Doctor Valerie Giangrande, welcome back to the Quantum

Biology Collective podcast. Thank you, Meredith. I'm so excited

to be here. Oh, it's so good to have you again. Okay, so. So we

had, like, a roaring Q and A session in the

last live cohort of the certification of the applied

quantum biology certification. And I was like, okay, we gotta get Valerie back on the

pod. But before we get into all the new stuff that

you're, you know, thinking about and looking at, could you just

sort of lay out for us how a very traditionally

trained medical practitioner

ended up in this crazy world of

fringe science? Absolutely. Yeah.

It's. It started when I started when I had my son, you

know, when I had kids and my son had health issues and they were

neurological issues when he was 4 years old. He is now 17.

Doesn't even realize that he had these issues, actually. But anyway, he had these

issues that were going on. I remember going to the pediatrician and they just said,

here, give him a medication. And I didn't like that option. Ended up going, kind

of looking at holistic stuff. Tried to, you know, did all the natural things, went

to a functional medicine practitioner, did all the things. And things were. Got

so much better with all the changes that we had to make. Diet, nutrition

supplements, all of those things. Toxins and, you know, but it. But then I

started. It was such a stressful time for me that I ended up getting a

lot of different symptoms. I had, like, fibromyalgia and just a lot of different things

that I wanted help with. So then I went to a doctor for functional medicine,

doctor as well. And one of the first things he said to me was, you

need more sun. You need to get more sun. And I just. It,

you know, took me back. I thought he was joking. And, you know, just. I

know I've told this story many times, but I just. I was so conditioned. Now

I got some when I was a kid, when I was a teenager. But, you

know, ever since my early 20s and now 50, like I have been,

I was always blocking the sun. I never got the sun. Even on a cloudy

rainy day. I was always blocking it because. Because I thought I needed to. And

it was so sensitive. And he pointed me to the

research and to people who are in the space. And

it just changed my life immediately. I could not believe all of the

information and it's there, and it changed everything. So I made those changes in my

own life. And when I say those changes, I mean, I go out in

the morning at morning sun. I just get more Exposure. I did it safely

and it changed everything. And I, you know, change the habits of my

family. And then I started to tell patients, I just educate so much because I

think this, this extra layer of how much light controls the

entire body is such an important conversation to have that we don't know about. And

you see a lot of different things that are going on in the eyes and

our health that can be traced back to, to poor light or

poor lighting environments. It's really interesting. So when you, When I

educate patients, there's. It resonates with many, many people. And I

see year after year, if they are, are listening, there are so many improvements that

they feel, systemically they feel and just, it just makes a huge

difference. So I think the education piece of adding this extra

layer of how light controls the entire body through our eyes especially,

is really important. I just want to share that because I think it's one of

the most important things that changed my life. And I think it's really valid.

The research is very valid and it makes a big difference.

Yes. And once you start looking into it, the

research is so extensive, going back many

decades, in some cases even longer,

it really, I think that's why so many of us felt

so. Almost like we had to take on

a promotional role in this. Because I think so we

often think, well, once the research is clear, things will just change.

And when you look at circadian rhythm and light, it's like

that is not true. Like, the research has been there definitively

since at least the 1980s. And then obviously, you know, the importance

of sunlight is an ancient, an ancient idea.

And yet it didn't shift. It didn't shift. And even

now it's just starting to, like, you might be the only person

in a patient's life who's giving them this

information. I do find it interesting that we're seeing this

explosion of red light therapy. Right. Even in the eyes. There's a ton of research

on red light therapy. But if you look at it, the reason why it works

is because that's what the sun gives us, especially in the morning. That morning sunshine

that most of us aren't getting is red light therapy. And it does do so

much. And I think that's so important. It's just so funny that even people who

don't know this are promoting or talking about all this research about red light. Well,

where do you think that comes from? The sun comes from all the stuff that

we are depleted. And because we don't have that when we're indoors. So it's

just so interesting. So I think there are some shifts, but not enough. Not enough

at this point at all. Not yet. Yeah. Yeah. And

the vision of the Institute of Applied Quantum

Biology is that everyone in the world has access to at least one person

who can teach them this, because that's all it takes.

And you're that person for so many of your patients. And so, yeah, it is

really interesting because there's more and more research coming out showing how effective red light

therapy is. But one of the reasons is because it's

filling us up with all the infrared light that we're totally deficient

in because we don't go outside. Don't go

outside. And because our indoor lighting is just so

wrong. It's just not normal. Right. I love all the

research from Scott Dimmerman and infrared and how it penetrates our

eyelids and gets in there. And you know, how important that is and how we're

just lacking so much of that, that it's just such an interesting image. Important

piece that we really need to understand that just getting outside, we're getting those

signals. Right. Okay, so let's talk

about what's happening. You've mentioned light

and going into our bodies,

but particularly our eyes, is

controlling a lot of things, if not everything. So what's going on there?

Yeah. So we have blue receptors in our

eyes that we have. I mean, we have cells that see the color blue, and

then we have cells that are reading the color blue sky,

basically, and it's reading the amount of blue that we're exposed to. And then it's

sending those actual timing signals. Blue turns into light,

turns into a timing signal, and it gets sent right to the suprachiasmatic

nucleus, which is a master clock that we have right behind our eyes

in the brain. And that clock, when it's wired by

this blue light, and every time it gets a signal of blue, depending on what

time of day it is, it's going to send signals to the entire body. It's

turning on everything in the body. It's turning on our hormones, our

metabolism. It's just sending messages. Every single cell in our body has a

clock gene. And we need to know what time to do things. And when we

get that blue, it's telling us exactly what time to do it. And

the strongest signal does come from the eyes. And the way it works,

I mean, it makes sense. When the sky, when the sun is rising, there's a

small amount of blue and there's this beautiful red, and there's infrared and all these

signals that tell us it's morning. And then as that sun is rising, that blue

signal is getting stronger. So it's just going to keep resetting our body like a

clock. So through our eyes and there's all the other layers that come with it

that's very balanced and does different things throughout the day. So if

we are never getting those signals through our eyes, our brain really doesn't know what

time it is because we're spending so much time indoors. And

unfortunately, indoors, we don't really have exposure to

incandescent bulbs anymore, which used to be hot, used to have all the

infrared, and kind of more of a gentle signal that was

more like sunrise and sunset. But now everything is energy efficient. So they

took out the heat portion and now we're exposed to LED lights. And if we

look at those LED lights, there's this blue spike for

the most part. And that blue spike is the same color temperature at 12 o'

clock in the afternoon. So we wake up in the morning, we're not getting the

sun signals. We're just getting these signals that say, our brain says, all right, I

guess it's 12 o' clock in the afternoon. So here's this shot of cortisol.

Like, it just, it doesn't make sense. We're getting different levels of hormones that we

would get, as opposed to the gradual increase that we need from the

sunlight. And then we're lacking infrared, so we're not getting any of those balancing

healing wavelengths, red and infrared light. The reason why it is so important is

because it powers up the energy cells that we have in our body, our

mitochondria, which basically control the health of the entire body. But in

the eyes, there's such a dense number of mitochondria because we can

imagine how much light we're constantly processing. And red and infrared

light help power that up. So we need those signals, especially first thing in the

morning, to help give us that energy in addition to the blue.

So all of those signals are, again, keep controlling our body. At the end of

the day, we're not supposed to have any blue. We're not supposed to see any

of that light because it's dark outside. But when we're indoors, we're still getting those

signals. It is going to disrupt our clocks as well. And then we have the

ultraviolet piece, which I can go into as well, that also gets layered in throughout

the day, which is also something that is an important piece to

our biology. And while there are safe ways to get those

signals at different times of day to help Also trigger different

mechanisms in the body having to do with our hormones and our mood

centers, our sleep patterns. Melatonin. The eyes

make retinal dopamine when we're exposed to morning signals. And we

actually need retinal dopamine to help us see better during the day. It actually

helps the contrast sensitivity. It's a whole cycle that we need. And then at

night, we think of melatonin that gets made in the body

through darkness based on light. But there's also retinal melatonin that

also helps protect and heal and regenerate our eyes while we're

sleeping. So light plays such a huge role. Again, when we're not getting those signals,

we're really not. Those patterns aren't being formed. And you can get a lot of

eye issues. But more than that, you can get a lot of downstream issues when

we're getting those wrong signals.

Yeah. Wow. It's so.

It's so interesting to me because. Yeah. What

you're saying, and the way that I've heard

it put is that the eye is a

circadian organ. Yes. Right.

So. And it's. It just. There's so much.

I don't know, I'm just a little. I always get a little

kind of shocked when someone explains it so thoroughly because it's like there

is so much going on that

starts in our eyes. Yes. And I just don't think about

it. And I know I was concentrating on the blue light signals, those

melanopsin signals. But there are other receptors also that also help us

locally local change the clocks in our eye and also help with other. Other

rhythms in the body as well. So it's. Melanopsin is the main clock

setter. But there's also things like neuropsyn, which they found in the eyes as well,

which we need. And neuropsyn is actually a UVA receptor. It

also. It collects violet and uva. So right at

that border of UVA and violet. And that's also a signal that we need and

we have it in our. So what's the significance of the. Of

the fact that we now know there are neuropsychin receptors in

our eyes? How does that change how we understand what's going

on? Yeah. So there's a couple of things. The research shows with

neuropsyn that it's responsible for our local

circadian rhythm in the eye. Again, it does a lot of the. Without

those signals, without the violin and the uva, the

local circadian rhythm. So again, the retinal dopamine the retinal melatonin. Some of that wouldn't

be credit. It turns on some clock genes locally. It also helps us with nitric

oxide. You know, we're getting the UVA signals, we're getting nitric oxide,

which is helping us have more nutrients. So I'm going to backtrack. Whenever

we're exposed to UVA in our skin and in our eyes, our blood

vessels will dilate and start releasing nitric oxide. And that's because

our red blood cells want to collect that UV and it helps increase

nutrients, nutrients

delivery. So this is a good thing. We

like that the sun increases nitric. Oxide, increases

nitric oxide. It also is going to help up regulate a lot of these neurotransmitters.

We have a lot of amino acids in our, in our eyes. And some of

the aromatic amino acids, meaning amino acids that collect ultraviolet

light can be triggered and optimized like serotonin and

dopamine and all the hormones that we think of when we think of our mood.

And it also helps link to something called POM C in our brain, which is

just another link to our metabolism.

There's a big chemical in our brain that links uva helps link

that through our eyes to our skin. And when we get those signals through

our eyes to the brain, we, we're optimizing our metabolism,

we're making endorphins, we're getting happy. We're doing a lot of different things, A lot

of different chemicals are being made because of those signals through our eyes. And again,

we're not staring at the sun, we're not going out and staring at uv. But

those UVA signals happen about an hour after sunrise, depending on where you

live. And just being outside at that time, along with the stronger blue

signals, those are what's going to optimize our eyes even more, optimize the body

through our eyes. So we do want to be mindful of getting outside, especially in

the morning. Those morning signals are, are so important because they do so many things

to jumpstart the day. Our metabolism, our mood, our hormones,

links with our digestion, our hor, you know, everything again is linked. And if

we're consistently missing that morning signals, those morning signals, we're actually

missing so many important things. And we want to make sure that those hormones

are, those neurotransmitters are regulated like serotonin,

for example. We want to make sure that serotonin is optimized during the day. That's

going to give us a lot of that energy. But at the end of the

day when it's dark. So serotonin is the precursor for

melatonin and we need a lot of that serotonin in order

for the body to transfer to melatonin when it's dark. So it has to be

very dark at night. So I think those cycles of very bright

morning or daytime sunlight, combined with

the night darkness, those two signals are super important.

And it all happens again through our eyes, also through our skin. But our eyes

are going to be the strongest signal for the brain.

Wow. And to what extent was

this covered in your traditional training?

I'm sorry, I.

That's. That's it. Yeah. I don't remember any. I don't remember any of

it. And I don't know. Now, that being said, I. I mean, I've

been in practice now 23 years or so, so I don't know.

I will say, though, there is a new graduate that's working with us

and she does know about melanopsin. She knows about circadian rhythm and she.

They are teaching it now. I don't know what the extent is. I

am hoping that at least they're telling people to get outside in the morning, you

know, with. With naked eyes and to make sure I have darkness at night. I

don't know if that's the extent of it. I would like. I actually should have

found that out, but I know they are teaching that a little bit now, but

when I was in school, they didn't. I don't remember. Unless my memory. I don't

remember any of that.

Yes. And I mean, it. It's sort of like nutrition

and for. For. In medical school, it's like they cover

it very briefly and then move on.

And so even, you know, of course you're not going to remember it because it

wasn't a focal point at all.

And so is it. And I just like, you know, trying to get a sense,

like your sense of things. I don't expect you to know, like, definitively,

but, you know, this idea, like the melanopsin receptors, the

neuropsyn receptors, there's just more and more research showing how important

our eyes are and what we expose our eyes to make such

a difference. Is that getting translated, like

at conferences, or is it. You know,

I know a lot of people think there's. There's like a pipeline

of information and all of the doctors have access

to it, and when something new comes, they just turn the tap on and get

the new information. And it doesn't work like that. Like things are sort of

scattered. But I Feel like red light therapy is being.

Is being talked about a lot. Okay. The FDA is coming, you know, has come

up with a new red light device for macular degeneration that I think. I'm not

sure if it's being used in practice yet. But red light therapy is in conferences

a lot. I don't know. I haven't seen any.

I haven't. No. I don't know. There might be a few, but

I don't really know. When I sign up for my continuing

education courses, none of it is really circadian rhythm that I can think

of offhand. There are a lot of holistic doctors talking about

nutrition and vitamins and supplements and things like that. And that's been

a big thing. People talk about lifestyle,

but not necessarily light. This light piece is, again, a

really important piece. I mean, I have a lot of. Even just in general, even

diabetic patients, whenever they come in, and I always say, did your doctor tell you

about how light at night can increase your blood sugar? Do they tell you to

try to block that light? And they say, no, they told me to stop eating

pasta and stop eating carbs. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is such a

big piece of the puzzle. We need to talk about light. For so many different

health issues and diabetes. Since it is such a big issue for the eyes,

I think that is crucial. I think that has to be a conversation to have

with people about light. I mean, how it affects everything. And

a. Of different conditions are, you know, obviously are affected by light, and you

can see that in the eyes. So that's why it's such a good way to

educate people about it. Yes. Yeah. And I want to

talk about how different things showing up in the eye can be

connected to other conditions. But first you

mentioned how artificial light at night raises our

blood sugar. And I find this is one of those points

where people are like, what?

Like. Sorry, what? Like, I'm doing all like my,

you know, I'm, as you said, like, I'm not eating my carbs and I'm doing

this and I'm doing that. But. But I'm on my phone before bed and

that's raising my blood sugar. Are you kidding me? Like,

yes. Sorry. Could you explain

how that's happening? Because it does sound

fantastical to people who are not familiar with

this world. So blue

light, which is found in our phones and in these artificial lights

will trigger melanopsin. So those melanopsin blue light receptors

will trigger, based on different nanometers of light, I'M

not gonna get into the numbers here, but those signals are in those artificial

lights that again are triggering melanopsin. So melanopsin is going to send a

message to the brain and there's a, you know, it's going to trigger

the production of aceto of

adrenocorticotropin hormone. It's going to tell our adrenal glands

to make cortisol. And then cortisol's. What's that going to do? It's going to go

to the liver and it's going to. The liver is going to release blood sugar

and it's raising our blood sugar because it has to, because cortisol, we need

cortisol. Cortisol is very important. It gives us energy, it keeps us awake. It's

what we need in the morning, but we don't need it at night. Cortisol

can lead to other. Can be a precursor to other hormones. So

it has an ability to mess with our hormones as well as should testosterone, things

like that. But cortisol inherently raises blood sugar, so it's going

to release blood sugar and then it also makes us a little more insulin

resistant because the body's not going to. Well, the body will

release more insulin to try to get rid of this blood sugar, but cortisol blunts

that responds a little bit. So now we have an epidemic of people who

are insulin resistant in addition to this high sugar

because of the cortisol. And then we have the whole leptin issue, which is a

whole other issue in general, which is also a circadian piece. Leptin plays

a role in how we, in our metabolism based on our fat cells, and

that's also circadian. But just a basic. Cortisol is

automatically just going to raise our blood sugar at the wrong time, and then we

have nothing lowering it. Now it's just coursing through our body, this

cortisol, which is also going to create more stress and it

blunts melatonin. And melatonin cannot be released if cortisol

is high. And that's another thing that's going to be an issue because melatonin is

going to help the whole body heal. So cortisol will raise blood

sugar just from having that blue light in our eyes. And a lot of people

say, oh, I put my phone on night shift setting, I turn my phone

orange. But that night shift setting on the phone, even on

maximum setting, is only 50% blockage. So if you have

50% of no blue, you have 50% blue and you need

zero. I mean, you need, you need to not have any blue at night to

not trigger those melanopsin cells. So it's, it's not enough. It's a kind of a

false sense of security a lot of people think they're getting. So we want no

blue. So we don't even want any bright light for the most part. Even if

we have no blue and really bright lights, that could be an issue. But specifically

blue, we want to avoid that. So phones, LEDs, overhead

TVs, all of that, we want to try to eliminate it. And it doesn't mean

that you have to turn off your lights and walk around with a candle. I

mean, there are things we can do. We know about our blue light blockers and

different circadian friendly bulbs. There are ways to get around that. But we just definitely

need to be mindful that once the sun goes down, we want those signals to

be correct so that cortisol does go down. Okay. So once the

sun goes down, we need to be as mindful

of our light environment as we would be of what we were eating. Right. Like,

I know, you know, I think of all of the moms I know,

like there is no way they would be allowing

junk food into their bodies or the bodies of their children, like

at, you know, late at night on a regular basis.

And yet we don't have the information available to know that

the artificial light is doing this, having the same effect.

So yeah, just to like get through that point a little more. So turning off

the overhead LEDs, that's a simple one because who, who wants those on

anyway? They're awful. Especially when it's dark out. Your body

just is like, ah, like it's too bright. So the

overheads go off. We put on some lamps with a warmer bulb,

incandescent or circadian friendly bulb.

A little trickier is the screens. Right. Like I like to

have a, I like to watch a little TV show or watch a movie.

So let's talk about the glasses.

Yeah, So I don't have them in front of me, but

there's. Everyone heard about blue light glasses, right? We all know that there's

blue light glasses. And I think a lot of people know that blue light

keeps you awake. I feel like that's a pretty known thing. A lot of people

hear it, they don't know the extent of it or they're like, oh, I have

my blue light blockers. But there's such a big difference between blocking blue light during

the day and night. And if you're getting, if you're Wearing a blue light blocker

that has no color to it, you're not really blocking blue light, especially

not enough. In order to block technically 100% of blue light,

the lenses have to be orange. I mean, they have to be really amber or

really orange. And you can see the wavelengths of whatever glasses you're using and make

sure that they are blocking up to at least you know, at a

minimum, 480 nanometers. That's the wavelength that

most activates. Melanopsin is 480 nanometers.

It's sky blue. But ideally, you want to go even a little further than that

because melanopsin can also respond to some people, like, even in the

green range. But that being said, the glasses have to be dark enough

and orange enough to block that light. Even yellow

glasses, Yellow glasses are not enough for nighttime. I tend to wear yellow during the

day because it gives me a nice, nice 50% blockage of

the harmful light that's going to damage the eyes during the day without messing with

circadian rhythm. But at night, I tend to wear orange ones, and they

just work so much better. And then I even wear red right before. But that's

a little different. That really blocks all the way up to all the green, and

it takes out a lot of the light. That's like my sleeping pill that I

use. But orange is really important at night again, after the

sun goes down. Okay. And I just wanted to make sure we

covered that because I, I don't want

people's. The way human nature is, our mind will go to, like, the worst,

hardest part of any change, right? And it's like, what? Like, no more. No

more tv, no more screens. No more. And it's like,

no, just make sure that your eyes are fully protected.

Right? And, you know, I know all of this, and even I

sometimes I'm like, you know, I just pick up my phone and I'm like, oh,

I forgot. You know, it's. But every,

every moment of protection, every little bit of

protection matters and, and makes a difference and is

improving our body's ability to function

and, and heal itself. So,

yeah, really. So the, so the blue blockers are really, really, really

important. And do you just, like, once the sun goes down, do you just put

them on or do you put them on if you're going to, like, watch TV

or something? I mean, I put them on. So I,

I put them on as soon as the sun goes down. I mean, they're on.

My husband does not. He waits a couple. He only puts them on a Few

hours before bed, especially at this time of year when it's dark at 4:30.

Right now, that being said, I'm at work. There are days I don't work. I

don't work every day. But on the days I do, there is one night I'm

working till seven and it's dark for a few hours already this time of year.

And I will say that I wear the yellow. And the second I leave

the office, I put on my orange. And I'm not. You're not supposed to drive

with them. But I live pretty close to the office. So anyway,

that being said, so I. But I put them on as soon as it's dark.

But I also want to make sure I've eaten already. I tend to try to

eat before the sun goes down as well because our digestive

enzymes are not really active as much at night. We're supposed to eat with

the sun. That's what we're designed to do, eat when the sun is up. Our

digestion is really strong. So I like to make sure I eat

and then, you know, darkness and then put them on and I leave them on

no matter what I'm doing until I, until I go to bed.

Whereas my husband's like, what do we have the lights off? It's 430. Why are

you like, I don't care.

But I mean, at least. And again, not everybody can do that. I recognize that

people are working. I don't expect people to put them on at 4:30, you know,

depending on where you live. But at least a few hours before bed. I mean,

ideally when you get home and it's dark, put them on. You know, that's what

I'm saying. It's a little bit harder for people who are at work and they're

working late. And you really don't want to be walking around with orange glasses because

you don't want to drive with them. But at least yellow in those situations. But

if you're home and it's dark, you put them on. It would be just such

an easy thing to do. Such an easy thing to do. And then you're

protected from any little ambient light or any

little anything that comes your way.

Okay, so another question I had.

You talked about how the

artificial light at night spikes our blood sugar.

How is it different? Explain to us how it's different from

going outside at noon and getting a blue

light signal. Why there's like

the timing piece and you know, the fake

light versus real light piece. So what, what's going on? Because

I'm I'm hearing people's questions come through the ether.

They're like, well she said there's blue light outside and you're saying it's so bad.

So what's right? Right, Tell us. So when we're exposed

to blue light out in the sun, we're getting a full spectrum signal. So we're

getting red and infrared, which is is again anti inflammatory. Blue light is in addition

to telling us what time it is, it's also a strong

signal. I mean it has a very high wavelength, it's close to ultraviolet.

So it is a stronger signal. But out in full spectrum light it is

balanced by that red and infrared. Those red and infrared signals, which are longer

wavelength and more anti inflammatory, they're going to blunt a lot of

the inflammatory signals. Just as a side note, but when we are getting full

spectrum light, we also have other pieces of light in there. We also have some

depending on what time of year it is where you live. We're also getting some

ultraviolet light and ultraviolet light helps break

down our hormones. So we're designed to the way, the way we

work is to release, you know, cortisol and start making hormones first thing in the

morning. And then if we're outside getting these signals of full spectrum

light, we are exposed to a little of ultraviolet and then ultraviolet gets

stronger and then it gets weaker. And ultraviolet light helps break down those hormones.

So our body knows exactly what to do. It's like a balance

checks and balances. It's like, yeah, you're making hormones and then ultraviolet light helps

start breaking them down. But at night, if we start releasing hormones, there is no

ultraviolet light at night and we're not, nothing's breaking them down. So then they're just

flowing through our body. But cortisol, you know, we're going to make it. We're supposed

to make it, but we're also supposed to stop making it and do something to

help get rid of it or help break it down with all of our

hormones and all of the things that we're doing. Everything has a rhythm and we

need the sunlight to kind of tell us what to do and when to do

it. So that being said, I know middle of the day, sun,

there are caveats to that. We're not going to have someone who's never been out

in the sun and then go outside for hours. And all of that is a

separate story. But the idea is that full spectrum light does exactly what

we needed to do. We're supposed to have different things happening at different times a

day. At night, it's all artificial. It's not our biology

to release all these hormones at night. There's nothing. Then they just sit there and

they create wreak havoc on the body.

So amazing. So when we're outside

there, yes, there's blue light, but there's lots of other kinds of light.

And it's basically helping our body to digest all of our,

all of the information. Whereas when

it's dark out and it's fake light and it just has

the very narrow stream, it's just bombarding our body with

signals and our body doesn't know what to do and

reacts in a way that's causing a

lot of problems. So many problems, my friends. And this

is why. Yeah, this is, we're going to get into them. And why

I'm like such a maniac about circadian regulation

because it's not necessarily, no one's saying it's

going to, it's like a magic cure all. But there's so

many symptoms and can related to

dysregulated circadian rhythm that to have a regulated

rhythm, at least you're ruling out, you know, you're covering your

bases. So if you, you do need help with other

symptoms, at least you know, you're not trying to like medicate circadian

dysregulation, which is never going to work. You got to get that in place.

Okay, so that's, that's why this just

matters so, so, so much. What are the many reasons it matters so much? Okay,

so, so you've explained how it all

works and the things that can go sideways and how our

eye is such a key, key organ in

processing light. So when things do go

wrong, you have

noticed a lot of correlation between eye issues

and different symptoms or conditions that are showing up

in other parts of the body, Right? Yeah. So the eyes are always

a nice window to what's happening in the body. And that's something that we've, you

know, we did learn, we always learned that in school. That's, that's such a big

piece. And one of the reasons that drew me to this profession,

because you can look into the eyes and you can see so many things that

happen in the body because you can see blood vessels and nerve tissue and brain.

You know, you're seeing all these things without having to cut anything. And I just,

it is fascinating. So, yeah, so anytime anything goes

wrong in the body, we have to. In the eyes, we have to know what's

going on in the body or understand that most systemic systems

can show up in the eyes. So a lot of things that

happen can be traced back to,

again, like you said, the foundation of circadian rhythm. It is the foundation

that we need. And it's not like you said, it's not going to. There

can be other layers, but we have to get that light. Right. So when we're

talking about from, from a retinal standpoint, and you can look at the

retina and you're seeing blood vessels and you're seeing inflammation, you know, perhaps inflammation, a

lot of people are getting, you know, macular degeneration and, and, and diabetic

retinopathy and different things like that. And it can

point to inflammation in the body, can point to poor

circadian rhythm for all the reasons we talked about because of blood sugar,

perhaps people are getting too much light. Macular degeneration.

There's a big link to poor circadian rhythm, or in general, or just

being exposed to these artificial signals of light, because the

signals that are exposed, that we're exposed to tend to

oxidize the retina. We're not designed to stare at a screen all day and just

get these signals without any balance. And what it does, it actually

oxidizes the cells of the, of the macula and we start getting these deposits.

So that's kind of a clue. And there's also links to metabolic

issues for macular degeneration. So a lot of different things can happen

where the retina is not working as well. And, you know, it's because of things

that are happening in the body. Hormones play a big role in what happens in

the eyes. Dry eyes, especially, depending on, you know, women tend to

get a lot of dry eyes certain, you know, after menopause or around menopause, and

then later, a lot of times, there's hormones linked to that.

Allergies show up in the eyes. Nerve issues show up in the eyes. There's so

many, so many different things. There's a lot of inflammation can show up in the

eyes as well, autoimmune issues, and all of those things that happen

in the eyes and the body. We want to make sure that the foundation, like

I said, that the foundation is there before we start fixing other things. Because if

you're kind of like running uphill, if you're trying to fix those things without fixing

the light, because even with blood

pressure, blood pressure has a circadian component to it as well. We want to

make sure we are getting the right signals. Nitric oxide, when we're exposed to those

ultraviolet A signals, are going to lower blood pressure. It lowers

eye Pressure. There's a lot of different pieces there. Melatonin is

really extremely important. There's so many studies on melatonin

and how it can help a lot of different eye conditions and obviously the whole

body. And I don't mean that we take it, we want to make sure we're

optimizing it. And the only way to optimize it is with light. I mean, it's

a circadian hormone so that in and of itself, people who have

dry eyes and are not sleeping, why aren't you sleeping? We got to look at,

you know, are you, are you getting enough light so that you're making your melatonin

in addition to all the other things that can cause dry eyes? There's so many

pieces. I know, I'm just, I'm saying like a big jumble of things. But there's

so many links to so many things in, in the eyes and the body. And

then we layer in the quantum health with that. It's, it's, it's a no brainer

to, to really fix light. Right.

So the eyes are a window to all kinds of systemic

issues. And the eyes are

also the main processing unit of light. So

the circadian organ. So just another

way of saying. Yes, how important light is. Let's dig

into a couple of those a little bit. So

talk to me about dry eye and

hormones. Okay. Yes. So

estrogen in general is important in

keeping our eyes moist in general. So a lot of women will start

getting dry eyes because our lacrimal glands will stop making. The lacrimal

glands are what secrete water basically, or the aqueous portion of the tears.

And it does go down a bit. Estrogen helps keep things moist. So when we

have a little bit less of that, sometimes we're not making as much of the

aqueous portion of our tear film. And also our glands tend to get a little

more clogged. And our oil glands, whenever we blink, we're secreting oil for our

tear film and they tend to get clogged a lot in women, especially

just in general. And again, hormones, while

menopause is a natural thing, we can optimize that a little bit more.

Right. With circadian rhythm. If we help optimize hormones, we want to make sure we're

doing all of that to help. Gosh,

I'm drawing a, drawing a blank on other things right now.

I'm sorry, I'm completely drawing a blank here. Okay, we'll

just tighten this up later. Yeah, you can edit this out. Actually, I'm going to

Plug my computer in. So let's make a note. At 35

minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just feel like I'm. I'm not. No

problem. Completely. Right now I realized I forgot to

plug it in, and it's getting low, so I'll be right back. Okay.

I mean, I don't know that that's really answering anything anyway. I'm not really sure

if I even answered anything, really. I don't know. I'm drawing a blank on that.

Menopause. It's hard to say that's fully circadian because it's.

It's like we're losing hormones at that point. So it's like, almost.

Yeah. And that, like, I'm not looking to say it's fully

circadian. I just, like, even the idea that you're. That is a

symptom of a hormonal. Imbalance, it's like, oh, I see what

you're getting at. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm just trying to think of

other testosterone I don't know. I don't know much about.

It's mostly estrogen, honestly. So tell me when you want to restart.

Okay. Want to ask that again? And I'll. Sure, I'll. Yeah, sure.

I'll just pick it up.

Yeah. And as I was saying, like, it's. It's more just like

most people have no idea. They're like, oh, I have dry eyes. Like, they don't

even. Wouldn't even connect it to a phase of life or to a

hurt. You know, they just get drops, and that's it.

So those are. That's sort of who I'm talking to. Okay. It's like

that. The idea. There's a lot of different

reasons for dry eyes. I mean, I'll tell you before we continue. Like, there's

medication side effects. There's, like, histamine issues that we can get, which can

also be immune issues. Okay, well, let's do that, then. I'll let.

How about this? I'll just ask about dry eyes. Right. And then it

might be easier to do that because the only, like, example I have would be

menopause and that. Yeah. Okay. So. Yeah, we can start that again.

Okay. So I want to circle back to a symptom you mentioned, because this

comes up a lot on Q&As, and I hear people wanting to know more about

it, and that is dry eyes.

Most people I know get dry eyes. They go get some drops,

and they put the drops in, and they're like, now my eyes aren't dry anymore.

Right. And that's kind of it, right? Well, with.

It's actually very frustrating because when people get a drop, a lot of times those

drops will help for a few minutes and they're really not helping the actual

problem. So there's a ton of reasons why people can get dry eyes. There is

the circadian piece to that, but in general, there are, you

know, hormonal issues, there's side effects from medications. So people who are

basically, if you look up any medication, blood pressure medications, birth control

is a huge, huge cause of dry eyes in general. But if you're taking

a systemic medication and you look up side effects, dry eyes is

usually one of those side effects. So most people who are on medications,

I'm thinking of like antidepressants, you know, psychiatric medications,

blood pressure medication, any hormonal medications, antibiotics,

things like that can absolutely disrupt the tear film. So that's.

That's the thing that most people are on medications. And it's. It's one of the

most common symptoms, dry eyes. So you have the medication

piece, the hormonal piece. So again, people, especially menopausal women, when

estrogen starts to go down, it's going to dry us out. It's going to mess

with our glands. Our oil glands are not secreting oil as well. The

water portion, the lacrimal glands are not making as much of the aqueous or the

water part of our tears. Our tear film is made up of mucus,

water and oil. So we need those layers to be nice and full in order

to have a good tear film. So you get people who even have immune issues,

allergies, they get too many, a lot of cells,

mast cells that's secreting a lot of histamine or a lot of mucus.

So that can also disrupt the tear film and relate to dry eyes. And

we have environmental issues. People who are sitting on screens, just in general sitting

on screens, we don't blink as much. We're not pumping out that oil. Our eyes

are going to be dry. So there's a lot of lifestyle changes

and a lot of systemic changes that can actually have an effect on that. There

are autoimmune conditions that can actually lower the production of that water as

well. Inflammatory conditions. There's

almost everything, even digestive issues, even if our microbiome is off,

if we had recent any issues with digestion, and

there's a gut eye connection, there's a mouth eye connection,

sometimes there's issues with dental work that can affect

things. There's really so many layers. There's even issues with

Say lymph stagnation. If we have issues where we just

have stagnation and our lymph flow is not

flowing for many reasons, even postural issues,

we can have more dry eyes. A lot of people say I wake up in

the morning and my eyes are puffy or my eyes are just watery in the

morning. It's a lot of. There's all, excuse me, there's a lot of lymph tissue

around there. And we need to make sure that that's moving, that we're releasing

toxins, that we're hydrating, that we're getting, you know, all the, even circadian. There's

a big circadian piece to how our lymph is flowing as well. There's

kidney, you know, kidney function also plays a role. Liver

function plays a role in our eyes and how we're releasing toxins. If we're

exposed to too many toxins, it's going to

show up in the eyes. Even poor air quality, right. If we're exposed to

dust, if we, you know, I like having an air purifier in bedrooms. I

think that's a nice way to just make sure we're exposed to clean air while

we're sleeping. Because a lot of people don't realize that it's their, what they're

exposed to that's, that's creating dry eyes. A lot of products

create dry eyes. We have to be careful with cleaning products. Right. So

many people are still using bleach and all these

toxic, even fragrances. Oh, it drives me crazy.

Fragrances, those chemicals every. Tell people, every time

you're wearing, if you're wearing perfume or anything with a fragrance. Every time you

smell that, your, your liver has to detox, has to detox

those, those scent molecules. Like it's adding a burden, a toxic burden to the

eyes, Women, contact lens, just in general. Contact lenses are a

big cause of dry eyes in general because you're literally putting a piece of plastic

on your eyes and disrupting the tear film if, if you're over wearing them, if

you're not taking care of them properly or if the contact's not fitting properly

or if it's not a good contact for you. But makeup, that's another thing. So

I know you're asking about systemic conditions, but there's, there's so many different reasons for

dry eyes. Like depending on what kind of makeup we use,

there's a lot of different false eyelashes. You see that a

lot. That's so interesting. There's so many people who have them. And I

Saw a study about how eyelashes are designed to be a certain length

because they have a certain airflow.

And when we change that length with artificial false lashes, we're actually changing

the airflow and the air. There's more air hitting your eyes and we can get

more dry eyes. Just. Wow. So again, there are so many

layers to dry eyes and there's a lot of systemic issues. Bottom line,

folks, do not mess with nature.

I mean, going to a party, you want long eyelashes for a night, fine. But

like, I would like. Yeah.

Wow. No wonder everyone has dry eyes.

That's like everything. Allergy medicine, a lot of

people are taking anti. That will automatically dry out the eye. It's gonna.

It dries out the mucous membrane, so you can get more dry eyes

from that as well. So again, there's so many. So many layers. And again, I

like to have that quantum layer in there because again, quantum or circadian

biology is such a good foundation for a lot of these systemic issues that

perhaps we can improve upon to help reduce the

systemic issue, which might also help improve the dry eye

issue. Right? Is look. Yeah. I mean, looking at it from

the. From the circadian perspective, it's getting all of the processes

in place with the correct light inputs and then going down

to that deeper quantum layer where boosting that bar.

Easy water. The big thing, which I didn't even. Which I

obviously probably obvious, it's blue light. You know, we're exposed to

artificial blue light without the balance of the red and the infrared. We are literally

oxidizing and dehydrating our eyes automatically just by being

exposed to this signal of blue light that doesn't exist in nature.

And the other piece of that is also WI fi signals, which are also

just dehydrating us on that cellular level, which we can't get away from.

I understand that that's a whole other, you know, conversation, but in

general, our environment makes it really hard to not have dry eyes. We have to

do a lot of work, a lot of work to. To really try to keep

our eyes moist. And even as simple fact as just blinking, like, just remember to

blink when you're on screens. You know, a lot of things like that can help,

right? Yeah. I notice when I'm like editing the

editing podcasts and there's a lot of me just listening, so I just.

And I'm like, I am blinking like every other second.

I was like, is there something wrong with me? Why am I blinking so much?

Oh, but that's my body responding to the fact that I'm on a screen,

trying to keep. Trying to keep my eyes safe. Okay,

so what's going on? I know you've talked

about how there's just more and more research coming out

about the role of the eye

and its connection to health and its connection to light. Like, what are your

favorite things to think about right now? Yeah, it's interesting.

Everyone's extremely afraid of ultraviolet light, right. Hitting the eyes. And I

get it, because there is an oxidative reaction that can happen with ultraviolet light, especially,

especially if it's too much. But there are some studies and some of these are

animal studies. So it's not necessarily. But a lot of the animal studies

usually can be extrapolated to humans. But, you know,

UVA and violet light has been found to help with

corneal wound healing. And I believe it was done in rabbits, rabbits or

mice. But when exposed to uva, when, when, when the cornea

gets wounded, it's actually neuropsyn, those neuropsychin receptors

that get upregulated, those UVA receptors, and they help heal the eye, eyes, which

is so interesting. It's like, well, you know, obviously we have neuropsychin for a

reason. We need these signals. Sometimes these signals can actually help us.

There's also the study, I believe it was done by Harry Moto is

one of the researchers, that when UVB was,

when the cornea was exposed to uvb, they found an upregulated

Alpha MSH in the body. Alpha MSH is

melanocyte stimulating hormone. It's a very important, important

hormone that helps with so many different things. Again, that's a whole other topic.

But it's just interesting how we can get systemic effects

from signals in the eye. Same thing with uva they found

there was another study about UVA and upregulating through nitric

oxide signaling that there is other systemic effects as well. So we can

see that ultraviolet light in the eyes does play a role in

our systemic effects. What I do love, I really love

Scott Zimmerman's research on infrared light. I just love that, you know,

how, how well we know how important infrared light is

again for our mitochondria, for our general health. And how when we're in these green

spaces, we're getting even more of that and it penetrates the eyes so

well that it can go through our, our eyelids just being outside.

So being in these green spaces is such a healing thing that we can do

for the body. So we can sit in the shade, sit under a tree,

you know, even if it's in the middle of the day, and we're getting such

amazing benefits. And we don't really get that. Most of us aren't getting as

outdoor time as much as we need to. And the infrared portion of

that is extremely important. It's actually going to hydrate. The retina needs

hydration. The eyes need hydration. In addition to all the

signaling. And infrared light is what does that. It actually gets absorbed by the water.

It's actually helping us increase our cellular water, and it helps things

work better. We can't work if we're dehydrated. And again, the sun

or being outdoors is a big piece of making sure we stay hydrated.

So I talk about hydration a lot with patients, and they're like, oh, I drink

water all day long. I'm like, oh, that's not what I mean. I mean, that's

not. It helps. We want to make sure we're getting minerals and we're getting clean

water, but we really need that piece. We need the full spectrum sunlight,

especially first thing in the morning, to help us increase that hydration.

Wow. And so, yeah, let's

talk about that a little. So tell us a little more.

Being outside. And yeah, I love talking to Scott.

And I love. Because it's. Every time I talk to him, I'm like, oh, just

go outside. Right. Like, it's. In order to make vitamin

D, you might need to have your skin out a certain time of year at

a certain time of day. But in order to get the benefits of infrared

light, which you're talking about, you just got to, like, walk out. Walk

out that door, be on the other side of the glass. So what's. What's happening?

How is infrared light, which is

amplified under leaves and trees, which is so cool,

or red light therapy, if that's the way we're doing it. How is

that hydrating our bodies and our eyeballs?

Yeah. So it works through our mitochondria. And our

mitochondria we've probably remember as being our powerhouse that makes

ATP and our energy. But mitochondria also

make water. When those electrons are flowing through the

membrane, they're kind of jumping through these different proteins in the membrane of the

mitochondria at the fourth. The cytochrome. It's the

fourth membrane, the fourth protein in that membrane, One of the

byproducts is water. And research, obviously, from

Dr. Pollack and all these other water researchers has shown that the

water that gets made from the mitochondria actually ends up becoming a

battery. It turns into. It's not just sloshing around our body. It actually

turns into this kind of structured or this crystalline

gel, this lattice of a battery. And it gets

rearranged into a negative and positive charges. And it

surrounds everything in the body. It's surrounding our mitochondria. It's surrounding every

single, every single atom or every single

surface that is hydrophilic or

attracts water so that everything's hydrated. And that's what makes it work

because that's what's supplying the energy in the body. And red light and

infrared light actually power up that

cytochrome C oxidase, which is the protein in the membrane that's

making water. So it gets powered up when it's making more of that

water. It's actually knocking off nitric oxide that can get

stuck there and it allows oxygen

to bind. And then it's going to make more water for us. And that water

ends up turning into what we call exclusion zone water or coherent

water or just water that helps our body work. And same thing

happens in our eyes as well, that those mitochondrial cells eat up the red light

and the infrared and they're actually going to make more water for us, us. And

that happens on a cellular level that is not the same as the water that

we drink. It is really happening throughout our entire body. One of the most important

things we can do for the body because we are electrical and it's

amazing how light is controlling things on such a, such a level. That light is

going to interact with electrons and those electrons are what's going to

help move things in the body. And then it's going to make that water. And

then we have this battery and we want that battery, that water to be very

thick and healthy. And infrared is powering that up. It's actually going to explain

expand that water throughout the entire body. So works

beautifully. Wow.

So our bodies, so we are bioelectric,

not just biochemical. There's an added layer there.

And this, the light piece is what,

you know, charges us. And the eyes are

really like the key organization. I mean, we're

absorbing light all over our body all the time. Yes, but, but

the eyes have all of these very specific mechanisms

and there's. A direct link to the brain. Right. It's right there. So it's just,

it's such a direct link to the masterpiece and

then it goes right, you know, all throughout the body. So it is a really

important piece. And not to say we can't get some benefits

obviously from the skin because that's the other, the other part of it. But the

eyes are just. Is crucial.

So. Amazing. Well, Valerie, do you have anything else

that you want to add or anything that's on your mind about.

About all of this? This has been a lot and I want to sort of

give. Give people a sec. A second to digest and

I, I really love how you explained everything so

beautifully because it, I think, you know, that

we, we can't hear this too many times. I just, again, just

want to reiterate that we really, our light is a nutrient and we need to

really be careful about, like, really think about what kind of light we're exposed to

throughout the day. If you are in an office or you're in a place that

has LEDs, just get outside as much as you can. Just take breaks outdoors. You

don't need, you know, we don't need. You don't need to be outside all day,

but just get outside, take those breaks, make sure we're getting those signals and

safely. You know, there's obviously safe, safe safety involved there, but we

don't want to be exposed to all these signals. It's just, it's just not natural.

And it makes sense if we think about it. Why would, why would we be

able to live away from nature? Like every other creature needs to be

outdoors under the sun and, you know, just with the earth

and we're the only creatures that are able to live

indoors for such a big portion of our life. You know, we're really not

connected anymore. And even if we're outside sitting under a tree, you know, it's

fantastic for us. So we just, especially morning is the most important thing that we

need to think about. Sunset as well is also a nice time when there's a

lot of red and infrared light. We need the other signals throughout the day as

well, but we have to make sure we're getting those early morning signals

and even sunsets another time and then darkness at night. And that's what's going to

optimize our rhythm very well.

Right? Yeah. I love that idea of

light as a nutrient and we, we are deficient again. And it's. Scott

Zimmerman has said it's like 21st century scurvy,

the infrared light deficiency. And when you talked about it, you

talked about like our mitochondria being starving.

Right. So that's the. I find these images

so powerful. Right. Like we have inadvertently starved

our cells of their vital life

force. And then we wonder why we have all these problems

with energy and sleep and digestion and.

Yeah, it's amazing. Well,

Valerie, where can People find you. And again, thank you so much

for putting your, your brilliant mind onto all of this

work and explaining it to all of us. Like, it really makes such a huge

difference. Thank you. Instagram. Go on Instagram. I'm Quantum

IDOC on Instagram. That's where I'm the most active. And there's some links there

for my websites, resources and stuff. It's mostly, mostly

education at this point. So I would say Instagram is the fastest

and easiest way. Okay, so that's Quantum

IDOC doc at Quantum IDOC

on Instagram. If you live

in the Long island area, you can make it an in person

appointment at the clinic. If you

don't, then yes, yes, definitely follow Valerie on Instagram. And

she has a lot of amazing free resources. And of course, she

is a faculty member at the Institute of Applied Quantum Biology. So if you

wanted to study under her as a practitioner and

learn how to apply all of this in your, in your work,

you can find her there as well. Thank you. Yes. The Apply

Quantum the program is just fantastic. I have to say I love the

program so much and I'm honored to be on the faculty. But then that the

Applied Quantum Biology program I just find so helpful.

Again, I've learned about this since I would say 2017,

and I read as much as I could and I learned as much as I

could and I made the changes. But honestly, it wasn't until I went through the

program that I think I really understood it or how to apply it and

how to really live and not be so stressed out about it all the time.

So I think it's really helpful. And I don't think you have to be a

practitioner to go through the program. I think it's a great program just to understand

and just know how to change your life. I mean, it really is life changing.

And I love the way things are explained in the program. I just highly recommend

it. I love it. Oh, Valerie, thank you so much. I

really appreciate that. Yeah. And that is the point of it. It's like it's an

integration program. It's not academic, it's not

theoretical. Like, we sometimes have people who just want to like

talk about electron tunneling for five hours. And I'm like, I will

refer you to some other places where they. That's their

focus for us. Yeah, it's like we want to understand

what's happening so that we can do, so that everyone

can do something practical with it. So thank you so much for,

for. Articulating that because that's, that's the point. It's

like, the information is wonderful, but if we

can't live it out right, who cares?

Sitting on a Lincoln PubMed.

Thank you again, Valerie. And I look forward to doing this again.

Thank you, Meredith. Me too.