Health Risks Associated with Blue Light Toxicity
By Heathar Shepard/ July 1, 2020
Health Risks Associated with Blue Light Toxicity
Health risks that are related to blue light toxicity are probably not something that’s crossed your mind. Your light environment is the #1 most overlooked topic in the health field. And, not only does it set the stage for many chronic diseases, it’s also a root cause of our disease epidemics today and is a major block to healing.
In today’s blog, I am discussing how non-native blue light, (throughout this blog I will use terms such as non-native blue light, artificial light and junk light which all have the same connotation), significantly increases your risk for weight gain, cancer, autoimmunity, and many other chronic health conditions. Non-native blue light directly impacts your circadian biology, which causes a massive ripple effect on your health. This also includes mental health issues, chronic pain, gut issues, and hormone imbalances.
I want to explain the difference between blue light and the light we get from the sun - once you connect these dots, you will see why strict diets, supplementation and prescription drugs are not the long-term solution to overcoming and preventing chronic disease. I’ll also dive into how to mitigate your exposure to blue light and how to improve your environment to support your health in optimal ways.
If you've tried every health tactic under the sun, maybe it's time to try the light under the sun to support your healing process in forward moving ways! To learn more about the health risks associated with blue light toxicity and how you can mitigate your exposure and recover from artificial light toxicity, I invite you to continue reading this blog post.
Health Risks Associated with Blue Light Toxicity, Point #1: Non-native blue light vs blue light from sunlight.
Before you can truly understand the health risks associated with artificial light, let’s first explore some basic questions regarding non-native blue light - - what is non-native blue light and, where does it come from? Maybe you all have heard of this as there’s a lot of information being shared in the mainstream health field right now concerning blue-blocking glasses and keeping your devices in Dark Mode to reduce your blue light exposure. People are catching on, but we need to catch on a lot more quickly and take this topic a lot more seriously when it comes to preventing chronic disease and stopping chronic disease in its tracks.
While sunlight naturally contains blue light, it is a native source of blue light that your biology and physiology depend on for optimal function. There are many positive health benefits initiated by blue light from the sun - one of the biggest positive health effects being, hormone balance and regulation.
As you watch the sunrise, blue light and red light dominate the solar spectrum. This is a very healthy, life-supportive form of blue light! And, one of the main differences between blue light from the sun vs blue light from your devices (which we’ll explore in detail throughout this blog) is that blue light from the sun is always found in conjunction with red light.
Blue light never exists without red light in sunlight.
And, this combination stimulates profound and important hormonal, metabolic and energy production signals throughout your entire body, just by exposing your skin, eyes and gut to sunlight. You can learn more about how to support your hormones, metabolism, energy levels and health by learning my step-by-step Sunlight Rx protocol outlined in detail in The Sunlight Rx eBook.
Bottomline, blue light from sunlight is not harmful or dangerous. Quite the contrary. It is absolutely crucial for your hormonal health. This is why I encourage every single woman with breast cancer to learn and practice The Sunlight Rx while simultaneously reducing their junk light exposure as a main path to improving hormone health. Solid hormone health cannot be achieved until we first apply these 2 basic principles to our life: mitigating artificial light & practicing The Sunlight Rx.
When it comes to artificial light, non-native blue light is present. Non-native meaning, it does not come from our native light source, sunlight but comes from an artificial, non-native or manmade source. Non-native blue light is found in all our tech devices - your iphone, tablet, ipad, television screen, computer, laptop - the color emitted from these devices is predominantly non-native blue light (with green as well which has similar health demoting effects on your physiology).
Non-native blue light is also found in LED’s, fluorescents, car headlights, household appliances such as your refrigerator light, dryer light and oven light; non-native blue light is also found in street lights, city lights and every commercial building.
Why does exposing your eyes and skin to non-native blue light create disharmony in the body? Well, there are many reasons for this. But, 2 main reasons include:
- Hormone depletion
- Circadian mismatch (which leads to every single chronic disease)
It is also important to note that non-native blue light, found in our tech devices and artificially lit environments, has been intentionally manufactured to produce a much higher color temperature of blue light than we would ever receive from the sun. This is incredibly confusing to your circadian biology, to your hormones and to your metabolism. 3.5 billion years ago, nature designed you to interact with blue light combined with red and purple light at very specific color temperatures all of which are naturally and ingenious found throughout the solar spectrum.
Now you may be connecting the dots more deeply as to why it’s so important for you to learn how to block non-native blue light from your life - it’s truly a form of preventative medicine.
For those of you new to the term, circadian biology....Your circadian biology is what allows your body to tell time accurately, such as night vs. day. All chronic diseases today can be traced back to circadian mismatch, meaning your biological time clock is not in sync with nature’s time clock and this prevents your body from being able to tell time accurately.
When your body cannot tell time accurately, your sleep and energy levels diminish, you experience brain fog and poor memory, you gain weight--even on a lower calorie diet, your hormones start to flatline and your metabolic pathways go awry.
This is why failure to improve your light environment is a B-line to every chronic disease today.
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Health Risks Associated with Blue Light Toxicity, Point #2: Getting your biological time clock, vitamin D production and light environment on point
Before you can fully utilize the benefits of biohacks such as intermittent fasting (IF) or a ketogenic diet when it comes to cancer prevention, overcoming cancer, or other mitochondrial diseases, you need to improve your light environment.
You cannot get very far, long-term, with your healing process if you fail to improve your light environment. To bring more attention and awareness as to how light might be playing a big role in your health struggles, I invite you to ask yourself these questions:
- What's your light environment currently like?
- Are you exposed to non-native blue light regularly?
If you answered Yes to that last question, your circadian biology is taking a toll and is in a state of circadian mismatch. If this is you, don’t worry, there are some very profound health improvements you can make starting by learning how to improve your light environment.
Your Melanopsin System
This might sound a little sciencey - Your Melanopsin System - but hang tight as I’m going to break this down for you in super simple terms. Understanding this system is key to getting you to your “Ah ha” moments around blue light toxicity and your health struggles.
Each one of your cells, tissues, organs and mitochondria have its own circadian clock system. Your blood has its own circadian clocks system. Your bowel movements are regulated depending on the state of your circadian biology. You have 3 major portals or centers that regulate circadian biology throughout your entire body. Those are located in your eye, skin and gut.
The circadian clocks in your eye, known as your PVN (paraventricular nucleus) regulate your circadian biology which includes your metabolism, hormonal release and endocrine function. These crucial physiological functions are regulated via the light that hits your eye.
Your doctor probably hasn’t mentioned this to you because this simple, primordial fact - the impact of light on metabolic and hormonal function - has been buried in the medical literature for years. But it’s there! This is why improving your light environment - via The Sunlight Rx and mitigating your non-native blue light exposure - has the power to transform the health of your metabolism, hormones and endocrine function, including sleep quality and energy levels, simply by changing the light that hits your eye!
Transforming your light environment is the single biggest way to support your health yet, it’s the most overlooked approach to improving both acute and chronic health issues.
Your skin also has its own built-in circadian clock system. This is known as your melanopsin system. It’s located on every square inch of your skin, including your gut (this is why individuals struggling with poor gut health need to expose their gut to the sun - via The Sunlight Rx - to improve root causes of gut health struggles).
Melanopsin is a circadian rhythm setting molecule and it’s attached to vitamin A. In order for your body to tell time accurately, melanopsin has to be bound to vitamin A like twin sisters. When vitamin A and melanopsin separate from one another, this is the beginning stage of every single chronic disease. What causes this separation? Exposure to artificial light from your tech devices, television screens, the Netflix series you stream on your laptop and the LED lights in your house.
Also, when vitamin A and melanopsin become unbound, healthy hormone production cannot occur. And, this is because vitamin A is a key molecule needed to produce every single steroid hormone.
Vitamin A + T3 + LDL cholesterol → pregnenolone → steroid hormone production
When vitamin A becomes unbound, it is not a good situation. The above formula does not fully play out leaving your hormones unbalanced and deficient.
If you’re a woman taking Tamoxifen as a method of supporting your hormone health and cancer recovery process, you may now be seeing the light from a totally new perspective when it comes to your hormone health. Tamox is a band-aid solution to a major root cause of diminished hormone health, melanopsin dysfunction.
The Relationship between Vitamin A & Vitamin D
There is a very intimate relationship between vitamin A and vitamin D. Each of these molecules are regulated in your body depending on the status of the other. For example, let’s say you take a vitamin D supplement of 10,000 IU’s per day. And, let’s say that you’re also exposed to excessive amounts of junk light throughout your day via your computer, phone and artificially lit home and/or work space.
While your vitamin D levels are going to rise - albeit artificially because you’re taking vitamin D via a pill vs naturally building your vitamin D stores via sunlight (more on this in a second) - your vitamin A levels will simultaneously become compromised. This is a recipe for disaster regarding your hormone health.
This hormonal imbalance occurs due to excessive vitamin D supplementation + an artificial light toxicity which separates the connection between melanopsin and vitamin A. This is a set up for hormone and metabolic disease as your body won’t be able to produce hormones effectively and metabolic signaling will be compromised due to an artificial light toxicity.
What do you mean vitamin D supplementation isn’t a good idea?!?
If you have a vitamin D deficiency, you have this as a result of a sunlight deficiency and an artificial light toxicity, not due to a supplement deficiency. I can’t tell you how many people frequent my private practice with low vitamin D levels that have been “regulated” with a vitamin D supplement.
When you take vitamin D via a pill, without the photo stimulus of the sun, you fail to stimulate key metabolic, hormone, immune, detox and energy pathways in your body which are all regulated by vitamin D production via sunlight.
I don't use a lot of supplements in my private practice unless there's a serious need. For example, someone came into my practice last week with a vitamin D of 12 ng/mL. That is incredibly dangerous and insanely low. Anything below 20 ng/mL is a red flag - I get very concerned about cancer, diabetes as well as autoimmunity.
In these extreme cases, I chose to incorporate an animal-based vitamin D supplement into their Radical Health Plan. However, they have to simultaneously learn how to make vitamin D via sunlight and how to mitigate their artificial light exposure. And, vitamin D supplementation needs to be very short-term. Using this approach helps the individual produce adequate amounts of vitamin D on their own (the way nature intended) and preserves and enhances hormone and metabolic health long-term.
When you leave The Sunlight Rx and artificial light mitigation out of your vitamin D building plan, you will fail to obtain the panacea effects of vitamin D. This approach is also needed to protect your vitamin A stores and subsequent steroid hormone production.
Health Risks Associated with Blue Light Toxicity, Point #3: How to mitigate your exposure to non-native blue light and improve your environment to support your health in optimal ways.
Currently, more and more people are gaining awareness and taking action around their non-native blue light exposure. This is most commonly practiced by wearing blue blocking glasses. Learning how to block non-native blue light - when you’re in an artificially lit environment - is one of the most beneficial and protective actions you can take regarding your metabolic, hormone and endocrine health.
Let alone the amazing effects blue blocking glasses have on preserving your melatonin levels, improving sleep and enhancing energy levels. These are some of the main reasons why I wear blue-blocking glasses when working on my computer or phone or even when I go to the grocery store. And, it is a practice I recommend to anyone looking to support their health in proactive, effective ways as well.
Another blue blocking practice, however less commonly known today, is the great importance of blocking artificial blue light from penetrating your skin. This is a big way you can protect your melanopsin system, hormone health and metabolic health as well. Taking measures to protect your skin when inundated by junk light is a practice that will benefit your health in profound ways.
Here are some of the resources I utilize to improve my light environment and decrease my exposure to non-native blue light.
- Blue Blocking Glasses. These are the blue blocking glasses I use and recommend. I have found these glasses to be super high quality as well as the most effective blue blocking glasses on the market. Use the code sunlightrx at checkout to receive a discount on your purchase. If you need to add a prescription to your glasses, these are your Go-To folks right here. This is a necessary and incredibly affordable investment to make when it comes to supporting your metabolic, hormone and overall health.
- Iris Eye Protection. Download a program called Iris on your computer and keep it in Sleep Mode or Programming Mode as often as you can. Iris is a super affordable computer software program for laptops and desktops that protects your circadian biology and melanopsin system. I keep Iris in Sleep Mode 98% of the time as this turns the screen red. Red is the antidote to blue making Sleep Mode an effective mitohack for blocking much of the blue light from your computer screen.
- Skin Protection. When you're on a device or under artificial light, I encourage you to wear clothing. Meaning, don't work on your computer or start streaming Netflix after you’ve got out of the shower, with your shirt off or in your tan-through kinikis. This is a wise way to support your hormones, metabolism and melanopsin system.
Hi, I am Heathar
With over 12 years experience as an alternative healer, integrative health coach and one who has been through severe physical injury trying every remedy under the sun to heal myself with no avail…I’m here to tell you, all of those things are not only attainable but are foundational to achieving optimal health and are core elements to overcoming all chronic and stubborn diseases.
At the age of 23 I suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) preventing me from the ability to engage in physical activity for over 12 years post my car accident. Today, I know I could have recovered from this injury much quicker if I had known then what I know now! But….the accident lead me down the healing path. A path that I was destined to take to help myself heal and to learn how to help others heal complicated and chronic disorders as well.
During this time, I learned two things: How to harness the healing power of sunlight and how to utilize frequency based medicine to facilitate biological transformations in the body - all the way down to the mitochondrial level.
Today, I lead an active life and you can bet I’m uber passionate about teaching others how they can overcome even the most daunting health experiences that most medical professionals have band-aid solutions for, at best.
And today, my health continues to improve each day and I now lead an active, healthy lifestyle - all of which I thought would never be possible to achieve again. All it took was discovering the most effective path to health and healing to get me there and now, to help my clients get there as well!
Health Risks Associated with Blue Light Toxicity: The Bottomline
If you struggle with a chronic condition or experience low energy levels, poor sleep, hormonal imbalances or mood disorders, following the non-native blue light blocking strategies that I outlined in this blog post is a great place to start!
In fact, lasting improvements with your health cannot occur until these fist simple steps are accomplished.
Also, don’t forget to get your copy of The Sunlight Rx eBook to start resetting your circadian biology, improving vitamin D levels (the way nature intended) and recovering from melanopsin dysfunction.
Remember, the path to healing is much simpler than many people lead you to believe, including most health care professionals. Following these practical, nature-based steps outlined throughout this blog post will likely help you make exponentially more progress with your health than any diet, supplement plan, prescription drug or exercise routine.
I hope you found this blog post insightful along your healing path. If you want to learn more about my radical approach to health and healing, stay tuned for future blog posts.