Lifestyle Choices

Like plants and animals, we need light to stay in optimum health. Not only the light available through the tinted windows of the cars we drive and behind our fashionable sunglasses, but the full spectrum of ultraviolet rays one gets only when naked eyes are exposed to the sun in the open air. The work of photobiologists such as Dr. John Ott, author of Light and Health (published by Devin-Adair, Old Greenwich, Connecticut) has shown that the type and quality of the light entering our eyes can affect our hormonal balance and body chemistry as a whole, influencing energy levels as well as how we feel emotionally.

If the light reaching the photoreceptor mechanisms in the eyes is the full spectrum of normal, unfiltered sunlight, it helps greatly to keep the functioning of the body normal. Light may even be useful in the treatment of a number of ailments quite unrelated to the eyes. Some physicians have found that exposing patients to the full spectrum of natural sunlight can be helpful in the treatment of many illnesses, from arthritis and diabetes to liver and skin diseases and even depression.

The field of photobiology is a young one and as yet no one understands why light appears to be so important to the healthy functioning of the body, and it may be many years before controlled studies are available to decipher all the mysteries. The most interesting theory to date is that light is necessary to the body because whatever chemical products it helps to produce in the system probably serve as a kind of flame to burn the nutritional fuel that comes from oxygen. If not enough light is visible, then ultimately cell metabolism will suffer. Certain toxic by-products of incomplete oxidation could interfere further with cell functioning and ultimately, therefore, with the functioning of the body as a whole. Many speculate that just as we are now discovering that nutritional deficiencies can bring on a disposition toward many illnesses, in the future we are likely to discover the existence of subclinical light deficiencies—something which until recently was never considered even as a remote possibility.

In the meantime, photobiologists are becoming increasingly concerned with three things in modern life which, they say, could prove strongly detrimental to human health in the long run: increasing environmental pollution, which is changing the variety of electromagnetic waves and the intensity of light that now reaches the earth; the increasing use of artificial light, which does not offer the full spectrum of natural sunlight that the body appears to thrive on; and the increasing use of colored glasses as a fashion accessory.

Smithsonian Institution reports show that we have experienced a loss of 14 percent in the intensity of sunlight reaching our eyes in the past half century. Other scientific measurements of light indicate that we have also witnessed a 26 percent reduction in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum reaching our eyes. Living in a modern environment also means that we live increasingly, at home and at work, under artificial lighting, which almost eliminates the important ultraviolet wavelengths. Researchers claim that as a result we are experiencing a kind of “light pollution,” which may seriously affect our health and well-being over time. Only a great many more studies will show who are most at risk and how badly they may he affected.

The fashion-conscious woman who wears sunglasses day in and day out may seriously be undermining her health and vitality in the long run. Pink lenses, for instance, worn over a period of time, appear to affect the wearer in a marked psychological way, making one more irritable and disturbed. This phenomenon has been reported again and again from various sources. But all tinted lenses filter out specific wavelengths of light and may, say photobiologists, cause adverse effects.

Most women who wear tinted lenses do so because they believe they make them look better, because their eyes feel particularly sensitive to bright light. Much of the sensitivity comes from the practice of wearing the tinted lenses in the first place. When habitual sunglass wearers remove their glasses, they do often experience a few days when their eyes seem bothered by the full spectrum of sunlight, but this apparent sensitivity soon passes.

For the sake of your health and vitality, it is important to spend at least an hour a day out in the open with your eyes exposed to the sunlight—not guarded behind lenses, whether the lenses be glasses or window panes or car windshields. Wear sunglasses when you need them, by all means, but don’t wear them incessantly as a fashion accessory. Your eyes and the rest of your body need light.

Lighting manufacturers, interested in the reports about the importance of full-spectrum light for health, have begun to develop bulbs that simulate natural sunshine, but they aren’t widely available yet.

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