BODY AFFECTED BY COLOR
Light affects every living cell in your body. It is dominated by longer wavelengths than daylight and can disturb your hormonal balance. Stress-like reactions are caused by this artificial light, especially if it’s glaring or flickering.
Anatomy of vision
The amount of light that goes into your pupil is controlled by a ring of muscles called the iris.( It’s pigmentation determines your eye color).
The retina is the inside surface of your eye, and has two types of photo receptor cells: rods and cones. It is immune to fatigue and can take a lot of stress. When subject to excessive activity, your eye muscles will get tired, but not your eye nerves. Glaring and bright lights prolong the fixation of your eyes, resulting in your eyes tiring quickly, causing headaches, nausea and tension. Rods contain a pigment that is more light-sensitive than that found in the cones. They operate in dim lights when cones can’t work. Rods dominate your peripheral vision. When the light becomes dimmed, the rods become active.
Cones operate when the light is increased and gives you detailed vision color perception. Cones are in the central part of the retina directly opposite the pupil, the region occupying the most distinctive field of vision. Color vision is determined by the three types of cones present. These are sensitive to wavelengths of red green or blue. All the colors are seen through combinations of them. When looking at bright lights, the cones become active. When you look from near to far, your eye changes focus on the distance. The shape of the lens then changes and causes the ciliary muscle around the lens of the eye to relax when it’s looking at distant vision and contract when it looks at near objects. To keep maintaining focus on your object, this muscle continuously stay contracted.
Body affects of light
Natural solar sunlight has a profound effect on your body. Without light there would be no life. Our development occurred under the constant influence of solar light which affects every living cell in your body from your skin to your light-sensitive eye. We are all affected by the distribution of light, which changes between day and night, winter and summer. Warm light is associated with relaxation.
Fluorescent light has replaced natural light during our daytime hours. Yet it is not a substitute for natural light. Our body needs constant exposure to sunlight. Sunlight, being balanced, is essential for your growth and health . Unbalanced artificial light has a negative effect on your general well-being. Research in animals showed growth and health were affected by excessive exposure to nonnatural lights, causing behavioral hyperactivity. Every chemical, vitamin, or mineral, that we take in our body as food has a wavelength absorption that is characteristic of energy. This wavelength penetrates the skin and interacts with the chemicals and minerals in your blood. The light received through the eyes stimulate the pituitary gland that control your nervous and hormonal systems. The wavelengths that we miss in artificial light or that are filtered from us by windows sunglasses, and windshields, cause an abnormal illumination similar to malnutrition. Despite other wave lengths being present, the minerals and chemicals that would normally be metabolized by the wavelengths filtered now cannot be metabolized. . Beyond just affecting our vision and our suntans, there are abnormal direct responses of the circulating chemicals to the light waves mediated by the brain and the hormone organs..
We all know that over exposure to ultraviolet radiation in tanning booths can cause redness of your skin and even cause allergies and even skin cancer. Yet we all need some UV radiation, and by completely protecting ourselves from all of it, we create a deficiency in our energy supporting system. Vitamin D is absorbed through the skin by UV radiation. It promotes metabolism of phosphorus and calcium in your body and is present in all cells. Ordinary window glass absorbs all the essential radiation except UVB. The ultraviolet range wavelengths pass through glass, but produce virtually no vitamin D, nor erythema of the skin. Elderly people in nursing homes who constantly stay indoors during the winter eat poorly and have reduced levels of vitamin D. Constantly under cool White fluorescent lights, the incidence of dental caries increases. There is also a decrease in pulse rates drops in blood pressure changes in skin and metabolic rates, and susceptibility to infections.
Constant lack of exposure to sunlight causes weakening of the body’s immune system, increases stress, and fatigue. Ordinary window glass absorbs essentially all the biologically active ultraviolet spectra and there is no ultraviolet light emitted. . Infrared is weak in fluorescent lights. When light contains infrared energy it penetrates the skin, increases circulation and vasodilation of the blood vessels.
Natural light sends signals, by way of the hypothalamus to the autonomic nervous system, to respond to environmental changes. It affects the production of hormones throughout your entire endocrine system that is influenced by your pituitary gland. The pineal gland is involved in the production and secretion of the hormone melatonin. Both the pineal and pituitary glands control your entire endocrine system, releasing hormones, and control your entire body chemistry. Students who stay in school the entire day without outside exposure, have increased hyperactive behavior. These artificial lights also cause stress, and the release of increased cortisone.
Your biological clock keeps time with sunrise and sunset. Melatonin, produced by your pineal body, regulates its activity via the pineal gland, triggered by the light through your eyes. Environmental illumination controls this rate of melatonin synthesis. Melatonin is turned off during the day under sunlight and released at night. By extending our artificial light three hours before dawn and three hours after dusk results, results in increased depression.
Man needs light, and light offers the most important environmental nourishment, only secondary to food. Today, we use more light for longer periods in our 24-hour cycle than ever before. We are losing our connection to seasonal variation of natural light as we switch lights on in the morning and use additional lights in our workspaces during the day. We go shopping in highly illuminated spaces at night and end up later in front of flickering television sets. The question is: “When will there ever be too much light instead of whether there is enough?”. Artificial light is dominated by longer wavelengths than daylight and disturbs your hormonal balance, causing stress like reactions are especially if it’s glaring or flickering. Acupuncture, and color therapy can help restore normal organ functions by reestablishing normal organ wavelength frequencies.
Sourcse: sarnacki art studios, Acupuncture Institute of Michigan.