Dr Auguste Rollier is likely a name you have never heard of, but is one of the biggest contributors to the research and practice of one of life's most miraculous healing tools - the sun.
In 1903 Dr. Auguste Rollier opened the world’s first Sun Clinics in Leysin, nestled in the Swiss Alps where he treated patients who suffered from a number of diseases... using the sun!
Regarding the location of the Swiss Alps, he stated:
"In this environment, the essential factors are the air of high altitudes and the sun-bath, applied to the whole surface of the body; the bracing effect of this combination is of the greatest therapeutic value. Heliotherapy is a local treatment which is at the same time analgesic, bactericidal, and a powerful stimulus to cicatrisation.
In choosing the High Alps for the application of this treatment, I was guided by the fact that the climate of these regions is practically the only one in which heliotherapy may be applied with advantage in every month of the year. At an altitude of 5,000 feet the air is never oppressively hot, even in the height of summer; in winter, although the atmosphere is intensely cold, the brilliance of the sun more than counteracts this quality."
Rollier was a pioneering proponent of the Sun’s healing properties, authoring a highly influential book on the topic: 'Heliotherapy'. His life and work was inspired by Nobel Prize winning Neils Finsen, who discovered that sunlight cured a range of ills, including lupus, small pox and tuberculosis.
Rollier's clinics were based around the healing of illness through sunlight and because of this, his clinics had south facing balconies where his patient's beds would be rolled out each morning. He felt that morning sunlight worked the best in conjunction with a healthy, nutritious diet...which is absolutely true!
There are foods you can eat that improve your tolerance of sun exposure. Before I became aware how much diet affected you (and before I cared) I used to burn within 30 minutes of sitting outside in the English sun (...it's not exactly intense). Nowadays, knowing the benefits of the sun, I get as much of it as I can.
My skin has held up for hours under middle-eastern heat. I wouldn't recommend somebody doing this because I wouldn't want anyone to put themselves at risk of sunburn, but what you eat can certainly help you avoid burning as easily and also help you take advantage of the sun's benefits.
Heliotherapy is the act of using the sun as a mechanism to help the process of healing, which is exactly what Rollier implemented in his clinics on every single one of his patients. There was no need for Heliotherapy in the past because getting enough sun just wasn't a concern, it was just a part of life. A combination of being indoors and the propaganda surrounding sunscreen and the dangers of the sun have led us to become afraid of spending too much time outside, especially if we aren't slathered in sunscreen. This has led to a wide-spread drought of vitamin D and other ailments. For more information on this, check out my post on why I hate sunscreen.
Once Rollier passed on, Heliotherapy seemed to as well. There seems to be no room for heliotherapy in any system built on pharmaceuticals. This is because it is pretty much profitless. There is no money to be made by basking in the sun, but there is from sunscreen and the onset of illness caused by sunlight deficiency.
Rollier said:
"The advantages of a non-operative method of this kind are many. Mutilations are avoided, articular function is, to a large extent, maintained; the body recovers its harmonious outlines, and the patient returns to the outer world a complete individual, capable of earning his living.
Such treatment should not be reserved for the wealthy, for, apart from all other considerations, it is more economical for the community to pay the cost of one or even two years treatment in the sun and open air than to permit the depreciation of human capital caused by a mutilating operation."
Getting as much sun as you can, without burning (which can be helped by learning what you can tolerate, taking breaks in between sunning and having a nutritious diet) is essential for our health. Our bodies are designed to work in conjunction with nature, not against it as a battle.
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