by Victor Sierpina
As the days grow shorter, we become more aware of the role of light in our life.
Light has certain obvious benefits. It keeps us from falling down and hurting ourselves or bumping into each other.
It activates vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, to keep our bones strong. Light feeds all our food crops and secondarily the animals that consume plants that serve as our food sources. We take light for granted. In fact without light, life as we know it would not exist. Yet, like so many things like water, dirt, gravity and oxygen that surround us, we often give it little thought or attention. Yet it has many more health benefits. At a recent integrative oncology meeting I attended, a psychiatrist who studies sleep and sleep disorders showed us her data on how light can be therapeutic. Her research subjects were women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy.It turns out these women have significant disturbances in their sleep quality, getting worse with each week of chemotherapy. By the fourth week of therapy, they have major disruptions of their daily and nightly circadian rhythms. This causes severe fatigue and other negative effects on the immune system and healing response. In her studies, she exposed some women to light in the form of bright white light boxes and the control group to dim red light. The results were nothing less than dramatic.
The bright white light group noted rapid improvements in sleep quality, decreased daytime fatigue, reduced depression, and overall increased quality of life. I am talking about shining a light into their faces for a half-hour a day as the intervention. Safe, easy, cheap. These findings were not seen in the dim red light control group.Her research results were so impressive that I would recommend increased light exposure to anyone undergoing chemotherapy. Go outside regularly for a while during chemo, even though you don’t feel so great. A vicious cycle with chemo starts with fatigue, leading to less outdoor activity, thus less light exposure and ultimately to more fatigue and sleep disruption.
The bright white light box isn’t necessary though it is an easy solution. Even a half-hour outdoors on a cloudy day has the same benefit. Just don’t wear sunglasses as this impacts the activation of the pineal gland through the eyes that is one of the neurological pathways for the benefits of light.This is the same mechanism that influences secretion of melatonin, a well-known chemical that can help those with sleep deprivation. Blue light from artificial sources seems to be an especially strong suppressor of melatonin and thus a disrupter of our circadian rhythm and sleep cycle.
Other well-known effects of light are on mood. While not as much a problem in our southern latitude as further north, you have likely heard of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). This is a condition in which people who suffer a light deficiency, particularly during the winter, get mood problems and particularly depression.I think about a colleague of mine who suffered from this, even in Galveston. Her solution was similar to the research above. She had light box on her desk and kept it on as she sat there completing her charts and paperwork with good effects. Other current areas of research on light therapy are for mitigating some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, increasing weight gain in premature infants, reducing jet lag, improving other sleep disorders, diabetes, and obesity.On the other hand, it is not a good idea to look at a bright light source, like a computer screen or TV up to a couple hours before sleep, especially if you are having trouble sleeping. The light from these devices can disrupt your circadian rhythm and sleep cycle.According to the Harvard Health Letter, “Light at night is bad for your health, and exposure to blue light emitted by electronics and energy-efficient light bulbs may be especially so.”You don’t need to buy a bright white light box to give you healthy light exposure. Just make it a point to get outside. The artificial light inside buildings is nowhere close to the power of natural light. Take your sunglasses off though for a least half an hour.I have decided getting more light exposure is just good common health sense. So I am spending more time in the sunlight and, based on the research, I expect this will help my mood, my circadian rhythm and my sleep. I use sun protection for my skin too, balancing the two things.Let the sunshine in. Maybe a nice tan is a marker of good health after all!