Many ancient cultures practiced various forms of heliotherapy, including people of Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Rome.[48] 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 make similar references.
The Faroese physician Niels Finsen is believed to be the father of modern phototherapy. He developed the first artificial light source for this purpose.[citation needed] Finsen used red light to treat lupus vulgaris, a skin infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and ultraviolet light to treat smallpox lesions. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1903. Scientific evidence for some of his treatments is lacking, and later eradication of smallpox and development of antibiotics for tuberculosis rendered light therapy obsolete for these diseases.[49]
Since then a large array of treatments using controlled light have been developed. Though the popular consumer understanding of "light therapy" is associated with treating seasonal affective disorder, circadian rhythm disorders and skin conditions like psoriasis, other applications include the use of low level laser, red light, near-infrared and ultraviolet lights for pain management, hair growth,[citation needed] skin treatments,[which?] and accelerated wound healing.[citation needed]
See also
Blood irradiation therapy
Deep penetrating light therapy
Free-running sleep
Emotional Transformation Therapy
Low level laser therapy
Sun tanning