Heliotherapy: The Forgotten Medicine of Light

Believe it or not, over a hundred years ago, sunlight was in fact Not feared.

It wasn’t something people “protected” themselves from with SPF 70 or avoided by staying inside all day. It was prescribed — by doctors.

If we want to take a stroll back through history; in the early 1900s, hospitals used heliotherapy — the therapeutic use of natural sunlight — to treat some of the most devastating diseases of that time. Patients with tuberculosis, rickets, wounds, and skin conditions were wheeled outside into sunlit courtyards or treated in solariums designed to capture as much natural light as humanly possible.

When I think about the beautiful Human Heart, it would only make sense that sunlight amplifies nitric oxide, the body’s natural vasodilator—which is critical for heart patients or anyone working to improve their cardiovascular health.

One pioneer, Dr. Auguste Rollier, opened clinics in the Swiss Alps where sunlight, fresh air, movement, and nutrition were the core “medicines.” When I tell you it worked, it in fact saved lives like you wouldn't imagine. Chronic conditions reversed.

Even Niels Ryberg Finsen, who later won the Nobel Prize, treated patients with lupus vulgaris — a painful, disfiguring form of skin tuberculosis — by using concentrated light therapy.

Sunlight wasn’t seen as dangerous, it was seen as healing.

What Happened to Sunlight as Medicine?

So what really changed? Why don’t we hear about heliotherapy anymore?

Well, in 1910, a rather large shift occured in American medicine. The Flexner Report, which was funded by powerful industrialists like Rockefeller and Carnegie; all reshaped medical education. Focus was shifted which sadly erased natural, non-patentable therapies like nutrition, light therapy, and environmental medicine. I will let you fill in the why on that one.

From that point forward, sunlight went from being a respected treatment to a “danger” we must hide from.

Fast-forward to today:

• We live indoors, surrounded by blue light from screens and fluorescent bulbs.

• We slather on sunscreen at the first hint of sun.

• We’ve now disconnected from one of the most primal, healing forces of nature.

And chronic disease? My friends, it is skyrocketing.

Why Your Body Craves Natural Light

Your body isn’t just influenced by light — it actually runs on it. Natural sunlight provides information and energy that regulate nearly every system in your body.

• It sets your circadian rhythm, telling your body when to sleep, wake, and heal.

• It fuels your mitochondria, that powerhouse of your cells that optimizes energy production.

• It modulates your immune system, bringing down inflammation and boosting resilience.

• It balances your hormones, from cortisol to melatonin to thyroid function.

• It lifts your mood, naturally increasing serotonin and dopamine.

Sunlight isn’t just something you see — it’s something you absorb. It is actual information that is medicine to that miraculous Body that you live in.

Reclaim some Power

of Light

We didn’t stop using heliotherapy because it didn’t work. We stopped because it couldn’t be patented.

The system doesn’t profit when you can heal yourself for free by stepping into the sun.

But here’s the good news: you don’t need permission to reclaim what was taken. Simple sunlight exposure can have a profound impact on your health:

• Start your day by watching the sunrise without sunglasses or screens.

• Expose as much skin as possible to natural light for 10–20 minutes a day, especially in the morning.

• Dim artificial lights in the evening to support your natural sleep-wake cycles. (or refer to my previous post about your lighting at home)

The goal isn’t to burn — it’s to sync your biology with nature.

Step Into that Light

Heliotherapy was once an iconic beauty of modern medicine. Don't you wonder if we truly wanted to shift human health & resilience; heliotherapy would be a staple of every hospital, mental health facility, classroom, and correctional system?

You weren’t designed to live in the dark. You were designed to thrive in with the rhythms of the sun.

From Me to You:

Go Step outside, Soak in the light & may you Heal the way nature intended.