Artificial Sunlight has Curative Properties

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 29, 31 January 1930, Page 33

Artificial Sunlight has Curative Properties

A New Use for Electricity

BH have recently been fortunate in securing the opinions vy 4 OL 2 prominent medical man- on ‘artificial sunlight, or ultraS| violet ray treatment, From him we learn that its use is valuable as a general tonic and perfectly safe in the hands of the layman if instructions are carried out. The curative value of natural sunlight‘.is well known, the ultra-violet rays which it contains being the curative constituent. The relative inten‘sity of the sun varies enormously with / its altitude, decreasing as the sun gets low. Miles high, too, there is an ozone layer absorbing all the sun’s shorter rays, and lower down.the ultra-violet rays are absorbed by the atmosphere.

Ultra-violet rays from the sun vary at different. months of the year and at different hours of the day, decreasing in winter time, as we should ex-Ultta-violet rays come to us also from the whole of the sky, and when the sun is low those from the skyshine are greater than from the sun itself. Hence the depressing éffect of a grey sky. There is also a very great loss of ultra-violet rays in smoky cities, even during periods of bright sunshine. Approximately 7 per cent. of ultraviolet rays are contained in the sun’s rays. Artificial sunlight will give from 28 per cent. from a mercury-vapour lamp to 5 per cent. from a carbon are lamp, both of which can be controlled to avoid sunburn. Most makers of ultra-violet ray apparatus will give a certificate stating what the particular apparatus will produce. For the same reason that a person who is not accustomed to exposure to strong sunshine will suffer sunburn if subjected to prolonged exposure, artificial sunlight. treatment should be in-

troduced gradually. One minute’s exposure should be the’ first treatment, increasing by one minute each treatment, until 80¢minutes’ exposure is being taken at one treatment. Such a treatment when given over a whole body. constitutes an excellent

SURRERURRREERAGEGUESEECEREEEORERE ELSE il sun-bath and has a marked tonic effect. HILE artificial sunlight is not recommended for application to closed abscesses, it has a highly remedial and germicidal effect when applied to skin affections, such as eczema, boils, carbuncles, open leg ulcers, ete., actually killing the bacteria and creating healthy tissue. It is highly thought of for the treatment of rickets and kindred diseases, due to faults of nutrition (not necessarily under-nutrition, but often poor nutrition lacking in. vitamin D., or failure to assimilate the ° nutrition taken, as in girlhood anaemia), pneumonia and some forms of tuberculosis, such as tubercular joints and hip-dis-ease. It should not, however, be used for tuberculosis of the lungs, where there is an actual lesion, as haemorrhage might be induced.

It is usefully employed during convalescence, as recently, in the case of His Majesty. the King, who derived great benefit from the*treatment, and for general debility. Neuralgia, sciatica, etc., are always

relieved and frequently cured by ultraviolet ray applications. Owing to the ozone which is emitted, the odour of which can be readily detected, it is valuable in treating cases of asthma, influenza, bronchitis, and epidemic colds. Ozonisers are used in the out-patients’ waiting rooms of some large hospitals to ozonate the air and free it of impurities. [ts properties are nowhere more remarkable than in the world of chemistry. A British combination of research chemists succeeded in creating a substance the same as vitamins A, B, C. and D, but which, when fed experimentally to puppies, was disappointing, in that it did not cure or prevent rickets, until irradiated by ultra-violet rays, when it assumed all the active properties of actual vitamin D. There is now, theréfore, no real obstacle in the way of producing vitamin D in suf-

ficient or even excessive quantities in margarine, winter milk, and butter, and such foodstuffs as are normally lacking in same, © We find, therefore, that a small, portable, ultra-violet ray apparatus, such as can be obtained from a reliable maker at the cost of a few pounds only, should be of immense value, not only in the general toning-up of the system and increasing its resistance to disease, but in the actual creation of vitamins within the body itself by the application of the rays, and the fact that it enables sedentary workers, invalid children, old people and folk tied to their business during the daytime, to acquire the benefits of a sun-bath, independent of weather or other conditions, at any time, which may be ai their disposal.