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SAD Light Therapy – An Extremely Powerful Solution To Treat SAD Using The Sunlight

1st February, 2011 - Posted by health news - No Comments

In ancient times, light or particularly sun light combined with medicinal herbs was used to treat different skin diseases. This practice was popular in countries like India and China. As time passed by, humans realized the uncountable advantages of sun light and therefore, light therapy or photo-therapy was born.

Light therapy mainly consists of exposure to sun light or to a particular wavelength of light using different light emitting devices such as lasers, light emitting diodes (LED) or full spectrum light. The time duration for which the light is emitted is generally controlled and is for a specific duration .

Today, photo-therapy is commonly used to treat different skin diseases such as acne, tanning and pigmentation. Photo-therapy also finds tremendous use in treating mood swings and Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD). SAD is a mood disorder wherein people who’re healthy all year round, feel depressed during the winters due to insufficient sun light every year. It’s commonly known as winter blues or winter depression and is common in Nordic countries.

This happens since people don’t get Vitamin D due to lack of sun light. The most efficient technique to treat SAD is by the use of SAD light therapy. Light therapy prevents the production of melatonin, a sleep inducing hormone and supports the production of serotonin that results in a happy mood. Light therapy uses a light box that produces 10,000 lux of light i.e much more than that produced by a normal house bulb or a lamp.

Ultraviolet rays cause substantial damage to human skin besides depletion of Vitamin A and Vitamin C in our body. Ultra violet rays also cause free radical generation that leads to premature aging and cause irritation in the eyes and damage the retina. Because of this fact Ultra violet rays are filtered out. Green and white light are the most effective light therapy for SAD. There’s a huge variety of SAD light products to choose from ranging from very large to very small ones depending upon the requirement.

Another solution is to have Vitamin D supplements but this hasn’t proven to be a very successful solution. Although light therapy has several benefits, there are also a few negative effects related to light therapy. It causes jumpiness,headache and nausea. In many cases it might also cause skin rashes and eye irritation.

Thus, proper care needs to be taken while performing light therapy. Till date, light therapy is the most effective treatment for curing SAD and has a very bright future in the coming years. It’ll only get better and far more effective with time.