The History of Phototherapy

According to the National Skin Centre website, the link between the health of humans and the amount of light they receive dates back to Ancient Egypt. In 525 B.C. Herodot stated the link between the strength of a human skull and the amount of sunlight to which a person was exposed.

Phototherapy

• The Australasian College of Dermatologists reports phototherapy, also known as light therapy, is a treatment used for skin conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema. Ultraviolet light is used in phototherapy at certain wavelengths to produce a high level of light from a certain part of the light spectrum.

Spectrum

• Sir Isaac Newton discovered the visible spectrum of light in 1672, with ultraviolet light identified in the early 1700s. The first use of the light spectrum for a medical treatment was used in 1895 by Niels Finsen, using a carbon arc light source to treat patients with lupus vulgaris.

Narrowband

• In 1923 light therapy began to be used in the treatment of psoriasis, with the band of the light spectrum successful in treating psoriasis identified in 1976 by Parish & Jaenicke. Narrowband light sources, designed to target a small part of the visible light spectrum, did not become commercially available until the mid 1980s, according to the National Skin Centre.