On the mechanism of chromotherapy used in sports medicine and rehabilitation

 

Introduction

Light is the primary stimulus for regulating circadian rhythms, seasonal cycles, and neuroendocrine responses in many species, including humans. Furthermore, clinical studies have demonstrated that chromophototherapy is effective for treating selected affective disorders, sleep problems, and circadian disruptions so that it has been used in sports medicine and rehabilitation. Currently, the ocular photoreceptors that transduce light stimuli for circadian regulation and the clinical benefits of chromophototherapy are unknown [1]. The physiological and psychological effects of color resulting from color vision was called color indirect effect (CIE), and was believed to mediate chromophototherapy in this paper.The chromophototherapy mechanism is studied from CIE viewpoint in this paper.

Methods

CIE was summarized by using  the integrated western and Chinese traditional medicine, and studied by using time quantum theory of radiation-matter interaction put forward by Liu CY et al [2].

Results

The color-autonomic-nervous-subsystem model (CAM) was put forward. According to CAM, cold color (green, blue, violet) excites parasympathetic subsystem and hot color (red, orange and yellow) excites sympathetic subsystem. CAM was supported by sucessful explanation of CIE, and was applied to study light effects on melatonin regulation in human [3], which showed that it is CIE that mediates light effects on melatonin suppression.

Discussion / Conclusions

One of pathways mediated CIE might be autonomic nervous subsystem. As autonomic nervous subsystem is one of pathways mediated exercise induced fatigue [4, 5], CAM provides a foundation for chromophototherapy to be used in sports medicine and rehabilitation.

 

References

[1]. Brainard GC, John P. Hanifin, Jeffrey M. Greeson, Brenda Byrne, Gena Glickman, Edward Gerner, and Mark D. Rollag. (2001). Action Spectrum for Melatonin Regulation in Humans: Evidence for a Novel Circadian Photoreceptor. J Neurosci, 21(16): 6405-6412.

[2]. Liu CY, Chen QM and Li ZG. (1993). Time and radiation time quantization and their application to the transport through a quantum dot turnstile. Physica A. 196(4): 615~624

[3]. Brainard GC, Hanifin JP, Rollag MD, Greeson J, Byrne B, Glickman G, Gerner E, Sanford B. (2001) Human melatonin regulation is not mediated by the three cone photopic visual system. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 86:433-436.

[4]. Pichot V, Busso T, Roche F, Garet M, Costes F, Duverney D, Lacour JR, Barthelemy JC. (2002). Autonomic adaptations to intensive and overload training periods: a laboratory study. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 34(10):1660-6

[5]. Takahashi T, Okada A, Hayano J, Tamura T. (2002). Influence of cool-down exercise on autonomic control of heart rate during recovery from dynamic exercise. Front Med Biol Eng. 11(4):249-59.