History and Use of Color Therapy Beyond Infra/Red Light.
Today, people are increasingly aware of red light therapy. But, few know that the concept of chroma-therapy is thousands of years old.
If you are up-to-date with the latest health guru advice, then you’ve probably heard of two commonly discussed concepts:
Blue-light blocking
Red-light therapy
Based on internet trends, you may even think that’s all there is to it. Red light good. Blue light bad. A similar reductive mistake is made when discussing LDL and HDL cholesterol.
As I’m sure you instinctively knew, the use of light and color is one of the oldest treatment modalities in human history.
I don’t just mean use of colors of light. But colors of stones, gems, and textiles as well. In fact, deep within the specialized world of Unani medicine is more than mere herbalism. The form of pharmacopeia reserved for the most learned of these physicians is the use of gems like rubies in the formulation of medicines.
Use of light as therapy has been documented as far back as Ancient Egypt and evidence of this is also found in the Ebers Papyrus (1550 BCE).
About 2500 years after the Ebers, Avicenna wrote about use of light and colors in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. He was the first to systematically use color of a person’s body and excretions (e.g. urine) for diagnostic purposes. He took this a step further and insisted that colors can be used therapeutically (or, can cause damage). Famously, he wrote that if a person has a nose-bleed, they should not look at things which are of a rich red color.
Lo and behold, some 1000 years later, Pollack proved the role of red/infrared light in the circulation of blood.
More recently, the likes of Edwin Babbitt, Faber Birren and Dinshah Ghadiali have written extensively on the role of light and color in health and disease.
Babbitt’s The Principles of Light and Color (1878) is one of the most comprehensive and elaborate works on chromotherapy ever written. Babbitt saw color as an integral component of the physical (and probably metaphysical) universe - as indeed he viewed the whole of the universe as a collection of vibrational energy.
Like the contemporary health gurus, he viewed the effects of color as a duality, but with far more nuance. He divided colors thus:
The “Thermal” Colors (Stimulating/Electrical): The red, orange, and yellow end of the spectrum. He associated these with electricity, heat, and stimulation. They were expansive and exciting forces.
The “Frigorific” Colors (Calming/Magnetic): The blue, indigo, and violet end of the spectrum. He associated these with magnetism, cold, and sedation. They were contracting and calming forces.
Green as the Balance Point: Green, being in the middle, was the point of balance and harmony between the two extremes.
Babbitt knew that red light promotes blood flow. He also knew (as did Avicenna) that blue light calms and cools (and slows blood flow).
It’s actually this very quality of blue light that makes overexposure to 24/7 and artificial blue light so toxic! What happens when your tissues experience chronic exposure to blue light? Chronic slowing of blood. This leads to low-grade ischemia, for example. Every organ from the retina in your eye, to organs inside your abdomen are impacted by this pathophysiologic phenomenon.
On the other hand, reduction of blood flow to calm/cool your body can have benefits as well. As Babbitt points out, this can be used to relieve pain. More on this later.
Interestingly, Babbitt also noted the role of Yellow in treatment of liver disease/stasis. Avicenna prescribed flowers and waters of yellow colors to treat biliary disorders (which is part of the liver).
All of these assertions have been replicated by several people from around the world and across several centuries.
From a scientific perspective, one of our most recent discoveries is the role of green light in health and disease.
Notice what Babbitt said about green: used as a general tonic for the nervous system, to soothe and to reduce tension without being overly cold.
Enter Green/Blue Light Therapy
Although Babbitt credits blue light as a pain reliever, modern research reveals a bit more.
First, experiments on pain/withdrawal with animals have consistently demonstrated that although both green and blue light reduce pain…but, green light is a bit more potent in this respect.
In humans, the research has been promising. For example, clinical trials in patients with headaches and migraines have been eye-opening. Use of green light in a regimen similar to red-light therapy has been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of headaches preventatively. It has also been shown to reduce the duration of a headache when used therapeutically.
In addition, it reduces anxiety, improves mood, and improves sleep quality. The mood improvement may be directly related to the fact that blue/green light is necessary for the formation of the neurotransmitter, serotonin. The latter effect is likely a result of reduced pain and suffering.
How this differs from red light therapy is that blue and green light are shorter wavelengths of light. This means they penetrate less than red and infrared.
In animal studies, this manifests in an interesting though predictable manner. For instance, pain thresholds in rats go up with the use of green light (i.e. they are less sensitive to pain). However, if you block light from entering their eyes, the pain-relieving effect of the green light is lost.
So, with red light you can target a tissue directly. But, with blue/green light…at least for the purpose of pain relief…the effects seem to be dependent on the visual system.
Another interesting finding is that the maximal effect of the green light is observed at low intensity of light. The above linked study shows that 4-lux of green light intensity (which is very low) was sufficient to effect the maximal pain-mitigating effect. The highest tested intensity (330 lux) provided little if any benefit.
More recently, human clinical trials have been performed on patients with fibromyalgia. This disease entity is notorious for its overlap with mood disorders. Thus, the efficacy of green light therapy that has been observed in this cohort may be a testament to the dual effect of green light on both mood and pain. Especially since things like anxiety are extremely potent modulators of pain.
Further Reading
If you, like many, still find this hard to believe. You probably need to dig a little deeper into the fundamentals.
To help with this, I wrote an article some time ago:
This would suggest that a walk in the forest (non-winter conditions) would be an effective green light therapy session. 🤔
Homeopath Ambika Waters deserves a shout out for making the homeopathic color remedies. She has written multiple books about their therapeutic uses. ✌🏼