Indian Journal of Expcrimcntal Biology Vol. 4 1, May 2003, pp. 440-445

Biophoton emission of human body

S Cohen & F A Popp*

International Institutc of Biophys ics. Biophoton Rcscarch, Stat ion Hombroich, Kapcllcncr Strafk, D-41472 Ncuss, Germany

For thc first timc systcmat ic mcasurcmcnts of thc "ultrawcak" photon cmission of thc human body (biophotons) havc bccn pcrformcd by mcans of a photon detector device set up in darkncss. About 200 pcrsons havc bccn investigatcd. In a part icul ar casc onc pcrson has bccn cxam incd dai ly ovcr scvcral months. It turncd ou t that thi s biophoton emission rcflec ts, (i) thc left-ri ght sy mmctry of thc human body ; (ii) bi ologica l rhythms such as 14 days, I month , 3 months and 9 months: (iii ) di scasc in tcrill s of brokcn sy millctry bctwcen Icft and ri ght si dc; and (iv) li ght channc ls in the body. wh ich regu late encrgy and information tra nsfcr betwccn diffcrcnt part s. The results show that bcsidcs a dccpcr undcrstanding of hcalth, disease and body field , thi s method prov ides a ncw powerful too l of non-invasivc mcdical diagnosis in tcrms of basic regulatory funct ions of thc body.

Keywords : Biological regulati on, Biologica l rhy thms, Biophoton, Human body mca~urclllcnt s, Lcft right symillctry, Psori asis. Skin discase

Tn recent years the literature on biophotons has increased drastically, since it is accepted now that biophoton emission is, in contrast to cOlllmon bioluminescence, a universal phenomenon linked to all living systems and provides a new non-invasive and powerfu l tool of investigating ce llular ti ssues l

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.

Although some theoretical problems are still unsolved , the application of biophoton emission now stretching quickly to new fields such as biosensoring and food-quali ty contro ls.

A completely new area of this development is the analysis of the biophoton emission of the human body.

Materials and Methods In order to investigate the charactcristics of human

biophotons, a dark chamber, large and comfortable enough for 2 persons was built and equipped with a movable biophoton detector (photomultipl ier: EMl 9558 QA , seiected type)6. This device provides a count rate lower than 0. 1 counts/s .cm2 and in the sufficient darkness of the chamber, the ski n of a person can be easi ly exam ined.

The technique of measurements has been reported elsewhere 1.2.5.6.

By the use of a step motor the detector can move under control over the whole body in darkness . The

*Correspondent author: E-mail: a002 1@rrz.uni_kcrala.de

iib @lii'cscicnti sts.dc Fax: 02 182-825 132 Tel : 02182-825131

monitoring and recording of the data by electronic devices is performed outside of the dark chamber. Besides some careful examinations of the biophoton emission of the whole body of healthy and sick people, a systematic long time-monitoring of the biophoton emission of the hands and the forehead of a person (healthy woman, 27) where always round skin areas of 7 cm diameter were examined.

In order to increase the intensities, in addi tion to the direct biophoton emission (bpe) the so called "delayed luminescence" (d l) of the skin, which is the rescattered light emission after illumination with an externa l lamp was also measureds. The irradiation time of the tungsten lamp was always 5 sec. After 100 msec of switching off the external lamp the first measurement va lue of dl was recorded (within preset time intervals of 100 msec) and taken as a measure of dl.

As a measure of bpe the mean value of 256 measurement va lues (within preset time intervals of 1 sec) was taken.

The long time measurements on the single person were performed between 0800-1000 hrs from June 8, 1995 to March 5, 1996 for the hands and from August 29, 1995 to March 5, 1996 for the forehead. Every year some of the measurements were repeated in order to look for systematic changes during longer periods of time.

Results The biophoton intensity of the human skin can be

measured at least in the wavelength range from 400 to

,

COHEN & POPP: BIOPHOTON EMISSION OF HUMAN BODY 441

800 nm, where the photomultiplier is sensitive. The order of magnitude of the count rate is a few up to some 100 photons/sec/cm2 surface area (the exa('[ va lue depends on the individual, on the time of measurement and locati on on the skin).

The biophoton emission is generally stable. The mean value does not change much during investigation of some minutes of investigati on. However, it may vary with in a few hours between a few percent of the original va lue up to ten-times hi gher or lower va lues, again depending on the indiv idual situat ion.

Healthy persons di splay on an average relati vely low biophoton emi ssion (bpe) and relatively high intensities of de layed luminescence Cdl ). Generall y, bpe and dl are anticorrelated and the values on corresponding points of the left and the ri ght side have the same order of magnitude. However, in pathological cases, like multiple scleros is, one finds rather hi gh values of bpe (:lIld/or) dl as we ll as di stinct asymmetries between left and ri ght side of the body. Two examples are shown in Fi g. l a and b, where I a refers to a progressed state and I b to an early state of thi s di sease. In the chronic phase the right hand displays about 10-20 limes hi gher spontaneo Ll s biophoton emission than the hands of heal thy peop le, the left hand goes up to e en 30 times higher values (Fi g. la). In young man in an initial state of mUlti ple sc leros is the biophoton emission and the delayed luminescence have been measured during 3 days. A therapy with interferon was performed after the measurements on the second day. The disease is characteri zed aga in by a considerably st rong asy mmetry between the left and the right hand , in particu lar of de layed luminescence (Fig. i b). However, the therapy shows onl y a small in fluence onto the course of this bias.

1 § 'iii 20 . C

,3 10 ·

dat1< counl rale

300 400 500 600 700

T!me (lOOms)

Fig. la - Biophoton emission of a progressed state of multip le sclerosi s.

A psorias is patient when treated only on the skin of hi s ri ght arm by a 5 min exposure to an UV-A therapy lamp, di splayed a strong increase of spontaneous bio­photon emission and at the same time a considerably sharper decrease of delayed luminescence. The un­healthy and irradiated region of the arm reacted at the beg inning stronger than the healthy part (Fig.2c and 2d, respectively) at the beginning but after 30 min the bpe started decreasing and approached the ori gi nal value after about one hou r. The behaviour of dl was sli ghtly different. The dl of the unhea lthy part ap­proached again at the initi al \'alues, but the dl of the healthy part attained values much higher than the ori ginal ones. Surprisingiy , also on the left ann th at has not been treated, the bpe and the dl foll owed the same change but not so strongly than on the treated right arm (Fig. 2a and b in comparison to Fig. 2c and d). This demonstrates for the first time that psorias is is not a local di sease but di splays a communication between left and right side of the body .

The same principal result can be obtained by many other influences on the body, i.e. in case of simple trealinent with cream (Fi g. 3). Immedi atel y after rubbing a conventi onal ointment onto the ski n of the right arm, the bpe increased drastica ll y, while at the same time the dl dropped down at thi s area. (Fig. 3c and d). This effect is reversible, and after some hours there is a relaxati on back to the initiai val ues. However, the surpri sing result is aga in that the untreated arm reacts undoubtedl y onto thi s treatment without that it has been influenced locall y at all. The effects depend on the nature of the cream and the individual properties of the test person under exami nati on.

Only in a few cases of cancer patients it is possib le to determi ne the location of the tumor. Usuall y, cancer

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second day

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Fig. I b - Biophoton emission and delayed luminescence along three days of all early state or mult i pI c sclerosis.

442 IND IAN J EXP BIOl, MA Y 2003

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Fig, 2 - Vari ations of biophoton emi ssion alld delayed luminescence of Icft arm (Fig2a, 2b) and ri ght arm (Fig,2e, 2d) of a psori as is pat ient after 5 min exposure to a UV-A lamp on ri ght arm ,

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COHEN & POPP : BIOPHOTON EMISSION OF HUM AN BODY 443

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Fig. 4 - Biopholon emiss ion and delayed lumi nescence vari ati ons. nlb!c:Biophoton emission vari ations of G, ri ght hand, b, left hand, from June 8, 1995 10 March 5, 1996 (27 I days), c, forehead from August 29, 1995 to March 5, 1996 (190 days). d/e/f: Delayed lumi nes­cence vari ati ons of d, ri ght hand, e, left hand over 27 1 days,!. forehead over 190 days.

patients di splay as low bpe va lues as healthy ones, with the exceptio n that (1) o ne finds asy mmetri c va lues on some parts o f the body which may be fa r away from the locati on o f the tumor, i. e . o n the ears in case of a li ver tumor, and (2) the bpe and d l va lues are rather rig id and do not change slow ly in time as they do in case o f healthy people.

A poss ible too l o f finding helpful remedi es for tumor ti ssue is the measurement o f bpe and dl o f operated ti ssues, a fter appl icati on o f no n-tox ic remedies. In case if bpe and dl decrease under the influence of the remedy there is a chance of anti ­tumor effi cacy o f the treatment with thi s agent.

In order to examine the long time behav ior of bpe and dl of the human body, the bi ophoto n emi ssion o f a sing le person was observed for many mo nth s.

Figure 4 shows bpe (left column) and dl (right column) o f the hands and the forehead . The va lues di spl ay some patterns (Fig. 4 , Table 1).

The c ross-corre lati ons analys is o f these tempora l bpe-and d l-vari atio ns reveal the fo ll owing characteri sti cs :

-- Left hand and right hand emi ss io ns are strong ly corre lated, as well for bpe as for ell (Fi g. Sa,b respecti vely).

-- 8pe and dl are not corre lated , but to a sig ni ficant ex tent anti-correlated (Fig . Sc).

-- The bpe- values of the forehead are not con·elated with those of the hands (Fig. 6a), but the re is a significant corre lation o f the dl -va lues of the forehead and the hands (Fig. 6b).

The Fourier ana lysis of the te mporal bpe-and dl ­values o f Fig. 1 is shown in Fig . 7, where the spectral densities of the different measure ments o f Fi g. 4 are di spl ayed a lways on the corresponding pos itions of Fi g . 7 .

It is obvious that a ll these spectral densities show a simil ar pattern o f rhythms, including 7 days, 14, 2 1, 27, 90 and 270 days .

Discussion At thi s stage a compl ete interpretatio n o f the resu lts

is not poss ib le. Neverthe less, the fo ll owing conclus io n can be drawn :

There is a c lear prefe rence of right-and left hand­corre latio n, indicating a regulatory rol e o f thi s bpe­and dl-phenomenon. This becomes ev ident a lso wi th the Fo urie r patte rn revealing we ll-known biolog ical rhythms.

The result s can be understood in terms of an osc ill ating e lec tromagne ti c body-photon fie lu whi ch

444 I WIAN J EXP BIOL, MA Y 2003

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Fig. 5 - Cross-corrclations of thc hands mcasurcmcnts frolll August 29, 1995 to M arch 5. 1996. a, of thc biophoton cm iss ion variati ons of left h:lIld ( fi rst ) and right hanJ (Iaggcd). b. of thc dclaycd lumincsccncc var iati ons of Icft hand (fi rst) and right hand (Iaggcd). c, of thc biophoton cmission (first) and dclaycd lumi ncs­cence (Iaggcd) vari ations of left hand. Thc corrcl at ions (CorL) arc cal culatcd for a lag of 0 though 60 days.

~ a

.;;; c: II> 0

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8. J1-1 day en 4 days 1'ldays ").days

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~ ti II> Q. en

~ -190days C .;;; c: II>

0

~ ?Odays ti 8. o da~~ days

en .K" ¥ 14 days 10 days

follows definite rhythms and where Ihe oscillators become stronger w ith decreasing oscill ati on frequency . However, the phases of the osci ll ati ons depend on the locat ion w ithin the body.

While corresponding points li ke ears, hands, feet have the same phases (unpubli shed data), non­corresponding points display phase-shi fts to such an extent that their bpe becomes different.

Various measurements have to be performed in future In order to uncover these presumably

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:~~~l E l 6 0 . . O~,L. o:-----.-o .-::-.--....::'I.~L. o-~--0 . ..,...---...J1.0

Fig. 6 - Cross-corrc lati ons of !hc left hand and ,·(' reilead meas­uremcnts from August 29, 1995 to M arch 5, 1996. a. of the bio­photon cmi ss ion cilli ss ion variat ions of Icft hand ( first ) and fore­head (l agged), b, of thc c!el:!yed lumincscencc variations of le ft hanJ ( first) and forchcad ( lagged). Thc correlations (Corl'. ) are calculatcd for a lag of 0 though 60 days.

d

7 ays

7 !f'Y'

Fig. 7 - Fourier analysis (spcctral densities). albic!: Spectral dcnsities of the biophoton emission values of a, right hand, b, left h:lI1c, from June 8, 1995 to M arch 5, 1996 (271 days), c, forehead from August 29, 1995 to March 5, 1996 ( 190 days). dlelJ. Spectral densities of thc delaycd luminescence values of d, right hand, e, le ft hand over 27 1 d:tys, j, forehead over 190 days. Dark count rate (background noise ). right hand and left hand were sllccessive ly nlc:lsured.

COHEN & POPP: BIOPHOTON EM ISSION OF HUMAN BODY 445

Table 1- Biophoton emi ssion and delayed lumi nesccnce over the whole measurement period

[Values are mean±SDl

Position bpe dIe (countsis) (cou nts/! OOms)

Right hand 12.9±8.7 359± 183

Left hand 10.7±6.6 400±230

Forehead 4.7±2.6 245 ± 147

complicated regulation principles. It seems however that di sease, according to these new insights into whole body radiation , can be assigned to definite perturbations of the regulatory pattern , that is loss of left-right symmetry. It is worthwhile to note that these results are in accordance with similar observations on cell-cultures and daphnia, where non-linear vari at ions of bpe or dl with the density of the radiating subjects have been demonstrated5

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. The reported investiga­tions are a first step in understanding living systems, health and disease in terms of regulatory principles.

Acknowledgment This work has been supported by the BMBF

Project 01 BM 403/5 (Biophotonic Communication).

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demic Publishcrs, Dordrecht-Boston-London) 1998. 2 Popp F A, Ruth B, Bahr W, Bohm J, Grass P, Grolig G, Ral­

temeyer M, Schmidt H G & Wulle P, Emission of visible and ultraviolet radiation by active biological systems, Coli Phe­IlOmena, 3 (1981) 187.

3 Popp F A, Gurwitsch A A, Inaba H, Slawinski J, Cilento G, Van Wijk R, Chwirot W B & Nagl W, Biophoton emission (multi -author rev iew), Experientia,44 (1988) 543.

4 Popp F A, Gu Q & Li K H, Biophoton emiss ion: Experimental background and theoretical approaches. Mod Phy Lell B, 8 (1994) 1269.

5 Popp F A, Li K H & Gu Q, Recent advances ill biophotoll re ­search and its applications (World Scicnti fic , Singaporc­London) 1992.

6 Dcutscher Gcbrauchsmusterschutz G 94 17845.3 vom 20.4.1995. 7 Galle M, Un tersuchungen zum dichte-und ze irabhiillgigell Ver­

halten del' ultraschwachen Photoll ell1ission VO II pathelloge­netischell Weibchen des Wasserflohs Daphnia maglla , Thcsis (University of Saarland, Zoology , SaarbrUcken) 1993.