How Sunlight Deficiency Destroys Your Health - With Dr. Alexis Cowan

28:12So the more, obviously, you need to still eat food, but human photosynthesis, it's increasingly looking like it's a very real thing. And I want to talk about a little offshoot in a moment around more evidence for that in mushrooms specifically, which is interesting. But for now, I just want to say that, you know, latitude is associated with skin melination. The lower the latitude and the higher the altitude, you see the darkest skin. So if you look at like Nairobi, Kenya, it's not only smack dab on the equator, but it's also at a very high altitude. And the higher you go up, The thinner the atmosphere, the more UV rays you're exposed to.

28:45So if you look at individuals from this part of the world, their skin is very, very dark, super pigmented, adapted to this very intense but high energy environment. And if you look at that and then you look and say, okay, who are the best marathon runners in the world? Well, they just so happen to overlap. And it turns out that if you're able to harness that UV light through your melanin, you can totally kick butt at pretty much any aerobic activity because your body has access to far more free energy than a counterpart who doesn't have that level of melanin and UV stimulation because you're just basically missing one third of the bioenergetic equation.

29:25And we could talk about the other third, which has to do with grounding and electrical connection to the earth and availability of electrons through that. But food is only one third of that equation. And so if you can harness your melanin in a high UV environment, you can totally kick butt at basically any sort of athletic activity, but in particular, aerobic activities. And so to circle back to the work of Dr. Arturo Solis Herrera and his work on human photosynthesis, there was another supporting research team that did some work at Chernobyl back in the 90s that really served as a primary intellectual catalyst for studying this phenomenon in humans.

30:03And the phenomena is that this research team went to Chernobyl, the nuclear fallout zone, like they went in and they found these mushrooms that lived in this fallout that were pitch black. They were like, what are these mushrooms? So they took them back to the lab. They did this research on them and they found that they were full of melanin. Then they did some studies to find out why is this melanin there? And they found out that these mushrooms created an adaptation to synthesize melanin to be able to harness the gamma radiation from the nuclear fallout to make free energy. Now, mushrooms are actually more closely related to animals than they are to plants.

30:41And so I think I haven't talked to Dr. Herrera, but I imagine that this research was a major catalyst for him to wonder, OK, is this also happening in humans? And they are working on laying down the theoretical and experimentational frameworks to prove that this is happening. But if we think about the response of the body to UVB light exposure, as I mentioned, decrease appetite, increase energy expenditure. From a first principle standpoint, doesn't it make so much sense that if your body is getting energy via another mechanism that it doesn't need to eat as much and it can have more energy available to move more, to expend more?

31:18So just looking at this from a first principle standpoint, it made total sense to me when I first started learning this information and this research that, yeah, these dots are connecting. This makes a ton of sense. And like experientially, you know, every time I go to the beach or, you know, get some sun, I'm not really hungry afterwards. In fact, a lot of people will get super sleepy after going to the beach because you actually make a ton of melatonin in your peripheral cells. So we talked about pineal melatonin that plays an important role in creating sleep pressure and getting good quality sleep and sleep duration, etc.

31:51But every mitochondria and every cell of your body makes melatonin as well for a different reason. It serves a really important role in maintaining the quality of mitochondrial health and function. But some really great work from Scott Zimmerman, who's actually here in Jersey with me, is about an hour north. He teamed up with, I believe, a research team in Texas to create a real-time sensor for melatonin, cortisol, and I think like TNF-alpha or one of the inflammatory cytokines. And they basically made a continuous glucose monitor, but for those molecules instead. And they found that you stick people outside in the sun, take them out, they get a huge boost in circulating melatonin.

32:32melatonin. And it turns out because that melatonin that's created in your mitochondria in response to near-infrared light, which we haven't talked about yet much other than the fact that glass filters it out. And I didn't mention this, but all of our fluorescent LED and device screens, none of them contain any near-infrared light because it's seen as inefficient energetically because it's heat. It's also known as heat. Infrared light in general is heat, but the near-infrared component in particular is the most important arguably for human physiology because it penetrates the deepest into our bodies.

33:05It bathes every single mitochondria and every cell that contains mitochondria with this stimulating force. Near-infrared light directly stimulates and supports mitochondrial function, which includes energy production, metabolic water production, as well as endogenous light production. We didn't talk about bio photons yet. We'll go there for sure. But suffice to say for now that near-infrared light is an essential input into the body to help stimulate and create kind of this constant state of activation for our mitochondria during the day. And from sunup to sundown, near-infrared light is present, whether you're at the North Pole or you're at the equator.

33:44Near-infrared light does not vary with latitude in the same way that UV light does throughout the seasons. And so we are meant to be bathed with near-infrared light as long as the sun is up. And modern indoor humans are not getting any of this near-infrared stimulus and it's creating a mitochondrial crisis partially by way of not engaging that melatonin synthesis that plays such a critical role in mitochondrial quality control in virtually every cell of the body. Okay. I didn't know my mind could be blown twice. Like this is just so incredible. So part is number one, again, being proactive, this near-infrared light input, we can, it's, it's priceless.

34:25This is priceless stuff right here. And this really, for me, speaks to why technology, these new innovations with near-infrared light therapy, red light therapy, they have all these incredible therapeutic benefits. But we're still missing the point. We need to get that natural exposure. but is this the reason specifically i want to ask you about this the impact on the mitochondria why red light therapy and near infrared therapy is so effective for everything from like you know helping to reduce wrinkles to accelerating injury from wounds and tissue damage and thyroid issues you know helping with autoimmunity you can go on and on and on tons of data on this stuff is this like the foundational reason why is it the impact on the mitochondria yeah Yeah, absolutely.

35:14So there's something called chromophores in the molecules that make up the mitochondrial respiratory chain or electron transport chain, which is what's responsible for making ATP in the mitochondria. So these chromophores absorb light at different frequencies, and the red and near-infrared components are particularly powerful at stimulating these. I will say that most red light panels, virtually all red light panels that are LED-based, are only going to have a few frequencies present. typically you'll get a couple red and a couple near-infrared. I just want to contrast that briefly against what you receive from sunlight because let's say in a red light panel you have 600 nanometers or 620, 660, and then maybe you have 810 and 860, something like this.

35:55So a couple red, a couple near-infrared. If you're going outside in the sun, no matter what time of day it is, it could be at sunrise, sunset, midday, you're getting 600, 601, 602, dot, dot, dot, all the way out to 810 dot dot dot 86 all the way out to 3100 nanometer far infrared light. So you're getting the broadest spectrum possible of light all the way from UVB to far infrared. And I really like to think about the light that we receive from sun as a Morse code that is being, so the information is encoded into the light based on the ratios of different wavelengths. It's being interpreted by the body and it's allowing the body to understand something about the environment in the time of day.

36:36So in nature, we never receive red and near-infrared light by themselves, first of all. So at sunrise, there's a very highly enriched portion of red and near-infrared, but they're still blue. There's still some shorter wavelength light. And then UVA comes in a little bit later. UVB comes in a little bit later after that. We're really always meant to receive red and near-infrared with some balancing short wavelength light that helps to tune the response of the mitochondria. And so I think there is a time and place for using red light therapy, sauna bulbs. I use my sauna bulb all the time. I love it.

37:11That's more of a broad spectrum. It's an incandescent technology. So it has more similar to the distribution of the spectrum, like you would receive from the sun versus a panel. But even the panel, it's going to be beneficial in certain contexts, especially if these individuals are living indoor lifestyles and they're not going outside or they're not able to prioritize that for whatever reason at a given time. But I think if we were to redo some of these like red light studies with people who are regularly going outside, we probably wouldn't see much of a benefit because they're already getting that stimulus from, you know, the way nature intended it.

37:46So there's a time and place to use them. I think it's great, but I think we can't let that detract from the real solution, which is just to spend more time under natural light at whatever times of day we can get out essentially. But sunrise is particularly important from a circadian perspective. As I mentioned earlier, we're getting that right ratio of red and blue that helps with the heme protein repair, that helps with anchoring in that circadian clock and the cortisol rhythm. If you stay out until UVA rise, now you're stimulating the local clocks via neuropsin stimulation, as I mentioned earlier.

38:18Then UVB comes in and we're engaging that POMC system, the bioenergetic system, melanin production, et cetera. And then it kind of wanes throughout the day and repeats itself and goes back towards, you know, UVB set, UVA set, sunset. So you get two chances each day to get that heme repair, that circadian anchor. But the morning is in particular important because it's setting the tone for the rest of your day. So just wanted to highlight that because there is a lot of craze around using light devices. And I think there is certainly a time and place and they're way better than doing nothing at all.

38:49But as my mentor, Dr. Cruz says, why settle for a B, C, or D when you can have an A? Exactly. So looking at these things as supplemental, you know, the same thing with food, there's wonderful supplements out there, but it does not replace the real thing. And so keeping that in mind, and also, again, I think there's a great place for these devices, especially people know they're not doing certain things. And that tends to be the case, you know, even with food, right? But we have access, just go outside, you know, it's free, it's free. And so now let's talk a little bit more about the darkness. Because again, these light inputs are critical for our biology, but so is darkness.

39:35And you mentioned earlier, and this should be just another aha moment for everybody and an experiential thing as well, going to the beach and becoming sleepy and having this uptick, you know, it's not just what's going on with our, you know, pineal gland. It's also, as you mentioned, this kind of peripheral system. And we can kind of bank even some of these hormones and neurotransmitters. And even something like serotonin, we know is a precursor to making melatonin, right? And we get an uptick with that, with certain spectrums of light and in particular, just sunlight. And so having all of that said, knowing that that sun exposure when you go to the beach is going to help boost melatonin doesn't sound like the melatonin that we're aware of.

40:21What we do know most people at this point is that we need a couple of things checked off in order for us to produce ample amount of melatonin at night. Darkness is one of those parameters. And another one is having a consistent cycle as well, because that can really throw off how much melatonin you're producing and when. So let's talk about darkness in relationship to our biology. Yeah. So our biology is a decentralized system, meaning there's not one centralized single controller. So light is not more important than dark. Dark is not more important than light. They are equally important for regulating and kind of co-controlling the system.

41:02and so as you alluded to making that serotonin from getting bright full spectrum light during the day is going to tee you up to be able to make ample amounts of melatonin later because that serotonin actually as you said gets converted into melatonin in the pineal gland which then you know helps you go to sleep and get good quality sleep and you know all the beneficial things deep sleep REM all the things so that darkness at night is really important but most people don't sleep in dark environments. Some people, God forbid, sleep with like the TV on or like lights on. And there was a really powerful study that came out, I believe in 2021, that showed even very low levels of light in the sleeping environment under 10 lux are able to actually mess with your melatonin production and impair your sleep quality.

41:49And the next morning, those people who are exposed to even low levels of light had increased insulin resistance markers, decreased hrv increased fasting glucose that's from just a single night of sleeping in a low lit light environment during sleep now imagine if you do that every single night you're literally fomenting mitochondrial dysfunction and insulin resistance on a day-to-day basis the other thing i want to hone on here with regards to dark darkness at night is the light that we can't necessarily see with our eyes that is also important and of course the light i'm referring to there is non-native EMF, which are primarily radio frequencies in the modern world.

42:26So this would be our Wi-Fi, 5G, Bluetooth, 4G, LTE, all those things. Those are all radio frequencies. They are long wavelength light that's past infrared on the light spectrum. So short wavelength would include gamma rays at the most extreme. We have x-rays, gamma rays. We have the UV. Then we have the visible spectrum, blue, violet through red. Then we have infrared. And then after infrared, we have microwaves and then radio frequencies. So the radio frequencies are on the electromagnetic spectrum. They are called EMFs because they're electromagnetic frequencies. All light is an electromagnetic frequency technically, but the non-native component is referring to the fact that before the technological advancements of the modern day, we weren't exposed to radio frequencies.

43:15Very, very small levels will get in from cosmic radiation from space, but it's basically none. Compared to today, we're bathing in them 24-7, 365, essentially, especially if you live in an urban area. The 5G rollout that occurred around COVID times, especially urban areas, use millimeter waves, which are overlapping into the microwave range. And because 5G waveforms, they're a bit shorter wavelength of the radio frequencies, they're not able to penetrate as well. And so they have to use a stronger wave with more repeater towers in order to keep signal high for people that are in urban environments.

43:55And so that's why 5G in the city is completely different from 5G in the suburbia or in the countryside because they're using a different wave intensity. And so the people who are exposed to city 5G service, they're exposed to a totally different kind of beast to a certain extent. And so doing our best to protect ourselves from this light that we can't see with our eyes, but our cells are seeing. And for anybody who thinks this is like woo or not rooted in hard science, this research literally goes back to the 1950s and the work of Robert O. Becker and Dr. Alan Fry. Both of them were kind of at the forefront of the non-Native EMF research scene starting in the 50s.

44:38Becker's lab was from like the 50s through the 70s. He actually ended up getting canceled on 60 Minutes, like the nighttime talk show, after he blew the whistle on a military antenna that was going up in the Midwest. And he showed in his lab, like without a doubt, that these frequencies were causing mitochondrial harm, that they were causing issues with the cardiovascular system, the nervous system, etc., creating abnormal growth. And his books, The Body Electric and Cross Currents, are incredible. We actually read both of them in my book club and gone through all the incredible data that he generated literally over 50 years ago, showing unequivocally that these frequencies are causing issues.

45:18Alan Fry's work was focused primarily on the harms of non-Native EMFs and not the solutions. Becker was primarily focused on both, actually, the harms and also solutions and ways to kind of mitigate and avoid the issues. but Fry did a lot of work on like Havana syndrome and like these targeted EMF weapons that were being used to you know in a lot of cases for these delegates um that were at the embassy in Russia they kept coming back I think this was in the 60s or the 70s with leukemias like these really rare leukemias and they were dying and they were having all these like psychological effects and it was crazy stuff um but he did the research to show exactly how that could happen and be propagated with these EMF weapons, essentially.

46:01And so anyway, suffice to say that there is decades of work showing that these frequencies can harm. Fry's work also showed that in the radio frequency range of like our 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, that you can actually open up the gut and brain and blood brain barriers, make them leaky. And then when you have these hyperpermeable membranes, we start to get things moving through these membranes that shouldn't be. So we get more systemic inflammation because now basically, you know, our microbiomes become dysbiotic. We're getting leaking of lipotoxin and endotoxin from bacteria into the bloodstream fomenting inflammation in the fat tissue and in the organs with regards to the blood brain barrier, that hyperpermeable blood brain barriers associated with brain fog, psychological mood disorders, like cognitive decline, all of these things.

46:53and were led to the belief by the public and by our institutions that the only harms that can come from EMFs are thermal. But all of the effects that were documented going back to mid-1900s showed that these were non-thermal effects. These had to do with actual changes to the cellular functions and the mitochondrial function that were fomenting these both acute and long-term issues. And so when it comes to non-AVMFs, the most important thing to understand is the inverse square law. This is a physics concept that basically says that the closer you are to a source of EMFs, the stronger the stimulus will be.

47:31So whenever you can put some space in between you and the source, you're going to be benefiting yourself. So that would include putting your Wi-Fi router in a room you don't spend time in, or better yet, using Ethernet versus Wi-Fi, not keeping your cell phone in your pocket, not putting your laptop on your lap, reducing proximity wherever you can. And then wherever you can't, there's technology and like, you know, stuff out there now that you can use to help mitigate those frequencies. So like EMF blocking paint, curtains, clothing, like there's a lot out there. The best thing to do is reduce proximity.

48:05But when you can't, you can go these other options to try to block the frequencies. I don't necessarily recommend the harmonizers that are out there. Like I think they're mostly BS. If we're talking about things like Aries Tech and other technologies like that, they don't have any way to prove what they're doing and what they say they're doing. And basically what they say they're doing is they're like changing the waveform to harmonize it to our biology. And there's no way to prove that. You can look at long-term outcomes, but you can't rule out the placebo effect in those cases either. So I think when it comes to EMFs, you either want to create space or block it with an actual physical blockade that, you know, physics could prove.

48:48You can use a meter. You can show that the levels go down when you put this up. Like that's what I would recommend. If people want to mess with harmonizers, they can do it, but don't be lulled into a false sense of protection. That's what I would say. Amazing. Triple mind blown. This is, this is just, so proximity is obviously, again, the most important thing or most valuable thing that we can utilize. And, you know, this, I've got like 10 questions that are bouncing off this one topic. But, you know, again, this is something that even when we hear something like radio waves, for example, we might relate that again to something that we can hear, you know, the radio station, but we're talking about light.

49:28And we've already, we set this whole conversation up with how influenced and susceptible we are to light inputs. Like that's basically how our biology is run. All right. And so just because we can't see it and humans, I've been talking about this for, you know, maybe 20 years now at this point, but we're tinkering with things that we've never messed with before. And we don't know what's going to happen. We're swimming in all of these, in all of these waves that it's going to get, it's not that they're newly invented. The art kind of artificial versions of these things are. And we're swimming in them.

50:05They're definitely penetrating, going through in and out of our bodies. And as you mentioned, we're seeing all manner of health issues arise from these things. And we can be relating it to something completely different when we're seeing a manifestation of cardiovascular damage, intestinal permeability issues, cognitive issues, cancers, the list goes on and on. There really isn't a part of human biology that's not affected. I said electric because I wanted to ask you about, okay, I'm going to do it. This is controversial. I want to ask you about electric cars. Oh God. Is there an issue? Because again, just thinking about this stuff, because it's invisible and it's a big part of our culture now, could our health be at risk when we're sitting in an electric vehicle or even a hybrid vehicle for a long stints of time?

50:55I'm just going to, I'm going to pass it to you. I'm curious. Please. Yeah. Yeah, I'm thankful that you went there because part of Becker's really important work was not only on the radio frequency front, but also on other forms of non-native EMFs, including non-native electric fields and magnetic fields. So when we're talking about electric vehicles, we're really talking about these electric and magnetic fields. There are radio frequencies as well. The cars are, you know, Bluetooth laden. They're communicating with towers and they have all these modern conveniences. But, you know, that comes at a cost, in my opinion.

51:25And so if you just simply get like a tri-field TF2 meter, they're like 200 bucks on Amazon, and you turn that thing on and you go sit in an electric car, you'll never want to sit in one again because it literally blows up the meter, flatlines it at max on both the magnetic and the electric front. So when it comes to batteries in general, they make a very strong magnetic field. And interestingly, actually, Becker's work in cross currents and the body electric, he highlights the effects on growth, basically creating aberrant growth or changing cell cycles from magnetic fields and electric fields.

52:00Even the AC power grid itself creates non-native EMFs in the form of dirty electricity of these non-native electric fields. So whenever you're plugging something into a wall, that thing is going to have some level of detectable electric field coming off of it. Now, again, proximity is king when it comes to this. So the closer you are, the stronger it's going to be. When it comes to electric vehicles, in particular, if you're sitting on the driver's side or the passenger side in the front seat, you're getting bombed. Compared to somebody in the back seat, they're getting a little bit less, but it's still quite high.

52:38And I believe in like Teslas and a lot of like the popular electric cars, the battery is basically like right underneath the driver's seat, irradiating your sex organs and just going basically straight up your body. So they're a huge no for me. I will never drive an electric car like you couldn't pay me to buy an electric car or to use one. Actually, I remember the first time I sat in one, I got like this massive migraine. And that was actually about a year, year and a half after I fell down the quantum and circadian biology rabbit hole. And one thing that people will notice when they start engaging in these practices, when they start, you know, getting out at sunrise or first thing in the morning when they wake up, getting some midday sun, blocking blue light at night, only using red light, candlelight, getting dark darkness in the evening.

53:22you start to build back your sensitivity because something that we didn't talk about is the artificial blue light. This high energy blue light you can get from LEDs, fluorescent device screens, et cetera, breaks the photoreceptors on our skin and our eyes, our surfaces. And so the photoreceptors, there's one called melanopsin. We talked about neurops in the UVA light detector, but melanopsin is the blue light detector. And it's held into place with a special form of vitamin A in our skin and our eyes. And when we're exposed to that blue light in isolation without the balancing effects of UV and infrared, that bond between the vitamin A and the photoreceptor breaks down.

54:01When it breaks down, the free vitamin A goes on and it breaks down more photoreceptors. So it creates this feed forward loop in the negative direction. Our photoreceptors are what allows our body to sense the environment, in particular, the light environment. And so the longer you're in a toxic, poor light environment with non-native EMFs and the toxic soup, you're eating junk food, dot, dot, dot. Now, suddenly, you're not as sensitive to your environment in general. You're not as attuned to your environment because your ability to receive that information actually has broken down. So as soon as you start engaging in healthy practices with regards to your light environment and your light-dark cycles, you build back that sensitivity.

54:41So exposures that you wouldn't have thought twice about in the past, now suddenly it might make you feel sick or like you can palpably notice that this doesn't feel right. And you might wonder, okay, like, why am I sensing this now? This is why it's because you built back that sensitivity at a molecular level. Now you're able to detect an environment that's not healthy for you. And that's actually, you know, a blessing as inconvenient as it can be. And, you know, sometimes it's actually, you know, it's good information to have so that you can make the choice to, you know, change that environment in some way to make it a bit healthier for, you know, everybody it's affecting.

55:15Yeah. Thank you for that. Because again, we don't want to turn a blind eye and just, you know, I I'm a big fan of, and I know how it feels like some, sometimes like, I just don't want to know, like ignorance is bliss, but there are people and there's, there are many stories of this, a lot of anecdotal data, but we've got some sound science on this now too, but just people who are driving electric vehicles and experiencing nausea and headaches and, you know, chronic health issues. And again, they're trying to find out, looking at all these different places to what it is, not knowing that the vehicle that they're sitting in, maybe they're, you know, a long commute or they're an Uber driver or whatever the case might be.

55:53And so it's just to be aware, like we're tinkering with stuff and technologies and we don't know the impact it has on our bodies. So, but also I don't want to freak out people. there's a lot of people with the Teslas out there, even if they got the little sticker. The other day I saw a sticker that said felon. And I'm like, why would it say felon on their Tesla? It was F-E-Lon. Oh my God. Yeah. So, you know, maybe they're on that energy and they're maybe wanting to get a different vehicle, but this is just something to be mindful of if you're in the market. But, you know, sometimes we're trading one problem for another problem and not looking at like, what is paying attention?

56:32putting human biology as the priority, right? When we're making things. All right. Because we have to. Because our government's not going to do it for us. Like the regulatory agencies do not care. They're actually making a killing by us being sick and broken down and dumbed down. And actually, if you look at some European countries, including Italy, Switzerland, France and Russia, they all have much more strict policies as it relates to 5G towers and non-native EMFs. For example, here in the States, the cell companies can legally put a cell tower on top of a school, a nursing home, a hospital, you name it.

57:11It is criminal. It is criminal. If you look at the policies and the legality overseas in those countries that I just listed, they are not allowed to do those things. So it is acknowledged that these are particularly harmful for people who are sick, fragile, developing. But we're choosing to selectively ignore certain information here at the level of the regulation, at least, because it's inconvenient. And so we have to look out for ourselves because nobody is going to come to save us in that department. And like you alluded to, not knowing about it and choosing ignorance is not going to protect you from these exposures.

57:46They have biological effects that are independent of what you believe to be true. And so doing our best to inform ourselves and reduce proximity and exposure when possible is it's the best approach to make in this kind of very novel, hyper novel, hyper novel modern world that we're living in. Yeah. One of the fastest ways to impact your gut health is through the things that you drink. That liquid medium is a fast delivery system to improve your energy, boost your metabolic health, or to straight up mess you up. When it comes to gut health, one of the most powerful things seen in clinical data to instantly up level the health of our gut are polyphenols.

58:25And these are incredible compounds that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that are out of this world. And this is just one of the reasons why in that liquid delivery form, teas like green tea and black tea are noted in thousands, literally thousands of peer reviewed studies to have a variety of health benefits. Now, my favorite tea is absolutely abundant in polyphenols, and it's been found to have remarkable impacts on our gut health. A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications uncovered that a unique compound called theobrownin found in the traditional fermented tea called pu-erh has remarkable effects on our microbiome.

59:14The researchers found that theobrownin positively alters our gut microbiota that directly reduces liver cholesterol and reduces lipogenesis, the creation of fat. Another study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that Pu-erh may be able to reverse gut dysbiosis by dramatically reducing ratios of potentially harmful bacteria and increasing ratios of beneficial bacteria. So much of these benefits seen in these peer-reviewed studies are due to the incredible concentrations of polyphenols that are found in Pu-erh. And the only Pu-erh that I drink is triple toxin screened for purity.

59:56It uses a patented cold extraction technology and it's wild harvested, making it even more abundant in polyphenols. The Pu-erh that I'm talking about, and again, it's the only Pu-erh tea that I drink, is from the incredible folks at Peak Life. Go to peaklife.com forward slash model and you're going to get up to 20 % off. Plus, they're going to hook you up with a free starter kit that includes an electric frother with some of my favorite bundles. and my favorite teas over at Peak Life. Again, go to peaklife.com forward slash model. That's P-I-Q-U-E-L-I-F-E.com forward slash model to take advantage.

1:00:39This Pu-erh tea is in a league of its own. It's absolutely incredible. You can enjoy it either hot or cold. And there are multiple studies affirming its benefit on our overall metabolic health and supporting fat loss as well. It's truly special. Again, head over there, check them out. peaklife.com forward slash model. Now back to the show. Well, with the current, uh, the way that our society is structured, it's very difficult for the average person to quote escape all of these EMFs. And you called it earlier, dirty electricity or Christina Aguilera electricity. All right. That's a, that's a little Easter egg for everybody.

1:01:17And you know, it's, it's very difficult to, uh, to escape it. And so what are some things that we can do practically to, you know, maybe protect ourselves, insulate ourselves? I know you mentioned proximity, but what are some other things? You mentioned grounding earlier. And, you know, I was talking, I've got an episode of the Model Health Show from 13 years ago, you know, talking about grounding and some of the science that was in peer reviewed journals, just like, this is interesting stuff here. And, but then again, it just seems like very soft science, a little like whatever. It can't be that easy.

1:01:51So can you talk about some things that we can do to insulate ourselves, to protect ourselves? Maybe even if we're in an electric vehicle, is there anything that we can possibly do to make it a little bit less toxic for ourselves? Yeah. So I'm going to circle back to grounding in a moment because it is important. The first thing I want to highlight with regards to protection is actually kind of hearkening back to the conversation that we had already about melanin. So I mentioned that melanin can absorb UV light and it can use that to bioenergetically power mushrooms, people, other organisms. I mentioned that they can absorb gamma rays, these mushrooms in Chernobyl.

1:02:28But what I didn't mention is that melanin absorbs virtually every wavelength of light. The only exception is in the near-infrared light range. It actually allows near-infrared light to pass through, which allows even a melanated individual to receive a lot of those nourishing rays deep in their systems. The purpose of me mentioning that is that the more melanin you have on your surface, the more you're able to absorb radio frequency waves, for example, and prevent them from interacting in deeper tissues of your body. So despite the fact that mainstream dermatology will say there's no such thing as a healthy tan, in the modern non-native EMF soup, melanin is an incredible sponge for these frequencies to help protect your internal organs from exposure.

1:03:10So that's a really important one. With regards to grounding, I actually want to mention something because this kind of really gets into, it's not, not only is it not a soft science, it's probably one of the hardest science sciences because it's rooted in physics. So if we look at a lot of this work with light biology, circadian biology, quantum biology, we're really talking at the biophysical level, like how molecules are working, how electrons are flowing, how charge is separating. and Robert O. Becker was actually inspired by somebody called Albert St. Georgie who won the Nobel Prize I believe in 1938 on his discoveries around vitamin C but St.

1:03:47Georgie had this pet hypothesis that every gene in the human genome encoded a protein that had an electronic structure so in other words he believed that all proteins expressed in the body were semiconductors. Now of course today when people think of semiconductors, semiconductors were thinking about electronics and things like this. Of course, also semiconductors means that basically electrons can flow through a material under certain conditions. And so Becker actually went on to prove that indeed the proteins within our body, including the major ones like collagen, which makes up, you know, by weight, it's the most abundant protein in the system.

1:04:25It's the fascia is basically a hydrated collagen system that's piezoelectric, meaning when you squeeze it down, it can create light and charge. Or if you flow charge through it, it can basically, you know, create mechanical changes. So that's one example of a semiconductor in the body. But if you want to prove yourself that this is true, you can put, go outside, wear a sneaker on one foot that has like a rubber synthetic sole, barefoot on the other foot. You can put your bare foot on the grass. You can use a simple voltmeter. And I have a, like a video of me doing this and like a highlight reel on my Instagram where you can prove to yourself that you're grounded.

1:05:05It's going to read zero on the meter. You take that barefoot off the grass. It's going to read some positive number. You put your barefoot back on. There's somebody next to you that's wearing also sneakers. They're ungrounded. You simply touch fingertips with them. Now they're grounded. The smallest fraction of your skin needs to be grounded in order for your whole system to receive that electrical grounding, that benefit, because we really are electrical beings. And that's why Becker's book was called The Body Electric. And he went on to prove that very beautifully. But modern humans are walking through life ungrounded 24-7.

1:05:40And this is a very new thing. Like this only goes back maybe 75, 80 years. Because prior to that, we didn't have synthetic materials that are like these plastics and things like this that block a grounding force. leather cotton wool all these permit the flow of the electrons essentially permit the grounding force to interface with your body whether it's you know whether you're inside or outside so this is really a very modern problem because homes in the past would have been grounded they're made of wood they don't have polyurethanes coating everything like they're made of stone slate whatever it is you're still going to be grounding by interacting with these materials and so whenever you can introduce more grounding into your life it's going to be beneficial Like there was a study done maybe three, four years ago showing that just 25 minutes of grounding dramatically reduced the inflammatory burden of individuals.

1:06:30And they use thermography to prove it. They looked at people that had inflammatory conditions on a thermograph. You can see the inflamed joints and areas are hot. They're red. You ground them for 25 minutes. Those areas have cooled down. And that's just 25 minutes. Now, imagine if you're, you know, grounding as much as you can every day, whether it's through grounding sheets, mats, et cetera. The only caveat that I would say is if you're going to try to ground inside and bring these like mats or mattress toppers or sheets or whatever inside is that you ideally want to still ground them into the earth and not through an outlet like the ground on an outlet because outlet grounds aren't necessarily grounded all the time.

1:07:08There's something called jump conduction that can happen where basically maybe you test your outlet. It says it's grounded. But when you turn on a big appliance, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, now suddenly there's jump conduction and there's charge flowing into that ground that shouldn't be there. Now, if you're grounding on that mat sheet, et cetera, you're getting that charge now and you're getting the opposite of a benefit. You're actually being harmed by that. So in order to rule that out, what I'm doing like right now, for example, my foot's on a grounding mat and I just have the wire running out the window.

1:07:38And for me, I had needed to extend it a little bit. So I basically got some insulated copper wire, stripped the ends, wound the wire around the probe that would have gone into the wall, a little electric tape, sent the other end into the yard, buried it in a little bit of ground. now I'm grounded when I'm inside, but it's as if my feet are on the earth outside. So it is very kind of easy. It just takes a little bit of planning and forethought to make it happen, but there's a major benefit there for people. And as I said, we're meant to be grounded all day, every day. So any amount that you can introduce is going to be beneficial.

1:08:12Amazing. Amazing. 20 years ago, I was, I had a grounding rod outside and I was utilizing these grounding bed sheets for years. And, you know, I kind of strayed away from that because of my concern when I moved, because I started to plug it, put into the wall that, you know, because I didn't, my bedroom was like really high up. And so, but one of the things, and I had this like little tester as well, like you hold it in your hand and there's, you know, there's a little light sensor thing on there, but it doesn't light up unless you touch the grounding sheet or the grounding mat. And you literally, like you just said, like just touching your toe, just the teeny tiny, barely even touch it.

1:08:51And it comes right on because it's indicating that it's grounded. But being aware, thank you for sharing that because it can be kind of this cross-contamination in a way. And so the ideal way is to get it directly from the ground and also just spending some time barefoot outside. You know, just this is how you get it al natural, just from the source. And so that's a great tip for everybody to be mindful of. Now, what about, as you mentioned earlier, you mentioned curtains. So what about clothing and curtains? Do any of these things have impact with kind of protecting us from EMFs? Yeah, I would say if you're going to be in like a high EMF environment, like a plane or something like this, you can think about maybe wearing EMF blocking clothing on particular parts of the body.

1:09:39Like maybe you want to protect your sex organs because they're particularly vulnerable. Maybe you get like EMF blocking underwear or something like this. It could be a good idea. Personally, what I tend to do is just live a lifestyle in general that will buffer me against a harsh environment when I am in there. So when I am flying, I know my lifestyle has me doing really well so that when I'm in that environment, it's not going to affect me as much. Another thing that I do to prepare for flying and to help support my mitochondria in an environment like that is a deuterium depletion protocol, which it's a little bit...

1:10:11I mean, people might have heard of deuterium depleted water. It's a little bit complex, but I'll do my best to just kind of distill it down. So I mentioned earlier that our mitochondria through the respiratory chain make metabolic water. So that metabolic water is deuterium depleted water. Deuterium is a heavy form of hydrogen. Our mitochondria are a battery that separates hydrogen protons from electrons. That's exactly how a regular battery that powers your remote control works as well. But those protons that are being separated from the electrons have to be proteum, the light form of hydrogen.

1:10:44Deuterium has double the mass, increased size, and it messes with the transport mechanism that allows those protons to come back into the inner part of the mitochondria, which is what powers the spinning of this rotor called ATP synthase that is what's making ATP. So the pore that goes down the middle of that ATP synthase is made to fit proteum, not deuterium. And so the reason I mentioned that is because mitochondria are racist against deuterium. They do not want deuterium anywhere near them. And doing a deuterium depletion protocol before going into a stressful environment like a plane, for example, or for disease remediation, we now have data showing that in cancer patients and people with diabetes, that doing a three-month deuterium depletion protocol significantly, well, reduces fasting glucose and insulin levels in diabetics, reverses insulin resistance to a certain extent, a significant extent, and also improves outcomes in cancer patients who are receiving the DDW, the deuterium depleted water with some adjuvants like radiation, chemo, surgery.

1:11:48And so the way that's working is it's helping to improve mitochondrial function. The way that I see it, every chronic disease that we're facing societally is rooted in dysfunctional mitochondria. It just depends which tissue is most affected. And that's really dictated when you're born to a certain extent. So when you're born, you get all of your mitochondria from mom. And this is the work of Dr. Doug Wallace out of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He's the pioneer of mitochondrial biology. He's the one who discovered you get all the mitochondria from mom. He discovered mitochondrial Eve, which is basically if you trace back the mitochondrial DNA, you can trace it back to one woman essentially.

1:12:27And he's also the one who determined that heteroplasmy is a biomarker of disease. And heteroplasmy is rates of mutation within the mitochondrial DNA. So people probably know that there's DNA within the nucleus of the cell that encodes a bunch of genes that make proteins. But there's also DNA within the mitochondria that's special. It's circular. It actually looks like bacterial DNA because for people who don't know, there's a theory called the endosymbiont theory, which basically states that mitochondria evolved from bacteria in like the ancient landscape. And so mitochondria and bacteria share a ton in common.

1:13:05That's also why antibiotics are harmful for a multitude of reasons, not only for the bacterial death of the good microbes, but also of direct harm on mitochondria as well. But that DNA in the mitochondria can accumulate mutations. And when mutations accumulate, the proteins that are encoded by that DNA are what make the electron transport chain complexes that allow for energy production, water production, and biophoton production, which I do want to circle back on in a little bit. So maybe you can remind me. So this heteroplasmy burden, this mutation burden in the mitochondria, Dr. Wallace has shown that, you know, if you look at basically any disease, say you can look at autoimmune diseases, cancers, you know, IBD, liver disease, and you look at the mitochondria from the affected tissues, they have a ton of heteroplasmy.

1:13:54They have all these mutations within the DNA. And that is due to insufficient quality control mechanisms being engaged for those mitochondria. So that's mitophagy and mitobiogenesis. Mitophagy is the process by which damaged mitochondria are selectively broken down and gotten rid of. Mitobiogenesis is the process by which you can expand the good mitochondria that are left. And so a lot of people may also not know that aging is a mitochondrial disease. It's just an inevitable one. So heteroplasmy accumulates about 10 % per decade on average. So if you're lucky, you just, you know, accumulate 10 % per decade until you pass away of quote unquote old age.

1:14:36But if you're exposed to a toxic environment that is stressful on your mitochondria, now suddenly you could accumulate mutations, this heteroplasmy at a much faster rate. So let's take the example of childhood cancers. A baby can be born, they could seem healthy, they develop a retinoblastoma at like two years old, and they pass away at like five. So if you actually looked at the mitochondria in their retina, in their brain, you could see that the mitochondria that they were born with, even though they were only a couple days old, the mitochondria may have looked like a 60-year-old's in that tissue.

1:15:14And that has to do with the mitochondria that were gifted by mom. So depending on mom's environment, lifestyle, stressors, traumas, and grandma's as well, because this propagates through generations, that's dictating the hand of mitochondria that's being given to the next generation, which dictates which tissues are most vulnerable to disease in an individual. So I just wanted to highlight that because, a lot of people will think that this stuff kind of just happens random and it's these random tragedies, but it's actually, it's happening in a very systematic way. It's just a way that, that centralized medicine doesn't really look at though.

1:15:51Dr. Doug Wallace has been clued onto it for a long time now. Um, so that's what I will say about that. I don't actually remember what the initial question was. I hope I answered it, but maybe we can cover bio photons if we have time. Yeah. Well, this is, my mind is blown completely. This is the fourth time and this has never happened before just another round another round um i want to ask you you know we are coming up here on time but there are two things i want to ask you as just kind of practical walkaways for everybody to utilize this and this is this is an episode right here this interview is one that i know many people are going to listen to over and over again to unpack what you shared And this is, you know, I spent a lot of money going to a conventional university and what you're teaching today is so far more valuable and applicable to our lives here on earth than anything that people can pay for.

1:16:47It's priceless. And I really do appreciate that. So you mentioned the deuterium depletion. How do you do that? Yeah, great question. So you can buy some really expensive deuterium depleted water. Light Water is one brand. They sell like five parts per million deuterium depleted water. It's like 150 bucks for like a case of six 16 ounce bottles. It's pricey. That's what they're using in the clinical trials and like people with cancer and with diabetes. But there's natural ways that we deuterium deplete as well. One of those is sweating. And so I guess to circle back, standard drinking water, like if you, it depends on latitude, but if you live near the equator, your standard drinking water is going to have around 155 parts per million of deuterium.

1:17:34If you live in Greenland, your water is going to have about 130 to 135 parts per million deuterium. The research would suggest that for longevity and protection against disease or remediation of disease, that around 120 parts per million, between 105 and 120 is looking like the sweet spot with regards to living a longer life and living a healthier life. So yeah, we don't really have water sources that will get down that low just yet, though I am working with some investors to hopefully make some at-home units that could make this a bit more affordable for people. But outside of that, our bloodstream is the most concentrated in deuterium in the body.

1:18:17So if you look at the water within our cells, within our mitochondria, very low deuterium, ideally, if it's a healthy cell, healthy mitochondria. The bloodstream is what concentrates the deuterium. So that's a good thing because it helps to keep the deuterium away from the mitochondria. And many people may know that red blood cells don't contain mitochondria. So it's a good place to keep your deuterium is in the bloodstream. And of course, when you're sweating, you know, that water, that fluid is coming from your bloodstream. Ultimately, the blood vessels expand towards the skin, and then it can evaporate off off the surface of the skin and form droplets.

1:18:49And so that is deuterium enriched water that is playing a role in helping to deuterium deplete the cells because the body needs to maintain that blood volume. So it's going to pull water out of the cells in order to get back to that point. Obviously you can hydrate externally as well. So that's one important mechanism is sweating. There's also some interesting data also coming from Dr. Herrera's work and a couple others showing that UV light and sunlight exposure also helps to deuterium deplete the water of the body. as well, by basically melanin splitting water. So one of the mechanisms by which we're making energy, free energy from the melanin in our system, this is the same way that photosynthesis works in plants, is that light comes in, stimulates chlorophyll in plants, which then stimulates water splitting, which then allows for energy production by basically separating protons from electrons.

1:19:42That's how it works in plants. In humans, melanin basically replaces chlorophyll, but melanin is actually even more efficient at splitting water than chlorophyll is. And so anyway, it's kind of technical, but the point being that water containing deuterium doesn't get split versus the water that is low deuterium that doesn't contain, that contains the proteum is going to preferentially be split. And there's some kind of whole mechanism that they're working out with regards to that. But anyway, suffice to say that it seems like getting out in the sun is also an inherent way to reduce your deuterium burden, which can also help you sweat as well, especially if you're working out outside.

1:20:21And I didn't mention this earlier, but one of the best things you can do if you're really trying to get jacked and really good at being an athlete, working out outside is going to be your best friend, especially if you do it barefoot with as much skin as possible exposed. Because you're not only getting the grounding force and those free electrons from the earth, but UVA light directly stimulates the production of nitric oxide. And it does so in a way that's proportional to the amount of skin exposed. So the more skin that's exposed, the more nitric oxide you produce, the more nitric oxide you produce, the more you get that pump, you get that vasodilation, you get nutrient and oxygen delivery to tissues, waste removal from tissues, you can get typically more pumps in because you're able to clear that metabolic waste more efficiently.

1:21:05And yeah, so nitric oxide is a really important part of the story also for cardiovascular disease. So nitric oxide deficits are one of the primary, well, I would say they are the primary cause of hypertension, high blood pressure, but also cardiovascular issues in general. So for anybody that has high blood pressure or a history of a family history of cardiovascular disease, getting outside and getting that UVA light with the full spectrum sunlight is going to be hugely beneficial with regards to that. And actually my stepdad was uh was um submitted to the hospital with like heart failure and super high blood pressure and then he was sitting in the hospital for days his blood pressure wouldn't come down they had him on like three different meds we were like you know this was last spring so we're like check yourself out go home get a lawn chair sit outside he does that within an hour of sitting in the sun his blood pressure is down to normal for the first time in a week um and so it's just it's pretty powerful and old hospitals used to have sunning decks on the roof for a reason, obviously post Flexner report that was removed as quackery, but you know, this wisdom and this information is rooted in a longstanding history of use.

1:22:13And it's just a matter of kind of rediscovering that. Does that, did I answer your question with regards to like how to do it? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. You know, and also again, massage therapy was common in hospital settings, nurses, nurse practitioners, again, just getting sun, getting outside and getting sunlight. These were known to be healing conditions. And so, you know, this is, again, this is so practical as well. Like it still comes back to getting adequate sunlight. And you just mentioned getting those extra pumps. I'm a big fan of getting extra pumps in. I don't know about everybody listening, but that's what I was doing today.

1:22:50You know, before I came to the studio, I was outside training. I wasn't on the, you know, training barefoot. You know, I was on the ground doing some tank sled pushes and pulls. Nice. and probably, I think I did maybe 500 jump rope skips today, variety of that. But, you know, I just, I felt it, you know, I was out there in the sun, you know, my shirt was off, just soaking it up to the best of my ability. And, you know, I can't, it's just priceless. It's priceless to be able to do these things when we can do them. Now we all live in different conditions and, but we don't want to make that an excuse.

1:23:24We can find a way, life finds a way there. What everybody's learned today from you, there are so many different things that we can take on and implement in our lives, right? Everybody can walk away with something they can implement right now to improve their health. And, you know, it's not often that we have somebody like you, you know, just, I can't even put this to words, how incredible you are. And to be able to understand these complex things and to make them simple for us. And also, you know, what I've noticed about you as well, like you really do practice what you preach. And I can't wait to have you here at the studio because we got so much more to talk about and to share and to teach everybody and grateful because, you know, just with like life finds a way.

1:24:13I love the statement. There's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. And also that whenever these things are happening in our society as a species, there are these counterbalances, you know, that, that emerge at the same time. And this medium of, you know, podcasting and this kind of right use of technology and people that are asking different questions, who are investigating, who are applying, you know, we have access to this right now and it's special and we can determine how cars are going to get made in the future, our relationship with light and how, how we're building our buildings and the clothes that we're wearing and all these things with conversations like this and with people taking action on what they learn.

1:24:56So I appreciate you so much. Can you let everybody know where they can follow you? Just kind of get more information, get into your world. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, I'm at Dr. Alexis Jasmine on Instagram, J A Z M Y N, um, and on Twitter or X, but mostly on Instagram. I'm teaching actually a really fun course right now. It's called quantum U, but I'm basically distilling what you would receive in an undergraduate science degree, but in a way that's kind of oriented towards our advanced lectures, which will come in a few months on quantum and circadian biology. So we have a chemistry lesson tomorrow.

1:25:31We just did some intro biology genetics and like protein biology the last couple of weeks, and it's been really fun. So anybody who wants to know about the science more and like really build a foundation of information, then it's been a really fun program and I've gotten good feedback. So I would definitely recommend that. For the basic basics, I have a quantum health ebook that goes through all the basics of light, dark water, and magnetism in order to optimize just like the, you know, the foundational aspects of your day-to-day lifestyle to improve your health. Also leveraging temperature. We didn't talk about that, but cold really compensates for a lack of UV light.

1:26:06So that's why in the wintertime, we're meant to get cold regularly in order to stimulate internal light production, which we'll talk about next time we end up podcasting. So I want to mention that. The other thing that I'll say just briefly is that people will probably see if they're watching that I have lights on in here, they're incandescent bulbs, and the ban on incandescent bulbs is not lifted. There's been some rumors online that with the new administration that that ban was lifted. It is not. There's actually petitions going around. One of them is led by Scott Zimmerman, who's a colleague of mine.

1:26:40And maybe I can send you the link if you want to share it in the show notes. But the issue is a 2007 energy bill that sets the requirements for energy consumption per visible light exposed. And so essentially through that stringent guideline, they're going to be phasing out not only incandescent bulbs, but even warm white LEDs will not adhere to the stringent guideline. Virtually every public space you go in, if this ends up going through in 2028, will be cool white LEDs, which are the most disruptive to circadian health and overall health. And so we need to make some progress on that front. And so people want to learn more about that.

1:27:20Anyway, you can just give me a follow. I'll be posting about petitions and ways to kind of help counterbalance that. I have a podcast called Undoctrinate Yourself on Spotify, YouTube, and I think it's going to be basically everywhere pretty soon as well. What else? I have a book club called The Incubator, as I alluded to. We're doing Becker's books, so we finished The Body Electric. We're finishing up Cross Currents now. We're going to be doing some other really good books in bioelectricity, quantum biology, etc. And I think that's mostly it. I have a quantum health travel ebook too for people who travel a lot.

1:27:54So if they want to implement specific strategies like the deuterium depletion, lymphatic support, circadian support, avoiding jet lag. That's a good ebook resource as well. But all of this people can find in my link and bio on my Instagram, or feel free to email me at DrAlexisJasmine at Gmail if you have any specific questions. And I'll be happy to help. Amazing. Amazing. So many great things to take advantage of. And we'll put all of that for everybody in the show notes. And again, I can't wait to continue this conversation. You are so amazing. and yeah, just thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

1:28:30Thank you so much for having me. It was a long time coming. I knew we would hit it off. We have, we share a really wonderful mutual friend who's wanted us to connect for a long time. So I'm glad it at least happened virtually, but I'm excited to do it in person sometime as well. Yeah, it shall be done. The one and only Dr. Alexis Cowan, everybody. After being in the field of health and wellness for 23 years now, I'm telling you, And with access to all of these incredible thinkers, some of the leading experts in their respective fields, an education like this from Dr. Alexis Cowan that you just went through today, you can shell out over$100 ,000 in conventional education and not get these kind of insights.

1:29:17As mentioned, she went deep. This might be something to go back and listen to again, but this is all very practical and applicable science. Quantum science is the most validated and all-encompassing form of science today, by far. Nothing compares to it. Everything else, every other aspect, every other framework of science sits beneath that. And so understanding some of these dynamic interactions, because when we're talking about light impacting your cells, we're talking about quantum science. All right. Now, this isn't like some Ant-Man quantum realm type stuff where everything gets super weird and freaky, but it kind of is.

1:29:59And so we even just are scratching the surface in this education today. And to further that education, I highly recommend following Dr. Cowan on social media, following her work, checking out her ebook, and just taking advantage of some of the resources that she's created. Because, again, it's truly, it's priceless, priceless. If you enjoyed this episode, please share your voice. If you're watching or listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment below this episode. Share your voice, share your insights. Apple Podcasts, you can leave a review for the show. That really does mean a lot. You can pop over to the YouTube channel and join the conversation over there or just wherever you're listening.

1:30:39Thank you so much for spending your time with us today. It really does mean a lot. And we've got some epic, epic masterclasses and world-class guests coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care. Have an amazing day. And I'll talk with you soon.