Sunshine
For some years I’ve been designated officially a scientist within the NHS. I’ve recently come across two really great talks attempting to educate us on some of the science of sunshine - I am specifically using that word rather than the slightly smart-Alec terms used to describe various constituents of sunlight used in the talks below because homo-sapiens evolved in sunshine - all of it; salamanders, bats etc. didn’t. As the second of these talks uses in it’s tag line, it really is a case of “how to live longer” (does anyone REALLY wish to i often wonder).
In that second talk where our science communicator refers to floating mitochondria as some kind of almost magical new discovery. I think there, in that fascinating little nugget, is almost everything: there are likely yet to be discovered systems and effects of sunshine we don’t yet understand and maybe won’t for decades. There isn’t any suggestion any discoveries will be ‘negative’, so one can only conclude for now that the way human society has withdrawn from sunshine over the last few hundred years really is, all things considered, a considerable negative
Vitamin D Expert: The Fastest Way To Dementia & The Big Lie About Sunlight!
https://youtu.be/wQJlGHVmdrA?si=D0EbrHvz-OOPl5q-
Sunlight and NIR Pass Through the Body and Can Affect Distant cells
https://youtu.be/y6hkCGb_tE8?si=_ZFNiD8T7N1vOt8b
If I had my medical career over again I think I would probably research and get trained on the science within those videos, however, my experience of the NHS (and public ‘health’ messaging via the media) is that modern society seems almost allergic to anything to do with sunshine. I also suspect the NHS culture would almost be the last to listen to any common sense on this; I have thoughts on why I will try and share later on.
To put centuries of anthropology in one quick paragraph, it is thought homo-sapiens began on the savanna. Maybe the most likely next stages of our expansion around the globe were then along the coasts of our land masses - easy access to foraged nutritious food stuff , endless free Plats de Fruits de Mare sustaining the wondering émigré (easier and less effort than mamouth hunting) . What seems almost ignored by anthropological science is practical patterns of living. I am quite sure if a time machine was available and one spent some time in coastal communities a few thousand years ago, the following patterns would be observed: High summer, perhaps in heat waves lounging under the forest canopy - then extending not far from the shore, but in fact often back down to the shore - in full sun almost by definition, to take advantage of cooling sea breezes (as I did yesterday); mid winter certainly the woodland might give better protection against storm and winter frost; but perhaps most relevant of all in the shoulder months, October, November, February, March in the northern hemisphere, as you will see in especially southern facing sheltered coves in Cornwall, stripping off and warmth-bathing is more than just a joy, it literally brings you back to life. I’m quite sure stone-age human knew of every best sunny sheltered cove along the coastlines of the world, even if modern culture has tricked us into assuming more harm than good comes from that either full or fleeting sunshine (listen to the first video).
It’s not trendy - especially in these days of the trend being ever more stylish sunhats and sunglasses, and within the NHS it’s still almost heresy, but in time I shall be attempting to scribble a bit more on this subject seeking out more interesting science on it. That said, I think there may be a problem in that recent culture (Victorian? and on) may have propagandised us so successfully against our ‘natural state’ especially being outdoors, as we evolved, in sunshine, that I suspect the research has not been done that honestly asks the questions around this topic that may have caused the greatest benefit had we made sunshine central in research. And of course nobody makes any money out of it.
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Summary of talks by Dr Roger Seheult. (My notes on the two talks above)
For the lay person, I have made some notes on the two videos above. The Scientist and interviewer both try to be almost a little show off, cheer leading on certain quite specific new ideas via research showing positive effects of sunshine. Their position is pretty clear. Sunlight does more good than harm - mortality research states that. However they do fail to point out, it is likely there are other measurable benefits in exposure to parts of the UV and IR spectrum yet to be the subject of research. My notes here I will expand on in time and carefully provide references. For now, here are the highlights
Dr Seheult is a medical doctor specialising in Pulmonary (respiratory i.e medicine of the lung) and Critical care medicine in an intensive care setting.
Think of the body as a chain of organs or links. If a pathology attacks one link for eg. the heart - that becomes a weak link
We can treat the weak link with medicine but this has side effects that may affect other links in the chain.
Once the medicine has done its job the patient goes home without being given any 'tools' to improve their lifestyle.
There is a popular misconception that Sunlight only equals Vitamin D so its ok just to take supplements. A whole range of science, some mentioned in these talks, point to many human systems requiring some or other constituent of sunshine to make them function optimally, or even at all.
12:27 The story of a 15 year old boy who beat a flesh eating virus simply by going outside into the sun.
He was given 2 days to live and all he wanted was to go outside - his dying wish. Nothing else changed about his treatment which wasn't working. After being outside he went home after 6 days
15:03 Hospitals ideally should be built so that patients can go outside. This happened in the past.
Research says that in a two bed ward the patient nearest the window is always discharged quicker.
During Covid it was the people with chronic diseases that were dying
Chronic diseases are often rooted in Mitochondrial dis-function.
Mitochondria are in every cell, except red blood cells, and are the power house of the cell. They make the energy.
As we age they produce 70% less power or energy.
Sunlight is electromagnetic radiation made up of different wavelengths of light. The UV has a short wavelength & is not very penetrating and this is responsible for vitamin D production. The Infra Red has a long wavelength and is very penetrating and can penetrate deep into the body.
Mitochondria in the cells produce energy but the by product of this is oxidative stress. (Imagine a car engine. The oxidative stress is like heat from a car engine. For the engine to keep running it must be cooled). Mitochondria have their own cooling system - they produce Melatonin 26:33 which combats the oxidative stress.
In 2019 a paper by Russel Reiter (executive editor of melatonin research journal) & Scott Zimmerman (a light engineer) showed that IR and NIR light from sunlight stimulates and up regulates melatonin production of the mitochondria in the cells to 'cool the mitochondrial engine' and improve their energy output. Dr Seheult comments that this was "Mind blowing to me" 27:28
During Covid he observed that the people with higher vitamin D levels did better - they didn't die. But Vitamin D is only a marker. The reason they had higher Vitamin D levels was because they spent more time outside
The Covid disease attaches and disrupts the ace 2 receptors of the cells which are also important in 'cooling' the cell's engine. So getting the patients outside in the sunlight stimulated the mitochondria to combat the oxidative stress, making up for the lack of cooling from the ace 2 receptor that was affected by the disease.
38:14 Glen Jefferey, University college London, showed that IR lamps could lower glucose spikes in young people. He saw it was a systemic effect - i.e only one part of the body needed to be treated to get a response elsewhere in the body, where the response was needed. It showed that the mitochondria likely communicate in some way.
In Brazil they made IR chest jackets which they used to treat covid patients.
He couldn't get the jackets so he took the patients outside and on average, this shortened their stay in hospital by 4 days which is statistically significant.
43:34 There is an anecdote of a dying man on 35 litres/min of Oxygen who asked - 'how long have I got Doc?' - he took him outside and he got better in 7 days.
47:50 Swedish study 20,000 women observed over 20 years. 3 groups: Low, medium and high amount of time outside.
The ones with the most time outside in the sun had the least mortality from heart disease. Even the ones that smoked but that were in the 'high sunlight' group had lower mortality rates than those in the 'low sunlight' group who didn't smoke. In other words we have always assumed smoking is the major cause of shortened life - this study showed in fact smokers who get plenty of sunshine have equal or longer life expectancy than those who do not smoke and rarely get out in the sun.
50:10 Richard Weller - dermatologist - did a bigger 'bio-bank study' with over 3 million subjects showing more sunlight lowers risk of mortality. " The lack of sunlight is the Scurvy of the 21st century"
56:48 We were born, or rather evolved, to be outside
58:23 IR is reflected by trees and green spaces into places humans may spend their time. There may be a certain amount of recent politics behind this statement meaning even a possible placebo effect, as for the last few decades, woodlands have become a central part of campaigning on the built environment. Town's people campaign for more woodland, get it, and thus feel better. There is good Science on how a few hundred years ago, ordinary people had a huge amount more exposure to both IR & UV in their normal day, so of course any increase of IR exposure will have measurable positive effect. (I shall find that research later).
The retina has the biggest concentration of mitochondria, so the eyes are the organ obviously most evolved to be dependant on an input of sunshine. So sunglasses are not good
1:07:00 'A Myriad of diseases' Infectious and non-infectious are affected by sunlight. (with so little research on this there will be other effects as well, that are not yet measured.)
There are more deaths around the shortest day of the year - these are correlated to the length of the day. This merely means they are correlated to the rate that planet earth is absorbing energy and matter exuded by the sun. More in the summer, less in the winter.
Second talk: repeats and condenses the points and studies of the first talk
It reviews a paper by Glen Jeffery (UCL professor & ophthalmologist) and Bob Fosbury (worked on Hubble telescope) who are experts and trail blazers in their fields.
They looked at how sunlight improved vision. They used light between 830 - 860 nm & found that 850 nm light had optimal penetration. very little at this wavelength got through, therefore most was absorbed by the body (up to 8cm penetration)
They shone IR light of 850 nm to stimulate the cones in the retina of the subjects.
One group had no light stimulation (control), one had head and body, and one just the body.
Control group was valid as IR is invisible, so subjects couldn't know they weren't having light stimulation.
The control group showed no response.
The best statistically significant response and improvement in vision (i.e colour differentiation) was from those who had light stimulation of the head and body.
The ones that only had the body stimulated still showed an improvement in vision, meaning that mitochondria communicate these positive effects.
11:11 Study in 2023 - look up paper on mitochondrial communication
11:33 Blood has free floating mitochondria that can remain active even though they are not in cells - his comment this is "crazy". A glorious human response from a scientist in this context meaning the so called experts never imagined such a discovery. There will be many other important counter intuitive discoveries ahead.
We live in buildings designed to filter out IR light, so we need to get out in the sunlight more, to defy ageing.
Sunlight = Longevity
Talks about lamps and light bulbs but concludes:
"Nothing beats getting outside and into the Sunlight"