EP 063: Why Light Matters So Much
“Our biology–and all of the other animals and creatures on the planet, everything–is geared to the wavelengths of the sun,” says Dr. Sara Pugh, PhD, who returns to the Quantum Biology Collective podcast to discuss the vital importance of daily exposure to natural light. Dr. Sara breaks down a complicated process into a series of dynamic metaphors. The sun is like a major clock to which everything in nature is attuned, and it sends information down to the mitochondria. The eyes, the biggest clock of the body, take in the information and pass it down to a series of smaller and smaller body clocks–like Russian nesting dolls–all of which are responsible for everything from making neurotransmitters, hormones, burning energy as fat or glucose. When we don’t get the right light at the right time and our circadian rhythm is thrown off, it’s like an airport—a few missed flights throw the entire operation off. The resulting chaos is what we know as inflammation. All of our electrons are identical, Dr. Sara goes on to explain, until light hits them and imbues them with their own unique purpose. Similarly, as much as we all need the sun, the way we process the sun–or lack thereof–manifests differently for each individual. Dr. Sara and Meredith discuss similar experiences in which they both were exposed to artificial blue light into the wee hours of the morning for prolonged periods of time, and the very different illnesses that they developed as a result. There are no substitutes for natural light–which includes the light that gets through cloud cover and that is reflected by the moon. Neither supplements nor infrared lamps, the latter of which offers a very limited spectrum. Even the healthiest foods are much less effective when they are not receiving their corresponding information from the sun as taken in through the body. We are moving away from an era which focused solely on biochemistry as the root of all ills and processes into a new age of quantum biology and the effect of natural light–and lack thereof—on all of our systems. Sara describes how the learning curve affects research funding and the memorable mistake she made when following what was then the most up-to-date advice on light therapy. Join Dr. Sara Pugh and Meredith as they discuss the small steps we can take, even when indoors to get more natural light. They also talk about the effect of proper light exposure on preventing illnesses including obesity, cancer and depression. Quotes: “The biochemistry that goes on inside us is so dependent on the light we get from the outside. So whether it's in our eyes, on our skin, because we need to get the light information to the mitochondria and to other parts of the brain or the body, so that all of the clocks in the body and the organs and everything know exactly what time they should be performing their processes.” (6:06 | Dr. Sara Pugh) “The more in sync and more in time the clocks are, the better your life span, and the better your health span, and it limits so many possible conditions that are related to bad timing in cells. You could basically pin pretty much every disease or condition—cancer is a really good example of bad timing in cells, but so is obesity.” (15:25 | Dr. Sara Pugh) “Everything in the body, in some way, is part of this light orchestra and we’re only starting to understand it now.” (27:46 | Dr. Sara Pugh) “That’s the whole problem with life. We can have all these lenses to look through things, and the lens is nearly right but not quite. So, we create dogmas and the biochemistry dogma because we’re only looking at it through a biochemistry lens. It’s no one’s fault.” (29:23 | Dr. Sara Pugh) “With light, it’s lots and lots of little packets, like trillions of bullets coming even though it looks like a big–whoosh! Light has wave and particle dualities, so it can get through even a really small crack and obviously it can reflect around wherever it’s ended up, it bounces off things.