Essentials: Using Light to Optimize Health
2/26/202643 min
In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explore how different wavelengths of light affect the human body and how light exposure can improve sleep quality, mood and daytime alertness while supporting healthy hormone regulation. I also discuss the therapeutic use of ultraviolet and infrared/red light for a wide variety of benefits, including improved skin health and offsetting age-related vision loss. I explain the biological mechanisms behind these light-based therapies and offer practical tools that listeners can use to improve both their mental and physical well-being. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman ROKA: https://roka.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Light (00:00:47) Physics of Light (00:01:57) Light & Body, Rods & Cones, Skin, Seasons & Melatonin (00:05:01) Melatonin Supplements?, Tool: Seasonal Sun Exposure (00:08:32) Sponsor: ROKA (00:09:47) Tool: Melatonin Levels & Reduce Night Light (00:10:31) Light, UVB, Skin Exposure, Testosterone & Estrogen, Fertility (00:13:54) UVB Light & Improved Pain Tolerance (00:16:10) Tool: Daily Sunlight Exposure Protocol; Blue Blockers (00:18:25) Sponsor: AG1 (00:19:16) Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Year-Round Sunlight Exposure (00:21:24) Enhanced Immune Function & UVB Light, Tool: Winter Light Exposure (00:23:45) Light, Wound Healing, Hair & Nail Growth (00:25:11) Tool: Mood, Dopamine & Avoid Nighttime UVB Light (00:27:46) Sponsor: Function (00:29:25) Red Light Therapy, Infrared Light, Acne, Wound Healing & Scars; Mitochondria (00:33:06) Offset Age-Related Eyesight Decline, Red Light (00:37:22) Tool: Red Light Protocol, Frequency & Timing (00:40:02) Red Light for Shift Workers (00:41:42) Recap Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAndrew Huberman· Host0:00
Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are going to discuss light and the many powerful uses of light to optimize our health. One of the reasons why light has such powerful effects on so many different aspects of our biology is that it can be translated into electrical signals in our brain and body, into hormone signals in our brain and body, and indeed, into what we call cascades of biological pathways, meaning light can actually change the genes that the cells of your bodies express, and that is true throughout the lifespan. Light is electromagnetic energy. It can cause reactions in cells of your body. It can cause reactions in fruit, for instance, right? You see a piece of fruit and it's not ripe, but it gets a lot of sunlight and it ripens. That's because the electromagnetic energy of sunlight had an impact on that plant or that tree, or even on the fruit directly. Now, the second thing that you need to understand about the physics of light is that light has many different wavelengths, and the simplest way to conceptualize this is to imagine that cover of that Pink Floyd album, where there's a prism. You have a white beam of light going into that prism, and then the prism splits that beam of light into what looks like a rainbow. So you've got your reds, your oranges, your greens, your blues, your purples, et cetera.