental disorders, along with a similar interaction between the ears, brain and sound waves. Breakout sessions included light and sound treatments for chronic pain, autism, depression and cancer among other illnesses.
Light therapy can feature full-spectrum white light or refracted light into certain wavelength bands and colors; it can be continuous or strobed.
The best-known example of the non-visual effect of light is circadian rhythms of a person’s “body clock,” which is set at slightly more than 24-hour cycles. Every species, from humans to the one-cell sea plankton, produces more melatonin during darkness than daytime hours. Melatonin is a hormone produced in the pineal gland that regulates wake and sleep cycles, and plays a key role in hunger, sexual desire and mood.
Considerable research has been published on how reduced daylight leads to seasonal affective disorder, and how light therapy (using boxes or wall panels of light) eliminates or reduces its symptoms.
Brainard explained how a series of experiments have convinced most scientists to now accept that light can “act as if it is a drug” in the body. Yet, similar to many drugs, including aspirin, no scientist has figured out precisely how the body uses light.
“It might be substances or photopigments in the eyes we haven’t even discovered yet,” said Brainard. “But once we know the photoreceptor and can adjust light (by wavelength or color, irradiance, duration of exposure and time of day) to optimally benefit the body, believe me, that will be the Holy Grail.”
For his part, Brainard said “light pollution” is bound to become a hot issue. He attended a recent symposium sponsored by the National Institutes of Health about the possible association of light pollution and breast cancer.
“Eighty percent of our workforce works inside, frequently in buildings designed with fewer windows to save on energy costs,” Brainard said. “Then there is television at night and even street light shining into your bedroom.”
The scientist and father of two school-age daughters recommends a simple three-point plan:
1. Get out in natural sunlight every day.
2. Sleep in true darkness at night; no night lights or allowing outside light to enter the room.
3. Use a “dawn simulator” light that serves as a sort of alarm clock by lighting up the bedroom gradually each morning. The Brainards have one in every bedroom.
“It’s my one nod to technology,” he said. “The rest is a common-sense sort of approach that can make a big difference.”
For more information about light and sound therapy, contact Spectrum International Institute at 2535 Techny Rd., Northbrook, IL 60062; 1-888-773-2876; www.lightandsoundhealth.com.
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To contact Bob Condor or find an archive of his columns, visit chicagotribune.com/go/health
His e-mail is [email protected]