Why red light? | Red light for longevity with Dr.Zulia Frost (Part 1)

How does it affect our body clock , our circadian rhythm , the quality of our sleep And what about our ability to heal from injuries , the health of our joints and microbiome good health ? This is the first of four episodes to address those questions . There's a lot to cover and joining me is Dr Zulia Frost .

Dr Frost is a medical doctor and a clinical director and one of the co-founders at Recharge Health creators of a targeted red light device known as Flexbeam . She is an expert in photobiomodulation and we'll explain what that is in a moment . But first

, dr Frost , welcome to the Live Long and Master Aging podcast .

I'd like to start , though , by just talking about you for a little while and just really getting to the heart of your enthusiasm for this topic , and especially your enthusiasm for the technology .

It really started and , as I explained , you are a medical doctor , and this part of your career started with quite a difficult time for yourself personally , in a very serious accident .

But unfortunately I was involved in a very , very serious , deadly car crash And I was really , really broken , smashed into pieces my body .

And when you face such a tremendous challenge , not only you employ your historical knowledge of being a doctor , but you also employ literally every source of you know , every tool you have at your disposal to get yourself well , and I think for me at that time , i intuitively was drawn to red light therapy , without knowing , because I used to after the hospital

period time . I used to exercise a lot , but I wanted to do it in nature . You know I was running every morning at the sunrise and , almost like intuitively , you greet the sunrise , you know , you bow to sunrise and you absorb this healing red light .

At the time already , as I said , you know , i was young , so I healed myself fairly quickly , but I was left with a very debilitating pains And these pains were tremendous , like it was , you know , almost constantly And I'm not the person who would take medication for pain . I would like to sort it out in some natural way .

So , fortunately for my life , i discovered some technologies which can actually also my state of pain And in fact I fixed myself , and that was so big discovery for me , so I started to offer this to my patients , and then patients , of course .

Then I see how quickly and remarkably the patients would recover , and so I got myself on the path of wanting to give something to my patient to take home in the form of natural technology which assists natural healing . And that's how I end up eventually to working with recharge health and pioneering this new device called FlexBeam .

Generally speaking , physiotherapy was quite advanced , i would say for that time , and there were devices which physiotherapy used , including red light therapy , but UV lights , including electrical stimulation , those Russian steam devices , etc .

So , because I was always drawn to technology even I did my training in ultrasonic diagnostic at the time it was just coming to the market Only because I love it , i love the interaction , i love to use something which is tangible , in fact non-tangible , for inducing healing responses from the body . Yes , and I work particularly on myself .

I work with the interactive neurostimulation , which is a use of the electrical stimulation with my nervous system and that has a feedback . And then , of course , i start using lasers and then I start using the LED type of light therapy . You know some piezoelectric toys , you name it lots .

The first discoveries were lasers And , as you know , lasers could be really , really powerful . They could burn the tissue And at the beginning everybody was really careful around lasers .

But the discovery was that if you use that type of light at low intensities , you actually have photo-stimulating effect , so you stimulate with light cells of your body and the result of this stimulation actually helps to recover from a variety of conditions .

So I was wondering if you could just explain , perhaps in the most basic terms possible , the kind of light that we're exposed to during a normal day .

But you feel it because it feels like nice warmth . And these infrared lights you can experience when you go on a pitch and you lie in sunbed . But that warmth is give you that infrared light . Of course you have the other side of spectrum UV lights , ultraviolet lights But that is which we learn to apply sunblock and protect ourselves .

It could be damaging for the skin But it also has benefits because it helps you to make vitamin D for your body . So you see , sunlight generally , broadly is hugely beneficial for us . And so what we're talking today ? we're talking today about red lights and also aspect of near infrared light .

I want to explain a little bit more here because if you look the infrared spectrum remember this invisible spectrum It consists of kind of three parts . So first part is the near infrared light , sort of between 600 to 1000 nanometers That's how they measure the wavelengths And then you have mid range beyond that , like 2000, . 4000 nanometers and then fine infrared .

So they have slightly different impact on the body And I want to bring it to explain why red and near infrared light are most beneficial , most researched as well in the science of photobiomodulation . So red light we can see And red light is normally absorbed at the level of the skin And it stimulates mitochondria .

Mitochondria , it's basically a little energy plants which is scattered in every cell And so you have red light stimulating mitochondria , but also near infrared light . They both impact your energy production on the cellular level . So this is like win-win .

But if you go further into spectrum of light , into mid range and far range of infrared , then your water molecules in the body primarily absorb that light And that will be different physiological effect . You'd feel that warmth and even hot . That's principle what infrared sounders are based on .

So in a sense scientists discovered Hurray , the sunlight has got some beneficial wavelengths . That red and infrared light seems good for your energy . And guess what ? Who noticed that as well ? When you look through ancient time , indian yogi had a practice They would sit and they would watch sunrise And they would watch sunset . Why ?

Because at these times we have the most of the red spectrum and the infrared spectrum of light . So , whether they knew this through their religious , historical practicing , or whether they just discovered that this is good for you , they've been doing this for centuries And , of course , now scientists confirm there is a beneficial effect from these wavelengths .

That rhythm of the day dictates how our body operates .

So the light , when we watch the light and daylight , stimulate some part of the brain and the melatonin . It's a hormone which , released by pituitary gland in your brain , is subsides . Yes , that means your body is active , but then evening comes along and then your light is diminishing .

So this light receptors in your brain telling you oh , now it's time for you to produce melatonin , because that induce you into sleep . So this interesting mechanism , through receiving light through your eyes , actually create that circadian rhythm . So circadian rhythm , like you said , it's 24 hour cycle . But what is interesting ?

the melatonin , this hormone I was just describing , it's at the core , at the heart of this circadian rhythm . It's like , if you imagine , it's like a conductor who plays the music of life for 24 hours in your body . So it dictates when to wake up , when to go to sleep .

But important thing is that not only melatonin attached to 24 cycle in the body , but all your hormones , the hormones of the biological , like testosterone , estrogen , progesterone , digestive hormones , grating leptin , hormones which regulate your body temperature , all the function intimately linked to this 24 circadian rhythm .

So once you know about this , then you know oh , oh , i need to go to bed right on time . I should not upset this circadian rhythm , because if you have upset circadian rhythm , there is lots , lots of diseases linked to that . I call them

desynchronization

of circadian rhythm . I call them in my head .

at Recharge Health creators of a targeted red light device known as Flexbeam . I really want to dive a little deeper into sleep , into melatonin release and its relationship with the red light and its relationship to the red light that we're exposed to during the day . We'll talk about more of that in depth in our next episode .

What I'd like to do now is talk about Flexbeam and how you have really embraced the knowledge that I think has blossomed over the last couple of decades that we now have about how energy is at our very core and how the body thrives on energy and how that is related to the light that we're exposed to .

How you've used that knowledge to develop this device that hopefully has . I think we're going to learn over the next couple of episodes how it can be used to heal ourselves , how it can be used to

improve our sleep , perhaps reduce our anxiety . How has this been focused on a piece of technology that's been developed just in the last few years ?

without functioning mitochondria which make energy in your cell , you cannot last even a second . This is very profound . So if you have damaged energy production in your body , you can be ill . Simple as that . And I trace so many diseases back to mitochondria dysfunction . To start with , fatigue . That is a pure expression of mitochondria not functioning .

Poor sleep , of course it would be , because we just discuss the power of the red lights and power of the melatonin to induce normal sleep pattern And lots of chronically ill people have really difficulty to sleep . And then , of course , we have chemical imbalance in the body which can lead to some state like you described state of anxiety or state of depression .

It's also linked back to mitochondria and light . So if people know the way about this , they should look into this topic because from energy point of view , you can explain any of these conditions and many more .

It's very closely linked to our diet , the compounds that we get out of plants , especially that we can be using in our gut to benefit our mitochondrial health . That's simplifying it hugely , but the point I'm making is there are many ways in our lifestyles to improve our mitochondrial health .

Well , i tell you , this device was the result of the discovery of the power of red and infrared lights in the form of LEDs , not lasers , because lasers were like , as I said , since 1960s they were primarily used as a low level laser therapy .

But since NASA discovered the positive impact on healing from LED technology , it's suddenly the whole industry just boom , and so flex beam is a baby of this . I would say excitement from our engineer , ariane about this NASA research . But what is important to understand the very latest scientists are talking about what is important with light therapy ?

it's the parameters of light , the power , like irradiance , or how strongly it influences cell with light , yes , how long the exposure time , rather than the source , whether it's laser , whether it's LED . Important that the both modalities work , but work slightly , maybe different .

But lasers , like we said , it's typically very narrow bands and very , very strong beam of light . So obviously it's important how strong the laser , because if you put very strong laser you can actually burn the tissue . So that is kind of drawback .

That's why lasers are used in the medical practices by trained practitioners And you have to use pre-coations like goggles . Of course technology is progressing as well , and so now lots of development in the low intensity lasers . So how is compared to LEDs ? LEDs don't produce coherent light . Leds it's like a beam of light in a circus .

It's got this spatial distribution of lights And because of this LEDs could spectrum . So it's never like very specific nanometers of the waveform . It's actually spread over the range , like , for example , with flex beam . We have red lights in 625 up to 635 nanometers And infrared between 800 to 830 . So it's spread .

It's number one , so it does not have any damage in effect . And number two , it radiates the area , not a dot , but the area . So in a sense they both will give you photo stimulation at the cellular level And they both will be beneficial for a variety of physiological factors .

All lights which are generated by the diodes in the device directly target it , send it into your body . So it's in a targeted way . You literally put it around the joint From three dimensions . You beam the joint like shoulder , knee or back . That is one advantage . And second advantage it's super , super powerful .

It's really powerful because , compared to all other devices , it generates in 10 minutes , program three , up to six watts . It's a tremendous amount of energy . But what the power gives you , it's not just the power but it's a power density .

It enables to deliver these photons of light which energize cells which maybe have damage somewhere , but they dip inside your body . So not every photo by modulation device could do this , but FlexBim does It . Penetration depth up to 10 centimeters , which is tremendous .

As you know , when you have tissue damage there are specific immune cells which crawling to this point of damage . Yes , so they need physical , tangible energy . So that's what they receive through these photons of light which give analogy which works really well to say it's like your solar panel .

You have photosensitive stuff , you stimulate photonic energy and then you convert into this electricity So you not only power your home but you can power same way your body inside where the damage is happened . Then there is the second process in parallel going on , because your enzyme binds with oxygen better .

It kicks the nitric oxide , and we all know nitric oxide is the ultimate vasodilator which means the blood vessels are start opening up , the more blood comes to the side of injury . It brings more oxygen so cells more efficiently work , yes , and then it brings nutrients , take the waste away .

So you optimize , you create much better environment for healing when you use the light . And then another process also happening a very small release of reaction oxygen species .

They are necessary because they like a signal for the cell , or I need to do cellular protective measures So your cell become protected , so it also attracts the sort of neurochemicals messengers which reduce the inflammation . So I mean there is multiple arrays of effects happening . Collagen becomes better , stem cells release better . This is all proven by science .

Sometimes , in very , very rare occasions , you can increase the inflammation because obviously you've given there already so much energy to this point . So if you give too much energy , in a sense the body will be very busy to fixing , working hard on this area , so your symptoms can be accentuated . But apart from this there is no burns .

There is no danger of that because the stimulation is pure stimulation with light . There is no heat . When you use red and infrared light specifically , you can expect heating reaction only in the mid-range or far-range of the infrared . It's quite important .

If you work , for example , with some injury or if you work with something like we're talking about sleep inducing , yes , 20-30 minutes at a time .

But if you are really really struggling with your health , like if you , maybe you're down like sort of 70 , 80 , and then you have so many conditions , you know you should understand that everything what is not right in your body is going to sci-fi , your essential sci-fi , this essential energy .

So effectively overall , your energy in the body drop and you will need a lot of energy to replace it . However , you don't give it at once . You need to give a lot smaller portions . That is my experience telling me .

So I found if people like this , they should use device maybe every other day , and they use only 10-20 minutes every other day , not every day . So , regardless , the both groups are going to feel the difference . Feed young people would feel the difference straight away . All the ill people may need to .

you know , maybe even one month or even two months , it's maybe different .

pleasure , to talk to you today .

In our next episode we're going to talk about red light and how it affects our sleep in much more detail the role of melatonin , the role that it plays in sleep and its relationship with our exposure to red light . And what if we're feeling anxious or stressed ? Is there a role for red light in helping us relax ? We'll delve into that as well .

As long as master aging is a health span media production , we share ideas here , but we do not offer medical advice . If you have any health concerns at all , you are considering adopting a health related regime , you should first consult your own doctor .