Blue Light & Your Endocrine System
Day 4 happens to hit different here in the US because it's the 4th of July. And the perfect day to put your phone down and go the heck outside, be with people you love or maybe just be alone. Either way put your phone down mmmk?
The biggest reason I want you to do that today....blue light
You have probably heard of blue light by now and the effects it has on our bodies. Most of what we hear is "stay away from blue light." or "put on these blue light glasses' ' but until I listened to a podcast that dove deeper into the effect of blue light on hormones and the endocrine system I didn't really get it. Immediately following that podcast I started to take blue light seriously. Especially after learning that it has an effect on thyroid health when our thyroid is left uncovered and in front of a computer and cell phone all day...whaatttt?!
To understand how the blue light affects your body I broke it down easy for you...
Blue light is responsible for the circadian rhythm in your body. The circadian rhythm
regulates various neurotransmitters and hormones that affect the rest of your body. Our eyes respond to light to tell our body what time of day it is. When we first wake up our body responds to light telling it to trigger an appropriate amount of cortisol. This gets us up and moving, triggers our digestive system, stimulates our metabolism to make us hungry and we are ready to do the day! But when we are exposed to extreme amounts of artificial blue light our hormones don't know what to do and end up sending mixed messages to our body all day every day.
This is extremely detrimental to our bodies, especially those adrenals we've been talking about.
Blue light can cause weight gain (by causing irregularities in your body's natural eating cycles), infertility and extreme sleep issues.
This all scared me to death when I really dove into it and I really wanted to throw all electronics in the garbage and go live off the land. But that wasn't exactly realistic at this moment so I had to take some more appropriate actions.
-Blue light glasses. REAL ones not the ones from Amazon that gave me a headache and absolutely did not work. My job is on the computer, cell phones are an extension of our hands most days for one reason or another and did you know that blue light even comes from the lights on your coffee maker and refrigerator?! There's no avoiding it really. So I got the most incredible blue light classes that are scientifically proven to work. Blublox (same glasses talked about in the podcast I linked above) have all of the sciences and research to back that their glasses really work and I can say that after a month of wearing mine every day I notice a major difference in my circadian rhythm. I'm tired when the sun goes down (with absolutely no help from any sleep supplements or oils) and I begin waking up with the sun. You can find your own pair here Blublox (this is an affiliate link) and use the code Allissa for 15% off of your order! I recommend starting with a pair of blue light glasses for your day to day when you're using your computer and cell phone. Or Summerglo is great too. You can read about each of them on their website and "try them on'' to see how they look!
- Taking my phone out of my room at night/first thing in the morning. I talked about this already but I got a house phone and took my cell phone out of my room at night and first thing in the morning. It's so important not to have that blue light in your face at night before bed as well as first thing in the morning. This is an easy swap!
-Cover my thyroid when I'm working. I'm not always perfect about this one but I try to wear sweatshirts that come up higher on my neck while I'm working to keep my thyroid protected from the blue light waves.
-Exposure to the sun first thing in the morning and at sun down as much as possible. I feel my absolute best when I get sun exposure right away in the morning and try to be outside for the sunset too. I happen to live right by Lake Erie (literally within walking distance) so one of my favorite things to do is to watch the sunset at the lake every day. Regardless of how you do it, getting out into the natural light helps your body regulate what time of day it is, therefore regulating your hormones naturally.
Today's task: Take a break from the phone! Put it in the house and go for a walk. Leave it in the car when you're at your family BBQ, put it on silent and go for a hike. Play a sport with your kids or take them for a bike ride. I challenge you to disconnect for as long as possible and try your hardest to get outside and do something you really enjoy. We're either going kayaking, biking or hiking today and I'm also planning to lay out and read a book I've been so anxious to dive into!
Happy 4th everyone!
xoxox
Allissa