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 A new member of our scientist panel, Dr. Alexander Wunsch of Wismar University of Applied Sciences, Germany, gave a talk on "Why the Sun is Necessary for Optimal Health." Dr. Wunsch is an expert in vibrational medicine and photobiology. In his private medical practice in Heidelberg, Germany, he uses systemic color therapy in combination with electromagnetic fields, body sound application, and Cranio-Sacral bodywork. He does research in the field of light effects on cellular levels and developed a number of devices for vibrational medicine, chromotherapy and electromagnetic environment testing.
The History of Light Therapy
Until the 1950's the sun was the most prescribed and most effective treatment for all ills. Dr. Wunsch presented the history of heliotherapy, including some illustrative photographs of early heliotherapy machines and the amazing successes of some of Dr. Auguste Rollier's heliotherapy patients. Here is a before and after picture of a man with lupus vulgaris who underwent light therapy with Dr. Rollier in the early 1900s.
Dr. Wunsch also presented a Rollier case study showing a young boy who had severe rickets and was weeks away from death. After undergoing light treatment, he lived a healthy life. Below are pictures of before and after therapy, as well as at different stages of his life.
It was enlightening to know that there are many case studies and much data documenting the positive effects of the sun and light treatment. For those who read French, you can order Dr. Rollier's book and find out more about his practice.
He also presented the picture below. What do you think it is?
It is an entrance into the coal miner baths that were accessed at the end of their workday. Understanding that the miners were underground all day, the owners of the mine, wanting to keep their workers healthy and producing coal, made sure their workers still received the benefits of sun exposure (in this case sun lamps). The workers stripped down and walked in a slowly moving, single file line, into the entrance of the baths at the end of their day. Was this a precursor to today's preventative health plans? Could you see a company doing this today? Similar to lactation rooms, companies could provide areas for employees to take a "sun break" during lunch time. Would you like that in your work place?
How do you have sensible sun exposure?
A theme from the seminar was that it is important to have daily, sensible sun exposure. There was much discussion about when and how you could best get vitamin D and other benefits from the sun and most scientists tout "solar noon" as that optimal time for sun exposure. Unfortunately, the sun is not high enough in the sky, even at solar noon, in areas more than 35 degrees north or south of the equator at certain times of the year, so alternatives must be considered. As an alternative to direct sunlight, which most would consider optimal, sun lamps or tanning beds can be available all year long and at any time of the day.
The important thing is to be safe and never burn. We all need to be educated - or reminded - on how to get enough sun, but not too much. There were two vendors in our exhibit area that showed different ways to get sensible sun. One had an app called dminder and another had a wearable device called SunFriend.
Dr. Wunsch presented the chart below as an illustration of how light therapists gradually acclimate the body to light (sun or lamp). Session 1 you only expose the feet to 5 minutes of light. Session 2, after 5 minutes of exposure only on the feet, a blanket is raised to expose the lower leg along with the feet for an additional 5 minutes. Etc... You can see that this is a very gradual process.
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