Latest / Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor / The powerful role of natural light in controlling glucose levels and preventing type 2 Diabetes - Wisdom Wednesdays

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The powerful role of natural light in controlling glucose levels and preventing type 2 Diabetes - Wisdom Wednesdays · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Everyone, Welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today we
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  Speaker 1: want to talk about pretty cool study that I just
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  Speaker 1: read that brings to light, quite literally, a powerful non
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  Speaker 1: pharmaceutical strategy for improving glucose control and metabolic health and
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  Speaker 1: people with type two diabetes, and by extension, will help
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  Speaker 1: to prevent getting type two diabetes in the first place. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this research was published in the journal Cell Metabolism, which
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  Speaker 1: is a really excellent journal. Explores how the kind of
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  Speaker 1: light were exposed to during the day, so natural daylight
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  Speaker 1: versus typical artificial office lighting can significantly impact metabolic function,
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  Speaker 1: including blood sugar control, fat oxidation, and even gene expression
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  Speaker 1: in skeletal muscle. Now, this was a well designed, very
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  Speaker 1: well study with the randomized crossover trial, which means that
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  Speaker 1: both sets of people experience both conditions at separate times. So,
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  Speaker 1: as I said, it was performing people with type two diabetes.
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  Speaker 1: But it does have in vague implications if you wish
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  Speaker 1: to prevent type two diabetes. So let's break it down. Firstly,
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  Speaker 1: let's explore the impact of the circadian clock and metabolic health.
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  Speaker 1: Now you've probably heard of the circadian clock. I'm sure
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  Speaker 1: you've definitely heard of circadian rhythms. They are essential to
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  Speaker 1: our body's internal clocks, regulating everything from sleep wake cycles,
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  Speaker 1: to hormone production, metabolism, and even cellular function and repair.
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  Speaker 1: These rhythms, these circadian rhythms, they're governed by a central
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  Speaker 1: clock in the brain's called they're super chismatic nucleus or SCN,
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  Speaker 1: and that's located in the hypothalmus. But here's the thing.
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  Speaker 1: This clock needs a time giver, what scientists call a
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  Speaker 1: zp gaber, and the most powerful zeitgiber we know of
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  Speaker 1: is light. Now, in nature, our circadian rhythms are sinked
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  Speaker 1: by sunlight during the day and darkness at night. But
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  Speaker 1: in modern societies, we spend a whopping eighty to ninety
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  Speaker 1: percent of our time indoors and mostly under constant artificial
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  Speaker 1: lighting that lacks the spectral richness and intensity of sunlight. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that is a problem because inadequate daylight exposure, such as
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  Speaker 1: working in a typical office environment, combined with too much
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  Speaker 1: artificial light at night, disrupts our circadian alignment and, as
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  Speaker 1: emerging evidence shows, and contributes to the development and the
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  Speaker 1: worstening of metabolic diseases like type two diabetes. So let's
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  Speaker 1: explore this design. As I said earlier, it was a
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  Speaker 1: randomized crossover trial, meaning that eight participants acted as their
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  Speaker 1: own control. So thirteen individuals with type two diabetes. They
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  Speaker 1: spent four and a half hours under two conditions. One
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  Speaker 1: group exposed to natural daylight through large windows during officers,
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  Speaker 1: and another were exposed to artificial office lighting a mixture
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  Speaker 1: of fluorescent and LED lights, and they were matts for
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  Speaker 1: brightness but not the spectral quality of natural light. Now, importantly,
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  Speaker 1: everything else was really tightly controlled. Meals were standardized, sleep
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  Speaker 1: schedules were fixed, and even light exposure outside of the
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  Speaker 1: officers was tightly regulated. To eliminate these confounding factors, the
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  Speaker 1: participants were monitored for their glucose levels using continuous glucose monitors,
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  Speaker 1: and researchers performed what was called indirect calorimetry. They took
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  Speaker 1: biome diopsies for muscle, and they ran what's called multi
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  Speaker 1: omic analysis. So let's dive into the results. The ones
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  Speaker 1: that are really worth focusing on. The first one was
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  Speaker 1: about glucose control, and the headline finding was this the
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  Speaker 1: participants who were exposed to natural daylight spent more time
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  Speaker 1: in the normal glucose rats compared to when they were
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  Speaker 1: under artificial lighting, and even though average glucose levels didn't
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  Speaker 1: differ significantly, the quality of glucose control improved. They had
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  Speaker 1: less time in the highs and lows and more time
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  Speaker 1: in the sweet spot. And we know that it's these
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  Speaker 1: highs and lows that contribute to the development of tattoo
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  Speaker 1: diabetes and the worsening of taypetoo diabetes if you already
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  Speaker 1: have it. Now interesting they found that the twenty four
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  Speaker 1: hour amplitude of the partitionan circadian glucose rhythm was lower
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  Speaker 1: under natural light, meaning more stable glucose levels across the day.
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  Speaker 1: The second finding was higher fat oxidation, and one of
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  Speaker 1: the real standard effects of natural life was a shift
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  Speaker 1: towards greater fat oxidation throughout the day. The participants burn
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  Speaker 1: more fat and less carbohydrate, especially around midday compared to
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  Speaker 1: when they were on their artificial light, and during they
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  Speaker 1: did something called a mixed male tolerance tests where they
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  Speaker 1: give them a meal of fat and carbohydrates. Those in
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  Speaker 1: the natural light group also had what's called a lower
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  Speaker 1: respiratory exchange ratio, which again that's a way of measuring
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  Speaker 1: and whether you're burning fat or carbohydrates, and that pointed
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  Speaker 1: to more efficient fat metabolism. Now this is hugely relevant
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  Speaker 1: because we know that imperred fat oxidation and an over
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  Speaker 1: reliance on glucose is a real hallmark of insulin resistance
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  Speaker 1: and type two diabetes. So here is strong indication it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't only worsen type two diabetes, but actually increases your
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  Speaker 1: risk of it. The third finding was about melatonin and
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  Speaker 1: circadian rhythms, So the natural daylight exposure also boosted their
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  Speaker 1: evening melatonin levels, which suggests a more robust circadian rhythm. Now, melatonin,
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  Speaker 1: you'll know that it's about sleep, but it's not just
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  Speaker 1: about sleep. It also plays a key role in metabolic
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  Speaker 1: regulation and insulin sensitivity. And the enhancement in melatonin aligns
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  Speaker 1: with the idea that natural light helps to reinforce the
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  Speaker 1: body's internal clock, and that reinforcement of the body's internal
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  Speaker 1: clocks likely, according to these scientists, layd to downstream metabolic benefits.
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  Speaker 1: And then the fourth finding what's called multiomic changes and
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  Speaker 1: muscle clock effects. So what this means is at the
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  Speaker 1: cellular level, daylight exposure led to notable changes in the
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  Speaker 1: gene expression of skeletal muscle. So they took muscle biopsies
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  Speaker 1: and they revealed that the molecular clock in the muscle
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  Speaker 1: cells was advanced in those exposed to daylight, meaning that
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  Speaker 1: their internal timing was better synchronized with the natural environment.
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  Speaker 1: And in addition, we study uncovered changes in serum metabolites,
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  Speaker 1: in lipids, and blood monocyte transcripts. And basically all of
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  Speaker 1: this together showed a systemic impact of light exposure throughout
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  Speaker 1: the body that extended beyond glucose and fat metabolism. So
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  Speaker 1: why does this all matter. Well, we often think of
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  Speaker 1: diabetes as a disease of diet and exercise alone, but
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  Speaker 1: this study reminds us that environmental factors like light exposure
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  Speaker 1: play a powerful role in shaping our metabolic health. And
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  Speaker 1: it's not just theory. This is this is actionable stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So for me to take come here is if you
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  Speaker 1: want to prevent or reduce your risk of developing typetoo diabetes,
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  Speaker 1: or you are someone or know someone who's managing type
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  Speaker 1: two diabetes, the implications are crystal clear. Here, get more daylight,
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  Speaker 1: whether that's working near a window, taking walking breaks outside
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  Speaker 1: during the day, or even using daylight mimicking lighting systems
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  Speaker 1: which have full spectrum. This study suggests that could help
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  Speaker 1: stabilize blood sugar and improve fat metabolism. And the beauty
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  Speaker 1: of this intervention is its completely for you. There's no
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  Speaker 1: side effects and no prescription needed. And this study adds
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  Speaker 1: to a growing body of research showing that aligning our
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  Speaker 1: lifestyle with our biological clocks, whether that's eating in sync
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  Speaker 1: with the day night cycle, getting morning sunlight, or avoiding
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  Speaker 1: bright lights at night, or all of the above, that
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  Speaker 1: can actually have profound effects on your health and adds
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more to the research showing that shift
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  Speaker 1: work and particularly working at night is so bad for
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  Speaker 1: your metabolic health. And this might be one of the
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  Speaker 1: lowest hanging fruits to explore the management of tytoo bad
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  Speaker 1: baties or the prevention of it. So if you can
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  Speaker 1: work in a well lit workspace with natural light, then
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  Speaker 1: if you do have to work in an environment with
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  Speaker 1: natural light, there's still some things that you can do.
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  Speaker 1: Make sure you get outside for a morning walk, and
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  Speaker 1: get outside during lunchtime and ideally in the evening as well.
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  Speaker 1: And for me, the bottom line here is that we
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  Speaker 1: know that all animals deteriorate when they are taken out
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  Speaker 1: of their natural environment. And a really scary thing is
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  Speaker 1: that a lot of us spend eighty to ninety percent
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  Speaker 1: of our time indoors, and that's not our natural environment,
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  Speaker 1: and it's bad juju for your health. So thanks for
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  Speaker 1: tuning in to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. If you
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  Speaker 1: find this episode insightful or helpful, please don't forget to
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  Speaker 1: share it with someone who might benefit. Catch you next time.