the sun’s powerful

By Edward Chikanda Mapuranga

impact on mental health and wellness

Just think of it… If the Bible had an extraordinary verse like this ONE
below:-
‘LET THERE BE NO SUNLIGHT SHINING AT ALL UPON THE LENGTH AND
BREATH OF THE WHOLE EARTH’… AND IMMEDIATELY THERE WAS NO
LIGHT OR WARMTH ON THE ENTIRE SURFACE OF THE EARTH AND ICY-
COLD TEMPERATURES MARRIED WITH PITCH-BLACK DARKNESS
DESCENDED BLANKETING THE WHOLE WORLD. THE LORD SAW THIS
AND IT WAS ALL GOOD!
Sunlight mental health and life force

How would reactions within cells and life forms ever have been
activated into life minus the sun as the energy source at the beginning
of it all?
Or the natural cellular energy batteries called mitochondria in all the
living cells be supercharged to make life possible without energy from
this giant natural photon generator in the sky called the sun that we
more often than not take for granted?
Photosynthesis makes plants powerhouses of manufacturing
carbohydrates, proteins and fats we voraciously consume in total.
Mitochondria in cell become magnets of endless energy production
centres to make us living forms only because they gladly tap from what
seems to us a limitless source of free sunlight energy. The living brain
alone as it performs its management and coordinating functions
consumes 20% of all this energy the body generates. Think of light
having afforded you the energy as you read this article.
The visible light spectrum in mental health

Light is a form of energy that is electromagnetic in nature and behaves

as longitudinal waves of various wavelengths seen as various colour
when we see differently coloured images. These coloured lights are
absorbed by all of the creatures great and small including human
beingso enable them to perform activities of life. Without sunlight, life
as we know will cease to exist

Figure 1. Blue light penetrates into

tissues less deeply than red light with a longer wavelength. Red light is therefore more effective in
treatment in comparison. (Image credit: sciencenotes.org).
 To simplify these colours are representing the visible part or spectrum
different levels of energy coming from same sunlight that the body’s
organs absorb resulting in many benefits like synthesis and secretion of
hormones. It is important to highlight that there are parts of light that
the human eye cannot see (the invisible spectrum) but still influences
him biochemically in profound ways. An object can reflect or absorb
light energy with a dark unevenly surfaced object generally absorbing
more than a lighter smoother and shining one. The human body
absorbs light energy of various intensities (Blue, green, yellow, purple,
orange, red) that have significant different biological outcomes in
tissues and organs. Blue, green and red lights are well-researched in
their positive management of Anxiety and Bipolar disorders in
conjunction with antidepressants and in certain circumstances purely

on their own accord. Figure 2. Light treatment

platform with a young woman on Heliotherapy session. Notice the eye-protection goggles meant to
prevent damage due to UV radiation (ultraviolet radiation) from the light source.

We will visit these exciting developments in detail at a later stage and

the research done and on-going in major academic environments and
clinical setup
Figure 3.You may not see microwaves in microwave ovens or radio waves and still get affected in more
ways than one. Both visible and invisible spectrum of electromagnetic waves affect mental as well as
overall wellness

Phototherapy use in mental health

We need to mention that phototherapy as treatment using light energy

referred to above is not a novel idea. Over a hundred years ago ultra-
violet irradiation (UV-light) was used for treating various skin diseases
and in 1903 Nies Finsen was awarded a Nobel Prize when he
successfully treated a patient with a diagnosis of Lupus vulguris. It was
from that turning-point that phototherapy as we know it became an
acceptable form of medical intervention. Diabetic ulcers that
unfortunately affect a good number of individuals with Diabetes and a
form of benign or malignant tumour known as epitheloma both have
been treated with phototherapy as far back as 3000 years ago. You can
carefully imagine the length of that period and the faith in this
treatment as well.
Since energy causes things to happen and the sunlight is a form of
energy, it causes various reactions to come into action in living cells
once it interacts cellular structures like the organelles. Mitochondria
and chloroplasts come into focus as they are dependent on sunlight
either directly or indirectly via other pathways whose activation was
sunlight –induced.
A number of studies show that that there is an immediate uplifting of
one’s mood when coming out of a dark environment and looking
directly into a sun-lit space as soon as the photons (packets of sun’s
energy) are absorbed by the photo-receptors in the retina at the back
of the eye. But light energy is all over and surrounds us impacting not
only the eyes but the skin which is our largest organ anyway.
Sunlight the circadian rhythm
Sunlight and vitamin D synthesis

The skin is an important organ for mental health because it is

responsible for the manufacture of vitamin D when our skin get
exposed to the sun’s rays. Just by exposure to sunlight alone, our skin
becomes a manufacturing complex for vitamin D. Vitamin D receptors
as well enzymes are abundant in the central nervous system where
they affect neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors significant for
mental illness. One effect of this has been research evidence pointing
to the fact that below-normal levels of vitamin D in the body is
implicated in depression. Two other psychotic conditions,
Schizophrenia and Autism have also been linked to Vitamin D deficiency
in scientific studies. Not only these two severe mental illnesses, there
are other worrisome mental health conditions that can arise from
vitamin deficiencies including Vitamin B12 deficiency that is associated
with, bipolar and obsessive-compulsive disorders. However, in the
latter group nutritional problems linked to the diets are the associated
factors. All are equally serious mental conditions nevertheless.
Implications for blue and red light spectrum in wellness
Let us take blue part of the sunlight and compare it with the red part of
the same sunlight. Blue light has shorter wavelength than the red
spectrum component. The question to ask is why the fuss on short or
long wavelengths and the reason is that blue light will not travel or
penetrate much deeper into a biological system such as human organs
like skin as the longer wavelength of the red which can penetrate right
through even to the bone.
Sunlight and the circadian rhythm

Sunlight inhibits secretion of the hormone called melatonin, hence this

hormone’s secretion at night as we sleep is made possible. Melatonin
can directly inhibit Oestrogen and Testosterone (important
reproductive hormones that control male-female relations, tamper and
arousal) and it is sunlight exposure or lack of it that is influencing UVB
light (Blue spectrum part of sunlight) causing this biochemical reaction
to occur in the first place. This occurs as sunlight enters the brain
through the rods and cones (photo-receptors in the back of our eyes) of
the eyes into the deeper structures of the brain causing a cascading
effect to stimulate the pineal gland which then secretes the hormone
melatonin. Just understand this phenomenon would be incapacitated
immediately without photons from sunlight! Remember melatonin has
wide-ranging effects on regulation of many organs and biological
systems including sex, passion, relationships, sleep and overall positive
mood of an individual. When a person sleeps well thank melatonin for
it has carefully calibrated that length of your night’s sleep pattern. You
wake up in the morning and that cyclic miracle comes from melatonin
conveying a signal the daylight part of the cycle is upon us.
Sunlight use as a phototherapeutic source
The use of sunlight to treat and prevent mental illness is backed by
solid scientific inquiry. Vitamin D, light and mental health are an
intricate network that result positive health for human beings