By Dr. Mercola

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to use colors as a way to make your life healthier? The truth is, you can. Dr. Alexander Wunsch, who is based in Germany, is a world-class expert in the use of light as a therapeutic healing agent, and is a human treasure trove of information on a topic that very few people understand.

In previous interviews, we've discussed the history of photobiology and how LED lighting can compromise your health. Here, our focus in on the therapeutic use of colored light, which Wunsch began experimenting with nearly 25 years ago.

"My first approach was colorpuncture from Peter Mandel. One evening, I met a friend of mine. I told him I would like to go deeper into the colorpuncture issue and learn more about that. He handed me a book by Darius Dinshah, 'Let There Be Light: Practical Manual for Spectro-Chrome Therapy' …

I thought this is really a fascinating color system. It's not only a color therapy method, it's also a beautiful color system — [the way] Dinshah arranged these 12 basic colors, how they compose the Spectro-Chrome color wheel is a pleasure by itself, because it's very symmetric and there's a very logical plan behind it. I started to evaluate this method on my own."

Why Chromotherapy Was Relegated to the Dustbin

As noted by Wunsch, who has studied the historical rise and fall of photobiology, in the 1920s, there was a strong push to weed out so-called "quackery" in medicine, although there was no evidence-based medicine to speak of as of yet.

All physically-based treatments were targeted for elimination, for the simple reason they were unwanted competition standing in the way of the burgeoning drug industry. In this crusade, the Spectro-Chrome method was one of the hundreds of targets of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"If you have a brave patient who takes the pills every day, he's a good customer … If you have a client who's treating himself with colored light, you might sell a lightbulb to him, but that's it," Wunsch says.

"There was a hype for blue light [in those] days. It was very popular. Light therapy, think of Kellogg, for example, was very popular. The medical experts in a way had problems with the spreading of these physically-based methods. It was more or less a logical step to [ban] the method …

Dinshah did one thing quite early in his chromotherapy career. He thought, 'OK. If the doctors aren't ready for the method, I will address all the knowledge I collected around the diligent use of colors to the laymen.' His motto was, 'Spectro-Chrome for every home.' This was his aim. He wanted to spread the word about the effects of colors so that everyone would know how to treat himself or herself by using colored light."

While there are well-documented health benefits associated with the red, near- mid- and far-infrared spectrum, the Spectro-Chrome method created by Dinshah focuses on the visible part of the light spectrum, on the rainbow and the extra-spectral colors.