Photonic Therapy
From the earliest times, when primitive man worshipped the sun, (1500 BC the Rig Veda, a Sanskrit document from India), through the histories of the ancient Greeks and Romans, one can find references to the healing powers of light.
Henri de Mondeville (1260-1320 AD), used red light in the treatment of smallpox. John of Goddesden, physician to Edward II of England, in 1510 treated a prince with smallpox, using red dyes, red bedclothes and red curtains (diffuse red light), and cured him, without a vestige of pock marks. The rainbow, which always attracts interest and curiosity, remained a mystery until the studies by Isaac Newton in 1666, during the Black Plague. At the turn of the century a Danish doctor, Niels Finsen, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine, for his work in treating smallpox and tuberculosis with light.
With the advent of modern antibiotics and improved hygiene, much of this history and old information has been forgotten or ignored. Given such a history, it is not surprising, that those who suggested that light could be used to treat disease, risked being accused of pursuing pseudo-science as it is known that quackery flourishes, in the twilight of knowledge.
In 1968, Hungarian and Canadian researchers used low powered laser light to stimulate acupuncture points. However, it was not until 1989, that sufficient, detailed, scientific information was available, to understand the interaction of light with tissue. In 1990, with the advent of superbright diode technology, and then in 1991, with the publication of textbooks on Bioenergetics (the transfer of energy across cell membranes), it was possible to introduce a rational, scientific, advanced method of treatment.
