Using sunlight or “heliotherapy” to treat skin diseases has been around for over 3,500 years. The ingestion of extracts in combination with exposure to sunlight was used by ancient Egyptian and Indian civilizations as a treatment for leucoderma, which is called vitiligo if it isn’t preceded by another cause. Modern Phototherapy began when Niels Finsen developed a lamp in 1903 that emitted chemical rays used to treat tuberculosis, this earned him a Nobel Prize.

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The benefits of UV phototherapy for psoriasis was recognized by the medical community as early as 1925 by a study of the effects of natural sunlight on psoriasis patients. Fluorescent devices to produce UV light for the treatment of psoriasis have been in use for over 60 years and today there is a phototherapy clinic in most cities, usually in a hospital or a dermatologist’s office. Home units are a more recent phenomenon, as lower costs have made them more attainable to the average person.

Our bodies evolved in an environment bathed in ultraviolet light, so we developed responses to use the light beneficially (Vitamin D photosynthesis) and to protect us from over-exposure (tanning). Our modern lifestyles; being fully clothed, having protection from the sun, and many of us living in extreme northern/southern latitudes; has significantly reduced our UV exposure, lowered our intake of Vitamin D, and contributed to health problems in some.

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For further information we suggest reading History of phototherapy in dermatology.

 

 

Will home UVB phototherapy work for me?

The best way to determine if home UVB phototherapy will work for you is to first get a proper diagnosis from your physician, and, if warranted, to take treatments at a phototherapy clinic near you to see if it is effective. SolRx devices use exactly the same UVB bulbs as used in the clinic, so if the clinic treatments prove successful, there is an excellent chance that home phototherapy will work as well, as supported by this medical study of twenty-five SolRx UVB-Narrowband home units in the Ottawa area: “Are Narrow-band Ultraviolet B Home Units a Viable Option for Continuous or Maintenance Therapy of Photoresponsive Skin Diseases?”  

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If you cannot attend a phototherapy clinic, your response to natural sunlight is usually a good indicator. Does your skin condition get better in the summer? Have you ever deliberately taken sun exposure to improve your skin? Do you take vacations to sunny climates to clear your skin? Have you had some success clearing your psoriasis using tanning equipment?

Note: Cosmetic tanning equipment emits mostly UVA light (which by itself is not effective for psoriasis), and just a small amount of UVB (up to a government regulated maximum of approximately 5%), so some psoriasis patients get benefit from tanning; albeit along with a large amount of unnecessary UVA energy.

 

How safe is ultraviolet phototherapy?

As with natural sunlight, repeated exposure to ultraviolet light can cause premature aging of the skin and an increased risk of skin cancer. However, when only UVB is used and UVA is excluded, many decades of medical use have proven that these are only minor concerns. Indeed, UVB phototherapy is drug-free and safe for children and women that are pregnant.

When these relatively minor risks of UVB phototherapy are weighed against the risks of other treatment options, often involving strong prescription drugs or even injections, UVB phototherapy is usually found to be the best treatment option, or at least the treatment option that should be tried after topical drugs such as steroids and dovonex have proven minimally effective.

Many governments issue a “formulary” for each biologic drug that says phototherapy must be attempted before the biologic can be prescribed, but unfortunately often with the caveat “(unless not accessible)”, which too often pushes patients into the more risky, expensive, and unnecessary biologic drug.

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Furthermore, biologic drugs for psoriasis have been shown to lose their effectiveness rather quickly for many, with the ORBIT study of 703 biologic treatment courses stating: “Overall median drug survival was 31.0 months.” That means that by 31 months half of the patients had stopped treatment because the biologic drug had lost its effectiveness. The ORBIT study was published in the June-2016 edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD). In comparison, UVB phototherapy can be used safely and effectively for many decades, with the bonus of at the same time naturally making large amounts of Vitamin D in the patient’s skin, for health benefits throughout the body.

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Other practical safety considerations with phototherapy are that all persons exposed to the UV light must wear eye protection, with patients wearing the UV-blocking goggles supplied with the SolRx device, and with males covering both their penis and scrotum using a sock, unless that area is affected. 

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To prevent unauthorized use, all SolRx devices have an electrical mains power disconnect switchlock with a key that can be removed and hidden. This is of particular value if children are around, or if there are people that might mistake the device for a tanning machine and take far more treatment time than recommended, resulting in a serious skin burn. The switchlock also makes it easy to electrically disconnect the device, which protects it from possible power surge damage, for example from a lightning strike.