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Why the Sun Is the Best Form of Medicine on the Planet- Part 3

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Welcome to Part 3 on sunlight!  Today we’re going to talk about the mitochondria and light.  Now if you remember…

We know that sunlight has two primary functions that play roles in two major body systems

  1. The Circadian Rhythm
  2. Mitochondrial Activity & Antioxidant Potential

Part 2 was more about the circadian rhythm.  Now we’re moving on to mitochondria, energy in light.  So here we go!

When I was sketching this series out, I wasn’t sure if I should write this part first or last.  Because here’s the truth: what you are about to learn in this newsletter is actually brand new!  (And by brand new all the research here has been updated in the last 5 years or so). 

This is actually cutting-edge research yet again reaffirming what ancients have known for millennia.  

Because of this, you must be ready to have your existing beliefs and thoughts about melatonin shattered.  Mine sure were when I learned this information!

I know this writing thing is fairly new and I’m not a betting man, but I will say that I believe what is written here will be one of the 5-10 most important posts that I will write.  I mean that.

So get ready.

Is Vitamin D Supplementation Enough?

I touched on this in Part 2, but I need to repeat it again here because this lays the groundwork for the following:

Vitamin D is kind of a surrogate marker for sun exposure.  It cannot replace a sunlight deficiency.

Many doctors still test the inactive form of vitamin D (25OH-D), but not the active one (1,25OH-D).

It’s also worth noting that there are literally dozens of vitamin-D metabolites that are never tested for.  So from a testing standpoint, many either

  1. Test for the inactive form OR
  2. Test for the active form, but don’t take the full picture into account (partially because we don’t know the whole picture)

For example, UVB light exposure also initiates the creation of lumisterol and tachysterol.  Lumisterol works with the liver to produce bile acids, while tachysterol helps prevent vitamin D toxicity.

We know that low vitamin D levels are associated with virtually all inflammatory diseases.  However, is it really vitamin D?  Or is it a sunlight deficiency?

Vitamin D is a hormone (NOT a vitamin if you look at the definition) that is best created when UV light from the sun hits your skin.  

It is produced within the body when UV rays from sunlight strike the skin.  This UV light exposure triggers the synthesis of vitamin D.

Clothing and sunscreen will inhibit the body’s ability to create vitamin D because they block the penetration of UV light.    

Vitamin D has many functions in the body, including:

Vitamin D also plays a key role in preventing autoimmune body responses, hair loss, and muscle wasting.

Here’s another important part: taking isolated vitamin D without other biological cofactors can cause problems without understanding the full picture.  It’s why it can help for a time, but can sometimes cause problems later in some people.

The Sun is the Missing Link

If you comb through the medical literature on vitamin D, you will quickly notice that most of the research is done on vitamin D supplements specifically- NOT sunlight.

If you were to do these same studies and swap vitamin D for actual sunlight exposure, I believe you would get MUCH BETTER results.

In order to understand this, we need to start by understanding why people die.

Barring things like injuries and accidents, most people today die from either heart disease, cancer, or some form of poor metabolic function.  This poor metabolic function has many names like:

Depending on where you live in the world and your lifestyle, these will affect different areas of the body.  However, fundamentally they have the same root causes: inflammation (acidosis) and toxic overload.  

So how do we fix this?

The obvious answer here is to limit our exposure to toxins and excess acids by altering what we eat, drink, breathe, think, and put on our skin.

What is less obvious, however, is that the body actually needs the raw materials to dispose of the wastes efficiently.  Most people are so focused on the former, they forget or don’t give enough attention to the latter.

One of the necessary nutrients for healing is sunlight, and most Modern Humans are deficient. 

Melatonin in Mitochondria?

ALL of these dis-eases mentioned above have a link to the mitochondria in some way.  In other words, this toxic/acidic overload forces the body to wall off certain damaged tissues, in the case of cancer, for example.  The body is intelligent, trying to mitigate further damage in this scenario.

Another commonality is overload of free radicals, which can cause damage when there aren’t enough antioxidants available.

In either case, this leads to inflammation.  It is an excess of free radical stress.

Melatonin to the Rescue

A healthy human body has many different antioxidant networks that serve to “cool down” the oxidative overload.  

The most popular of all the antioxidants is glutathione, commonly called the “master antioxidant.”

What scientists are beginning to discover is that melatonin is even more powerful (and important) than glutathione.

Not only is melatonin itself an antioxidant, it actually triggers other antioxidant networks in the body, including glutathione.

Now, as we covered in Part 2,  melatonin is important for sleep and optimizing circadian rhythms.  You may have even heard that melatonin is an immune modulator and anti-cancer compound.

Different Types of Melatonin?

And this is where my mind was blown.  I used to think that there was one form of melatonin.  That’s the one we talk about in the pineal gland, and is associated with sleep, circadian rhythm, etc. (Part 2).  This type of melatonin is made in the absence of light.  You may even call it the “hormone of darkness.”

Turns out that there’s a second type of melatonin that is called “subcellular” or “intracellular” melatonin.  It is created within the mitochondria of each cell and never enters the bloodstream!

This intra cellular melatonin is actually what staves off the free radical oxidation that occurs when creating energy!

A better way to describe the two types of melatonin mentioned at the top would be:

  1. Pineal (circulatory) Melatonin- The Circadian Rhythm Optimizer
  2. Subcellular Melatonin: Mitochondrial repair, recovery, cleans up free radical damage, enhances ATP production

And if that’s not enough, the melatonin in the pineal gland is only a fraction of the body’s melatonin!  Most of the melatonin in your body is actually subcellular melatonin!

Yeah.  Crazy!  Let’s get into the details below.

Light Creates Energy

I really don’t like using cliches, but this journey starts down “at the cellular level.”  (We really need a new term for this).

I think everyone has heard at one point or another that mitochondria are the powerhouse of your cells.  Believe it or not, light plays a crucial role in the mitochondria.

Mitochondria are organelles inside all cells in the body, except for red blood cells.  They have two membranes, an inner membrane and an outer membrane.  The center of the mitochondria is called the matrix.

ATP production occurs on the surface of the inner membrane.  Mitochondria create energy in a similar way a car creates locomotion.  

Mitochondria are primarily responsible for producing ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, the body’s energy currency.  The Kreb’s cycle takes place within the matrix of each mitochondrion.  Here, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are metabolized.  They enter Krebs cycle through a variety of pathways.

The primary end product of the Krebs cycle is called NADH (with a small amount of ATP and GTP).  NADH is a way to package very powerfully reduced electrons.  

During this process the body does generate oxidative stress in the form of reactive oxygen species.

 Creating energy generates heat.  If a car “runs hot” that can lead to engine issues over time.  

When you’re “running hot” and there is excess oxidative stress, you’re making yourself more vulnerable to all the major killers that are so common today:

You name it.  If your body is hot and acidic, you’re leaving yourself open for sickness.  This is a terrain issue!!!

The body has protective systems in place to safeguard the mitochondria, and this comes primarily in the form of melatonin.  Melatonin is a MAJOR antioxidant in the body.  Melatonin actually controls glutathione within the cell.  It is twice as potent an antioxidant as vitamin E.

We already know that melatonin is needed at night because it is made in the pineal gland and circulates in the body.  

However, the body actually produces melatonin WITHIN the mitochondria during the day.  In fact, this is where most of the body’s melatonin is made!  

Mitochondria initiate melatonin production inside the mitochondria from infrared radiation from the sun.

You read that correctly: sunlight stimulates melatonin production within the cell!  Near infrared (NIR) energy can reach cells inside the body because it has a longer wavelength, it is able to penetrate deeper into tissues and act as a signal!

Now, it’s important to remember that oxidative stress can have both positive and negative effects, depending on its location and amount.  The main problem with modern human beings is that there is too much “heat” without enough “coolant” – in the form of antioxidants and electrons.  

Subcellular melatonin also plays an important role in autophagy and apoptosis.  Autophagy is your body’s recycling system.  This allows cells to disassemble its junk parts and repurpose the salvageable bits and pieces into new, usable cell parts.

Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death, which allows the body to get rid of old cells that need to be replaced with healthy new ones.  It is the cycle of life.

If either apoptosis or autophagy are not functioning properly, it can lead to inflammation and all the downstream effects that come along with it.  

The Electron Transport Chain

In order to delve deeper into this, we must revisit the electron transport chain (ETC) and how it works.

The electron transport chain is a part of the aerobic respiration process.  Aerobic means it requires free oxygen to function.  This differs from anaerobic respiration, in which no oxygen is used to create energy.  

The biggest practical difference: anaerobic is short-lived but immediate energy (think sprinting or high-effort, shorter-time frame actions), while aerobic energy is longer-term energy (running, biking, sports etc.).

The ETC takes the reduced electrons and eventually converts them into usable energy.

The chain itself is composed of four large, multi-protein complexes embedded in the inner mitochondrial membrane and two small diffusible electron carriers shuttling electrons between them. 

The electrons are passed through a series of redox reactions, with a small amount of free energy used at three points to transport hydrogen ions across a membrane.

As you can see, this works like a series of “drops,” very similar to a dam.  The energy from those reduced electrons from the NADH is coupled with a pump that pumps protons into the intermembrane space.   

This process contributes to the gradient used in chemiosmosis (the process of moving ions [like protons] to the other side of a biological membrane).

Eventually, all of the energy is used up from these electrons, and the final electron acceptor- which is oxygen.  This is why we need oxygen when we breathe. 

Finally, at the very end of the ETC, there is an enzyme known as cytochrome C oxidase (CCO- Step 4).  CCO takes the oxygen molecule and actually makes water out of it. 

When mitochondria are stressed, it impairs electron and hydrogen flow through Step 4, meaning they cannot create water efficiently.  When this is inefficient, you can create reactive oxygen species ROS, or free radicals. These include superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl radicals.

When too much of any of these are present, they can be dangerous substrates.  They interact with the proteins around them and cause severe damage.  The more damage there is, the more likely it is the more ROS are made.  So you can see how this is a vicious cycle.

It is important to also note that there will always be some ROS made through this cycle.  You can’t decrease ROS production to 0%.  I’d argue you don’t even want that because ROS actually do serve purposes for healthy cell signaling- when present in the correct amounts.  Life is about balance.

The water made by the mitochondria is our main source of intracellular hydration and this water develops special properties when it comes into contact with biological surfaces.

When electrons are shuttled through the ETC, there is energy given off along the way.

Once the electrons create this proton gradient, those protons are then used to create ATP through a protein called ATP synthase.  

These protons go back into the mitochondrial matrix, and ADP turns into ATP.  This is how carbohydrates, fats, and (in emergency situations) proteins for energy.

During this process, you need oxygen.  During this process, using oxygen, some ROS species are made.

Put simply:

More electrons→ Stronger net negative charge →Stronger/Bigger battery →Higher capacity for energy production →Healthier cells 

The two organs with the greatest mitochondrial capacity & the greatest need for strong & optimal redox potential are the heart & brain.

Where is Most of Your Melatonin Made?

Like I mentioned earlier, we can’t just have a buildup of ROS and have no way to handle them.  Melatonin is the body’s chief answer to this.

But it is not going to be the melatonin you produce at night, in the absence of light via the pineal gland.  

When the CCO (Step 4) enzyme is excited by light, it increases melatonin producing WITHIN the individual cells!

Melatonin answers the call here because they can neutralize free radicals on site, within the cell.

This is no small amount of melatonin, either.   There are some studies that now show that 95% of ALL melatonin production is within cellular mitochondria, and only about 5% is manufactured in the pineal gland:

It has now been shown that the mitochondria produce melatonin in many cells in quantities which are  orders of magnitude higher than that produced in the pineal gland.  This subcellular melatonin does  not necessarily fluctuate with our circadian clock or release into the circulation system, but instead has been proposed to be consumed locally in response to the free radical density within each cell, in  particular in response to Near Infrared (NIR) exposure.

Based on an optical and biological review of the literature… It is proposed that the NIR portion of natural  sunlight stimulates an excess of antioxidants  in each of our healthy cells and that the cumulative effect of this antioxidant reservoir is to enhance the body’s ability to rapidly and  locally  deal  with  changing  conditions  throughout  the  day.  In  this  approach  the  role  of circulatory melatonin produced by the pineal gland is to provide an efficient method of delivering supplemental melatonin during periods of low cellular activity and solar stimulus to damaged or aging  cells  in  both  diurnal  and  nocturnal  animals.  While circulatory melatonin may be the “Hormone of Darkness”, subcellular melatonin may be the “Hormone of Daylight”.

That’s right- melatonin is indeed the “Hormone of Darkness” AND the “Hormone of Daylight.”  What changes is where it’s made.  

This melatonin made inside the cells occurs in amounts “orders of magnitude” greater than what is made in the pineal gland.  This is HUGE!  

You may be wondering- “If that’s true, why don’t I feel sleepy during the day.”  You wouldn’t.  Daylight melatonin is made within the cell and never actually enters the bloodstream.   Measuring blood melatonin levels would not pick up on this. 

Circulation of melatonin at night via the pineal gland is only supplemental to the melatonin that is produced during the day. 

This is also why supplementing with melatonin (which I almost never recommend anyway) would NOT help, because supplemental melatonin only enters the bloodstream.  The melatonin circulating via the pineal gland (or supplementation) signals cells to “go to sleep,” but the melatonin made within cells has no effect on sleep at all.

This may be shocking news to you.  It was to me.  And what’s amazing is that this is all triggered by sunlight- infrared light waves specifically.

Red Right Hand

At this point you might be as confused as I was when I first learned about this.  I, like most other people, simply just associated melatonin with darkness alone.

However, the greatest stimulus for subcellular melatonin (which accounts 95+% of all melatonin in the body) is near infrared (NIR) light.  In other words, it is the sun!

You may recall from Part 2, infrared light makes up 54% of the sun’s energy.  Infrared light can penetrate deep into the body.

At sunrise, red light intensifies, giving many of the same benefits as infrared but also kicks nitric oxide off step 4 (CCO) of the mitochondria electron transport chain to make more water/ATP as we start our day.

This is partially why modern lighting negatively impacts most Modern Humans.

Consider that before the late 1800s, the only sources of light were the sun, moon, and fire.

Even early light bulbs were incandescent, which give off more infrared radiation than the modern lights you see today.

The light generated from a heated filament (campfires and incandescent bulbs) is completely different from the light produced by modern LEDs and fluorescent bulbs.

As you can see above, incandescent bulbs give off infrared light, which many modern lights do not.  Unfortunately, these lights are being systematically taken off the market here in America as I’m writing this.  

We have now entered a time where LEDs, fluorescents, blue lights, and artificial lights from computers, cell phones, TVs, and other devices dominate the modern home. 

This is a real problem, to the point where it’s seriously affecting all Modern Humans, especially kids.  There is now evidence that children who spend most of their time under artificial lighting actually have smaller amounts of gray matter in the brain affecting their ability to learn.   

This is largely due to the UV and blue spectrum light that comes through the eyes in amounts that don’t occur naturally or occur at the wrong times of the day.  

This NIR-UV imbalance is at the crux of many modern health issues we see today.

Is Red Light Therapy the Answer?

Near infrared radiation is perceived as warmth and can penetrate through clothes.  In fact, infrared waves can penetrate into the epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissue, depending on the wavelength.  The warming sensation you feel when wearing a shirt is due to infrared radiation.

So why infrared and not other wavelengths?  Imagine you are driving your car, and you’re stopped at a red light.  All of a sudden, some teenagers pull up to you and start playing music.  You hear the deep booming of the base.  

You don’t hear the entire song, just those rhythmic thuds.  Those soundwaves have a much lower frequency (longer wavelength) than others.  The reason you only hear these is because they are able to penetrate surfaces, like windows, more effectively than shorter wavelengths.  

Light frequencies behave the same way!  The longer the wavelength (lower frequency), the more likely it is that they can penetrate surfaces, like the skin.   You can see that below:

Longer wavelengths, like NIR, have a much easier time getting deeper into the tissues.  NIR can penetrate tissues as deep as 1-8 centimeters.  Remember 1cm=10mm (which is relevant because the image above only goes as deep as 5mm).

Remember, 99.8% of the sun’s radiant energy is emitted in a very narrow bandwidth from 20 to 2500nm.

Perhaps a good rule of thumb: if you can feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, you are probably receiving NIR energy- even through clothing.  Of course, how much you receive through clothing is going to depend on the number of layers you are wearing and how thin the clothing is.

Get it Through Your Thick Skull!

If that wasn’t enough, NIR wavelengths (and therefore sunlight) can even penetrate bone- even the skull!  This is mind-blowing.  This means that these infrared waves can penetrate into the cerebrospinal fluid, which bathes the entire brain and can spread through the spinal cord.  

Yes- sunlight penetrates through the skull and it is diffused through the nervous system through cerebrospinal fluid.  

This is yet another reason why those who have symptoms of neurological degeneration (Alzheimer’s dementia, etc.) should be getting out in the sun daily.

Interestingly enough, NIR wavelengths actually protect the body and provide balance to excess UV light exposure.  Why?  NIR stimulates the production of antioxidants in the form of melatonin!

Nature-Made Red Light Therapy

Here’s another cool thing about infrared light: it actually reflects off of many surfaces like grass, dirt, leaves etc.  This is important because even if you wear a hat (not sunglasses), you can receive the benefits of NIR light!  This is yet another reason to spend time in green spaces: being in green spaces exposes you to near infrared wavelengths.

In fact, surfaces that are blue, green, or red all have very high NIR reflectance, meaning that you don’t even need to be in direct sunlight to receive the benefits of NIR wavelengths!

This can at least partially explain why living in Nature– especially, lush green areas are associated with better health:

“Greenspace exposure is associated with wide ranging health benefits, with meta-analyses results showing statistically significant associations with reduced diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, salivary cortisol, incidence of type II diabetes and stroke, all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, as well as health-denoting associations with pregnancy outcomes, HRV, and HDL cholesterol, and self-reported health.”

So what do cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar, cortisol, and HRV have in common?  They are all markers of inflammation in the body!  Getting NIR exposure helps put out the fires of inflammation.

There are also studies that show that NIR light alone can dilate blood vessels in those who have been diagnosed with diabetes.  They found that…

  1. Near infrared light increases nitric oxide and melatonin production.
  2. Near infrared light stimulates release of a vasodilator.
  3. Near infrared light increases cytochrome C oxidase (CCO) levels.
  4. More sun exposure has been associated with reduced risk of diabetes.
  5. Less sunlight exposure is associated with poorer glucose and lipid metabolism (insulin resistance).

And people are still out here blaming fruit…  

The healing power of the full spectrum of sunlight is truly remarkable. By simply living closer to Nature and getting sunlight, you reduce the risk of virtually all modern-day killers and improve sleep and duration.

Artificial blue light impairs Step 4 while natural sunlight, with its balanced blend of frequencies especially red and infrared, promotes both water production at Step 4 and also ATP production, both of which are essential for cellular health.

Are You Infrared Light Deficient?

As you might imagine, most Modern Humans have a MAJOR imbalance with NIR-UV exposures.  Sunlight is, of course, the solution because you get the correct wavelengths of light, in the correct amounts, at the correct time of day.  Every single unadulterated plant and wild animal knows this instinctively and benefits.

Unfortunately, Modern Humans and domesticated animals are the ones who are sickest because we strayed away from Nature.

It’s pretty easy to figure out if there is a UV-NIR imbalance.  If you are…

Then these are all obvious signs your vessel must readapt to Nature.  

We need to ditch this notion that sunlight = vitamin D and that’s it.  This is a fraction of the story.

Consider the graph below.

This graph illustrates the number of free radicals generated in the body from certain wavelengths of light.  Recall that UV light and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are actually necessary in the correct amounts for optimal function.  UVA light specifically seems to generate the most ROS.

This becomes a problem when you’re exposing yourself to artificial lights because you’re getting the UV exposure WITHOUT the NIR wavelengths to balance it out.

You see this over and over again with cases of melanoma and other forms of skin cancer: the LESS sun exposure you have, the more likely you are to end up with skin cancer.  The reason why sunlight is irreplaceable is because it is the only source of full spectrum solar energy, including UV and NIR.

The Modern Lighting Conundrum, Part 2

The Modern Human’s light environment is completely different today from 150 years ago.  We are just simply not getting the NIR exposure we used to due to modern technologies and lifestyles:

In the graph, the blue bar represents the amount of visible light human beings were getting.  The red bar represents the amount of NIR energy humans were exposed to.

Back in the 1800s, 50% of time was spent outdoors.  People used campfires for warmth and lighting at night, which give off NIR wavelengths.  

Moving on to the 1950s, you see a decline in NIR exposure by about 50%.  This is due to the fact that people were spending less time outdoors (about 25% of the time).  It’s also important to note that plain glass windows and incandescent lighting were still the norm at this time.  Still, most were getting more NIR light than visible light.

By the 1990s roughly half of the lighting was swapped from incandescent to fluorescent, and only 15% of time was being spent outside.  You can see here another 50% decrease in NIR energy exposure, but it was still more than visible light.

This flips during the present day.  Now, most lights (CFL, OLED, LED) are used.  These are made using energy found only in the visible spectrum.  Most modern windows are made of “Low-E” glass, which are created specifically to block NIR energy.  This is done in an effort to conserve energy (at least we are told).  We are also spending 93% of our time inside.  

As you can see, this lack of NIR exposure in combination with the modern measures is creating an environment for sick humans. We must ask ourselves: are these technologies really worth it if people are sicker than ever?

(As a note, the statistics above only represent more developed countries, which incidentally tend to have the worst health outcomes).

And just as a refresher, you can see that these modern lights give off virtually no infrared energy, further causing this NIR-UV imbalance.

So what do the sun, moon, and fire all have in common?  They all contain fuller spectrums of solar energy. Your modern light bulbs simply do not do this.  Many simply do not account for the 60% of light energy that is invisible to human beings.

Through the Looking Glass

This problem is further compounded by modern glass. Recall the NIR light (IRA) wavelengths are between the frequencies of 780 nm – 1,400 nm.

As you can see, regular glass would actually allow most of the NIR to pass through it.

Modern glass used today (called Low-E glass) will not allow infrared light to pass through efficiently.  This is going to depend on solar gain.  The lower the solar gain, the less NIR light will pass through the glass.

Modern Humans are told this glass is designed to block infrared specifically in an effort to be more energy-efficient as a society.  We have to ask the question, “At what cost?”

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You can do an at-home experiment to see if the glass in your home is low-E or not.  Simply stand in front of the glass when the sun is coming through.  If you can feel quite a bit of warmth, it might be regular glass.  On the other hand, if you do not feel much warmth coming through the glass, chances are it is low-E.

If you’re looking for other ways to up your NIR exposure, you can try a therapeutic NIR light at least 20 minutes per night.  You can try to switch out the lights in your home from LED/fluorescents to incandescent bulbs, although that may be hard to do depending on where you live.  Perhaps try more candles, or use the fireplace.  Try lights that are lower to the ground and dimmer at night.  Of course, get out in the sun during the day.  All of these options are valid.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Natural forms of light and incandescent bulbs are going to be your best sources of NIR energy.  This is primarily why getting up with or before the sun breaks the horizon is so beneficial.  

Early in the morning, the dominant light frequency is infrared.  Infrared wavelengths are incredibly soothing and anti-inflammatory.

But sunlight does what NIR lights can’t do, and that’s give you the full spectrum of healing power.  This includes UVA energy.  

Remember, morning UVA light onto skin:

Put simply, when you get UVA light into your eyes (don’t stare directly at the sun, simply skygaze with naked eyes to the brightest part of the sky), major changes take place. 

Molecules in your eyes capture photons of UVA light and transform:

Some suggestions:

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Morning light is special. Prioritize it.

You Are a Battery Charged by Light

So hopefully, to this point, I have done a decent job explaining that sunlight exposure is important.  Yes, we touched on mitochondrial health, but now we need to learn a little bit more about the water inside of us.

It might surprise you to know that in the grand scheme of things, we actually know very little about water.  This is despite the fact that we are 70% water by volume and 99% water if you were to count the individual molecules inside of us.

If you go back to chemistry class, you will remember that there are three main phases of water: solid, liquid, and gas.  This is accepted by most of the mainstream.

However, there are many scientists before who did research a bit deeper, and found some incredible information.  Two important names are Gilbert Ling and Gerald Pollack (who wrote the Fourth Phase of Water).

Pollack and his lab have done remarkable water research, uncovering many secrets around water properties and cells, building on Ling’s previous work.

He discovered a fourth phase that is different from liquid, solid or gas.  It is dubbed the “exclusion zone” or “EZ” water.  It is also called structured water.

This type of water can be found in many different organs and tissues throughout the body.  This includes the extracellular matrix (mostly lymphatic fluid), cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and more!

What is the Fourth Phase of Water? with Dr Gerald Pollack

It is considered a liquid crystal because the atoms are arranged in a very ordered and structured way, similar to what you would see with a crystal lattice.  However, the atoms can still move around (more like a liquid/gel hybrid).

EZ water is quantum in nature, meaning it has an ability to store and transmit energy (like sunlight).  Structured water also plays a major role in cell signaling and many biological functions. 

EZ water is actually written as H302, not the typical H2O because of its structure.   It is created when water molecules interact with light (in the UV, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths) separating two “zones” of water.   This creates a gel-like texture, similar to the inside of an aloe vera plant. This structure is an essential component of our health.

Similar to ice, water molecules join together in hexagonally structured single layer sheets. Unlike ice, however, the sheets are flexible and move independently.  They are not “glued together” by protons.

It is a network lattice of hexagonal-shaped oxygen and hydrogen atoms.  This orientation creates a negatively-charged zone, allowing it to exclude toxins, solutes, and other substances, hence the name.  In a way, this is a thin layer that actually protects vessels from damage.  It also is denser and has a greater viscosity, which may contribute to its unique properties.

As the hexagonal layers grow, protons are ejected into the nearby “bulk” water.  This creates an electrical potential (voltage) between the structured water and the bulk water surrounding it. 

Put another way, structured (EZ) water stores energy, much like a battery.  Because charges are separated (see the picture below), you can actually set up electrodes in water that includes an exclusion zone, and it will act as a battery when exposed to light!  How cool is that?!

Because of its properties, exclusion zone water interacts much differently than the typical bulk water.  Its liquid crystal nature is very ordered, while maintaining the fluidity of water.  This crystal lattice structure allows the body to interact with many different types of energy, including electromagnetic fields, sound, light (biophotons), heat, and pressure.

Sunrise is a way to charge our mitochondrial batteries.  NIR frequencies enhance mitochondrial function, build EZ water, and are anti-inflammatory in nature.

When you combine the benefits of NIR with the UV and blue light available in the morning, you trigger key hormone pathways via the hypothalamus and set circadian rhythm.

EZ Water Influencing Health

This structure and function provide many explanations for everyday functions the body performs.  For example, EZ water seems to help improve hydration and the transportation of nutrients and wastes from within cells.  It also seems plausible that, given its ability to separate charges, EZ water exhibits antioxidant potential.  

This is important for neutralizing positively-charged free radicals, which can cause damage in the body when left unchecked.

Because exclusion zones help prevent the buildup of toxins and wastes in the body, which may explain why staying hydrated (having an adequate number of alkaline electrolytes) helps keep lymphatic wastes flowing out of the body.  Illness or dis-ease tends to occur in an acidic (more positively-charged) state.  This may help create that balance.

Therefore, a chronically dehydrated (fewer electrolytes) or acidic body reduces cellular communication and decreases the function of connective tissue. 

Mitochondria and EZ

The water made by the mitochondria is our main source of intracellular hydration and this water develops special properties when it comes into contact with the biological surface.

H3O2 is a negatively-charged molecule.  Whenever it forms, a line of H+ or positively-charged atoms forms immediately adjacent to it.

This “negative-next-to-positive” arrangement acts like a battery, meaning that the water inside of us is actually a source of energy for the body.

So what causes mitochondria to produce less water?

  1. Lack of sunlight (plus overexposure to artificial blue light).
  2. Artificial blue light impairs Step 4 (CCO) while natural sunlight, with its balanced blend of frequencies especially red and infrared, promotes both water production at Step 4 and also ATP production, both of which are essential for cellular health.

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What Are the Best Ways to Get EZ Water into the Body?

You may have already guessed that Nature provides the answer.  

The first answer, of course, is sunlight.   Water in the body moves with exposure to sunlight and to grounding.  As always, we are at our best when we are connected to Nature.

However, you can also directly consume H3O2 in the form of spring water or eating fresh fruits and vegetables.  These plants have already done the hard work for you.  They have taken light energy and converted it into living fruits and vegetables.  Sunlight literally transformed into food.

This is yet another reason why they are referred to as “living” foods.

A New Approach to the Sun and Food: Biophotons

There is no life without light.   Even average humans won’t argue these, but clearly have an internal incoherence that they haven’t resolved.

Human beings are frozen, liquid-crystal light beings powered by sunlight specifically.   

What we are learning (and what the ancients already knew) is that we can absorb light energy two ways:

  1. The skin (directly from the sun)
  2. The food we eat (indirectly from the sun)

Dr. Fritz Albert Popp, one of the leaders in biophoton research once stated:

“We are still on the threshold of fully understanding the complex relationship between light and life, but we can now say emphatically, that the function of our entire metabolism is dependent on light.”

So in my first newsletter, I mentioned how modern nutrition science spends WAY TOO MUCH time and money focusing on what we call macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.  

This ignores other qualities of foods like:

In addition to these chemical components, biophotons should be added to this list.  

What Are Photons?

In order to understand biophotons, we need to take a slight detour into quantum physics, so hold on!  I’ll try to make this as smooth as possible.

Put simply, when a molecule or atom changes its quantum state, a photon is released.  A quantum state is any possible state in which a quantum mechanical system can be.   It may be described by a state vector (charge, spin), a wavefunction, or a complete set of quantum numbers for a specific system

But what is a photon?

A photon is, in a sense, pure light energy.  It has no mass, but carries momentum.  A photon moves at the speed of light.  It acts like a particle AND a wave.  Photons have no electrical charge, and its energy is directly proportional to its wavelength.

It is important to note here that photons carry specific amounts of electromagnetic energy.  When the waves reach the electric charge surrounding a molecule, a vibratory transfer of energy occurs.  If there is a resonant match, the energy rises and can potentially cause a change in shape, or an electron getting bumped up to a higher energy orbit.  When the electron moves back down into its shell, it releases a photon as energy.

Chemically photons can trigger the chemical reactions we typically associate with cell communication in biology if the frequencies resonate.  Only certain frequencies can react with certain molecules!

What Are Biophotons?

Humans are, in fact, liquid crystal electrical-light beings first and foremost.

Because we are light beings, it is important to remember that every living organism emits biophotons, or low-level luminescence.  This is defined as light with a wavelength between 200 and 800 nanometers.  By definition, biophotons are “ultraweak” electromagnetic waves, simply meaning they cannot be seen by the naked eye.  

This is a bit of a misnomer, considering what we call visible light accounts for less than 1% (actually about 0.0035% to be more accurate) of the entire electromagnetic spectrum as we know it.

Biophotons are light particles generated within the body.  They radiate constantly from the body’s surface. Interestingly enough, these spontaneous emissions are thought to be associated with generation of free radicals due to energy metabolic processes.

According to Dr. Popp and Dr. Niggli, biophotons contain important information which can impact vital bodily processes.  Biophotons have the ability to provide order and regulation which have the ability to raise your vibration AND well-being.

Sun energy stored in plants finds its way into our cells via primarily raw fruits and vegetables.  These light particles are called ‘biophotons’, which are the smallest physical units of light.

What we know about biophotons so far is that they have physiological importance in cell-to-cell communication and repair mechanisms.  It is thought that light energy may be DNA during photosynthesis and is transmitted continuously by the cell.

In other words, these little light packages play a role in telling the body which cells become red blood cells, skin cells, liver cells, etc.  How cool is that?!

What we do know is that the greater biophoton emissions in any food, the greater the ability to transfer those nutrients from the sun to the consumer (in this case humans).  In other words, the higher the biophotonic energy of the food, the more nutritious the food, and the more light energy you consume, literally.

When we consume foods in their raw, unprocessed states, the greater the chances that the stored sunlight finds its way into the body.  The more sunlight that is stored in the foods we consume, the more vital and vibrantly healthy we become. 

It should not surprise you that the foods richest in biophotons are raw fruits and vegetables. 

In fact, if you were to rank the best sources for biophotons, it would look something like this (from greatest to least):

We cannot escape the fact that sunlight is an essential part of health.  I believe that light is THE essential element that all life originates from and is energized by.  Avoiding this will certainly lead to poor health outcomes!!

Measuring the Life-Force of Food

In the 1930s and ’40s, Frenchman Andre Simoneton (an electromagnetism expert), experimented with measuring the electromagnetic waves of food.  He determined that for a human being to maintain optimal health, one must maintain a vibration of 6,500 angstroms. 

He created five categories of food and concluded that food measuring between 6,500-10,000 angstroms (which included raw, fresh, and ripe fruit as well as fresh-squeezed juice), contained the highest vibration.

Other top vibrational foods include raw vegetables, nuts, seeds.

According to Christopher Bird in his book “The Secret Life of Plants”, at approximately 4500 to 5200 angstroms, you are more susceptible to cancer or other seriously degenerative issues.

The fresher and less processed that your food is the better it is for you and the better your body feels. It’s been drilled into our heads over the last few years and yet for convenience many Modern Humans still hit the processed food aisles.

The key is: maximize energy and life force of what you consume.

Other Benefits of Raw Foods

An often-overlooked aspect of raw foods are the naturally occurring enzymes.  Enzymes are proteins that help you break down your food chemically.

Most enzymes are destroyed during the cooking process, usually between 105 and 118 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the enzyme and source you’re referencing.  Obviously, when you cook food, it is at much higher temperatures than that.

In the body, enzymes use a “lock-and-key” mechanism.  If the shape of the “keyhole” doesn’t fit or changes, then certain “keys” don’t work.  Cooking actually changes the structure of the “locks,” rendering these enzymes useless once heated.

This can be part of the reason that cooked foods have a lower amount of biophotons compared to raw versions of the same food.  It can also partially explain an association between more cooked foods and chronic diseases.

For example, overconsumption of cooked foods can put a major strain on the pancreas, which is the primary digestive enzyme factory in the body.  If you are degrading the naturally occurring enzymes in foods via cooking, the means the pancreas actually has to work harder to make up for that lost enzyme count.  

Sunlight is a biological nutrient.  The energy, or life force, is stored in living food, what we call structured water.  This makes fruit not only the highest vibrational food, it also makes them the best source of structured water! 

To get the greatest amount of biophotons from your food, you need to prioritize fresh, raw fruits and vegetables.

The more that I continue to learn about the nature of human beings and our role in Nature, the more I am becoming convinced that we need more raw, unprocessed foods.  Organic ripe fruits and vegetables freshly picked ideally from your own organic garden or farmers market are best.

It all sounds complicated, but it’s really simple: eat foods in their natural, unaltered state to help clean the body, improve digestion, decrease inflammation, lose weight, and rid your body of unwanted dis-ease.

Remember, humans are the only species that cooks their own food.  It is *theorized* that cooking food helped us develop larger brains.  But that’s all it is: a theory. 

 It is yet another example of humans somehow being an exemption to Nature’s Laws.  Think twice if that’s the case.  Think three times if mainstream science supports it.

Astaxanthin – A Functional Medicine Secret

If you’re looking for one of functional medicine’s greatest tools to show that the terrain is important when it comes to skin health, then look no further than astaxanthin.

Astaxanthin is a type of carotenoid, which is a natural pigment found in a variety of foods. In particular, this beneficial pigment lends its vibrant red-orange color to foods like krill, algae, salmon and lobster. 

There is research that astaxanthin is one of the most powerful antioxidants in nature. In fact, its ability to fight free radicals has been shown to be much higher than vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene.

Remember, the sun does not cause a sunburn, rather it is the human’s inability to adapt to it.  I would start taking it for 3-4 weeks prior to getting out in the sun.  Generally, 4mg/day can work for “sunscreen” effects, but I’d prefer to just eat a variety of fruits and veggies.  

Wrapping This All Up

There’s been a lot we’ve covered in the past three weeks, and I found one study that puts a bow on a lot of this.

A 2014 study on ‘daylighting’ students found a vast array of benefits, many of which we’ve covered.  Sunlight affects literally every cell in the body in a multitude of ways.

This includes, mood, your health, your sleep, and your ability to function at your best.

This is all from getting kids out in the sun.  You can also take these benefits on students and easily achieve them as adults.

Everything we have covered in this series is merely scratching the surface.  

The benefits of sunlight exposure include (but are not limited to):

Avoiding the sun literally makes you more susceptible to death from ALL causes.  I cannot put it plainer than this graph.

You can use the full spectrum of light to heal.  It’s free, and it’s literally right outside your door every day.

If you want to use infrared to support the water in your body, consider at least 3 of these practices daily:

Just as you try to pay attention to the nutrition you get in your body with food, we must put a similar energy into our nutrition with light.  

You Are a Light Being

We finally made it to the end of this mammoth three-part series.  I hope you found it enlightening and useful.

As I mentioned at the top, I do believe that this individual post will probably be one of the most important I ever will do.

If nothing else, I hope this series gives you a fresh perspective on the sun, Nature, and how Humans fit into the picture.

This is why- and I can’t emphasize this enough- being outside, in the sun and in Nature, is as important (if not more important) as eating healthfully.

I mean that. It seems too simple.  But it’s all there.  Human beings are designed to thrive on Earth.  Modern Humans seem to be the ones who have forgotten this timeless Truth.

When we move beyond the Newtonian perspective on health and begin to embrace the quantum realm, we see the importance of light.

We can embrace the fact that by Nature we are truly beings of light.  Can you see how spending 22+ hours per day indoors might impede your ability to heal?

Now is the time to reconnect with what our ancestors already knew.  Even if they didn’t have the science to quantify it, that doesn’t make Natural Law any less true.  Our disconnection with Nature and failing health as a collective is the ultimate metric of this truth.

The power of Mother Nature is infinite- all you have to do is tap in and start reaping the benefits.  

Much love-

Dr. Vincent Esposito

Want More?

Whenever you’re ready, there is two ways I can help you:

  1. Live a life that is beyond the average human being, then start by giving it the nutrition it needs!  There is information on over 150 other herbs and superfoods in my book Nature’s Kitchen & Cabinet! 
  1. If you are struggling with Insulin Resistance or Type II Diabetes, and want to learn how to reverse it naturally, I put together my FREE Insulin Resistance Reversal Masterclass just for you!  Check out my free webinar here to learn more!
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