Let the light shine on your heart! Invite the light into your heart!
Our heart is not only a symbol of our emotions, but also plays a central physiological role in our bodies. Together with blood vessels, it supplies all the body’s cells with nutrients and oxygen, while removing waste products and other unwanted substances. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to keep our blood vessels and heart in the best possible shape. There’s a lot you can do through lifestyle choices to optimize your heart and vascular health. Much of it you may already be familiar with, but a newcomer in the field of health is light therapy with red and near-infrared light (NIR).
Important Health Parameters
There are many markers that are essential to monitor for heart health. Blood pressure, measured with a blood pressure cuff, and cholesterol levels, assessed through blood tests, are two such markers. These can have a significant impact on our heart and vascular health over time. Lifestyle, genetics, and even where you live on Earth can also influence these values. In addition to genetics, there is much you can do through lifestyle, and it doesn’t have to be overly difficult. Read on for some simple tips that are easy to put into practice.
Heart-Healthy Lifestyle
As usual, a heart-healthy lifestyle involves the right amount of exercise, stress minimization, and adequate sleep. Diet also plays a vital role in caring for your heart. Contrary to what many may believe, there are actually effective dietary strategies that don’t require much effort to implement. It’s important that the changes you commit to making are permanent and not overly challenging to maintain. They should even contribute to your enjoyment and quality of life so that you benefit on all fronts.
Food for the Heart
Foods like fresh garlic and foods containing sterols can positively affect cholesterol levels. Garlic works great in dressings and dips, while sterols can be found in foods like cabbage, brown rice, buckwheat, and pistachios. This doesn’t mean you have to subsist on buckwheat porridge and broccoli, but it’s a good idea to incorporate these foods into your diet. If that seems unreasonable to sustain in the long run, you can simplify it further: when you cook rice at home, choose brown rice! If you want to snack on chips, replace them with pistachios! Fiber is also beneficial for these values, and the most effective fibers are the soft, soluble ones.
These fibers are found in chia seeds, psyllium, and flaxseeds. Oats, many fruits, and grains also contain some of this substance. Soluble fibers are recognized by their ability to form a gel in water, which some describe as giving a “slimy” consistency. A delicious and nutritious way to get these fibers is through chia pudding, combining pleasure and benefit! Blood pressure can also be affected by your diet. It has been observed that insufficient intake of minerals like calcium, potassium, and magnesium can raise blood pressure. The solution is to eat more vegetables and fruits, preferably in their fresh form. Celery, fresh garlic, and an adequate amount of omega-3 can also be beneficial. A sufficient intake of vitamin D is also an interesting factor for blood pressure.
Light for the Heart
It has been known for a long time that there are geographical differences when it comes to risk factors like blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The closer you live to the equator, the lower the risk of having poor values and diseases. As people get closer to the equator, they are exposed to more light on average, and daylight correlates with the vitamin D level in the blood. Modern research has shown that vitamin D is probably not behind this effect; instead, it’s the light itself. Vitamin D is likely primarily a marker that you’ve been exposed to a lot of sunlight, which is why it’s easy to misunderstand the relationships. Moreover, researchers have observed a connection between sunlight not only in terms of cholesterol and blood pressure but also regarding the risk of premature death due to heart disease. That’s why light has become so interesting.
In our cells, there are systems activated by light. When these systems are activated, they lead to a range of positive effects on our bodies. Many anti-inflammatory and healing processes are activated, which is why it’s good to expose yourself to a certain amount of light, preferably daily. One problem with sunlight is that it’s not entirely positive. Too much light can damage our cells and increase the risk of, among other things, skin cancer, even though it seems that the sun reduces mortality from this disease. Moreover, UV light doesn’t penetrate very deeply into our bodies, which means it can’t have much effect on deep tissues.
Red and Near-Infrared Light Is the Best!
Certain wavelengths penetrate deeper than others, and this is where visible red light and near-infrared light have the best penetrating effects. Red light can reach a few centimeters into the body, while near-infrared light can penetrate as far as 15 cm into soft tissues. Moreover, this type of light carries so little energy that it doesn’t harm the body’s cells. This means you can avoid the negative effects of sun exposure while maximizing the positive effects.
The best way to reap the benefits of this light is through a method known as Red Light Therapy (RLT). RLT comes in various forms, from handheld lamps for specific area treatment to lamps that illuminate a larger part of the body. Much research shows that RLT treatment has positive effects on both blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as on actual heart and vascular health. It also seems to protect against arrhythmias and atrial fibrillation. It’s probably enough to spend 0-15 minutes a day with a sufficiently powerful panel for these fine effects to be optimized, and it’s becoming increasingly popular to use this side-effect-free and effective therapy. The effect primarily depends on how much of the body is exposed (the larger, the better), how long you take the treatment, and the power of the lamps (about 1500 watts is a good benchmark).
References:
Low-Level Laser Irradiation Precondition for Cardiac Regenerative Therapy – PubMed (nih.gov)
Author: Martin Brunnberg
