History
Many ancient cultures practiced various forms of heliotherapy, including people of the Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Rome. The Inca, Assyrian and early German settlers also worshipped the sun as a health bringing deity. Indian medical literature dating to 1500 BC describes a treatment combining herbs with natural sunlight to treat non-pigmented skin areas. Buddhist literature from about 200 AD and 10th-century Chinese documents made similar references.
Faroese physician Niels Finsen is believed to be the father of modern phototherapy. He developed the first artificial light source for this purpose, and used his invention to treat lupus vulgaris. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1903.
Since then a large array of treatments have been developed from the use of controlled light. Though the popular consumer understanding of "light therapy" is associated with treating seasonal affective disorder and skin conditions like psoriasis, other applications include the application of low level laser, red light, near-infrared and ultraviolet lights for pain management, hair growth, skin treatments, and accelerated wound healing.
Read more about this topic: Light Therapy
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