Transforming Health and Wellness Through Light Exposure and Circadian Alignment - Jason Yun

Discover the transformative power of light in shaping our health as I, Avik, sit down with the inspiring Jason, who has journeyed from fitness expert to light guru, reshaping his approach to wellness after confronting personal health challenges. Promising insights await as we explore how the pioneering work of Dr. Jack Cruz on circadian biology and mitochondrial health unveils a new paradigm for understanding our body's essential functions. This episode dismantles traditional health narratives, urging us to recognize the extraordinary influence of light on sleep, hunger, hormones, and even blood pressure, and argues for a comprehensive approach to well-being that transcends mere diet and exercise.

Venture into the intricate dance between mitochondria, circadian rhythms, and light exposure, revealing how disruptions in our internal clocks can spiral into fatigue and depression. Uncover the underestimated benefits of natural sunlight, particularly during sunrise, and discover the potential pitfalls of exercising under artificial light. Jaishan and I challenge the fitness industry's calorie-centric mindset, calling for a shift toward embracing how light and circadian alignment can significantly enhance our health. By the end of our discussion, you'll be motivated to rethink your relationship with light, nurturing a holistic lifestyle for optimal wellness.

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Chapters

• 0:06 Redefining Health Through Light Relationships
• 10:09 Mitochondria, Circadian Rhythm, and Health

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hey everyone, welcome back to Pleasure Principles, the podcast where we explore the deeper layers of what it means to truly experience life through mind, body and pleasure. I am your host, avik, and today we are going to challenge everything you think you know about health, vitality and what it really means to be human. Joining me today is a man who has completely flipped the script to on fitness and well-being, and once a fitness and nutrition guru. He discovered that the truth about health isn't just about food or exercise. It's all about light yes, light. Jaishan Yoon has spent years unraveling the mysteries of psychardian biology and mitochondrial health, and now he's here to share his insights with us. So buckle up, because this episode is going to make you question everything you have been told about staying healthy. So, jason, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Thank you for having me, apik, I appreciate it Lovely, lovely.

Speaker 1: 1:17

So, jason, you have a big shift in your journey. You went from being a fitness and nutrition expert to a light guru journey. You went from being a fitness and nutrition expert to a light guru. What was the moment or experience that made you realize that diet and exercise weren't the full picture?

Speaker 2: 1:35

it was well. 2018 was when I made the switch. Sept. September 2018 I was having hormone issues, probably three or four years prior to that, and then I finally it finally reached a point where something needed to be done, because at that time, I was in my late 30s and when you run a gym and you have clients who are coming to you and expecting you to help them get healthier and get stronger um myself getting sick uh, that was unacceptable to me.

Speaker 2: 2:18

So I started looking at other ways of health, because I was doing everything that they said you're supposed to do in terms of being healthy. So I was working out five, six times a week, I was on a ketogenic diet, supplements, all that stuff, but I was obviously having issues. And so I found Dr Jack Cruz, who talks a lot about circadian rhythm, hormones, and hormones was something that I was really, really interested in. How I found him was through an interview on EMF so non-native EMF and that was something that I was basically a slave to. So I would wake up 4.30 for my 5.15 am bootcamp. First thing I would do is grab my phone, which was a blue-lit phone, and then I would just sit there for about 10 minutes just trying to find the motivation to wake up and I was just scrolling on my phone with the phone on my stomach and yeah, so all these things and the turnaround was pretty quick. So within 30 days, I would say, I was moving away from the hormone issues.

Speaker 2: 4:00

Probably took me about two or three months of implementing his practices until I felt that I could say that I was better sleeping, better energy, back to where it should be for a late 30s-year-old man, but that was basically the turning point. I think once you start feeling sick, it's not a good feeling and most people want to get out of that as soon as possible. Luckily, I didn't. I didn't go the route of drugs or anything like that. So I feel lucky in that regards, because when you go down the drug prescriptions and all that stuff, it's a slippery slope and you might not be able to get out of it. So that was my training portal got it.

Speaker 1: 4:50

So psychardian biology is something most people don't even think about when it comes to health. So if you can break it down for us, like why is our body's relationship with light so important?

Speaker 2: 5:08

Well, it's been. It created life, it's been dictating life for 4.6 to 7 billion years, depending on how old you think the Earth is, depending on estimates and whatnot but the? So there's three. There's three free kingdoms of life, um, most people don't know. So there's um. There's archaea prokaryotes, which are basically single-celled organisms, and those were basically for the first, um, say, four billion years, on this planet. Those were the only light forms available, single-celled, uh, very simple organisms, um. And then we humans are eukaryotes. We're obviously the most complex eukaryote. So those are complex, multi-celled organisms.

Speaker 2: 6:08

And around the Cambrian explosion, which happened anywhere between 580 to 650 million years ago, that's when basically eukaryotes came on the scene and they exploded since, and then we obviously evolved from these animals as they evolved. But the thing that changed during the Cambrian explosion was there was so our sun is a G-class star, and they say when a G-class star gets about halfway, midway through its life, it starts emitting about 10% more UV light. So three things happened during the Cambrian explosion we got more UV light, oxygen showed up in more abundance and also DHA showed up more abundance and also dha showed up, and those three things were basically the? Um, the lighter in the firecracker that became eukaryotes and from there all life started to occur. Um, but everybody knows there's light and dark cycles that occur throughout the day. Obviously, it changes the time, changes throughout the seasons, and so that light and dark is very important. It's not just the sun that's important, but the darkness is also important because there's other aspects going on in terms of our circadian rhythm, aspects going on in terms of our circadian rhythm. So it's a 24-hour cycle that keeps repeating and certain things happen during these cycles that are supposed to happen at certain times. So when you're supposed to wake up, when you're supposed to go to bed, when you're supposed to be hungry, when you're supposed to eat, when you're not supposed to eat, when the best time to work out, when the best time to do something productive, when the best time to chill out, when the best time to, when your blood pressure is supposed to be highest, when it's supposed to be lowest, when certain hormones go on and when certain hormones go off, supposed to be highest, when it's supposed to be lowest, when certain hormones go on and when certain hormones go off. All this is dictated by that circadian rhythm.

Speaker 2: 8:30

So if we because we're, because we are humans we do have the biggest brain. We are able to manipulate our environment more than any other creature. So the other animal that has the second biggest brain is a dolphin. But a dolphin obviously doesn't build houses and doesn't drive in little fantasy world cars in the ocean. They swim in the ocean just like they did millions and millions of years ago.

Speaker 2: 9:03

But as humans, we've created all these comforts to basically separate us from the environment, and that separation is what is actually killing us and has caused the disease progression and the disease epidemics to keep going up and up and up, and certain diseases that used to be for older people are now being brought down to younger and younger. So there was a time when type 2 diabetes was adult-onset diabetes. There's now dementia centers for 10-year-olds and teenagers. So, yeah, it's really becoming a problem. So if you're not in tune with your circadian cycle, then you'll be presented with symptoms of disease and then eventually, if you don't fix that, you'll be presented with a full-blown disease, and then that disease will determine how much of your lifespan is going to be taken off if you don't change.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Understood. That's great. So many people struggle with fatigue, brain fog and even depression. So, from a mitochondrial health perspective, what's really going on in our bodies when we feel this way?

Speaker 2: 10:36

well, it's, um, it's going to be a, a domino effect. So one thing going down is going to knock the next domino in the row down and then it just keeps going and going and going, um the the. So your master circadian clock is the supracasmatic nucleus. So it sits right behind your retina and a lot of people don't know the retina is actually part of the brain and your eye health is directly tied to your brain health. So your brain is the number two organ with the most mitochondria. Number one is the heart and it's no coincidence that heart disease is number one killer and then the number three killer is brain disease. So stroke, alzheimer's, dementia, that kind of stuff. And if our eye clock gets, our eye clock is supposed to run faster than all the other clocks. So it said, we have a peripheral clock in front of every organ, every gene. So literally thousands of clocks in our body that are supposed to be ticking in sync of clocks in our body that are supposed to be ticking in sync, but the SCN clock is supposed to be running faster. So it's kind of like. It's kind of like the GPS on your phone. So there's a GPS satellite in there in the sky. And if that satellite one is not a little bit faster than your phone, you're going to be. You're going to be winding up in Sing Sing or someplace. You're going to be winding up in SingSing or someplace. So, yeah, we've got to keep that SCN in sync and the best way to do that is through sunlight.

Speaker 2: 12:24

And then the easiest way to destroy that signal is basically artificial light or non-native EMF. So the number one thing I always tell my clients and my blogs and videos and posts is see the sunrise, see the sunrise with naked eyes. Naked eyes. So no sunglasses, no contacts. If you are wearing eyeglasses, you pull it down to the bridge of your nose, you take them completely off and you let that light get into your eyes. Now, when a lot of people who are listening to this, they're probably living an indoor life under artificial light, so they're probably what is known as blue light toxic. So you're not going to be able to look directly at that sunrise because your eyes are basically so weak. You can tell. If you look at the sun and you start blinking, squinting, tearing up, that's a sign that you're blue light toxic. So just look a little bit away, a little bit away, until you are able to just stare no squinting, no tearing up, no super fast blinking or anything like that and as you do it your eyes will strengthen.

Speaker 2: 13:43

So the eyes are basically just like another muscle. So you don't go into the gym and you can't just lift 100 pounds for 10 reps. You have to build it up, up. So same thing with the eye. It's a muscle and it needs to get stronger. So that's why, if you do go outside in like midday and it's you go oh my god, the sun is so bright, I need sunglasses it's like, no, you don't need sunglasses, you need to strengthen your eye. Okay, um, just put on a hat and you'll be much, much better than putting on sunglasses.

Speaker 2: 14:17

But yeah, you need to strengthen that eye with the sunrise, because the sunrise is the center of the circadian rhythm. So the blue light from the sun is what sets the circadian rhythm. And that's why the blue light in the artificial light is so bad for us, because there's no other frequencies like the sun does the red light, the orange, the green, the indigo, all the other spectrums coming together, and that's why we can get that. That's what we evolved from. Yeah, we didn't evolve from artificial LED or CFL bulbs, so to speak. So, yeah, getting that sunrise super important. It also releases the proper hormones. That was something that I never did when I was dealing with those hormone problems In my lifetime. I never did when I was dealing with those hormone problems In my lifetime. I never purposely saw the sunrise, and now I'm on a current streak. I think I'm at like 1,283 days that I've seen the sunrise in a row. So it's just about building new habits and once you do it and you feel the difference that you feel it's very easy to implement into your life.

Speaker 1: 15:49

Looking back at your fitness and nutrition days, do you think the industries bring more harm than good by focusing on calories and workouts over deeper biological needs?

Speaker 2: 16:05

Yes, I do. So I'll say something that's maybe controversial, but working out in a blue-lit gym is bad for your health. So it's working out exercise, it's got benefits, okay. But when you're doing it under artificial light and also now we've got Wi-Fi, we've got the power grid, all that stuff it's got detriments. And as you get older, those detriments are going to compound and they're going to get greater. Because when you're, when you're younger, fitness and nutrition and supplements they can help you, um, but the longer you go, your mitochondria is basically aging and when the mitochondria gets too old, you reach a point of no return. So that fitness and that nutrition and that supplement program, it's not going to work anymore. So you're going to start losing the energy. That's typically the first thing that you lose and yeah, then everything just starts falling apart and you're wondering what's going on.

Speaker 2: 17:14

If you're working with a coach, it's typically in that mindset of fitness, nutrition, supplements. They're going to try and fix your macros. They're going to try and fix your calories. Maybe you're eating too many calories, maybe you're not eating enough calories. Let's eat more fat, let's eat more carbs, let's eat less carbs, let's eat less fat. Take this supplement, um, and basically it's just going to keep. It's just going to keep going and keep going, and that's that can get very expensive, because food and supplements are expensive.

Speaker 2: 17:50

Um, I'm not a fan of supplements. I've probably gotten off 25 supplements since I started this in 2018. Uh, I probably only take like three or four, maybe five at the most. But nature is free, the sun is free, and that's one of the biggest things that society has drilled into us. All the propaganda is that the sun is bad. You need to stay out of the sun. If you go in it, you need to wear sunglasses, you need to put sunscreen on and all this stuff. But that can be further, further from the truth, because the sun is basically the vaccine for everything that we need. Um, no side effects and and whatnot.

Speaker 2: 18:38

So, um, the the fitness industry, the nutrition industry there, I mean, they're still talking about eating multiple meals per day. Uh, you got to do your workouts like this. Um, all the exercises are all the same. Um, nothing's really changed since I was studying it in. I mean, I was studying it even before I went to college. Um, but I was reading those bodybuilding magazines and whatnot. Yeah, bodybuilding is probably in the fitness industry is probably the worst advice you can get, because it's high protein, low fat. Still, eat your egg whites, eat your chicken breasts and eat your oatmeal, which are like three of the worst foods that you can possibly eat. Um, but yeah, that's, it's. It's. You want to know who your experts are and where they're getting information, because if if their beliefs are going to stop them from looking deeper, then you need to find a new expert, you need to find a new coach.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Basically that's very important. Thank you so much for sharing this and great so, jason, like this has been an eye opening conversation and literally and figuratively, I have to say so. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and the powerful truth about how light shapes our health in a ways like most of us never even think about. So if today's episode resonated with you and you are ready to start hacking your light environment, be sure to check out Jason's programs like the Total Sarkarian Health Reset and 34 Day Light Challenge, and you will find all the details into the show notes. And if you love this episode, make sure to subscribe to Pleasure Principles and share it with a friend and leave us a review, and remember that your health, your mind, your pleasure and your humanity are all connected in ways that go far beyond diet and exercise. So until next time, go soak up some sun and tune into the rhythms of life. And this is your host Avik signing off. Thank you so much.