Syntonic Phototherapy

Abstract

C linical and basic research in the last decades showing the impact of light on cells, tissues, blood, circadian rhythms, and mood disorders has increased the acceptance of light as a healing agent. This article describes syntonic optometric phototherapy in hopes of stimulating interest and research to validate and expand its use. We are very grateful to Dr. Raymond Lanzafame, PMLS, Editor-in-Chief, for inviting us to write this guest editorial. Syntonics uses noncoherent, nonpolarized, nonnarrowband light delivered into the eyes to treat visual dysfunctions, brain injury, headache, strabismus, eye pathology, learning disability, and mood and developmental syndromes. Syntonics is a local and nonlocal therapy that is primarily neurologic in action and neurobehavioral in effect. The eyes permit direct, noninvasive application of light to the retinal blood supply and to nonvisual, retinal photoreceptors that signal circadian and other brain centers. Patients generally look at prescribed colors for 20 minutes=day, three to five treatments per week for 20 treatments. Visual field, pupil, and binocular testing, medical history, and current symptoms determine the syntonic filter prescription. Here we describe syntonic theory, equipment, clinical procedures, and outcomes by using neurorehabilitation of brain injury to illustrate syntonic phototherapy. Syntonic optometry was conceived of in the 1920s by H. Riley Spitler, O.D., M.D. After studying the works of Pleasanton, 1 Pancoast, 2 Babbitt, 3 and Ghadiali, 4 Spitler began systematic experiments with rabbits raised in various light environments. By 1916, he began to investigate the therapeutic use of light through visual pathways via the eyes. Spitler worked with Carl Loeb, M.D., to develop Specific Light Therapy 5 and adapted this approach for optometrists by applying light directly into the eyes to treat visual problems. Spitler's central thesis, published as The Syntonic Principle, in 1941, concluded that chronic systemic, mental= emotional, and visual ailments were caused primarily by autonomic nervous and endocrine imbalance and that specific light frequencies shined into the eyes could stimulate or sedate autonomic and endocrine functioning to restore balance via direct retinal input to thalamic and hypothalamic regulatory centers, thereby correcting visual dysfunctions at their source. His model suggests that red, orange, and yellow light on the low-energy, long-wavelength side of the visible spectrum acts to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, green (mid-spectrum) yields physiological balance, and blue and indigo (high energy, fast frequencies

Changes in the Brain Activity and Visual Performance of Patients with Strabismus and Amblyopia after a Compete Cycle of Light Therapy

“…The central fixation target was a single digit that randomly flashed at intervals of 1500 ms. Visual field measures were obtained before beginning any treatment (basal), after eight treatment sessions (to monitor progress), and after 20 sessions of LTH program (final) [ 17 , 18 ].…”

“…Data were recorded in the Neuronic™ Psychophysiology system. Two EEG recordings were performed for each patient: before (at baseline) and after twenty sessions of LTH (a total cycle of light therapy program) [ 17 ].…”

“…The LTH accommodation using the visible spectrum (380–780 nm) is illustrated in Figure 1 [ 17 ]. The visible spectrum (380–780 nm), was used for LTH.…”

“…Likewise, the presence of theta-waves at baseline, on different brain regions and particularly on frontal lobes, suggests that strabismus and amblyopia are part of a neurodevelopment disorder [ 16 ], which requires deeper attention and intervention. The results published in our previous paper focused on the cortical electrical activity of SA patients at the precise moment of receiving a light stimulus [ 16 ], but this research goes a step forward and analyzes the permanence of the light effect on the brain activity of SA patients after a complete cycle or twenty consecutive sessions of LTH, once the stimulus is off [ 17 , 18 ], as well as its influence on the visual performance of these patients. A control group was used as a comparative to SA patients across the light therapy program.…”

“…Light, on the other hand, has been demonstrated to impact both visual and non-visual processes, including retinal functions, circadian rhythms, metabolic processes, sleep, mood, and growth. Cognition can be enhanced by modifying its intensity and wavelength [ 22 ], and therapeutic effects can be triggered in patients with visual dysfunctions [ 17 , 18 ], and degenerative diseases [ 3 , 4 ]. Specifically, in our study, visible light was used for the treatment program, as cells responsive to luminance, color, or luminance and color, were found in the primary visual cortex (V1) [ 23 ], whose neural brain activity and synchronization was influenced and modified by its different wavelengths [ 24 ].…”