The Importance of Sunlight

[Guest guest]

The Role of Light in Health

> `Super Nutrient' Lacking in

> Most Artificially Illuminated Rooms

>

> `Super Nutrient' Lacking in Most Artificially

> Illuminated Rooms, Scientists Warn.

>

> Tinted and dark glasses can harm your health and may

> depress your immune system and endocrine glands!

>

> A nutrient that travels at a speed of 186,000 miles a

> second from a source 93 million miles away rates with

> food, water and air as part of the life-support system

> on earth.

>

> It is light from the sun.

>

> But light also comes from manmade sources, and therein

> lies a number of problems.

>

> The wrong kind of artificial light can make students

> irritable in school, reduce production among factory

> workers and make office workers sluggish.

>

> Not enough of the right kind of light can interfere

> with calcium absorption in the elderly and contribute

> to brittle bones, scientific studies show.

>

> On the positive side, light can be used to control

> jaundice (using so-called " billy lights " , UV) in the

> newborn. It also can boost beef production; cattle

> that spend " longer days " under correct artificial

> light are 10% to 15% heavier, with no increase in food

> consumption.

>

> The light that some scientists consider a " super

> nutrient " is full-spectrum light, which comes from the

> sun or from fluorescent bulbs of special design that

> simulate sunlight. (Actually, despite the designation

> of these artificial lights, they did not match the

> full spectrum of sunlight.)

>

> Incandescent bulbs and most fluorescent bulbs do not

> produce full-spectrum light. This may be contributing

> to " mal-illumination, " say photo biologists, the

> scientists who specialize in the study of light's

> effects on living creatures.

>

> The science of photobiology is a recent one. Some

> photo biologists say doctors showed little interest in

> the subject until about five years ago. The American

> Society of Photo biology was founded only eight years

> ago.

>

> One way of rating light is by a color rendering index,

> the CRI. of 100. Full-spectrum fluorescent, 91;

> standard cool white fluorescent, 68; other

> fluorescent, 56.

>

> Under natural light or an artificial source that

> duplicates natural light, there is less human fatigue

> and stress and better visual acuity and production,

> studies have shown.

>

> Consider:

>

> -Plants grown under artificial lighting that comes

> close to duplicating full-spectrum sunlight can be

> made to flower on preset schedules by controlling day

> length.

>

> -In dairies, changing the length of light exposure

> from natural 9 to 12 hours of light to 16 hours of

> fluorescent light of the full- spectrum type increased

> the milk yield by 10% to 15%.

>

> -Full-spectrum light is used to treat psoriasis,

> neonatal jaundice and herpes simplex infections.

>

> Rays from sunlight stimulate the pineal gland, a

> pea-sized organ in the head. This gland secretes

> melatonin, a hormone that seems to control many bodily

> functions. When infected into animals, melatonin

> induces sleep, inhibits ovulation and modifies the

> secretion of other hormones. Experts say that both

> plastic and regular eyeglasses and contact lenses

> block some of the ultraviolet rays that travel through

> the eye to the pineal gland.

>

> -At the Center for Improvement of Undergraduate

> Education, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., students

> working in a class with fluorescent light closely

> approximating sunlight experienced a significant

> increase in visual acuity and a reduction in overall

> fatigue, compared to performance under regular

> fluorescent lights.

>

> Ott, of Sarasota, Fla., a pioneer in light and

> health research, for the last 50 year has been warning

> against unhealthy effects of some kinds of light.

> Earlier, he was rebuffed, but now there is basic

> research that supports his ideas.

>

> Ott said he first noticed strange happenings in living

> things under certain light sources when he was working

> on time-lapse photography for Walt Disney movies.

>

> At the Bronx Zoo curators credit full-spectrum

> lighting with helping the tufted puffin, a shy sea

> bird, survive in captivity. Under the influence of

> " indoor sunshine, " the puffins, for the first time,

> laid eggs that hatched.

>

> Strange things happened in Burnett Park Zoo in

> Syracuse, N.Y., when sunlight-simulating lights were

> installed in an effort to stop vandalism. " The zoo

> became a veritable maternity ward, " said director

> T. Clift.

>

> " The cougars fell in love all over again and produced

> their fourth litter, we collected five goose eggs, at

> least 8 lambs were born, and the deer population

> increased by 20. Big Lizzie gave birth to a bear cub.

> The wallaby produced a new mini-kangaroo and the

> chimpanzee got pregnant. "

>

> Ph.D., a scientist at Duro-Test Corp.,

> North Bergen, N.H., said the Syracuse zoo's experience

> is just one example of the effects of natural-like

> light. is a vice president at Duro-Test, the

> firm that makes the most widely used full-spectrum

> fluorescent light, Vita-Lite.

>

> A specialist in neurological sciences, physiology and

> psychology, said. " Light is definitely a

> nutrient. It is essential to life and the whole

> endocrine system. Light has a role in triggering

> hormones.

>

> `Vitamin D is synthesized by ultraviolet in the skin.

> Vitamin D receptors help proper bone development and

> prevent development of rickets. Vitamin D facilitates

> the absorption of calcium.

>

> " Under light not closely approximating the sun, one

> study found calcium absorption dropped off in the

> elderly in the indoors in winter. But those under

> full-spectrum lighting had an increase in calcium

> absorption. "

>

> In an upcoming book on holistic medicine, produced

> with funding from the National Institute of Mental

> Health, says:

>

> " Along with food, air, and water, sunlight is a most

> important survival factor in human life. Solar

> radiation activates other important biochemical events

> in our bodies involved in endocrine control, timing of

> our biological clocks, entrainment of 24-hour

> circadian rhythms, immunologic responsiveness, sexual

> growth and development, regulation of stress and

> fatigue, control of viral and cold infections, and

> dampening of functional disorders of the nervous

> system. "

>

> He said the last two or three generations are the

> first to have spent three-fourths of their lives under

> artificial light. " We do not fully know the effect, "

> he said.

>

> The Russians know more than Americans, perhaps, about

> the health effects of various kinds of light.

>

> Under light that is full-spectrum, Russian scientific

> reports show, production goes up and absenteeism goes

> down. This kind of light is mandated in many Russian

> workplaces.

>

> In schools, it has been demonstrated in Russia,

> full-spectrum lighting or ultraviolet treatment helps

> academic performance, improves student behavior and

> lessens fatigue.

>

> The Russians practice light therapy on coal miners who

> spend their working day out of natural light. Once a

> day coal miners must disrobe and spend half an hour in

> natural light or under full- spectrum artificial

> lighting.

>

> said the Russians have reported that this

> regiment is useful in both preventing and treating

> black lung disease. " The Russian researchers and

> health specialists have documented that the body's

> tolerance to environmental pollutants is increased by

> full- spectrum light, which also increased the

> effectiveness of immunization procedures, " he said.

>

> West Germany's government restricts the use of cool

> white limited-spectrum fluorescent bulbs in public

> buildings because of their distorted spectral output.

>

> Ott, the pioneer health and light expert, maintains

> that sodium vapor lights, now offered as the latest

> technological advancement, do not reproduce the full

> spectrum of natural light.

>

> " The Fort Worth, Texas school district was one of the

> first to install sodium lighting in perhaps a dozen

> schools. It was one of the first to take them all out

> because complaints of both teachers and pupils of

> headaches, eyestrain and other health-related

> problems, " he said.

>

> Ott contends that another major problem with all

> gaseous- discharge types of lights, including the

> mercury vapor and limited- spectrum fluorescent light,

> is that they emit radiation that grossly weakens

> muscle strength, affecting both academic achievement

> and behavior.

>

> A recent Consumers' Research magazine report on the

> risk to health from some fluorescent lamps suggested

> new probes by industry and the government.

>

> " There are good reasons, in our opinion, for

> government agencies and industry engineers to initiate

> promptly laboratory research programs on the effects

> of the spectral characteristics of artificial lighting

> on animals used in research and on human beings, " it

> said.

>

> A psychiatrist who uses light in his therapy is Dr.

> H.L. Newbold of New York.

>

> " Before we began civilizing ourselves into

> semi-invalidism, we received an abundance of

> full-spectrum light: the kind that nature provides for

> us in the form of sunlight, " says Newbold, author of

> " Mega-nutrients for Your Nerves. "

>

> " What we now get is a mere fraction of the spectrum. "

>

> " Once we are all ensconced behind our office desks or

> in our living room armchairs, science efficiently

> furnishes us with electric light.

>

> " If your company is really up to date you are probably

> working under fluorescent light, which may be an

> industrial engineer's dream of perfection - but

> happens to be the most nutrient-deficient of all

> lighting devices.

>

> " Even ordinary light bulbs are preferable to the total

> artificiality of the fluorescent environment. "

>

> Newbold uses full-spectrum lighting in his office and

> has a special plastic in place of glass in his office

> windows to allow the ultraviolet from natural daylight

> to enter.

>

> To let the ultraviolet from full-spectrum lighting

> into the pathway to the brain, he suggests special

> lenses for spectacles and contracts for his patients.

>

> In the treatment of yellow jaundice, newborns used to

> get complete blood transfers. That was until a nurse

> noticed that a jaundiced infant seemed to be getting

> better on his own.

>

> The infant's crib was near an open window, and natural

> light was streaming in. The babies near the wall and

> out of reach of sunbeams were not doing as well.

>

> So light treatment was tried on babies with jaundice,

> and it worked. Now, about 25,000 newborns a year get

> the treatment.

>

> In fact, three famous babies received the treatment

> some years ago at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in

> New York.

>

> Three of the Kienast quints had jaundice, and they

> were cured by full-spectrum lighting. When they went

> home, it was to a nursery with full-spectrum light.

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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>

> HOW LIGHTING AND GLASSES CAN AFFECT YOUR MOODS

>

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>

> The type of lighting un your house and office can

> affect your mood and may even help prevent or cure

> arthritis and other diseases, an expert has revealed.

>

> Even the color tint of the lenses you wear in your

> glasses or sunglasses can rob you of energy by

> preventing certain light wavelengths from entering

> your system, according to Ott, director of the

> Environmental Health and Light Research Institute in

> Sarasota, Fla.

>

> " Light is well documented that light entering the eyes

> influences the master glands, the pituitary and pineal

> glands, which control the entire endocrine system. "

>

> Different kinds of lighting conditions include

> natural, unfiltered sunlight, incandescent light

> bulbs, fluorescent light, sunlight filtered through

> different kinds of glass, and sunlight reflected of

> different color interiors.

>

> In experiments on first grade students in Sarasota,

> researchers have found that children who work in a

> classroom with cool white fluorescent lighting are

> more hyperactive than students in another classroom

> with full-spectrum fluorescent tubes which duplicate

> natural sunlight but with shields to stop harmful

> radiation.

>

> " Under the standard, cool white fluorescent lighting,

> some first graders showed nervous fatigue,

> irritability, lapses of attention and hyperactive

> behavior, " says Ott, author of Health And Light

> (Pocket Books, $1.95).

>

> " Within a week after the new lights were installed,

> the children settled down and paid more attention to

> their teachers. "

>

> Dr. Ott says that different kinds of lights can also

> affect the course of disease.

>

> Experiments with mice have shown that mice who live

> under pink fluorescent light develop cancer more

> quickly than mice who live under white fluorescent

> light and natural light.

>

> Tinted sunglasses can also affect you physically and

> psychologically because they block out certain colors

> of the light spectrum that you need for health, Ott

> claims.

>

> He says he persuaded a man with prostate cancer to

> stop wearing pink tinted eyeglasses.

>

> " For three years he has worn new full-spectrum clear

> ultraviolet transmitting spectacles and, apparently,

> his problem has disappeared. "

>

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>

> SPECIAL NOTES

>

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>

> Our friends, Dean and Hardy, authors of " Pyramid

> Energy Explained " , told us that they see more people

> that have been getting mercury poisoning in their

> system.

>

> Through investigating where these people were living

> and their personal lifestyles, they found that in most

> cases, these individuals were being exposed to mercury

> vapor lighting systems.

>

> These people were found to be sleeping under street

> lights which were of the mercury vapor type. After a

> certain amount of time, the frequency at which mercury

> resonates would be absorbed into the body.

>

> Some of them blocked out the light which shined into

> their room which eventually corrected the problem.

>

> One observation I have made in my own workplace. A

> mercury vapor lighting system was installed on the

> outside of our building a few years ago.

>

> Since that time we seem to have a problem making grass

> grow in the area. We must now frequently replace the

> dead grass with new. Additionally, we seem to have a

> problem with insects.

>

> Of course, sodium lighting puts out a yellow light

> which drives insects away, so that might account for

> the insect problem.

>

> Additionally, we refer you to Tesla's idea that any

> RADIANT SOURCE was emitting extremely energetic and

> highly charged PHYSICAL PARTICLES. He indicated that

> this highly energetic matter could be picked up or

> accumulated using the proper techniques.

>

> Does this not then offer a possibility that the

> mercury vapor under the influence of high potential

> currents could be so projected as to accumulate in the

> body tissues?

>

> source:

> http://www.sumeria.net/health/light.html