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Sun ray treament

Hi all "Sun Ray Treatmenters"
I also had "sun ray treatment" it was at a clinic in a street that ran perarell with Belgrave Road,may have been Balsall Heath Rd, the clinic was on the left hand side just before you got to Moseley Road. I was told the treatment was because I had a spot on my lungs-TB!! After the treatment ended I was sent to live in Switzerland for six months, courtesy of Kunzell's.
I have just celebrated by 72nd birthday, so it must have worked.
Regards.
Bill
 
sunlamp treatment

Being marched from Upper Thomas St school to a clinic (somewhere) for sunray treatment? (sitting in front of big lamps, wearing dark glasses) not even sure why, we also had a glass of orange juice, so guess it was to do with vitamin C. then teeth check, then the Nit Nurse would check us out, then sometimes injections!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ha !! happy days.
I guess it was a substitute for a sunny holiday, got us out of lessons though. lol
 
Re: sunlamp treatment

I too when the that SUN RAY TREATMENT CLINIC was it not around Bevinghton road/Whitehead road area?
My mom purchased a small version about 10" dia with two carbon rods that you had to move together & then wind apart till the arc sparked. The blus gogles left marks on our noses for hours afterwards.
 
Re: sunlamp treatment

My dad had one of those sun lamps and I used it without goggles and had something they called arc eyes that welders get or a type of snow blindness. I thought I was going to go blind and never used it again. I think the clinic was in Trinity road. They did everything there from tooth pulling and drilling to building bricks with your feet. Jean.
 
Hi everyone,

Really interesting reading about your sun ray treatments, My husband has always told me that he had to go for these treatments when he was young. Like most of you he doesn't know why. He is now a healthy 74. He was most interested to read the posts and like you all remembers the goggles.

Rustie
 
I used to go to Sheep Street clinic every Friday afternoon when I was 6. I was a sickly child, suffered from anemia. Doctor used to give me this brown medicine that tasted like sucking old pennies!

Missing an afternoon off school to go for my treatment was OK, except that Friday afternoons in the "top class" of the infants was play afternoon where everyonebough towys and played instead of doing lessions.

Not sure "sun ray" treatment did me any good, but 10 years in the Australian sun probably worked!
 
Re: sunlamp treatment

I used to go to sunlamp treatment twice a week at Church Road School clinic in Yardley. We'd sit in a circle, wearing just our knickers (both boys and girls) and wearing goggles that you on no account, should ever remove whilst the lamp was on. I was always tempted to take them off to see what would happen and would peer through the gaps at the sides and underneath.
Sunray treatment really did help my frequent bouts of asthma and though it was primitive, I can't understand why it still isn;'t used, because it really worked,
 
Re: sunlamp treatment

I used to go there too oldgoose, for exactly the same thing. Do you remember the goggles used to smell??
 
Iremember when we went to the pictures Saturday morning they used to have two films one being a public health service film and of course Pathe News. These public health films were terrifying, swarms of locusts hitting a small planes windscreen in Australia which was spraying the wonder cure for all pests DDT! Another showed a poor kid who was in this gigantic metal iron lung because she had polio with only a mirror above her head to look at and as far as I know that was for the rest of her life at the time. Another showed a lot of half naked pre-pubertal girls going for a medical inspection which we had loads of didn't we. Of course all the boys in the audience were being rude and wolf whistling. Not exactly entertainment for your sixpence was it?
My older sister had the SunRay treatment in the 1950s. I had to go to flat foot clinic in Sparkhill in the 1960s which meant getting a bus from Hall Green on my own aged 10 to get there during school time. Girls who were naughty, and some were, had their foot manipulated by the Physiotherapist in a way that made them scream in pain. She scared me to death. I liked climbing the poles ( would love to be able to nowadays!) and picking up marbles with your toes I know would give me cramp now unfortunately.
My sister developed thyroid cancer at 50 which she got successful treatment for early enough very luckily. She did have an unrelated op on her neck at 15 but as thyroid cancer is so rare, wondered if the Sun Ray treatment had any to do with it. There was a lack of understanding of the dangers of radiotherapy then , remember the xray machines in shoe shops?
 
stickleback said:
Iremember when we went to the pictures Saturday morning they used to have two films one being a public health service film and of course Pathe News. These public health films were terrifying, swarms of locusts hitting a small planes windscreen in Australia which was spraying the wonder cure for all pests DDT! Another showed a poor kid who was in this gigantic metal iron lung because she had polio with only a mirror above her head to look at and as far as I know that was for the rest of her life at the time. Another showed a lot of half naked pre-pubertal girls going for a medical inspection which we had loads of didn't we. Of course all the boys in the audience were being rude and wolf whistling. Not exactly entertainment for your sixpence was it?
My older sister had the SunRay treatment in the 1950s. I had to go to flat foot clinic in Sparkhill in the 1960s which meant getting a bus from Hall Green on my own aged 10 to get there during school time. Girls who were naughty, and some were, had their foot manipulated by the Physiotherapist in a way that made them scream in pain. She scared me to death. I liked climbing the poles ( would love to be able to nowadays!) and picking up marbles with your toes I know would give me cramp now unfortunately.
My sister developed thyroid cancer at 50 which she got successful treatment for early enough very luckily. She did have an unrelated op on her neck at 15 but as thyroid cancer is so rare, wondered if the Sun Ray treatment had any to do with it. There was a lack of understanding of the dangers of radiotherapy then , remember the xray machines in shoe shops?
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I used to go to the school clinic and have this heat treatment on my feet,and then would do exercises, pick bean bags up with my feet,make a circle with my feet,i have no idea why.
I went for several months.
 
I used to go to Maas road clinic in Northfield for sun ray treatment. I had an uneven breast bone, the right side being about 1" higher than the left.There still is a slight difference but not noticable. I dont if it was the lamp or just growing up that put things right. Then again it might have been through being born 7 weeks premature and at home too, ah the days before the NHS.
 
angeleyes said:
did any of you encounter this i did at the clinic in john bright st. i used to have to go once a week to sit in front of some sort of heater with goggles on. and be stripped to the waist. i dont know from that day to this why i had this. i never will now because my mom and dad are know longer here.
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I remember going to Maas Road Clinic for the same treatment in the late 1950's. My brother also went some years later. We were told it was because we had head colds and Catarrh. My granddad died young from TB and after reading some of the messages here, I wonder if it was done as a preventative for us?? I still have some Catarrh but otherwise healthy so dont think its done me any harm!
 
I read a piece today that people are not getting enough sunlight, especially the Scots, to produce vitamin D, With all the advice to cover up because of possible skin cancers the lack of sunlight sets off other problems. Damned if you do ,damned if you dont. I am sure so much of this research is half proved twaddle put out to satisfy those paying the bills.
 
Sunlamp treatment was mainly used to prevent rickets in young children who were not getting enough sunlight and therefore vitamin D which is essential to forming strong bones.
 
Ohh WoW... plenty of us Goggle wearers about then... heheh... I remember going... think I only went twice... I ended up with an allergic reaction to the goggles!! they had great big rubber rings around them... & I ended up with huge rash circles around my eyes the next day!! .. I remember having to sit on high stools... (like in one of the pictures. ) and had to strip to just pants and vests.. we had to hold hands with the other folks and a voice would shout our names to tell us to turn around... not easy for a tiny tot getting on & off those stools!!... I was always told it was because of the lack of sunshine I got hence no Vit D... ... but I always wondered why my brother and sister never went??... Ummmm
 
Hi all , i used to have sunray treatment at Warren Farm Clinic in Kingstanding mid to late 60's, it was used for many things at the time , i think i was their to help a facial scar heal quicker after a road accident , i remember sitting their with my head in a certain position on a high stool for what seemed an eternity in total darkness because of the goggles ,and being told not to move till someone comes to get me.
I did not enjoy it at all :)

Ian
 
Its amazing what folks put us through back then... would not even be considered today would it!!!.... but I suppose they thought they were doing it for our best interests.....
 
I remember being told that I should have 'sun ray treatment' but I don't remember ever going. I was asthmatic, underweight, pale and sickly so I suppose they thought it was a 'cure all'. No-one considered in those days that living in a household full of smokers, in a city full of industrial pollutants, and those awful pea-souper smogs every Winter had anything to do with it! It's a wonder any of us 'sickly kids' survived!
 
We should to have a goggle wearers reunion
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I underwent Sunray treatment 1959/60 at Warren Farm Clinic. Kingstanding.

I remember the goggles, and also the smell, i think my treatment was for acne.

strange daily swimming at the then swimming baths across the road helped my skin more than anything
 
circa 1970 I was about 8 (oh the memory!) - Mum took me on the bus to school clinic(at Harborne?) from Selly Oak. I don't know what it was for either...but I can guess a dose of vit d. Can remember strange rubbery smell, the darkness and someone behind the glass saying, go to the next one, now turn around etc.. I had adenoids and tonsils out, so it must be related to us little English kids not getting enough sun, building up our immune system.
 
Hello Topsyturvey, i used to go to the school clinic and have treatment for my feet, not sure why, i would do exercises, like pick bean bags up with my feet, and have a sun lamp on them, it was either dropped arches, or flat feet, according to my sister
 
Hello all :)

I came down with a very bad case of astma at 14, mum used to bring me once a week to the clinic, the sunlight lambs were above our heads as we sat bare chested on stools, a gap of about three feet or so between each stool. cant think how long each session was offhand.
 
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