Fire Element
In Greek mythology, Helios was the god of the Sun, the charioteer who drove the Sun across the sky each day. Hippocrates was a great advocate of the Sun’s healing properties. Although heliotherapy traditionally refers to treatments that use natural sunlight
In the Third Century, A.D., the triumph of Christianity put an end to the practice of sunbathing throughout most of Europe. For over a thousand years thereafter the use of sunbathing was restricted almost entirely to the Jews and Arabians. The Christians called sunbathing a sin and placed it on a par with the other practices of the Hygienic System.
|
From the late 1800s, heliotherapy – sometimes called phototherapy – became a key part of certain treatment regimes for tuberculosis, notably tuberculosis of the bones, joints and skin, as prolonged exposure to sunlight can kill the bacteria which cause the disease. Infected children who were sent out to special homes and hospital retreats were encouraged to spend as much time outdoors as possible. These children had often come from dark and dingy city slums and exposing their skin to sunshine raised their levels of vitamin D, which also helped them fight the bacteria. |
In 1903, Niels Ryberg Finsen was awarded the Nobel Prize “in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science.” Finsen discovered that UV radiation was beneficial in treating lupus vulgaris, a skin condition caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. UV radiation was the only effective treatment against tubercle bacilli in the skin before the introduction of antituberculous chemotherapy in the 1950s.68,69 Finsen believed that UV radiation killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Lack of sunlight, and diseases related to it
Breast cancer
Colon cancer
Diabetes
Elevated blood pressure
Heart disease
Multiple sclerosis
Ovarian cancer
Osteomalacia
Osteoporosis
Prostate cancer
Psoriasis
Rickets
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Tooth decay
Tuberculosis
Throughout the earth the growth of plant and animal life is dependent upon the presence of sunshine. We find that life is always most prolific in the tropics where there is an abundance of year around sunshine and where the intensity of the sun’s rays is the greatest. In the arctic regions where there is a scarcity of sunshine life is scarce or absent altogether. Then, as we go south and the climate gradually becomes warmer, all kinds of life becomes more prolific; in the equatorial regions it reaches its peak. Also, it is to be noted that the plants and animals are usually more highly developed where the climate is warmer.
|
More than 400 independent clinical studies around the world* have shown that Narrowband Phototherapy lamps are also the most effective lamps currently available for the treatment of Psoriasis and Vitiligo, as well as other less common skin diseases,Psoriasis – Narrowband UVB light treatment provide faster clearing, less sun burning, and more complete disease resolution than traditional UVB . |
The Danish scientist, Thorwald Madsen, found that, just as the best physical development is attained in the tropics so also do the people of the temperate zone attain the best health during the summer months when there is an abundance of sunshine. Madsen based his conclusions upon his studies of a 37-year compilation of Danish medical records. These records are unusually complete because in Denmark the law requires that every physician report every case of infectious disease which he treats. The statistics provided by Madsen show that disease, particularly infectious disease, occurs most frequently during the season in which the people get the least sunshine. Diphtheria, Bronchitis, bronchi-pneumonia and tonsillitis all run up to a peak in the winter months and fall into insignificance during July and August. Taking an average of all disease, February was found to be the month most conducive to the development of disease; September was the best month from the standpoint of public health. The conclusion is inescapable. The prevalence of disease corresponds to the amount and intensity of the sunshine. The more sunshine, the less disease; the less sunshine, the more disease.
|
DID YOU KNOW THAT? Dermatologists use heliotherapy for the treatment of acne, psoriasis and other skin disorders. Heliotherapy is a chiropractic treatment used for muscular stimulation and relaxation. Heliotherapy is the only know cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder, a cyclic mood disorder caused by sun deprivation during fall and winter months. Currently, AIDS research clinics use heliotherapy as an effective took for boosting the body’s immune system. Heliotherapy used in hospital operation rooms reduces bacteria count by as much as 50%. As a result, patients have been found to recover faster and have fewer post-operative infections. Scientists at the Baylor University Medical Center have successfully used heliotherapy to destroy the AIDS virus and other infectious diseases and are developing heliotherapy to decontaminate blood transfusions. Heliotherapy is practied in Cancer Research Institutes for successful DNA repair. Within hours of light treatments, the cancer cells begin to die, leaving the normal tissue unharmed. 70% to 80% of the tumors treated responded positively after just one treatment. Heliotherapy is used as an effective tool for irradiating the blood of cancer patients. The maternity wards of most major hospitals use heliotherapy for the treatment of hyperbilrubinemia (neonatal jaundice), a condition found in over 60% of prematurely born infants. While fully reconizing that long term overexposure to the sun and burning can result in skin cancer, premature aging and wrinkling in some cases, the science of heliotherapy supports that the sun also offers many benefits. Warning over ‘epidemic’ of skin allergies from chemical in cosmetics and household products |
In the treatment of wounds which do not heal, sunshine is of the greatest importance. In World War I thousands of German soldiers were afflicted with deep wounds which simply would not heal in spite of the most adequate medical attention. Month after month the wounds continued to fester, matter and infect the entire body. It was left to Bernhard of Samden, an old surgeon who gave up the use of the knife for sunbathing, to help these unfortunate soldiers. He took the Fourth German Army Corps first, and before the war was over he was sunning the supposedly incurable wounds of nearly the whole German army. His success was little short of phenomenal. The most severe wounds, which had failed to respond to any type of medial antiseptics or disinfectants, rapidly healed under the influence of sunshine. The infection quickly ceased, and the tissues quickly closed and healed as if by magic. No better demonstration of the superiority of the hygienic care of infected wounds through the use of sunshine could have been given.
|
The first epidemiological research suggesting that vitamin D from sun exposure has a protective effect against colon cancer was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in 1 980 by Drs Frank and Cedric Garland. They looked at the geographic distribution of cancer deaths in the United States and found that mortality from colon cancer decreased in areas of the United States with greater sun exposure, the number of deaths in the industrialized northeast of the United States being one third higher than in sunnier regions such as Hawaii, New Mexico and Arizona. Migration to a sunny latitude — from, say, New York to Florida — is associated with a decreased risk of colon cancer. Also, a childhood and adolescence spent in one of the world’s sunnier regions reduces the risk of the disease for those who migrate in the opposite direction, and the protective effect appears to last a lifetime. |
Dr. E. Amsted, an associate of Dr. Rollier, reports remarkable success in treating rickets with sunshine, and another sun-doctor, Riedel, has used sunshine successfully in treating post- osteomalacia fractures of the neck of the femur, which had failed to heal in a year’s time. The simple application of sunshine brought about speedy recovery. The fracture healed perfectly with good ossification.
|
“There have been a number of reports of sunlight being used on cancer patients to good effect but, unfortunately, much that has been published on the subject is largely anecdotal. One form of cancer which clearly benefits from sunlight exposure is, ironically, a form of skin cancer. This is the rare malignant skin cancer mycosis fungoides which has been treated very successfully with the sun’s rays. The results of a study carried out at a clinic in Davos, Switzerland, reported in the journal Hautarzt in 1986, showed that the majority of patients with this serious condition who underwent sunlight therapy in the Alps went into remission — some for over a year. As far as internal cancers are concerned, few physicians seem to have actually used sunlight therapeutically. One notable exception is the American physician Dr Zane Kime. In his book, Sunlight Could Save Your Life, which was published in 1980, Dr Kime describes how he encouraged one of his patients with breast cancer to sunbathe. He took this rather unusual step following a consultation with a 41-year-old woman whose breast cancer had spread to her lungs and bones. She had already undergone a mastectomy and chemotherapy but to no avail. Dr Kime did not treat the cancer directly but, instead, introduced a programme to improve the general health of his patient. She was only allowed to eat whole foods, and all of the refined polyunsaturated oils and fats were removed from her diet. She was also encouraged to spend time sunbathing; and the combination of diet and sunlight seems to have achieved remarkable results. Within a few months the patient was back at work and in the years that followed there were no apparent symptoms of her metastasized cancer. Unfortunately Dr Kime did not devote much of his book to this episode, nor did he state how many years of remission his patient enjoyed and, sadly, Dr Kime died in 1992. Some years before Dr Kime’s apparent success, a study into the effects of sunlight on cancer was carried out at the Bellevue Medical Centre in New York. During the summer of 1959, fifteen patients diagnosed with cancer were encouraged to arrange their own sunlight therapy. They spent as much time as they could outdoors without glasses, and especially sunglasses. They were also instructed to avoid artificial light sources and television sets as much as possible. Dr John Ott, who is a renowned investigator of the effects of light on health and is probably the greatest innovator in the field since Niels Finsen, was involved in this project. It was Doctor Ott who first alerted the American public of the hazards to health posed by the emission of X-ray radiation from television sets, and he also developed some of the first full-spectrum lighting. He says in his book Health and Light that the results of the study of the effects of sunlight on cancer patients were sufficiently positive to justify a more detailed programme of research, but that support was not forthcoming” |
When diseases involving the kidneys exist sunbathing is of special value. Rollier treated several cases of renal disease with sunshine and reports good results. In the most severe cases recovery was not complete but the patients lived much longer than could otherwise have been expected. The patients who started the sun treatments before the disease was too far advanced experienced complete recovery. The explanation generally given for the healing power of sunshine upon the kidneys is that, by warming the skin, an extra supply of blood produces a vascularization which is seven times greater than normal. This concentration of blood, or hyper anemia as it is called technically, lasts for two full hours after the sunbath, and it is primarily responsible for the beneficial effect exerted upon the kidneys. The extra supply of blood undoubtedly speeds the eliminative processes which are necessary for recovery.
|
In 1 989 the Drs Garland, together with Dr Edward Gorham, published the first ever epidemiological work on the relationship between sun exposure and breast cancer. Their research demonstrated that, as in the case of colon cancer, there was a strong negative correlation between available sunlight and breast cancer death rates. The chances of women from areas of the United States with less available sunlight dying of breast cancer were 40 per cent higher than those of women who lived in Hawaii or Florida. Worldwide, the lowest rates for breast and colon cancer occur in the Caribbean, South and Central America, North Africa and South Asia. Countries in these regions are within 20 degrees of the equator, where the sun’s rays are particularly strong, and where mortality rates for breast and colon cancer are 4-6 times lower than in northern Europe or North America. |
|
|
The skin particularly is benefited by sunbathing. The well-bronzed skin is firm and strong but at the same time it possesses a soft, velvety texture. It is usually free from pimples and blemishes of all kinds. In addition, the sun has a tendency to smooth the skin and remove small wrinkles. It is indeed a prerequisite to greater beauty. |
|
Medical authorities list literally dozens of skin diseases which commonly afflict civilized races. It is well to note that he unclad primitive races are usually free from this whole assortment. Travelers who observed and lived among the early North American Indians reported that they suffered from virtually no skin diseases. This was no doubt due in part to the better diet they employed but the fact that they wore very little clothing and lived much of their time in the open air and sunshine deserves much credit.
We encounter UVB every day when exposing our skin to the sun, without even knowing that it has a particularly good influence on our health. It is now a well-known fact that UVB literally cures psoriasis, retarding the diseased cells tanks to its penetrative capabilities.
Present in natural sunlight, UVB is an effective treatment for psoriasis. UVB penetrates the skin and slows the growth of affected skin cells.
Most of the positive effects of solar radiation are mediated via ultraviolet-B (UVB) induced production of vitamin D in skin. However, several other pathways may exist for the action of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on humans.There is also evidence that exposure to some frequencies of light (UV in particular) causes the body to release small amounts of endorphins, which would explain the benefit for some disorders such as SAD, as endorphins are often called “the body’s own morphine”..
