Sunlight, Immunity and Mood: Exploring the Connection

Good Monday morning everybody and welcome to today's presentation. With the advent of daylight savings time or whatever it's called, when we roll it back, we are going to be discussing us sunlight and what that has to do with mood and immunity today. I am your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. Now, while we are waiting for everybody to log in, if you would go ahead and remember to hit the like button. Also the subscribe and the bell. That way you can be notified, notified every morning when I do these live presentations. You can also be notified of new full length videos that I put out, which we do two of those every week, and of any upcoming events or coupons for continuing education or online training. That being said, let's start talking about sunlight. And I am so excited that it is a gloriously sunny day here in Middle Tennessee. It is actually very, very cool. But it is so bright. Bright and sunny. One of the things that we often fail to consider is the impact of our health and our environment on our mood and our health. And, and so we really want to take a look at that when we look at the causes of mood disorders. Yes, talk therapy can be immensely helpful for people, but cognitions are or thoughts are not the only things that can cause mood issues. When have a emotion that's caused by the secretion of a variety of different neurotransmitters depending on what emotion we're feeling. When we have an imbalance in our neurotransmitters, it may mean that our body is having difficulty balancing the neurotransmitter soup, so to speak. You may not be able to produce enough of certain neurotransmitters like serotonin or GABA, for example, which are your calming neurotransmitters. This can be be caused by lack of vitamin D or calcium deficiencies. A lot of our neurotransmitters operate or transmit their messages through what's called calcium ion channels. So if we have too much or too little calcium, it's going to affect our mood as well as a lot of other physiological fun functions. Additionally, for our body to break down the proteins like tryptophan into the neurotransmitters and make neurotransmitters, it has to have a whole variety of vitamins and minerals in order to make that chemical reaction happen. Not the least of which is vitamin D. See, I'm getting to this whole sunlight and vitamin D thing, just kind of slow. You got to go with me on this detour. Neurotransmitter imbalances can Also cause inflammation and which activates the HPA axis. And then an HPA axis that is over activated causes more inflammation. We know that inflammation can be caused by imbalances in vitamin D levels. Impaired immune system. When we have an impaired immune system, let's just start with autoimmune disorders, because autoimmune disorders by their very nature have inflammation associated with them. A lot of times autoimmune disorders are triggered or worsened by mood disorders, by chronic stress. So we start to see a connection here. Another thing that we see a connection between is the fact that about 70% of the population, that's 7 out of 10 people, look around the room. You, 7 out of 10 of you probably don't have enough vitamin D right now. That's staggering. Which means that our bodies may not be able to produce the neurotransmitters necessary. It's not that there's a dysfunction in the system somewhere. It's that we're not giving it the building blocks it needs in order to carry out the chemical reactions to make the neurotransmitters. So insufficient Vitamin D is associated with an impaired immune system. It is impaired. Impaired immune system is also associated with an impaired gut microbiome. When our gut bacteria is out of whack, remember that about 90% of our neurotransmitters are actually made in our gut. When our gut microbiome is out of whack, we end up having inflammation. We often see an increase in mood disorders, and we also see a decrease in the functioning of the immune system. So the gut's really important. And you're going to figure out why we're talking about the gut in a minute. And then, as I said earlier, chronic stress leads to immune system dysfunction. Immune system dysfunction leads to inflammation and neurotransmitter imbalances. So why is all this important? How can sunlight help? And it's important to recognize that sunlight is important, not just bright light. There are a lot of studies out there that associate bright light therapy with an improvement in seasonal affective disorder. And that can be true for some people when their seasonal affective disorder is caused by a disruption of their circadian rhythms. Bright light therapy is super helpful. Unfortunately, bright light therapy that comes from most light bulbs does not produce UVB radiation, UVB wavelengths that are essential for the body to create vitamin D. So if the cause of your seasonal affective disorder is due to inadequate vitamin D light bulbs, bright light, no matter how bright, it ain't gonna help. We need to make sure that we are Getting enough vitamin D. The body has a really hard time assimilating vitamin D that we take orally. It does a little bit better with vitamin D that we get nutritionally, such as through cod liver oil. But that doesn't necessarily, it's not necessarily super effective for everybody to get it through nutritional means. The most effective way to get vitamin D that is most bio, bioavailable is through what they call very lowlevel UV light. Now let's talk about that because there's so much information out there about how the sun is bad. Put on sunscreen, hide from the sun, hide from the sun. Well, to a certain extent that's true. You don't want to be outside when and basking in the sun when the UVA radiation or UVB radiation levels are really high. And to be conservative, that's between 9:00am and 3:00pm you know, that's when the UVA levels are the highest. You can get the benefit that you need from sunlight at daylight. At dusk, you don't have to be out when it's like bright glaring sunshine. So that's important to recognize. Very low level UV light is also associated with our daily activities. You don't need to do anything special during the summer part of the year to get very low level UV light. You get that when you walk to your car because you're generally wearing short sleeves. So some of your skin is exposed. Even if you're wearing sunscreen, you're going to get a certain amount of uv, UVB radiation. And that's okay. A little bit is okay. It's important to recognize that even transparent glass absorbs nearly all UVB radiation. So standing in front of a window gets you the bright light. That can help set your circadian rhythms, which is super helpful. We'll talk about in a minute. For cortisol and, and circadian rhythm regulation. It's not going to increase your vitamin D levels. Now there are certain bulbs out there and you'd want to talk to your dermatologist. I'm going to put that caveat out there. There are certain light bulbs out there that do produce UVB radiation. They are, interestingly enough, light bulbs that are used in reptile cages because reptiles need the UVB in order to metabolite to create vitamin D, to metabolize vitamin, metabolize calcium and keep their shells strong and keep their bodies functioning. So turtles and lizards and those sorts of animals need to have a bulb that emits 5 to 10% UVB radiation. So it's possible, but you know, there are Safer ways to do it probably than sitting in front of even an artificial bulb. That being said, very low level UV light, 10 to 15 minutes a day outside of that window from 9am to 3pm Go outside during the day. Even if you go to work and it's dark and you're coming home and it's dark, generally there's going to be some time during the day where you can get outside. 5 to 15 minutes. Walking to your car to go to lunch, walking to your car, coming back from lunch. You'd be surprised how much time you actually spend outside. So you may be getting enough. When it's not super dreary outside, when it's not. When the days are not ultra ultra short, sometimes people just forget to go outside. Sun exposure is essential for serotonin regulation. Your skin is a great big old endocrine gland and it helps regulate a whole bunch of stuff. Not just vitamin D levels, but it is essential for serotonin regulation. We know serotonin regulation is essential for mood, good mood, happy mood, calm mood, whatever, whatever you want to say, we need to have adequate levels, not too little, not too much. Serotonin. Sun exposure and bright light also help set circadian rhythms. Remember, in the morning when you get up, your cortisol levels, your stress chemical is at its highest level. That's supposed to give you the motivation to get your butt out of bed, to get on with your day. Cortisol drops throughout the day and is at its lowest level when it's time to go to sleep. Other hormones, your gonadal hormones, your thyroid hormones, lot, your hunger and satiation hormones, lots of hormones are regulated by this circadian rhythm. When those get out of whack, then you start seeing some of those symptoms of depression, such as irritability, slowing down, fatigue, appetite changes, sleep changes. Some of that, if not all. For some people it may be all of that, but some of that may be due to a, an imbalance in those circadian rhythms. The suprachiasmatic nucleus or your SCN, is that little part in your brain that receives the message that hey, it's light outside, it's time to start getting up, or hey, it's dark outside, it's time to go to sleep. Which is why it is so important when you're sleeping to make sure it's really dark. And when you're awake to try to make sure you are in bright light some of the time. Now they have found, interestingly enough, that for people who have to work in dim, dimly lit areas, when my son was in the neonatal intensive care unit. It was very dimly lit all day long because they wanted the babies to sleep, no joke. So, you know, for those nurses and doctors who are working in that unit, could they stabilize their circadian rhythms? And the research has found the answer to be yes. The research has found that even if they just go out periodically throughout the day for five minutes, it actually does keep their circadian rhythm synced, if you will. Sun exposure increases the release of glutamate. And I didn't find any studies that compared bright light exposure versus actual sun exposure. The article that I read indicated that sun exposure, that very low level UV light does increase the level of glutamate. Glutamate is our main excitatory neurochemical. If your glutamate levels are low, you're probably going to feel very fatigue. Um, if they're too high, you're going to feel anxious and, or irritable or angry. But you know, sun exposure can actually increase glutamate levels. And they found that sun exposure, partly because of the increase in glutamate levels, they hypothesized, also improves learning, memory and attention. So glutamate is one of those excitatory neurochemicals. A lot of times when glutamate is increased. Norepinephrine, which is our focus chemical, is also increased when we're feeling good. Guess what other neurochemical is increased? Drum roll please. Dopamine. And dopamine is highly involved in attention and learning as well. So increasing one causes a subsequent increase in other neurochemicals that are responsible for energy and attention. Interesting thought. Exposing the skin to sunlight, specifically the UVB rays, increases vitamin D levels and modulates the makeup of the human intestinal microbiome. I thought that was really cool because you think of your gut as being like way down in there. It's under muscle and fat and all that kind of stuff. But exposure to UVB light alters the vitamin D levels. And altered vitamin D levels alter the makeup of the bacteria in your gut. And in a good way. They found normal UVB radiation. When you walk outside in the sunlight, 5% of that sunlight is UVB radiation. The other 95% is UVA. So you don't need a whole lot of UVB radiation exposure to get to make the vitamin D. Unfortunately, UVB radiation is also the one that's implicated in the development of skin cancer. So here we go again with the what we keep saying regularly that a little can be good, but too much is bad. We Want to have, you know, a moderation in what we're doing. Most light bulbs, most light boxes, even the prescription light boxes, produce no UV radiation. So if your seasonal effective disorder, if your mood issues, your fatigue is, your irritability is caused by an imbalance or a discombobulation of your circadian rhythms, light boxes can be extraordinarily helpful. If it is caused by a vitamin D deficiency, a light box may not do a whole heck of a lot. So let's talk about vitamin D. Since vitamin D is obviously one of those things that's really important, we can get it through very low level UV light, enjoy the sunlight when you go outside, when you're walking into the grocery store, feel the sun on your skin, you know, even your hands, you know, you don't have to have your skin like be half naked or anything, but wherever the sun contacts your skin, it's going to be activating some of those receptors. Some people, like I said, can get their vitamin D through oral means and that can be through cod liver oil or through supplements. The recommendation, depending on your age, your health conditions, Your kidney health, etc. Ranges between 600 and 1000 IU of D3 per day. Benefits of Vitamin D Immune system enhancement. Not only is it helping us feel better emotionally, but it keeps us healthier physically. It keeps our gut microbiome healthier, and it keeps our body healthier. Vitamin D receptors are found in almost all immune cells. So we know that the immune cells like want and need vitamin D. For some reason, they're not exactly sure how it all works, but they do know that this exists. Interestingly, think about the seasonal flu. Now obviously the same wasn't as true for Covid, but think about the seasonal flu. As sunlight goes down, as daylight hours go down, people's internal levels of vitamin D seem to go down. Which is why 70% of people, especially during the shorter days of the year, don't have enough vitamin D. When vitamin D is down, sunlight's down. Shorter days, which is the winter, guess what goes up? Viruses and illnesses. Vitamin D can be super helpful. Now I will say, you know, vitamin D can be toxic. It is not one of those water soluble vitamins and it can cause a whole host of things which I won't go into right now because we don't have the time. But overdosing on vitamin D, not a good suggestion. Definitely talk with your doctor about how much you need, especially since many American foods, including your dairy products and even some of your grains, are already enriched with vitamin D. You don't want to od. OD on D. Sorry, it doesn't take much to amuse me today. Anyway, vitamin D, how does it work in our immune system? It prevents excessive expression of inflammatory cytokines. So vitamin D goes in there and actually prevents inflammation, which is awesome. And it increases the oxidative burst of potential macrophages. Macrophages are those cells that go around and clean up all the gunk in our system. All the gunk that can be problematic, the oxidative stress. So vitamin D enhances those macrophages and makes them a lot hungrier and prevents excessive expression or activation of the inflammatory cytokines, which is so awesome because that will suppress inflammation. Vitamin D also dramatically stimulates the expression of antimicrobial peptides which exist in natural killer T cells. So it enhances those natural killer T cells that we've heard so much about lately. And in epithelial cells, those are skin cells lining the respiratory tract where they play a major role in protecting the lungs from infection. Vitamin D, does this vitamin D levels enhance our, our protection against respiratory diseases, against infections? It enhances our ability to suppress inflammation, which is associated with autoimmune disorders as well as depression. So vitamin D, really important. Um, and, and again, we can get it from sunlight. Vitamin D has also been implicated in the prevention and mitigating mitigation, as I said, of inflammation, period. So inflammation throughout your body actually can be helped if you have adequate vitamin D levels. It can mitigate autoimmune issues because it suppresses that inflammation, including diabetes type 2. I thought that was really interesting. I read two whole articles on the interaction between vitamin D and, and insulin levels and the body's ability to regulate insulin. Insulin levels. We know that diabetes is associated with inflammation. As inflammation goes up, insulin levels become harder to regulate, which makes diabetes worse. So if we can regulate that inflammation, we're kind of backwards backhanded regulating insulin. We know that when our insulin levels are all over the place, that infects mood as well. High blood pressure, cancer, osteoporosis are also impacted by vitamin D levels. So you know, those are all good things to prevent cognitive and memory issues. You know, we talked about vitamin D and sun exposure. Sun exposure, specifically increasing levels of glutamate. Well, that can help with cognition and memory issues. And they've also found that adequate levels of vitamin D can help some in mitigating the progression of age related dementia. Mood disorders also may be potentially mitigated by vitamin D because of the regulation of that calcium ion channel. So sunlight Itself can impact mood disorders because it helps regulate that circadian rhythm, you know, bright light. But vitamin D in particular can also help regulate mood disorders. They hypothesize, again because of calcium regulation. They know in the parts of the brain that are responsible for mood and emotion. There are also a lot of vitamin D receptors there too. So it's really interesting. It's a, an area of study that is still, you know, very, very new. So I think we'll learn a lot more. But it just goes to underscore the importance of body health for cognitive and emotional health and vice versa. Okay, I saw you guys just typing away here and I appreciate that. Fermented cod liver oil is one of the best sources of vitamin D. If you can tolerate it, not everybody likes it, but if you can and you want to get your vitamin D through nutritional sources, that's one. You know, I come from a family, we have a horrid history of skin cancer. So I tend to shy away from the sun quite a bit. And, and when I do go outside, I put on like, you know, SPF 100 so I look like a snow monster or something when I'm going out. Going out during a work lunch break. Yeah, that is definitely one of those times that you can expose yourself to sun for a short period. Old fashioned, broad spectrum bulbs. As long as we're talking about bulbs again, remember those do nothing for increasing vitamin D levels, but they can help a lot during. When it's, you know, super cloudy outside, if you notice your energy levels stay low, you want to look for the broad spectrum bulbs that are at least 5,000 Kelvin, preferably 5,500. So those are the really obnoxiously bright kind of blue lights. And you also want to get them as bright as possible. An interesting thing to note about light and bulbs is, and, and those of you who have physics degrees are probably going to cringe when I start talking about this because, well, whatever the brightness of the light, the further away it gets from you, the more the brightness dissipates. So if you have a really bright bulb, that's great, but if it's 10ft above your head, it's not going to do much. You need to bring it close. If you can have a desk lamp, that can be helpful. That can also be blinding in my opinion. To have this really bright lamp here, you feel like you're being interrogated. There are, you know, old fashioned lamps that used to sit next to your easy chair when you would read. And they were overhead lamps, but they were, they were on the ground and they would come and the light just came right over your head. Those are ideal for improving mood by. By putting really bright bulbs, daylight spectrum bulbs in those and sitting under them even for 10 or 15 minutes has been shown to, you know, increase those, increase energy levels, increase, you know, a lot of things that again, they don't exactly know what happens in humans because there's only so much they can monitor. But try it. You know, those are things that are relatively inexpensive that you can try. I know I find a big difference on cloudy days when I have, you know, more lights on and they're bright. Not. You don't want to use soft white bulbs. You want to use the. Really? I don't have another word for them besides obnoxious. I find them. They're not really good for taking selfies or anything because they're so bright, but they can be helpful for mood. Yes, you do need to have vitamin D to absorb calcium, which is why vitamin D is so important for. For the communication of those neurotransmitters through the calcium ion channels. You don't have enough vitamin D. Calcium is not going to work. Have too much vitamin D. You may have an overload of calcium on your kidneys and. And some other things. So again, don't just start mega dosing on vitamin D. That can be very dangerous. Vitamin D is not the only way to prevent the flu. I think I have to say that, or to prevent Covid or anything else. But vitamin D is one tool in the toolbox, as is hand washing and, you know, covering your nose and mouth when you sneeze and. And all those kinds of things. What other questions do you guys have about sunlight, immunity and mood? While I'm waiting to see if you guys have any questions, please, if you haven't already, remember to subscribe and click the bell to get notified each morning when I go live or when we put out new videos, which we do twice a week. You'll also be notified of valuable coupons for online training if you want to do something like become a recovery coach or get certified as an addiction counselor or. Or something like that. We have a lot of trainings that are available for people. You don't have to have a master's degree. You don't necessarily have to be working towards a certification if you don't want to. If you just want the education, you can also do that. And that's at all. Ceus.com. Alrighty, everybody. I know that we're all feeling a lot of or most of us are feeling a lot of anxiety and stress right now, so I really appreciate you taking time out this morning to be with me. I will see you tomorrow. Let's see, what are we talking about tomorrow? Surviving the toxic parent. So, you know, that could be an interesting presentation that will go through and maybe distract you a little bit from the ongoing election drama. Everybody have an amazing day and try to do something today that makes you happy, that helps you feel energized and positive.