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Some authorities consider that practically all of the radiant energy given off by incandescent bodies consists of the yellow and orange rays of the visible spectrum, the heat of incan¬descence. But considerable heat comes from rays other than these, namely the red ones. Some of the infra-red rays im¬mediately below the visible red are undoubtedly given off by incandescent bodies, including some light-bulbs, particularly when the filament producing the light is especially prepared. By tests at the Finsen Institute of Copenhagen it was shown that the visible red rays and the very short infra-red rays emitted by luminous bodies have considerable penetrating power, much more, in comparison, than the infra-red rays given off from non-luminous or faintly luminous heated bodies. The red and infra-red rays from luminous bodies raised the temperature of tissue one-fifth of an inch below the surface four degrees higher than that of the surface, while after a similar application of heat from a non-luminous body, the temperature within the tissues was lower than that of the skin. Hence it appears that a relatively high temperature is main¬tained in the blood and subcutaneous tissues when the body is radiated with luminous rays, and it is doubtless due, in part, to this increased temperature continued for considerable periods of time that various metabolic changes of advantage to the body take place under the influence of the rays.
Even the yellow rays have a penetrating power. But what health or therapeutic value there is in yellow rays has not yet been fully determined. Taken alone, they probably would have little if any effect upon the tissues. In combination with other rays, they probably aid in activating some chemical changes and vital processes. When we consider the claim of some scientists that it is the visible rays, red and yellow, that produce the changes within the green leaf that result in the building up of carbohydrates—if that claim be true—we can¬not doubt that these rays are of vast importance to our own bodies, even if we do not know just what or how they operate.
ELECTRIC-LIGHT CABINETS.—Today it is possible to ob¬tain the effects of the type of bath exemplified in the Russian and Turkish baths and cabinet baths employing vapor and hot air, in a more pleasing manner, as well as with less trouble and with more benefit. This is done by means of the cabinet flooded with electric light. Many homes now have these cabi¬nets and use them as a part of the daily hygienic schedule.
The type of appliance one might secure for home use will de¬pend somewhat upon price and appearance. Some of the convective-heat appliances are very attractive in appearance, and most of them are durable; also the cost of operation is usually very low. But all, of course, are operated by electricity, and people in rural districts who do not have electricity must still resort to compresses, fomen¬tations, hot-water bottles, and other such primitive methods of supplying heat.
Under “Hydrotherapy” in this volume, there appears a full discussion of various hydriatric procedures that may be used as substitutes for radiant light when the latter is unavail¬able or cannot be employed.
There are different types of lamps giving infra-red therapy or radiant light and heat. Some have high-wattage bulbs that yield intensely brilliant incandescent light, while others have heating elements that give only a dull red glow. It is claimed by some that the more nearly the heating element approaches, during use, this latter color, the more abundant will be the infra-red rays. In any of the lamps much heat is produced which is convective, since it reaches the body through currents of air or by radiation. Some of them are on pedestals which may be moved to the bedside or wherever desired, and some have merely a hand-grip for holding them while in use. All have reflectors for concentrating the rays where they are needed. Another form of appliance is an oblong reflector in the curved back of which may be one, two, or several bulbs. This is placed over the region of the body to be treated and left there for varying lengths of time, according to the nature of the case. A special heating pad has also been produced which is said to yield a high percentage of infra-red rays. It may produce these rays in some amounts; but, as it becomes itself very hot and is placed practically in contact with the body (with only a white towel or cloth between it and the bared skin), it is certain that it yields conductive heat also. But whether or not a particular appli¬ance produces ap¬preciable amounts of infra-red rays to penetrate the tissues beneath the skin, all these lamps produce convective heat as well as conductive. This combination will be serviceable in a wide variety of cases.
Among the conditions in which infra-red therapy, or therapy by means of radiant light and heat (sometimes called also radiotherapy), is of considerable benefit are congestions, inflammations, and infections. These include many abnormal conditions; but we may mention arthritis, asthma, boils and carbuncles, bronchitis, burns and scalds, colds, contrac- tures (muscular, spasmodic and so forth), earache (especially in children and when mastoiditis is threatened), erj^sipelas, the exanthemata (chiekenpox, measles, scarlet fever, smallpox), extravasations (escape of blood serum or lymph, or all of these, into tissues, as from contusions, fractures or ruptured muscles), gout, headaches (most kinds), hysteria, influenza, insomnia, intestinal and other infectious foci, ischemia or local anemia, lumbago, myositis (inflammation of muscle), nephritis, superficial neuralgias, neuritis, obesity, pleurisy, pneumonia, rheumatism, sinusitis, sciatica, toxemias, whooping-cough, bruises, sprains and strains, shock and various other conditions of subnormal temperature.
Among other conditions in which this treatment is applicable are cases of chancroid, to the chest for cough or hay-fever, epididymitis, exophthalmic goiter, chronic gastritis, enlarged thyroid, incontinence of urine (ap-. plied over bladder and lumbar spine), general inflammations, creaking joints, chronic arthritis, leucemia, orchitis, acute and chronic ovarian disease, paralysis, peritonitis, prematurity {applied over the spine), chronic prostatitis, sciatica, stiff neck, acne, abdominal adhesions, arthritis deformans, bone dis¬eases and wry-neck. The treatment also is very beneficial in restoring circulation and maintaining function in para¬lyzed limbs, provided care is taken not to burn the skin, which is easily done in these cases because of the disturbed nutrition and often because of reduced sensation. As might be expected, conditions of such extreme difference will require different exposures, as to distance and duration.
To treat all in the same manner would be likely to cause serious results in some, but no attempt can be made here to give the exact technic for each. Proper exposures will depend partly upon factors other than the condition being treated, and must be determined by careful consideration of all of these. For this reason it is highly advisable that a physician be consulted in regard to most of the disorders mentioned.
Many people, however, do much to assuage or remove pain and other unpleasant conditions, not infrequently with dis¬astrous or serious consequences. Pain is a most important danger signal. It never comes without adequate cause, and that cause is some condition which tends to progress if not removed. To the physician the pain directs the search for itscause—for the real trouble. To many people pain is the trouble, the only trouble. If they can stop the pain, they think that they escape the trouble.
Radiant light and heat, or some other home treatment, will often relieve pain or other distressing symptoms sufficiently to give the patient a danger¬ous feeling of security; he believes that the trouble has been removed or greatly reduced. With an occasional fleeting pain, or with some pains that occur chronically in some of the super¬ficial tissues, no great harm may result from treatment directed to the pain itself. But even here, and certainly in the case of numerous internal pains, the pathological condition creating the pain may be allowed to progress during the treatment of this one symptom until a stage develops which cannot be cor¬rected.
It is not meant to give the impression that one should run to a physician with every pain that develops, or every other symptom. This entire set of volumes has been carefully pre¬pared to help the layman to overcome abnormal conditions that might otherwise necessitate the calling of a doctor. But they are also intended to discourage the almost universal tendency to strike at individual symptoms without taking into considera¬tion the more important underlying conditions. The fact is that the entire body suffers when any part of it suffers, and any symptom must of necessity concern, to some extent, some other part than the one in which it apparently originates, or to which it may be confined. Even though the symptoms may be treated with benefit in many instances, the entire body must be treated if permanent results are to be seeured, and if pathological conditions are to be prevented from progressing to a point where improvement or cure becomes impossible. If one gives attention to the body as a whole while treating some single part of it that cries out in pain, or develops some other symptom of disturbed health, then local treatment or symptom therapy has its field, and a rather broad one too.
Tims there are numerous conditions in which the infra-red rays may be used with great benefit, and some rather super¬ficial conditions in which the trouble may be completely re¬lieved by them. But when the area to be treated is deep within the tissues, conversive heat, in what is known as diathermia, briefly discussed under Electrotherapy, is much to be pre¬ferred. But diathermia as a therapeutic factor belongs strictly to the physician, and the necessary apparatus is so expensive as to be prohibitive for use in the average home. The appli¬ances for home use are those for producing radiant light and heat, and these do much that cannot well be done by any other home treatment. They will even, in some conditions, take the place of diathermic treatment till such can be secured.
The hyperemia induced by any conveetive means, such as infra-red rays, is analgesic—pain-reducing. It is also relax¬ing, the spasms and tensions resulting from the pain and con¬gestion of a diseased part being reduced. It is decongestive, to a beneficial extent, through its effect upon the skin vessels, which secure some of their blood from congested organs or tissues within. These may be called the local effects of treat¬ment by such heat. It also has general effects, such as a seda-
live and soothing action; a restorative and eliminative action through the markedly increased blood supply to the part treated, which hastens repair; and a derivative action, through calling blood from congested regions or by bringing it to anemic regions.
The most obvious effect of treatment with infra-red rays is pronounced hyperemia. Hyperemia means an increased circu¬lation of blood in any part and is quite different from conges¬tion. The latter condition is due either to too much arterial blood reaching a part for the amount of drainage supplied by the veins (active congestion), or failure of the veins to carry off a normal amount of blood (passive congestion); but in hyperemia there is no stagnation, both arteries and veins are Effect conveying more blood than normally, but with the arterial supply (usually) over-balancing the venous drainage. At least hyperemia induced by the application of heat is of this nature, though the abnormal amount of blood in a part during some pathological condition is often referred to either as hyperemia or congestion, either of which may be active or pas¬sive. See the precautionary procedure mentioned later in the last paragraph under Local Light-Baths.
The nature of infra-red rays is to produce heat where they are absorbed. If they were absorbed directly in the super¬ficial layers of the skin, they would have no greater effect upon the body than any conductive-heat generator. But if you re¬call the wave-length variance of the infra-red rays—from 7,700 Angstrom units to “infinity” (or 2,000,000 Angstrom units, as some state)—you will realize that there must be a considerable variance in their penetrating power. The fact is that some penetrate the tissues to a considerable depth before they are absorbed, which makes them superior to any form of conductive heat. However, claims are often made for them by manufacturers and salesmen of the generators which can¬not be lived up to, for the simple reason that it is beyond the power of infra-red rays to produce such effects.
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