Have you ever gone outside and felt the sun on you then felt a sense of peace, relief or happiness?
Years ago when someone had a long term illness that doctors struggled to treat they would recommend the patient spend time in the country air. The most obvious way this would have helped is having them move away from the pollution of the cities, but could there be more to it than just that?
I recently came across studies on the healing properties of infrared light. I started looking into it due to an inflamed tendon in my hand that has been reoccurring and a vague recollection of infrared light treatment being mentioned for helping with inflammation. There has been something of a trend for red light, beauty face masks of late, but apparently there are also devices now available for medical applications. However, before shelling out hundreds of dollars on one of these devices I decided to do a bit of research into whether there was actually any scientific supporting evidence of efficacy. For the sake of my wallet, I'm glad I did.
There is indeed plenty of evidence of the healing properties of red light and infrared light and the best and cheapest source of this is from the sun, so if you can make time to get outside, then there's no point in spending money on red light and infrared light products.
I think we've always instinctively known that getting outside and getting fresh air is good for us. My grandmother and many of her generation born before the second world war used to encourage getting babies and children outside as much as possible, even if it meant wrapping them up warm against the winter cold. Some would put their babies outside while they slept during the day, as long as it wasn't stormy. They just wrapped them up warm when it was cold, sheltered them from rain or shaded them from sun. There was even a brief trend of baby cages in the 1920s-40s for those living in city apartments. It was discontinued due to it being perceived as dangerous and cruel, despite the fact that no injuries or deaths were ever recorded from their use. That said, I'm not sure how healthy city air would have been back then.
So we've always known that fresh air and being outside is good for us. We know that UV light is what is needed for our bodies to make vitamin D, something many westerners have been deficient in for the last few decades (even in hot countries like Australia many are vitamin D deficient, likely due to fear of sunburn and skin cancer). However, I've only recently come across references to how important red and infrared light are for us.
The way in which red and infrared light heal seems to be by stimulating cell repair. Infrared has longer wave lengths than red light and is able to penetrate deeper into the body to affect joints and other body tissues, while red light didn't really get past the skin layer. Because it's reflected by most surfaces other than animal tissue you can get infrared light even if you are shaded. Being surrounded by nature is often cited as being therapeutic and because the chlorophyll in plants reflects this type of light while absorbing UV light, it's looking like there is some new scientific evidence to back this up. We'll be getting extra of the healing and anti-aging red light reflecting back on us, but no extra of the potentially damaging and aging UV light than what comes directly from the sun.
It seems ironic that as we move towards protecting our environment with more ecological technology such as LED lights, treated windows to keep the warming red lights out and better sealing on houses to stop drafts and regulate temperatures in order to reduce energy consumption, we are inadvertently negatively impacting our health while indoors. Candlelight and the older incandescent bulbs emit infrared light, but they are now gone from our homes. Air circulation can keep down mould and toxic fumes we might get from chemicals in the home, but we've plugged any ventilation up to stop drafts. When the sun goes down the only light most of us are getting now is in the range of blue light, which is the signal to our bodies to be awake. Then we wonder why we struggle with sleep.
Sunset and sunrise is when blue lights is lowest due to being scattered by particles in the atmosphere, so we get more red light at these times. UV light is also reduced at these times because, like blue light, it has short wavelengths. So on hot days it's the perfect time to soak up that red and infrared light without getting sunburn.
Of course life doesn't always allow us to get outside very often, so there could still be a place for infrared therapy devices for those of us whose work life keeps us indoors or in our cars during daylight hours. I've been trying to fit more daylight into my own life, but it's harder than I expected during the week when I'm working. I try to have the window open when I'm driving, but weather and driving at higher speeds can interfere with that.
For all the advances we've made, it seems quite ironic to realise that returning to nature is probably one of the best things we can do for our health and wellbeing. That's not to say that I think we should abandon all these modern comforts, but I believe we should probably look at incorporating the natural world into our modern lives much more than we do.