Over the past few years, blue light has allowed us to understand heart problems, control brain functions, and activate muscle tissue. Now, another biomedical function can be added to its list – because it’s known to have antimicrobial qualities, it’s been used to stop infections of the skin and soft tissues.
According to the American Society for Microbiology, such infections are the second most commonly-encountered type in private practice, and the most common type presented in emergency rooms. Unfortunately, as bacterial resistance to antibiotics grows, other means of stopping these infections are increasingly needed.
In a proof-of-concept study, led by Dr. Michael R. Hamblin of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, an array of blue LEDs was used to treat infected burns on lab mice. More specifically, the blue light was used to selectively eradicate potentially-lethal Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria in the animals’ skin and soft tissues.
The results of the study were promising. All of the light-treated mice survived, while 82 percent of the untreated control group died. Additionally, unlike bacteria-killing ultraviolet light, the blue light wasn’t harmful to the animals’ own cells.
Although more research needs to be conducted, existing knowledge of blue light’s antimicrobial qualities suggests that bacteria would be less likely to develop a resistance to it than to antibiotics.
A paper on the research is scheduled to be published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, and can currently be accessed online.
Source: American Society for Microbiology
You can die from drinking water at a rate your stomach will tolerate but even healthy kidneys cant process. Nothing is totally safe but blue light is high on the list.
You evolve in an environment that has varying light from none to mid day blue. Living in environments other than those we evolved under will adversely affect your health. Over exposure to blue light is not healthy.
OMG!! Has no one woken up to the fact that a healthy human is an 11:1 mix of bacteria to human cells. That's right you are a minority in your own body.
Both blue light and penicillin kill bacteria indiscriminately. In some cases killing off entire populations of bacteria that never come back which adversely affects your health in ways that might not all be obvious. Like your mental health or your taste in foods or even your dislike or like of other people.
I think the problem is that 1. we have never really had a complete survey of the entire population of bacteria that live in and on the human species, and 2. a better understanding of why and what is going on when bacterial production gets out of control causing problems with the natural processes. I think if we truly understood what was really going on then maybe we could correctly treat the problem without causing any damage.
Anything at all besides just blue?????