Overview: Light therapy is the therapeutic application of light devices to treat illnesses. Light, or lack of it can affect our moods, body weight, skin and even biochemical processes in the body (e.g the manufacture of vitamin D as well as hormone production). Our body uses sunlight in a number of ways. Sunlight also produces and enables your body to absorb certain vitamins and minerals. Calcium builds strong, healthy teeth and bones, but your body can't absorb calcium with vitamin D, which is produced by exposing your skin to sunlight. Sunlight helps to fight colds, tiredness and depression. Lack of sunlight causes an increase in the production of melatonin -the hormone, which makes us feel sleepy and a decrease in serotonin –the hormone, which makes us feel happy. A lack of sunlight has also been linked to obesity, hyperactivity and even cancer.

Light therapy or different spectrums of light are commonly used to treat bilirubin in newborn babies, psoriasis, sleep disorders and depressions. While exposure to the full-spectrum wavelength of natural sunlight is considered the best form of light therapy, it is not always possible for many people to get outdoors. Therefore, light therapists often recommend treatment with simulated sunlight from light boxes.

There is evidence that some forms of light therapy are used in conventional medicine and can be helpful. Interest in the relationship between light and health dates back centuries. All forms of light therapy now in use originated during the 20th century while the first reports of ultraviolet blood irradiation date back to the 1930s.

Origin:

Light has been used as a medicine for millennia. In the 6th century BC, Charaka, an Indian physician, treated a number of diseases with sunlight. Hippocrates and other ancient Greek physicians had their patients recuperate in roofless buildings, where they could soak up the rays of the sun. By the 1890s, European sanatoriums were prescribing incandescent electric "light baths" to treat many physical and psychological conditions, and Niels Finsen, a Danish physician, was using ultraviolet light to treat tuberculosis.

Types of Light Therapy: There are two types of light therapy: Bright or Colored Light Therapy Cold Laser Therapy or Dawn Simulation Colored-light therapy: This type of light therapy utilizes filtered floodlights or small beams of light to bathe the skin in different shades of color (usually red, but also white, blue, violet, and occasionally other colors), sometimes in flashing patterns. Bright lights come in two forms. Light boxes are the best known bright light therapy product but, as an alternative, light visors are a convenient way of getting light therapy whilst you move around the house and mean you don't have to sit in one place as you do with a light box

Supporters of colored light therapy claim the therapy relieves a variety of conditions, including sleep disorders, shoulder pain, headaches, diabetes, impotence, insomnia, osteoarthritis of the knees and allergies. Practitioners of one system called chromatotherapy believe that shining colored lights on the body will harm cancer cells. It helps to restore normal sleep patterns in people who can't fall asleep at night or who wake up too early in the morning. It is also used to treat depression associated with PMS, chronic anxiety and panic attacks, severe jet lag, and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

Dawn simulation doesn't provide lots of light; it simply copies a natural sunrise by gradually increasing the light at your wake-up time to give you a head start and is especially good if your main problem is getting yourself going in the morning.

Cold laser therapy: Also known as soft or low-level laser therapy, this type of light therapy focuses a beam of low-intensity laser light at a particular area of the body. Dawn simulators can be used in addition to bright lights or for milder symptoms. The treatment is thought to initiate a series of enzymatic reactions and bioelectric events, which stimulate the natural healing process at the cellular level.

Supporters suggest that cold laser therapy is useful for relieving pain, reducing inflammation, and helping to heal wounds.

Why Light Therapy?

All of us need light and sunlight is a leading source of vitamin D. Light is needed to maintain the body's circadian rhythms, or internal clock. These rhythms control numerous functions, from hormone levels to sleep and wake cycles. Health problems can develop when the circadian rhythms are thrown off. This can occur when people spend much of their time indoor, work odd shifts, or fly across time zones, or when the amount of daylight decreases in the fall and winter. Light therapy helps the body restore its natural circadian rhythms.

The best way to get light therapy is to go outside for about 30 minutes and raise your face to the sky with your eyes closed. Never look directly into the sun. Even on a cloudy day, the sun provides the full spectrum of light that the body needs.

Light has several well-proven uses in medicine. Regular sessions with a light box are an excellent remedy for the "winter depression" known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), psoriasis and jaundice in newborns. A special form of UV blood irradiation, called photopheresis, may inhibit T-cell lymphoma(a type of cancer that first appears on the skin).

Treatment: While some of the claims for the health benefits of light therapy are as yet unproved, it is known that adequate light is vital to many aspects of healthy living. Before you use light therapy for depression or for any other ailment, you should talk to your doctor. (Indeed, if you suffer from any type of depression, you should be under a doctor's care.) Once you have a professional's recommendation, you can probably do light therapy at home. For depression, the therapy may be part of a more comprehensive treatment plan that also includes exercise, dietary changes, and medication.

A light box can be set on a table where it is level with the eyes. Treatment can be taken at home, office or in a clinic. Follow the manufacturers instructions regarding where you should sit for optimum results. You may read, eat, or do other activities during the session. Depending on the brightness of the light source, treatment can take anywhere from 15 minutes to three hours. Never wear sunglasses or goggles during treatment. To receive any benefit from this therapy, you must keep your eyes open during the entire session. If a therapist is treating you, you may be asked to lie on a couch under a lamp that emits at least 2,500 lux lite of illumination--about half the brightness of full sunlight.

It is best to have your sessions in the early morning or at dusk. One session per day is usually sufficient, although some therapists recommend twice-daily sessions for the first few days, or until your condition improves. You can probably take an occasional day off without any problem.

How to choose a Therapist:

Light therapy is usually administered or recommended for home use by a physician, physical therapist, or psychologist. Check with a health-care professional before starting any form of light therapy. Seasonal affective disorders can usually be treated on a do-it-yourself basis at home. But if you develop any serious side effects, stop treatment immediately and see your physician.

Look for a well-trained, experienced clinician, as only a board-certified dermatologist should perform skin problems.

Caution:

• Never look directly into the light source during your therapy.
• If your skin or eyes are highly sensitive to light, avoid light therapy.
• If you have glaucoma, cataracts, or retinal detachment, check with your eye doctor before starting light therapy.
• If you have a rash accompanied by a fever, call your doctor before starting light therapy
• Avoid light therapy if you have any type of bipolar disorder.
• Light therapy is not advisable if you have any type of manic-depressive disorder.
• If you are taking any medications, check with your doctor before beginning light therapy. A wide variety of drugs can increase your sensitivity to light.
• Overexposure to ultraviolet rays can cause skin cancer and may contribute to premature aging of the skin.
• Other possible side effects of light therapy may include a "hyper" feeling, mild headache, trouble sleeping, sore eyes, and other eye problems.
• If you are taking light therapy for skin cancer, you may find that the dye often used in these treatments increases your sensitivity to sunlight.

Conclusion:

However, several forms of light therapy are currently being promoted for alternative use, which include light boxes, UV light therapy, colored light therapy, and UV blood irradiation. Proponents claim light therapy relieves high blood pressure, insomnia, premenstrual syndrome, sleep disorders, shoulder pain, diabetes, impotence, allergies, migraines, carbohydrate cravings, hyperactivity in children, and improves sexual functioning. Proponents of UV light therapy claim that it neutralizes toxins in the body and cures or weakens disorders of the immune system, bacterial infections, and cancer. Light therapy that involves primarily visible light (light boxes and colored light therapy) is considered safe.