December 4, 2024 • 29 mins
The carnivore diet is exploding in popularity. In this episode I discuss why light and circadian biology should be added to our lifestyle routines to ensure optimal mitochondrial health beyond diet-only changes.
This talk was presented to the How To Carnivore private group in November 2024. Join the HTC group here - https://www.howtocarnivore.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So my name is Dr Max Gulhane and I am a family
medicine doctor trainee andobviously have a deep interest
in light, photobiology,circadian biology and quantum
biology.
So the study of health is onethat has been researched for the
(00:27):
past you know, more than 100years but really has been
sidelined in many ways since theum, since the
pharmaceuticalization, I guessyou could say, of medicine and
the invention of pharmaceuticaldrugs.
And what I'm trying to do in mywork is to encourage or educate
(00:54):
about the importance and therole of light in health and how
light can act essentially as amedicine and what I believe to
be probably the most powerfulpreventative medicine.
And I guess the question thatmany people have, as they're
(01:16):
obviously joining this groupfrom a dietary-centric point of
view, is how is this relativerelevant to, or how does this
relate to, a carnivore type diet?
And, as I was brieflymentioning just prior to
starting this recording, that Ireally see them as as very
complementary and meaning thatwhat we're doing with a dietary
(01:41):
restriction and dietaryelimination to a carnivore type
diet that is how I see it is.
That is how we optimize healthor optimize our mitochondrial
function from a dietary point ofview, but what optimal health
is and is really a game ofmaking sure those mitochondria,
(02:04):
those energy producingorganelles in our cells, are
running as smoothly as possible,and we can do that not only
through diet, and that is, Iguess, the crux of the message
is that there's so many otherways to really make sure that
your mitochondria are workingproperly.
And remember the chronic diseaseepidemic that we're now talking
(02:25):
about in the mainstream withRFK Jr and this Make America
Healthy Again movement.
This movement is specificallyin response to the explosion of
chronic disease, and chronicdisease is mitochondrial
dysfunction appearing in variousmasks and with various faces.
(02:47):
That's how I want you to thinkabout chronic disease, and a lot
of people who've arrived atthis group have basically
developed their own version ofchronic disease.
Whether that's obesity, type 2diabetes, parkinson's disease,
autoimmune disease, these areall, I guess, windows into the
same room of mitochondrialdysfunction.
So, like I mentioned, carnivoreand eating a higher
(03:12):
animal-based diet is an optimalway of optimizing your
mitochondria, because it'sessentially like burning the
cleanest fuel in the engine, butit just so happens that the
fuel is not the only thing thatdictates the health of the
engine, and what I mean by thatis we need lubrication, we need
(03:33):
coolant, we need maintenance,and all these are happening
through light and they'rehappening through circadian
biology.
So let's briefly explain thisand then I will open up and
really take any questions interms of practicalities of
(03:53):
implementing light and health.
So this image here is a littlebit complex, but I'm going to
walk you through it.
This is what I call the wiringdiagram of circadian biology and
human circadian biology, andwhat we have here is the center
(04:19):
of this system is the eye, andthe eye is actually an extension
of the brain.
That's how to think about it.
And when we think about the eyeas an extension of the brain,
it becomes really important thatwe need to what inputs we are
showing our eyes and what we are, what we're exposing our eyes
(04:40):
to, because what we're exposingour eyes to we're exposing our
eyes to, because what we'reexposing our eyes to we're
exposing our brain to literallydirectly.
So what this shows is that theeye is, is receiving light
wavelengths and obviously theeye is what we use to perceive
the world the eyes and what weuse to form images of what we
(05:03):
can see.
But what this diagram shows andimplies is that there's actually
a non-image forming function ofyour eye.
What does that mean?
That means that your eye is notonly acting as a camera, but
it's also acting as a detectorof different light wavelengths.
And specifically, the mostimportant light wavelengths that
(05:27):
influence this circadian orclock system is the presence and
absence of blue light.
And this should make immediatecommon sense to you, because
what color is the sky?
It's blue.
So the presence and absence ofblue light is going to help the
body recognize whether it'sdaytime or nighttime and,
(05:50):
specifically, the proportion ofblue light with respect to the
other wavelengths is alsoinforming us about the specific
time of day.
So this blue wavelength lighttriggers these special proteins
in the eye, which are callednon-visual photoreceptors, and
(06:12):
what that means is thatspecifically, as it says, is
that they sense light, butthey're not for vision forming,
they're for this light detecting.
And the way this works isfascinating and might be a
little bit beyond this group interms of the science, but really
the light changes the way thisprotein operates and that sends
(06:36):
a signal, and that signal getssent down an information
superhighway from the eye tothis part of the brain called
the hypothalamus, and that'swhere the master clock, the
suprachiasmatic nucleus, runs,and this master clock is how the
body operates and coordinateseverything inside it with regard
(06:58):
to time of day.
When your clock is operatinglike a finely tuned Swiss clock,
then you're going to be in agood health because your
hormonal system, which isorchestrating all these
processes specifically for thosewho are having metabolic
(07:21):
diseases metabolism, immunefunction, rest and digest,
digest, repair, cell repair,cancer prevention so all these
functions are, uh, reliant on asmooth clock timing mechanism
and, um, if that clock timingmechanism disrupts, then you're
going to get disease and we'regoing to talk about it.
What and what this is alsoshowing is that this pathway
(07:46):
from the reception of blue lightgoes to the pineal gland via
another pathway.
What that does is, when you seeblue light, it suppresses the
production of a very importanthormone called melatonin.
Now, you might have takenmelatonin over the counter to
(08:06):
help you go to sleep, and thatis one of the functions of this
compound is basically a signalof darkness and a signal to rest
and digest and actuallyinitiate sleep.
So, as you might imagine, thisis a very elegant system where,
if you, if the body, is sensingblue light and it's supposed to
(08:28):
be daytime, then it's not goingto make you feel sleepy and, in
fact, it's going to turn offyour melatonin level, and so you
should be alert, and that'swhat happens.
So if you think about um, thenormal, the normal, um uh day
day schedule, back before weinvented artificial light, is
that there was no blue lightafter dark, and that way our
(08:51):
bodies were perfectlysynchronized and therefore we
would fall asleep easily.
But thanks to the modernenvironment, then now we can
trick our bodies into thinkingit's daytime when it's nowhere
near daytime, and that is thisidea of artificial light at
night, which is also abbreviatedto ALAN, the acronym.
So keep that in mind, becausethat is going to be important
(09:14):
for optimal circadian health,which is, are we having blue
light at the right time, and arewe having natural blue light,
as nature has intended, or arewe having artificial blue light
which is refined, a refined formof light?
So I want to give you anotheranalogy to help you think about
circadian biology, and that isone of an office block, and this
(09:37):
office block basically has avery specialized and, I would
would say, time-dependentfunction, meaning that during
the daytime, the people in theoffice are working and they're
doing their business, and at thenighttime the office block is
being cleaned.
So the importance here is thatthis is happening at the right
(10:02):
times.
If the cleaners come through at11 am in the morning, while
these guys are trying to offloaddodgy stocks to people on phone
calls, then they're not goingto be able to operate properly
and that system is going tobecome chaotic, and an analogy
for chaos in the body system isinflammation.
(10:26):
So what circadian biology doesis actually does a form of
cellular timekeeping so that wecan coordinate processes that
are actually opposing, andthings like sleeping and waking
obviously are the mostfoundational or obvious
dichotomy of functions that needto happen at different times.
(10:49):
You can't recover and repairwhile you're awake.
You need to be sleeping.
So that's why the organism,your body, and not only humans,
but every organism below us,have also evolved or created to
partition those opposingprocesses, to partition those
(11:11):
opposing processes.
So here's a really simplediagram for you to think about
circadian biology, which is it'sa clock, but it's also this yin
and yang symbol, meaning thatto make sure to have this
optimal circadian health, weneed bright sunlight during the
day, but just as importantlyneed we need um uh darkness at
(11:36):
night, and that is.
Those are equal and oppositerequirements, so you can disrupt
your circadian biology byhaving inadequate full spectrum
natural sunlight during the day,but also by lighting up your
night and and having light otherthan moonlight, essentially in
your bedroom or in your workenvironment.
(11:58):
So you can see how this clocksystem will actually change over
the seasons, meaning that asthe earth spins, the earth
rotates around and orbits thesun, then the day lengths are
actually changing.
So the circadian system andthat perception of light through
(12:19):
the eye is a form of allowingyour body to adjust this clock
to the changing day length andmake sure that it is always
perfectly timed and tuned sothat your body's responding to
the environment that it's in.
And again, the organisms thatsurvive, the animals and
(12:43):
bacteria and fungi that survivedare ones that can not only
respond to what's going on intheir environment but also
anticipate changes in theenvironment.
And that's why this clocksystem is so important.
And that's what it is it's acellular timekeeping to
(13:03):
synchronize us to theenvironmental light signals.
So for those who are perhapsusing carnivore to lose weight
or to reverse diabetes, thenthis is, I think, one of the
most important diagrams tounderstand, which is it turns
out that there's not only aclock inside the brain and the
(13:25):
hypothalamus that actuallyregulates our food intake, our
energy expenditure and ourinsulin sensitivity.
But there's actually clockswhat we call peripheral clocks
inside all the metabolic organs.
And what does this mean?
This means that, just likethere's a building site that
(13:48):
offers a building analogy forour eye clock, well there's an
office building analogy for allof these organs that are going
to depend on whether you'remetabolically healthy or not.
So that means that there'sgoing to be a right and a wrong
time for your muscles to operateefficiently, to essentially be
(14:11):
sensitive to the insulin hormone, um, to operate effectively,
there's a there's a right and awrong time for your liver to
make, uh, glucagon and to makeglucose.
And there's a right and a wrongtime for the pancreas to to
release insulin and otherglucagon hormone.
And there's a right and a wrongtime for the gut to have food
(14:35):
in it and to basically take upglucose from your digestive
system and to basically contractor do a poo.
That's gut motility.
And there's a right and a wrongtime for your white adipose
tissues, or your fat cells, toessentially break down fats and
lipids and to take up glucoseand to make these key hormone
(14:58):
called leptin, which tells yourbody how much energy is on board
.
So what this essentially meansis that if we're mistiming our
food intake, what thisessentially means is that if
we're mistiming our food intake,then we are disrupting these
clocks, we are causing them torun at different times towards
(15:19):
the light clock, and the outcomeof that is going to be obesity,
is going to be metabolicdisease, is going to be leptin
resistance, insulin resistance,and you're going to get you're
going to be basically overweightand uh, metabolically unhealthy
.
And the key point here is thatcarnivore diet obviously is, um
(15:43):
is going to be the ideal dietfor addressing obesity and and
metabolic dysfunction.
But the point is that if you'reeating your steaks at 11 pm or
midnight, um, you're really notgoing to get the maximum health
benefits uh compared to if youwere doing this in daytime, at a
(16:05):
, an appropriate time withregard to uh, with your
circadian rhythm.
And this is this idea.
And there's a whole fieldcalled chrononutrition which is
emerging, showing that if wetime our food intake correctly,
then we can have massivebenefits for weight loss and for
(16:28):
diabetes.
So what does the data show?
And this one is just one of theincreasingly massive number of
papers being released, so howthey describe this, which is
again a rewording of what I'vejust already told you is that
the circadian rhythms alloworganisms to synchronize their
(16:48):
physiology and behavior withcues from the external
environment to maximizeresources and reduce energy
expenditure.
Again, these rhythms haveevolved to be aligned with a
24-hour solar day.
How are we disrupting our solarday?
Well, again, it's from lack ofsunlight and then too much
artificial light at night.
This provides a relativelysimple but powerful cue that
(17:10):
entrains physiology toefficiently use energetic
resources when the body isoptimized to do so, which is
during your active phase, andeffectively metabolizes energy
stores to maintain stable bloodglucose during fasting.
So another way of thinkingabout this is how circadian
rhythms evolve is aboutefficiency.
The kanean rhythms evolve isabout efficiency and um engine
(17:36):
efficiency when it, when itcomes to our biological organism
, is what allows you to survive.
And indeed an inefficient umorganism is unadapted to its
environment, it's going to dieout and therefore not pass its
genes on.
So this is um at itsfundamental level.
Um, it's all about energyefficiency.
(18:00):
So here's another diagram which,sorry, I'm being attacked by
multiple hours.
This diagram is showing us how,when we're circadianly aligned,
when this central eye clock issynced up to these peripheral
clocks in our organs, thenthings are going to work
optimally, and what that meansis that we've got bright daytime
, bright light during thedaytime, we're sleeping at night
(18:22):
and we're taking our foodduring the day, whereas if we
are having light at night, we'resleeping during the day and
that's very common in peoplewith psychiatric disorders, but
that's a talk for another timeand we're eating at night.
Then look how these clocks,these oscillations, they're
(18:46):
mistimed and that is when we getsick and that is when the
mitochondrial system basicallycomes off its rails.
So another way of of thinkingabout this is that these are the
key, what we call zeitgeibers,and if anyone's studied german
or speaks german, then um, thenyou will know what that means.
(19:07):
But essentially these areinformation givers and
zeitgeibers are the inputs intoour circadian rhythm, and the
most important is light.
Um, and obviously the presenceof of good, of normal light, and
the absence of light, but um,activity and uh, food, timing is
are also zeitgeibers and andthey are going to also entrain
(19:31):
our circadian rhythm.
And that's why, in my circadianreset course, I teach people
the importance of the morningroutine, and what our goal is to
do is when we wake up, is tothink about all the ways in
which we can make sure thisalignment between our central
clock and our peripheral clocksis as optimal as possible and
(19:54):
that includes morning sunlightinto the eyes and on the skin
and some morning activity andmorning breakfast.
And that is a key point ofdifference that you know.
I see figures like Dr Ken Berryand and I respect his work and
he's done enormous work in termsof helping people reverse their
(20:17):
metabolic dysfunction.
But I fundamentally disagreewith their approach of advising
fasting until 2 pm and reallybecause that disrespects the
chrononutrition and thechronobiology of the role of
food to entrain our circadianrhythm and I think it does to
(20:38):
some degree send a message ofstarvation or lack of abundance
to the body from a metabolicpoint of view, whereas earlier
food consumption in response toor soon after the the sun,
seeing the sunrise, especially afat, obviously a fat and
(20:58):
protein rich breakfast is a, isa form of of environmental
abundance and when that body hasthat environmentally abundant
signal then um, it's, then itbecomes more inclined to let go
of extra weight and that's tiedto leptin sensitivity.
So here's another reviewarticle.
(21:21):
It's just showing how circadiandisruption is fundamentally
linked to metabolic disease andsome of you might be aware of
the work of Dr Jack Cruz and hetalks about the role of blue
light as it relates todeveloping metabolic disease and
diabetes.
Look, I really do agree withhim, but I think it's a
(21:43):
multifaceted thing and it's boththe presence of blue light but
it's also the absence of naturalfull-spectrum sunlight that is
a problem.
So here's some interestingassociational epidemiology and
this is a really common finding,which is that if we have light
in our bedroom or we're justexposed to light at night, then
(22:05):
we're on the train track toobesity, diabetes and high blood
pressure.
And these researchers statedthat the prevalence of obesity,
diabetes and hypertension wassignificantly higher in older
adults with light at nightcompared to those with no light
at night, even for adjusting fora whole range of confounding
variables.
(22:25):
And look, there's a whole bunchof other papers on the topic
and we can look at studies inmice as well, which point to
chronic shift work and chroniccircadian disruption causing the
, the adipose tissue, to becomeinflamed and fibroic and
(22:47):
dysfunctional.
And again, to touch base withthe food-centric paradigm, say,
you know doctors paul saldino,tucker, goodrich talking about
mitochondrial dysfunction inwhite fat cells as being the
inception point of metabolicdysfunction and really pointing
to things like seed oils, whichI think are contributing, but
(23:11):
note here that what thisresearch is suggesting is that
the light in and of itself, withno other factors changed, is
sufficient to induce that samedysfunction that puts us on the
path to metabolic disease.
So hopefully you're kind ofappreciating what I'm suggesting
(23:35):
, suggesting, which is that ifour light environment is poor,
if our light environment isancestrally inappropriate,
inconsistent, if we're exposingourselves to this high fructose
corn syrup light which, uh,which is what I call blue light
from from leds and energy savingbulbs, then you know this is a
diabetogenic stimulus.
(23:56):
This is putting you on thepathway to metabolic syndrome
and chronic disease.
And without addressing this ordoing carnivore, without looking
at our light environment, ourcircadian rhythm, it's just
making things harder than theyneed to be.
So that's a hard stop in termsof the emphasis or the point.
(24:22):
So what I wanted, quickly, I'mnot going to cover some of this
stuff which was a little bitmore technical, but what I will
highlight is that let's look atthe difference between what most
of us are living under comparedto what ancestrally we would
(24:42):
have had.
So this is the, the led bulbsthat now, um, you know, most of
the world is illuminating their,their living space with day and
night, and look, look how ithas this massive peak in in the
blue and it disappears.
Yes, it's got green too, but italso disappears beyond.
There's no light beyond, reallybeyond 700 nanometers, and what
(25:08):
that means is this is a refinedform of natural sunlight.
It's not representative ofnatural sunlight in any way,
shape or form.
So if we think about light andand if you've listened to any of
my previous content, then I'vespoken at length about natural
sunlight and each of itswavelength properties as being
(25:28):
in medicine if we think aboutwhat this modern led bulb is,
it's it's less than 10 of thefull full solar spectrum.
So we are distilling, refining,turning our healthy, holistic
diet of light into a highlyrefined version of that, and
(25:49):
we're using that all day.
It's not varying at all, it'sjust the same, and the
properties of this light arehighly, highly damaging and, as
you can see, it's got a peakright at that melanopsin level
which is stimulating our retinalganglion cells all day, and
that's not normal.
It's not normal for us to havethat type of message.
(26:12):
And the other thing that'sharmful about artificial
lighting is this flicker effect,and the other thing that's
harmful about artificiallighting is this flicker effect,
also known as the stroboscopiceffect, and that is the on and
off, the flicking on and off, onand off, on and off of the
(26:32):
light that occurs as a result ofit being powered by this AC
power grid that is essentiallyoscillating.
So natural sunlight does havehas zero flicker.
It is a constant thermal heatsource that does not flicker,
and that is a problem if we'reunder this artificial light.
And to contrast that, look atnatural sunlight.
Look what it's got Every time.
(26:54):
It's got blue, it's got green,it's got heaps of red, it's got
this massive amount of infraredwhich is not even visible to our
, to our eyes, and it's also gotuv, which is in itself
extremely important for ourhealth and is probably why
complex life evolved back in thecambrian explosion, which is um
(27:16):
a massive new amount of energythat life could make use of to
operate in various ways andforms.
And really look at what naturalsunlight does throughout the
day it changes.
It changes in its color,temperature and in its
wavelength and intensity and,like I mentioned, it's always
(27:37):
paired with the blue light, isalways paired with this
non-visible infrared, and it'salso paired with red.
So I hope that makes sense andI'm really really happy to take
any specific questions right now.
So my name is Dr Max Gulhane and I am a family
medicine doctor trainee andobviously have a deep interest
in light, photobiology,circadian biology and quantum
biology.
So the study of health is onethat has been researched for the
(00:27):
past you know, more than 100years but really has been
sidelined in many ways since theum, since the
pharmaceuticalization, I guessyou could say, of medicine and
the invention of pharmaceuticaldrugs.
And what I'm trying to do in mywork is to encourage or educate
(00:54):
about the importance and therole of light in health and how
light can act essentially as amedicine and what I believe to
be probably the most powerfulpreventative medicine.
And I guess the question thatmany people have, as they're
(01:16):
obviously joining this groupfrom a dietary-centric point of
view, is how is this relativerelevant to, or how does this
relate to, a carnivore type diet?
And, as I was brieflymentioning just prior to
starting this recording, that Ireally see them as as very
complementary and meaning thatwhat we're doing with a dietary
(01:41):
restriction and dietaryelimination to a carnivore type
diet that is how I see it is.
That is how we optimize healthor optimize our mitochondrial
function from a dietary point ofview, but what optimal health
is and is really a game ofmaking sure those mitochondria,
(02:04):
those energy producingorganelles in our cells, are
running as smoothly as possible,and we can do that not only
through diet, and that is, Iguess, the crux of the message
is that there's so many otherways to really make sure that
your mitochondria are workingproperly.
And remember the chronic diseaseepidemic that we're now talking
(02:25):
about in the mainstream withRFK Jr and this Make America
Healthy Again movement.
This movement is specificallyin response to the explosion of
chronic disease, and chronicdisease is mitochondrial
dysfunction appearing in variousmasks and with various faces.
(02:47):
That's how I want you to thinkabout chronic disease, and a lot
of people who've arrived atthis group have basically
developed their own version ofchronic disease.
Whether that's obesity, type 2diabetes, parkinson's disease,
autoimmune disease, these areall, I guess, windows into the
same room of mitochondrialdysfunction.
So, like I mentioned, carnivoreand eating a higher
(03:12):
animal-based diet is an optimalway of optimizing your
mitochondria, because it'sessentially like burning the
cleanest fuel in the engine, butit just so happens that the
fuel is not the only thing thatdictates the health of the
engine, and what I mean by thatis we need lubrication, we need
(03:33):
coolant, we need maintenance,and all these are happening
through light and they'rehappening through circadian
biology.
So let's briefly explain thisand then I will open up and
really take any questions interms of practicalities of
(03:53):
implementing light and health.
So this image here is a littlebit complex, but I'm going to
walk you through it.
This is what I call the wiringdiagram of circadian biology and
human circadian biology, andwhat we have here is the center
(04:19):
of this system is the eye, andthe eye is actually an extension
of the brain.
That's how to think about it.
And when we think about the eyeas an extension of the brain,
it becomes really important thatwe need to what inputs we are
showing our eyes and what we are, what we're exposing our eyes
(04:40):
to, because what we're exposingour eyes to we're exposing our
eyes to, because what we'reexposing our eyes to we're
exposing our brain to literallydirectly.
So what this shows is that theeye is, is receiving light
wavelengths and obviously theeye is what we use to perceive
the world the eyes and what weuse to form images of what we
(05:03):
can see.
But what this diagram shows andimplies is that there's actually
a non-image forming function ofyour eye.
What does that mean?
That means that your eye is notonly acting as a camera, but
it's also acting as a detectorof different light wavelengths.
And specifically, the mostimportant light wavelengths that
(05:27):
influence this circadian orclock system is the presence and
absence of blue light.
And this should make immediatecommon sense to you, because
what color is the sky?
It's blue.
So the presence and absence ofblue light is going to help the
body recognize whether it'sdaytime or nighttime and,
(05:50):
specifically, the proportion ofblue light with respect to the
other wavelengths is alsoinforming us about the specific
time of day.
So this blue wavelength lighttriggers these special proteins
in the eye, which are callednon-visual photoreceptors, and
(06:12):
what that means is thatspecifically, as it says, is
that they sense light, butthey're not for vision forming,
they're for this light detecting.
And the way this works isfascinating and might be a
little bit beyond this group interms of the science, but really
the light changes the way thisprotein operates and that sends
(06:36):
a signal, and that signal getssent down an information
superhighway from the eye tothis part of the brain called
the hypothalamus, and that'swhere the master clock, the
suprachiasmatic nucleus, runs,and this master clock is how the
body operates and coordinateseverything inside it with regard
(06:58):
to time of day.
When your clock is operatinglike a finely tuned Swiss clock,
then you're going to be in agood health because your
hormonal system, which isorchestrating all these
processes specifically for thosewho are having metabolic
(07:21):
diseases metabolism, immunefunction, rest and digest,
digest, repair, cell repair,cancer prevention so all these
functions are, uh, reliant on asmooth clock timing mechanism
and, um, if that clock timingmechanism disrupts, then you're
going to get disease and we'regoing to talk about it.
What and what this is alsoshowing is that this pathway
(07:46):
from the reception of blue lightgoes to the pineal gland via
another pathway.
What that does is, when you seeblue light, it suppresses the
production of a very importanthormone called melatonin.
Now, you might have takenmelatonin over the counter to
(08:06):
help you go to sleep, and thatis one of the functions of this
compound is basically a signalof darkness and a signal to rest
and digest and actuallyinitiate sleep.
So, as you might imagine, thisis a very elegant system where,
if you, if the body, is sensingblue light and it's supposed to
(08:28):
be daytime, then it's not goingto make you feel sleepy and, in
fact, it's going to turn offyour melatonin level, and so you
should be alert, and that'swhat happens.
So if you think about um, thenormal, the normal, um uh day
day schedule, back before weinvented artificial light, is
that there was no blue lightafter dark, and that way our
(08:51):
bodies were perfectlysynchronized and therefore we
would fall asleep easily.
But thanks to the modernenvironment, then now we can
trick our bodies into thinkingit's daytime when it's nowhere
near daytime, and that is thisidea of artificial light at
night, which is also abbreviatedto ALAN, the acronym.
So keep that in mind, becausethat is going to be important
(09:14):
for optimal circadian health,which is, are we having blue
light at the right time, and arewe having natural blue light,
as nature has intended, or arewe having artificial blue light
which is refined, a refined formof light?
So I want to give you anotheranalogy to help you think about
circadian biology, and that isone of an office block, and this
(09:37):
office block basically has avery specialized and, I would
would say, time-dependentfunction, meaning that during
the daytime, the people in theoffice are working and they're
doing their business, and at thenighttime the office block is
being cleaned.
So the importance here is thatthis is happening at the right
(10:02):
times.
If the cleaners come through at11 am in the morning, while
these guys are trying to offloaddodgy stocks to people on phone
calls, then they're not goingto be able to operate properly
and that system is going tobecome chaotic, and an analogy
for chaos in the body system isinflammation.
(10:26):
So what circadian biology doesis actually does a form of
cellular timekeeping so that wecan coordinate processes that
are actually opposing, andthings like sleeping and waking
obviously are the mostfoundational or obvious
dichotomy of functions that needto happen at different times.
(10:49):
You can't recover and repairwhile you're awake.
You need to be sleeping.
So that's why the organism,your body, and not only humans,
but every organism below us,have also evolved or created to
partition those opposingprocesses, to partition those
(11:11):
opposing processes.
So here's a really simplediagram for you to think about
circadian biology, which is it'sa clock, but it's also this yin
and yang symbol, meaning thatto make sure to have this
optimal circadian health, weneed bright sunlight during the
day, but just as importantlyneed we need um uh darkness at
(11:36):
night, and that is.
Those are equal and oppositerequirements, so you can disrupt
your circadian biology byhaving inadequate full spectrum
natural sunlight during the day,but also by lighting up your
night and and having light otherthan moonlight, essentially in
your bedroom or in your workenvironment.
(11:58):
So you can see how this clocksystem will actually change over
the seasons, meaning that asthe earth spins, the earth
rotates around and orbits thesun, then the day lengths are
actually changing.
So the circadian system andthat perception of light through
(12:19):
the eye is a form of allowingyour body to adjust this clock
to the changing day length andmake sure that it is always
perfectly timed and tuned sothat your body's responding to
the environment that it's in.
And again, the organisms thatsurvive, the animals and
(12:43):
bacteria and fungi that survivedare ones that can not only
respond to what's going on intheir environment but also
anticipate changes in theenvironment.
And that's why this clocksystem is so important.
And that's what it is it's acellular timekeeping to
(13:03):
synchronize us to theenvironmental light signals.
So for those who are perhapsusing carnivore to lose weight
or to reverse diabetes, thenthis is, I think, one of the
most important diagrams tounderstand, which is it turns
out that there's not only aclock inside the brain and the
(13:25):
hypothalamus that actuallyregulates our food intake, our
energy expenditure and ourinsulin sensitivity.
But there's actually clockswhat we call peripheral clocks
inside all the metabolic organs.
And what does this mean?
This means that, just likethere's a building site that
(13:48):
offers a building analogy forour eye clock, well there's an
office building analogy for allof these organs that are going
to depend on whether you'remetabolically healthy or not.
So that means that there'sgoing to be a right and a wrong
time for your muscles to operateefficiently, to essentially be
(14:11):
sensitive to the insulin hormone, um, to operate effectively,
there's a there's a right and awrong time for your liver to
make, uh, glucagon and to makeglucose.
And there's a right and a wrongtime for the pancreas to to
release insulin and otherglucagon hormone.
And there's a right and a wrongtime for the gut to have food
(14:35):
in it and to basically take upglucose from your digestive
system and to basically contractor do a poo.
That's gut motility.
And there's a right and a wrongtime for your white adipose
tissues, or your fat cells, toessentially break down fats and
lipids and to take up glucoseand to make these key hormone
(14:58):
called leptin, which tells yourbody how much energy is on board
.
So what this essentially meansis that if we're mistiming our
food intake, what thisessentially means is that if
we're mistiming our food intake,then we are disrupting these
clocks, we are causing them torun at different times towards
(15:19):
the light clock, and the outcomeof that is going to be obesity,
is going to be metabolicdisease, is going to be leptin
resistance, insulin resistance,and you're going to get you're
going to be basically overweightand uh, metabolically unhealthy
.
And the key point here is thatcarnivore diet obviously is, um
(15:43):
is going to be the ideal dietfor addressing obesity and and
metabolic dysfunction.
But the point is that if you'reeating your steaks at 11 pm or
midnight, um, you're really notgoing to get the maximum health
benefits uh compared to if youwere doing this in daytime, at a
(16:05):
, an appropriate time withregard to uh, with your
circadian rhythm.
And this is this idea.
And there's a whole fieldcalled chrononutrition which is
emerging, showing that if wetime our food intake correctly,
then we can have massivebenefits for weight loss and for
(16:28):
diabetes.
So what does the data show?
And this one is just one of theincreasingly massive number of
papers being released, so howthey describe this, which is
again a rewording of what I'vejust already told you is that
the circadian rhythms alloworganisms to synchronize their
(16:48):
physiology and behavior withcues from the external
environment to maximizeresources and reduce energy
expenditure.
Again, these rhythms haveevolved to be aligned with a
24-hour solar day.
How are we disrupting our solarday?
Well, again, it's from lack ofsunlight and then too much
artificial light at night.
This provides a relativelysimple but powerful cue that
(17:10):
entrains physiology toefficiently use energetic
resources when the body isoptimized to do so, which is
during your active phase, andeffectively metabolizes energy
stores to maintain stable bloodglucose during fasting.
So another way of thinkingabout this is how circadian
rhythms evolve is aboutefficiency.
The kanean rhythms evolve isabout efficiency and um engine
(17:36):
efficiency when it, when itcomes to our biological organism
, is what allows you to survive.
And indeed an inefficient umorganism is unadapted to its
environment, it's going to dieout and therefore not pass its
genes on.
So this is um at itsfundamental level.
Um, it's all about energyefficiency.
(18:00):
So here's another diagram which,sorry, I'm being attacked by
multiple hours.
This diagram is showing us how,when we're circadianly aligned,
when this central eye clock issynced up to these peripheral
clocks in our organs, thenthings are going to work
optimally, and what that meansis that we've got bright daytime
, bright light during thedaytime, we're sleeping at night
(18:22):
and we're taking our foodduring the day, whereas if we
are having light at night, we'resleeping during the day and
that's very common in peoplewith psychiatric disorders, but
that's a talk for another timeand we're eating at night.
Then look how these clocks,these oscillations, they're
(18:46):
mistimed and that is when we getsick and that is when the
mitochondrial system basicallycomes off its rails.
So another way of of thinkingabout this is that these are the
key, what we call zeitgeibers,and if anyone's studied german
or speaks german, then um, thenyou will know what that means.
(19:07):
But essentially these areinformation givers and
zeitgeibers are the inputs intoour circadian rhythm, and the
most important is light.
Um, and obviously the presenceof of good, of normal light, and
the absence of light, but um,activity and uh, food, timing is
are also zeitgeibers and andthey are going to also entrain
(19:31):
our circadian rhythm.
And that's why, in my circadianreset course, I teach people
the importance of the morningroutine, and what our goal is to
do is when we wake up, is tothink about all the ways in
which we can make sure thisalignment between our central
clock and our peripheral clocksis as optimal as possible and
(19:54):
that includes morning sunlightinto the eyes and on the skin
and some morning activity andmorning breakfast.
And that is a key point ofdifference that you know.
I see figures like Dr Ken Berryand and I respect his work and
he's done enormous work in termsof helping people reverse their
(20:17):
metabolic dysfunction.
But I fundamentally disagreewith their approach of advising
fasting until 2 pm and reallybecause that disrespects the
chrononutrition and thechronobiology of the role of
food to entrain our circadianrhythm and I think it does to
(20:38):
some degree send a message ofstarvation or lack of abundance
to the body from a metabolicpoint of view, whereas earlier
food consumption in response toor soon after the the sun,
seeing the sunrise, especially afat, obviously a fat and
(20:58):
protein rich breakfast is a, isa form of of environmental
abundance and when that body hasthat environmentally abundant
signal then um, it's, then itbecomes more inclined to let go
of extra weight and that's tiedto leptin sensitivity.
So here's another reviewarticle.
(21:21):
It's just showing how circadiandisruption is fundamentally
linked to metabolic disease andsome of you might be aware of
the work of Dr Jack Cruz and hetalks about the role of blue
light as it relates todeveloping metabolic disease and
diabetes.
Look, I really do agree withhim, but I think it's a
(21:43):
multifaceted thing and it's boththe presence of blue light but
it's also the absence of naturalfull-spectrum sunlight that is
a problem.
So here's some interestingassociational epidemiology and
this is a really common finding,which is that if we have light
in our bedroom or we're justexposed to light at night, then
(22:05):
we're on the train track toobesity, diabetes and high blood
pressure.
And these researchers statedthat the prevalence of obesity,
diabetes and hypertension wassignificantly higher in older
adults with light at nightcompared to those with no light
at night, even for adjusting fora whole range of confounding
variables.
(22:25):
And look, there's a whole bunchof other papers on the topic
and we can look at studies inmice as well, which point to
chronic shift work and chroniccircadian disruption causing the
, the adipose tissue, to becomeinflamed and fibroic and
(22:47):
dysfunctional.
And again, to touch base withthe food-centric paradigm, say,
you know doctors paul saldino,tucker, goodrich talking about
mitochondrial dysfunction inwhite fat cells as being the
inception point of metabolicdysfunction and really pointing
to things like seed oils, whichI think are contributing, but
(23:11):
note here that what thisresearch is suggesting is that
the light in and of itself, withno other factors changed, is
sufficient to induce that samedysfunction that puts us on the
path to metabolic disease.
So hopefully you're kind ofappreciating what I'm suggesting
(23:35):
, suggesting, which is that ifour light environment is poor,
if our light environment isancestrally inappropriate,
inconsistent, if we're exposingourselves to this high fructose
corn syrup light which, uh,which is what I call blue light
from from leds and energy savingbulbs, then you know this is a
diabetogenic stimulus.
(23:56):
This is putting you on thepathway to metabolic syndrome
and chronic disease.
And without addressing this ordoing carnivore, without looking
at our light environment, ourcircadian rhythm, it's just
making things harder than theyneed to be.
So that's a hard stop in termsof the emphasis or the point.
(24:22):
So what I wanted, quickly, I'mnot going to cover some of this
stuff which was a little bitmore technical, but what I will
highlight is that let's look atthe difference between what most
of us are living under comparedto what ancestrally we would
(24:42):
have had.
So this is the, the led bulbsthat now, um, you know, most of
the world is illuminating their,their living space with day and
night, and look, look how ithas this massive peak in in the
blue and it disappears.
Yes, it's got green too, but italso disappears beyond.
There's no light beyond, reallybeyond 700 nanometers, and what
(25:08):
that means is this is a refinedform of natural sunlight.
It's not representative ofnatural sunlight in any way,
shape or form.
So if we think about light andand if you've listened to any of
my previous content, then I'vespoken at length about natural
sunlight and each of itswavelength properties as being
(25:28):
in medicine if we think aboutwhat this modern led bulb is,
it's it's less than 10 of thefull full solar spectrum.
So we are distilling, refining,turning our healthy, holistic
diet of light into a highlyrefined version of that, and
(25:49):
we're using that all day.
It's not varying at all, it'sjust the same, and the
properties of this light arehighly, highly damaging and, as
you can see, it's got a peakright at that melanopsin level
which is stimulating our retinalganglion cells all day, and
that's not normal.
It's not normal for us to havethat type of message.
(26:12):
And the other thing that'sharmful about artificial
lighting is this flicker effect,and the other thing that's
harmful about artificiallighting is this flicker effect,
also known as the stroboscopiceffect, and that is the on and
off, the flicking on and off, onand off, on and off of the
(26:32):
light that occurs as a result ofit being powered by this AC
power grid that is essentiallyoscillating.
So natural sunlight does havehas zero flicker.
It is a constant thermal heatsource that does not flicker,
and that is a problem if we'reunder this artificial light.
And to contrast that, look atnatural sunlight.
Look what it's got Every time.
(26:54):
It's got blue, it's got green,it's got heaps of red, it's got
this massive amount of infraredwhich is not even visible to our
, to our eyes, and it's also gotuv, which is in itself
extremely important for ourhealth and is probably why
complex life evolved back in thecambrian explosion, which is um
(27:16):
a massive new amount of energythat life could make use of to
operate in various ways andforms.
And really look at what naturalsunlight does throughout the
day it changes.
It changes in its color,temperature and in its
wavelength and intensity and,like I mentioned, it's always
(27:37):
paired with the blue light, isalways paired with this
non-visible infrared, and it'salso paired with red.
So I hope that makes sense andI'm really really happy to take
any specific questions right now.
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