I moved to the MIdwest to live and work on an organic farm 13 years ago. I am still going strong at 63 because I effectively spend at least 7-8 months of the year outside. Nothing compares to the strength and connectedness one finds just moving around in the elements every day. I highly recommend everyone get to know their local organic farmer - s/he probably has a volunteer day on the farm where you can pull a few weeds, and often get to take home some kale or carrots for your efforts :)
Fascinating and illuminating article (pun intended!). As in so many areas, one manmade problem leads to the next ten, and on and on it goes, seemingly to infinity.
People have always chided me for reluctance to wear sunglasses, and sunscreen. I now feel justified to the max! My time outdoors is more than most people experience. My exposure is gradual in spring and my skin darkens accordingly. But now I realize the exposure to sunlight that my eyes receive in the winter is extremely beneficial. Hurrah! I am almost 74 and take NO prescription meds. I do take supplements, and see my doctor once a year. I take no vaccinations, and am done with mammograms. I garden extensively and walk behind my mower. Now to look at replacing all my light bulbs with full spectrum ones! Is that possible? I hope so.
even incandescents are a great improvement over LED or regular fluorescents. Inside in winter, a judicious use of "sunlight" incandescent reptile bulbs can add bright white light along with some UV, and near infrared (IFR) incandescent bulbs are are a wonderful red warming presence, akin to firelight or the rising sun. i use IFR red bulbs at night and also in daylight when it's too cold to open the windows - especially if i am on the computer. i am not sure, but i think most full-spectrum bulbs are fluorescents, which have their own emission issues, so i avoid them and just create a pretty fair spectrum with the above.
Even in the case of thoughtful architectural design with abundant windows and careful material selection, we must still acknowledge a difficult reality emphasized by John Ott in both Health and Light and Mal-Illumination: what enters through the windows of a modern home is not truly the same as full-spectrum outdoor sunlight. Nearly every material used to separate the indoors from the outdoors — including conventional window glass and modern glazing systems — selectively filters and alters portions of the natural solar spectrum. And while certain artificial light sources may represent better choices than others, even the best electric lighting cannot reproduce the extraordinary breadth of frequencies, spectral balance, dynamic variation, and relative intensities present in natural sunlight. However beneficial good design may be, true full-spectrum solar exposure remains, fundamentally, an outdoor experience.
yes. for decent light spectrum inside, the greyed-out "energy efficient" ('low-E') windows are much worse than plain old-fashioned glass, and even that filtered out much of the spectrum. but there is an upside to the metal-coated double-paned modern windows. they actually help block RF radiofrequency waves. especially those with metal coatings on all four surfaces. (i still don't like them tho and am considering quartz.)
Excellent point. All the special houses I design, including my own, feature low-E windows. Even quartz doesn't allow passage of the entire light spectrum from IR through visible to UV. Ott experimented with air-curtains. My main point is this: the healthiest spectrum of light can only be found outdoors.
Keith - i am guessing you may primarily be using the low e's for the cold in your more northern area? i am in semi-coastal CA and really do not like these low-e windows. CA has 'title 24' window requirements that seem to have been created for the inland deserts.
they are first of all greyish and do not allow anything close to a natural spectrum within - the light they transmit is a very cold color, plus they impede my view of the outside. secondly, yes they maintain whatever interior temperature the house is, but that is often not beneficial.
in the warmer winter days, the house stays too cold even when it's relatively warm outside. there are only maybe 14 days in summer where that is a benefit. usually in summer, when i open the big sliders in the morning, the cold air rushes out, but the house still stays overly cool.
i loved the old windows in my antique house, which were clear glass and let in the sunlight and warmth. and yes, in cold weather they let out heat and let in cold - but it was worth it! i would sit inside in winter sunlight and it was beautiful.
to me these low-E windows are similar to LED lights - cold,"energy efficient " and rather inhumane.
My only interest in low-E is RF radiation attenuation. Standard windows are the most transparent of all common building materials. If a house is constructed as a Faraday cage, penetrations--like windows, doors, vents, need to be carefully managed.
okay, i understand; makes sense. and that is the only reason i put up with my nearly walls of windows that are greyed-out. probably increasingly important as time goes on.
btw, i wonder if you have noticed the tremendously increased strength of the radar coming out of the newer teslas? reportedly all models 2023 and newer are using 77GHz forward radar, and in the 100 to 150 meters plus forward range. i was recently at a long stoplight with a tesla right in back of me - unbelievably bad exposure.
Yes, features like adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-centering assistance, parking assist, pedestrian detection, traffic sign recognition, occupant monitoring, and hands-free highway driving are marketed around convenience, luxury, accident prevention, reduced driver workload, automation, and “peace of mind”—not around the fact that these systems commonly rely on continuously operating automotive radar technologies functioning in the 24 GHz range in older systems and the 77–81 GHz millimeter-wave bands in modern vehicles. Instead, the public hears phrases like “keeping you safe,” “watching the road for you,” “smart sensing,” “driver confidence,” “intelligent mobility,” and “surround awareness,” while little attention is given to the underlying electromagnetic emissions architecture enabling these features—voluntary exposures for the vehicle owner, and involuntary exposures for the living things around them.
I was acquainted with John Ott's book in the seventies. It was an eye opener for me, just like Arthur Firstenberg’s book.”The Invisible Rainbow”. As a child the family moved from a traditional school system of old beautiful buildings to the “modern” suburbs. Leaving a beloved school for the sterile factory like schools of modernity. Of course fluorescent lights replaced the warm yellow incandescent lights I knew. It took me years to discover why I hated school from that day on. Sterility and fluorescent lights dimmed my appetite to learn. My eyes gravitated to any window for relief. The schools now resemble cells with no “disruptive” access to any natural light. The virtual reality of screens have now replaced any semblance of natural life. Nature has become alien to contemporary life.
Nothing can wreck my sun worshiping, negative ion inhaling day at the beach then seeing (and smelling) the hoards of stupid humans slathering and spraying each other (and those of us within air shot) with carcinogenic sun negating poison. Another IQ test observed failure.
Excellent article! Now I know why John Ott’s assistant who retired to Peoria Arizona was champion for vitamin D lights replace all the white fluorescent lights in schools and nobody would buy! A similar study in Mississippi designed by doctor Leslie Matthews provided a nutritional program that included vitamin D supplementation and allowed the school children to become excellent students. They are now promoting red light therapy as a cure for many skin conditions and etc.. Is this correct or is this just a fad. On a personal note I have followed the sun year round and golf regularly. Then Covid came along, and we all started staying indoors and I have developed neuropathy and no longer golf on a regular basis.. so starting today I will be in the sun regularly and I never accepted sunscreens all these years and have had no health issues until now.
So reading with glasses on outside does not help much either. The glasses have to come off. And sitting before a window on a sunny winter day does not help either. That is a disappointment. Even walking the dog with my glasses on is not enough. Probably even lenses keep out the necessary light.
What about a large proportion of elders who have had cataract surgery implants? It has doomed a large amount of people to no remedy to correct this. The only thing is to expose as much of the body to direct unadulterated sunlight. Of course, it is a great imposition when it is January and a whole month of clouds and brutal temperatures intervene.! Study how indigenous peoples survived.
I walk my dog every day, no matter what weather, but had no idea my glasses interfered. Of course most Indigenous people do not wear glasses, are outside all day, just like our grandparents and greatgrandparents, and have no computers. In the winter I sat on the sunny side but behind a window. Yes, and cataracts... they probably keep all good light out. I am in GA USA, so the problem is more the hot summers!
cataract surgery (with it's UV blocking implantable lens) is a huge issue. apparently there are some cataract replacement lenses made in germany that don't block all the UV, but standard US procedure doesn't use them.
exposure to all bodily skin is crucial, but the skin is not a substitute for natural sunlight exposure to directly into the eyes.
at least those with cataract surgery can consider ditching their sunglasses. i have heard (via neurosurgeon jack kruse) that illuminating the sclera (whites) of the eyes can potentially offset some of the inability to get sunlight directly into one's pupils.
Many spectacles have plastic lenses with a scratch resistant coating, as they are lighter and cheaper than glass. Perhaps these let more beneficial light through.
Oops I just googled it and modern plastic lenses are designed to block UV. Still, some will get in around the sides hopefully. Being outside surely helps:).
Thanks for looking it up. The frame of this one is lots smaller than the former though, which had glass. I also read that it is not necessary to be in full sun, but that the fact the sun is shining is enough - which means one could sit under a tree in partial shade, like I mostly do, and still get the vit. D and the other sunlight benefits.
true. and the sun can be behind the clouds and you still get benefit. especially if you take your glasses off. even being inside with a window open nearby can help with the natural light eye exposure (tho not really skin sun exposure)
yes they do Ingrid. John Ott has a chapter in his 1970s book, "Health and Light" entitled "i break my glasses" and how much not wearing eyeglasses alleviated his debilitating arthritis. it was a big part of why he eventually moved from chicago to florida and replaced the windows in his new FL home with UV-transmitting plastic.
i think this is probably a big health problem for people who wear contact lenses most of the time - they never get full spectrum sunlight into their eyes.
and cataract surgery (with it's UV blocking implantable lens) is another issue. apparently there are some cataract replacement lenses made in germany that don't block all the UV, but standard US procedure is not that.
Sunlight, clean air, clean water are the necessities as important as food. The first three are the only things that food and all else needs to survive and thrive.
Based on what has now been proposed nation wide , getting your daily dose of healing rays may be coming to an end anyway.
Israeli-based geoengineering startup Stardust Solutions has published what amounts to a full industrial blueprint for manufacturing and potentially dispersing up to 10 million metric tons of engineered atmospheric particles per year into the stratosphere for worldwide sunlight reduction.
Stardust was formed in 2023 and is incorporated in the United States.
israeli but based in US - sounds familiar. and such a cute name "stardust" - so harmless sounding - but this basic thing (geoengineering aka chemtrails) has been going on for decades already.
I recall reading a report that a women who worked in a office was diagnosed with MS and decided to quit and followed her dream of breaking horses outdoors. Went to Colorado, changed her life style, worked out doors braking horses in the sun and the MS disappeared. The lower the blood value of Vitamin D the higher the risk of acquiring MS. They will never do a study to validate the statement.
Screw the experts and get some sun. Before the government starts taxing your use of sunshine. Best health comes from sun exposure, not toxic vaccines, drugs and brain dead doctors.
The lights are a HUGE problem. Some people are more obviously sensitive to it than others though. And honestly it is not an entirely manmade problem, SADS is real too. That's why I live where the sun shines most of the year.
I moved to the MIdwest to live and work on an organic farm 13 years ago. I am still going strong at 63 because I effectively spend at least 7-8 months of the year outside. Nothing compares to the strength and connectedness one finds just moving around in the elements every day. I highly recommend everyone get to know their local organic farmer - s/he probably has a volunteer day on the farm where you can pull a few weeds, and often get to take home some kale or carrots for your efforts :)
Fascinating and illuminating article (pun intended!). As in so many areas, one manmade problem leads to the next ten, and on and on it goes, seemingly to infinity.
People have always chided me for reluctance to wear sunglasses, and sunscreen. I now feel justified to the max! My time outdoors is more than most people experience. My exposure is gradual in spring and my skin darkens accordingly. But now I realize the exposure to sunlight that my eyes receive in the winter is extremely beneficial. Hurrah! I am almost 74 and take NO prescription meds. I do take supplements, and see my doctor once a year. I take no vaccinations, and am done with mammograms. I garden extensively and walk behind my mower. Now to look at replacing all my light bulbs with full spectrum ones! Is that possible? I hope so.
even incandescents are a great improvement over LED or regular fluorescents. Inside in winter, a judicious use of "sunlight" incandescent reptile bulbs can add bright white light along with some UV, and near infrared (IFR) incandescent bulbs are are a wonderful red warming presence, akin to firelight or the rising sun. i use IFR red bulbs at night and also in daylight when it's too cold to open the windows - especially if i am on the computer. i am not sure, but i think most full-spectrum bulbs are fluorescents, which have their own emission issues, so i avoid them and just create a pretty fair spectrum with the above.
Even in the case of thoughtful architectural design with abundant windows and careful material selection, we must still acknowledge a difficult reality emphasized by John Ott in both Health and Light and Mal-Illumination: what enters through the windows of a modern home is not truly the same as full-spectrum outdoor sunlight. Nearly every material used to separate the indoors from the outdoors — including conventional window glass and modern glazing systems — selectively filters and alters portions of the natural solar spectrum. And while certain artificial light sources may represent better choices than others, even the best electric lighting cannot reproduce the extraordinary breadth of frequencies, spectral balance, dynamic variation, and relative intensities present in natural sunlight. However beneficial good design may be, true full-spectrum solar exposure remains, fundamentally, an outdoor experience.
yes. for decent light spectrum inside, the greyed-out "energy efficient" ('low-E') windows are much worse than plain old-fashioned glass, and even that filtered out much of the spectrum. but there is an upside to the metal-coated double-paned modern windows. they actually help block RF radiofrequency waves. especially those with metal coatings on all four surfaces. (i still don't like them tho and am considering quartz.)
Excellent point. All the special houses I design, including my own, feature low-E windows. Even quartz doesn't allow passage of the entire light spectrum from IR through visible to UV. Ott experimented with air-curtains. My main point is this: the healthiest spectrum of light can only be found outdoors.
Keith - i am guessing you may primarily be using the low e's for the cold in your more northern area? i am in semi-coastal CA and really do not like these low-e windows. CA has 'title 24' window requirements that seem to have been created for the inland deserts.
they are first of all greyish and do not allow anything close to a natural spectrum within - the light they transmit is a very cold color, plus they impede my view of the outside. secondly, yes they maintain whatever interior temperature the house is, but that is often not beneficial.
in the warmer winter days, the house stays too cold even when it's relatively warm outside. there are only maybe 14 days in summer where that is a benefit. usually in summer, when i open the big sliders in the morning, the cold air rushes out, but the house still stays overly cool.
i loved the old windows in my antique house, which were clear glass and let in the sunlight and warmth. and yes, in cold weather they let out heat and let in cold - but it was worth it! i would sit inside in winter sunlight and it was beautiful.
to me these low-E windows are similar to LED lights - cold,"energy efficient " and rather inhumane.
My only interest in low-E is RF radiation attenuation. Standard windows are the most transparent of all common building materials. If a house is constructed as a Faraday cage, penetrations--like windows, doors, vents, need to be carefully managed.
okay, i understand; makes sense. and that is the only reason i put up with my nearly walls of windows that are greyed-out. probably increasingly important as time goes on.
btw, i wonder if you have noticed the tremendously increased strength of the radar coming out of the newer teslas? reportedly all models 2023 and newer are using 77GHz forward radar, and in the 100 to 150 meters plus forward range. i was recently at a long stoplight with a tesla right in back of me - unbelievably bad exposure.
Yes, features like adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-centering assistance, parking assist, pedestrian detection, traffic sign recognition, occupant monitoring, and hands-free highway driving are marketed around convenience, luxury, accident prevention, reduced driver workload, automation, and “peace of mind”—not around the fact that these systems commonly rely on continuously operating automotive radar technologies functioning in the 24 GHz range in older systems and the 77–81 GHz millimeter-wave bands in modern vehicles. Instead, the public hears phrases like “keeping you safe,” “watching the road for you,” “smart sensing,” “driver confidence,” “intelligent mobility,” and “surround awareness,” while little attention is given to the underlying electromagnetic emissions architecture enabling these features—voluntary exposures for the vehicle owner, and involuntary exposures for the living things around them.
I was acquainted with John Ott's book in the seventies. It was an eye opener for me, just like Arthur Firstenberg’s book.”The Invisible Rainbow”. As a child the family moved from a traditional school system of old beautiful buildings to the “modern” suburbs. Leaving a beloved school for the sterile factory like schools of modernity. Of course fluorescent lights replaced the warm yellow incandescent lights I knew. It took me years to discover why I hated school from that day on. Sterility and fluorescent lights dimmed my appetite to learn. My eyes gravitated to any window for relief. The schools now resemble cells with no “disruptive” access to any natural light. The virtual reality of screens have now replaced any semblance of natural life. Nature has become alien to contemporary life.
Nothing can wreck my sun worshiping, negative ion inhaling day at the beach then seeing (and smelling) the hoards of stupid humans slathering and spraying each other (and those of us within air shot) with carcinogenic sun negating poison. Another IQ test observed failure.
Excellent article! Now I know why John Ott’s assistant who retired to Peoria Arizona was champion for vitamin D lights replace all the white fluorescent lights in schools and nobody would buy! A similar study in Mississippi designed by doctor Leslie Matthews provided a nutritional program that included vitamin D supplementation and allowed the school children to become excellent students. They are now promoting red light therapy as a cure for many skin conditions and etc.. Is this correct or is this just a fad. On a personal note I have followed the sun year round and golf regularly. Then Covid came along, and we all started staying indoors and I have developed neuropathy and no longer golf on a regular basis.. so starting today I will be in the sun regularly and I never accepted sunscreens all these years and have had no health issues until now.
So reading with glasses on outside does not help much either. The glasses have to come off. And sitting before a window on a sunny winter day does not help either. That is a disappointment. Even walking the dog with my glasses on is not enough. Probably even lenses keep out the necessary light.
What about a large proportion of elders who have had cataract surgery implants? It has doomed a large amount of people to no remedy to correct this. The only thing is to expose as much of the body to direct unadulterated sunlight. Of course, it is a great imposition when it is January and a whole month of clouds and brutal temperatures intervene.! Study how indigenous peoples survived.
I walk my dog every day, no matter what weather, but had no idea my glasses interfered. Of course most Indigenous people do not wear glasses, are outside all day, just like our grandparents and greatgrandparents, and have no computers. In the winter I sat on the sunny side but behind a window. Yes, and cataracts... they probably keep all good light out. I am in GA USA, so the problem is more the hot summers!
cataract surgery (with it's UV blocking implantable lens) is a huge issue. apparently there are some cataract replacement lenses made in germany that don't block all the UV, but standard US procedure doesn't use them.
exposure to all bodily skin is crucial, but the skin is not a substitute for natural sunlight exposure to directly into the eyes.
at least those with cataract surgery can consider ditching their sunglasses. i have heard (via neurosurgeon jack kruse) that illuminating the sclera (whites) of the eyes can potentially offset some of the inability to get sunlight directly into one's pupils.
Many spectacles have plastic lenses with a scratch resistant coating, as they are lighter and cheaper than glass. Perhaps these let more beneficial light through.
most have UV block. but it might be possible to find someone willing to make them with UV-transmitting plastic.
Thanks Gecko ! these are the ones I wear.
Oops I just googled it and modern plastic lenses are designed to block UV. Still, some will get in around the sides hopefully. Being outside surely helps:).
Thanks for looking it up. The frame of this one is lots smaller than the former though, which had glass. I also read that it is not necessary to be in full sun, but that the fact the sun is shining is enough - which means one could sit under a tree in partial shade, like I mostly do, and still get the vit. D and the other sunlight benefits.
true. and the sun can be behind the clouds and you still get benefit. especially if you take your glasses off. even being inside with a window open nearby can help with the natural light eye exposure (tho not really skin sun exposure)
yes they do Ingrid. John Ott has a chapter in his 1970s book, "Health and Light" entitled "i break my glasses" and how much not wearing eyeglasses alleviated his debilitating arthritis. it was a big part of why he eventually moved from chicago to florida and replaced the windows in his new FL home with UV-transmitting plastic.
i think this is probably a big health problem for people who wear contact lenses most of the time - they never get full spectrum sunlight into their eyes.
and cataract surgery (with it's UV blocking implantable lens) is another issue. apparently there are some cataract replacement lenses made in germany that don't block all the UV, but standard US procedure is not that.
Since I am living in a wood and never put on my glasses outside my myopy decreased. Sun light heals the eyes.
In the age of the colonial fireplace, I wonder how many benefits were derived from illumination of the fireplace?
Also, this article gets me to think sunlight had a major impact on tuberculosis healing in the Adiroundack sanitariums?
Sunlight, clean air, clean water are the necessities as important as food. The first three are the only things that food and all else needs to survive and thrive.
Based on what has now been proposed nation wide , getting your daily dose of healing rays may be coming to an end anyway.
Israeli-based geoengineering startup Stardust Solutions has published what amounts to a full industrial blueprint for manufacturing and potentially dispersing up to 10 million metric tons of engineered atmospheric particles per year into the stratosphere for worldwide sunlight reduction.
Stardust was formed in 2023 and is incorporated in the United States.
israeli but based in US - sounds familiar. and such a cute name "stardust" - so harmless sounding - but this basic thing (geoengineering aka chemtrails) has been going on for decades already.
But of course.
I recall reading a report that a women who worked in a office was diagnosed with MS and decided to quit and followed her dream of breaking horses outdoors. Went to Colorado, changed her life style, worked out doors braking horses in the sun and the MS disappeared. The lower the blood value of Vitamin D the higher the risk of acquiring MS. They will never do a study to validate the statement.
George Carlin's great bit on worshiping the sun. Seems apropos.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=george+Carlin+sun+worship+bit&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e21ff35c,vid:2iUo1WgIjQ0,st:0
Screw the experts and get some sun. Before the government starts taxing your use of sunshine. Best health comes from sun exposure, not toxic vaccines, drugs and brain dead doctors.
The lights are a HUGE problem. Some people are more obviously sensitive to it than others though. And honestly it is not an entirely manmade problem, SADS is real too. That's why I live where the sun shines most of the year.