Kwik Brain Episode 104: How to Light Up Your Brain with Wes Pfiffner

Welcome back, Kwik Brain. So here's your question of the day. How do you light up your brain? We all want that. We don't wanna be on the dim mode, right? We wanna be able to light up our brain so we could shine brightly. And it's interesting, the word bright is often associated with intelligence and genius, and it's a word reflecting light. And that's the conversation we're gonna have today. We're gonna talk about the benefits and some of the drawbacks of different qualities of light towards your cognition, towards your focus, towards your memory, towards actually accelerating your learning. And that's what this segment is all about. Session really is all about. I'm excited to have a friend here. His name is Wes Pfeiffner, and he's from Joovv. And Joovv, some of you have been hearing about this. It's really spreading in the biohacking community with our friends Ben Greenfield and Dave Asprey. They're talking about red light therapy and near-infrared. And so we're gonna talk about the power light has over our mind to be able to enhance and improve the different things that we need to do every single day to be And Joovv is an innovator in light therapy. So we're going to talk about light therapy. Thanks for being on the show, buddy.

Yeah, yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. It's awesome to be here. You mentioned some of those names and they're known for light therapy with muscle recovery and joint pain, etc. And now I'm excited because there's so many benefits to cognitive that I'm excited that we have a chance to get into that.

Yeah, I think a lot of people, they're used to seeing some some of these panels, some of your panels also in different spas and dermatologists because they know the benefits of light therapy for their skin, producing collagen, helping with wrinkles, has a slimming effect. And with, as you said, muscle recovery, a lot of UFC fighters, a lot of NFL players use this to bounce back and bounce forward. What I wanted to talk about were the benefits on our cognition, on our brain function.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause that's what our fans, our followers, they really geek out over. So first of all, what is light therapy?

So light therapy really, you know, photobiomodulation is the technical term.

Photobiomodulation.

Photobiomodulation, you got it.

Is that like PBM?

Yep, yep, exactly, PBM. And it's essentially, you know, and now it's more people refer to as light therapy. It's the use of natural red and near-infrared light wavelengths that really boost your mitochondria. So you're using it like a light source from Traditionally, it was like a laser, handheld laser, but now they're seeing that you really can use LEDs because one, they're safer and you can get just as much benefit and treat a broader area. So now it's the use of LED diodes, yeah.

That's amazing. So when we're talking about, now, a lot of people know that I am a fan of superheroes and my superhero origin story, if you will, Superman, he gets his actual power from the sun.

100%, and it's kind of funny that us as humans, we're no different. And you, you say sun, and most folks listening, they're like, how does, how does light do that? But, but when, you know, we think of— most people think of light as it's something that helps us see better, but in reality, you know, there's also solar panels on a roof, and what are they doing up there? They're capturing energy. And us as humans, we're no different, as we literally absorb that light and use it as energy, you know, as fuel for our bodies.

We've had a number of sleep experts on our show, Dr. Michael Breus, Shawn Stevenson, who authored Sleep Smarter, and they're always talking about the benefits of getting out in the sun, like first thing in the morning, to help regulate your sleep. How do you feel? Why is that so?

It's for your circadian rhythm. I mean, that's one of the base things. And our circadian rhythm, it lets our body know, one, of our— when we need to eat, when we need to sleep. It's really regulating the body of what time of day it is. And that's why that's so important in the morning of going out and seeing, you know, that sun before you're getting on your computer, your laptop. It's important to expose yourself and get your circadian rhythm off to what's naturally going on with our environment. And there's too much where our devices help us, but yet it kind of takes us away from some of the key aspects of just simple things of just getting some morning sun, you know, right in the morning, which we all can do.

You know, we were talking, we were geeking out before we started to film right now. A lot of people, they're sedentary, not only sedentary behind desks not moving, but they're also, they're not getting outside. I mean, what percentage of people are spending time indoors?

It's staggering. 93% of Americans' time, lifetime, is being spent indoors, 87% in an office or home, and then 6% in the car. And not only are we inside, we're exposing ourselves to negative light versus good light of our blue light we were talking about, your TV screens, your computers, your laptops, that actually has a negative effect on our circadian rhythm when it's early in the morning or late at night because it suppresses production of melatonin. As you know, melatonin is the hormone that induces sleep, and if that starts to get messed up, we're just not gonna get into that deep sleep that we need.

Hmm.

So there's a trickle-down effect there of one, we're not getting the benefits of sunlight, of UV, etc., and then we're exposing ourselves to too much negative What about, like, we're indoors right now and it's a little bit hazy outside, but there's light that comes in through the glass.

Does the glass prevent certain frequencies?

Yeah, it does. You really need to get out and get actual skin-to-light contact because most windows are gonna block UVA, UVB, etc., from, you know, like, just like you're riding in the car, you're just not gonna get that good exposure. It'll feel good, you're just not— your body's not being able to absorb much because it's being blocked.

And when you're saying getting out in the sun first thing in the morning, it's interesting, you know, because it's— they have this process of sungazing, right? We were talking about that. And when the sun first comes up, it's like, it's red. And then when it goes down, you have the same kind of red light also as well. What's so healing about red light?

So, I mean, red light and red and near-infrared, you put them both in there, is what's, you know, we won't go too deep, but what's happening on a biological level is it's literally activating mitochondria to produce more ATP in the body. So it's giving your body more, more energy, similar to how you would fuel a car and similar to how we, our bodies digest macronutrients from food. We digest light in similar ways. And when you combine it with the right intensity and the right wavelength, you get unbelievable benefits on the body such as joint pain relief, skin health, like you mentioned, collagen production. fading of scars, thyroid enhancement, for men testosterone, like cognitive is one of the huge ones that not a lot of folks are talking about, which is there's some great research just 2 years ago that's been done.

Wow.

So it's just, it almost sounds like an infomercial that I'm sitting here just going, you know, name after name after name, but when you look at these studies, which is there's thousands of clinical studies, you can go on PubMed and check them out or It's just, it's incredible the impact light has on the body and how much us as Americans disregard it.

Right. I mean, we have like, what, 100 trillion cells, and they all, they're charged by energy, right? So we have all these batteries that we need to get charged. And so it's no wonder if you give your body what it needs and has the energy, it could do the things that it needs to do to be able to recover. And, and so let's talk about some of these cognitive benefits. The research that I was reading And it's, it's, it's, the documents are amazing. We're talking about things like focus, we're talking about things like memory, we're talking about even learning. Can we talk about that?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So as we were saying, like the mitochondria, your brain and near-infrared will actually penetrate through the skull into the brain. So it's gonna activate the brain cells that are in there and stimulate for them to do their job. So one of the studies that was fascinating that we were just talking about earlier is that there was 118 individuals that did a light therapy treatment before they went in to learn like rules and regulations and then how to apply them. And out of the 118, there was a placebo group and then there was a group that was exposed. And the group that was exposed to light therapy treatment before the learning, the results were significantly higher in what they were able to comprehend and then apply versus the placebo group.

That's amazing.

Which is just fascinating. And same thing with reactionary, brain reactionary. Yeah, same exact—

Like reaction time, people are able to—

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same thing, which is super interesting and fascinating. But it makes sense when we go back to that base mechanism of it's activating the mitochondria, it's producing more energy, stimulating the cells to do their job. And it's, you know, it sounds like I'm repeating it, but I mean, that's what's What's happening, it's just amazing that any part, any part the light touches on the body, it benefits.

A lot of our audience, they love, they love the science of it, so we talk about like ATP, right? So what's going on inside the cell?

Yeah, so during the 4th phase of cellular respiration, the red and near-infrared combined with the right intensity is actually breaking the bond between cytochrome c oxidase and nitric oxide. Freeing up oxygen to pair with NADH, which is then in turn creating more ATP. So it's leading your cells from cellular death, which is what normally would happen, and it's releasing more nitric oxide into the bloodstream. That's why a lot of athletes will say they see an increase in blood flow before when they do treatments. So yeah, that's the base mechanism, is it's down to the cellular level. As we know, the mitochondria, it's the powerhouse of the cell.

Yeah.

It's breaking that bond and it's allowing your body to create more ATP.

And you—

and oddly enough, your body actually uses on a regular basis, it uses ATP to create ATP.

Right.

It's insane of how much our body is reliant on that.

Yeah, I mean, we're like this human battery, right? And so we don't, we don't necessarily have energy, we create it all the time. And part of it is from our environment. It's wonderful because it's available if you're out there doing those things. My biggest challenge is A lot of people, they don't get the requisite sunlight that their body and brain needs. And so this device that we were talking about, actually, we have one back here, and this is a Joovv panel.

Yeah, yeah.

This is something I'm excited about because it's the first thing I do in the morning as part of my morning routine is I'll stand in front of it because if it's dull light or it's faded outside, then I don't get that benefit. So I stand in front of it only like 10, 15 minutes first thing in the morning, and I do it at nighttime also. And it helps dramatically with my sleep quality also as well.

Yeah, yeah, and that's what it's all about is getting that into your routine because, you know, me and like other folks out there is we're busy, we're busy during the day. And again, think about that 93% of us, and it's not that we don't want to go outside, it's that we just, we don't have time to go outside and sit in the sun. So when you can expose yourself to a healthy dosage of light like you're saying, it does those profound effects of sleep. And sleep is one of the, I would say, one of the number one feedback I get back from professional athletes because they're on the go so much that when they can incorporate this, they just sleep so much better.

Yeah, we've recommended the Joovv ear device to a lot of our clients that we work with, and we get the same kind of response. And it's just, it's funny because, you know, what you put on your body matters, especially for your your gray matter. And a lot of people are watching and looking at things to make things more convenient, because if it's too difficult, then these people won't do it.

Definitely.

And so let's say people— and now, by the way, we'll put links to all the research at our show notes, jimkwik.com/notes. And if people want more information about this device called the Joovv, you could just go to jimkwik.com/joovv. That's J-O-O-V. Like rejuvenate, if you will. So it's really clever. So for people who are watching and maybe they, they, what are 3 things that they could do knowing the power light has to be able to boost their performance?

Yeah.

What would you recommend?

I would say number one is get out, get out and get sun. See the sunrise if you can, see the sunset if you can, but just get out. Get out 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes. There's tons of apps out there that you can get that are called D-Minder apps where they tell you when vitamin D is the highest. You can go out and get those good beneficial wavelengths versus some of the negative wavelengths that can cause burning on your skin, etc.

D-Minder.

D-Minder app, yeah, yeah. So I have one on my phone.

We'll put links to that in the show notes also as well. That's pretty cool.

Yeah, it is. And then another one would be just be cognizant of how much blue light you're exposing yourself to on a daily basis.

And mostly the big culprit is our screens.

Yeah, our screens, our phones. I mean, walking over here, I saw everybody was just like this on their phone, you know what I mean? And they're outside. So it's just crazy. So just monitor how much blue light and then when you're exposing yourself to that blue light. So at night, something, a big thing you can do is, especially in the bedroom, is just get some red incandescent bulbs in there. Red light at night does not affect your circadian rhythm. So if you're gonna have complete darkness, that would be ideal. But if you're gonna have light on, red light is the next best spectrum of light because it's not going to affect circadian rhythm, it's not gonna affect your sleep.

Okay.

And then the third one I would say is there's tons of screen apps that you can download that actually can take some of the blue light out of your computer screen so you can minimize that. One of them, I believe, is Iris. It's a great one. It's super affordable. I mean, it's less than $15. So those are some good hacks that I would recommend. I mean, get outside first of all, mitigate the blue, and then incorporate red, and then, you know, get some screens that you can protect.

So Iris or Flux, again, we'll put them, links in the show notes as well. Yeah, absolutely. So those are the 3 things we're talking about. Number 1, get out in the sun first thing in the morning, ideally when the sun comes up, because that's how we, as hunter and gatherers, that was like our sleep cycle to make sure our circadian rhythms are on track. Number 2, putting red light actually in the bedroom, which is wonderful, you know, because that has none of the blue light that's gonna be, you know, challenge our brain and our sleep patterns.

Yeah.

And number 3, Eliminate through screens. Either turn your phone off. I mean, I like just sleeping with my phone out of the room in general, but get off those screens. Or if you're gonna use a screen, use something like f.lux, use something like Iris, use one of these blue-mitigating apps.

Yeah, yeah, or the glasses too. Or the glasses too, yeah, either one.

Amazing. And if people want more information, we'll put all the studies and everything in the show notes again, jimkwik.com/notes. And if you'd like more information about this Joovv technology, something I'm so excited about, something I use twice a day, every single day, you can go to jimkwik.com/joovv. That's J-O-O-V-V. Thanks for being here, Wes.

Yeah, absolutely.