Medical treatment using radiation or rays (especially ultraviolet light or X-rays) to heal or cure diseases.
From Greek 'aktis' (ray) + 'therapeia' (healing, treatment). This term was widely used in early 20th-century medicine before the dangers of radiation were fully understood.
In the 1920s-1940s, actinotherapy was considered cutting-edge medicine—doctors used UV rays and radioactive substances to treat everything from acne to tuberculosis, and some treatments actually worked, but many patients developed cancer years later from the radiation exposure!
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