Sunlight, Outdoor Light, and Light Therapy in Disease Management
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Top Contributors - Cindy John-Chu, Kim Jackson, Robin Leigh Tacchetti and Robin Tacchetti
Introduction[edit | edit source]
A lack of bright light and sunshine may lead to various medical disorders. This brief review highlights the role and practical application of light therapy, sunlight, and outdoor light exposure as an adjunct in managing pain, depression, and mood.
Since antiquity, many ancient cultures have worshipped the sun for a variety of reasons. Hippocrates wrote the first texts
Since antiquity, many ancient cultures have worshiped the sun for a variety of reasons. Hippocrates wrote the first texts about the sun's benefits on mental health and mood and named this therapy “Heliotherapy.”1 Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary defines heliotherapy as “exposure to sunlight for therapeutic purposes” and phototherapy as “exposure to sunlight or to ultraviolet light for therapeutic purposes.”2 Phototherapy may be used to treat conditions such as extensive atopic dermatitis, extensive psoriasis, seasonal and nonseasonal depression, seasonal bipolar disorders, and neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.3 From about the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, sunlight, in combination with isolation, proper hygiene, fresh air, good nutrition, and physical exercise, was used to control and treat tuberculosis.4 Moreover, Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860–1904) earned a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1903 for his work on phototherapy to treat diseases such as lupus vulgaris.5
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