Indian Journal of Expcrimcntal Bi ology

V ol. 4 1, May 2003 , pp . 440-445

Biophoton emission of human body

S Cohen & F A Popp*
International Institutc of Bioph ys ics. Bi ophoton Rcscarc h, Stat ion Hombroich , Kapcllcncr Strafk, D-41472 Ncuss, German y

For thc first timc systcmat ic mcasurcmcnts of thc " ultrawcak" photon cmi ssion of thc human body (bioph otons) havc
bccn pcrformcd by mca ns of a photon detector device set up in darkncss . About 200 pcrsons havc bccn investi gatcd. In a
part icul ar casc onc pcrson has bccn cxam incd dai ly ovcr scvcral months. It turn cd ou t that thi s biophoton em issi on rcflec ts,
(i) th c left-ri ght sy mmctry of th c human body ; (ii) bi ologica l rh ythm s such as 14 days, I month , 3 months and 9 months: (iii )
di scasc in tcrill s of brokcn sy millctry bctwce n Icft and ri ght si dc; and (iv) li ght channc ls in th e body. wh ich regu late enc rgy
and informati on tra nsfc r betwccn diffcrcnt part s. Th e results show that bcsidcs a dccpcr undcrstandin g of hcalth, disease and
body field , thi s method prov ides a ncw powerful too l of non-in vasi vc mcdica l diagnosis in tcrm s of basic regul atory
funct ions of thc body.

Keywords : Biological regul ati on, Bi ologica l rh y thm s, Biophoton , Human body mca~ urclllcnt s, Lcft ri ght sy millctry,
Psori asis. Skin di scase

Tn recent years th e 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 ss ues l •4 .
Althoug h some th eo retical problems are still
unsolved , the application of biophoton emi ssion now
stretching quickly to new fields such as biosensoring
and food -qu ali 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 perso ns 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 .cm 2 and in the
sufficient darkness of the chamber, the ski n of a
person can be easi ly exam ined .
The technique of meas urements 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 th e
biophoton emission of th e hands and the forehead of a
perso n (healthy woman, 27) where always round skin
areas of 7 cm diameter were examined.
In order to increase the intensities, in addi ti on 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 measured s. The irradi atio n
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 va lue of 256
measurement va lues (within preset time interval s 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 EM ISSION OF HUMAN BODY
800 nm , where the photomultiplier is sensitive. The
order of magnitude of th e count rate is a few up to
some 100 photon s/sec/c m2 surface area (th e exa('[
va lue depends on the individual, on the time of
measurement and locati on on th e skin).
The biophoto n emissio n is generally stabl e. The
mean value does not change much during
investigation of so me minutes of investi gati on.
However, it may vary with in a few hours between a
few percent of the ori ginal va lue up to ten-times
hi gher or lower va lues, again dependin g on the
indiv idu al situat ion.
Healthy perso ns di splay on an average relati ve ly
low biophoton emi ssion (bpe) and relatively high
intensities of de layed luminescence Cdl ). Generall y,
bpe and dl are antico rrelated and th e 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 find s
rather hi gh values of bpe (:lIld/or) dl as we ll as di stinct
asymmetries between left and ri ght side of th e body.
Two examples are shown in Fi g. l a and b, where I a
refers to a prog ressed state and I b to an ea rly state of
thi s di sease. In the chroni c phase th e ri ght hand
di splays about 10-20 limes hi gher spontaneo Ll s
biophoton em ission than the hands of heal thy peop le,
the left hand goes up to e en 30 times hi gher values
(Fi g. la). In young man in an initial state of mUlti ple
sc leros is the biophoton emi ssion and the delayed
luminescence have been measured durin g 3 day s. A
therapy with interferon was performed after the
measurements on th e seco nd day. The disease is
characteri zed aga in by a co nsiderably st rong
asy mmetry between the left and the ri ght hand , in
, particu lar of de layed luminescence (Fi g. i b).
However, th e therapy shows onl y a small in fluence
onto the course of this bias.
§'iii
1 ~ 1 .2
20 .
C <: 1 .1
,3
10 ·
dat1< counl rale
300 400 500 600
T!me (lOOms)
Fig. la - Biophoton emission of a progressed state of multip le
sclerosi s.
441
A psori as 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 bio-
photon emission and at the same time a co nsiderably
sharper dec rease of delayed luminesce nce. The un-
healthy and irradiated region of the arm reacted at the
beg inning stron ger than th e healthy part (Fig.2c and
2d, respectively) at the beginning but after 30 min th e
bpe started decreasing and approac hed th e ori gi nal
value after abo ut one hou r. The behaviour of dl was
sli ghtly different. The dl of th e unh ea lthy part ap-
proached aga in at the initi al \'alues, but the dl of the
health y part attained values much higher th an the
ori gin al ones. Surprisingiy , also on the left ann th at
has not been treated, the bpe and th e dl foll owed th e
same change but not so stro ngly than on th e treated
ri ght arm (Fig. 2a and b in compari so n to Fig. 2c and
d). Thi s demonstrates for the first time th at pso rias is
is not a local di sease but di splays a co mmuni catio n
between left and right side of th e body .
The same principal result can be obtained by many
oth er influences on the body, i.e. in case of simple
trealinent with cream (Fi g. 3). Immedi atel y after
rubbing a co nve nti onal oint ment onto th e 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 effec t is reversible, and after so me hours
there is a relaxati on back to the initiai val ues.
However, the surpri sing res ult is aga in th at 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 perso n under
exa mi nati on.
Only in a few cases of ca ncer patients it is possib le
to determi ne the locati on of the tumor. Usuall y, cance r
biophoton em is sion delayed luminescence
1 .6 r - - - - , - - - - , 460 r--~---,
1 ,:5
1.4
1.3
400 ........... , .. .
o
o
(1
C
(5 1.0 .
u
150
0.9
0.8 ............... , .... .. 100
0 .7 " - - - - '_ _- l 50 " - _ - - ' -_ _-.J
700 iirst day third day filS! day third day
second day second day
Fig. Ib - Biophoton emission and delayed luminescence along
three days of all earl y state or multipI c sclerosis.
442 IND IAN J EXP BIOl, MA Y 2003

biophoton emi ssion, left arm biophoton emission, right arm

4.0 r--~--~-----~-~--.....,
3.5
3.0
en
E 2.5
o
~ 2.0
111.5
J

8 0.5 t..•••II!II~....IIIII~............
1.0 ,. J
0.0 '--_-'-_ _--'-_.......... _ _'__ _.:......._ ~ __.J O.O ' - - - - ' - -- - ' - - - - '_ _-'-_ _'--_ _ J
o 10 20 30 40 so 60 o 10 20 30 40 so 60
Time (min) Time (min)

delayed lumine scence, left arm delayed luminescence, right arm

280 n '
e
360r--~---~----~----_--~-__~

320

240 l··~··~h;
.5~200 1'''''''ealt;~y:~=:. :.~I
ciS· ~
ii:";'~"·~~'~;
..... ,
..i .b...
.. $&_ . :••-., en
.5o
36 0r---~----~--

320
280 .
240
';;; 200
h..
.
~~y ·· · ·~C
.
..
__--~____~__.....,
......................... .......... l~:fit. ..
.
..
.
.A~-
..
: ,
C
il 160
unhea~hy
il 160 ..,~ ~~.
o
120
o
120 unhealthy ' '-!!~~~

80 L---~---~----~--~-~----~
o 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min) Time (min)

Fig, 2 - V ari ati ons of bioph oton emi ssion alld delayed luminescence of Icft arm (Fi g2a , 2b) and ri ght arm (Fi g,2e, 2d) of a psori as is
pat ient after 5 min ex posure to a UV- A lamp on ri ght arm ,

biophoton emission biophoton emission

left arm, non treated right arm , treated with cosme ti c

c
... ~ ,-,.~ .. .. ... . .... .... .... :- .... :-.
~ ~ ~ ~ . ~ ... -:- .... ... -;:- ..
~

V\
.. . .
a
E 0 .12 .... ; ....; .... ; .. .. . .. . .... . .... :;. .. ..;. .. ..:;. ... .:;. ....
; ; ; :;. .. " , .. ...;. .... ;. .... ;. .. .. ;. . .. .;. .. ..;. ..
Cl
-.. -Vi
E
::::J"' OJ)(,
:J
O~ .. · .. , . .. . , .... , .... , .. .. , .. .. , ...

0 o
U 0.00 u <>'OO f--.~-'--+- ____----;'--T-____--;.--.r-.......-'--l

lime (min) lime (min)

delayed luminescence delayed luminescence

left arm, non treated right arm , treated with cosmeti c
100 100
W .... .... ... ... . ... . ... ; ... .; .... .; .... .; .. .. ,: .... .; .... .; W
bA> .......... ... ,... ,.. . ...
:....,:, ... ;,... ;.
.....;. ,.:., .. :.... :il .. bA>
40} 40}
V\
E 20 ............ .. . :-.;~ , : .:.... :.. .. :.. .. V\
E N
0 <> :~..,.;, ~ . !O',....;,.. a 0
Cl
...... ..21> .... ,,.,.,,, ,,
.. . ... ; a
.....V\ ..20
V\ .oW . . . . : . . .. : .... ! .... : .. .... , .... .... .... .. .. .....
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
40
::::J oW .... ; .... ; .... ; .... ; .. . ; .... ; .. .. .; .. .. .; .... .;; .... .;.. .. .; .... .; .... E
:J oW
0
-SO .... ; .. .. ; .... ; .. ..... ; .... .; .... .;;..... .;;.... . .;; .. .. .;; .... .; ... . .;... . . 0 -SO
U U
- Ill<; ... . .; ... ..; ... ..
: .... ; ... ; ... . ; ... ..; .... .; .. .. .; .... .;; .... .; .... .;; .. ,.
. . . .. . . . ., -100
-120 .. .....
. .. ...... .. ...... . .. -.. -IN

lime (min) lime (min)

Fig. 3 - Va ri ati ons of the bioph oton cm ission and thc ct claycc\ lu mi nesccnce of left arm (Fig.3a, 3b) and ri ght arm (Fig,3c, 3d) after
applica ti on of a cos meti c on th e right arm.
 COH EN & POPP : BIOPHOTON EMISSION OF HUM AN BODY 443

5 0 r-----~----------------------~~ 1400
d
1200
40 III
E 1000
~ 30 8 800
C ~
5 20 C
800
() 400
10 "
0
()
200

30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 ~ 60 90 120

Time (days) Time (days)

5O r-----------------------------~, 1400
b
1200
40 III
E 1000
~ 30 8 800
C
5 20 ~c 600
()
"
0
()

30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 30 60 90 120

Time (days) Time (days)

50 r-----------------------------~~ 1400
c
1200
E 1000
~~ 8 800
c ~
S 20 C
1500
()
10 "
0
()
400
200
0
30 60 90 120 150 180 0 30 60 90
Time (days) Time (days)

Fig. 4 - Biopholon emi ss ion and delayed lumi nescence vari ati ons. nlb!c: Biophoton emi ssion vari ati ons of G, ri ght hand , b, left hand,
from June 8, 1995 10 M arch 5, 1996 (27 I days), c, forehead fro m A ugust 29, 1995 to M arch 5, 1996 (190 days). d/e/f: Delayed lumi nes-
cence vari ati ons of d, ri ght hand , e, left hand over 27 1 days,!. forehead over 190 days.

pati ents di splay as low bpe va lues as hea lth y o nes,
with the exceptio n th at (1) o ne find s asy mmetri c
va lues o n so me parts o f th e body w hi ch may be fa r
away fro m th e locati o n o f th e tumo r, i. e . o n th e ears in
case of a li ver tumo r, and (2 ) th e bpe and d l va lues are
rather ri g id and d o not c ha nge slow ly in time as th ey
do in case o f healthy peopl e.
A poss ibl e too l o f findin g helpful re medi es for
tumo r ti ssue is th e measure me nt o f bpe and dl o f
operated ti ss ues, a fter appl icati o n o f no n-tox ic
remedi es. In case if bpe and dl decrease unde r th e
influe nce of the re med y th ere is a c ha nce of anti -
tumo r e ffi cacy o f the treatme nt with thi s age nt.
In o rder to exa mine th e long time be hav io r of bpe
a nd dl of th e hum an body, th e bi o pho to n e mi ssion o f
a sin g le person was o bserved fo r many mo nth s.
Fig ure 4 s hows bpe (left co lumn ) and dl (ri g ht
co lumn ) o f th e hands and th e fo rehead . The va lues
di spl ay some pattern s (Fi g. 4 , T a bl e 1).
The c ross-corre lati o ns ana lys is o f th ese te mpora l
bpe-and d l- vari ati o ns revea l th e fo ll ow ing
characteri sti cs :
-- Left hand and right ha nd e mi ss io ns are stro ng ly
co rre lated, as we ll fo r bpe as fo r ell (Fi g. Sa,b
res pecti vely).
-- 8pe and dl are no t corre lated , but to a sig ni ficant
ex tent anti-co rrelated (Fi g . Sc).
-- Th e bpe- values of the fo rehead are not con·elated
with those of th e hands (Fi g. 6a), but the re is a
sig nifi cant co rre lation o f the dl - va lu es of th e
fo rehead and th e hands (Fi g. 6b ).
The Fouri er a na lysis of the te mporal bpe-and dl -
valu es o f Fi g. 1 is shown in Fi g . 7, where the spectral
de nsiti es of the differe nt meas ure me nts o f Fi g. 4 are
di spl ayed a lways on th e correspo ndin g pos itions of
Fi g . 7 .
It is obvio us th at a ll th ese spectral de nsiti es 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 co mpl ete interpretati o n o f the resu lts
is no t poss ib le. Neverthe less, the fo ll ow ing
co nclu s io n ca n be dra wn :
The re is a c lear pre fe rence of ri g ht-and left hand-
co rre lati o n, indicatin g a reg ulato ry rol e o f thi s bpe-
and dl-phe no meno n. This beco mes ev id ent a lso wi th
th e Fo uri e r patte rn revealin g we ll-kno wn biolog ica l
rh ythms.
The res ult s can be unde rstood in terms of an
osc ill atin g e lec tro mag ne ti c body-photo n fie lu w hi ch
444 I WIAN J EXP BIOL, MA Y 2003

lag Corr.
-60 ·.06 r-------r-~-,.----~-_, follows definite rhythms and where Ihe oscillators
8
·30 0.23
become stron ger w ith decreasing oscill ati on
frequency . Howeve r, th e phases of the osci ll ati ons
o 0.91
depend on th e location w ithin the body.
30 0.06
Whil e correspondi ng points li ke ears, hands, feet
60 · .17 '--_ _ _ _ _.....___ -'--_ _ _ _ _...J
· 1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 ha ve th e same phases (unpubli shed data), non-
co rresponding points di splay phase-shi fts to su ch an
extent th at their bpe becomes different.

~;~I tIE 'I

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

'f:
~f~~1 If "I
L
60 ..O?, .O - - -.-
O.- s- - - '--"0....0--'----0-.5- --...J
,. 0

60 O . O~1'-::
. 0-----O-."'S---'---0·.0L...'--- - 0 -.•- - -- ---l
, .0
L!~ ~~~rr
· -------._..--r---------,
c

El
·30 ·.24

:~~~l
o ·. 16

30 · .14

60 0.15 '--_ _ _ _ _-L..--'_"'--_ _ _ _ _--.l

·1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0
6 0 . . O~,L
. o:-----.-
o .-::-
. --....::'I.~L
. o-~--0 ...,...-- - . . . J
1.0
Fi g. 5 - Cross-corrclations of thc hands mcasurcmcnts frolll
A ugust 29, 1995 to M arch 5. 1996 . a, of thc bi ophoton cm iss ion Fig. 6 - Cross-corrc lati ons of !hc left hand and ,·('reilead meas-
variati ons of left h:lIld ( fi rst ) and rig ht hanJ (Iaggcd). b. of thc uremcn ts from Au gust 29, 1995 to M arc h 5, 1996. a. of the bi o-
dclaycd lumincsccncc variati ons of Icft hand (fi rst) and right hand photon cmi ss ion cilli ss ion variat ions of Icft hand ( first ) and fore-
(Iaggcd). c, of thc biophoton cmission (first) and dclaycd lu mi ncs- head (l agged), b, of thc c!el:!yed lumincscen cc variations of le ft
cence (Iaggcd) vari ations of left hand. Th c corrcl at ions (CorL ) arc hanJ ( first) and fo rchcad (lagged). T hc correla tions (Corl'. ) are
cal cul atcd for a lag of 0 though 60 day s. calcul atcd for a lag of 0 th ough 60 day s.

a d
~
.;;;
c:
II>
0
~O days
~ days
ti 27 days
8.
en
J1-1 day
4 da ys 1'lda y s ").days 7 ays

b
.~
en 270 days
c:
II>
0
~
ti
II>
Q.
en 7!f'Y'

- 1 90days C
~
.;;;
c:
II>
0
~ ?Odays
ti o da~~ days
8.
en .K" ¥ 14 days
10 days

Fig. 7 - Fourier analysis (spcctral densities). albic!: Spec tral dcnsities of the biophoton emi ssion values of a, right hand, b, left h:lI1c,
from June 8, 1995 to M arch 5, 1996 (271 days), c, forehead from Augu st 29 , 1995 to March 5, 1996 ( 190 days). dlelJ. Spectral densities
of thc delaycd luminescence values of d, ri ght hand, e, le ft hand over 27 1 d:tys, j, forehead over 190 days. Dark cou nt rate (back ground
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 Acknowledgment
the whole measurement period This work has been supported by th e BMBF
[Values are mean±SDl Project 01 BM 403/5 (Biophotonic Communicati on).
Position bpe dIe References
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IlOmena, 3 (1981) 187.
3 Popp F A, Gurwitsch A A, Inaba H, Slawinski J, Cilento G,
complicated regulation principles. It seems however Van Wijk R, Chwirot W B & Nagl W, Biophoton emission
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background and theoretical approaches. Mod Phy Lell B, 8
perturbati ons of the regulatory pattern , that is loss of ( 1994) 1269.
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cell-cultures an d daphnia, where non-linear vari at ion s London) 1992.
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7 Galle M, Un tersuchungen zum dichte-und ze irabhiillgigell Ver-
have been demonstrated 5•7 . The reported investiga- halten del' ultraschwachen Photoll ell1ission VO II pathelloge-
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