Navigating the ever-complex maze of conflicting research articles, greed-driven medical professionals, diet and exercise regimens, supplements, and medications that make up our healthcare system today can, and justifiably so, often feel like an impossible obstacle to overcome in the search for solutions to chronic illness. The vast majority of people today suffer from some chronic disease, whether it be related to chemical or toxin exposure, radiation, food sensitivity, sedentary lifestyle, or any other of the myriad causes to choose from in the 21st century, and the symptoms of this chronic disease can be any of hundreds. Many may find a supplement or health “hack” that allows them to mitigate their symptoms to just enough of a degree that will enable them to continue getting through life, and many may wonder why such a beautifully intelligent and complex biological machine such as a human body seems to have such difficulty functioning properly in the modern world. If there were one answer to every one of these problems, it would make everything a lot simpler and easy to understand, right? Well, there isn’t an end-all-be-all solution to every chronic illness out there. There is, however, a concept that, when understood, makes it significantly easier to understand how the modern world has negatively impacted our physiology.

Our bodies are electromagnetic batteries built out of water and charged by light. This statement may not make sense at first, but once you discover the fundamental role that your mitochondria have in every aspect of your bodily functions, it will start to. There are around 100 of them in every cell in our bodies, and our bodies are home to tens of trillions of cells – this means that about 10% of a human’s body weight is just mitochondria. The mitochondria are tiny organelles, or bacteria, that have evolved with our physiology to provide us with the energy to perform everything we do on a cellular level, and they do so through a process called the electron transport chain. Through this process, they take electrons from our food, our light environment, and the charge of the earth, and manufacture it into ATP, or adenosine triphosphate. ATP is the molecule we use as energy to do everything we do as an organism, and a deficiency of this energy means a lapse in function. We may notice symptoms of this deficiency, known as metabolic disease, on a bodily level – we don’t sleep as well, our hormones aren’t regulated effectively, we feel tired all the time, our organs may function poorly, etc. – but the root cause of these issues manifests at the cellular level and is the direct result of a discrepancy between our lifestyle and the optimal lifestyle for human beings. This is where metabolic disease and its host of chronic symptoms begin. The electron transport chain also creates structured cellular water as a byproduct, allowing for effective communication between cells, another cornerstone of optimal health at the cellular level. It is estimated that up to 95% of modern chronic pathology can be traced back to mitochondrial dysfunction, and as such, to heal the mitochondria is to heal the body as a whole. So, how do we do that?

The mitochondria interact with energy from many sources to provide us with the ATP we need to function, and this energy comes in the form of electrons. We can get electrons from food in the form of glucose and from the environment around us – contact with any negatively charged object facilitates electron transfer into the body – but there is a missing link that many don’t know about light. Your light environment and the Circadian rhythm your body adheres to are fundamental in dictating how your body functions and it does so in multiple ways. Light allows your mitochondria to generate energy, controls the endocrine system, and facilitates intercellular communication. We evolved to exist in perfect harmony on a physiological level with the naturally shifting light spectrums of the Sun. When we interrupt or deprive ourselves of this master modulator of biological function, metabolic disease is inevitable. The modern human who eats well exercises regularly, avoids toxins, etc., but neglects their light environment will almost certainly find that chronic illness sets in to some extent despite everything they do to ward it off. A healthy light environment compounds the positive health effects of good lifestyle choices, and a toxic light environment does precisely the opposite.

The good news is that once we understand what is causing our mitochondria to degrade despite our best efforts to the contrary, healing is very straightforward. We can’t all afford to move to the tropics and spend time outside all day in paradise to achieve optimal mitochondrial function, but we can still apply the concepts behind Circadian biology to our lifestyles and find a balance that facilitates healing and recovery from metabolic disease. Since your light environment plays a massive role in regulating parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system activation, managing it effectively can also allow you to cope with the unnaturally stressful and toxic modern world in a way you may have never thought possible. If you want to learn more about harnessing this often untapped source of positive change in your lifestyle, please don’t hesitate to reach out and work with me 1-on-1!