Commusings: Light Up Your Longevity

Dear Commune Community,

It's not a Sunday, but I come to you with a bonus musings on a particularly potent anti-aging tool: Sauna is a cornerstone of my daily health and longevity routine, for reasons that will become clear by the end of this essay.

This piece is inspired by our partners at Sunlighten. For three days only – November 6 to 8 – Sunlighten is offering the Commune community up to $1,700 off select models. Learn more here.

I often say that disease is a normal and expected result of our paleolithic biology trying to cope with our modern lifestyle. I like to underscore this notion by leveraging my great-great-great grandfather (x 600) who lived as a hunter-gatherer in 10,321 BC.

His name was Ffej Onsark – which is, somewhat unimaginatively, my name spelled backward. Ffej’s lifestyle and ecosystem mirrored those of hundreds of previous generations. And across vast swaths of time, human biology evolved in relationship to its environment.

I have virtually the same exact same biology as Ffej, but our cultural conditions could not be more different. For example, Ffej spent all of his time outdoors. On average, Americans spend 90% of their time indoors.

And what is there a lot of outside — light! Our biology evolved to take advantage of the entire spectrum of light. On one side of that spectrum is ultraviolet radiation, spanning 100 to 400 nanometers (nm) in wavelength. Our bodies need UVB light to create Vitamin D, although too much UV light damages our cells (you know this as a sunburn).

Then comes the spectrum of light from 400 to 700 nanometers in wavelength. This is the “visible light” that we have evolved eyes to see. Pretty useful, obviously.

As wavelengths get longer than 700 nanometers you start to get into the spectrum known infrared radiation, which spans a wide array of wavelengths from 760 nm to 1,000,000 nm (or 1 millimeter). But just because your eyes can’t see infrared doesn’t mean it’s invisible to your body. 

Today’s article focuses on the miraculous interplay of infrared light with our complex biochemistry and is inspired by our partners at Sunlighten, who create infrared saunas, including ones that bathe you in a combination red light, near-infrared, and far-infrared, all of which have unique health benefits.

I hope this lightens up your day.
~ Jeff Krasno

 • • •

Light Up Your Longevity

You walk outside on a sunny day. Looks pretty bright out — and it is. But only 39% of the energy coming from the sun is in the visible spectrum. The majority of the energy hitting the earth’s surface is in the infrared spectrum.

It’s invisible, but you know it's there. You can feel the warmth of the sun going through your clothes and hitting your skin. This is the feeling of near-infrared radiation.

These days, modern windows and insulation block most of this near-infrared radiation from ever getting to our skin, but Fejj got a lot of near-infrared radiation, and his body used it in a remarkable way. 

To understand how, we need to detour into melatonin. 

Most likely you associate melatonin with darkness and sleep. Indeed, your pineal gland starts producing melatonin at night when it gets dark (provided you aren’t watching too much late-night TV).

But melatonin has a vital function beyond making you sleepy. It is also a powerful antioxidant.

An antioxidant is a substance that can prevent or slow damage to cells caused by free radicals, unruly molecules that the body makes as a product of energy creation and in reaction to environmental forces such as UV radiation. When unchecked, free radicals badly damage cells and their mitochondria and cause oxidative stress.

Melatonin is a direct scavenger of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS). This means it can neutralize these harmful substances and reduce oxidative stress, which is associated with aging and many chronic diseases including cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

Melatonin is particularly effective in protecting your energy producing mitochondria, which are particularly vulnerable to damage from free radicals. Melatonin can also stimulate the activity of other antioxidant enzymes like glutathione in the body, enhancing the overall antioxidant defense system.

We already discussed that melatonin is the “hormone of darkness,” secreted by the pineal gland at night. But free radicals don’t just operate under the cover of night, they are wreaking plenty of day-time havoc. So, how does the body protect itself during the day?

It turns out that near-infrared radiation from the sun directly activates the production of melatonin at the sub-cellular level.

Just like the low-end frequency waves of the sonic spectrum emanate out of gold-rimmed SUVs, infrared radiation (which has a longer wavelength than visible light) can penetrate up to five centimeters into your body’s tissue, including into your mitochondria. Why is this important?

Your mitochondria are the organelles in your cells that produce ATP, which the body uses for energy. It accomplishes this through a series of highly complex operations. One of the stages of energy production is called the Krebs’ cycle. One of the primary by-products of the Krebs’ cycle is NADH, a transporter of high-energy electrons that subsequently zip around the inner membrane of the mitochondria. At the end of this electron chain, there is an enzyme that catalyzes a reaction in which leftover electrons combine with oxygen to form water. The responsible enzyme is cytochrome C-oxidase (CCO). Like hectic factories can sometimes produce defective products, the process of energy making doesn’t always function to perfection and instead of forming water, reactive oxygen species like superoxide and hydrogen peroxide are made.

Near-infrared radiation penetrates the skin and reacts with CCO. This excitation stimulates the production of melatonin at the mitochondrial level. In fact, 95% of your melatonin is produced onsite in the mitochondria and is consumed locally to blunt the impacts of free radicals and reactive oxygen species. The melatonin stimulated by light is sub-cellular and does not enter the bloodstream. By extension, it does not make you sleepy.

The good news is that most of the energy on Earth is in the infrared spectrum. And you don’t need to be in the sun to get it. Near-infrared radiation is actually stronger when it’s reflected off of leaves or grass. Being outside in green spaces, even in the shade, will upregulate the production of melatonin and, in turn, decrease oxidative stress.

Parenthetically, while sunscreen blocks ultra-violet rays, it does not inhibit near-infrared radiation from penetrating your skin. Also, the trappings of urbanity like buildings, concrete, and hot dog stands do not reflect near-infrared radiation to nearly the same degree.

This interplay between near-infrared radiation light and your mitochondria may be one of the primary reasons why people who spend more time in nature have significantly reduced risk of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease as well as less stress and lower blood pressure. 

It’s also the reason that “photobiomodulation” (PBM) is such an effective therapeutic technique. PBM uses light in the red or near-infrared spectrum to trigger beneficial physiological responses at the cellular level — such as the melatonin production and activation of CCO we’ve already discussed.

Beyond that, though, PBM helps with cell proliferation and regeneration, promoting the formation of new blood vessels and neurons, repairing damaged nerves, and protecting cells from apoptosis (programmed cell death) in situations where cells are under stress, such as during injury or disease.

Put together, red and infrared light are powerful healing and anti-aging tools. Whether you get this light from a morning walk in the park or an infrared sauna, know that you are harnessing one of your body’s most ancient physiological relationships to promote longevity and optimal health.