Health & Fitness

A number of medical professionals and occupational respirator experts, including Chris Schaefer, featured in the video above, have warned that wearing of face masks may have adverse health effects and that people really should not be forced to wear them on a regular basis.

Aside from that, there’s a glaring lack of evidence proving they actually prevent viral illness. On the contrary, the evidence overwhelmingly shows they have little to no impact on viral spread.

Research¹ also shows asymptomatic individuals pose virtually no risk, as they rarely ever spread live virus, thereby undermining the idea that everyone must be masked simply because you don’t know who’s infectious and who’s not.

Despite all of that, government officials insist that universal mask wearing is an essential strategy to combat COVID-19, now even recommending wearing two,² three^3,4 or even four⁵ layers of face masks. And, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Americans may have to wear masks all the way through 2022.⁶

Is Wearing a Wet Mask Good for You?

Just when you thought mainstream propaganda could not propose a greater irrational perversion of the truth, a new study⁷ from the National Institutes of Health claims wearing a moist mask — which is a breeding ground for harmful bacteria — is actually good for you because inhaling through the wet mask hydrates your lungs and boosts your immune system. As reported by Healthing.ca, February 16, 2021:⁸

“The study, published in the Biophysical Journal, tested an N95 mask, a three-ply disposable surgical mask, a two-ply cotton-polyester mask and a heavy cotton mask, measuring the level of humidity by having a volunteer breathe into a sealed steel box.

When the person did not wear a mask, the water vapor of the exhaled breath filled the box, leading to a rapid increase in humidity inside the box. When the person wore a mask, the buildup of humidity inside the box greatly decreased as most of the water vapor remained in the mask, became condensed, and was re-inhaled. The researchers conducted the tests at three different temperatures ranging from 7 to 36 degrees Celsius.

‘We found that face masks strongly increase the humidity in inhaled air and propose that the resulting hydration of the respiratory tract could be responsible for the documented finding that links lower COVID-19 disease severity to wearing a mask,’ said Adriaan Bax, Ph.D., a NIH Distinguished Investigator and the study’s lead author.

‘High levels of humidity have been shown to mitigate severity of the flu, and it may be applicable to severity of COVID-19 through a similar mechanism.’”

However, it’s important to realize that the humidity inside the mask will allow pathogenic bacteria to rapidly grow and multiply — a documented fact not addressed by the NIH — and since the mask makes it more difficult to breathe, you’re likely to breathe heavier, thereby risking inhaling the microbes deep inside your lungs. As you’ll see below, this can have significant health risks that vastly outweigh any benefit you might get from breathing more humid air.

Occupational Respirator Testing Expert Speaks Out

In June 2020, Schaefer wrote an open letter⁹ addressed to the chief medical officer in Alberta, Canada, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, pointing out the errors of recommending universal wearing of N95 masks, surgical masks or nonmedical masks as protection against SARS-CoV-2. In it, he writes:¹⁰

“I have been teaching and conducting respirator fit testing for over 20 years and now currently for my company SafeCom Training Services Inc. My clients include many government departments, our military, healthcare providers with Alberta Health Services, educational institutions and private industry. I am a published author and a recognized authority on this subject.

Filter respirator masks, especially N95, surgical and non-medical masks, provide negligible COVID-19 protection for the following reasons:

Face Masks Pose Several Health Hazards

In his letter, and in the video above, Schaefer also stresses that these kinds of face masks pose “very real risks and possible serious threats to a wearer’s health” for a number of reasons, including the following:

Schaefer also points out that to provide any benefit whatsoever, users must be fitted with the right type and size of respirator, and must undergo fit testing by a trained professional. However, N95 respirators, even when fitted properly, will not protect against viral exposures but can adequately protect against larger particles.

Surgical masks, which do not seal to your face, “do not filter anything,” Schaefer notes. These types of masks are designed to prevent bacteria from the mouth, nose and face from entering the patient during surgical procedures, and researchers have warned that contaminated surgical masks actually pose an infection risk.¹⁷ After just two hours, a significant increase in bacterial load on the mask was observed.

Nonmedical cloth masks are not only ineffective but also particularly dangerous as they’re not engineered for “easy inhalation and effective purging of exhaled carbon dioxide,” making them wholly unsuitable for use.

In the video, Schaefer demonstrates the only type of mask that is actually safe to wear — the gas mask kind of respirator you’d use to protect yourself against painting fumes, organic vapors, smoke and dust.

Real respirators are built to filter the air you breathe in, and get rid of the carbon dioxide and humidity from the air you breathe out, thereby ensuring there’s no dangerous buildup of carbon dioxide or reduction in oxygen inside the mask.

Cochrane Review Gives Masks Thumbs Down

I’ve written many articles detailing the evidence showing that face masks do not prevent viral illnesses. To these we can now add an updated Cochrane review,¹⁸ which summarizes randomized trial evidence from studies that looked at face masks, hand-washing and/or physical distancing as prevention against respiratory infections.

There are many limitations to the included studies, including the facts that none was specific to COVID-19 and most had questionable adherence. They did not include the one COVID-19 specific trial that also included adherence parameters. With regard to medical and surgical masks, they found that:

“Compared with wearing no mask, wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness (9 studies; 3507 people); and probably makes no difference in how many people have flu confirmed by a laboratory test (6 studies; 3005 people).”

Four health care studies and one small community study looked at the use of N95/P2 respirators. Here they found that:

“Compared with wearing medical or surgical masks, wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu (5 studies; 8407 people); and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness (5 studies; 8407 people) or respiratory illness (3 studies; 7799 people).”

COVID-19 Specific Mask Trial Failed to Prove Benefit

Cochrane’s review certainly would have been more complete had they included the only COVID-19-related study to date. Unfortunately, they only included studies published before April 1, 2020. The trial in question, which was done in Denmark, was published November 18, 2020.

This COVID-19-specific randomized controlled surgical mask trial^19,20 confirmed and strengthened previous findings, showing that mask wearing may either reduce your risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection by as much as 46%, or increase your risk by 23%. Either way, the vast majority — 97.9% of those who didn’t wear masks, and 98.2% of those who did — remained infection free.

The study included 3,030 individuals assigned to wear a surgical face mask and 2,994 unmasked controls. Of them, 80.7% completed the study. Based on the adherence scores reported, 46% of participants always wore the mask as recommended, 47% predominantly as recommended and 7% failed to follow recommendations.

Among mask wearers, 1.8% ended up testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, compared to 2.1% among controls. When they removed those who did not adhere to the recommendations for use, the results remained the same — 1.8%, which suggests adherence makes no difference.

Among those who reported wearing their face mask “exactly as instructed,” 2% tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 compared to 2.1% of the controls. So, essentially, we’re destroying economies and lives around the world to protect a tiny minority from getting a positive PCR test result which, as detailed in “Asymptomatic ‘Casedemic’ Is a Perpetuation of Needless Fear,” means little to nothing.

CDC Relies on Anecdotal Data to Promote Mask Use

Considering the dearth of evidence for universal mask use, just what is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relying on to back up its recommendation?²¹ Believe it or not, their primary “evidence” is an anecdotal story about two symptomatic hair stylists who interacted with 139 clients during eight days.

Sixty-seven of the clients agreed to be interviewed and tested. None tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The fact that the stylists and all clients “universally wore masks in the salon” is therefore seen as evidence that the masks prevented the spread of infection. The Danish study reviewed above didn’t make it onto the CDC’s list of studies either.

The CDC’s own data^22,23,24 also show 70.6% of COVID-19 patients reported “always” wearing a cloth mask or face covering in the 14 days preceding their illness; 14.4% reported having worn a mask “often.” So, a total of 85% of people who came down with COVID-19 had “often” or “always” worn a mask.

This too contradicts the idea that mask wearing will protect against the infection, and is probably a slightly more reliable indicator of effectiveness than the anecdotal hairdresser story.

Another recent investigation²⁵ revealed the same trend, showing that states with mask mandates had an average of 27 positive SARS-CoV-2 “cases” per 100,000 people, whereas states with no mask mandates had just 17 cases per 100,000. I reviewed these and other findings in my December 31, 2020, article, “Mask Mandates Are Absolutely Useless.”

The CDC’s scientific backing for double-masking is equally flimsy. Using rubber dummy heads for their experiments, they claim wearing two tightly fitted masks could reduce exposure to aerosols by about 95%.^26,27

However, there are several reasons to take these results with a grain of salt, starting with the fact that mannequins don’t breathe. The CDC even admits as much in its report, when they note that “double masking might impede breathing or obstruct peripheral vision for some wearers.”

In the final analysis, it seems clear that the most effective ways to prevent the spread of viral illnesses, SARS-CoV-2 included, is frequent handwashing with mild soap and water, and staying home if you have symptoms of a respiratory infection. As for masking up when you’re healthy, let alone double, triple or quadruple masking, there’s simply no scientific consensus for that strategy.

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Vitamin D regulates the expression of hundreds of genes and is integral to biological functions that affect every bodily system. As you’ll see in this short video, vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency can trigger several generalized symptoms that you may have associated with other health conditions.

It is also called the sunshine vitamin since your skin makes vitamin D when exposed to ultraviolet light from the sun.¹ Vitamin D performs many functions within the body, including maintaining adequate levels of calcium and phosphate, essential for normal bone mineralization.²

It helps reduce inflammation, which is necessary for the modulation of cell growth and immune function. Vitamin D also affects genes that help regulate cell differentiation and apoptosis.

The main indicator of your vitamin D level is 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD). Data collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2005-2006 showed a deficiency prevalence of 41.6% in the U.S. population.³ However, as I discuss later in this article, as many as 80% of people may be deficient in vitamin D.

It’s important to note that how the measurement of insufficiency and deficiency is defined depends on the serum concentrations used. Some researchers use a level of 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) or 50 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L); the ng/mL is used most frequently in the U.S. and nmol/L is the standard in Europe.

However, GrassrootsHealth Nutrient Research Institute recommends vitamin D serum concentration levels from 40 ng/mL to 60 ng/mL or 100 nmol/L to 150 nmol/L.⁴ At this level, the number of people who are likely deficient in vitamin D would be significantly higher.

14 Signs You Might Have a Vitamin D Deficiency

During cold and flu season, and the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D to help reduce your risk of viral and bacterial illness.^5,6 A blood test is the best way to determine your vitamin D levels, but here are some symptoms that may indicate your levels are low.

80% of People With COVID-19 Are Deficient in Vitamin D

Vitamin D plays an important role in the development and severity of many diseases. This is why, from the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I suspected that optimizing vitamin D levels would significantly lower the incidence of infection and death in the general population.

Since then, mounting evidence has revealed this is indeed the case as researchers have repeatedly found that higher levels of vitamin D reduce the rate of positive tests, hospitalizations and mortality related to this infection.

One study,³⁴ released in late 2020, assessed the serum 25OHD levels of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to evaluate the influence it might have on the severity of the disease. The researchers found 82.2% of those with COVID-19 were vitamin D deficient (levels lower than 20 ng/mL).

Interestingly, they also found those who were deficient had a greater prevalence of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high iron levels and longer hospital stays. A second study³⁵ found similar results for people who only tested positive for COVID-19. 

In other words, these patients were tested for the illness using the PCR test, which gives notoriously high false-positive results, and did not necessarily have symptoms of the illness. Yet, those who were "likely deficient" in vitamin D also had an increased risk of testing positive.

Recently, data showed people who received supplemental vitamin D3 while hospitalized with COVID-19 had reduced admissions to the ICU by 82% and reduced mortality by 64%.³⁶ Editor’s note: This preprint study has since been pulled due to “concerns about the description of the research in this paper,”³⁷ but an archived version is still available.

You can read more about the study, from information published before being pulled, at “Vitamin D Supplementation Reduces COVID-19 Deaths by 64%.”

Before the paper was removed, this information triggered British MP David Davis to call for a reevaluation of the official recommendations for vitamin D. He tweeted, “The findings of this large and well-conducted study should result in this therapy being administered to every COVID patient in every hospital in the temperate latitudes."³⁸

He added that the demonstration of the "clear relationship between vitamin D and COVID mortality is causal," and his government should raise the availability of free vitamin D supplements to vulnerable populations. Other experts also called for official vitamin D recommendations.³⁹

It's important to remember the data showing people who are deficient in vitamin D have a higher risk of severe disease has been available long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, information that may suggest the other side of the same coin — namely supplementing with vitamin D — may have a positive effect on disease severity, can come under attack.

It isn’t a big leap to understand that if simple and inexpensive solutions, such a vitamin D, hydroxychloroquine and zinc, may reduce the potential risk of severe disease and death, the billions of dollars the pharmaceutical companies stand to make by vaccinating the world would be lost.

Unlike the painful reports of vaccine adverse events received by the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), supplementing with vitamin D, magnesium and vitamin K2 have been studied for years and found to be “well tolerated.”^40,41

Added to which, the studies on vitamin D have demonstrated insufficiency and deficiency are associated with a number of health conditions, which you can find more information about in “Are You Ready for the Darkest Day of the Year?” and “Health Conditions in Which Vitamin D Plays an Important Role.”

Magnesium and Vitamin K2 Optimize Your Vitamin D3 Supplement

In the past, I've written about the importance of taking vitamin K2 MK-7 and magnesium with your vitamin D3 supplement. Both play an important role in your overall health and in the bioavailability and application of vitamin D in your body. If you're not using magnesium and vitamin K2, you could need nearly 2.5 times more vitamin D, which GrassrootsHealth discovered in its D*action project.⁴²

Over 10,000 individuals provided information about supplement use and overall health status to GrassrootsHealth since they began conducting large-scale population-based nutrient research in 2007.⁴³

That information has led to the recommendation that vitamin D blood levels between 40 ng/ml and 60 ng/ml (100 nmol/L to 150 nmol/L) are safe, effective and lower overall disease incidence and health care costs. As reported by GrassrootsHealth from their data:⁴⁴

"... 244% more supplemental vitamin D was needed for 50% of the population to achieve 40 ng/ml (100 nmol/L) for those not taking supplemental magnesium or vitamin K2 compared to those who usually took both supplemental magnesium and vitamin K2."

In practical terms, this means when you take vitamin K2 and magnesium with vitamin D, you need far less vitamin D to achieve a healthy level. You’ll find more about the relationship between these supplements, how they can improve cognitive function and the impact on mortality at “Magnesium and K2 Optimize Your Vitamin D Supplementation.”

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Researchers and their partners have discovered a slimy strategy used by bacteria to defeat antibiotics and other drugs used to combat infections afflicting people with cystic fibrosis.

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When it comes to learning to read, new research suggests that explicit instruction -- a phonics teaching method in which the relationship between sound and spelling is taught directly and systematically -- is more effective than self-discovery through reading.

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While the amazing regenerative power of the liver has been known since ancient times, the cells responsible for maintaining and replenishing the liver have remained a mystery. Now, research has identified the cells responsible for liver maintenance and regeneration while also pinpointing where they reside in the liver.

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Smartphones could be used to scan people's eyes for early-warning signs of glaucoma - helping to prevent severe ocular diseases and blindness, a new study reveals.

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20 years after the successful completion of the Human Genome Project', an international research group has now sequenced 64 human genomes at high resolution. This reference data includes individuals from around the world, better capturing the genetic diversity of the human species. Among other applications, the work enables population-specific studies on genetic predispositions to human diseases as well as the discovery of more complex forms of genetic variation.

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A new signaling pathway has been identified that can prevent the overproduction of certain RNA-protein complexes in neurons. These complexes play an important role in neurodegenerative diseases.

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Over many decades now, traditional drug discovery methods have steadily improved at keeping diseases at bay and cancer in remission. And for the most part, it's worked well. But it hasn't worked perfectly.

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A computer network closely modelled on part of the human brain is enabling new insights into the way our brains process moving images - and explains some perplexing optical illusions.

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For years, television presenter Osher Günsberg figured the ringing in his ears was just a side effect of his chaotic (and loud) working life. But once it began to take a toll on simple interactions with his family, he realised it was time to consult the experts - and listen to their advice.

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Researchers have provided clues to how the gut and brain work together by studying health data from nearly half a million people.

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When the pungent smell of rotting food sends a person running, that disgusted feeling is an evolved response that helps avoid exposure to pathogens, say anthropologists. In a project that blended anthropology, biology and psychology, researchers explored disgust behaviors among Ecuador's indigenous Shuar people.

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Changes to food allergy guidelines has led to a 16 per cent decrease in peanut allergy among infants, according to new study.

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There may be some of us who think a few puffs on a cigarette with drinks at the pub won’t do damage, but a new study suggests otherwise.

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As someone who has battled self-esteem issues for years, Jonah Hill has also been the target of tabloid media for his weight. Now, the ‘Superbad’ actor has a few words for the paparazzi.

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A pain-free, organic and biodegradable drug delivery patch may be on the horizon for home health care patients soon. Researchers have developed a biobattery-powered device capable of both delivering large molecule pharmaceuticals across the skin barrier and extracting interstitial fluid for diagnostic purposes.

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Computer training applied in addition to psychotherapy can potentially help reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With the computerized training, the patients learned to appraise recurring and distressing trauma symptoms in a less negative light and instead to interpret them as a normal and understandable part of processing the trauma.

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Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is key to various fundamental biological processes. It transfers genetic information, translates it into proteins or supports gene regulation. To achieve a more detailed understanding of the precise functions it performs, researchers have devised a new fluorescence imaging method which enables live-cell RNA imaging with unprecedented resolution.

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People's teeth-chattering experiences in the dentist's chair could be improved by fresh insights into how tiny, powerful bubbles are formed by ultra-fast vibrations, a study suggests.

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An automated computer analysis method designed by Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists makes it possible to track social biases across decades of Bollywood and Hollywood movies.

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Research shows that Soldiers exposed to shockwaves from military explosives are at a higher risk for developing Alzheimer's disease -- even those that don't have traumatic brain injuries from those blasts. A new study identifies how those blasts affect the brain.

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Zoom dress up parties, tug-of-war, 'trust falls' and escape rooms - team building exercises have become the go-to tool for managers trying to increase team rapport and productivity, but unfortunately many employees resent compulsory bonding and often regard these exercises as the bane of their workplace existence.  A paper published by Sydney researchers has found participants have mixed feelings about team-building interventions, with the research revealing ethical implications in forcing employees to take part.

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In this interview, Ari Whitten, author of "The Ultimate Guide to Red Light Therapy," reviews the mechanics and basic benefits of red light and infrared light. Whitten, who has a degree in kinesiology, exercise science and movement science, has studied natural health, fitness and nutrition for over 20 years. He's been a personal trainer, health coach and nutritionist for many years, and went on to do a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology.

Light as Nutrition

Red and near-infrared light are, of course, a subset of natural sunlight, which actually acts and has value as a nutrient. Red light and near-infrared light therapies are ways to get some of those benefits. It may be particularly valuable and beneficial for people who aren't getting enough natural sunlight exposure, and that's a majority of people. As noted by Whitten:

"There's a mountain of literature showing that regular sun exposure is one of the most powerful and important things you can do for your health and to prevent disease. Simultaneously, we have a general public that is afraid of sunlight.

Even the subject of melanoma is rife with misunderstanding because there is research showing, mechanistically, that if you expose cells in a Petri dish to lots of UV light, you can absolutely induce DNA damage and induce cancer formation.

You can take rats and expose them to tons of isolated UV light and induce cancer. You can even find an association between sun burns and increased melanoma risk.

Despite all of those things, it is also the case that when you compare people with regular sun exposure to people with much less sun exposure, they do not have higher rates of melanoma.

In fact, there's a bunch of studies comparing outdoor workers to indoor workers, showing that outdoor workers have lower rates of melanoma despite three to nine times more sun exposure."

One of the reasons for this is because indoor workers are exposed to fluorescent lighting, which is loaded with dirty electricity or high voltage transients that cause biological harm. So, not only do they not get sunlight exposure, but they also get harmful EMF exposure.

But the biggest factor has to do with the frequency of exposure. Intermittent exposure – occasional exposure followed by many days or weeks of little to no exposure – tends to be more problematic than regular, frequent sun exposure, as you're more likely to burn and cause DNA damage in your skin.

Regular exposure, on the other hand, ameliorates this risk, as it engages innate adaptive systems in your skin, your melanin in particular, that are explicitly designed to prevent DNA damage from UV light exposure.

"So, we have this system built into our bodies that's designed to allow us to get all these benefits of sunlight without the DNA damage and the increased skin cancer risk," Whitten says."Framing light as a nutrient is the best way of understanding this.

Just as we require adequate nutrients from the food we eat, just as our bodies require physical movement to express normal cell function, we also require adequate light exposure to express normal cell function. The absence of that exposure to sunlight creates abnormal cell function. And there are myriad mechanisms through which this occurs.

Vitamin D is obviously the most well-known one that regulates over 2,000 genes related to immune health, musculoskeletal health and many other things. But there are many other mechanisms [as well]."

Bioactive Wavelengths

As explained by Whitten, there are specific bioactive wavelengths, and they work through different mechanisms. One mechanism is through your eyes, which is why you're typically better off not wearing sunglasses on a regular basis. When you're outdoors on a sunny day, without sunglasses, blue and green wavelengths enter your eyeballs and feed through nerves into the circadian clock in your brain.

Your circadian clock, in turn, regulates a variety of bodily systems, from neurotransmitters involved in mood regulation to hormones involved in immune function. A dysregulated circadian rhythm has been linked to dozens of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurological diseases.

"I consider disrupted circadian rhythm and poor sleep to be probably the single most common cause of low energy levels and fatigue," Whitten says. Fatigue is the key focus of his Energy Blueprint brand, and in the interview, he reviews some of the other root causes for poor energy and fatigue, aside from light exposure.

In summary, your body's resilience, i.e., your ability to tolerate environmental stressors, is directly dependent on the robustness, both in terms of quantity and quality, of your mitochondria. When your resilience threshold is exceeded, disease processes are activated, and fatigue can be viewed as the initial universal symptom prior to overt disease. For more information about this side topic, be sure to listen to the interview or read through the transcript.

Red Light Therapy

Modern day red light and near-infrared light therapy is an extension of the original Helio therapy or sun-based therapy, which has a long and rich history of use for a number of diseases, including tuberculosis.

Over the past few decades, more than 5,000 studies have been published about red and near-infrared light therapy, a.k.a, photobiomodulation, for a wide range of ailments, from combating wrinkles and cellulite to hair regrowth, sports performance, accelerated injury recovery, increased strength and much more.

"You get improvements in strength adaptations, improvements in muscle protein synthesis and the amount of muscle that's gained, amplified fat loss, increased insulin sensitivity — all when combined with exercise, compared with exercise alone," Whitten says.

"There's also research on people with Hashimoto's hypothyroidism showing profound reductions in thyroid antibodies, as well as thyroid hormone levels. There are also hundreds of studies on random niche things like helping people with diabetic ulcers … combating arthritis pain and chronic pain, joint health, tissue and bone healing …

There are at least dozens, if not hundreds, of studies on using red light therapy in the context of people undergoing chemotherapy to combat oral mucositis, which is inflammation of the oral mucosa that happens as a side effect of some chemotherapy drugs. One of the most, if not the most, effective treatment for that is red light therapy."

There are also studies showing benefits for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients. The difficulty is getting the light to sufficiently penetrate the skull. According to Whitten, near-infrared at 800 to 900 nanometers will penetrate about 20% to 30% deeper than red wavelengths in the range of 600 to 700 nanometers.

"So, if you're trying to treat the brain, you need a pretty powerful device to be able to emit a strong enough beam of light to penetrate through the skull bone to actually deliver some of that light — which is a relatively small portion, probably less than 20% or something of the overall light being emitted — into the brain," he says.

More Is Not Necessarily Better

A common fallacy is that if something is beneficial, then the more the better. But this can be a hazardous assumption. As explained by Whitten, there is a bi-phasic dose response to red and near-infrared light therapy. Basically, you need to do enough of it to experience its effects, but if you overdo it, you can cause negative effects. So, it's all about finding the sweet spot.

That said, as a general rule, your risk of exceeding the beneficial dose with light therapy is lower than it is with something like exercise. Meaning, it's much easier to overdo exercise and end up with tissue damage from that than it is to overdo red and near-infrared light therapy.

"I interviewed Dr. Michael Hamblin, who's widely recognized as the world's top researcher on red and near-infrared light therapy, and I asked him explicitly about this biphasic dose response. I was actually pretty shocked by his response.

He kind of blew off the whole thing as not really significant, [saying] 'It's really hard to overdo it, and I'm not worried about really negative side effects from overdoing it.' Having said that, he is a researcher and he's doing things in a lab.

And what I've seen in my group of about 10,000 people that have gone through my program, many people with severe chronic fatigue or debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome, is there seems to be a small subset of people, I'm guessing somewhere between 1% and 5% of people, that have a really negative reaction to it, even at really, really small doses, let's say two minutes of red light therapy …

So, there seems to be this small subset of people that is really hypersensitive and prone to negative effects. Generally, in my experience, those people are usually in very poor health overall."

One potential reason for this is because, like exercise and fasting, light therapy is a type of hormetic stress, which works in part by transiently increasing free radicals or reactive oxygen species.

People with extremely poor mitochondrial health will have a very low resilience threshold, so their capacity to tolerate that burst of reactive oxygen species will be low. At that point, they're simply creating damage, and their bodies don't have the resilience to effectively recover from it.

Mechanisms of Action

As noted by Whitten, there are several accepted mechanisms of action, and then there are more speculative mechanisms. One of the most well-known mechanism is cytochrome c oxidase, a photo receptor on your mitochondria that literally captures photons of red and near-infrared light.

The most effective wavelengths that activate this system are in the 600 to 700 nanometer range, and the 800 to 1,000 nanometers range. In response to those light photons, your mitochondria will produce energy more efficiently. "In general, cells — whether it's skin cells, your thyroid gland, your muscle cells — they work better if mitochondria are producing more energy," Whitten explains.

This is one general principle of how light therapy can help heal such a diverse range of tissues and conditions. Another mechanism is related to the benefits of hormesis and the transient spike in reactive oxygen species. That burst of reactive oxygen species creates a cascade of signaling effects that stimulate the NRF2 pathway and heat shock proteins, for example.

As a result, your intracellular antioxidant response system is strengthened and your mitochondria are stimulated to grow bigger and stronger. It also stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis, the creation of new mitochondria. Ultimately, all of this increases your resistance to a broad range of environmental stressors.

"If hormesis is dosed properly, it should not create lasting harm. It should stress the system temporarily and stimulate adaptive mechanisms that ultimately make the whole system more resistant to any kind of harm," Whitten says. "But you shouldn't be doing hormesis at a dose that is actually creating damage."

Light Therapy Modulates Gene Expression

A third mechanism of action involves retrograde signaling and the modulation of gene expression. Your mitochondria play a key role here as well. As explained by Whitten:

"Mitochondria are not just mindless energy generators, but they are also environmental sensors that pick up on what's going on in the environment. Are there toxins present, is there a pathogen present? Is there increased inflammatory cells present?

They're picking up on these signals. They're also picking up on light signals … and reactive oxygen species from hormetic stress. And they're relaying these signals back to the mitochondria in a way that modulates gene expression."

There's a specific set of genes that are expressed in response to red and near-infrared light therapy. In summary, it activates genes involved in cell repair, cell regeneration and cellular growth, depending on the tissue.

For example, in your brain, it activates brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), in your skin, it increases expression of fibroblasts that synthesize collagen, in your muscles, it locally increases expression of IGF1 and factors involved in muscle protein synthesis. "So, you're getting these local effects in those specific tissues that upregulates genes involved in cell healing, growth and repair," Whitten says.

Exposure to UVA, red light and near-infrared light also increases the release of nitric oxide (NO) which, while being a free radical, also has many metabolic benefits in optimal concentrations. Many of the benefits of sun exposure cannot be explained solely through the production of vitamin D, and the influence of NO may be part of the answer.

There's also a speculative line of research suggesting that red and near-infrared light interact with chlorophyll metabolites in a way that helps recycle ubiquinol from ubiquinone (the reduced version of CoQ10).

So, those specific wavelengths of light may help recycle reduced CoQ10, which also enhances energy production. "So, there may be this really interesting synergy between your diet and red and near-infrared light therapy were consuming more chlorophyll-rich compounds may enhance this effect," Whitten says.

Light Structures Water

Yet another mechanism of action has to do with the structuring the water that surrounds your cells. One of the best ways to build this structured water is through exposure to sunlight. Simply drinking structured water is ineffective. Whitten explains:

"The structuring of water is a really fascinating layer of the story. There's research showing that the water near membranes, and our mitochondria are composed of membranes, can actually change in viscosity in response to red and near-infrared light therapy.

There are a couple things that happen there. One is that reduced viscosity actually helps the physical rotation of the ATPAs, the ATP synthase pump on the mitochondria, which is the last part of the respiratory chain in mitochondria that creates ATP molecules. That's a physical rotary mechanism.

So, you have this rotary pump that needs to move in water, and there's some research suggesting that it moves more efficiently with less resistance when the viscosity of that surrounding water is reduced, and that this may, at least partly, be responsible for the enhanced energy production.

But there's one other layer to the story. I've dug really deep into the literature on light and deuterium. It was tough to find any literature on this, but I did find one really interesting study. Basically, what they found is that, when the viscosity of this water around the mitochondrial membranes is reduced, it does two things.

It pushes the deuterium molecules — which is this isotope of hydrogen that tends to damage mitochondria — away from the mitochondria and makes it less likely to go through the mitochondrial ATP synthase pump where it can create damage.

It also enhances the movement of hydrogen ions — normal hydrogen not deuterium — across the membrane, so more hydrogen can move faster and more efficiently through the mitochondria, whereas deuterium moves less efficiently.

So, it doesn't necessarily deplete deuterium from your body … but it almost mimics deuterium depletion in a way by making the deuterium much less likely to actually get into the mitochondria where it would create damage."

On Saunas

We cover far more in this 1.5-hour interview than I've summarized here, so for more information, be sure to listen to the interview in its entirety. For example, we delve into the benefits of sauna bathing and the hormetic response to heat stress, which helps repair misfolded proteins.

We also discuss the different types of saunas, the problem posed by electromagnetic fields and why most near-infrared saunas really aren't. As a quick summary review, there are no pure near-infrared saunas, as part of the near-infrared spectrum is non-heating. Incandescent heat lamps, which is what most people are referring to when talking about near-infrared saunas, emit mostly mid- and far-infrared.

Only about 14% of that light is in the near-infrared spectrum. That said, these kinds of incandescent heat lamps could potentially still deliver a therapeutic dose if you use them for about 20 minutes.

"Let's frame it this way," Whitten says. "If you have a heat a near-infrared style sauna, a heat lamp style sauna, where you're sitting in a chamber that is 110 degrees to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, you cannot claim that it has the same benefits of a sauna when the research on sauna uses sauna chambers that are massively hotter than 110 to 120 degrees. They're using temperatures of 170 to 220 degrees.

So, if it's 100 degrees less, you can't just say it has all the benefits of saunas. Maybe it does have the same benefits, or maybe it has some of the benefits, or maybe it even has superior benefits. But all of those are speculative claims that you can't make until you've done the studies …

We know, for example, that in animal studies, heat stress extends lifespan. It stimulates all kinds of mechanisms that are involved in longevity, autophagy, increased resilience via these hormetic pathways. And in general, when it comes to hormesis, I believe you do need to get a bit uncomfortable.

It should be something that pushes you into your edge of discomfort. And my experience with the heat lamp style sauna is that by themselves, these 110-, 120-degree F chambers, don't really push the edge of discomfort apart from maybe the local area that's being exposed to the light from the heat lamps."

One way to get around this and eliminate the EMF problem, is to preheat your far-infrared sauna as high as it'll go, then turn it off and turn on your near-infrared bulbs. As for benefits, heat stress is known to:

• Preserve muscle mass and prevent the loss of muscle if you're unable to exercise for a period of time
• Lower your risk of infections
• Improve detoxification
• Reduce your risk of depression, cardiovascular and neurological disease
• Reduce all-cause mortality

More Information

To learn more, be sure to pick up a copy of Whitten's book, "The Ultimate Guide to Red Light Therapy." On his website, TheEnergyBlueprint.com, you can also access his Energy Blueprint podcast, articles, programs and testimonials.

In his book, Whitten provides specific recommendations for red- and near-infrared therapeutic devices, which can save you a lot of research time if you're considering this kind of therapy. As noted by Whitten:

"There are a few good brands. It really matters what device you get. I want to put this caution out there because there are a lot of junk devices. There are a lot of devices that are one-fiftieth the power output of the devices that I recommend, and somebody who isn't savvy to that, isn't knowledgeable about why the power output of these devices matters, might just go on Amazon and buy some $30 device.

If you get an underpowered device, you're not doing the same red light therapy, or near-infrared light therapy as [when you're using] a real high-powered device. So, it is very important to do this the right way, to get the right quality device and to dose it the right way."

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In this interview, Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at MIT, reviews the health impacts of glyphosate. She has just finished writing a book about glyphosate called “Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment,” which is expected to be published in June 2021.

For years, glyphosate was assumed safe and claims of toxicity were vehemently denied. But in recent years, studies on glyphosate have been demonstrating toxicity even at very low levels. Seneff also believes glyphosate exposure may be a key player in cases of severe COVID-19, which we’ll unravel in this interview.

Glyphosate’s Mechanism of Action

The “gly” in glyphosate actually stands for the amino acid glycine. The glycine amino acid in glyphosate has a methylphosphonate group attached to its nitrogen atom, which is responsible for its effects and toxicity.

After studying the research literature on glyphosate, Seneff has reached the conclusion that your body sometimes substitutes glyphosate for the amino acid glycine when it is constructing proteins, and this can have devastating consequences in some cases. The proteins created with glyphosate instead of glycine simply don’t work because glyphosate is much larger than glycine and also negatively charged, and as a result this alters important physical characteristics.

Monsanto’s own research, dating back to the late 1980s, shows that glyphosate accumulates in various tissues, even though they claim it doesn’t.¹ The Monsanto researchers proposed that it was “incorporated into” the proteins in the tissues. This is not widely appreciated, even in the natural health community.

Now, if you have a distorted analog of glycine (in the form of glyphosate), the protein constructed from it is not going to work like it’s supposed to. In her book, Seneff details the amino acids in proteins that are most susceptible to damage because of what she calls a “glyphosate susceptible motif.”

“It’s really fascinating biology and so terrifying when you think of the potential consequences, if I'm right,” she says. “It matches so well with all the diseases that are going up dramatically in our society that I really think I'm onto something huge here.”

An aromatic amino acid called EPSP synthase is a critical enzyme that almost surely gets disrupted by glyphosate through this mechanism of substituting for glycine. This gets a bit technical, but it is important. The plant version of EPSP synthase binds a phosphate group in its substrate phosphoenolpyruvate at a site where there is a highly-conserved glycine residue (highly conserved usually means that it is critical for proper function). 

It has been shown experimentally that, if you change the DNA code so that the glycine is substituted by an amino acid called alanine (one extra methyl group), the enzyme becomes completely insensitive to glyphosate at any concentration. It also takes a hit on phosphate binding because of the extra methyl group, but you can tweak another amino acid nearby to fix this problem, while still keeping its insensitivity to glyphosate. 

Researchers from Dow-Dupont did exactly this to a maize version of EPSP synthase using CRISPR technology and were able to create synthetically a version of the maize’s own EPSP synthase that was completely resistant to glyphosate. The title of this paper is: “Desensitizing Plant EPSP Synthase to Glyphosate: Optimized Global Sequence Context Accommodates a Glycine-to-Alanine Change in the Active Site.”²

The shikimate pathway is the pathway that produces aromatic amino acids, which are essential to humans as we cannot create these amino acids in our body. The argument is we're not susceptible to glyphosate because our cells don't have EPSP synthase — in fact, they don’t have the entire shikimate pathway.

However, our gut microbes do have that pathway, and they use it to make essential amino acids for the host. So, our gut microbes are indeed affected by glyphosate, and when they’re damaged, our health can suffer in any number of ways.

But what might be an even more devastating problem with glyphosate is the way it probably messes up a large number of proteins that bind phosphate at a site where there is at least one, and often three, highly conserved glycine residues. Glyphosate slips its methylphosphonate group into the spot that is supposed to be where phosphate from the substrate fits snugly. Phosphate can’t bind because glyphosate is in the way. 

The arguments for why glyphosate specifically disrupts proteins that depend on glycine for phosphate binding are described more fully in a paper Seneff published together with colleagues arguing that glyphosate is a major factor in kidney failure among young agricultural workers in Central America.³

The Importance of Deuterium

Laszlo Boros is a professor of pediatrics at UCLA and an expert on deutenomics, “the science of autonomic deuterium discrimination in nature.”⁴ After reading one of Seneff’s papers, he contacted her, suggesting she look into deuterium.

“I was blown away, and I immediately saw the connection to glyphosate,” she says. “This was a year ago in December, and I've just been reading everything I can on deuterium since then and hooking it to glyphosate. It's just astonishing what I found, even, ultimately, [linking it] to COVID-19.

It's been quite a year for me in terms of major breakthroughs in my understanding of how metabolism works and how it's getting messed up by glyphosate, and then how that's causing us to not be able to effectively deal with COVID-19.”

In normal physiology, your cells, specifically the mitochondria, function to help deplete your body of deuterium. Deuterium is a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen. If you didn’t already know, deuterium is also known as heavy hydrogen, because it has a neutron in addition to the proton and electron in the hydrogen atom.

Provided your cell is healthy, it has deuterium-depleting enzymes and organelles that help remove deuterium from your cells. If your mitochondria are damaged by glyphosate, they’re not going to be able to eliminate the deuterium properly.

Deuterium is like iron in the way that it’s both essential in the right amounts and toxic in excess. Hydrogen is the smallest atom and by far the most common atom in your body. Deuterium, being a heavy hydrogen, has one extra neutron, in addition to the normal proton and electron that regular hydrogen has.

Now, your cells are surrounded by structured water, which is negatively charged and contributes to your body’s energy production by supplying deuterium-depleted hydrogen to lysosomes and mitochondria. The structured water is maintained by sulfates, which makes sulfate extremely important for health. Sulfate is made dysfunctional by glyphosate, which in turn destroys structured water, resulting in impaired energy production in the cell.⁵

“The mitochondria have [a] membrane, which has a part inside the membrane that's really, really important,” Seneff says. “That's where you have those protons, and you really don't want it to be deuterons. This is what Laszlo brought home to me."

How Your Body Creates Deuterium-Depleted Water

Endothelial NOS (eNOS) makes nitric oxide (NO), and for every molecule of NO that it makes, it produces two molecules of water, which are deuterium depleted. Stephanie believes the NO created by eNOS may act as a signal that deuterium-depleted water has been created. Interestingly enough, deuterium-depleted water is also created during the inflammatory process.

“The inflammation is there for a good reason, and the reason is to produce deuterium-depleted water,” Seneff says. “It’s all because the mitochondria are failing in their task of producing their own deuterium-depleted water, which they get in part through the structured water from the sulfate [and] through enzymes that are highly skilled at choosing hydrogen over deuterium …

NADH and NADPH are also fascinating. I've been chasing them through all the proteins. They are interesting because they are the carriers of that wonderful hydrogen that's not deuterium. When you trace what’s doing what, where, you realize that the cytoplasm is producing NADH and handing it over to the mitochondria.

The mitochondria then take that H [hydrogen atom] off and throw it into the intermembrane space. So, the whole process ends up with the intermembrane space being assured that this is H [hydrogen] and not D [deuterium].

This is crucial because then those protons, once they build up, come back through the ATPase [ATP synthase] pump. If they are deuterons, they are going to wreck the pump … You release reactive oxygen species [that] break it, and of course, then you can't make ATP.”

For clarification, the ATP synthase pump works like a mini-motor. When a hydrogen atom with one proton goes through it, it works flawlessly and generates ATP. If deuterium enters it, which has one neutron and one proton, making it twice the weight of hydrogen, it breaks that motor.

Interestingly, deuterium is everywhere, naturally, but your body has developed an intricate way to make it harmless by trapping it in the structured water, where it’s beneficial, as it actually supports the creation of structured water.

Problems arise when you cannot make enough structured water to sequester it all. Then, the deuterium gets loose, causing mitochondrial dysfunction, impairing energy production and contributing to chronic disease.

Glyphosate Damages Health in Many Ways

As noted by Seneff, glyphosate harms your health in a number of ways. For example, she cites a recent paper showing it causes endocrine disruption, which can lead to breast cancer, reproductive issues, obesity and thyroid problems.⁶

Another paper shows glyphosate sensitizes cells to be more receptive to cancer after exposure to other chemicals.⁷ “Glyphosate makes everything else more toxic than it would otherwise be,” Seneff says. “It disrupts your defense system against toxic chemicals.” Other research shows epigenetic and generational effects, even when no apparent problems can be found in the first generation exposed.⁸

Glyphosate also impairs flavoproteins — proteins that bind flavins. Many of these proteins play a crucial role in transferring hydrogen from NADH or NADPH to other molecules, essentially supporting the delivery of pure hydrogen to the mitochondria. Flavoproteins have a characteristic GxGxxG motif at the site where they bind phosphate in the flavins. The ‘G’ stands for glycine and the ‘x’ is a wildcard — any amino acid, including glycine.

This means they have at least three susceptible glycines at this critical region of the protein. Flavoproteins are molecules that facilitate the transfer of protons and electrons, and know how to avoid deuterium, by exploiting a special feature of hydrogen called proton tunneling.

All of them can be expected to be disrupted by glyphosate. A critical flavoprotein is succinate dehydrogenase, and several papers have shown it is adversely affected by glyphosate, Seneff says. It is the only enzyme that plays a role in both oxidative phosphorylation and the citric acid cycle in the mitochondria.

In addition to aromatic amino acids, the shikimate pathway is essential for riboflavin synthesis, and riboflavin, a B vitamin, is the main precursor to flavins. This means that riboflavin deficiency can be triggered from glyphosate exposure as well. Glyphosate also causes damage by:

• Increasing calcium uptake in cells, which causes toxicity to neurons
• Interfering with the ability to take glutamate out of your synapses
• Making manganese unavailable — This in turn disrupts and prevents glutamate from being turned into nontoxic glutamine after it’s removed from your synapses. The enzyme responsible for the conversion is also highly dependent on glycine, which could be replaced by glyphosate

Deuterium-Depleted Water May Be Central to Metabolism

According to Seneff, it appears deuterium-depleted water plays a central, hitherto unappreciated role in metabolism, as your body has so many ways to create it. For example, deuterium-depleted water is created through:

“All these molecules that go through these complicated steps are all focused on delivering deuterium-depleted water to the mitochondria,” Seneff says. “I mean, it's an absolute obsession that the cell has.” She goes on to review how processes that may appear to have nothing but harmful effects are actually an effort to heal the body. This, for example, seems to be the case in COVID-19:

“I believe that whatever biology is doing, it's doing it for a good reason. There may be damage, but there's a good reason why you need that damage in order to survive long term. It's trying to fix a problem that's very serious, and that's what I think is happening with [SARS-CoV-2].

Not only does it induce this lipoxygenase, which produces deuterium-depleted water, it then creates this inflammatory environment, which brings in the platelets and the macrophages, the immune cells and the stem cells. All these are having a big party in there in all this fluid that's building up inside the lungs.

Meanwhile, it also increases the production of hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is able to trap deuterium-depleted water. It makes structured water. So, you get structured water inside the alveoli of the lungs, and then you get fluid water in the interstitial spaces.

The blood vessels are leaky, the capillaries are leaky. Everything's coming out of the capillaries into this interstitial space where there's this fluid water, and you've got this lipoxygenase making deuterium-depleted water.

So, you're producing this environment of deuterium-depleted water, inviting the macrophages to come in, and the platelets release their mitochondria … the stem cells also come in and release their mitochondria, and then macrophages sweep up the mitochondria — and all this is happening in the interstitial space in the lungs where the fluid is. This is why you cannot breathe. You're drowning.

Maybe one of the most important things platelets do is hang on to mitochondria that they can deliver to the macrophages under conditions of stress. So, what happens is all these mitochondria get released in that interstitial space, and the macrophages induce this macropinocytosis, where they actually sweep up the water and everything that's in it and bring it inside the macrophage, including the mitochondria.

It's actually been shown that platelets can release mitochondria into the environment, and macrophages can take them up and use them as perfectly functioning mitochondria. It's astonishing. So, what they're doing is restoring the mitochondrial health to the immune cells.”

Glyphosate Damage May Be a Factor in Severe COVID-19

As explained by Seneff, your immune cells are impaired by glyphosate, so the older you are, the more likely you’ve been exposed to glyphosate for decades and therefore have poorly functioning immune cells. Interestingly, Seneff points out that the comorbidities of COVID-19 — obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure — are also diseases whose prevalence is going up dramatically over time, exactly in step with glyphosate usage on core crops.

“So, I think it's mostly about glyphosate,” she says. “If you've accumulated a lot of glyphosate in your tissues, you're not going to do well with COVID-19, and that's because [your body] is trying to repair the mitochondria in the immune cells so that the immune cells can actually clear the virus. If they can't make ATP, they can't do their job, and the virus flourishes.”

The key take-home message here is that this is yet another reason to clean up your diet to make sure you’re not exposed to glyphosate. It basically wrecks your immune cells, and the cascading damage that takes place in severe cases of COVID-19 appears to be your body’s response to salvage or repair those poorly functioning immune cells.

Dietary Recommendations

The answer to this problem is, first of all, to eat certified organic foods whenever possible. “We won't buy it if we can't find certified organic, and we've really seen health improvements since we've started doing that,” Seneff says. “I really swear by it, and I try to get all my friends to do the same. I think if you can eliminate glyphosate, you can really see great improvements in your health no matter what your problems are.” Other dietary recommendations include eating/drinking more:

Sulfur-containing foods such as organic eggs and seafood	Organic grass fed milk and butter. Butter is one of the lowest deuterium foods available
Glacier water, which is naturally low in deuterium	Animal fats, which are also low in deuterium
Molecular hydrogen	Probiotics foods such as sauerkraut and apple cider vinegar

To help “push” glyphosate out of your body and mitigate its toxicity, you can take an inexpensive glycine supplement. I take between 5 and 10 grams a day. It has a light, sweet taste, so you can actually use it as a sweetener.

“It makes sense because it's basically going to outnumber the glyphosate molecules,” Seneff says. “Remember, glyphosate’s going to compete with glycine in building the protein. If there's a lot of glycine around, then it's much less likely that glyphosate will get in there.”

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Four years ago, Rachael and Jonny Casella’s baby daughter Mackenzie passed away, and the couple launched a crusade to make reproductive genetic carrier testing free and readily available in Australia. Now, as they prepare for the birth of their second child, they open up to Body+Soul and reveal how Mackenzie’s legacy is about to become a reality.

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