Issue link: https://www.ascpskindeepdigital.com/i/1191176
ASCP & you THEN & NOW This year, we'll take a look back at the origins of some of today's most effective skin care treatments, as well as a few that now seem downright scary. We've come a long way, baby! THEN Danish physician Niels Ryberg Finsen won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1903 "in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science." Healing Light Intense pulsed light therapy is popular, but it's not new by Mary Barthelme Abel 80 ascp skin deep january/february 2020 Finsen suff ered from a metabolic disease that caused weakness and fatigue, but he noticed that light made him feel more energetic, which led him to study the medical benefi ts of light. Soon he had a research institute of his own. In 1895, Finsen used concentrated beams of ultraviolet light to treat patients with lupus vulgaris with some success. Lupus vulgaris is a form of tuberculosis that attacks the skin, especially on the face and neck. Since the 1870s, it was known that ultraviolet light had an inhibiting eff ect on bacteria, and Finsen thought tissues that had been attacked by bacteria might respond to treatment with light. For a time, light therapy was widespread, but eventually it was supplanted by antibiotics. NOW Today, intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy is used primarily for esthetic and dermatological treatments. A popular and eff ective way to fade skin issues such as hyperpigmentation and vascular lesions, IPL has benefi ted greatly by technological advances. Small, handheld tools are precise and effi cient, allowing technicians to target and diminish skin discoloration and fi ne lines. Thanks, Dr. Finsen! C M Y CM MY CY CMY K