 About Colour Therapy or Chromatotherapy and Light Therapy, Bright-Light Therapy, Coloured-Light Therapy or Cold Laser Therapy...
Colour therapy is the use of colour in a variety of ways to promote health and healing. Used to treat both physical and emotional problems, colour therapy may involve exposure to coloured lights, massages using colour-saturated oils, contemplating and visualising colours, even wearing coloured clothing and eating coloured foods.
Light therapy is the use of natural or artificial light to treat various ailments, but primarily depressive and sleep disorders and SAD. Bright-light therapy has been used very effectively to help those suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Studies show that people with SAD notice significant mood improvement within a week of starting daily morning sessions.
Studies also show that bright-light therapy can also be effective for:-
- Insomnia
- Helping to restore normal sleep patterns in people who can't fall asleep at night or who wake up too early in the morning (there are dawn/dusk simulators available)
- Depression
- PMS
- Chronic anxiety
- Panic attacks
- Jet lag
- Eating disorders - anorexia nervosa and bulimia
- Psoriasis - A specific form of light therapy with ultraviolet radiation is used by dermatologists
The different colours that we see in the world around us are the result of the eye perceiving light vibrating at different frequencies. Sunlight, or full-spectrum light, holds all the wavelengths of colour in the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and magenta) as well as infrared and ultraviolet light, which cannot be seen. Not surprisingly, colour has played a role in healing for centuries dating back to the ancient Egyptians. In India, practitioners of Ayurveda (now the oldest health-care system in the world), taught that specific colours corresponded with each of the seven chakras, the energy centers that represent organs, emotions, and aspects of the spirit.
Colour is a property of light, which consists of many different electromagnetic waves of energy. When light falls upon the photoreceptor cells of the retina, it is converted into electric impulses, which then travel to the brain and trigger the release of hormones. In recent years interest in colour therapy has grown as studies have shown the positive effects of full-spectrum light on seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and other forms of depression. Mainstream researchers are looking into its use for a variety of other ailments as well, from sleep disorders to hormonal problems.
Over the past decade Aura-Soma (an eastern-influenced therapy that uses coloured bottles of essential oils and extracts to shed light on a person's "true inner self") has gained a following. And Esogetic Colorpuncture Therapy (ECT), which focuses coloured light on acupuncture points, is being studied as a treatment for a variety of health problems, including migraines, bronchitis, and uterine fibroids.
Light is needed to maintain the body's circadian rhythms, or internal clock. These rhythms control numerous functions, from hormone levels to sleep and wake cycles. Health problems can develop when the circadian rhythms are thrown off. This can occur when people spend much of their time indoors, work odd shifts, or fly across time zones, or when the amount of daylight decreases in the fall and winter. Bright light therapy helps the body restore its natural circadian rhythms.
Two other types of light therapy are:
- Coloured-light therapy This type of light therapy utilises filtered floodlights or small beams of light to bathe the skin in different shades of colour (usually red, but also white, blue, violet, and occasionally other colours), sometimes in flashing patterns. Advocates suggest that different colours of light affect the body by altering production of neurochemicals in the brain.
- Cold laser therapy Also known as soft or low-level laser therapy, this type of light therapy focuses a beam of low-intensity laser light at a particular area of the body. The treatment is thought to initiate a series of enzymatic reactions and bioelectric events, which stimulate the natural healing process at the cellular level. Supporters suggest that cold laser therapy is useful for relieving pain, reducing inflammation, and helping to heal wounds.
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