But I just found my body nudging me for more of that, more sunshine, more movement. And it has been wild how different I have felt getting that hour walk every morning. It, it feels like it has become such a non-negotiable in my routine where the majority of my days, I want to make sure I'm getting that, that walk some at some point in my morning.

Remove the need for probably 50% of those supplements. For most of us, that is how impactful it is for all of our biology. So Dr. Giangrande is an optometrist with over 20 years of private practice in New York. In 2012 when her 4-year-old son developed health issues, she grew frustrated with conventional medicines limitations, and turned to holistic approaches to help him [00:02:00] heal.

Now as a certified applied quantum biology practitioner, she helps individuals apply quantum and circadian rhythm strategies to enhance eye health and overall wellness. Like I said, this absolutely had me buzzing. I could have been on the call with her for another few hours. I hope that we'll be able to have her on again to cover different angles of eye health and circadian rhythm and quantum biology.

I, I usually do that just to wrap my head around the guest and get a sense of their personality and the topics they're covering. And the more I was listening, the more I was like, oh my gosh, we need to have this conversation. This information needs to be out there, so I cannot wait. Thank you. So I think a really good starting point because anyone who's gonna come to your page, by the way, your Instagram is amazing.

Mm-hmm. This word quantum. And I think that is a really good place to start of what is this quantum approach to eye health and wellness, and how does that differ from a conventional approach? Sure. So when we think of quantum it, I like to think of it as how the body's working on, on a much deeper level than when we think of biochemistry and just, you know, hormones and nutrients and vitamins and all of that stuff, which is all important.

But when we start breaking down the body into different tissues and different cells and molecules, now we're getting down to those electrons and those protons, and basically how we work on that deep level. And we start to realize that that level is controlled by light. And energy and voltage and electrons and, and all of these things that it really does control every process in our body.

That there's so much more to our health than just what we're putting in our body and, and what we're eating and things like that. Yeah. Oh my gosh, already. I'm so excited to get to a point of this because I work with a lot of cancer patients and there's a point I wanna make in relation to that. Yes. But to that end, I think, so something worth spending some time on is why?

Well, so quantum is, it's all interconnected, but it's really related to light, would you say? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So there's circadian rhythm, quantum energy, so, um. I guess from eyecare, I like to focus on light as my primary. When I talk about being a quantum eye doc, I'm, I'm focusing on really using sunlight, which controls our entire body through our eyes to help optimize our eye health and our entire health of the body.

And, and every, every single gene in our body has a clock gene. Mm-hmm. And all of that is controlled by the kind of light that we get. Light is a message, it's information for our bodies, and we get that through our eyes, which is, I mean, we get it through our skin as well. Mm-hmm. But our eyes are the connection between what's happening in our world and what our body needs to do.

It's fascinating. And, and just mind blowing. Yeah. I think that's a perfect segue into the ripple effect, because something I was thinking about coming into this conversation was someone might see, you know, the title of this episode and go, oh, well I have my, I don't have any issues with my eyes. So I don't need to listen to this.

Mm-hmm. And so I'd love to understand more of the ripple effect both ways when we're receiving appropriate light, how that creates a positive cascade. And when we are living in synthetic light, not getting that outdoor light, the maybe negative cascade that creates throughout the whole body. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So I'll start with what we're supposed to have. So, in a perfect world, we have cells in our eyes that are not just meant for seeing. We have these, uh, receptors in our eyes. They're called melanopsin, and they're just blue light receptors. They're right at the bottom of our eyes. They're wired for blue light.

To the clock in our brain. So those signals, those light signals become an electrical signal that goes right to this clock. We have a, a master clock in our brain called the super cosmic nucleus. It sits right behind our eyes. And when that gets turned on, now the entire body knows what time it is. So that master clock will send signals to every cell in the body to start turning on.

And as the sun keeps rising, we start getting stronger blue. So now our body, again knows exactly what to do at those different times. We also start getting a little bit of ultraviolet light layered into the day. So in the first hour of sunrise or, or sunlight, there's no UV light that can harm us. There's no UV light.

In most parts of the world. So we just have that red infrared and blue, but then we start getting a little bit of ultraviolet a exposure. And this is so important because this, this controls EV a lot of other things as well. When we talk about the eyes, we have UVA receptors in our eyes as well as those melanopsin receptors.

So right in our cornea, we have receptors called rosin. This is actually helps us gather ultraviolet a light, which we think we should be afraid of. You know, ultraviolet light is, is that that fear? As soon as we hear it. We have neuros in our cornea. We have neuros in our retina. We have amino acids that are waiting for signals of ultraviolet, a light to start doing things in the body.

And serotonin's going to help link up our gut clocks. And it's just, it's just so amazing to have these neurotransmitters being started in our eyes. There's other things that happen. There's noradrenaline that gets made. There's links to the, the start, start of thyroid hormones. Um, there's even links to what we call pom C in the brain, which is links to our metabolism.

Beta endorphins are released. I mean, it is just, all this, our mood is, is dictated by sunlight. You know, in a way it's, it's just such an amazing thing. And then if as the sun gets stronger and if we're still outside, we've already gotten those nice lighter signals, then we start getting, in some part, depending on where we are in the world and the season, we can start making, uh, getting UVB.

It's fantastic. Mm-hmm. And then after. Sunset. We have darkness. And when we have darkness, our body is supposed to reduce, reduce, that cortisol melatonin can start getting released and we can heal our body overnight while we're sleeping. So again, and, and, and we have so many different processes that happen overnight when we are sleeping with that melatonin, which got made from serotonin in the morning from that sunlight.

Yeah. So now the reverse of it. So now we have, in our modern world, we are exposed to artificial signals of light, meaning in our homes, we have LEDs, we have screens, TVs, phones, and all of these lights. What they did with these lights is they took out it, it's just considered a blue light. Meaning if we look at the spectrum of a light, an artificial signal of light, we'll see that most of those lights have a single spectrum of blue with no balance.

There's no red light, there's no infrared light, there's just blue. And unfortunately that's signal of blue is a wavelength that's tricking our brain into thinking it's about 12 o'clock in the afternoon. So that's one part of the light that's bad for us. So if we wake up in the morning and we're turning on our lights and we're looking at our phones and we're looking at our screens, and we didn't get sunrise, our body goes right to 12 o'clock in the afternoon, which is very, very jolting.

That doesn't change. It doesn't offer any long wavelengths. It doesn't offer any healing qualities to that. So we're just being bombarded by this light. And then at the end of the day, when the sun goes down, now our brain is supposed to have darkness, thinks it's 12 o'clock in the afternoon. So we're going to start that cascade of cortisol all over again, which is extremely damaging.

Cortisol is going to mess with our blood sugar. It's going to tell that liver to release blood sugar. Now, blood sugar's in the, in the. Bloodstream, insulin's going to be released to try to get that blood sugar out, but it's not working. We can become insulin resistant links to diabetes. It messes with our sex hormones, with other diseases.

There's a lot of repair programs that require that melatonin. It just won't be released. So then you can see how we become dysregulated. The other thing I did forget to mention about sunlight is that when we are exposed to sunlight, just being outside, um, the infrared light in that sun is always going to help our mitochondria, our energy cells create melatonin throughout the day just to kind of help us.

Mm-hmm. It's a, it's a built-in antioxidant that we actually make during the day as well. So there's so many things that we get from natural sunlight that we're not getting when we're indoors. The other part of this, of the artificial light that's very damaging. Is that not only is that signal a 12 o'clock signal, but uh, but the blue, the blue wavelength is actually considered more of a blue light hazard or, or a high energy light.

Blue light, when it's not balanced by red, is a very oxidizing signal. It damages our eyes automatically. The cells in our eyes are literally oxidized damage. Macular cells have to absorb that. You know, our cells are absorbing that blue all day long without balance, and it's leading to a huge amount of eye diseases.

It's, it's truly unbelievable what's happening where people sitting in front of screens all day, where we used to think the sun was such a bad thing for our eyes. It's really, unfortunately, in our modern world, it's this artificial blue light because again, it's unbalanced, so, mm-hmm. Where this might be getting into history.

Mm-hmm. History more than science. But where did this demonization of the sun come from? Was it studies that just were kind of skewed a little bit and they didn't really see the full accompanying of it? So, I mean, they, they used to have helio therapy. They used to use the sun to treat diseases, you know, in the.

Mm. It's an artificial signal of UV from a, from a lamp that doesn't exist. So of course it's going to cause damage because again, you're, you're unbalanced and it's not a natural signal. Mm-hmm. Not to say that we don't have to be careful with ultraviolet light, but the studies are very skewed. And then we have, you know, I don't know, I don't know the exact history of, of the dates and everything, but I do know that the studies are extremely flawed.

Mm-hmm. And, you know, sunscreen came out and sunglasses came out and all these things came out and, and it's sunscreen. You know, didn't really stop skin cancer. You know, it's just, so, it's just interesting how the studies make us think that it's so, so horrible. When you really look at it, it's, it's, there's studies showing that sunlight reduces all cause mortality.

To your point, they're, they're doing a study on UV from these isolated UV lamps that don't have the full spectrum. And yeah, maybe that is damaging to the skin, but it's such an isolated, incomplete view of the picture. Mm-hmm. Right. I think about this all the time where I'm like, if someone did a study on hard exercise, they could easily go, wow, hard exercise deteriorates muscles initially, so that's bad.

But I think it's interesting because I think the general population would assume, oh, we, I don't know, we're we're outside so much and eye disease started increasing, which is why they wanted to bring in things like sunglasses and skin cancer started increasing, which is why they wanted to bring in things like sunscreen.

But do you think that's kind of how the order of it went? Yeah. I'm not sure. I'm not saying that ultraviolet like doesn't have any effect on cataracts and stuff, 'cause cataracts have been around for a very long time. But I think people's lifestyles have changed and, and I. I don't know. It's a great, a great question.

Right? So was there just eye disease that we didn't know because we didn't have tools to test it or has something. Shifted. So I, some people would say it's this, um, when they started introducing electricity to our lives and wifi signals and just our modern world kept changing, you know, things started to change.

We we're not connected to the earth as much we're it. We, we started to live more and indoor life and that indoor life brings us away from Earth and we need to be grounded. And we, you know, we spend so much time grounded in, you know, all of these connections to earth. And now our world has just brought us indoors more.

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To that point, there's so many factors, right? Mm-hmm. Even that isn't just one isolated factor where it's like, why did eyesight suddenly start getting bad? I don't think it's because we were spending too much time in the sun. If we're kind of looking at this in an ancestral evolutional way, we evolutionary way, we are designed to be in the sun, so we should be equipped to be able to withstand that.

My hunch would be, and then I'll pivot us 'cause I know the history can get a bit mundane, but my, my hunch would be we started spending more time indoors. So, and this is something we'll probably get into more. You stop developing the natural. Kind of healing mechanisms and resistance to harmful sunlight, right?

Absolutely, yeah. There's a big danger in people who say, spend most of their days indoors and then go spend all day outside at the beach like that intermittent sun exposure is damaging versus exposure where people are just constantly, you know, getting a lot, getting sun throughout the day each day.

There's a big difference between that. I mean, everybody's different as, as well as where our ancestry was, like where we're supposed to be. People who live in colder climates. You know, how we ex um, experience cold versus heat. Like, there's so many factors in how we, how we live, where we migrated to where we're supposed to be, where our, um, how much sun exposure we're meant to have and how we live within that sun exposure.

Are we, are we eating properly? Are we eating within the seasons? Are we getting the right. Nutrients we need where we live so that we can handle the exposure. Are we exposing ourselves to the elements or are we indoors all day and not, you know, not getting cold and not not experiencing the true seasons if we live in a seasonal climate.

So suppose we're wearing sunglasses that only block ultraviolet light. And it now, when you, when you're putting sunglasses on, your brain thinks it's nighttime, so your pupils are going to get larger, which is an unnatural way to let more light through. And what are you letting through? You're letting through more of that high energy violet or visible or blue light, and that's actually causing more damage then if you were just outside with a hat or, you know, maybe a, a tint that can block the, the full spectrum as opposed to just a UV 'cause again, we're unbalancing and even behind a window windows, um, people think sitting behind a window, you know, will give, give you that natural signal of light, but it's another [00:25:00] unbalanced signal that can also lead to other problems because it's blocking.

UVB. So you're not making vitamin D but you're getting a lot of UVA in an unbalanced way, where that's where UVA without that balance, 'cause most windows will block infrared because it's not energy efficient. But light bulbs that were incandescent were not as bad because they had that infrared or that, that heat component to it that balanced out light a little bit better, similar to like a sunset or a sunrise versus the energy efficient bulbs.

It just keeps getting worse and worse. So I think if you look at the progression of how electricity and bulbs changed, you can see this progression of how, um, bless you, of how, uh, you know, there's other factors, but how things are getting worse from, from that standpoint. Yes. Oh my, I just, this word cascade I think is so perfect for this topic because every single thing you're pointing out is, you know, and when we wear sunglasses outside that impacts this, it, it really is such a cascade.

Mm-hmm. But what I couldn't help but thinking when I was listening to one of your episodes that you had done before was, wow, sunlight is an essential nutrient. We need to think of this as a supplement that we must be taking every single day. And how. You know, I think I think about cancer patients who through to, to no one's fault, right?

Mm-hmm. It almost hit me just so intensely that I was like, holy cow, this is, this is unbelievable. Like this needs to be a non-negotiable part of the routine for them. Absolutely. For all of us. But even more so when you are in a state of ailment or illness. Yeah. We actually get, we don't just get electrons or energy from our food.

We actually get free energy from sunlight, as you said. It is a, it is a nutrient, but we're, we're actually gathering electrons from just being exposed to sunlight. We have this water network in our body, this whole, um, kind of like a battery of charge that we have, and the sunlight actually builds that up.

Same thing if we're grounding and just getting outside, connecting to the earth, we're gathering electrons. Mm-hmm. So we think about food and nutrients. We're breaking all of those nutrients down into electrons and those electrons. Are, are really what's giving our body our power, and those electrons are carriers of light.

Mm-hmm. Which is interesting that we're really just breaking things down into their components of energy or light. Yes. So that we need, you know, we need that, we need to be powered up. Like we're our body's actually releasing light inside of us at all times. That, that's our messenger, you know, our, all of our cells in order to communicate, we're releasing light inside of us.

Oh, nice. And it's all about measuring your voltage. Mm-hmm. Um, and the cellular integrity. And, and one of the things we talked about is I. If you, if your voltage is off and the meridian lines like we, we talked about mm-hmm. How scars can interrupt Yes. Meridian lines and the flow of energy. And it doesn't matter how much oxygen you have in your blood, your body's not able to use it.

Mm-hmm. In the same way. And I, this is these, you know, I, I was talking with her about how that voltage, that energy level is foundational and I think this element of sunshine and circadian rhythm is foundational. Mm-hmm. Yes. Where the person who is trying to heal from anything, thyroid, illness, fibromyalgia, ms cancer, this really just to me seems like, take all the supplements you want, but Right.

I mean, it has to be. Mm-hmm. Oh my gosh. This just makes me so excited because again, I, I, I work with stage four cancer patients where I, it's so serious and there's so much effort being put into it, and it's just making me go, man, it, it might not immediately shift things, which is why we need that heavier supplementation and support with modalities, but to me it really just made so much sense where if this is not a piece of the puzzle that is getting worked into our daily life, we will always be needing to supplement.

I think a lot, a lot of people, it's funny, I've never liked wearing sunglasses ever, ever, ever. And I almost was sort of just like, well, I guess I'm just gonna have poor eyesight as an old person because I hate sunglasses so much. Mm-hmm. So I, I don't, my eyes aren't very sensitive to the sun unless it's like a crazy bright day or I'm out on the water or something.

Right. But most people, I think. Have been wearing sunglasses for a long, long time. Their eyes really are super sensitive. They can't go in the sunlight. So I think a starting point is how do we reintegrate, what does that transition look like? Because it's not just my eyes are so sensitive, I just can't do it.

Uh, sensitive. So the, the easiest and the fastest way to do that, and I was someone who wore sunglasses even on a rainy day, like I wore, wore them all the time. Um, is, is sunrise, like at sunrise? The sun, there's, because there's no uv, it's a very soothing time of the day if we get outside at sunrise and, and if it is that sensitive, I mean, even starting with a minute, two minutes, building up minute by minute each day.

I mean, if you're that sensitive, but just getting outside at sunrise and just facing the brightest part of the sky. Not everyone can see the sun rising from their house, but just getting outside and just being exposed to the correct signals face the east and you and not looking. And if you can see the sun, you're not gonna look directly at the sun.

That's also very good because again, there's no uv, so. So if people who are fearful, oh my gosh, I can't, I can't get any UV in my eyes. Sunrise and sunset don't have any uv and red light and infrared light are super healing. In fact, if you look, you know, red light therapy has become this, this amazing, uh, thing that people do to help with so many aspects of the body because we're, we're starving for red light and infrared light because, again, of our modern world.

So getting those long wavelengths is actually very healing for our eyes in particular and the body. And then as that sun rises, I like to use different apps, uh, like I use a, my Circadian app because it, it gives, it tells your bo it tells you exactly when different parts of the sun are available. So it'll say, okay, sunrise is out.

Pull them down periodically, let your eyes start getting used to it, and eventually you can be out there for a few minutes again, without them just facing that direction. And if you do make UVAA time that you walk or just get out there, even if it's for a longer period of time, the mood shifts are just amazing.

It's just, it just, it put, it's, it's such a nice way to just really help you feel better and you start feeling better than you want more of that sun. Um, but again, those earlier signals are the easiest way to do it. So you wanna build up first with the morning, then U-V-A-U-V-B again, middle of the day when it's bright.

Um, this is again, something where you have to be careful depending on who you are, but you can just pull your glasses down for a minute at a time. Um, we do wanna be careful. I'm a big fan of hats. I mean, I'm, I'm out there, I'm outside a lot. I, I wear hats all the time. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and I, at least the eyes are still getting the correct signal of sun, but there's no direct light getting into my eyes.

And then again, at the end of the day, it's really easy. Um, wearing sunglasses. I'm not trying to say that we should never, ever wear them, or we shouldn't protect our eyes. We do have to be careful. Obviously, driving, if you're not safe driving, wear sunglasses. If you're on the water, if you're on places where there's a lot of reflection, you wanna wear sunglasses.

If you're someone from a northern climate and you go on a vacation, a tropical vacation, and all of a sudden you're exposed to this intense sun, protect your eyes. You know, those are the, those are things, and again, you wanna build up, um, you wanna just build up as slowly as you can, but eventually the body just gets used to it and it really starts to crave those signals because it does make such a difference in our overall wellbeing.

Where if every day in the morning they're exposing their eyes a little bit and then maybe they wear sunglasses the rest of the day? About how long can they, you know, can it take, yeah. Can they able to like, go without them? Um, I could speak without them, could speak for myself. It took about two weeks of consistent, um, consistent use before I was really fine in two weeks.

Okay. But I was really consistent. I guess it depends on how long they've been out of the sun, how bright, how, how light their eyes are and how much they're really doing it. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, a lot of people are unfor and it's, it's hard because they're, I'm at work, you know, I'm at work. I'm, I'm at work before the sun comes up or I have to sit in an office and, and that is tough because what do we do?

Even if it's just for a couple of minutes consistently, at least we keep resetting our body. The way it's supposed to be. So this was one of my questions is, mm-hmm. Is it better? And I am gonna ask ultimately the, at the end, for you to give us your, just like ideal, ideal day of sunlight exposure and, you know, synthetic light exposure, what the ideal would look like, but.

You, for those of us, I work indoors all day. Mm-hmm. What is better? If we have to choose, is it better to get longer, you know, longer periods outdoors, but that means less, or is it better to get more periods outdoors if they're shorter? Meaning like, should I be trying to get outdoors a lot throughout the day, even if it's only three minutes?

And some days I do have longer, so I don't know. I mean, as much as you can, it really is whatever, whatever you can do it. Yes, yes. I, I kind of have both. I recently have been getting back to, I just do an hour walk in the morning. And it's kind of become a non-negotiable for me, mind, body, and spirit. I just notice such a difference.

Mm-hmm. In every way. I mean, truly when my nervous system starts getting out control and I can't regulate it mm-hmm. Um, this is like that full, full reset for me. So it's kind of become this non-negotiable. But then I also have little 15 minute gaps between Yes. Clients and patients throughout the day. So sometimes I will pop out for a little bit of sun and movement, but yeah.

Mm-hmm. But is something where, for example, I, I live right by the beach. I'm out on the water or near the water a lot. Is that something where even if my eyes aren't hurting, I should be wearing sunglasses? Or is it more like, let your eyes tell you what they need? If, if it feels bright and kind of abrasive, then put them on.

I mean, you usually can tell if it really does feel that bright. Um, yeah, you wanna be careful reflections. If you're right on the water and you're on the water for many hours every day, it's the reflections that we have to worry about more than anything, because that's where the sun becomes a different version of the sun because it's, the reflections are reflecting.

I guess it depends on your tolerance, the color of your eyes. I mean, people with light eyes, there is less melanin there. So we do have to be a little mindful of that. I, I would say mm-hmm. You know, some people in this space would say, don't ever wear sunglasses ever. But we, we could, we, we really do wanna protect your eyes.

Just like you wouldn't wanna get a sunburn. You are not gonna go and spend all day on the beach and, and get a sunburn if you know that you've already gone past your limit. Mm-hmm. So it's similar with the eyes. Mm. So it's not really a great, yeah, I, I think I hear that. You know, for me, I. I paddle, I paddle out on the bay quite often.

I mean, I, like I said, I'm, I don't, I don't really put them on when I'm there. Not that I'm paddled. Yeah. But still, I, I, I don't necessarily, and, and I feel fine as well. I don't think there's any arm in that, you know, I see just as many people with, with eye issues, cataracts, things like that. People who never leave the house really.

Who are indoors all the time. Right. And, and have cataracts. And you have people who work outside and say that they don't ever wear glasses and they don't have it. It's really interesting. You start asking people about their lifestyle. What, what, um, what I'm singing. Yes. Not just. Yeah, it kind of flips the whole argument on its head.

You know, we need to be able to handle the sun. We need to have a lot of, uh, the more DHA we have, the more healthy fat we have, the better we can handle sun. So there are other factors other than just, you know, get outside in the sun all day. We do need to have those, um, the proper nutrients. You know, there are people who are going to burn more if they never have any DHA and they're full of seed oils and all these, you know, really horrible diets and processed foods and all of that.

Of course you're going to burn a little bit more. So there's d there are different factors as well. Yeah. I think just that discernment of, you know, for example, when I do my morning walk, I don't wear sunglasses. I don't even usually wear a hat or any sunscreen at all. Mm-hmm. But that is kind of in the morning.

You can, you can get, um, some damage there. So in those instances, I would say absolutely protect your eyes. My relationship with coffee has changed so much over the years. I went from waking up first thing in the morning, drinking multiple cups of coffee on an empty stomach, to now approaching it with so much more intentionality, especially when I started realizing just how much it was affecting my nervous system, which is why I'm so careful and intentional about when, how, and what kind of coffee I consume.

What I also love though, is they have a number of different coffees available that are either ground or whole bean. I'm a bit of a snob, so I love to buy the whole bean coffees, but it's so neat because they have. Their focus coffee blend that has extra adaptogens to help support brain health. They have their gut health coffee blend that I'm really excited to start using because it has probiotics, prebiotics, Turkey tail, and chaga mushrooms that have been added to it.

I think what I'd love to hear, actually, really quick, are there any sunglasses, brands that particularly stand out to you or is that just kind of like, uh, they're all sort of wishy-washy. So if you were to pick a pair of glasses that are just tinted gray, uh, technically gray doesn't change colors, and if it's not, if it's just a plastic lens that's tinted gray, you're going to protect you from some of the intensity without [00:46:00] changing the different colors, without changing.

Yeah. You know, so, so that might be an option some people can use. Well, most people are using polarized sunglasses, which feel great if you're driving and the does block the reflected glare. Um, but it changes the light, you know, again, we're changing signals if, if it's long-term use, so. Mm-hmm. But just a regular gray hint.

I feel like that's pretty comfortable for people if it's too much. Yeah. No, not polarized. No. You now I think, yeah, polarized are what most people feel most comfortable with. Mm-hmm. But, but in general, if we're just talking about, you know, getting the proper signals of light, I feel like just a great tin might be a little bit easier uhhuh if, if we're trying to ease out, you know, ease into getting better signals or, or more, yeah.

Ideal day in Dr. J Grande's, you know, day of sun exposure and light exposure. What is, what does that ideal day look like? I think even if some of us are going, Ugh, that's just not gonna be possible for me, or right now, it's not gonna be possible for me. I still think it's helpful to go, look, here is a template.

Of what the ideal day could or should look like. And then each of us can kind of go, here's how I can tweak that a little bit for me. And then I do want to talk more specifically also on, for those of us who work in offices and endorse so much, maybe even some of the, the tools and products and tricks we can bring in to mm-hmm.

I, I actually try to do it all winter. I'm in, I'm in New York, so it's cold. Um, so I would try to, um, just get outside the first, as soon as that sunrise comes, I, I try to get outside. Um, just depending on the season. Of course, in the summer, I'll, I'll spend, it's hard 'cause we're getting ready. Right. Getting ready for work, getting the kids out the door.

But, and I, on my days off. Which is, I'm lucky to have a day or two off a week. You know, I feel like getting outside for that sunrise at a minimum of 20 minutes, I, I think is ideal. I don't always have 20 minutes, but, you know, I, 20 minutes, I feel like at least we're getting that full exposure. If we can eat breakfast outside at that time, and we're sinking up the eating with our, with our, you know, our mealtime with the light, because that's another timekeeper is our food, then that's even more ideal.

And we did it pretty much except, you know, unless one of us was away, um, go for that walk. So we go for, you know, 30 minute walk every morning. That's what we can, I would love to do more than that. I would love to do more. I don't always have the time, but, so it's sunrise and a UVA walk, and then, you know, a perfect day would be to be outside as much as you can, but you know that, that, that, what that looks like is, it does vary, but I try to get outside as much as I can.

Um, I'll read books outside. I'll, I'll walk barefoot in the vacuum. I just try to stay barefoot as much as I can out there. Um, and then again, at Sunset is a nice time. Really. I just try to go for walks throughout the day. Being outside, going for a walk is just a really nice way to just reduce cortisol and, and just get, you know, be part of nature.

Yeah. But, but a perfect day would be really just spending as much time as possible out in nature and just enjoying it and not being stressed about it. Not not feeling the needs to say, well now I have to go outside 'cause I gotta get my son. But really making it part of your day. You know, it's really, that's, that's what I think the stress of needing to, needing to get those signals sometimes can be a little overwhelming for people when they say, God, how am I gonna add that to my morning?

I don't have time for that. If you don't have time for it, open a window. If you have not just, not just a shade. Physically open the window and let that sun come in. Go right up to that window. You know, just do the, do as much as you can. I, I love that. Let's talk now about, I think there's a lot of mitigation we have to do.

There's a lot of other things I could do. Mm-hmm. In. Yes. That are productive and you know, to check on the list. Right. But it is so unbelievably game changing for me that it is, like I said, becoming such a non-negotiable and I look forward to it. I'm like, oh, I cannot wait for this morning walk. Yes. I'm going to feel so grounded.

Truly, it sets the tone for my entire day, absolutely. My entire day. So yeah, it becomes something I look forward to and that I'm really like, oh, I can't not do this. It is so impactful. Mm-hmm. To that end mitigation, we're indoors, this synthetic lighting, I mean mm-hmm. Even whether we're at work or at home.

Yes. What can we be doing? Are there, you know, full spectrum lamps we could have on? What about blue light blockers? Mm-hmm. Let's talk about some of those things. So first, and for the, for the screen, um. We can use, there's different apps you can use. I'm gonna show you my, my glasses that I use for the screen in a moment.

But there's different apps that we can use for the screen. Something like an iris technology you can download. And what that does is it changes the monitor setting to mimic the sun throughout the day. So you're getting those better signals. It's, yeah, it's a nice thing. Iris tech, Iris tech.co. That's the website.

Um, that's a great monitor setting. Now a lot of people. Yeah. A lot of people, myself included, have an IT department that I'm not able to change the monitor settings at work, which is unfortunate. There's also f lux, FLUX, that's another setting that can give you a little bit, um, less of the blue, more of the balanced spectrum.

And that's what something like this will do. These are blue blockers that will block this blocks about, you know, 50%. This balances out the range. It's blocking about 50% of that harmful blue light that's going to oxidize the cells and, and dehydrate us and just cause damage. Mm-hmm. Without blocking the signals that tell us it's daytime.

So we don't wanna block the signals that, that we don't wanna block all blue light 'cause we need, we need that blue. So we wanna wear blue light blockers. Um, I also sometimes use I, um, a, a monitor cover. Like I actually have a cover that I put over my monitor to block some of the blue. I don't know how well that works.

For the, okay. Sure. So for this particular Blue light blocker is, um, Veeva Rays. I'm wearing Veeva Rays Viva, which I love. Okay. Um, but there's other companies also that I also like. Um, raw Optics is another good company, sole, well, makes really nice glasses. Uh, spectra 4, 7, 9 for even on Amazon is, is a kind of a more, um, cost effective pair you can get day and night.

They, all these companies have day and night. Mm-hmm. Uh, I think Bond charge makes them also. Mm-hmm. And block lowlight.com. So those are the companies, but again, these are Eva Rays and I absolutely love them. Because they're really comfortable. They're not, they're not such a harsh yellow, but they're, they're comfortable to where they feel really good.

So it's, that's a nice full spectrum lamp. Um, I also tend to bring a little bit of red light therapy or red lights with me just to try to offset some of the lack of red and infrared light, so that block blue light has an, has a, has a. It's like a seasonal affective disorder, lamb necess, but it really has red and infrared that I can just kind of keep on in the background without being true red light therapy.

But it's just giving me a little bit of that. Infrared. Uh, there's a company, you can get infrared bulbs. Some people use, uh, something called neuro NIRA lighting, which has a little bit of infrared in there. Um, so there's a, a bunch of different companies. You can get these full spectrum bulbs. You can use red light therapy, uh, as, as a supplement.

Yep. Flicker, flicker, flicker. So even mitigating these lights, um, by using full spectrum lights. If they're on, they're still flickering. And flickering is very damaging for the brain. We're not meant to see lights that are going on and off, you know, 60 times a second. It just doesn't make sense. So it's, it's not good.

I do know that Bond charge has mm-hmm. A hundred percent flicker, fleet flicker free light bulbs. Oh yes. They have red light bulbs, full spec, full spectrum light bulbs. Mm-hmm. And the red light ones I have gotten specifically, but you're making me wanna look into the full spectrum ones. Yeah. So that's great.

Uh, block blue, light block blue light.com also makes bulbs that are flicker free. And those bulbs actually have them in my home. They have, um, three different settings. So they have a full spectrum day, and then you turn them on again, they have a sunset setting, and then you turn them on again and they have a night setting.

I believe they're a lot safer. I don't have them myself, but I know that that's a company that does make something like that. If people are looking for healthier lighting in their workplace, that would be the ideal situation not to be exposed to that. Yes. I mean, absolutely. I'm gonna get to like, so specific here, and this might be too specific, but, okay, so for example, I, I have an office space where I have so many windows that I actually can turn off the overhead lighting.

And maybe it doesn't matter that much, but that's how specific my brain thinks. Yeah, no, that those are all, those are all valid points and I think any of those situations would be good. Like I have the red and infrared and I have a full spectrum bulb and I can't always turn off my overhead lights. So I do both.

I kind of just have, I bring the suitcases me to work. I do it all. I just, you know, and I don't know what the right answer is, but that's just, that's just what I do. Um, as far as the windows, it's interesting because, um. It's great 'cause you're not getting a flicker, you're getting more of a full balance, but you are getting slightly unbalanced at UVA and I don't know how to, um, to counteract that.

I'm not sure. I don't know. I don't know that I would recommend sunblock or anything. Yeah. I don't know. But it's definitely better than overhead lights. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The fact that you have windows and it's not, you know, the sun isn't directly blaring on me, so I think that makes a big difference.

These are, these are also viva rays. These are the. Similar, same frame itself. You can also get it as a clip on, 'cause these, these come in a clip as well. But by blocking 100% of blue light into our eyes, now our brain gets the correct signals. But it's not enough just to wear blue light glasses if you still have LEDs coming in.

And that light's coming in from above, still going to get into that melanopsin, those melanopsin receptors. So we wanna try to turn off overhead lights. I turn off all my overhead lights at night, dim everything. And I use lamps that have either red bulbs or orange amber bulbs. And I just use eye level lamps in the rooms that we're in, um, an hour before bed, I put red on, you know, which is even more intense than these.

And red is a little different right before bed because that those melanopsin blue light receptors can also respond a little bit in the green range. So if we're being really, really particular and we wanna block out every single aspect of the light that can trigger that melanopsin, then red really dims the light.

Indoor light exposure. And I got, you know, I got out of the habit because sometimes you do, and you know, I start tossing more in bed. I wake up groggier, and then when I get back into the habit, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like free, free melatonin, free supplementation to just naturally mm-hmm. Give your body the signals it needs to know it's time to go to bed.

And with that said, I think it's worth saying. Like we've said already, there's a retraining that needs to happen. You know, don't get discouraged if you buy the, you know, red, blue blockers and you get the red light lamps, and the first night you try it, you're not immediately falling asleep, right? We need to retrain our whole system, but it can happen very, very quickly.

It's something called our, our sleep pressure or the builds up of adenosine in our brain, which is basically the breakdown of our a TP. And then this adenosine will keep building up in the brain till it reaches a point that is so high that we literally have to fall asleep. It's like this pressure that we've been up for long enough and we have to sleep.

So, so we need the adenosine to be at a certain level and our melatonin ideally to be high at the same time. This way, while we're sleeping, we are healing as well. Mm-hmm. So that's why some people might be so tired because they've been up for so long and they can fall asleep, but they're still not healing.

Yeah. My husband gets so mad at me 'cause I start turning out lights and put them on at four 30. He's like, you're crazy. It's like, um, yeah, I mean, if it's too, if it's too long, yellow's fine for a couple, you know, for, for after right after sunset, you wanna keep on yellow for. A little while, but really if we really trying to be with the seasons, I would put them on after Sunset if I'm home, you don't wanna drive with these, you don't wanna, you know, definitely don't wanna drive with them.

You wanna wait till you're home. Um, you know, in the winter when it is dark early, we're meant to kind of hibernate, like we're meant to fall asleep early. Melatonin takes a place of vitamin D in the winter. Everyone thinks we have to have so much vitamin D in the winter. But the studies show that melatonin can, can attach to those same receptors that vitamin D attaches to.

Yes. And then I wanted to clarify one piece, which is, um, actually two pieces. One you pointed out and you showed us on the screen, the audience won't be able to see it, the mm-hmm. Your blue light blockers in the day have that yellow tint. Yes. And why might that be preferred to just clear blue light blockers?

Oh, yes, good question. So clear blue light blockers. I know it's hard to see yellow, but clear is probably blocking about 10%, maybe 20% of that artificial blue light. It's better than nothing. Um, but I have found that some of the coatings that say they block blue, they really are only 10, 15, maybe 20%. You wanna block more than that.

But we have to really look at the spectrum that's being blocked. What most glasses will hopefully tell you what, what's being blocked. We wanna make sure when we're talking about artificial lights that we're blocking up to 455 nanometers, that's usually the light. Or 450 nanometers, 4 55. That's usually the, the, the single spike of blue that's in a lot of the LEDs.

Hmm. And that's really what we need to be careful. If, if the glasses are only blocking up to 440 and we're still getting four 50, it's kind of defeats the purpose. Mm-hmm. Okay. And then I promise, last two questions, highlighting the difference between we're wearing red, red, tinted blue light blockers at night.

Um, so it's not enough to just block our eyes, although that's the, the, the most important. We still wanna be careful with our skin. So same thing if we're in a bedroom, you know, we wanna make sure our bedrooms while we're sleeping are nice and dark. If we have too much light getting in, you know, we, our skin's still getting those signals as well.

Mm-hmm. So we do have, we have melanopsin everywhere. I mean our, in our skin and our blood vessels in our fat cells. It's really interesting how much of the, of that light is controlled. Um. Throughout the body. Yeah. And so it sounds like that ideal, if we were to make it more of a transition is maybe the sunsets, it's dark outside.

Nice. So once it gets dark, those just turn on. And then there's this, this gentle red light that kind of illuminates enough that I can see where I'm going, but I don't mm-hmm. Need all the lights on. And then at that point, I don't even need my blue light blockers anymore. I'm just using the red light in the home.

Yeah, that's fantastic. Right? Oh my goodness. I could, this is so good. Sorry, go ahead. No, I was also gonna say if we're on phones, even if we, we could put our phones on a red light, a red screen as well. Mm-hmm. Although I don't recommend being on a phone right before, right before bed. 'cause our brain will be stimulated from it.

Same completely. Uh, but yeah, what you were making me think of is, gosh, we have these, like, you know, at the cancer center I contract with on Fridays, we have full body red light beds and I was like, nice man, we really should have full body, full spectrum beds. I feel like the red light though is so great because that's what we're lacking and that those, those are the healing wavelengths.

If we have full spectrum, then you can't do them. Well, even red light you wouldn't wanna do after sunset. You wanna make sure you're doing it during the day when the sun is up. 'cause that's, that makes more sense. Okay. 'cause that's when red light would be available, but full spectrum would be great. But when it's full, you know, when, when.

If you had full spectrum with the uv, you wouldn't do that at different times of the day. That would be more of a Got it. Middle of the day. Yes. Yeah. But I feel like the red and infrared is really what we're going to need to absorb the most for all the healing. Yes. I'm curious about, you know, I work a lot and talk and educate a lot on the nervous system because that's mm-hmm.

Short range. Our phones are right up in our face. I'm wondering how much that is contributing to nervous system dysregulation where our, our brain is getting these signals, although they're incorrect, but signals that something must be wrong because I am focusing so intently on this thing here.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, blue light in general, when we have that unbalanced blue is going to stimulate our sympathetic nervous system. It's going to stimulate the PVN nucleus, the para ventricular nucleus in the brain, which triggers to the sympathetic system, which will dilate our pupils. It will make us more focused, like you said, and it just, it's creates stress.

Every time we look at something close, we literally are contracting our ciliary body muscles, like we're doing pushups. So I tell people we're, you're literally doing a pushup all day long for your eyes if you're not taking any breaks, if you're staring at something, and that's another trigger to become nearsighted.

When we have to focus so much up close, the brain doesn't wanna do that all day. So what it does is it triggers the brain or the eyes to get longer, become nearsighted. And when you're nearsighted, you don't have to focus as much for close, but you can't see far away. Then you need glasses for far away, and then you focus again through them and it gets, uh, gets worse and worse.

So yeah, that stress on the system is, is, is not very good at all. Yeah, it's very, so much more relaxing just to just. You know, let the eyes look at what we call infinity. Just relax. Mm-hmm. And look in the distance. Oh, beautiful. Thank you so much. I know I've kept you a little bit past our time. It's okay.

This is a podcast I'm gonna be sending to all my cancer patients, all my chronic illness clients. It's amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you.