Excerpted news-medical.net
Lack of Sunlight Exposure Found to Increase the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome
“We can now say emphatically that the function of our entire metabolism is dependent on light.”
— Dr. Fritz Albert Popp
International Institute of Biophysics
A new study published in the journal Cell Reports supports this claim. Scientists found that fat cells deep in the skin can detect sunlight and not getting enough can increase the risk of metabolic disruption. The study shows that light exposure regulates how two kinds of fat cells work together to produce the raw materials that all other cells use for energy. Once this fundamental metabolic process is disrupted, it can lead to an increased risk of developing an illness.
All life forms need sunlight to survive and not getting enough may impact health and well-being.
The study authors go on to say that disruptions to this fundamental metabolic process appear to reflect an unhealthy aspect of modern life–spending too much time indoors. The modern lifestyle of people today limits the body’s natural light exposure, which is from the sun.
More people are staying indoors, exposed to unnatural lighting spectra, being exposed to light at night, and staying indoors throughout the day. Many years ago, the father of full-spectrum light technology, Dr. John Ott, referred to this contemporary syndrome as Mal-illumination
“Our bodies evolved over the years under the sun’s light, including developing light-sensing genes called opsins. But now we live so much of our days under artificial light, which does not provide the full spectrum of light we all get from the sun.”
—Dr. Richard Lang, developmental biologist and senior author of the study
According to Dr. Lang, in theory, “light therapy” could become a method for preventing metabolic syndrome from developing into diabetes. Replacing indoor lights with better, full-spectrum lighting systems also could improve public health.
