This section may have some of the most incredible information you will ever read about the future of healthy living. It starts where the ketogenic diet leaves off, going to the next level of understanding about how to heal our bodies on a cellular level—especially our mitochondria, the fat-burning furnaces of our cells. Yes, this may venture kind of far beyond the idea of a 30-day cleanse, but this information is so important to our overall health that I feel it would be wrong to leave this information out.
It all starts with water, a critical element to life. The human body is 80 percent water, but over 99 percent of the molecules in our bodies are water molecules. That is pretty astounding!
Water is pretty straightforward, right? H2 O is a simple molecule that has three states: gas, liquid, and solid. That’s what we’re taught in school, and most scientists haven’t bothered to investigate it much further. Recently, though, a few scientists, led by University of Washington professor of bioengineering Gerald Pollack, decided to take a closer look. This decision kicked off a series of experiments that will forever change the way we look at water.
Even before Dr. Pollack and his team began their experiments, there were a lot of unexplained mysteries about water. For example, why do the molecules clump up and accumulate into clouds? And why do water droplets remain intact for up to ten seconds when dropped onto the surface of water? There were no good explanations for these mysteries, so the scientists started to investigate.
They found that when water comes in contact with any hydrophilic surface (a surface on which water likes to spread out), a barrier of negatively charged water develops. This exclusion zone (EZ) of negatively charged water accumulates and pushes out everything else. The next thing they found was that when they shined light, especially infrared light, onto the water, the exclusion zone increased in size.
This EZ water is the fourth state of water (it is actually H3 O2 ). As it turns out, this is the phase that water goes through when it freezes and thaws. It is an ordered state of water. Some scientists have called this discovery the most influential of our generation.
Dr. Pollack’s team also observed that when a small tube is placed in water, the water flows through the tube, without any obvious mechanism. They then applied light and found that the rate of the water’s flow increased, especially under infrared light. Light was adding energy (electrons) to this EZ water. This, in combination with the way light causes the exclusion zone to increase in size, shows that light actually gives energy to the water.
You might be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with health?” Let’s look at blood flow as one example. It’s been observed that some of the capillaries that supply our cells with blood are as small as 3 micrometers in diameter. But red blood cells are at least twice that size—6 to 8 micrometers. So how do red blood cells get through these tiny capillaries? They have to bend. It was first thought that the heart’s pumping action forces them through. But a Russian scientist did the calculations and found that forcing red blood cells through capillaries would take one million times the pressure that the human heart can exert.
Everything in the body, like cell walls, is hydrophilic. Much, if not all, of the water in the body, then, is EZ water. Infrared light, which is part of sunlight, can penetrate into the body and adds energy to this water, which creates a series of benefits, including giving it the energy to pump red blood cells through the smallest capillaries. The water is essentially like a battery, and the energy light adds enables red blood cells to flow through the smallest capillaries.
In fact, the body is like one huge battery, fueled by sunlight and magnetism. The more sunlight (especially morning light) and magnetism (from the earth’s negative charge) we’re exposed to, the more negative charge the body accumulates, as EZ water stores this energy. A negative charge makes the body slightly alkaline, which is what you want—it’s associated with a lower risk of cancer and reduced systemic inflammation.
This new information about how light and water interact in the cells in our body has real implications for health.
I want you to understand how to use this information to hack your lifestyle and improve your health, sleep, and vitality. So I’m going to break it all down into a four-part action plan that you can use to leverage this quantum biology in your body.
Plants need sunlight to grow, but what about humans? Interestingly, the human body can use light of a certain wavelength (670 nm) to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a carrier of energy.
Getting exposure to morning sunlight and blocking blue light at night are two of the most important things you can do to enhance your environment and improve your health and sleep.
The first, and maybe the most important, thing is increasing exposure to morning sunlight and UV light. Both can be very helpful in healing, sleep, and longevity.
I preach over and over how important good sleep is. Getting at least eight hours of sleep can be the key to health, weight loss, mental clarity, and so much more. One of the best ways to ensure a restful night of sleep is to get your circadian clock in rhythm so that your body naturally produces melatonin at the right times.
The human eye has a receptor that responds to the presence of light—specifically blue light—and signals the activation of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the brain. The activation of the SCN, due to the presence of blue light in the eye, prevents the pineal gland from producing melatonin, the hormone that signals sleep. A lack of blue light in the eye signals to the pineal gland to produce melatonin, inducing drowsiness.
So it’s critical to support this process to enable good sleep cycles. There are two parts to keeping your circadian clock in rhythm:
Get direct sunlight for twenty minutes within two hours of waking. Ideally, you want direct sunlight in your eyes to stimulate the SCN and energize you for the day. Go outside and face the sun; if you wear glasses or contacts, take them off. By removing some clothing and exposing skin to UV light, you will also energize your body, get vitamin D, and generate cholesterol sulfates, which improve mood and the health of your cells.
The UV and infrared light that you get from sunlight help with many health processes. We all know how important vitamin D is for mood and strong bones. You might be getting 5,000 IU of D3 from a supplement, but in a bright, sunny location, you can make 1,000 IU per minute of skin sun exposure. As with many things, the current thinking about UV light is wrong. Third-degree sunburns are harmful, yes, but UV light in itself is not harmful.
Infrared light energizes our cells and the EZ water in those cells to create a “mammalian battery.” This gives you energy and makes your mitochondria more efficient. It can even enable your body to produce ATP from sunlight (just like plants!).
Limit blue light in the evening. Our modern environments are very bad in this regard and contribute to poor sleep cycles. Interior lighting, smartphones, computers, and TVs all emit blue light that inhibits the pineal gland from producing melatonin in a natural cycle. If you plan to use devices or watch TV in the evening, get a pair of blue-blocking glasses. They block all blue light so you can watch TV and use your devices while still allowing your brain and pineal gland to produce melatonin at the right time to enable sleep. Start wearing them three to four hours before bed.
The pitfalls of blue light exposure are becoming well known. Even iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad now have a setting to limit blue light. Just go to Settings, click on Display & Brightness, and turn on Night Shift. Set it to the warmest setting. I have mine set to turn on at about 6:30 p.m.
I always discuss the importance of getting enough water: half of your body weight in ounces a day at a minimum. I shoot for a gallon a day. The best source for cellular health is spring water. There are quite a few sources out there. Just make sure to avoid water that contains fluoride and chlorine.
The second component to hydration is to energize this water by getting good circadian light, as discussed in Part 1. You can also energize your body by grounding (below).
The earth has a negative charge. We have long known that there are many benefits to having a slightly alkaline body, such as a lower risk of cancer, better sleep, and reduced inflammation. Making our bodies more negatively charged makes them more alkaline.
When we connect to the earth through an electrical ground, we are negatively charging our bodies (making them more alkaline). But we almost never accomplish this feat today. We wear rubber-soled shoes at home and at work, and in our cars we are electrically isolated from the earth.
So how do you hack this? First, you can wear grounding shoes, which have a section that conducts electricity, so they ground you to the earth as you walk. There are many styles out there. You can also just go barefoot outdoors. To hack the environment in your home or office, you can use a grounding (or “earthing”) mat that plugs into an electrical outlet that has an earth ground (the round hole at the bottom). You can use a grounding mat at your computer, in bed, or anywhere else you spend a lot of time.
Cold therapy has been used for some time to speed recovery in athletes, but being cold is important for everyone’s cellular health. Cooling your body shrinks your mitochondria, and smaller mitochondria are more efficient at burning fat.
If this section was a bit too much like a biology class for you, here is a quick overview of how to hack your environment, improve the health of your cells and your body, and heal your mitochondria:
• Eat keto. Sugar causes inflammation in the cells; a keto diet reduces that inflammation.
• Fast daily. When you fast, your body can stop focusing on digesting and using food and focus instead on breaking down failing mitochondria and creating new and healthy ones. I refer to this as the body’s mechanism for reversing aging and curing a damaged metabolism. ( See here for more.)
• Sleep eight to ten hours a night. Sleep is not just about putting your head down; it is a vital time when the brain cycles through frequencies in the tissues of the body, matching them briefly through a process called magnetic resonance. One sweep through all the tissues in the body creates one sleep cycle, which partially restores the charge on your fatigued cells from the day’s activities. After the sleep cycle is completed, you are ready for the day. A magnetic sleeping pad can help promote this process.
• Wake up early and turn a UV light on, especially in the winter, when there is less sunlight. I love this time of year for taking pictures—the clouds make a beautiful shade—but my body craves the light. Getting more light helps you sleep well!
• Lift heavy weights every other day. Exercise also helps with mitochondrial health.
• Drink ice-cold water in the morning. There was a time when I loved coffee. Heck, I worked at a coffee shop in high school and at another one in college! But with time, I came to understand the connections among caffeine, the adrenal glands, hormones, and insulin. So I switched to decaf caffè Americano, chocolate safari tea, green tea, and ice-cold water. I also chew on ice.
• Run in the cold. Being cold is important for cellular health.
• Walk barefoot on the earth whenever you can, and consider wearing grounding shoes (which help with plantar fasciitis, too!).
• Be very particular about what you put on your skin. No chemicals. This is quite freeing for me: I no longer need to shop at stores for toothpaste, lotions, and other toxic products that change the health of my cells. ( See here for more.)
• Practice cold therapy about an hour before bed. I start by placing my feet in a large bucket. I fill it slowly with ice-cold water from the hose outside, which gradually gets me used to the cold temperature. I used to take an ice-cold shower, but I find that starting with my feet is easier. Once my feet and legs are submerged in the ice water, I spray my arms, head, and then back. This cools my body down for a nice long sleep!
By utilizing the quantum properties of our bodies and the water that makes up our bodies, we can see great improvements in overall health—better sleep, moods, energy, and focus. But it also improves the health of our mitochondria, the fat-burning furnaces in our cells. Mitochondria can be damaged and become less efficient because of many things in our environment: dark cubicles, artificial light all day and night, no connection to the earth, and toxins from food. The great thing is, though, that just some simple lifestyle changes can help heal your mitochondria and energize your body.
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