#303 Quantum Biology: How Light, Electricity, and Nature Support Healing with Dr. Catherine Clinton

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.

Dr. Donnie Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body. But with focused determination, she healed herself. And in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Donnie stress recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists and Experts along with Dr. Donnie, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is how humans Heal.

Hi and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson and today I'm so happy to have Dr. Katherine Clinton here with us. She is a licensed naturopathic physician like me, so we love getting to connect with each other. She's also now the best selling author of the book Optimize, and she's going to tell us about her book today. And she's the founder and chair of the Quantum Biology Health Institute. We're going to be talking about Quantum biology and what that means for your health. So I am so proud and excited for you to be here. Catherine, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much for having me. I mean, we were just talking before recording about just passing your 300th episode on the podcast that's you're doing such incredible work and I'm excited to be here again.

Yes. You started us off at the beginning of How Humans Heal and what a landmark to have you come back and, and now you have your book out, Optimize. So I want to dig in and help people understand your book and all that they're going to learn in the book. And because this is in some ways it could be like a lot of, you know, opening up into this quantum physics, science and math world. But you break it down to simple strategies we can integrate into our daily life that are actually very much reflective of a naturopathic approach to healthcare. It's just that you're really helping us translate the science into what we can do on a daily basis to improve our health. And so I'm so grateful for that and so excited to dive into it. I wanted to ask you first because I know you share that you have been inspired by your own health issues, that you experienced autoimmunity. Would you say that that really helped you get a sense of where you wanted to go with what you're sharing with the world?

That's a great question, and I think you're right. I think when I was in naturopathic medical school, it was a second year of schooling, long hours, kind of that initiation year, you know, trying to Weed people out. And I got really sick. I was diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, started having panic attacks. You know, it was just this domino effect in how my nervous system couldn't handle the stress. And it really showed up in my body. And I was in the perfect place to get better, right? I was in naturopathic medical school. I had all those tools. It was a dual degree with Chinese medicine. I was right down the hill from an allopathic medical school. I had all these tools, and I did. I got somewhat better, right? I went from debilitated, couldn't go to classes, to being able to return to school, return to the clinic, shifts. But I still wasn't healthy. And I think so many of us with chronic disease can kind of relate to that. Like, we can get to be that productive member of society again, but we're still not healthy, we're still not thriving. And that's when I sort of started exploring this quantum biology approach to health. I was looking at mitochondria and psychoneuroimmunology, just a big word for how our thoughts and emotions play into our biology. I was looking at some of the early quantum biology research. And really what a quantum biology approach to health looks at is it looks at the body and the energy production in the body, looks at mitochondria. It looks at how our bodies acts as an antenna for all of this unseen information in the world. Whether that's sound, light, electromagnetic waves. All of these things are thoughts and emotions. They all come in and create measurable change in the body, and we can utilize them for better health and longevity. That's what the book's all about. And that's what I got really excited about, because that was the last piece that took me from sick that can do life to healthy, thriving, excited about life. And that's what I wanted people to understand. Because, as you know, a lot of it is free, accessible information.

And sometimes it seems almost too good to be true. You know, like, we think, oh, if it has to do with sunlight and breath work, and, you know, people kind of go, oh, could that really create so much change? You are showing us that it can create that much change. And I really, really appreciate that and love that. And. And I'll be sharing, of course, how everyone can access the optimized book and. And more resources from you, because I know you also teach online courses so that people can learn more about quantum biology and integrated into their health care. I'm wondering maybe we just touch on, like, what types of health issues this might benefit, like, because it is so core, I'm thinking it could help with a lot of different health issues, but maybe share. What do you notice? What do you. What kind of health. You mentioned for yourself that it helped with autoimmunity and Lyme disease. But what other health issues someone might be dealing with, where they're thinking, hey, maybe this is a perspective that I need to consider?

Yeah, that's a great place to start. Because when we're looking at this quantum biology approach to health, there is such this foundational. It's really energy first and then matter. And so we're talking about so many different conditions. I mean, just looking at light and how light impacts the body, I think it was 2017, three researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on chronobiology. And that's just a big word for how light impacts the body. And they found that almost every single cell in our body has a circadian clock or a circadian gene, and it's sensitive to the light in our environment. The light in our environment cues our hormones, our immune system, our metabolism, our neurotransmitters, our inflammatory state, and all of these different circadian driven cells in the body mean that our cardiovascular system, our respiratory system, our digestive system, our immune system, all of these different areas in the body are driven by the light in our environment. So just looking at one piece of a quantum biology approach to health, we can see how pervasive and foundational it is to our approach and how it's so overlooked. And like we were just saying, these things are foundational. I try to really impress people with the latest new science because it starts to really breed this sense of awe that we have about the body and that how it isn't the latest, most expensive trend. It's getting back to that relationship we have with light, with water, with the world around us, that becomes so foundational to almost every health condition out there.

Yeah, it's amazing. And we do, we like just speaking to the concept of light exposure, let alone the fact that we're recording this in the winter in the northern hemisphere. So we have low amounts of light accessed for us right now. But it's like even in the, when we have more light outside, a lot of times we have ourselves inside a building, sometimes with no windows all day long. Right. So we, it begs us to say, hey, are we actually intentionally allowing our body and our brain and our nervous system to sync up with the circadian rhythm that's available to us in nature?

Yes, absolutely. And that doesn't take a lot of time. You know, when I start talking about getting AM sun within an hour of waking, taking natural light breaks throughout the day, lowering the lights at night, these are simple steps. They're not requiring that we live outside, that we run away from cities and start living in, you know, huts in the middle of the woods. That might be great, but it's just small intentional times at windows of certain times throughout the day that are really powerful for sinking that circadian rhythm. And it doesn't take very long at all. It's just an understanding that we have to have to put that into practice. It's, it's absolutely incredible. When you look at the results that people get just by syncing with the rhythm of the sun.

Isn't that something that the to realize as humans, we require that the signals from nature are down to the cellular level. Maybe share with us about how that light. You were mentioning mitochondria before, but you know, it's not just about getting this sunlight on your skin. It goes way deeper than that.

Yeah, definitely. Well, I mean, we're talking about several different things when we go outside or when we're inside. Anytime we're exposed to light in our environment, that light enters the eye and it concentrates on this thin layer of cells in the back of the eye called the retina. And the retina is filled with light sensitive proteins that picks up on this light. And what we see with the rising and setting of the sun, there are key windows in that arc of, of sunlight that provide information to the body that cue different biological function. And that's just light entering the eye. And like you said, so many of us are spending a predominant amount of our time inside with artificial lighting. Now this artificial lighting is led and that LED modern lighting has a very narrow band of blue light. If I were to go outside right now, the spectrum would be a little bit. Like you mentioned, we're in the northern hemisphere in winter, so I have no ultraviolet B where I am. Right. But there's a little bit of ultraviolet A. There's that full spectrum of violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red into the infrared spectrums. And when we go outside, you see that full spectrum. It's like light as nutrition, right. Where that artificial led modern lighting is just a processed food with one nutrient, whereas going outside has that full spectrum of light and it's much brighter. Right. I don't know if people can relate to going outside and it's like, oh, it's so bright out here. Well, it's because it, the, the lux, the intensity is so much more and that's activating all these things in the body. And like we are talking about, light through the eyes sends a signal right to the center of the brain and the hypothalamus, and then that is communicated via electrical signaling throughout the rest of the body. We have light on our skin which does other things. We have light that help with our mitochondria. We mentioned how it goes from ultraviolet to visible to infrared. That infrared light is so supportive of our mitochondrial function. And there's been incredible research out of London. Glenn Jeffrey and the University College of London have really showed how infrared energy is one of the main nutrients of the mitochondria. We think about food powering our mitochondria and ATP and that cellular energy. And that's true. But light plays a huge role in how we're utilizing that food, how we're making cellular energy, whether our mitochondria are responding and ready to go and, and delivering that energy, or whether they're sluggish and not responding. And that really plays into so many things like metabolic issues, energy reserves, obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes. These are huge, huge components of what we're dealing with in modern life and modern disease states. And to think, to think that our light environment, just going outside, just changing the lighting to lights with more infrared spectrum can have such a primary and profound impact on our health.

It's amazing. It's amazing. It really is. So now, like, I'm curious and I know you share this in the book, but just so people get a sense of it, like, what do you do? Like, what do you aim for each day? Do you try to go out for five minutes or ten minutes or twice a day or three times a day? What, what is your, what is your goal? Night exposure?

My goal is to go outside. My morning exposure is really important to me because that's what wakes up all those biological cascades. So our, like I was saying, our hormones, immune system, inflammatory state, metabolism. So I like to go outside, ideally barefoot. I do a little lymphatic exercise. I get moving a little bit, but it's anywhere from five to 15 minutes. And that just sets up so many different things. Just that amount of time, you know, the, the sun is either constantly rising or after midpoint, it's constantly setting, right? So that movement of the sun just in that amount of time tells my body it's morning, it's time to get active, it's time to initiate these pathways. And it's just also such A beautiful routine for my nervous system. Right. This is a wonderful time for me to just be like, this is how I'm greeting the day. This is my self care. This is what's setting up the tone for the rest of the day as well. So I usually aim for five to 15 minutes. I go back inside, I eat, I get ready, I try to move, get back outside and move in that morning time and then have natural light breaks throughout the day. That's wonderful when I get to spend more time out day outside in the day. But that morning time, just five to 15 minutes.

Essential.

Yeah.

Makes a big difference. And, and it's, you know, I always like to remember that it's, it's the light in contrast with the dark. But the dark is much easier for us to. Unless we have a lot of lights on when we're trying to go to sleep. But you know, that's another part of this, right? Is we need our bodies to see light and then darkness.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. We talk about all the things that happen when we go outside in the morning with the light. Well, that's all set up and prepared in darkness. Right. So when the sun goes down over the horizon, lowering those lights at night, moving away from those LED lights that are rich in blue light, moving towards lights that have red light, infrared light, more orange tone lights and just lower in intensity. That cues so many different things in the body. It starts that metabolic pathway with leptin and our insulin, making sure that we become insulin sensitive again, making sure that we're burning fat, our thyroid hormones. It does a whole cascade in our immune system and it cues that release of pineal melatonin. And that's really what signals to the body that it's time to start getting ready for that deep restorative sleep. And that sleep is where the body repairs where, where we recycle cells, all of those different functions that are so vital to this 24 hour cycle.

Yeah, it's like, wait a minute, we're humans living on earth. We gotta do some things that the body needs as a human living on earth and exposure to nature. Right. We need that reminder. And, and, and I know that you've also covered these topics too. And these are things that related to photodynamic therapy like, like infrared or therapy or red light therapy. Maybe just touch on that a little bit. What do you, do you bring, is that something people could bring into this in addition to their natural light and darkness exposure?

Absolutely. Yeah. And I kind of walk through that in the book, the benefits of red Light and infrared light devices, many of them nowadays, they're usually combined, right? So if you get that red light panel or wrap or whatever it might be, it's usually a combination of those two different spectrums, the red light and the infrared light. And there's just a wealth of research out there showing how powerful that is for the mitochondria, which means that it helps with recovery, it helps with pain, it helps with putting down new collagen. A lot of people maybe are familiar with those red light masks that people are using for wrinkles and collagen information in the face. So many different areas. I mean, if we think that a red and infrared light is supporting our mitochondria. Almost every cell in the body has mitochondria. And not just a couple. We're talking hundreds to thousands. And that cellular energy is so important. We know from the research any dip in mitochondrial function is associated with almost, almost every modern disease out there. So it becomes really essential to start. Start supporting our body with red light, infrared light. There's also all kinds of different light spectrums. I mean, the research is showing how important yellow light is, green light, all of these things, even blue light. We're talking about the adverse effects of blue light. But blue light is also very beneficial to the body. It's all about learning where and when to have these different inputs. And absolutely, light is. It's. We can think of it as nutrition for the body. We want that full spectrum, right. Like eat a rainbow that we always.

Say, I love it. When you also talk about it, you know, like realizing like, we are light beings, you know, like we're. We're really like down to a cellular level, we don't think of ourselves as like, phosphorescent, you know, jellyfish or something, but we really. Could. We really have that happen inside of us, Right. Like this electrical. Maybe you can go into talking about the. How the electricity in our bodies, right. We don't think of ourselves oftentimes as electric, but we. This is happening in us all the time. That's how our bodies function.

Yeah, yeah. And it's such a exciting expansion of our understanding. Because our understanding has been our bodies run on a chemical, mechanical route. Right? We run on chemicals, we run on nutrition. There's a mechanical issue in the body. We fix it with surgery, a chemical issue. We fix it with nutrition supplements or pharmaceuticals. But understanding that the body is energetic is such a new and exciting expansion. Because what's really happening when we look at the body and we look at how cells are Communicating. There is this electrical communication happening in the body. We talked about our cells being recycled, being repaired. That starts with an electrical signal that signals that repair and that recycling of the cells. We see with our immune system any decrease in our electrical charge. Our cells and that cell membrane, they hold valuable electrical charge. And when that dips, then we see a loss in function, a loss in communication. This is one of the things that's really associated with autoimmune conditions. And Michael Levin does incredible research with how our cells create bioelectricity. They create their own electromagnetic field. And that field dictates that cellular movement, behavior, even differentiation. How a cell becomes an ear or an elbow. That's guided by the information that's held in these electrical fields. And we often think of electricity as energy. And yes, absolutely, we plug our appliances into the wall, they get that electrical charge, they get that excitation. But also as soon as that happens, as soon as those electrons start moving, they create an electrical field. And there's not just energy in that field, there' information. And so this is an exciting understanding of the body that yes, we run on electricity, but also there's information in that field that's guiding what we do with that energy. How the body functions at a primary vital level. And so maintaining that electrical charge becomes absolutely essential.

Well, as it's really something and I know that it's. This impacts the water in our bodies, this, this concept of structured water, easy water. Right. It's because we, we all, I think, kind of have a sense that our bodies are mostly made of water. But to know that it's not just the same kind of water that's in a glass of water. We want it to be this, this activated water that, that helps things move and helps this electricity move too.

Yes, absolutely. You said that very well. The water inside of our body. And like you said, we're most. So you can't get very far in the body without coming up against water. And when water comes against the surface of a cell or our fascia, it takes on a different structure and it creates that vital negative charge that we were just talking about. Not only that, but the different organization of the water that happens with the interaction between water and the body and these water loving surfaces, like our cell membranes, our tissue, our fascia, that different in structure allows that water to act like an antenna for this frequency information that we're talking about. Light, sound, electromagnetic waves. It's able to capture, store and then transmit that energy throughout the body. It starts to paint an incredible new understanding of how we function at the very, very most basic levels. There is this energy first mod where our body responds. It's exposed to this energy in our environment, externally and internally, and it comes through and it makes contact with water first and then that is transduced into measurable biological action in the body. It's absolutely fascinating.

It really isn't. It brings us back to this concept, which is a concept from naturopathic medicine and that we're interconnected beings. We're, we're, you know, it's not that our, you know, our digestion is separate than our, our, our hormones or our brain, right? It's like the mind and body are not separate and any part within the body is not separate. It's all communicating with each other within. We can't think of us as separate parts and pieces, even though we, in standard medicine we might go to different specialists and it makes us think our bodies split up into different parts that need different attention. But what you're talking about is, no, it's completely interconnected. And if we don't honor that, we're missing out.

Yes, absolutely, absolutely. I love saying that we don't end at the barriers of our skin because it's so important to understand how interconnected we are as, as family units, as community members, but also with this universal flow of energy. There is this flow of energy coming from our sun that goes through every plant, animal and human being on this planet. And so much of modern life has disconnected us from this flow of energy. And I always say the more that we can be embedded in this energy, the healthier we will be. And when you look at modern life, it's done an incredible job of setting up obstacle after obstacle, right? We live in these houses with artificial lighting, we eat artificial food. We sit and look at an artificial screen for our social interactions now, right? All of these things dividing us from what it means to be human, what it means to be in connection with each other, with the trees outside of our houses, with just this flow of, of light and electricity and magnetism that's all around us at all times. But when we don't see it, we often don't understand how primary it is in guiding our health and longevity and just well being, our sense of, of peace, of contentment, of safety, right? So many of us are lacking that sense of safety or belonging and this really speak, that interconnection as a way to build that sense of safety and community.

It's so beautiful, like really like remembering that we're, yeah, we're interconnected within Ourselves, and we're interconnected with each other and our environment. And so then we. We are not so lonely because we weren't separate anyway. It was all an illusion, you know, that. That we can kind of go, oh, wow, let me embrace this connectivity. Because that's really going to help us. Us, as you're saying, not only prevent health issues, but improve our longevity too. Because what you're talking about is things that have the potential to help our cells be healthier for longer.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that understanding too, that our nervous system is so foundational to any kind of repair. I mean, you and I know that ourselves can't repair if they don't have that sense of safety, right? There are cellular signals of safety, and they're also cellular signals of danger. And again, our modern life is great at sending those signals of danger. Whether we're talking about toxicity in our air and water, whether we're talking about processed food, whether we're talking about toxic social interactions turning on the news, right? All of these things send these massive signals of danger. And I think we can wrap our heads around those. But oftentimes we don't think that not being connected with nature is also a massive signal of danger. Not being connected with the rising and setting of the sun. When people come in to see me as a patient, they get this prescriptive list that's like, okay, you know, I gotta go out at this time, I gotta go out this time. And I sort of cackle as they leave the office because I know that that list is really an invitation for them to return to safety. That sun is gonna rise each morning. It doesn't matter what you did yesterday, it will unconditionally shine regardless. And forging and cultivating a relationship with nature, with the rising and setting of the sun, with the ground beneath our feet, it holds us in this beautiful embrace that oftentimes our human relationships, while wonderful, they have friction, right? And with nature, there is this beautiful unconditional invitation to feel whole, to feel safe. And I think that's something that we often don't think about when we are talking about health and longevity.

Having optimal cortisol and adrenaline levels is essential for health and longevity. And yet the stress in the present and in the past can affect our cortisol and adrenaline levels, causing them to be too high or too low. The thing is that we're not all affected by stress in the same way. So over the past two decades, I've been researching and discovering how to help my patients recover from stress and I've identified the five stress types, types which are the five common patterns of disruption in cortisol and adrenaline levels.

The reason why this is so important.

Is because the treatment is different. When cortisol is too high, we use different herbs, nutrients and other modalities to bring levels back to optimal than if the levels are too low. So that's why I, through research, developed the stress type quiz, which is, allows you in under two minutes to discover what likely your cortisol and adrenaline levels are. So then you can make decisions about which herbs, nutrients and other healing activities to choose to help optimize your cortisol adrenaline again and improve your health now and into the future. Just go to stresstypequiz.com where you can take the quiz and take it from there.

And I can see where it can be used with trauma recovery because we know with trauma recovery it's about creating a sense of safety and we can, we usually think of that as like, okay, wear a seat belt, lock your door, you know, these kind of things. But it's like actually safety can, like you're saying, can be created by connecting with nature and, and, and, and even just exposing yourself to the natural circadian rhythm than the, and even eating at regular intervals. Right. This all helps your body know that it has what it needs. When our body knows it has what it needs, it's gonna be, the nervous system is going to feel safe and it's going to be able to function, function better and help us feel better. I'm wondering, I love these concepts that when you talk about, for example, how our breath relates, like so how the breath activates the movement of the energy and in our body and our cells. Maybe share about that research as well.

Absolutely. I think it's so fascinating to understand some of the electrical capacity of the tissue in our body. Right. So we have fascia, this web of connective tissue that connects to every single structure in the body. And this fascia is mostly connective tissue, which is mostly collagen. And when you look at collagen, you see that it'. Semiconductive. It can hold an electrical charge and it can transmit it. And it's also. Our fascia is also piezoelectric. So when it's exposed to pressure, pressure waves from movement, from massage, from sound, from a deep breath. Right. When we inhale, that expansion of our lungs, that compression of the diaphragm, that movement increases the pressure and creates this electrical charge through that fascial network. It has the potential to increase that electrical charge in the body. Which is absolutely fascinating when we look at these piezoelectric tissues in the body, like our fascia. But there's other ones as well, like our, our heart has piezoelectric tissue, tissue that when compressed, when exposed to pressure, creates that vital electricity that's so important to our health and longevity. Just by taking a deep breath, we expand those lungs and compress the diaphragm. We create more pressure in the system that has the potential to ignite this electrical charge through our fascia, creating this wave of vital electrical charge energy and information. It's absolutely incredible to think about the body in that way way is.

So breathing is not just about breathing in oxygen, it's about moving the energy too.

Yeah, absolutely. Not to mention that we also are pulling in that oxygen. It's very rich in electrons. It feeds right into that electron transport chain in the mitochondria that creates cellular energy. I mean, there's so many incredible things happening with breath. When we breathe in through our nose, we have nasal turbines that help the vortexing of that air and the air, we don't think about it, but it has moisture in it. So when we breathe in through our nose, this vortexing of moist air or moisture in the air, even if it doesn't feel moist to us, it helps build that water in the body. It's a way to stay hydrated. It's a way to build this, this water battery that we talked about, because we talked about the organization of this organized water and how it acts as a antenna, but we didn't talk about how it's negatively charged. And as one sheet of this easy liquid crystal water forms against the cell membrane, it acts as a template for more sheets to form. And as it does that, it pushes out a positively charged hydrogen, creating a zone of water that's positive. And so you have this negatively charged water right against the cell and this positively charged water right outside of it. And that separation of charge, it's like the separation of charge in a 9 volt battery. It creates this water battery within. And just breathing can vortex that moisture in the air and help build that hydration in the body. So so many things, things a deep breath can do.

Amazing. And we, I mean we breathe all the time, but the difference is like breathing with intention and maybe breathing in a deeper. Like what do you, when you're helping people to start to understand how they can use breath, where do you suggest they start? Like, you know, do they start with just taking a nice deep breath or where do you suggest how, what can people Try already to get that. That energy activating in their cells.

Yes. I love looking at the practice of resonant breath. And so resonant breath really focuses on six breaths a minute. And when we're talking about. I mean, basically when we're talking about anything, we don't want to be too strict. Right. Our nervous system doesn't need that. So we're talking around six breaths a minute. We don't need to time it, but we're talking about inhaling in for four, holding for one, exhaling for four. I love to inhale for four and exhale for six. Kind of calming the nervous system. But that six breaths a minute in whatever rate is comfortable for you, that aligns our rhythm in many different ways. That breath pattern has a frequency of. Of 0.1 Hz. That aligns with the spiraling flow of blood through our circulation, that Myers flow.

Wow.

Now, that also aligns with our heart rate variability and our heart coherence. Again, all of these 0.1 Hz, which also aligns with this geomagnetic field of the Earth. Earth, that 0.1 hertz. So falling into that rhythm, that frequency of breath allows us to align with all these other frequencies. And I think it's such a beautiful reminder again, of that interconnection that we share. It's absolutely incredible.

I've been practicing this breath that you've just mentioned, the four hold for one or two, exhale for six out of my mouth. And. And I've been practicing that over the past couple months, and it really has been amazing. And isn't it something that even if you just. Even if you just do that for a minute or two, it's not like you have to be doing this for hours. Right. You just do even a little bit, and it starts to shift things and really starts to shift the nervous system, and it starts to retrain and rewire things inside your body that sometimes you can't even exactly put your finger on it, except that as time goes by, you go, wow, something feels good. Different.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And how profound is that? That it doesn't require hours at a gym or a special retreat or special equipment. We have everything we need. We just need to remind ourselves and get into that practice. And like you said, a minute can be profound. When we're talking about breath work, breath rate, be mindful of our breath. And this is something that we all have access to, too.

It's amazing. And I wanted to also touch on. You mentioned fascia, but I would love to also talk about lymph because we're so used to thinking about our, our, you know, our blood flow. But a lot of times people don't hear about the lymph until it becomes an issue. And, and how what all these things you've been talking about help our lymph to move and why the lymph is so important and how movement helps with all of this too. Just movement in the body.

Yes, yes, absolutely. Well, our lymphatic system is that body wide network that takes away some of these obstacles we were talking about, right? Toxins, cells that need to be removed, damaged, dead, dysfunctional cells. It is really that beautiful system of elimination that we have throughout the body and then it goes right down into the liver so we can detoxify all of that stuff. But our lymphatic system doesn't have its own pump. And what we've talked about for decades and decades is our lymphatic system needs movement for it to move. Right. We can do manual movement in different areas that are rich in lymphatic nodes, like our clavicle, our neck, our axillary, our GI tract, our inguinal creases behind the knees. Those six areas are very rich in lymph nodes. So we can just gently rub them or tap them to get that motion going. Movement like walking, dancing, rebounding, or bouncing, all of those things are wonderful for the lymphatic system. But from a quantum biological perspective, there are many other things that we can do as well. Because we talked about this building of that liquid crystal water. So as one sheet forms, we build more and more sheets. That happens in exposure to infrared energy. The biggest source of infrared energy on this planet is our sun. Warm bath, sauna, movement to get the body warm, all of that snuggling, all of those things increase infrared energy and have the potential, potential to build that water within us, that liquid crystal water within us. As it builds, it's pushing out everything that's bigger than a proton, which is really small. Right. So it's really acting as this scaffolding that pushes out anything, including these toxins that we want to push into our lymphatic system. So just by tending to that water in the body, we have this, this incredible potential way to pull things out of our internal extracellular matrix and push them into the lymphatic system. Not only that, but it creates that water battery to help with the propulsion of the lymphatic system so that it gets back to the liver, it gets where it needs to be so it can be excreted and we can have. Have bodies that are working without these tremendous obstacles of toxins in the body. You know, I was just looking at lymphatic research, and there's incredible research out there showing that electricity, electrical fields also influence our lymphatic function and drainage. They were looking at people with lymphedema. So you have this kind of extreme swelling of. Of the legs or the arm arms, different compartments in the body, because the lymphatic system there can't drain. And these people were exposed to a frequency of electrical current very low, and that allowed for their circulation to increase and their lymphatic drainage to dramatically increase. We saw that they took lymphatic cells and put them in a petri dish and applied electrical current to it. And these cel cells started communicating, creating the backdrop for new lymphatic vessels. So we see again, water, electricity, infrared, energy, and light, all of these things playing foundational roles in something. We would never associate with these things. Right. And that's really what a quantum biology approach does, is expands our understanding so that we have more tools in our toolkit to use for. For health and longevity.

It's so beautiful as, like, I'm just thinking how, like, with the name of this podcast, How Humans Heal, I'm like, you're describing, like, these are some of the essentials of how humans heal and how humans thrive and ways we can integrate that. I know in your book, you talk about seven steps for people to start going in this direction. Maybe you can just share a little bit about that. And. And then, of course, to learn more, everyone's going to want to get your book so they can, like, start doing all of this. Like, this is essential beginning. Like, in some ways, it's like, don't do anything else until you do this. Because this is so foundational.

It really is foundational. And I try to really pack the book with knowledge, with science, but then really boil it down to these seven steps. So there's seven chapters in the book, and each chapter ends with a practice, practical, how do I apply this to my life? Kind of list. And so we start with water. That was the first chapter. And then I move on to this electrical perspective and capacity of the body. Then I move on to light. Then I move on to how our body has this intimate relationship with nature and what that does to our health and longevity. And then I move on to sound and cultivating this coherence in the body. Coherence is really the conductor of energy in the body. Right. If you Think of all the different cells and tissues and organs in the body as players in a orchestra, different instruments. Coherence is that conductor that's guiding that beautiful song of life. We need that coherence for our body to work seamlessly. And when it starts to break down, it's like different parts of the orchestra start playing different songs and it becomes very chaotic and simple things become very difficult in the body. Right. So I have a chapter on cultivating coherence and then I have a chapter that dives into the microbiome and the immune system from a quantum biology perspective. That's the seventh step is how do we approach, approach those things using light, using electricity and sound and these different things that are really pillars in a quantum biology approach. And that's what the book is about. And I hope it, it reaches the people that need it and we can start really getting healthy, all of us together.

Absolutely. And you know, I specialize in women's health and especially I do a lot of work with helping women who are finding out that they have abnormal Pap smear and maybe testing positive for high risk hpv, which is a virus. So now we have a, we need the immune system, but we. What I'm really seeing in the research and I'm teaching women is so much of protecting themselves from high risk HPV virus has to do with the microbiome. And how do we, how do we not only restore our microbiome in our gut, but also vaginally, but also, also how do we maintain it while going through our day to day lives? And so I'm curious, you know, like, if you have any, any, any insight into that specific instance of helping to protect from an infection, for example. And also, yeah, your insights related to the microbiome and how, you know, who would have thought these, the microbiome is also responding to all this electrical energy, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Because we do we think of mostly food when we're talking about the microbiome. Right. The gut microbiome has been extensively researched and food absolutely does play a role. But there's something else happening. There is this exchange of energy happening between the microbiome, between the mitochondria in the cells that line the GI tract and then throughout the body. It's really incredible to kind of explore this. And you know, I think that just this understanding that light impacts the microbiome is something that we never learned in school. And a lot of people aren't talking about as playing a role in microbial health or microbiome health, but it Absolutely does this red and infrared light, it can penetrate all the way down to the GI tract and it has a primary role in how healthy our microbiome is. And, and just getting outside, the exciting thing is infrared energy can penetrate through our clothes. So doesn't mean this go outside and sunbathe. We could talk about that relationship as well, because there is one. But just to make it really simple, red and infrared light have a guiding influence on health in the microbiome and how health of the cells that are lining the gastrointestinal tract, intestinal permeability, immune dysregulation after that. Right. So just that one piece of what we're talking about has a huge role and there are many others. When we're looking at how energy influences the microbiome. Light, sound, emf, electrical fields, all of these things play a role. But you know, if I had to narrow it down to one, just understanding, because we've talked about how red and infrared light are so important and how they can penetrate down into that area and have a real foundational role in the health of our microbiome and our gut health. It's incredible.

It really is. And of course they're communicating to our immune system and so is like, hey, we, we, we want the mito microbiome and to be happy and healthy because it's only going to help us be healthy. And so even if we just think about it that way, right? How, what can I. And you're right, we've been so trained to think of, oh, I'm going to eat more fermented foods, but that doesn't always work out right, because we can overdo it. Whereas with this, it's like, hey, we're probably not going to overdo it. We're to going, going to, we're going to just get just the right amount to support our microbiome, which is only going to help our immune system and the rest of our health. We know those m, the microbiomes communicating everywhere.

Yeah, yeah. It comes back to that interconnection again, right. It's all connected and, and so beautifully, brilliantly so. It's so exciting to have this expansion in our understanding.

Thank you so much for helping all of us to understand that because the research, some of this research has been there and just we needed someone to go in and translate it and help us to know what we can do with it. And, and, and even now there's more and more research coming out all the time. What, what is that what you're seeing that just more and more and more information on this level?

Yeah, absolutely. More and more emerging research and more opportunity. I mean, that's why a couple years ago I founded the Quantum Biology Health Institute. We can start participating and kind of pushing the research where we want to see it. We just finished a research study with UC San Diego and Dr. Hemel Patel on mitochondrial function and heart coherence practice. So we had participants all over the world doing a 42 day heart coherence practice. It was five minutes. It wasn't, you know, meditating for, for hours wasn't this huge commitment. It was five minutes. And what we're seeing is significant and oftentimes dramatic increase in mitochondrial function just by our state of heart coherence, our state of being heart centered, that six breaths a minute that we were talking about. And so these things are exciting that the research is starting to, to promote this, I mean, just that research study. Think if we had a more heart centered approach in medicine, in our society, in our global politics. Right. I mean we're talking about. Yeah, something that could really, really shift our lives of, of everyone living here on this planet now. And so I'm excited that the research is emerging. I'm also really excited, excited to participate in it. And so I'm very hopeful about our future.

Thank you so much for what you're doing, Catherine. And you're sharing, I know we'll, we'll put links to where people can learn more from you, including on YouTube, Instagram and, and, and about your book Optimize, of course. And this is absolutely something I recommend everyone continue thinking about learning about trying out because they're doing. There's simple strategies you can implement little by little and it can actually make a difference in such profound ways. Is there anything else you'd like to share, Catherine? I know there's so many things you have to, to tell us about, but is there anything that you feel like you'd want to make sure everyone knows before we wrap up?

I'm just, first of all, thank you for having me on. Thank you for doing what you do. And I'm excited to, to, to be able to be leading the charge with you in this area of health. And I'm just excited for people. You know, if I had one thing that I would want them to take away from the book and there's so much in there, but if there's one thing people could take away for me, I'd be really excited if they took away a tool for increasing that sense of safety or increasing that sense of belonging or Increasing that heart center centered approach because I really think that is going to be sort of the trajectory that we desperately need to start taking. And, and I think so many people are craving that right now. So that's one of my hopes with the book and, and for the future. So thank you for talking with me today.

Of course, of course. And of course it's like, I always like to emphasize it is not one size fits all. Like, there's these so many strategies available. You can really find what works for you and your routine. Right. Like, is it something you do when you first wake up or is it, is it something you do an hour later or is it something you do for 15 minutes in the morning and then 15 minutes in the afternoon? And there's so many different things you can choose from. So it's, it's like just helping people to go, hey, try these things out and see what feels best to you and your body, body and your routine and then make it part of your daily routine. Right? Get this to be where it becomes so usual. You're not even having to remember or think about it. It's just automatic. Like brushing your teeth.

Yeah, absolutely. And then incorporate that in whatever your day is. Like, you know, I was teaching a course a few weeks ago and I said, how about every time you do the dishes you do this, right? Or like you said, every time you brush your teeth, you do, you implement this, this mantra, this thought process. Or you know, we can add things in, in a way that's not a dramatic change. I mean, that's what I was excited about with this research study in mitochondrial function. It's five minutes a day. I mean, this is something people can do driving, they can do while doing the dishes. I mean, there's so many ways we can add these very simple steps in, in that remind us why we're here, you know, what our place is as humans and what it means to be healthy as a piece of the whole individual, but, but a piece of it. All that interconnection as well. So. Absolutely.

And I hear you really like honoring the human body, honoring nature. You know, it's a whole different way of kind of experiencing, experiencing this human experience is to say, hey, I'm in this human body. This is what my, how my human body functions and what my human body needs besides water and, and food, we need these other exposures. And, and so when we start to look at it that way, we go, of course I'm going to want to give my body what it needs. And if we're with just like, if we don't give our body body food and water, it's going to have a negative impact. So it's like, okay, let's look at all the things our bodies need and find ways to provide it. And in doing so, that becomes our beautiful life experience because now we get to interact with each other, interact with nature and, and actually that's where the, the joy of living and having a humane experience comes in.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think so many of us are craving that, right? I think a few years ago, looking at the increase in AI and the increase in like this disconnection where we're on our screens all the time and this push to be productive, I think so many of us are just craving that. It's actually having this backlash effect where now, now we want something real. We want to really connect with a real thing. And, and of course it would, because that's what it means to be human. And taking the smallest step back into culting those, cultivating those relationships can just have this immense impact on our, our sense of wellness, our sense of joy, sense of love, passion, all of those things in the body, just taking that return back to some of these relationships we've walked away from.

Amazing. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much again, Catherine, for coming to join us here and share about your research and your book, the Optimized Book. And I'm so excited for this to be available to everyone so they can benefit from all of this information and, and thanks again for joining me again here at How Humans Heal. Thank you everyone who's been listening in. I'll have links down below so you can connect. Connect with Catherine. Dr. Catherine Clinton. So amazing to have you. And if anyone has not already subscribed to How Humans Heal, I welcome you to join me for the next episode and I'll look forward to connecting with all of you very soon.

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