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Phototherapy Using Nanomaterials
Published in D. Sakthi Kumar, Aswathy Ravindran Girija, Bionanotechnology in Cancer, 2023
A. N. Resmi, V. Nair Resmi, C. R. Rekha, V. Nair Lakshmi, Shaiju S. Nazeer, Ramapurath S. Jayasree
People used to practice light therapy for diseases like psoriasis, combined with some chemicals even during ancient days. Approximately, 3000 years ago in Egypt and India, photo chemotherapy by sunlight activation of psoralens was used for the repigmentation of vitiligo [111]. Over 5000 years ago, sunlight exposure without any exogenous chemical agents had been utilized as therapeutic method in India, Egypt, and China. Later, this methodology paved the ground for the development of practice of heliotherapy, associated with the famous Greek physician Herodotus [112]. During the last century, revolutionary development has happened in the area of PDT for various diseases, especially for cancer treatment. Effective treatment of lung cancer, head and neck cancers, skin cancer, bladder cancer, and Barrett’s esophagus has been achieved by PDT [113–117]. In order to reduce residual tumor burden after surgical resection, PDT is also being used as an adjunctive therapy [118]. Over the last two decades, PDT has gained immense progress due to the advances in the research and development in the area of bionanotechnology, addressing many of the challenges existed before. Accordingly, engineered multifunctional nanoparticles have been identified as delivery vehicles of PSs, down-converting PSs, and as energy transducers for PDT [110].
Healing with Light
Published in Aruna Bakhru, Nutrition and Integrative Medicine, 2018
Anadi Martel, Wesley Burwell, Magda Havas
The therapeutic use of sunlight, known as heliotherapy, was common in antiquity, whether in Egypt, Greece, or Rome. Separately from this use of the sun's white full-spectrum light, there gradually emerged sophisticated systems of healing with colors, or chromotherapy. Some of the earliest records can be found in India's Ayurvedic medicine: the Atharvan Veda, dating from 1500 bce,3 which describes the healing powers of colored light and is considered as important as food and medicinal remedies. China's traditional medicine associates each organ with a specific color.
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Published in Anton Sebastian, A Dictionary of the History of Medicine, 2018
Heliotherapy [Greek: helios, sun + therapeia, medical treatment] Treatment of diseases by exposure to sunlight. Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (1780–1849) developed a lamp for light therapy in 1816. Arthur Henry Downes (1851–1938) and Thomas Porter Blunt, writing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1877, showed that these actinic rays killed bacteria. Danish physician, Niels Ryberg Finson (1860–1904) demonstrated the bactericidal effects of sunlight, and developed a new method of treating lupus vulgaris with ultraviolet light in 1890. Sunlight therapy for children with bone disease and tuberculosis was first introduced by Sir Henry Gauvain. The ultraviolet rays were later artificially produced using mercury lamps as treatment in conditions such as arthritis, strains and sprains. See actinotherapy.
Efficacy and safety of vitamin D in tuberculosis patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2022
Jagdish Prasad Goyal, Surjit Singh, Ramakishan Bishnoi, Pankaj Bhardwaj, Rimple Jeet Kaur, Sameer Dhingra, Dharmveer Yadav, Siddhartha Dutta, Jaykaran Charan
In the pre-antibiotic era, vitamin D was used in the form of cod liver oil for the treatment of TB and found to increase the survival in such patients [23]. Studies using heliotherapy also showed therapeutic use of vitamin D against TB [24,25]. The relationship between vitamin D and susceptibility to TB was evaluated in various observational studies where low vitamin D level was reported in patients with TB [26–29]. However, recent clinical trials conducted to explore the efficacy and safety of vitamin D supplementation in individuals with TB showed mixed result [30–32]. Looking at the inconclusiveness of the data generated from individual trials, it would be worthwhile to pool the data in a systematic manner to generate high-quality evidence. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken to review the efficacy and safety of vitamin D in TB.
Advances in phototherapy for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Immunology, 2019
Lajos Kemény, Emese Varga, Zoltan Novak
Phototherapy is the use of ultraviolet (UV) radiation or visible light for the treatment of different diseases. The roots of phototherapy can be traced back to 1500 BC when Hindus treated vitiligo, an autoimmune skin disorder, with photosensitizing plant extracts and subsequent sunlight exposure. For many centuries only natural sunlight (heliotherapy) was used for the treatment of different skin conditions, but even nowadays, it is still highly popular for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis in many geographic areas in the World, especially in the Dead Sea [1]. As heliotherapy is only feasible in certain periods of the year with additional great dosing variables depending on the geographic locations, artificial light sources have been developed to emit selective wavelengths of the electromagnetic radiation.
The history of light therapy in hospital physiotherapy and medicine with emphasis on Australia: Evolution into novel areas of practice
Published in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 2021
Light has been used as a treatment for medical conditions since ancient times, with its origins as “heliotherapy” (natural sunlight) for the treatment of skin diseases. Some 3,500 years ago, the ancient Egyptians used a weed grown on the banks of the Nile (Amul majus) followed by sun exposure, to treat vitiligo (Hönigsmann, 2013). This treatment is analogous to the modern photochemotherapy (PUVA) first applied in 1974, with extension of its use to various other conditions (Hönigsmann, 2013). The field of photochemotherapy has recently expanded into the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) using UVB (Hart, Finlay-Jones, and Gorman, 2009; Hart et al., 2018) after the work on the immunosuppressive effects of UVB (McGonigle et al., 2017).