“The blue color of ordinary water is caused by its absorption of red light, possibly by its hydrogen bonds (Braun and Smirnov, 1993), but there haven’t been many studies of the physical effects of red light on water itself. Since water absorbs much more strongly in the infrared wavelengths, there is a tendency to explain the benefits of sunlight by its infrared rays. Red and orange wavelengths penetrate tissue very effectively, because of their weaker absorption by water, allowing them to react with pigments in the cell, such as cytochrome oxidase, which is activated (or re-activated) by red light, increasing the production of ATP. This effect counteracts the toxic effects of ultraviolet light, but there are probably other mechanisms involved in the many beneficial effects of red light.
2011) has revealed an effect of red light (670 nm) on water that I think helps to explain some of its protective and restorative actions. Shining laser light onto layers of water adsorbed on a solid surface, they were able to show “a breathing-like volume expansion of the topmost sheets of water molecules.” They explain this as the result of a stabilization of a more ordered state of the hydrogen bonds of the water. They are applying this to chemotherapy, since the expansion of water in the cell where much of the water is in adsorbed layers similar to their experimental set-up, alternating with its volume contraction as the light is pulsed, causes water to move in and out of the cell quickly, taking some of the drug with it. They have also proposed that degenerative changes in the connective tissues involve a loss of ordered water, and have experimented with light treatments to restore elasticity and flexibility.
Since the water in cataracts is in a less ordered state than in the transparent lens, the re-ordering effect of red light could be valuable, and if the effects are the same as in their experiments with cancer cells, the increased volume of the re-ordered water would cause a movement of water out of the cataract, as it does in cancer cells in their experiment. And the known restorative effect of red light on oxidative production of ATP would almost certainly be helpful.” -Ray Peat
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Cari