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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chromotherapy | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromotherapy | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:18:02.227433+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Scientific rejection == Chromotherapy is a popular pseudoscience. Its practice is regarded by health experts and historians as a form of quackery. According to a book published by the American Cancer Society, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that alternative uses of light or color therapy are effective in treating cancer or other illnesses". Regarding Dinshah Ghadiali's work, science writer Martin Gardner had described him as "perhaps the greatest quack of them all". According to Gardner, photographs of Ghadiali at work in his laboratory are "indistinguishable from stills of a grade D movie about a mad scientist". Historian Deborah Ascher Barnstone has noted that chromotherapy is "distinct from scientifically verified light treatments such as neonatal jaundice treatment. As, unlike chromotherapy, the light used in such therapies, whether scientifically proven or not, was not always colored, their particulars are not relevant in this context." Photobiology, the term for the scientific study of the effects of light on living tissue, has sometimes been used instead of the term chromotherapy in an effort to distance it from its roots in Victorian mysticism and to strip it of its associations with symbolism and magic. Light therapy is a specific treatment approach using high intensity light to treat specific sleep, skin, and mood disorders. A review of the existing research on chromotherapy found that there is no evidence to support a causal link between specific colors to health outcomes, there is not enough evidence to support a causal link between specific colors and emotional or mental states, and there is no research to suggest there exists one-to-one relationships between specific colors and emotions. Chromotherapy has been accused of oversimplifying psychological responses to colors, making sweeping statements based on myths or beliefs that lack empirical support. Guidelines for chromotherapy lack consistency and appear to be subjective judgements that have inconclusive and nonspecific applicability in healthcare systems. While twelve colors have been reported as beneficial for health and well-being, a rigorous definition of each of these colors has yet to be provided, making it impossible to know if all color therapists are using the same wavelengths for these colors. More recently, concern regarding the theory has questioned the risks associated with the emergence of light-emitting diode (LED) based lamps that have been created for use in chromotherapy. These lamps are classified as low risk for exposure and do not require any warnings to accompany the products. However, certain chromotherapy procedures require the individual to place the lamps near their eyes, which is not the recommended use for these lights and may alter the exposure duration to a level that can cause risk of retinal damage. With no consensus or regulation regarding how these products are to be used and whether eyewear is required, this treatment puts participants at risk for serious eye damage.
== See also == Colorpuncture List of ineffective cancer treatments List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
== References ==
== Further reading == Edwin Dwight Babbitt. (1886). The Principles of Light and Color. East Orange, New Jersey. Martin Gardner. (1957). Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20394-8
== External links == Color+Therapy at the U.S. National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)