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Blue Light & Circadian Biology

What is Blue Light?

 

One of the biggest assaults against us in the modern world is artificial lighting. All modern lighting can have a biological effect, some worse then others. LED, Fluorescent, and CLF bulbs are found to have a color spectrum that is blue. Most installations have a very high Kelvin (color scale) for example - a bulb with 6500K tells our body that it is noon all day. They can also flicker which also causes added biological stress.

Natural light from the sun has a spectrum of colors where the blue is always balanced with red. Before indoor lighting candles or fire was the only source of lighting at night. The progression of the disease processes have skyrocketed with artificial lighting. There have been many books written over the last 30 years warning of the negative health effects, yet industry pushes forward and has any oversight blocked.

Evening exposure from lighting, phone and tablet screens, television, street lights, etc negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness. Blue light also breaks the melanopsin/retinal linkage leading to loss of vitamin A, in turn Vitamin D, then destroying your photo-receptors.

What does all that blue light exposure really lead to?

- Skin damage, including color changes, inflammation, and weakening of the surface

- Loss of melatonin - dementia, some mood disorders, severe pain, cancer, and type 2 diabetes

- Loss of vitamin D - low levels associated with all disease processes, curvature of the spine, dental decay, 

  stunted growth, muscle cramps, spasms/twitching, Osteoporosis, Rickets

- Loss of vitamin A - night blindness, rashes, impaired immunity, retarded growth, fatigue, skin dryness, lack 

  of motor control, stomach problems, insomnia, loss of appetite, taste and smell

- Weight gain and increased blood sugar

What can you do to protect yourself and family?

- Removing all LED, fluorescent, and CLF bulbs in your house. Going back to incandescent or halogen with a

   Kelvin under 2700.

- Install low watt red incandescent bulbs so to minimize the effects of bright light on your melatonin

- Daytime blue light blocking metal free glasses that blocks 100% of artificial blue light from 400nm – 450nm

- Avoiding screen time after dark of any kind

- Use blue blocking metal free glasses that block 100% of blue and even green spectrum - 400-550nm

- Cover your skin and thyroid when under artificial lighting

- Downloading Iris software on your computer to block blue light and stop flicker

Blue Light Explained
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The clock in our genes and in every cell of your body | Joseph Takahashi | TEDxSMU 2013
20:09

The clock in our genes and in every cell of your body | Joseph Takahashi | TEDxSMU 2013

Joseph S. Takahashi, Ph.D. is the Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. His research interests are the molecular mechanism of circadian clocks, neuroscience, and the genetic basis of behavior. Dr. Takahashi pioneered the use of genetics in the mouse as a tool for discovery of genes underlying neurobiology and behavior. His awards include the Honma International Prize in Biological Rhythms Research in 1986, W. Alden Spencer Award in Neuroscience from Columbia University in 2001, Eduard Buchner Prize from German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2003 and Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the Sleep Research Society in 2012. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000, and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003. He was a co-founder of Hypnion, Inc., a biotech discovery company in Worcester, Mass., that investigated sleep/wake neurobiology and pharmaceuticals (now owned by Eli Lilly and Co.), and is a co-founder of ReSet Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech company that works on the role of clocks in metabolism. About TEDx: In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4259558/?fbclid=IwAR02UID3cJ0TL8f4L9JQlm-ZbGW0vHjzpJN7FifLn3w8TmSjdmSRywIINl8 - Pulsing blue light through closed eyelids: effects on acute melatonin suppression and phase shifting of dim light melatonin onset 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038456/ - Potential Biological and Ecological Effects of Flickering Artificial Light

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28254-8 - Blue light excited retinal intercepts cellular signaling

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-reveals-prolonged-exposure-weight-gain.html - Study reveals why prolonged light exposure leads to weight gain


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29180820 - Subcutaneous white adipocytes express a light sensitive signaling pathway mediated via a melanopsin/TRPC channel axis

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-08-links-body-clock-obesity-diabetes.html?fbclid=IwAR1M-pcpsBS6lyi-Qs_EdKlvnZxLPpG0XVawof8jHmscXdzpm6TUb1oRRmIj - Study links body clock to obesity and diabetes

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7032303/LED-lights-irreversibly-damage-eyes-French-health-authority-warns.html - LED lights in your house can cause irreversible damage to the eyes and lead to a vision-robbing condition, French health authority warns

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es101052q - Potential Environmental Impacts of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs): Metallic Resources, Toxicity, and Hazardous Waste Classification

https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-adopts-guidance-reduce-harm-high-intensity-street-lights - AMA adopts guidance to reduce harm from high intensity street lights

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25863264 - Retinal damage induced by commercial light emitting diodes (LEDs)

https://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/artificial-light/en/l-3/3-effects-living-organisms.htm

Health Effects of Artificial Light

http://theconversation.com/seeing-without-eyes-the-unexpected-world-of-nonvisual-photoreception-79166 - Seeing without eyes – the unexpected world of nonvisual photoreception

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4303996/ - Opsin Expression in Human Epidermal Skin

https://neurosciencenews.com/neuropsin-retina-molecular-clock-2771/ - How Neuropsin Allows The Retina to Set its Own Biological Rhythm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16689-4 - Subcutaneous white adipocytes express a light sensitive signaling pathway mediated via a melanopsin/TRPC channel axis

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3643261/ - Is It Time to Consider Photobiomodulation As a Drug Equivalent

https://www.academia.edu/5672136/The_Dangers_of_LED-Blue_light-Melatonin-Insomnia-Cancer-_RSH - The Dangers of LED-Blue light-Melatonin-Insomnia-Cancer- RSH

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-reveals-prolonged-exposure-weight-gain.html -  Study reveals why prolonged light exposure leads to weight gain

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/4/1232.full.pdf - Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4851763/ - Is it Blue Light or Increased Electromagnetic Fields which Affects the Circadian Rhythm in People who Use Smartphones at Night

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24772943 - Critical time delay of the pineal melatonin rhythm in humans due to weak electromagnetic exposure

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side -  Blue light has a dark side

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26935586?fbclid=IwAR118p2ATFcOS95_M3D3G7krnN6kX_VADz-mcJ7tkZTYDFy-KIrWwFjTRsA - Melanopsin retinal ganglion cell loss and circadian dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (Review)

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