Rebalancing... Hormones?

[Gumby]

MachineGhost,  Check out a device called Emwave.  It's a small, portable bio-feedback machine that measures heart rate variability and reduces stress.    It's being used by special forces soldiers, police and other high stress fields with good results.  Purportedly, helps alleviate PTSD. I've had excellent results using this product.

Interesting... Biohacker Dave Asprey uses it for (brain) performance enhancement...

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/emwave2-hrv-data-export/

[MachineGhost]

Since I still have the "pirated" glasses, I will give them a shot for an hour.  That's about as long as I forsee going without seeing anything clearly and not getting bored.  To vivid dreams!  Salut!

emWave2 sounds like a really interesting way to meditate  But despite what MT alluded to, I'm not stressed out anymore.  The IGF-1 apparantly killed it overnight.  I'm unaware of any phsyiological mechanism how or why.  Nonetheless, I still plan on repairing my sauna, gap meditating and will look into the emWave2.

To those using the glasses, can you confirm that you do not get the same effects by using melatonin instead?

[Gumby]

I can't confirm as I have never taken melatonin. However, the glasses book says that while oral melatonin is useful for those who do not respond to the glasses, oral melatonin dosing can be highly variable from one person to the next and the timing is important since taking it off schedule can reset the internal clock and promote insomnia when you want to sleep. Also, the book suggests that the body can build tolerance to sleeping pills over time (not sure about oral melatonin though).

In any case there are none of those problems with the glasses as it is nothing more than a return to pre-electric lighting as far as the body is concerned.

[Pointedstick]

Quick, dumb question: can someone define what makes light blue light? Incandescents at least have a very warm coloration. Are we talking about LED-lit screens? What is it that makes a candle or oil lamp's light not blue?

[Lone Wolf]

I am! And get this... Despite her initial disgust, I let my wife try the glasses after a few nights of dirty looks and she noticed that using them for even 10 minutes before bed improved her sleep. She actually used to wake up with night terrors, startled and confused, in the middle of the night. (I had heard this was a symptom of low blood sugar and cortisol kicking as blood sugar gets too low). But the more she used the glasses, the better her sleep became. She has now completely stopped having waking night terrors. So, I bought her a pair of the $8 glasses and now we both use them for an hour before bedtime.

Wow, man, that is awesome!  Kudos to you for getting her to try them and for helping her so dramatically.  $8 well spent!  Very happy for you guys.

To those using the glasses, can you confirm that you do not get the same effects by using melatonin instead?

Unfortunately I can't confirm that, no.  I haven't used melatonin therapeutically -- mostly just on very rare occasions where I'm trying to intentionally suppress REM sleep for early-morning rebound and extra-vivid dreaming.  (High, like, 3-6mg.)

I use these glasses so that when I wake up from first sleep and read/go to the bathroom/use my Kindle Fire, I don't throw off my natural melatonin levels.  They seem to do great at this.  I used them just this morning in fact, right before quite an outstanding lucid dream.

[Gumby]

Another good trick I recently learned is to take your Vitamin D (or natural sunlight exposure) as soon as you wake up. Likewise, don't take in the afternoon or evening.

http://blog.sethroberts.net/2011/11/02/ ... discovery/
http://blog.sethroberts.net/2011/11/03/ ... leep-more/
http://blog.sethroberts.net/2011/11/28/ ... t-sunrise/

Wow! It seems that the timing of Vitamin D matters (at least anecdotally, as it's totally unproven).

And I tried it — by taking it with my fat-friendly breakfast (good for absorption). Sure enough, even better sleep when I take Vitamin D early in the day!

[Gumby]

Quick, dumb question: can someone define what makes light blue light? Incandescents at least have a very warm coloration. Are we talking about LED-lit screens? What is it that makes a candle or oil lamp's light not blue?

It's not a dumb question at all! It has to do with color temperature and how color temperature affects your circadian rhythm. So, if we look at a color temperature chart, here's what we see:

[align=center][/align]

The units are confusing in that color temperature, in degrees Kelvin, increases as the light becomes cooler and more blue.

Basically, up until the invention of the tungsten filament, it was nearly impossible to create a consistent light source with a color temperature that exceeded that of a candle or a fireplace (~1800ºK). And even the early tungsten filaments weren't all that blue, and they were very dim (see any antique lightbulb). These days, it's actually quite difficult to find a lightbulb with color temperature less than 2700ºK.

[align=center][/align]

Most "warm" household lightbulbs are at least 2700ºK. When you consider that even a single one-second glimpse of 2700ºK light is enough to stop melatonin production, you can see why oil lamp/candle/fire light (~1800ºK) was very effective as a low-blue light source for millions of years.

To put all this into perspective, consider that the color temperature of sunrise starts at 2000ºK and increases rapidly from there. As we know, sunrise is how your body knows it's time to wake up and cease melatonin.

When you put on the $8 glasses, you feel like the entire world is bathed in candle light — even if what you're seeing is quite bright. It's a very different experience from household lighting and the color temperature of "low blue" lighting is warmer than that of sunrise. Once your eyes adjust, taking off those "low blue" glasses while in a room lit by household lighting would cause you to wince.

So, to sum this all up, when we say "low blue" lights, we are basically talking about roughly the equivalent color temperature of candle light. You can sort of get the equivalent of candle light if you take a 60 watt incandescent bulb and use a dimmer to make it very, very dim — the color temperature of an incandescent bulb will get warmer as you dim it. But, even then it probably won't be as warm an oil lamp or candle/fire light.

[Pointedstick]

Fascinating! Are are there any < 2000ºK bulbs or lights on the market? If not, is it a technical challenge, a government regulation, or simply that nobody's thought of it? Sounds like a business opportunity… 

[Gumby]

Lowbluelights.com sells the kinds of bulbs you're talking about.

https://www.lowbluelights.com/products.asp

I believe they may be a bit warmer than 2000°. I bought their nightlight bulb, which replaces most standard night light bulbs and it's come in handy (though it is very bright!)

[Pointedstick]

You never cease to be a font of amazing information, Gumby. I'm going to buy a couple of those.

[MachineGhost]

You never cease to be a font of amazing information, Gumby. I'm going to buy a couple of those.

I concur!  The guy is a walking encyclopedia.

I got into full-spectrum light bulbs back in the 90's when artificial light was a suspect in causing skin cancer, either through radiation or from lack of proper sunlight wavelengths, but this was long before the current Vitamin D science was so established.  Now, I do not think they induce D because mine are UV shielded (not all bulbs are).  OTOH, they do help Seasonal Affection Disorder (SAD) so it sounds like they work more by helping regulate the circardian rhythm by being akin to bright sunlight and supressing melatonin.  Perhaps those with SAD actually don't shut off their melatonin?

And perhaps the reason most of us instinctly crave the "warm and fuzzy" yellower light is because of less melatonin suppression?

[Gumby]

You never cease to be a font of amazing information, Gumby. I'm going to buy a couple of those.

I concur!  The guy is a walking encyclopedia.

Not at all. I'm just really good at researching with Google. If you think about it, Google has really empowered a lot of people to access a wider variety of knowledge that was previously buried in libraries around the world. 20 years ago, it was extremely difficult to find most of the unconventional knowledge we've all shared with each other here. When you have access to all this published knowledge, and you can so easily expose yourself to both conventional wisdom and contrarian viewpoints, it's a lot easier to gather information on nearly anything these days.

[colorado4]

Interesting Gumby,

Dave Asprey has some very good recommendations.  I also like Art DeVany. He is one of the original paleo practitioners and advocates a simple, natural food diet and exercise regime.  He is not too doctrinaire like some in the paleo community. 'The Perfect Health Diet' by Paul Jaminet and is wife is an excellent diet book too. 

The Emwave is effective I believe  because it gives you feedback and scores your session.  After doing this for only 10 minutes, twice daily for 20 days, I noticed big differences.  Sleep and mood were good and my defense against life's daily stressors were almost completely gone.  I know long-term meditators who report the same. 

[Gumby]

Interesting Gumby,

Dave Asprey has some very good recommendations.  I also like Art DeVany. He is one of the original paleo practitioners and advocates a simple, natural food diet and exercise regime.  He is not too doctrinaire like some in the paleo community. 'The Perfect Health Diet' by Paul Jaminet and is wife is an excellent diet book too.

Agreed. I'm actually starting to shift a bit towards Jaminet's Perfect Health Diet. I like the idea of eating more (safe) carbs.

The Emwave is effective I believe  because it gives you feedback and scores your session.  After doing this for only 10 minutes, twice daily for 20 days, I noticed big differences.  Sleep and mood were good and my defense against life's daily stressors were almost completely gone.  I know long-term meditators who report the same.

I'm a pretty low stress guy, and my sleep and mood are pretty good these days. Hard to imagine better sleep and mood, but I'm curious. I may get one in a few months and try it out.

[BearBones]

Basically, up until the invention of the tungsten filament, it was nearly impossible to create a consistent light source with a color temperature that exceeded that of a candle or a fireplace (~1800ºK). And even the early tungsten filaments weren't all that blue, and they were very dim (see any antique lightbulb). These days, it's actually quite difficult to find a lightbulb with color temperature less than 2700ºK.

It is my impression that we are in an epidemic of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Among those over the age of 80 or so, many are losing or have lost some of their central vision due to this disorder. Cause? It may just be that we are living longer, or it may largely be due to our diets (or aspirin!). Genetics certainly play a large roll. But I strongly suspect that our exposure to blue light beyond the normal daylight hours is partly responsible. This would be an extremely difficult thing to sort out in clinical trials.

I am curious if you have read anything about this, Gumby (or others).

[Benko]

No idea about light, but EVEN DOCTORS are starting to sell/research supplements for this issue.  I take it for another reason, but AOR (small company in canada and I have no commercial interest) has this one:

Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 1 Softgel
Lutein 7.5 mg
Zeaxanthin 7.5 mg
Benfotiamine 80 mg
Astaxanthin 2 mg
Black Soybean Hull Extract (10% Cyanidin-3-Glucosides) 60 mg
http://www.aor.ca/products-page/aging/v ... upport-ii/

Their website also lists vit d as being important in preventing macular-degeneration
http://www.aor.ca/vitamin-d-deficiency- ... eneration/

[BearBones]

Their website also lists vit d as being important in preventing macular-degeneration
http://www.aor.ca/vitamin-d-deficiency- ... eneration/

Far from proof, since based solely on empiric and epidemiologic data. Other components that they are promoting have even weaker supporting data. Sorting such things out definitively takes massive prospective randomized clinical trials (of which AREDS is the primary one).
https://web.emmes.com/study/areds/
AREDS 2 now looking at fish oil, lutein, and zeaxanthin.
http://www.areds2.org

[MachineGhost]

Moving this from another thread:

Useful hormone resources:

General Hormone Book Resource: http://www.amazon.com/The-Hormone-Solut ... 400080851/
Physician Handbook: http://www.amazon.com/The-Hormone-Handb ... 004QXH3HA/

Melatonin Book Resource: http://www.amazon.com/Melatonin-Miracle ... 671534351/
Alternative Approach: http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ht ... 1#msg54241

Thyroid Book Resource: http://www.amazon.com/Solved-Riddle-Ill ... 071470573/
Alternative Approach: http://www.fixlowbodytemp.com/
Alternative [Book] Resource: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/