Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation even in small doses eradicates bacteria including drug-resistant bacteria ans some viruses. With antibiotic resistance and gut microbiome damage growing, isn't it time to take another look at this Nobel prize winning treatment?
The Cure that time forgot
Ultraviolet blood irradiation (UBI) was widely used in the 1940s and 1950s to treat many diseases including septicemia, pneumonia, tuberculosis, arthritis, asthma, and even poliomyelitis (1). There were many studies carried out by a variety of Medical schools in the USA, and often published in the American Journal of surgery. UBI is also called Biophotonic therapy.
Of course, the advent of antibiotics saw the use of UBI decline and the treatment has now been dubbed “the cure that time forgot”. Maybe, now we know the chronic damage antibiotics cause to the microbiome, and how these drugs encourage bacteria resistance, it’s time to revisit this effective treatment.
UBI - a ‘controversial’ treatment?
As usual, when there are large amounts of money at stake, and a whole new multi-billion dollar industry full of potential is ready to roll, the existing treatment has to be rubbished and buried. Conveniently, UBI was taken up by Eastern European and Russian Hospitals and this made claims that the treatment was ‘controversial’ all too easy to make.
Nobel prize - Sunlight kills bacteria
Few people know that as long ago as the 1870s, researchers found that sunlight could kill bacteria. A sugar solution left in the shade goes cloudy due to the growth of bacteria, but one left in sunlight remains clear with no bacteria (2).
The frequency of ultraviolet radiation lies between that of visible light and X-rays, but most UV light is filtered out by the earth’s atmosphere. The first Nobel prize on the subject was won in 1904, by Danish physician Niels Finsen, for his work on UV treatment of various skin conditions (3). A success rate of 98% across thousands of cases, many for a form of tuberculosis known as lupus vulgaris was achieved. Other studies by Walter H Ude (4) dealt with a cutaneous infection caused by Streptococcus pyogenes.
In the 1920s, with high cure rates using irradiation of the skin with UV light, the theory developed that the UV action was taking place in the blood capillaries of the skin. Machines to irradiate the blood were constructed. And they worked!
How does UV light work in the blood?
Having been replaced by antibiotics and dropped as a therapy, research funding and interest declined. This meant that the degree of certainty is somewhat imperfect but Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation seems to work in four main ways:
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It damages the genetic material of bacteria, yeasts and many viruses
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It boosts the immune response and white blood cell activity
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It can boost levels of both red and white cells
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It helps normalise basic blood parameters increasing alkalinity and boosting oxygen levels
Bacteria, yeast and virus cells absorb about 5 times the photonic energy that healthy white and red blood cells absorb. While this causes damage to the pathogen, healthy cells increase oxygen content.
All bacteria are susceptible to UBI, including multi-antibiotic resistant strains. This is extremely important. Research in the EU shows that approximately 1.2 million deaths per year are directly attributable to antibiotic resistant bacteria alone; and in all in 2019 according to a study in the Lancet, a staggering 4.5 million deaths in Europe were associated with antibiotic- or drug-resistant bacteria. The review (5) covered hospital deaths!
This would mean that all those patients who, for example, develop sepsis in hospital and are treated with multi-doses of different antibiotics over a month or more because most no-longer work, might have instead used a quick, effective and potentially less harmful, less risky UBI treatment.
Only a low dose of UBI is required with less than 5-7% of blood treated, and any damage to the DNA of the host cells is quickly repaired.
UBI seems also to enhance the attacking abilities of various white cells and particularly phagocytic cells (such as dendritic cells), while oxidising blood lipids. Some people liken its abilities to those of ozone therapy or Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy.
The UBI Procedure
A sample of blood is drawn from the body, rather in the same way people give blood. It is diluted with saline and passed through an irradiation machine. It is then reintroduced into the bloodstream. The number of treatments depend on the state of the infection and the general health of the patient.
There are numerous private clinics in the USA using the UBI procedure. For example, The Riordan Clinic describe it as a 'natural antibiotic'. They talk of dead fragments of the infecting agent then prompting a strong immune response, rather like a vaccine would.
There seem to be a couple of centres using UBI in the UK - The Nuutro Clinic in London and The Ozone Hub in Stafford..
Is there an emerging role for UV light and particularly UBI machines in hospitals?
The research data confirms that deaths due to drug- and antibiotic-resistance are increasing in hospitals (5). And there seems little doubt that the more bacterial infections such as Clostridium difficile and MRSA occur and kill in hospitals, the more we might need to go back to the effective treatment time forgot. Why wouldn’t every hospital have a UBI machine if it could help patients avoid weeks on cocktails of antibiotics and save patient lives?
As I said above, viruses too are killed by Ultraviolet enhanced blood, again by damaging the genetic material. Viruses also absorb five times as much photonic energy as do your red and white blood cells, and we also know that the higher UVC energy can prove a even stronger killer against viruses.
Hospitals know this - they already use UVC machines - UVC light, which has the shortest wavelength and the highest energy of all the UV radiation, is a known disinfectant for air, water, and nonporous surfaces. The use of UVGI systems includes hospital surface disinfection and water treatment.
This word 'Disinfectant' also crops up regularly in articles. Several clinics liken UBI to disinfecting the blood of bacteria and viruses. You may have heard Donald Trump asking about using bleach for Covid-19. He just got his terminology wrong. Many doctors and scientists involved with UBI felt that it had a role to play against the Covid-19 virus.
As we said, UBI promotes both the red and white blood cells - this might make it a simple way of boosting the red and white cells and the immune system during chemotherapy or immunotherapy! And dead pathogens also boost the immune response, rather than flattening it.
We previously covered research from Sloan Kettering showing how bacteria can pick up drug-resistant genes when the patient has antibiotics, and scientists are clear that the top six pathogenic bacteria have now all acquired antibiotic and drug resistance - the list included E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.
It would seem to be a very good idea for all hospitals to have a machine, to use in extreme cases of infection - we have seen cancer patients in hospital for up to three months on different antibiotics for sepsis - or frequently recurrent infection such as UTIs. Do we wait for more patients to die from drug- and antibiotic-resistant pathogens? Or is it time to bring back the treatment time forgot?
Go to: How antibiotics can ’scar’ your gut microbiome
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References
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Ultraviolet Irradiation of Blood: “The Cure That Time Forgot”? Michael R. Hamblin; Adv Exp Med Biol. 2017;996:295–309.
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Researches on the effect of light upon bacteria and other organisms. Downes A, Blunt TP; Proc Royal Soc London 1877 26:488–500
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Finsen, Niels Ryberg. Phototherapy. Arnold, 1901.
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Ultraviolet radiation therapy in erysipela. Ude WH (1929); Radiology 13:504
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A Systematic Review of Antibiotic Resistance Trends for Hospital-Acquired Multidrug-Resistant Infections; 2022 Cureus; .