A conversation with John MacMahon of Cytokind

I’ve written a number of posts that touch on the vital importance for health of sensible sunlight exposure, including The vitamin D-ilemma Part 5, Skin cancer checks: life-saver or scam?, and The good news about depression – Part 3.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across an article in Scientific American on the health benefits of exposure to a very particular segment of the light spectrum – narrowband ultraviolet B (UVB) – for people with multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and other chronic inflammatory conditions. That led me to Cytokind, a medical device company that is aiming to get narrowband UVB light devices into the homes of people suffering from such conditions. I had a chat with Cytokind’s CEO, John MacMahon, who generously agreed to an interview.

John stumbled across the healing benefits of light when a fellow engineering student developed psoriasis, discovered that ultraviolet B (UVB) light was one of the major treatment modalities, and proceeded to develop a light device that he could use at home. His device was so effective that, when he decided to commercialise his invention, the famed Mayo Clinic became his first investor.

Initially, John believed that UVB light acted locally on psoriatic skin lesions, but his ‘aha’ moment came when he realised, through the experiences of patients using the device, that the light was exerting a systemic effect on the inflammatory process that underlies psoriasis, and that the pattern of healing followed the drainage of the lymphatic system.

After documenting the beneficial effects of their narrowband UVB device on psoriasis, John and his colleagues demonstrated the ability of this wavelength to decrease the death rate of patients hospitalised with severe COVID by more than half¹.Share

From there, they discovered other, apparently unrelated conditions, that also responded to narrowband UVB. Among these conditions is multiple sclerosis, which is the most latitude-dependent condition known to medical science; as John pointed out, if you spent the first years of your life in Tasmania, your lifelong risk of MS is seven times higher than if you grew up in the Northern Territory or north Queensland or the northern part of Western Australia.

Long COVID, vitiligo, eczema and Crohn’s disease are other conditions with a high response rate to narrowband UVB. Across the board, according to John, approximately 60 per cent of patients with any of these conditions, along with psoriasis and MS, respond very well to UVB treatment, 20 per cent respond to some degree, and 20 per cent are non-responders.

As John explains, human beings have evolved to need exposure to sunlight via our skin. We absorb the various wavelengths of light that comprise sunlight through our skin, and one of these – narrowband UVB – has a calming effect on our immune system. (John describes this as “the photoimmune cascade”.)

Children who have grown up in the sunlight-phobic post-Slip Slop Slap era have been deprived of this crucial immune-modulating influence, contributing to the higher risk of allergic, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases that we see in these cohorts.

We also discussed the medical errors that have resulted from the excessive focus on vitamin D, as if vitamin D production is the only consequence of sunlight exposure that impacts health. While it is true that exposure to UVB light does stimulate vitamin D production (as discussed at length in my miniseries on vitamin D), getting sunlight on our skin generates a myriad of other photoactive elements, including nitric oxide, which also play a role in modulating the immune system and other body functions. UVB exposure causes beneficial changes in a plethora of immune markers that do not respond favourably to vitamin D supplementation. In fact, vitamin D supplements make some of these inflammatory markers worse.

On an optimistic note, John highlighted the contribution made by Australian scientists, including Professors Prue Hart and Rachel Neale (see Links below) to rehabilitating sunlight’s reputation as a positive force for health.

Links

Cytokind: John’s company’s website, where you can learn all about narrowband UVB, discover whether it might be helpful to you, and find out where you can order a device.

Stanford Biodesign: the program that John was a ‘test bunny’ for, which aims to reduce healthcare spending while improving health outcomes, by developing innovative approaches to treatment.

Professor Prudence (Prue) Hart’s profile page at the University of Western Australia

Australian Skin and Skin Cancer Research Centre Position Statement: Balancing the Harms and Benefits of Sun Exposure

Balancing the harms and benefits of sun exposure: a QIMR Berghofer project headed up by Professor Rachel Neale, to develop educational materials to communicate the public health advice contained in the Position Statement.

Professor Richard Weller: the Scottish dermatologist who was the first person to document nitric oxide production in the skin from sunlight exposure, with knock-on effects including reduction in blood pressure. Weller coauthored Higher ultraviolet light exposure is associated with lower mortality: An analysis of data from the UK biobank cohort study, which found that people with higher UV exposure had lower all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality.

Melanoma in Southern Sweden (MISS) trial publications:

• Avoidance of sun exposure as a risk factor for major causes of death: a competing risk analysis of the Melanoma in Southern Sweden cohort – TLDR; women who actively get sun exposure get more skin cancer but live up to two years longer than women who avoid the sun. “Nonsmokers who avoided sun exposure had a life expectancy similar to smokers in the highest sun exposure group, indicating that avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking.”
• Avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for all-cause mortality: results from the Melanoma in Southern Sweden cohort – the title of this study says it all.
• Low sun exposure habits is associated with a dose-dependent increased risk of hypertension: a report from the large MISS cohort – again, the title is self-explanatory.
• Are active sun exposure habits related to lowering risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in women, a prospective cohort study? – the answer is ‘yes’, women with active sun exposure habits have a 30 per cent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
• I discussed the key outcomes of the MISS trial in Skin cancer checks: life-saver or scam?

Can Sunlight Cure Disease?: The Scientific American article through which I found Cytokind and met John MacMahon.

Proteomics confirms immune stabilizing effects of narrowband UVB treatment in patients with clinically isolated syndrome and multiple sclerosis: evidence from Prue Hart’s research team that UVB treatment for just a few minutes, three times per week, profoundly improves inflammatory markers in MS patients.

Major US health insurer, Kaiser Permanente’s, brochure for patients, on the use of home phototherapy using the devices that John discussed.

A randomized clinical trial in vitamin D–deficient adults comparing replenishment with oral vitamin D₃ with narrow-band UV type B light: effects on cholesterol and the transcriptional profiles of skin and blood: TLDR; getting your vitamin D by exposing your skin to the sun has different – and inferior – effects than getting your vitamin D from supplements or foods.

Principal Results of the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) and Updated Meta-analyses of Relevant Vitamin D Trials: TLDR; vitamin D supplementation did not reduce cancer incidence, cardiovascular disease or all-cause mortality.

Are you confused by the scientific claims and counter-claims that you encounter through popular and social media? Would you like to learn how to read scientific research, assess its biases, and understand how it fits within the body of scientific literature? My EmpowerEd membership program is custom-made for you. Activate your free 1-month trial today!

1. Regardless of whether you believe COVID was a real, novel illness, a rebranded flu, or the result of some other agent, the fact remains that there were people who became seriously ill with a respiratory syndrome that progressively involved other body systems in an inflammatory cascade. ↩︎