The Samahita Blog

Mitochondria (Cellular Energy Batteries) Enhancement with Red Light and Near-Infrared (NIR) Light Therapy

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By Dr. Paul Dallaghan

Light therapy is as old as the sun. Human beings thrived and grew due to exposure to the full light spectrum of the sun. Today we limit our time in the sun so we are not overexposed to ultraviolet rays and their damaging effects. But a daily 20 to 30 minutes of direct light and sun exposure will increase health and energy due to the benefits of visible white light and infrared rays. One literally receives thousands to millions of light energy units known as joules. As a therapy away from the sun modern technology has learned to harness visible red light and invisible near-infrared light to penetrate the skin’s surface and enact healing to both organs and skin, including the brain.

Light and Personal Energy Production

As the light hits your skin at an appropriate enough intensity several metabolic events take place in the cell’s batteries, ancient bacteria known as mitochondria, that stimulate the production of energy currency, known as ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The food you eat combines with the oxygen you have taken in to produce ATP and the stimulation from light adds to this process. This energy unit, which is essentially light, is behind every function in your body from keeping you healthy and rejuvenating to having energy for social engagement and all of life’s events. When this is compromised our system still functions but poorly, much like an economy in recession – we see systems functioning but well below par, knowing we never feel so good but can’t understand why. Eventually ill health is an outcome. This is worsened due to reduced time in the sun, an overload of sunscreen on the skin when in the sun, and for many most of the day is spent indoors under artificial light – primarily only blue light, which deprives our cells even further.

Light Therapy

Light therapy is essential for our modern lifestyle, one that limits our time outdoors and even warns against direct sun exposure. Your cells want and need good light from the full spectrum. As a result you can produce more energy. The process is self-reinforcing. Light therapy has been studied through intensive scientific research over the past 40 years, specifically under an area known as low level laser therapy, or nowadays referred to as photobiomodulation. It is understood that the targeted wavelength of the red light spectrum, 630 to 660 nm, can penetrate the skin 8-10 millimeters, working from the inside-out to enhance mitochondrial function and thus benefit the skin. It has been noted in research that 660nm wavelength is closest to the resonant frequency of cell tissue and can subsequently be absorbed better in the hemoglobin, the carrier of oxygen in red blood cells. Near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths that function at the 850 or 880nm level have been shown to penetrate far deeper beneath the skin to tissue and bone. Based on research at NASA, NIR emitted through color specific LED bulbs operate by activating color sensitive chemicals in body tissues. This in turn stimulates the cell’s mitochondria.

Red and NIR, Skin and Organs

The combination of red light, which offers healing to the skin, and NIR, as healing to deeper organs, means a light therapy that improves our energy and healing, upgrades our health, enhances how the brain works because its energy workload is freed up and it can achieve higher grade energy production.

Health Benefits

Research study programs reveal health benefits that include enhanced blood circulation, anti-inflammatory effects, increased muscle recovery, improved skin tone and glow, reduced wrinkles and scars, improved wound healing, pain reduction, lymphatic flow boost, increased cellular growth, and even enhanced fertility and increased testosterone. A reduction of inflammation on both the skin and inner organs improves health and aids the reduction of inflammation in the brain to improve brain function.

How to Apply It

Take any opportunity you have to spend time outside in good, natural light. This is especially beneficial at the start of the day. One of the best ways to handle jet lag is to get up at dawn on your first wake up day in your new time zone and be outside, under the light looking towards the sun, whether cloudy or clear skies. Also take any opportunity to walk to work, school or the stores, and sit outside for lunch.

Samahita, Light and Brain Health

The environment of Samahita is a natural light and fresh air paradise. This is one of the reasons you can leave feeling better as it enhances all the other life-giving health practices you do here. We also go a few steps further to enhance your brain wellness in our Brain Health Upgrade program. One of the therapies in this program involves mitochondria enhancing red and NIR light therapy. Improved cellular functioning and energy production helps your brain, similar to providing a cleaner more efficient energy supply to your car or house. The human brain demands 20% of the body’s energy supply. The focus of this program is to improve the production of that energy supply, enhance its delivery, and optimize its use, for and within the brain. The challenges of the modern world cannot allow us to take for granted that our brain is just going to perform well. The statistics show the shocking rise of dementia and related mental pathologies with the unfortunate reality of modern life being further removed from nature and her glorious inputs. Yoga, meditation and upgraded actions are not just needed, they are unavoidably essential today.

Dr. Paul Dallaghan’s expertise with breathwork, body and meditative practices comes from three sources: (1) three decades of daily dedicated practice and teaching these techniques; (2) uniquely acknowledged in the Yoga tradition by the title of “Master Yogi-Prānācharya (expert in breath)”, following an immersion in the original culture through one-on-one direct training in practice and study of ancient texts; (3) a PhD in doctoral scientific research at a leading US university (Emory) covering both the tradition and science of yoga and breath practices in terms of stress, health and aging. As a result, Paul occupies a unique space to impart genuine teaching and science on the breath, body, and meditative practices, seen as a Teacher-of-teachers and identified to carry on the tradition of Pranayama. His sincere and ongoing role is to teach, write and research, to help put out experienced and authentic information on these areas of how we live, breathe and be, to help people improve their mental and physical health, and live more fulfilling lives.

For more on his background see his bio

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