October 21, 2024 • 53 mins
I explain the biological effects of key light wavelengths on human health, the role of Vitamin D, and the concept of 'skin type:latitude mismatch' to guide safe UV exposure based on ancestral origin.
Watch this presentation on YouTube to see slide presentation with diagrams. This presentation was delivered for Genbiome Clinic, Sydney, Patient Salon.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And so this talk is titled Sunlight as Medicine, and
it is going to be an overviewof not only the different types
of light but also how theselight wavelengths interact with
our body and have ahealth-modulating or
health-promoting effect for ourbody.
And so the first part is goingto be, as I mentioned, talking
(00:24):
about that particularly, andthen some main concepts that
come up with regard to thisconcept of light as medicine,
particularly around vitamin D,and some thoughts at the end
about how we can safely getsunlight.
So to start off the talk, wehave to zoom all the way out.
(01:18):
We have to zoom beyond planetEarth into our solar system and
to understand the effect of me,because we have to really
appreciate that all life onEarth essentially relies on this
external energy input orbitsthe sun and the Earth spins on
its axis.
There's a changing amount oflight wavelengths and light
information throughout the dayatmosphere to filter the full
(01:43):
brunt of all the electromagneticenergy that's being radiated
from the sun through space toour planet.
This is really criticallyimportant because if you try to,
I guess, serve yourself thefull ladder of electromagnetic
(02:05):
radiation without the protectionof the Earth's atmosphere,
magnetosphere as well, then youwill get sick very, very quickly
, and that's part of the reasonwhy the astronauts on the space
station are getting sick isbecause they are getting an
exposure to the amount of typeof light in the proportions that
(02:28):
is very unusual and notexpected by the human body.
And the human body has evolvedover 3.4 billion years, or
created, depending on yourschool of thought, to have this
very, very specific tranche orcombination of light wavelengths
that we're going to talk about.
(02:48):
So what is getting through ontous on planet Earth is
predominantly by photonic energyis actually visible light, but
by number of photons is actuallyinfrared light there's.
By number of photons isactually infrared light, and how
you can think about this graphis the total amount of light
(03:08):
energy and we've got it bywavelength, and I won't go into
the nuances of this, it's a veryphysics-based topic, but
essentially the properties oflight are a function of their
wavelength.
So what we have here is theshortest wavelength light which
(03:29):
is actually non-visible.
Is this ultraviolet light, butit is very, very important for
our health.
The next lot is this visiblelight, which our eyes have
essentially evolved to be ableto recognize, and then, as I
mentioned, the largest area isthis infrared light, which again
, is non-visible.
But just because this light isnot visible doesn't mean it's
(03:51):
not having a very importantbiological effect, and that's
what we're going to talk about.
The other point that I alludedto earlier was that the
properties of the light that weget throughout the day are
varying, they're not constant,and what I mean by that is at
the morning, at the sunrise,because of the angle of the sun
(04:14):
in the sky, we're gettingvisible and mostly a whole lot
of infrared light, a lot oflonger wavelength light, and
that is because the lightessentially has to travel
through a thicker layer ofatmosphere when it's really low
in the horizon to reach us, andthat atmospheric predominantly
ozone filters out ultravioletand all the shorter wavelength
(04:37):
light.
So as the sun rises as an anglein the sky, then you get a UVA
and this longer wavelength UVlight, and then when the sun is
above an angle in the sky, thenyou also get UVB, which is the
highest energy light and themost potentially damaging in
(05:01):
terms of sunburn, but also iscritical for vitamin D and these
other functions.
The key, I guess, point aboutthis slide is as it relates to a
topic that we're not going totalk about tonight, but
particularly this idea of indoorlighting and the indoor light
environment, which is completelyunchanging.
(05:23):
But what your body needs andwants is this really nice,
gradual exposure to changingwavelengths and intensities
throughout the day, and that iswhat your body is adapted to
receive.
So let's start with UV, and UVlight comes in a couple of
(05:44):
different flavors.
The shortest wavelength UV isactually filtered, as I
mentioned, by the ozone, so thatmost of the UV light that's
hitting Earth is actually UVAand a small amount of UVB.
Now, uvc is an interestingtopic, especially when it comes
to the actual endogenousproduction of light in our
(06:04):
bodies, but that's not also atopic we're going to talk about
today.
As I mentioned, what you'regetting on planet Earth is going
to be a function of the angleof the sun in the sky as well as
, if you think about where welive, the latitude.
The latitude on planet Earth,the further away from the
(06:26):
equator you are, and thisdepends again on the season,
which is the next point is goingto dictate how high or low the
sun is in the sky.
Obviously, the time of day isalso because the sun is
traversing through the sky asthe Earth rotates.
What this essentially means isthat, as the solar angle, the
(06:49):
zenith angle, increases, theamount of UVB radiation is
reduced.
So at higher latitudes and thisapplies to anyone who's living
in Europe or the USA, or evendown south in Melbourne and
Tasmania is that at highlatitudes and the greater
distance from the equator, themore UVB radiation is absorbed
(07:11):
by the ozone layer, therebyreducing or eliminating the
production of vitamin D in theskin.
And if you think about the skincharacteristics of people who
have been adapted to thesecolder northern climates, is
that they have actually lost themelanin pigment in their skin.
(07:32):
And that is precisely anadaptation to a low UV
environment, particularly topreserve their ability to make
vitamin D and make the most ofthe scarce amount of vitamin D
that is simply not present forlarge amounts of time in the
(07:53):
year.
And that's what I mean.
There's some latitudes thatseasonally you can't make any
vitamin D if you stood naked inthe middle of the day, and again
, that day is going to be verydark because it's very north.
But the point to understand isthat the light and the light
(08:15):
that is reaching earth is reallydependent on these latitude and
other factors.
The other points that I againdidn't elaborate, but things
like altitude, things likepollution.
These are all environmentalfactors that will also influence
the availability of UV light.
Why is this important?
Because UV light, this reallyhigh-energy light, was likely
(08:39):
instrumental in the actualevolution of life and there's
the suggestions that it was theCambrian explosion.
So one of the key time pointsin essentially paleontological
history, the evolution of lifeon Earth, that massive
proliferation of these differentorganisms really coincided with
(09:02):
this huge increase interrestrial UV yield, the light
that was hitting earth.
So what are the properties?
Again, I don't want to belaborthis, but UV light, as I
mentioned, it's most of the UVlight that's hitting in the
earth.
It can penetrate deeper in theskin, it can photo age you and
pass through glass, but it alsohas a range of other beneficial
(09:25):
properties.
These include stimulatingnitric oxide and the release of
nitric oxide in the bloodvessels and that, as I mentioned
, relaxes the blood vessels.
It has a very powerfulimmunosuppressing effect and the
effect on the immune system isto dampen down the immune system
(09:46):
.
So anyone who suffers fromautoimmune disease and this in
many ways is a UV lightdeficiency Autoimmune disease is
, I'll say it again is in manyways simply a UV light
deficiency, and there's lots ofdata if we plot the incidence of
autoimmune diseases likerheumatoid arthritis or multiple
(10:07):
sclerosis or type 1 diabetesagainst latitude.
It's like a U-shaped curvebased on latitude, meaning that
these diseases are practicallyunheard of at the equator under
large amounts of UV light andthey become a problem for people
in Tasmania or in New York,whatever.
(10:30):
So UV light is also having aprofound effect on activating
neurotransmitters andstimulating their function and,
as I mentioned, can causeindirect DNA damage.
And that's important to realizebecause the crux of the effect
of UV light for our health isit's always double-sided and my
(10:56):
message is that we have tounderstand that UV light can be
both harmful to the skin butprofoundly beneficial for our
overall health, can be bothharmful to the skin but
profoundly beneficial for ouroverall health, and we have to
basically understand that if weare to make a decision for
ourselves about how much we wantto expose ourselves to.
So, as I mentioned, if you areunder UVA light, you will relax
(11:18):
your blood vessels and thereforeyour blood pressure.
So it's actually not only UVA,it's actually UVB and even blue,
which is next to UV on thespectrum.
So, again, if you have highblood pressure, if you have
someone that you know someonehas high blood pressure.
Ask that person or ask yourselfwhen was the last time that I
(11:40):
had this short wavelengthnatural sunlight actually on my
skin, that I had this shortwavelength natural sunlight
actually on my skin?
When was the last time I had mytorso exposed to this light and
really hypertension?
Yes, there's a strong relationto insulin resistance, but I
again think that primary orcentral hypertension is very
(12:02):
much a function of people simplynot meeting their fundamental
light needs and their sunlightneeds, and UV light specifically
.
So UVB, it's again only 1% to10% of UV light.
It's very highly filtered bythe ozone layer and it has this,
more significantly, effect onsunburn and causing sunburn.
(12:27):
And, as they've said here, thisis a dermatology review article
.
They said it's carcinogenic, athousand times more effective in
causing sunburns.
And I've added down the bottomvitamin D synthesis and
pro-opioid monocortin, which are, these again, vital, absolutely
indispensable functions.
So UVB light will make yousynthesize this pigment called
(12:56):
melanin, and melanin is one ofthe most interesting chemicals
in the whole animal kingdom andthe reason is because it has so
many amazing different functionsthat absorbing the UV light and
dissipating it as heat toprotect the skin is simply only
one of them.
(13:16):
It also has these antioxidantabilities.
It has ability to chelate andbind heavy metals.
It's's incredible.
The other point and I'm going tomention it again later is that
there's a pathway thatessentially mediates addiction
to light by releasing a compoundcalled beta-endorphin.
(13:38):
So the same pathway that helpsyour body to produce melanin in
response to this uv a damageessentially and uv light
exposure in the skin is alsorewarding you for uh, for
actually being in the light, bygiving you an endorphin, in the
same way that you get endorphinsfor doing other types of
(13:59):
behaviors that is beneficial foryour health, like exercising or
reproducing.
And some points down here isthat this UVB light is causing
direct DNA damage.
But it turns out that there area whole host of mechanisms that
the body has evolved to repairthat DNA damage and we can
(14:19):
optimize them if we are gettingthe sunlight in a really
ancestrally consistent way.
So UVB is making vitamin D inthe skin and this is actually
the main pathway by which wemake vitamin D.
So what that means is that if weare covering up from the sun,
(14:40):
if we are constantly wearingsunscreen, then we are
preventing our body fromderiving or generating not only
vitamin D but a range of otherproducts that are essentially
related to vitamin D that have aprofoundly beneficial effect on
health.
And the point here again, wedon't need to belabor this, but
(15:04):
essentially you get vitamin Dfrom UVB light.
It essentially goes into thebloodstream and then gets
transformed at two steps one inthe liver and one in the kidney
and then has these amazingeffects.
You can also get preformedvitamin D through foods,
particularly cod liver oil istraditionally the most rich
(15:25):
source of that, as well as eggs,dairy and milk, and that was
one of the reasons why thereally pale-skinned in Scotland,
in Iceland, in these northern,really high-latitude countries,
were able to survive and thrivewas because they were also
(15:45):
having a source of vitamin D inthe diet.
But the overwhelming, the largemajority of people, and
historically we generated ourvitamin D through sunlight and
UVB exposure.
So vitamin D and this is anotherreally key point point it's not
just about bone health andalthough, yes, it does absorb
(16:08):
calcium, help us absorb calciumfrom the gut it is a critical
function of our immune systemand that is both in terms of
autoimmunity, a defense againstviruses and bacteria, but also a
defense against cancerous cellswhich your body is constantly
forming, and you need afunctioning immune system to
(16:30):
kill those emerging cancer cellsbefore they essentially become
a tumor.
So what are all the benefits ofhaving a high or a robust
vitamin D level?
And these are things likereduced bone disease, reduced
osteoporosis and osteomalacia,improved balanced skeletal
(16:54):
system and reduced incidence ofcancer and tumor formation and
all these other situations andmedical conditions that are
associated with low vitamin D.
And a key point that and Ihaven't written it, but I'll say
it is that the serum vitamin Dlevel is essentially a proxy of
(17:20):
how much sunlight you've got.
If you are vitamin D deficient,then you simply have a sunlight
deficiency.
You've lived an indoorlifestyle and those who have a
robust vitamin D level, it justtells me that that person has
been exposed to full spectrumsunlight, and we'll make some
(17:42):
nuances about this in the nextslides.
But what we know and this isfrom long-term studies of people
followed over long periods oftime is that those with the
highest vitamin D levels, theassociation is that they have
less death by all causes, andthis paper reported that those
(18:04):
with a 25-hydroxyvitamin D levelless than 22 nanomoles had
nearly twice the age-adjusteddeath rate compared to those
with greater than 125 nanomoles.
Similar paper was that theystudied vitamin D data and they
(18:26):
concluded that 12.8% of all USdeaths and 9.4% of all deaths in
Europe could be attributed to aserum vitamin D level less than
75.
So the title of systemic reviewand meta-analysis vitamin D and
risk of cause-specific deathvitamin D and risk of
(18:46):
cause-specific death.
So what that essentially tellsus is that having low vitamin D
but simply being a sun avoideris a risk factor for death.
And we know that because whenwe have tried to replicate these
findings by giving people atablet of vitamin D, then we
don't get the same effect.
And look, that should makesense to everyone.
(19:07):
I mean, you don't need a PhD ora professorship to realize that
taking a couple of pills fromchemist's warehouse is not going
to replicate the effect ofbeing in full spectrum sunlight.
It's not equivalent in any way,shape or form.
(19:29):
It's effective in preventingthe most gross consequences of
vitamin D deficiency,particularly for bone health,
but it's not going to make youlive longer in the way that
getting out in the sunlight does.
And again, that's because thevitamin D level and this
discrepancy between theobservational studies and the
interventional studies isbecause the vitamin D level is
(19:52):
simply just a marker of how muchthat person gets into full
spectrum sunlight.
So the difference betweensupplements and why they're not
equivalent is because thesunlight-derived vitamin D is
primarily transported in thebody by a protein called vitamin
D, binding protein.
Dietary vitamin D is mostlycarried in a lipoprotein
(20:17):
fraction, such as your LDLfraction.
So analogy to this isregistered male versus
unaddressed male, and when yougenerate your vitamin D from the
sun, it's in this registeredmale and it's going to where it
needs to go.
And I won't go into the data,but there keeps being these
(20:40):
randomized trials that fail toshow as significant a benefit of
supplementing people as thedata that shows of those who
have had naturally high vitaminD and look not to say that there
isn't some benefit.
And if there is a completeinability of someone to get
outside into natural sunlight,then I still think there's
(21:03):
enough evidence to support thatperson supplementing.
So that's just an importantpoint.
But we're not replacingsunlight-derived vitamin D with
a pill.
So let's talk about thebiological effects.
We've talked about UV.
Let's quickly talk about blue.
The main function that bluelight is having on the body is
(21:26):
through the circadian system,and what that is is that it's
the recognition of blue lightpredominantly through the eyes
and the skin, and that messagebeing essentially sent along an
information super highwayconnecting the retina of the eye
to the brain, and thatinformation telling the body and
(21:50):
the master clock in the bodywhat time of day it is.
So it's specifically therecognition of blue light
through these special cells thatdon't form images, they
actually just sense the presenceand absence of the presence of
blue light and that tells yourbody what time of day it is.
And this isn't a talk aboutcircadian rhythms, but circadian
(22:11):
.
This clock timing mechanism inyour brain is essentially how
your body knows what to do atall times of day and night, and
every single function of thebody is timed.
It's timed and optimized, andthe reason it is is because it's
the most efficient way for thebody to operate is to have a
(22:33):
certain time of day to dodifferent things, and that is
why you sleep, why you have arest period and why you have an
awake period, why most often youopen your bowels in the morning
, why you feel tired when thesun goes down.
Everything from blood pressure,heart rate to feeding behavior,
(22:57):
just name a function.
It's regulated on thiscircadian clock and it is
optimized to a specific time ofday based on light information.
What about red light?
So red light is having a prettyamazing effect on health, and
predominantly through its effecton these mitochondria.
(23:19):
And the mitochondria areessentially these energy.
You can think of them as tinybatteries.
You can think of them as tinypower plants.
You can think of them as simplysites of energy transformation.
So they're taking in energy inthe form of food, in the form of
(23:39):
light, and they aretransforming it into cellular
energy so that your body andyour cells can get things done.
So red light is actuallyactivating multiple complexes on
the electron transport chain ofyour mitochondria to help
improve the efficiency of theselittle engines.
And the relevance for this isbecause chronic disease so
(24:04):
everything that I'm sure thateveryone is interested in
preventing, whether that'sdementia, whether that's heart
failure, whether that's aging inand of itself, diabetes is
related to failure of yourmitochondria in one particular
organ.
So it's our interest tooptimize mitochondrial function
(24:26):
as much as possible, and that iswhat red and infrared light is
doing.
So the image, just to show youthe same thing.
And this complex process isessentially how life was able to
really iterate, because we gotthese mitochondria to do this
(24:46):
very important job of makingenergy for us and the cells were
able to.
After you know, what actuallyhappened was one cell ate
another cell and they decidedinstead of to, they decided to
be roommates and what became?
The mitochondria, which was acertain form of bacterium,
(25:08):
started to again make energy andthen the other cell was able to
specialize to get other thingsdone, and that's how complex or
multicellular life evolved.
But this process of electrontransport is key and light is
essentially optimizing theprocess and it's been described
as essentially like lubrication.
(25:30):
Imagine if you were running anengine, like a car engine, and
you didn't ever lubricate thepistons, so it would take a
while, but eventually the enginewould seize up and die.
That is how you can think aboutchronic disease and sunlight
deficiency.
If you don't lubricate theelectron transport chain of your
(25:52):
mitochondria with sunlight,with natural sunlight, then you
will eventually on some timesget mitochondrial inefficiency
and, depending on your otherlifestyle habits and perhaps
your genetic predisposition,then that will manifest as a
chronic disease of choose yourflavor, depending on what else
(26:13):
is going on.
There's actually overlappingeffects of both red and
near-infrared light and this isreally something that the
photobiomodulation field isexploring.
But the other key point that Ireally want to emphasize is that
it's not a clear-cutdelineation between visible
(26:33):
light.
It's an arbitrary distinction,but somewhere along this line,
around 780 nanometers, is thepoint at which your eye will
perceive red and then won't beable to see anything else.
And near-infrared is, bydefinition, beyond visible.
That's why it's called infrared, but they're having overlapping
(26:56):
but similar effects.
So what else can red light do?
Well, red light can lower yourblood glucose level, and it
actually does that by revving upyour mitochondrial engines.
This was a study that was doneat the beginning of the year by
a researcher out of Londoncalled Glenn Jeffrey, and they
(27:16):
essentially shone red light onthe back of people for 15
minutes and then gave them ablood glucose test that some of
you might have done previously,involving drinking 75 grams of
glucose.
Essentially, they measuredtheir blood glucose over time
and then they measured theamount of carbon dioxide that
(27:38):
people were blowing off.
What they found was that thegroup that were treated with the
red light and they were able tocontrol this with a placebo,
because they could simply shineit on the back and no one knew
if they were getting red lightor the placebo and what they
found was that those who had thered light shone on their back
had lower blood glucose and morecarbon dioxide excreted.
(28:01):
So essentially showing you thatthe red light was having this
pretty profound effect onlowering of blood glucose.
And if this were a drug, thenthe pharmaceutical industry
would be tripping overthemselves to patent this.
It's a significant and 27% isquite on average was a
(28:25):
significant finding in loweringblood glucose.
So if you reverse this and youthink about the opposite, then
what is the implication ofeveryone's daily life now where
no one is getting very fewpeople are getting the amount of
red light that we would havehistorically got, and maybe it's
(28:47):
a good time to emphasize thepoint.
It was that.
Think about 25,000 years agobefore, when we were in our
ancestral niche, we were awakefrom sunrise to sunset.
We would sleep throughout thenight, but when we were awake we
were essentially beingirradiated.
For let's presume we'restanding on the equator, so
(29:11):
there's equal day length of 12hours.
We were being irradiated 12hours a day with full spectrum
sunlight and that was the norm.
And if you have darker skintypes and you're from the
equator, that is what your bodywants.
So think about what's happeningnow when people are indoors,
day after day after day, withoutany red, without any infrared
(29:34):
light, and then you can see whypeople are becoming diabetic and
you can extrapolate how beingdeprived of sunlight could
therefore lead to diabetes.
This is a paper that basicallyshows that the exposure of the
(29:57):
cells in the skin to red lightwas mediating or generating a
protective effect, and that wasto do with upregulating DNA
repair after being exposed to UVlight.
I'm going to emphasize this inanother way for you guys to
(30:18):
think about, but the translationof this complex paper is that
red light is the antidote to UVlight in terms of skin
protection, and that makes sensewhen we consider that after UV
light disappears from theenvironment, based on the sun
angle, we're getting massiveamounts of red light, and that
(30:40):
is help promoting or helpsolving the problem or repairing
the temporary damage that UVlight was causing.
And here's another paper thatshowed that they simply
pre-treated the skin with redlight and then exposed it to UV
light and found that there wasessentially a skin protective
(31:04):
effect that was equivalent toSPF 15.
What does that mean inpractical sense is that you want
to be getting red light beforeyou get UV light, and that is a
part of the process of safelybuilding a solar callus and
minimizing the damage of UVlight is getting your red light
beforehand.
(31:24):
The whole field ofphotobiomodulation is based on
these incredible effects of redand infrared light.
So that's another way ofthinking about how important it
is.
Some quick points about infraredlight.
And again, this is aroundbeyond 800 nanometers 780.
So this is beyond what we cansee.
(31:47):
So what is it doing?
So it is stimulating thissubstance called melatonin
inside our mitochondria.
And melatonin, which some ofyou might know of, you take it
as a supplement to help yousleep.
It is not only a signal toinduce sleep into the body, but
it actually is a very, verypotent antioxidant.
(32:08):
It's actually the king ofantioxidants in the body and it
does that and it speeds up.
And if the red light is thelubrication of the mitochondria,
then the melatonin is thecoolant of the mitochondria.
So what this neoremphrodite isdoing is essentially it's
(32:29):
getting into the skin and it'sessentially being ping-ponged
around and not being absorbed byanything for a while and then
being absorbed by themitochondria where it's having
its effect and it's providingthis antioxidant effect and it's
also building exclusions ofwater, which I'll talk about
soon.
But interestingly, look at thispicture.
So this is I'm not sure ifthey've edited it as well, but
(32:53):
if you use a camera that issensitive to near infrared light
, you get these brilliant photosand essentially what these
leaves are doing and this isanother one what the leaves are
doing is that they are actuallyreflecting near infrared light
away.
So the leaves use that youactually use a lot of red and
(33:13):
blue light in photosynthesis andthey reflect green and they
reflect near infrared and that'swhy the leaves appear green and
they reflect near infrared andthat's why the leaves appear
green.
But that's important becauseour bodies actually need this
near infrared light.
So what's it doing?
It's penetrating down and thenit's helping us make this
(33:35):
coolant for our engine, ourengine coolant called melatonin.
Why is this important?
Well, it turns out and this isactually very new science,
(34:04):
no-transcript most sensitiveorgans.
So it is concentrating it intothe brain and it's concentrating
it around the fetus in thepregnant woman, and this is both
an anatomical function, via thecurves in the brain and the
(34:29):
actual structure of the skin,but it is also via the
properties of the fluid that thebrain is bathed in and the
fetus is swimming in, actuallyoptically optimized to transfer
near-infrared light and bathethese structures in this light
(34:51):
and, as I mentioned, it'sbecause it's generating this
antioxidant effect.
His analysis of of the skin hebasically made the comment that,
uh, if you were, if you wereoptimizing a solar panel, then
you, you would have designedthat.
The epidermis, the epidermaljunction, yeah, in that way it's
(35:15):
essentially concentrating light.
That is, that is the anatomical, um kind of an analysis, but
with it from an optics point ofview, of the skin.
So, um, what did he say in thispaper?
He said the cerebrospinal fluidsurrounding the brain optically
acts as a light guide,distributing near-infrared
(35:35):
photons, scattering off thesurface of the brain, even into
the deep folds of the brain.
This is profound stuff that nota lot of people are talking
about or understanding.
The fetus is surrounded by theamniotic fluid, which has a peak
(36:05):
transmission in thenear-infrared, forming a
dielectrically filledintegrating sphere surrounding
the fetus, ensuring uniformexposure to near-infrared
photons impinging on themother's belly.
And it speaks to thefundamental need to have mom get
full spectrum sunlight on herdeveloping uterus and throughout
the pregnancy, from beforeconception to the point of
delivery, because that the bodyis obviously doing its utmost
(36:27):
and it has adapted over millionsof years to make use of this
light.
I'll really emphasize the pointthat more than 50% of bifoton
count of light energy hittingthe earth is in this infrared
zone.
To think that humans or biologyhasn't adapted or made
(36:51):
adaptations to make use of thislight, that's not how Mother
Nature works.
Mother Nature is ruthlesslyDarwinian in the fact that only
these most adapted, efficientdesigns essentially survive and
anything that isn't dies off anddoesn't get to reproduce.
(37:12):
So the other point that Ihaven't included, but in
discussions with ProfessorRobert Fosbury, who's an
astrophysicist and amateurspectrometer, is that it appears
that mushrooms are basicallydoing the same thing.
They are concentrating thisnear-infrared light to the areas
where their spores are, andsame, I believe, with some seeds
(37:36):
, that plants are making use ofthis light and just like we are,
just like the human body isconcentrating near-infrared
around our babies, so are theseplants and fungi doing the same
thing?
This is another whole topic inand of itself, and I actually
did a whole talk on this.
But infrared light is alsohaving an effect on changing the
(37:58):
biophysical properties of waterinside our blood vessels to aid
in blood flow.
So that's another kind ofessential role of full-spectrum
sunlight.
So how can we think about this.
Each wavelength of naturalsunlight is a light nutrient and
the UV is generating vitamin D,is generating pro-opium
lanocortin, is generating nitricoxide.
(38:20):
The UVA and visible is having arole in circadian signaling,
amongst a whole bunch of otherthings like skin protection and
lowering blood glucose,optimizing mitochondrial
function and particularly thenear-infrared is structuring the
water in the body and is alsohelping in mitochondrial
(38:41):
stimulation.
So this is a light nutrientstory and each one of these are
important story and each one ofthese are important.
The point again, we've talked alot about red and near-infrared
is how do we maximize ournear-infrared and red?
Well, it's simply, it's atsunrise and sunset and it's
(39:02):
because of that angle in the skywhere, yes, we do get blue at
sunrise and that's part of thecircadian wake up, but there is
a profoundly larger amount ofred and infrared at sunrise and
sunset because of the sun angle.
So what about skin cancer?
So I've just told you that UVlight is critical for health.
(39:25):
Uv light has these veryimportant functions, but how do
we think about skin cancer andthis double-edged sword, this
biological double-edged swordthat I've been discussing?
So any sun recommendation,advice, it must take into
account two things and that isthe ambient ultraviolet light
(39:48):
conditions wherever you'reliving, and two is your
ancestral origin or the amountof melanin that you have in your
skin.
So what I mean by that and thisis a concept that I've called
the skin type latitude mismatchor the skin type UV light
mismatch.
So what does this mean?
(40:09):
So the question you have to askyourself is do you live in a
similar solar environment toyour ancestors and arbitrarily,
I just said more than 20generations ago?
So the answer is if it's yes,then you are matched.
Your skin type and yourlatitude is matched.
If the answer is no, thenyou're mismatched.
(40:30):
So what does this mean?
So if you are unmatched, thenthe skin type is appropriate for
the UV conditions that you livein.
That means that God orevolution gave you the right
amount of melanin for the amountof UV light in your environment
.
That means that if you as muchas possible, reflect the
(40:54):
ancestral conditions of how yourhumans would have been exposed
to light, then you have thetoolkit to both harness and
benefit from sunlight and repairits damage appropriately.
So what about if you'remismatched?
Well, then your skin type isinappropriate for the UV
(41:19):
conditions in which you live,and I'll quickly talk about that
.
So if you are unmatched, thenyou are an Indigenous Australian
living in Australia, you're anIndigenous African in Africa,
norwegian living in Norway,peruvian living in Peru, but
maybe you might also be SouthIndian with a lot of melanin
living in Queensland, australia.
(41:40):
The point is that the amount ofmelanin in the skin is
commensurate with the UV lightenvironment.
So what if you're mismatched?
Well then your skin type isinappropriate for these UV
conditions, and this can eitherbe.
You can either have moremelanin in a lower UV
environment, so that you're, say, you're Nigerian living in the
(42:01):
United Kingdom or you're SouthIndian living in Tasmania, and
what this issue is that there isnot enough UV light in the
environment for you toessentially thrive, and that is
a bigger problem than the onethat I'm about to talk about,
because, again, you can be, nomatter what you do, during
(42:22):
winter there is zero UV light,and that's a massive problem,
because that melanin isabsorbing will absorb a whole
bunch of UV light to prevent youfrom even being able to make
vitamin D.
So that's why they need so muchmore.
The other problem that isactually relevant to us living
(42:44):
in Australia is if you have alow melanin level, ie you have
pale skin but you're living in areally high UV environment, and
that is any someone say, southAfrican, dutch or English origin
in South Africa, or Irish,english, scottish living in
Queensland, australia.
So to really understand thisand this is again we're speaking
(43:08):
to most of us who live inAustralia is that we really need
to adapt to this reality oraccept this reality that we
simply don't have the sameamount of skin protection
naturally that the Indigenouspeople of this area did, and
what we need to do, therefore,is to use shade and to avoid the
(43:31):
peak UV times.
It's honestly that simple andit doesn't mean to cover up all
the time.
It doesn't mean to do whiteface with zinc every time we go
out.
It means to make use ofclothing, make use of shade and
(43:52):
simply avoid the most peak UVtimes, but use the time on
either side of those to fulfillour light needs and get all
these health benefits that weneed.
A quick comment on the evidencebehind sun exposure and
(44:14):
essentially all-cause mortality,and this was a Swedish study
that really looked at thesunbathing habits of women and
they followed them over 25 yearsafter ascertaining their
sunbathing behaviors, and theyessentially classified the women
into three different groupsthose who sought the sun out by
sunbathing in summer or winter,going overseas to sunbathe,
(44:37):
using tanning salons, and thosewho had intermediate sun
exposure habits and those withthe lowest sun exposure habits
or those who avoided sunexposure.
And what they found was thatthose who avoided sun exposure,
they died.
They died at twice the rate asthose who had the most active
sun exposure, and that was aprofoundly surprising result for
(45:01):
the investigators.
But it was a dose effect,meaning that it's very unlikely
to this isn't a random chanceevent.
That it's very unlikely to thisisn't a random chance event.
This is simply anepidemiological reflection of
what I've just talked about on amechanistic point of view,
which is sun exposure extendslife and sun avoidance is a risk
(45:24):
factor for death.
And that was the conclusion ofthe authors, which was that the
women who avoid sun exposure areat an increased risk of
all-cause death, with a twofoldincreased mortality rate
compared to those with thehighest sun exposure.
So everything in medicine is arisk-versus-benefit equation.
Every medicine that a doctorprescribes is going to be
(45:47):
weighing up benefits versuspotential downsides, and
sunlight needs to be added tothat equation.
And although I didn't gothrough all the literature on
sunlight and its effect onmortality.
That melanoma in southern Swedencohort study is not the first
(46:07):
one.
It's subsequently been repeatedwith a recent biobank analysis
by Richard Weller and hiscolleagues.
But that have again showed thatthose who with the highest sun
exposure habits have reducedall-cause death, reduced
cardiovascular death, reducedcancer death and actually
reduced skin cancer death,meaning even those having been
(46:30):
diagnosed with skin cancer,those who have had more sun
exposure, have a betterprognosis.
And that is actually alsoreflected in the vitamin D
studies which show vitamin Ddeficiency is a risk factor for
developing melanoma, a riskfactor for severity, depth of
basal cell carcinoma.
It's actually also a riskfactor for prognosis in melanoma
(46:52):
, meaning that those patientswith metastatic melanoma, the
ones that are more vitamin Ddeficient, have the worst
prognosis and live the least.
So what are we balancing this upagain and apologies for the
typo here Is photoaging, quitepossibly, and we can mitigate
(47:15):
that, I believe, at least on amechanistic point of view.
And the mechanistic data showsthat you can minimize that with
things like red light andgetting red light, particularly
in the morning and at theafternoon after UV.
And it's also traded up againstthis likelihood or this
increase in skin cancerdiagnoses in fair-skinned
(47:37):
prototypes like the NorthernEuropeans living in Australia,
and that needs to be balancedand that needs to be something
that everyone thinks about,which is there's a trade-off.
There's always going to be atrade-off, but whether that
trade-off is worth it for you,you need to think about that
yourself.
And I'll leave you with thisthought, which is again that
(48:02):
skin in beta-endorphin.
It mediates addiction toultraviolet light, and the same
pathway that helps make you,provides your skin with melanin,
is also providing you with anopioid chemical to reward you
for being in ultraviolet light.
So that's a500-million-year-old gene called
(48:26):
pro-opioid monocortin.
So if you want to learn moreabout light and health, then my
podcast, the Regenerative HealthPodcast, has all these
interviews with world experts onthis topic and I try and
synthesize their differentperspectives, because I think
everyone has got a uniqueperspective.
(48:47):
A lot of these arehyper-focused in different ways,
but I'm trying to synthesizethings together and present that
for people to understand.
Light has this profound effect.
The evidence is just growingand growing and growing from a
scientific and medical point ofview.
I think it's time.
It's time for us both asdoctors, but it's also time for
(49:10):
patients to understand, for youall to understand that this is a
critical part of health andit's foundational to optimal
health.
If you want to learn more, thenI have a private community where
I do a weekly Q&A and answerall questions that you may have
about lightness medicine.
(49:31):
That's the link.
It's on the school platform.
I'm sure Christabel can provideit to you after this.
And we've got a growingcommunity.
We're almost at 80 now andthere's some great discussions,
there's great support.
So people of any level ofunderstanding or readiness to
(49:52):
implement all these light asmedicine, behaviors and
practices.
We're here to help you.
So if you're interested, thenjoin up.
And if you want to go into depththen I've got two courses
Circadian Res reset, which isabout practical and applied
circadian rhythms, and it's ashort couple of hours around
(50:16):
four, and solar callus.
And solar callus goes intoabout nine hours of depth of the
how and the why of deliberatesun exposure and why we actually
want to be cultivating melaninand actually tanning, which is
again the opposite of what themainstream messages have been
(50:37):
about sun exposure.
But I go into depth about theresearch that really supports
that position of tanning andoptimizing the cutaneous
generation of vitamin D andother compounds for optimal
health.
I've already talked about that.
There's some more my links onmy YouTube channel.
(51:00):
My podcast is on all thepodcasting platforms.
I have Instagram, I haveTwitter or NowX and I have a
website, although I haven't puta slide up here.
I'm running a retreat at theend of November and we've got
maybe a handful of spots left,but it's essentially four days.
(51:22):
It's a luxury retreat, fourdays, and I'll be running you
through the exact how and why ofpractically implementing
Leiter's medicine, and we'redoing this in the Byron Bay
hinterland.
We're going to have some expertchefs preparing some very, very
(51:42):
delicious local produce, andthere's a spa, there's a sauna
and we've got a very specialinternational yoga teacher to
run us through some stuff.
So that's all.
So hope you enjoyed the talkand happy to answer some
questions that you might have.
And so this talk is titled Sunlight as Medicine, and
it is going to be an overviewof not only the different types
of light but also how theselight wavelengths interact with
our body and have ahealth-modulating or
health-promoting effect for ourbody.
And so the first part is goingto be, as I mentioned, talking
(00:24):
about that particularly, andthen some main concepts that
come up with regard to thisconcept of light as medicine,
particularly around vitamin D,and some thoughts at the end
about how we can safely getsunlight.
So to start off the talk, wehave to zoom all the way out.
(01:18):
We have to zoom beyond planetEarth into our solar system and
to understand the effect of me,because we have to really
appreciate that all life onEarth essentially relies on this
external energy input orbitsthe sun and the Earth spins on
its axis.
There's a changing amount oflight wavelengths and light
information throughout the dayatmosphere to filter the full
(01:43):
brunt of all the electromagneticenergy that's being radiated
from the sun through space toour planet.
This is really criticallyimportant because if you try to,
I guess, serve yourself thefull ladder of electromagnetic
(02:05):
radiation without the protectionof the Earth's atmosphere,
magnetosphere as well, then youwill get sick very, very quickly
, and that's part of the reasonwhy the astronauts on the space
station are getting sick isbecause they are getting an
exposure to the amount of typeof light in the proportions that
(02:28):
is very unusual and notexpected by the human body.
And the human body has evolvedover 3.4 billion years, or
created, depending on yourschool of thought, to have this
very, very specific tranche orcombination of light wavelengths
that we're going to talk about.
(02:48):
So what is getting through ontous on planet Earth is
predominantly by photonic energyis actually visible light, but
by number of photons is actuallyinfrared light there's.
By number of photons isactually infrared light, and how
you can think about this graphis the total amount of light
(03:08):
energy and we've got it bywavelength, and I won't go into
the nuances of this, it's a veryphysics-based topic, but
essentially the properties oflight are a function of their
wavelength.
So what we have here is theshortest wavelength light which
(03:29):
is actually non-visible.
Is this ultraviolet light, butit is very, very important for
our health.
The next lot is this visiblelight, which our eyes have
essentially evolved to be ableto recognize, and then, as I
mentioned, the largest area isthis infrared light, which again
, is non-visible.
But just because this light isnot visible doesn't mean it's
(03:51):
not having a very importantbiological effect, and that's
what we're going to talk about.
The other point that I alludedto earlier was that the
properties of the light that weget throughout the day are
varying, they're not constant,and what I mean by that is at
the morning, at the sunrise,because of the angle of the sun
(04:14):
in the sky, we're gettingvisible and mostly a whole lot
of infrared light, a lot oflonger wavelength light, and
that is because the lightessentially has to travel
through a thicker layer ofatmosphere when it's really low
in the horizon to reach us, andthat atmospheric predominantly
ozone filters out ultravioletand all the shorter wavelength
(04:37):
light.
So as the sun rises as an anglein the sky, then you get a UVA
and this longer wavelength UVlight, and then when the sun is
above an angle in the sky, thenyou also get UVB, which is the
highest energy light and themost potentially damaging in
(05:01):
terms of sunburn, but also iscritical for vitamin D and these
other functions.
The key, I guess, point aboutthis slide is as it relates to a
topic that we're not going totalk about tonight, but
particularly this idea of indoorlighting and the indoor light
environment, which is completelyunchanging.
(05:23):
But what your body needs andwants is this really nice,
gradual exposure to changingwavelengths and intensities
throughout the day, and that iswhat your body is adapted to
receive.
So let's start with UV, and UVlight comes in a couple of
(05:44):
different flavors.
The shortest wavelength UV isactually filtered, as I
mentioned, by the ozone, so thatmost of the UV light that's
hitting Earth is actually UVAand a small amount of UVB.
Now, uvc is an interestingtopic, especially when it comes
to the actual endogenousproduction of light in our
(06:04):
bodies, but that's not also atopic we're going to talk about
today.
As I mentioned, what you'regetting on planet Earth is going
to be a function of the angleof the sun in the sky as well as
, if you think about where welive, the latitude.
The latitude on planet Earth,the further away from the
(06:26):
equator you are, and thisdepends again on the season,
which is the next point is goingto dictate how high or low the
sun is in the sky.
Obviously, the time of day isalso because the sun is
traversing through the sky asthe Earth rotates.
What this essentially means isthat, as the solar angle, the
(06:49):
zenith angle, increases, theamount of UVB radiation is
reduced.
So at higher latitudes and thisapplies to anyone who's living
in Europe or the USA, or evendown south in Melbourne and
Tasmania is that at highlatitudes and the greater
distance from the equator, themore UVB radiation is absorbed
(07:11):
by the ozone layer, therebyreducing or eliminating the
production of vitamin D in theskin.
And if you think about the skincharacteristics of people who
have been adapted to thesecolder northern climates, is
that they have actually lost themelanin pigment in their skin.
(07:32):
And that is precisely anadaptation to a low UV
environment, particularly topreserve their ability to make
vitamin D and make the most ofthe scarce amount of vitamin D
that is simply not present forlarge amounts of time in the
(07:53):
year.
And that's what I mean.
There's some latitudes thatseasonally you can't make any
vitamin D if you stood naked inthe middle of the day, and again
, that day is going to be verydark because it's very north.
But the point to understand isthat the light and the light
(08:15):
that is reaching earth is reallydependent on these latitude and
other factors.
The other points that I againdidn't elaborate, but things
like altitude, things likepollution.
These are all environmentalfactors that will also influence
the availability of UV light.
Why is this important?
Because UV light, this reallyhigh-energy light, was likely
(08:39):
instrumental in the actualevolution of life and there's
the suggestions that it was theCambrian explosion.
So one of the key time pointsin essentially paleontological
history, the evolution of lifeon Earth, that massive
proliferation of these differentorganisms really coincided with
(09:02):
this huge increase interrestrial UV yield, the light
that was hitting earth.
So what are the properties?
Again, I don't want to belaborthis, but UV light, as I
mentioned, it's most of the UVlight that's hitting in the
earth.
It can penetrate deeper in theskin, it can photo age you and
pass through glass, but it alsohas a range of other beneficial
(09:25):
properties.
These include stimulatingnitric oxide and the release of
nitric oxide in the bloodvessels and that, as I mentioned
, relaxes the blood vessels.
It has a very powerfulimmunosuppressing effect and the
effect on the immune system isto dampen down the immune system
(09:46):
.
So anyone who suffers fromautoimmune disease and this in
many ways is a UV lightdeficiency Autoimmune disease is
, I'll say it again is in manyways simply a UV light
deficiency, and there's lots ofdata if we plot the incidence of
autoimmune diseases likerheumatoid arthritis or multiple
(10:07):
sclerosis or type 1 diabetesagainst latitude.
It's like a U-shaped curvebased on latitude, meaning that
these diseases are practicallyunheard of at the equator under
large amounts of UV light andthey become a problem for people
in Tasmania or in New York,whatever.
(10:30):
So UV light is also having aprofound effect on activating
neurotransmitters andstimulating their function and,
as I mentioned, can causeindirect DNA damage.
And that's important to realizebecause the crux of the effect
of UV light for our health isit's always double-sided and my
(10:56):
message is that we have tounderstand that UV light can be
both harmful to the skin butprofoundly beneficial for our
overall health, can be bothharmful to the skin but
profoundly beneficial for ouroverall health, and we have to
basically understand that if weare to make a decision for
ourselves about how much we wantto expose ourselves to.
So, as I mentioned, if you areunder UVA light, you will relax
(11:18):
your blood vessels and thereforeyour blood pressure.
So it's actually not only UVA,it's actually UVB and even blue,
which is next to UV on thespectrum.
So, again, if you have highblood pressure, if you have
someone that you know someonehas high blood pressure.
Ask that person or ask yourselfwhen was the last time that I
(11:40):
had this short wavelengthnatural sunlight actually on my
skin, that I had this shortwavelength natural sunlight
actually on my skin?
When was the last time I had mytorso exposed to this light and
really hypertension?
Yes, there's a strong relationto insulin resistance, but I
again think that primary orcentral hypertension is very
(12:02):
much a function of people simplynot meeting their fundamental
light needs and their sunlightneeds, and UV light specifically
.
So UVB, it's again only 1% to10% of UV light.
It's very highly filtered bythe ozone layer and it has this,
more significantly, effect onsunburn and causing sunburn.
(12:27):
And, as they've said here, thisis a dermatology review article
.
They said it's carcinogenic, athousand times more effective in
causing sunburns.
And I've added down the bottomvitamin D synthesis and
pro-opioid monocortin, which are, these again, vital, absolutely
indispensable functions.
So UVB light will make yousynthesize this pigment called
(12:56):
melanin, and melanin is one ofthe most interesting chemicals
in the whole animal kingdom andthe reason is because it has so
many amazing different functionsthat absorbing the UV light and
dissipating it as heat toprotect the skin is simply only
one of them.
(13:16):
It also has these antioxidantabilities.
It has ability to chelate andbind heavy metals.
It's's incredible.
The other point and I'm going tomention it again later is that
there's a pathway thatessentially mediates addiction
to light by releasing a compoundcalled beta-endorphin.
(13:38):
So the same pathway that helpsyour body to produce melanin in
response to this uv a damageessentially and uv light
exposure in the skin is alsorewarding you for uh, for
actually being in the light, bygiving you an endorphin, in the
same way that you get endorphinsfor doing other types of
(13:59):
behaviors that is beneficial foryour health, like exercising or
reproducing.
And some points down here isthat this UVB light is causing
direct DNA damage.
But it turns out that there area whole host of mechanisms that
the body has evolved to repairthat DNA damage and we can
(14:19):
optimize them if we are gettingthe sunlight in a really
ancestrally consistent way.
So UVB is making vitamin D inthe skin and this is actually
the main pathway by which wemake vitamin D.
So what that means is that if weare covering up from the sun,
(14:40):
if we are constantly wearingsunscreen, then we are
preventing our body fromderiving or generating not only
vitamin D but a range of otherproducts that are essentially
related to vitamin D that have aprofoundly beneficial effect on
health.
And the point here again, wedon't need to belabor this, but
(15:04):
essentially you get vitamin Dfrom UVB light.
It essentially goes into thebloodstream and then gets
transformed at two steps one inthe liver and one in the kidney
and then has these amazingeffects.
You can also get preformedvitamin D through foods,
particularly cod liver oil istraditionally the most rich
(15:25):
source of that, as well as eggs,dairy and milk, and that was
one of the reasons why thereally pale-skinned in Scotland,
in Iceland, in these northern,really high-latitude countries,
were able to survive and thrivewas because they were also
(15:45):
having a source of vitamin D inthe diet.
But the overwhelming, the largemajority of people, and
historically we generated ourvitamin D through sunlight and
UVB exposure.
So vitamin D and this is anotherreally key point point it's not
just about bone health andalthough, yes, it does absorb
(16:08):
calcium, help us absorb calciumfrom the gut it is a critical
function of our immune systemand that is both in terms of
autoimmunity, a defense againstviruses and bacteria, but also a
defense against cancerous cellswhich your body is constantly
forming, and you need afunctioning immune system to
(16:30):
kill those emerging cancer cellsbefore they essentially become
a tumor.
So what are all the benefits ofhaving a high or a robust
vitamin D level?
And these are things likereduced bone disease, reduced
osteoporosis and osteomalacia,improved balanced skeletal
(16:54):
system and reduced incidence ofcancer and tumor formation and
all these other situations andmedical conditions that are
associated with low vitamin D.
And a key point that and Ihaven't written it, but I'll say
it is that the serum vitamin Dlevel is essentially a proxy of
(17:20):
how much sunlight you've got.
If you are vitamin D deficient,then you simply have a sunlight
deficiency.
You've lived an indoorlifestyle and those who have a
robust vitamin D level, it justtells me that that person has
been exposed to full spectrumsunlight, and we'll make some
(17:42):
nuances about this in the nextslides.
But what we know and this isfrom long-term studies of people
followed over long periods oftime is that those with the
highest vitamin D levels, theassociation is that they have
less death by all causes, andthis paper reported that those
(18:04):
with a 25-hydroxyvitamin D levelless than 22 nanomoles had
nearly twice the age-adjusteddeath rate compared to those
with greater than 125 nanomoles.
Similar paper was that theystudied vitamin D data and they
(18:26):
concluded that 12.8% of all USdeaths and 9.4% of all deaths in
Europe could be attributed to aserum vitamin D level less than
75.
So the title of systemic reviewand meta-analysis vitamin D and
risk of cause-specific deathvitamin D and risk of
(18:46):
cause-specific death.
So what that essentially tellsus is that having low vitamin D
but simply being a sun avoideris a risk factor for death.
And we know that because whenwe have tried to replicate these
findings by giving people atablet of vitamin D, then we
don't get the same effect.
And look, that should makesense to everyone.
(19:07):
I mean, you don't need a PhD ora professorship to realize that
taking a couple of pills fromchemist's warehouse is not going
to replicate the effect ofbeing in full spectrum sunlight.
It's not equivalent in any way,shape or form.
(19:29):
It's effective in preventingthe most gross consequences of
vitamin D deficiency,particularly for bone health,
but it's not going to make youlive longer in the way that
getting out in the sunlight does.
And again, that's because thevitamin D level and this
discrepancy between theobservational studies and the
interventional studies isbecause the vitamin D level is
(19:52):
simply just a marker of how muchthat person gets into full
spectrum sunlight.
So the difference betweensupplements and why they're not
equivalent is because thesunlight-derived vitamin D is
primarily transported in thebody by a protein called vitamin
D, binding protein.
Dietary vitamin D is mostlycarried in a lipoprotein
(20:17):
fraction, such as your LDLfraction.
So analogy to this isregistered male versus
unaddressed male, and when yougenerate your vitamin D from the
sun, it's in this registeredmale and it's going to where it
needs to go.
And I won't go into the data,but there keeps being these
(20:40):
randomized trials that fail toshow as significant a benefit of
supplementing people as thedata that shows of those who
have had naturally high vitaminD and look not to say that there
isn't some benefit.
And if there is a completeinability of someone to get
outside into natural sunlight,then I still think there's
(21:03):
enough evidence to support thatperson supplementing.
So that's just an importantpoint.
But we're not replacingsunlight-derived vitamin D with
a pill.
So let's talk about thebiological effects.
We've talked about UV.
Let's quickly talk about blue.
The main function that bluelight is having on the body is
(21:26):
through the circadian system,and what that is is that it's
the recognition of blue lightpredominantly through the eyes
and the skin, and that messagebeing essentially sent along an
information super highwayconnecting the retina of the eye
to the brain, and thatinformation telling the body and
(21:50):
the master clock in the bodywhat time of day it is.
So it's specifically therecognition of blue light
through these special cells thatdon't form images, they
actually just sense the presenceand absence of the presence of
blue light and that tells yourbody what time of day it is.
And this isn't a talk aboutcircadian rhythms, but circadian
(22:11):
.
This clock timing mechanism inyour brain is essentially how
your body knows what to do atall times of day and night, and
every single function of thebody is timed.
It's timed and optimized, andthe reason it is is because it's
the most efficient way for thebody to operate is to have a
(22:33):
certain time of day to dodifferent things, and that is
why you sleep, why you have arest period and why you have an
awake period, why most often youopen your bowels in the morning
, why you feel tired when thesun goes down.
Everything from blood pressure,heart rate to feeding behavior,
(22:57):
just name a function.
It's regulated on thiscircadian clock and it is
optimized to a specific time ofday based on light information.
What about red light?
So red light is having a prettyamazing effect on health, and
predominantly through its effecton these mitochondria.
(23:19):
And the mitochondria areessentially these energy.
You can think of them as tinybatteries.
You can think of them as tinypower plants.
You can think of them as simplysites of energy transformation.
So they're taking in energy inthe form of food, in the form of
(23:39):
light, and they aretransforming it into cellular
energy so that your body andyour cells can get things done.
So red light is actuallyactivating multiple complexes on
the electron transport chain ofyour mitochondria to help
improve the efficiency of theselittle engines.
And the relevance for this isbecause chronic disease so
(24:04):
everything that I'm sure thateveryone is interested in
preventing, whether that'sdementia, whether that's heart
failure, whether that's aging inand of itself, diabetes is
related to failure of yourmitochondria in one particular
organ.
So it's our interest tooptimize mitochondrial function
(24:26):
as much as possible, and that iswhat red and infrared light is
doing.
So the image, just to show youthe same thing.
And this complex process isessentially how life was able to
really iterate, because we gotthese mitochondria to do this
(24:46):
very important job of makingenergy for us and the cells were
able to.
After you know, what actuallyhappened was one cell ate
another cell and they decidedinstead of to, they decided to
be roommates and what became?
The mitochondria, which was acertain form of bacterium,
(25:08):
started to again make energy andthen the other cell was able to
specialize to get other thingsdone, and that's how complex or
multicellular life evolved.
But this process of electrontransport is key and light is
essentially optimizing theprocess and it's been described
as essentially like lubrication.
(25:30):
Imagine if you were running anengine, like a car engine, and
you didn't ever lubricate thepistons, so it would take a
while, but eventually the enginewould seize up and die.
That is how you can think aboutchronic disease and sunlight
deficiency.
If you don't lubricate theelectron transport chain of your
(25:52):
mitochondria with sunlight,with natural sunlight, then you
will eventually on some timesget mitochondrial inefficiency
and, depending on your otherlifestyle habits and perhaps
your genetic predisposition,then that will manifest as a
chronic disease of choose yourflavor, depending on what else
(26:13):
is going on.
There's actually overlappingeffects of both red and
near-infrared light and this isreally something that the
photobiomodulation field isexploring.
But the other key point that Ireally want to emphasize is that
it's not a clear-cutdelineation between visible
(26:33):
light.
It's an arbitrary distinction,but somewhere along this line,
around 780 nanometers, is thepoint at which your eye will
perceive red and then won't beable to see anything else.
And near-infrared is, bydefinition, beyond visible.
That's why it's called infrared, but they're having overlapping
(26:56):
but similar effects.
So what else can red light do?
Well, red light can lower yourblood glucose level, and it
actually does that by revving upyour mitochondrial engines.
This was a study that was doneat the beginning of the year by
a researcher out of Londoncalled Glenn Jeffrey, and they
(27:16):
essentially shone red light onthe back of people for 15
minutes and then gave them ablood glucose test that some of
you might have done previously,involving drinking 75 grams of
glucose.
Essentially, they measuredtheir blood glucose over time
and then they measured theamount of carbon dioxide that
(27:38):
people were blowing off.
What they found was that thegroup that were treated with the
red light and they were able tocontrol this with a placebo,
because they could simply shineit on the back and no one knew
if they were getting red lightor the placebo and what they
found was that those who had thered light shone on their back
had lower blood glucose and morecarbon dioxide excreted.
(28:01):
So essentially showing you thatthe red light was having this
pretty profound effect onlowering of blood glucose.
And if this were a drug, thenthe pharmaceutical industry
would be tripping overthemselves to patent this.
It's a significant and 27% isquite on average was a
(28:25):
significant finding in loweringblood glucose.
So if you reverse this and youthink about the opposite, then
what is the implication ofeveryone's daily life now where
no one is getting very fewpeople are getting the amount of
red light that we would havehistorically got, and maybe it's
(28:47):
a good time to emphasize thepoint.
It was that.
Think about 25,000 years agobefore, when we were in our
ancestral niche, we were awakefrom sunrise to sunset.
We would sleep throughout thenight, but when we were awake we
were essentially beingirradiated.
For let's presume we'restanding on the equator, so
(29:11):
there's equal day length of 12hours.
We were being irradiated 12hours a day with full spectrum
sunlight and that was the norm.
And if you have darker skintypes and you're from the
equator, that is what your bodywants.
So think about what's happeningnow when people are indoors,
day after day after day, withoutany red, without any infrared
(29:34):
light, and then you can see whypeople are becoming diabetic and
you can extrapolate how beingdeprived of sunlight could
therefore lead to diabetes.
This is a paper that basicallyshows that the exposure of the
(29:57):
cells in the skin to red lightwas mediating or generating a
protective effect, and that wasto do with upregulating DNA
repair after being exposed to UVlight.
I'm going to emphasize this inanother way for you guys to
(30:18):
think about, but the translationof this complex paper is that
red light is the antidote to UVlight in terms of skin
protection, and that makes sensewhen we consider that after UV
light disappears from theenvironment, based on the sun
angle, we're getting massiveamounts of red light, and that
(30:40):
is help promoting or helpsolving the problem or repairing
the temporary damage that UVlight was causing.
And here's another paper thatshowed that they simply
pre-treated the skin with redlight and then exposed it to UV
light and found that there wasessentially a skin protective
(31:04):
effect that was equivalent toSPF 15.
What does that mean inpractical sense is that you want
to be getting red light beforeyou get UV light, and that is a
part of the process of safelybuilding a solar callus and
minimizing the damage of UVlight is getting your red light
beforehand.
(31:24):
The whole field ofphotobiomodulation is based on
these incredible effects of redand infrared light.
So that's another way ofthinking about how important it
is.
Some quick points about infraredlight.
And again, this is aroundbeyond 800 nanometers 780.
So this is beyond what we cansee.
(31:47):
So what is it doing?
So it is stimulating thissubstance called melatonin
inside our mitochondria.
And melatonin, which some ofyou might know of, you take it
as a supplement to help yousleep.
It is not only a signal toinduce sleep into the body, but
it actually is a very, verypotent antioxidant.
(32:08):
It's actually the king ofantioxidants in the body and it
does that and it speeds up.
And if the red light is thelubrication of the mitochondria,
then the melatonin is thecoolant of the mitochondria.
So what this neoremphrodite isdoing is essentially it's
(32:29):
getting into the skin and it'sessentially being ping-ponged
around and not being absorbed byanything for a while and then
being absorbed by themitochondria where it's having
its effect and it's providingthis antioxidant effect and it's
also building exclusions ofwater, which I'll talk about
soon.
But interestingly, look at thispicture.
So this is I'm not sure ifthey've edited it as well, but
(32:53):
if you use a camera that issensitive to near infrared light
, you get these brilliant photosand essentially what these
leaves are doing and this isanother one what the leaves are
doing is that they are actuallyreflecting near infrared light
away.
So the leaves use that youactually use a lot of red and
(33:13):
blue light in photosynthesis andthey reflect green and they
reflect near infrared and that'swhy the leaves appear green and
they reflect near infrared andthat's why the leaves appear
green.
But that's important becauseour bodies actually need this
near infrared light.
So what's it doing?
It's penetrating down and thenit's helping us make this
(33:35):
coolant for our engine, ourengine coolant called melatonin.
Why is this important?
Well, it turns out and this isactually very new science,
(34:04):
no-transcript most sensitiveorgans.
So it is concentrating it intothe brain and it's concentrating
it around the fetus in thepregnant woman, and this is both
an anatomical function, via thecurves in the brain and the
(34:29):
actual structure of the skin,but it is also via the
properties of the fluid that thebrain is bathed in and the
fetus is swimming in, actuallyoptically optimized to transfer
near-infrared light and bathethese structures in this light
(34:51):
and, as I mentioned, it'sbecause it's generating this
antioxidant effect.
His analysis of of the skin hebasically made the comment that,
uh, if you were, if you wereoptimizing a solar panel, then
you, you would have designedthat.
The epidermis, the epidermaljunction, yeah, in that way it's
(35:15):
essentially concentrating light.
That is, that is the anatomical, um kind of an analysis, but
with it from an optics point ofview, of the skin.
So, um, what did he say in thispaper?
He said the cerebrospinal fluidsurrounding the brain optically
acts as a light guide,distributing near-infrared
(35:35):
photons, scattering off thesurface of the brain, even into
the deep folds of the brain.
This is profound stuff that nota lot of people are talking
about or understanding.
The fetus is surrounded by theamniotic fluid, which has a peak
(36:05):
transmission in thenear-infrared, forming a
dielectrically filledintegrating sphere surrounding
the fetus, ensuring uniformexposure to near-infrared
photons impinging on themother's belly.
And it speaks to thefundamental need to have mom get
full spectrum sunlight on herdeveloping uterus and throughout
the pregnancy, from beforeconception to the point of
delivery, because that the bodyis obviously doing its utmost
(36:27):
and it has adapted over millionsof years to make use of this
light.
I'll really emphasize the pointthat more than 50% of bifoton
count of light energy hittingthe earth is in this infrared
zone.
To think that humans or biologyhasn't adapted or made
(36:51):
adaptations to make use of thislight, that's not how Mother
Nature works.
Mother Nature is ruthlesslyDarwinian in the fact that only
these most adapted, efficientdesigns essentially survive and
anything that isn't dies off anddoesn't get to reproduce.
(37:12):
So the other point that Ihaven't included, but in
discussions with ProfessorRobert Fosbury, who's an
astrophysicist and amateurspectrometer, is that it appears
that mushrooms are basicallydoing the same thing.
They are concentrating thisnear-infrared light to the areas
where their spores are, andsame, I believe, with some seeds
(37:36):
, that plants are making use ofthis light and just like we are,
just like the human body isconcentrating near-infrared
around our babies, so are theseplants and fungi doing the same
thing?
This is another whole topic inand of itself, and I actually
did a whole talk on this.
But infrared light is alsohaving an effect on changing the
(37:58):
biophysical properties of waterinside our blood vessels to aid
in blood flow.
So that's another kind ofessential role of full-spectrum
sunlight.
So how can we think about this.
Each wavelength of naturalsunlight is a light nutrient and
the UV is generating vitamin D,is generating pro-opium
lanocortin, is generating nitricoxide.
(38:20):
The UVA and visible is having arole in circadian signaling,
amongst a whole bunch of otherthings like skin protection and
lowering blood glucose,optimizing mitochondrial
function and particularly thenear-infrared is structuring the
water in the body and is alsohelping in mitochondrial
(38:41):
stimulation.
So this is a light nutrientstory and each one of these are
important story and each one ofthese are important.
The point again, we've talked alot about red and near-infrared
is how do we maximize ournear-infrared and red?
Well, it's simply, it's atsunrise and sunset and it's
(39:02):
because of that angle in the skywhere, yes, we do get blue at
sunrise and that's part of thecircadian wake up, but there is
a profoundly larger amount ofred and infrared at sunrise and
sunset because of the sun angle.
So what about skin cancer?
So I've just told you that UVlight is critical for health.
(39:25):
Uv light has these veryimportant functions, but how do
we think about skin cancer andthis double-edged sword, this
biological double-edged swordthat I've been discussing?
So any sun recommendation,advice, it must take into
account two things and that isthe ambient ultraviolet light
(39:48):
conditions wherever you'reliving, and two is your
ancestral origin or the amountof melanin that you have in your
skin.
So what I mean by that and thisis a concept that I've called
the skin type latitude mismatchor the skin type UV light
mismatch.
So what does this mean?
(40:09):
So the question you have to askyourself is do you live in a
similar solar environment toyour ancestors and arbitrarily,
I just said more than 20generations ago?
So the answer is if it's yes,then you are matched.
Your skin type and yourlatitude is matched.
If the answer is no, thenyou're mismatched.
(40:30):
So what does this mean?
So if you are unmatched, thenthe skin type is appropriate for
the UV conditions that you livein.
That means that God orevolution gave you the right
amount of melanin for the amountof UV light in your environment
.
That means that if you as muchas possible, reflect the
(40:54):
ancestral conditions of how yourhumans would have been exposed
to light, then you have thetoolkit to both harness and
benefit from sunlight and repairits damage appropriately.
So what about if you'remismatched?
Well, then your skin type isinappropriate for the UV
(41:19):
conditions in which you live,and I'll quickly talk about that
.
So if you are unmatched, thenyou are an Indigenous Australian
living in Australia, you're anIndigenous African in Africa,
norwegian living in Norway,peruvian living in Peru, but
maybe you might also be SouthIndian with a lot of melanin
living in Queensland, australia.
(41:40):
The point is that the amount ofmelanin in the skin is
commensurate with the UV lightenvironment.
So what if you're mismatched?
Well then your skin type isinappropriate for these UV
conditions, and this can eitherbe.
You can either have moremelanin in a lower UV
environment, so that you're, say, you're Nigerian living in the
(42:01):
United Kingdom or you're SouthIndian living in Tasmania, and
what this issue is that there isnot enough UV light in the
environment for you toessentially thrive, and that is
a bigger problem than the onethat I'm about to talk about,
because, again, you can be, nomatter what you do, during
(42:22):
winter there is zero UV light,and that's a massive problem,
because that melanin isabsorbing will absorb a whole
bunch of UV light to prevent youfrom even being able to make
vitamin D.
So that's why they need so muchmore.
The other problem that isactually relevant to us living
(42:44):
in Australia is if you have alow melanin level, ie you have
pale skin but you're living in areally high UV environment, and
that is any someone say, southAfrican, dutch or English origin
in South Africa, or Irish,english, scottish living in
Queensland, australia.
So to really understand thisand this is again we're speaking
(43:08):
to most of us who live inAustralia is that we really need
to adapt to this reality oraccept this reality that we
simply don't have the sameamount of skin protection
naturally that the Indigenouspeople of this area did, and
what we need to do, therefore,is to use shade and to avoid the
(43:31):
peak UV times.
It's honestly that simple andit doesn't mean to cover up all
the time.
It doesn't mean to do whiteface with zinc every time we go
out.
It means to make use ofclothing, make use of shade and
(43:52):
simply avoid the most peak UVtimes, but use the time on
either side of those to fulfillour light needs and get all
these health benefits that weneed.
A quick comment on the evidencebehind sun exposure and
(44:14):
essentially all-cause mortality,and this was a Swedish study
that really looked at thesunbathing habits of women and
they followed them over 25 yearsafter ascertaining their
sunbathing behaviors, and theyessentially classified the women
into three different groupsthose who sought the sun out by
sunbathing in summer or winter,going overseas to sunbathe,
(44:37):
using tanning salons, and thosewho had intermediate sun
exposure habits and those withthe lowest sun exposure habits
or those who avoided sunexposure.
And what they found was thatthose who avoided sun exposure,
they died.
They died at twice the rate asthose who had the most active
sun exposure, and that was aprofoundly surprising result for
(45:01):
the investigators.
But it was a dose effect,meaning that it's very unlikely
to this isn't a random chanceevent.
That it's very unlikely to thisisn't a random chance event.
This is simply anepidemiological reflection of
what I've just talked about on amechanistic point of view,
which is sun exposure extendslife and sun avoidance is a risk
(45:24):
factor for death.
And that was the conclusion ofthe authors, which was that the
women who avoid sun exposure areat an increased risk of
all-cause death, with a twofoldincreased mortality rate
compared to those with thehighest sun exposure.
So everything in medicine is arisk-versus-benefit equation.
Every medicine that a doctorprescribes is going to be
(45:47):
weighing up benefits versuspotential downsides, and
sunlight needs to be added tothat equation.
And although I didn't gothrough all the literature on
sunlight and its effect onmortality.
That melanoma in southern Swedencohort study is not the first
(46:07):
one.
It's subsequently been repeatedwith a recent biobank analysis
by Richard Weller and hiscolleagues.
But that have again showed thatthose who with the highest sun
exposure habits have reducedall-cause death, reduced
cardiovascular death, reducedcancer death and actually
reduced skin cancer death,meaning even those having been
(46:30):
diagnosed with skin cancer,those who have had more sun
exposure, have a betterprognosis.
And that is actually alsoreflected in the vitamin D
studies which show vitamin Ddeficiency is a risk factor for
developing melanoma, a riskfactor for severity, depth of
basal cell carcinoma.
It's actually also a riskfactor for prognosis in melanoma
(46:52):
, meaning that those patientswith metastatic melanoma, the
ones that are more vitamin Ddeficient, have the worst
prognosis and live the least.
So what are we balancing this upagain and apologies for the
typo here Is photoaging, quitepossibly, and we can mitigate
(47:15):
that, I believe, at least on amechanistic point of view.
And the mechanistic data showsthat you can minimize that with
things like red light andgetting red light, particularly
in the morning and at theafternoon after UV.
And it's also traded up againstthis likelihood or this
increase in skin cancerdiagnoses in fair-skinned
(47:37):
prototypes like the NorthernEuropeans living in Australia,
and that needs to be balancedand that needs to be something
that everyone thinks about,which is there's a trade-off.
There's always going to be atrade-off, but whether that
trade-off is worth it for you,you need to think about that
yourself.
And I'll leave you with thisthought, which is again that
(48:02):
skin in beta-endorphin.
It mediates addiction toultraviolet light, and the same
pathway that helps make you,provides your skin with melanin,
is also providing you with anopioid chemical to reward you
for being in ultraviolet light.
So that's a500-million-year-old gene called
(48:26):
pro-opioid monocortin.
So if you want to learn moreabout light and health, then my
podcast, the Regenerative HealthPodcast, has all these
interviews with world experts onthis topic and I try and
synthesize their differentperspectives, because I think
everyone has got a uniqueperspective.
(48:47):
A lot of these arehyper-focused in different ways,
but I'm trying to synthesizethings together and present that
for people to understand.
Light has this profound effect.
The evidence is just growingand growing and growing from a
scientific and medical point ofview.
I think it's time.
It's time for us both asdoctors, but it's also time for
(49:10):
patients to understand, for youall to understand that this is a
critical part of health andit's foundational to optimal
health.
If you want to learn more, thenI have a private community where
I do a weekly Q&A and answerall questions that you may have
about lightness medicine.
(49:31):
That's the link.
It's on the school platform.
I'm sure Christabel can provideit to you after this.
And we've got a growingcommunity.
We're almost at 80 now andthere's some great discussions,
there's great support.
So people of any level ofunderstanding or readiness to
(49:52):
implement all these light asmedicine, behaviors and
practices.
We're here to help you.
So if you're interested, thenjoin up.
And if you want to go into depththen I've got two courses
Circadian Res reset, which isabout practical and applied
circadian rhythms, and it's ashort couple of hours around
(50:16):
four, and solar callus.
And solar callus goes intoabout nine hours of depth of the
how and the why of deliberatesun exposure and why we actually
want to be cultivating melaninand actually tanning, which is
again the opposite of what themainstream messages have been
(50:37):
about sun exposure.
But I go into depth about theresearch that really supports
that position of tanning andoptimizing the cutaneous
generation of vitamin D andother compounds for optimal
health.
I've already talked about that.
There's some more my links onmy YouTube channel.
(51:00):
My podcast is on all thepodcasting platforms.
I have Instagram, I haveTwitter or NowX and I have a
website, although I haven't puta slide up here.
I'm running a retreat at theend of November and we've got
maybe a handful of spots left,but it's essentially four days.
(51:22):
It's a luxury retreat, fourdays, and I'll be running you
through the exact how and why ofpractically implementing
Leiter's medicine, and we'redoing this in the Byron Bay
hinterland.
We're going to have some expertchefs preparing some very, very
(51:42):
delicious local produce, andthere's a spa, there's a sauna
and we've got a very specialinternational yoga teacher to
run us through some stuff.
So that's all.
So hope you enjoyed the talkand happy to answer some
questions that you might have.
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