The Link Between Sunlight And Mitochondrial Health
Today’s Topic Highlights:
Mitochondria are tiny structures within cells that produce about 90% of the energy cells need in order to function.
Mitochondria are also light sensing organelles designed to pick up full spectrum sunlight.
Sunlight promotes mitochondrial function, thus helping to counteract various forms of age related decline.
Mitochondrial function affects signaling pathways that regulate life span and influence the aging process.
Healthy bodies require healthy mitochondria, and healthy mitochondria require natural sunlight.
Sunlight enables and supports nearly all life on Earth. While it obviously provides us with well known benefits like vitamin D synthesis, it also provides less obvious benefits like improved mitochondrial function. This is yet another good reason to get outdoors more often during the day and decrease time spent under artificial light.
Mitochondria are tiny structures within cells that produce about 90% of the energy cells need in order to function.1 This energy is created and stored in the form of a chemical known as ATP. In the same way that modern life is powered by electricity, biochemical reactions in the human body are powered by ATP.
Importantly, mitochondria are also light sensing organelles. They are designed to pick up full spectrum sunlight. As a recent study published in Scientific Reports explains, sunlight helps to “promote mitochondrial function… counteracting the decline with age and disease.”2
Mitochondrial health and sunlight exposure go hand in hand. Mitochondrial function affects signaling pathways that regulate life span and influence the aging process.3 They also operate under circadian control. Circadian rhythms are the day/night cycles that our bodies are biologically synchronized to. If you constantly disrupt them at night through artificial indoor light exposure, they are simply not going to function as well as they should during the daytime.
Because they naturally absorb the full breadth of the light spectrum, our constant exposure to artificial indoor blue light can lead to daily mitochondrial damage. This means that at a minimum you are leaving potential health benefits on the table, while at a maximum unnecessarily speeding up the aging process.
The bottom line is this — we need daily sunlight exposure for mitochondrial health, and we need healthy mitochondria for whole body health over the long haul. Natural sunlight is the most powerful external circadian cue. If you abuse that natural system through indoor modern living then second or third order consequences can occur.
Below are some simple strategies you can employ to healthfully increase your sunlight exposure for improved mitochondrial function.