Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation Therapy as a Cancer Treatment

Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation or Photoluminescence Therapy in Cancer Treatment

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 according to over 100 years of research findings.

Niels Ryberg Finsen is considered the father of Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation. In the late 1890s, he treated various skin conditions with Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation and he and his successors reported a success rate of about 98% in curing lupus vulgaris, a tuberculosis-like disease of the skin and mucous membranes. In 1903, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research in photochemotherapy.

In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, E. K. Knott, M.D. in Seattle, Washington, and other physicians applied this treatment successfully to a variety of other conditions, such as bacterial diseases, viral infections including acute and chronic hepatitis, poliomyelitis, encephalitis, overwhelming toxemias, rheumatoid arthritis and many other diseases and conditions.

In Europe, since the early 1950s, Josef M. Issels, M.D. administered Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation, or Photoluminescence Therapy, as an important component of his treatment program to thousands of his patients suffering from cancer and various immune disorders.

How Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation Works

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 proper oxygenation is restored, these micro-organisms can revert to the non-pathogenic state. The impairment of cell respiration by oxygen deficiency has been found to be a major contributing factor in the development of cancer an other degenerative diseases.

Ultraviolet energy has been known to inactivate viruses while preserving their ability to be used as antigens in the preparation of vaccines. It has also shown to modulate the immune response by changing the antigenic structure in blood cells.

Most importantly for cancer therapy, Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation, also called Photoluminescence Therapy is the observation that controlled ultraviolet energy exposure promotes the maturation of dendritic cells through oxidative stimulation.

This effect is similar to that of the oxygen/ozone action, and is very important as the immune system's dendritic cell fraction plays a key role in the fight against cancer. Other cells of the immune system are activated as well, along with the enhanced production of cytokines, such as IL-2, tumor necrosis factor and interferon.

In addition, researchers discovered the following beneficial reactions to Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation:

• Inactivation of toxins
• Destruction and growth inhibition of bacteria
• Vasodilation
• Activation of steroid hormones
• Increase in the oxygen combining power of the blood and oxygen transportation to organs
• Decrease of blood viscosity by stimulation of fibrinolysis
• Improvement of blood circulation
• Stimulation of corticosteroid production
• Decrease of platelet aggregation

How Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation is Performed

• As part of the therapy, a certain amount of venous blood is withdrawn by venipuncture.
• This blood is then exposed twice to a controlled amount of UV-A light in a joint circuit inside a UV-A light permeable quartz chamber.
• The blood is then returned to the patient.
• The number of treatments depends on the individual's needs and personal treatment plan.

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