ULTRAVIOLET BLOOD IRRADIATION THERAPY
Overview by Ilse Marie Issels 2001
Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation, also called Photoluminescence Therapy, is intravenously applied ultraviolet energy. Due to its profound photochemical, biochemical and physiological effects it has been of great value in a wide variety of diseases.
Abundant Literature reports on the successful therapeutic use of Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation over a time period of 100 years.
Niels Ryberg Finsen is considered the father of Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation. In the late 1980s, he treated various skin conditions with Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation and he and his successors reported a success rate of about 98% with lupus vulgaris, a tuberculosis-like disease of the skin and mucous membranes. In 1903 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his photochemotherapy.
In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, E. K. Knott, M.D. in Seattle, Washington, and other physicians applied this treatment successfully with a variety of conditions. There are published reports on its use in bacterial diseases, viral infections including acute and chronic hepatitis, poliomyelitis, encephalitis, overwhelming toxemias, rheumatoid arthritis and many others. With the advent of the Salk vaccine against polio and the antibiotics against bacterial infections, Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation fell in disuse until recent years.
In Europe, since the early 1950s, Josef M. Issels, M.D. administered Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation, or Photoluminescence Therapy, as one important component of his treatment program to thousands of his patients suffering from cancer and various immune disorders. The impairment of cell respiration by oxygen deficiency has been found to be a major contributing factor in the development of these diseases. The research work of Nobel laureate Otto Warburg, and other researchers such as William F. Koch, has proved that in malignant diseases the oxidation process in cells is blocked and energy is produced by fermentation. In such conditions micro-organisms that lived in symbiosis with the host organism may become pathogenic and parasitic. When oxygenation is restored, these micro-organisms can revert to the non-pathogenic state.
Experience has shown that Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation increases venous oxygen in patients with depressed blood oxygen values, enhances the resistance to acute and chronic viral and bacterial infections, has rapid detoxifying and anti-inflammatory effects and has a regulatory influence on the autonomic nervous system. The activation of the metabolism can last up to 42 weeks after completion of treatment.
In hematology and immunology the possibilities of ultraviolet energy to produce beneficial changes in blood components have been evaluated. Ultraviolet has been known to inactivate viruses while preserving their ability to be used as antigens in the preparation of vaccines. Photoluminescence therapy has shown to modulate the immune response by changing the antigenic structure in blood cells.
There are various ways to apply Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation.
The simplest way is the following: 50 cc or more of venous blood are withdrawn by venipuncture into a flask or syringe fixed with sodium citrate. The blood flows through an irradiation chamber where it is exposed to a controlled amount of ultraviolet energy and returns to the patient through the same needle as used for the blood withdrawal. The procedure takes about 20 minutes. The number of treatments depends on individual needs.
This method has shown very beneficial results in cancer and resistant chronic degenerative diseases and no harmful effects have been observed.
Another more complex method is the extracoporeal photopheresis, which can expose an even higher amount of venous blood to ultraviolet light. This procedure has an enormous immune boosting effect. It can via an apheresis device remove pathologic immune complexes from the blood and separate monocytes and macrophages, culture them to mature dendritic cells to prepare a powerful vaccine.
Literature:
Edelson, R. (1991) “Photopheresis : A Clinically Relevant Immunobiologic
Response Modifier”, Annals, New York Academy of Sciences, Dec. 30:636
Edelson, R. (1991) “Photopheresis: A New Therapeutic Concept”, The Yale
Journal of Biology and Medicine 62:565-77
Edelson, R. et al. (1987) “Treatment of Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma by
Extracorporeal Photochemotherapy”, New England Journal of Medicine 316:297-303
Edelson, R. (2001) "Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma, The Helping Hand of Dendritic
Cells", Yale University Comprehensive Cancer Center and Department of Dermatology,
New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Issels, J.M. (1999) “Cancer: A Second Opinion”, Avery Publ Group., Penguin Putnam
Knott, E.K. (1948) “Development of Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation” , Am. Jrl. Surg.Vol. 76, No. 2, Aug. 1947
Koch, W.F. (1955, 1958) “The Survival Factor in Neoplastic and Viral Diseases”,
Vanderkloot Press, Detroit, Michigan
Olney, R.C. (1955) “Treatment of Viral Hepatitis with Ultlraviolet Blood Irradiation",
Journal of Surgery
Taylor, A., Gasparro, F.P. (1992) “Extracorporeal Photochemotherapy for Cutaneous
T Cell Lymphoma and other Diseases”, Seminars in Hematology 29: 132-42
Warburg, O. (1950) “On the Origin of Cancer Cells”, Science Magazine, Volume 123, 3191
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