This in turn affects the production of certain hormones, which in turn affect a variety of physiological processes. This explains why color has been found to have such a direct influence on our thoughts, moods, and behavior-an influence that many experts believe is distinctly separate from psychological and cultural factors. Color seems to have an effect even on blind people, who are thought to sense color as a result of energy vibrations created within the body. In 1942, the Russian scientists have demonstrated that red light stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, while white and blue light stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. Other experiments revealed that certain colors stimulate hormone production, while other colors inhibit it.
Specific colors can also have an effect on specific diseases.
Symptoms of acute eruptive diseases such as smallpox and measles were relieved when patients were put in a room with red windows. Melancholiacs also recovered after a few hours in such rooms. Pain and depression was found to respond well to therapy using flashing bright lights and colored lights. These treatments have been shown to alter neurochemical production in the brain and this may account for their positive effects. Scientists now believe that the brain has specific responses to different frequencies of flashing light and the different frequencies of various colors.