Greensboro's African American Community Newspaper since 1967
Light, sunlight, warm and wonderful. What promises does it hold? As long as humans have been alive, people have used the sun and its warming rays as part of their health regimes.
Hippocrates, in his Greek islands back in 400 BC, prescribed sunbathing. Florence Nightingale prescribed sunshine and fresh air as therapy in the 1850’s. In 1903, the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine was awarded to Niels Finsen of Copenhagen. He used UV light to treat a skin form of tuberculosis (lupus vulgaris). So, light has been used to treat medical conditions for centuries. You may know people who have used light therapy to treat their psoriasis. Light therapy is also used to treat newborn babies with jaundice, and it is used to treat people with seasonal affective disorder during the fall and winter months when they cannot get to the sunlight they so need. Some specific treatments for esophageal cancer and skin cancer are activated with light therapy. So, using light as a therapy for a variety of medical conditions is nothing new but wait until you see what is on the horizon.
Light is divided into many different wavelengths; many are undetectable by the human eye. You may have heard of red-light therapy called photobiomodulation. It is used by many professional athletes, trainers and even weekend warriors to relieve muscle soreness. It is believed that red light decreases an enzyme that causes damage to the muscles thereby allowing them to recover quicker. Red light also affects the mitochondria of muscles which provides energy and thus an energy boost.
New and in development are light-based therapies that aid in the restoration of vision. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a condition that robs people of their vision as they age. In the dry form of this disease, light therapy is proving to be quite helpful in Europe awaits FDA approval in this country. In AMD, there are cells in the retina that have lost the ability to remove toxic products called Drusen. Drusen then causes damage to those retina cells. Red-light therapy aids the body in boosting energy in the eye to aid in repairing itself. It is postulated that soon there will be light therapy to treat diabetic eye damage and to treat damage due to glaucoma.
Green light therapy is in development to reduce pain. Green light helps the body modulate its own natural pain management system. It helps the body reduce the sensation of pain, preventing normal, nonpainful stimuli from causing pain and thus reducing heightened sensitivity to pain.
Studies have shown that green light has helped people with fibromyalgia and migraine headaches. It has helped those with pain use less pain medications such as opioids.
As noted, light has many different waves that are expressed in a rainbow of colors. All red light is not equal nor is all green light equal. Blue light will harm the eyes. There are specific wavelengths that give healing properties. So, do not go out there and get any light you see.
Do your research and get the correct wavelength and color for the problem you are trying to correct. Other products are on the way so be patient and get the correct light for the problem you have. The future of using light to help a plethora of medical problems is so bright, you have got to wear shades.
Dr. Veita Bland is a board-certified Greensboro physician and hypertension specialist. Dr. Bland’s radio show, “It’s a Matter of Your Health,” can be heard live on Wednesdays, 5:30 p.m. on N.C. A&T State University’s WNAA, 90.1 FM. Listeners may call in and ask questions. The show is replayed on Sirius 142 at 5 p.m. on Wed. Email Dr. Bland at ideas@blandclinicpa.com.
