Dr. Moore-Ede discovered the master clock in the human brain and spent over two decades on the Harvard Medical School faculty. He has spent 50+ years studying circadian biology and is the author of The Light Doctor. I recently released a podcast episode with him. This post is the companion to the episode: every key idea explained simply, and what to actually do about it.

In This Bonus Takeaways, I Cover:

1. Why the LED bulbs in your home may be fueling cancer

2. Why melatonin is not the sleep hormone you think it is

3. How there is no blue light in nature after sunset, but your bulbs are full of it

4. The one specific blue your body clock runs on, and how LEDs get it wrong!

5. Why the red and infrared your cells need for energy are missing from every LED

6. Why banning the incandescent bulb was a mistake

7. Why avoiding the sun may be shortening your life, not protecting it

8. Why “night owls” are a myth

9. Why living on the wrong side of a time zone raises your risk of cancer

10. Why your kids are going short-sighted, and the light that prevents it

11. Which blue-light glasses actually work (most block the wrong blue)

12. The exact lighting changes to make, morning to night, to align your circadian health and prevent disease risk

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“Breast cancer as an example. A very rare disease, back before Edison invented the light bulb”

“We live in, junk light, essentially. It’s just like junk food.”

Breast and prostate cancer are linked to the LED lighting that constantly flood our homes and office spaces. So are heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

Dr. Martin Moore-Ede has spent his career understanding how different lighting affects us, and in particular how LED lighting harms human health. He discovered the master clock in the human brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the tiny structure that tells every cell in our body whether it’s day or night, and he has studied circadian systems for 50 years. He says LED lighting is the "tobacco of our time, and that we now live in “junk light, just like junk food.”

LED lighting couldn’t be further removed from sunlight, which humans evolved under for millions of years. LEDs are also very different from their previous counterpart, the incandescent bulb, which was much closer in spectrum to sunlight.

The problem worsens when we use LEDs at night, because they suppress melatonin, which is not just a sleep hormone but a powerful antioxidant and repair signal.

Dr. Moore-Ede also argues we have the sun backwards. Fear of skin cancer has driven us indoors at a cost of roughly one hundred other deaths for every one it prevents. Avoiding the sun is worse than getting skin cancer!

I feel strongly about this episode because getting more sunlight and switching my lighting were the cheapest health intervention I have ever made, and have had the biggest impact on my health, sleep, and mood.

“This is time to take lighting into your own hands, and it’s a huge thing you can do for your health.” — Dr. Martin Moore-Ede

What we discuss in this episode:

1. Why breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, and diabetes all track with how much LED light we’re exposed to, especially at night.

2. Why melatonin isn’t the sleep hormone we think it is, and how it hunts down cancer cells while we sleep.

3. Why the people who got the most sun lived the longest, despite getting more skin cancer.

4. Why the type of blue in our LED bulbs is the exact wrong one for our body clock.

5. The red and infrared our mitochondria need for energy, and how LEDs contain none of it.

6. How living on the wrong side of a time zone raises our risk of cancer and heart disease.

7. Why wearing sunglasses on our morning walk defeats the whole purpose.

8. Which blue-light-blocking glasses actually work, and why most block the wrong blue.

See below for timestamps and products I use for better circadian lighting.

Watch on YouTube, Spotify, or any other podcast platform.

If you wish to receive bonus takeaways from each podcast episode, and my detailed practical protocols, you can become a paid subscriber. Hope you enjoy the conversation!

Follow me on X @aasthajs and Instagram @aasthajs for more on longevity.

Check out my health stack of the exact non-toxic health products I use. For the full collection of 500+ health products curated by me, see Health Stacked.

All other platforms: here

Products I use for better circadian rhythm

• VivaRays 4 in 1 Blue Blockers and UV transmitters: VivaRays makes 3 in 1 blue blockers that you can easily switch from day to evening to night. As we discussed in the episode, blocking blue at night is critical for preventing cancer risk.

  • Use my link https://vivarays.com/livelongerworld or discount code LIVELONGERWORLD for 10% off

• Healthy Home Shop Circadian Bulbs: The Circadian bulbs have 3 light settings that easily switch spectrum from daylight (full-spectrum) to evening to night (blue-light free). This is exactly what you want for mimicking the sun’s wavelengths indoors. And no WiFi required.

  • Use my link https://thehealthyhome.shop/livelongerworld for 10% off

• Daylight Computer No-blue screen: I love reading on my Daylight! They have zero blue light and are flicker-free. It’s such a peaceful reading experience, without causing you any eye strain.

  • Use my link https://buy.daylightcomputer.com/livelongerworld for $25 off

• Chroma Circadian-Aligned Desk Lamp: The Sky portal desk lamp is a great circadian lamp for your workspace. It delivers bright light during the day, and red light as evening sets in.

  • Use my link https://getchroma.co/photonsfromaastha and code LIVELONGERWORLD for 10% off

For all the Lighting & EMF products I use, see my health stack

For the full collection of Lighting & EMF products I’ve curated, see Health Stacked

Timestamps:

00:00 LED Light Is the Tobacco of Our Time
01:33 The Connection Between Cancer and LED Lighting
04:05 Why Hormone-Driven Cancers Are Hit the Hardest
07:49 Is There a Link to Glioblastoma?
08:14 Why Melatonin Is Not the Sleep Hormone
11:40 There Is No Blue Light in Nature After Sunset
15:58 We Live in Junk Light, Just Like Junk Food
17:21 What Wavelengths Are LEDs Actually Missing?
20:44 The Infrared We Lost When We Banned Incandescents
22:52 The Two Ways LEDs Are Harming You
30:05 Health Stacked
30:56 White vs Yellow Light: Why It's the Wrong Question
33:59 Lux, Lumens, and a 100-Year-Old Mistake
38:27 What LED Light Does to Your Heart and Immune System
40:44 Why Regularity Matters as Much as the Light Itself
43:07 The Camping Study That Reset Everyone's Body Clock
45:26 The Longevity Data Is Mind-Blowing
49:56 Sunlight vs Skin Cancer: We Have It Backwards
53:03 The 450 vs 480 Spike Almost No One Gets Right
57:38 The Ancient Greeks Had No Word for Blue
59:52 Why Life Evolved to Run on Blue Light
01:03:13 Melanopsin: Your Body's Blue Detector
01:08:28 Do Melatonin Supplements Actually Do Anything?
01:10:42 The Hidden Clocks in Every Cell of Your Body
01:12:19 Why the Wrong Side of a Time Zone Can Kill You
01:15:37 Is There Something Special About Dawn?
01:17:12 Light and the Early Onset of Puberty
01:20:53 The Aggressive Kid Who Changed When the Lights Did
01:21:51 Should You Replace Your Windows?
01:24:00 Do not wear sunglasses in the morning!
01:26:44 What About Daytime Lighting?
01:27:41 Do Blue-Light-Blocking Glasses Work at Night?
01:29:33 Why Regulators Refuse to Look at the Evidence
01:31:20 Take Your Lighting Into Your Own Hands

For paid subscribers, I will be releasing highlights and practical takeaways from this conversation with Dr. Moore-Ede, so if you want those, please consider upgrading.

Related Posts:

He's a 97-year-old brain scientist who has spent 50+ years researching the importance of DHA (seafood) for the brain and how the brain won’t work without it. I recently released a podcast episode with him. This post is the companion to the episode: every key idea explained simply, and what to actually do with it.

In This Bonus Takeaways, I Cover:

1. Why it was DHA, not DNA, that built the human brain

2. Why DHA is just as critical for your vision as your brain

3. Why ARA (omega-6) is critical for the brain too, and why it’s wrongly demonized

4. Why ARA is critical in pregnancy

5. Why your body can barely make DHA and ARA from their plant precursors, and what to eat instead

6. Why the official advice to limit fish in pregnancy may be harming babies

7. How seed oils crowd DHA out of your brain, and why they barely existed before WWII

8. Why blindly avoiding saturated fat may be a mistake

9. What a 97-year-old brain scientist actually eats

10. Why grain-fed chicken lost 90% of its brain fat (DHA)

11. Why a fish oil capsule will never replace real fish

12. The theory that your brain runs on light, with DHA as a semiconductor

These conversations are dense with insight, and pulling out what matters most takes real time. That’s why I do it for you. In these bonus takeaways, I pull out the most important ideas from each episode, explain the science in plain language, and turn it into clear, practical steps you can use right away. 10 minutes spent reading these will leave you smarter about how your body works, and practical steps to improve your health starting today.

Paid subscribers get these takeaways for every episode, my own daily protocols, and direct email access to me. If you want to actually use what these scientists are sharing, become a paid subscriber.

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 “We’ve actually been losing brain size, and with it, mental ill health has been escalating.”

“Homo sapiens had to be evolving in contact with fresh water, but more optimally with the estuarine regions where they had both fresh water to drink and where they had abundant seafood.”

Unless we pay attention to the importance of the brain and its nutrition, quotes, “We will become a race of morons.” - Dr. Michael Crawford

The human brain is smaller today than it was twenty thousand years ago. Not metaphorically, but measurably, by about the volume of a tennis ball, and it is still shrinking. Professor Michael Crawford has spent fifty years explaining why, and his answer is not genetic. The answer is the lack of a single fat - DHA, an omega-3, found in seafood.

DHA makes up the signaling architecture of every neuron we own, and the brain is so dependent on it that it has used nothing else for this job in six hundred million years of evolution. No DHA, no brain.

What Dr. Crawford has argued since 1972, across more than three hundred papers is that it was not our genes that built our extraordinary brains, but DHA drawn from the sea. It's why, he says, our ancestors could only have become human beside the water, where DHA was abundant, and why the modern retreat from seafood toward seed oils and processed food maps almost exactly onto rising rates of depression, autism, and dementia.

He also makes the case that DHA behaves like a semiconductor inside our head, that the official advice to limit fish in pregnancy has harmed generations, and that the dementia people fear in old age may be set in motion before they are born.

What makes the conversation land is that Dr. Crawford is 97 years old, lucid, and still doing research. He clearly knows something about the brain - the proof is in the pudding! He has authored the popular book The Shrinking Brain: Mental Health is affected by poor Brain Nutrition, has advised the WHO and FAO, and holds Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun for this exact body of work. He has been warning about this since 1972, when his own book on the subject prompted the line that we risk becoming "a race of morons" if we keep ignoring how we feed the brain. The unsettling part is how long this evidence has been sitting in plain view while the people who write nutrition guidelines have looked the other way.

“The brain won’t work without DHA. That’s just full stop.” — Professor Michael Crawford.

What we discuss in this episode:

1. The fat (DHA) your neurons refuse to run without, and how the brain shrinks when the modern diet starves them of it.

2. The evidence that human brains have physically lost mass since the Stone Age, and what changed in our diet.

3. Why Dr. Crawford says the official advice to limit fish in pregnancy is wrong, and harming babies.

4. How seed oils in nearly every processed food crowd out DHA from our brain cells.

5. The case that Alzheimer’s and dementia may be set in motion in the womb, even before we’re born!

6. The wrongly demonized fatty acid that infant formula still leaves out.

7. Why our ancestors could only have evolved a big brain by living beside the sea.

8. The claim that DHA works like a semiconductor, wiring our neurons to run on light.

9. What Dr. Crawford eats at 97, and the simple seafood rule he lives by.

Watch on YouTube, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Timestamps and related episodes below.

If you wish to receive bonus takeaways from each podcast episode, and my detailed practical protocols, you can become a paid subscriber. Hope you enjoy the conversation!

Follow me on X @aasthajs and Instagram @aasthajs for more on longevity.

Check out my health stack of the exact non-toxic health products I use. For the full collection of 500+ health products curated by me, see Health Stacked.

All other platforms: here

Timestamps:

00:00 The Brain Food We Stopped Eating
00:32 "Your Brain Won't Work Without DHA. That's just full stop"
04:04 It Wasn't DNA That Made Us Human
06:50 How the Eye Built the Brain
08:00 Why Carnivores Are Sharper Than Herbivores
11:35 The Flowering Plant That Invented Pregnancy
14:22 The Placenta: An Organ Built From One Fatty Acid
15:35 Why Arachidonic Acid Is Wrongly Demonized
18:18 More Astrocytes Than Neurons: Who Really Runs the Brain
21:39 Health Stacked
22:38 DHA vs Arachidonic Acid: Two Different Origins
25:21 How the Fetus Hoards DHA and Rejects the Rest
30:31 Are Seed Oils Actually Starving Your Brain?
32:24 Why the FDA is wrong about Fish in Pregnancy
37:50 Do Fish Oil Supplements Work?
44:15 The Lack of Fish in Pregnancy is causing ADHD and Austism
50:10 Why Governments Only Care About Body Size, Not Brains
52:00 "A Race of Morons": The Warning From 1972
55:04 Does Dementia Actually Begin in the Womb?
59:16 Does the Father's Nutrition Matter Too?
59:40 The Importance of Arachidonic Acid that Infant Formula Leaves Out
01:02:24 How Often You Should Actually Eat Seafood
01:04:05 Can Vegetarians and Vegans Get Enough?
01:05:04 Can Genetics Let You Skip Seafood? The India Case
01:08:00 Why Humans Could Only Have Evolved Beside the Sea
01:11:55 Farming the Sea: What Japan Figured Out
01:17:22 The Collapse of DHA in Chicken and Eggs
01:20:52 Why Corn-Fed Everything Is Lower in DHA
01:22:32 The Semiconductor Theory of the Brain, Explained
01:27:20 What Dr. Crawford's Vision Is Like at 97 years old
01:28:39 The Rare Double-DHA Molecule in Your Retina
01:29:23 Where Dr. Crawford Lands on Saturated Fat
01:31:09 His Advice to Young Scientists: Challenge Everything
01:32:07 Closing: Why This Is a Three-Generation Emergency

For paid subscribers, I will be releasing highlights and practical takeaways from this conversation with Dr. Crawford, so if you want those, please consider upgrading.

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Related Episodes / Posts:

Hi, I’m Aastha and thanks for joining Live Longer World as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity. On my health stack, you can see my exact collection of non-toxic health products I use (12 categories including sleep, fitness, clean water, lighting, air quality, non-toxic kitchen). For the full collection of 500+ health products curated by me, see Health Stacked.

In 2019, I was deficient in Vitamin D. Around the same time, I came across Dr. Rhonda Patrick who built much of her fame touting the benefits of Vit. D supplementation. She pointed to the associations between low vitamin D and cancer, heart disease, and worse COVID outcomes. Her recommendation was to supplement to reach the optimal range. Even today, it’s top of her list of recommended supplements1.

For 6 years, I religiously followed her advice by taking a high dose 5,000IU a day. A year ago, I learned how wrong she is.

Vit. D supplements recommendation is built on correlation, not causation. High Vit. D is linked to good health, and low Vit. D to poor health, so health practioniers jumped to the conclusion that “We should supplement people with Vit D.” Trying to discern between correlation and causation is in direct conflict with the ~$10 trillion global healthcare industry.

This is how Vit. D supplements became a thing: People learned that the sun is good, and sun produces Vit. D, therefore Vit. D pills are good. It’s a classic case of reductionist biology and poor logical leaps.

Recent evidence confirms it was correlation, not causation. A large landmark study showed how Vit. D supplementation had no effects on cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, or death from any cause. This does not mean Vit. D is not important. Natural Vit. D from the sun continues to be critical for good health.

Vit. D from the sun does not equal Vit. D from pills.

In this post, I will discuss:

• The cause-and-effect mistake at the heart of it all. Why we mistook the messenger (vitamin D) for the message (sunlight).

• The landmark trial that quietly broke the vitamin D story. 26,000 people, five years, and almost nothing to show for the pill.

• What sunlight does that no pill can copy. The benefits that have nothing to do with vitamin D.

• How to actually get your vitamin D, the practical, free, evolutionary way.

We have confused Vit. D as the cause when it is a marker

The history of how Vit. D research shows us how we made this mistake of confusing cause with effect. In 1980, 2 brothers Cedric and Frank Garland noted that people living in the south sunnier regions of the U.S. had lower colon cancer mortality. Back then, it was believed that the main benefit of the sun was Vit. D. So the brothers attributed the lower cancer mortality in sunnier regions to Vit. D. They attributed the “sunlight signal” solely to the “Vit. D signal”. This was a big mistake. We now know that the sun has many benefits beyond Vit. D production, and this leap from “sun helps with cancer” to “Vit. D pills help with cancer” was a logical fallacy.

Vit. D was a marker of people getting adequate sun. Not the cause of cancer protection.

This mistake got further perpetuated over the next 2 decades as observational studies linked low Vit D. to higher rates of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, infection. This was all based on correlation.

In 2007, there was one trial by a researcher named Joan Lappe that initially showed lower all-cancer incidence with calcium and Vit. D supplementation. But when the trial was replicated with cancer as the primary outcome they were testing for, the results failed to hold up2.

The 2019 landmark study that showed Vit D supplements don’t prevent cancer, stroke or cardiovascular disease

The VITAL study3 was the largest trial ever built to test whether vitamin D pills prevent cancer and heart disease. Nearly 26,000 healthy older adults, half of them women, a fifth of them Black, took either 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day or a placebo for just over five years.

The results? No reduction in cancer, cardiovascular events or death from any cause.

What if the pill dose was too low?

My first thought on reading the results of the study was that perhaps the Vit D dosage was low. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, because the Vit D. levels of the people who supplemented with it did in fact go up. Blood levels in the supplement group climbed from 30 to 42 ng/mL, squarely in the optimal range. So the supplement did work in moving Vit. D levels up. However, the high Vit. D from the supplements had no effect on prevention of major diseases. In other words, the supplement worked as they say - your Vit D. levels shot up, but with no benefit to health.

What if the pill didn’t work because most people had adequate levels?

Adequate levels of Vit. D are debated. Around 30 ng/mL or above is generally considered sufficient. However, optimal levels are seen to be between 40-60 ng/mL. Under 20 ng/mL is deficient.

50% of the population was in the sufficient bucket. Most people were not in the optimal bucket. So, the pill should have still helped the people in the adequate bucket. Importantly, 13% of the population were in the deficient bucket. And the pill did not help this group either! Even among the Black population, the pill had no effect. This matters because darker skin makes less vitamin D from the same amount of sunlight, so Black participants tend to run lower levels. They were the group most expected to benefit from a pill, yet they didn’t.

VITAL Study was not the only one to show Vit. D didn’t work

Even before VITAL, other studies like the Women’s Health Initiative showed no effect of vitamin D pills. And the same result has since been repeated by several more: the New Zealand ViDA trial, the Finnish FIND trial, and Australia’s D-Health trial.

In each of these, vitamin D had no positive impact on cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, or other chronic disease. FIND is worth singling out, because it used higher doses than VITAL, up to 3,200 IU a day, and still found nothing. So this isn’t a case of the dose being too small.

So why then do healthy people have good Vit. D levels?

Two reasons. First, vitamin D is a proxy for whether you are getting adequate sun. It’s a marker of good health, not the direct cause of it.

Second, the sun has many benefits that extend well beyond vitamin D production.

A big one is the release of nitric oxide when skin is exposed to UV. Nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels and lowers blood pressure, and this has nothing to do with vitamin D. Tellingly, vitamin D supplements have repeatedly failed to lower blood pressure, which is exactly what sent researchers looking for another mechanism in the first place.

We’re only now starting to uncover the many health benefits of the sun. Avoiding the sun is as bad as smoking, and worse than getting skin cancer! In a landmark study of nearly 30,000 Swedish women, the ones who lived the longest were the ones who got the most sun and got non-melanoma skin cancer!

How then did Vit. D pills become a cultural mainstream?

The poor logical leap I described above is a big piece of it. Sun is good, sun makes vitamin D, so vitamin D pills must be good.

But a huge part of it was the media narrative and one central figure: Dr. Michael Holick. He wrote popular books on vitamin D deficiency, and as chair of the 2011 Endocrine Society guidelines, he helped push the threshold for “sufficient” vitamin D up to 30ng/mL, above the 20ng/mL that the other major authority, the Institute of Medicine, considered adequate. Raising the bar like that reclassified a large share of the population as insufficient overnight.

I’m not here to argue whether 20 or 30 is the right number. The point is that he was the central figure in the rise of vitamin D, and a 2018 New York Times investigation4 later reported he had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the industries that profited from it, including a major lab that sells vitamin D tests and the indoor-tanning industry. To be fair to him, he is also a genuine advocate for getting sun, which is more than most of his critics in dermatology can say.

How to get Vit. D practically and naturally

The best way to get Vit. D is from UV light from the sun. Modern dermatology has demonized UV light entirely and this is a big mistake. All the studies that were done showing how UV light can cause skin cancer were done using UV light in isolation and on mice that were stripped of melanin, the natural ability to tan. Even at peak UV, the sun never has UV light in isolation, and it’s only 2-3% of the sun’s rays in fact. However, this doesn’t mean getting burnt and sitting in peak UV, if you’re not primed for it. Here are 12 practical guidelines for safe sun exposure I follow, including points on sunscreen use, building sun exposure, food guidelines, and more:

1. Make sure to get morning sun as a warm-up. Morning sun and evening sun have almost no UV, and are rich in beneficial infrared. Some new research shows that priming your skin with infrared before UV exposure can protect you from potential UV damage. Just like you wouldn’t do deadlifts before warming up, don’t step out in peak UV if you’re not primed for it.

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I recently released a 2-hour podcast with Dr. Stephanie Seneff that I think is one of the most important conversations I’ve ever had on this channel. This post is the companion to that episode - every key idea explained simply, and what to actually do with it.

Stephanie is a senior research scientist at MIT who has spent the last decade researching deuterium — a heavier version of hydrogen that sits in every glass of water you drink and every bite of food you eat. Most doctors have never heard of it. Medical schools don’t teach it. And Stephanie’s work suggests it may be one of the most important variables in human health.

She’s roughly 10 years ahead of the mainstream on this, and she connects it to exactly why:

• Gut health matters more than anyone realizes, and not for the standard reasons you think

• Most supplements may be harming you more than helping

• Cancer cells may not be broken, but running a cleanup operation

• Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s plaques may be doing something protective

• High-fat diets work for reasons no one in the keto world talks about

The interview gets technical in places. That’s deliberate, I didn’t want to dumb down the science. But I know technical content can be hard to follow in audio form, which is why I write these bonus takeaways. They explain everything important from the episode in plain language and end with practical takeaways on what to actually do with this information.

In This Bonus Takeaways, I Cover:

1. What deuterium is and why your body works so hard to manage it. The short version, explained simply.

2. Why carbs are loading you with more deuterium than humans have ever consumed. And the simple rule of thumb for which foods are highest and lowest in deuterium.

3. How deuterium physically breaks the molecular motors that produce all your energy. The mechanism walked through step by step.

4. The 80% deuterium-depleted fuel your gut bacteria are quietly manufacturing for the rest of your body. This is the section I learned the most from. Almost no one is connecting gut health to deuterium, and it changes how I think about the entire gut health conversation.

5. Why Stephanie stopped taking all supplements and the study that proves her point. The choline bitartrate research is genuinely shocking. Plus why folic acid in prenatal vitamins may be causing autism.

6. The most provocative idea in the entire episode: cancer cells aren’t broken. They’re running a cleanup operation for the deuterium overload that’s quietly driving the chronic disease epidemic. Once you understand this, the Warburg effect makes sense for the first time.

7. Stephanie’s exact daily protocol to reduce deuterium load. Everything she does - the food, the water, the baths, the sunlight.

The full takeaways below are for paid subscribers. Paid subscribers get highlights and takeaways from every episode explained simply, the practical protocols to apply them, my exact daily protocols, and direct email access to me. If you want to actually apply what the scientists on this channel are sharing, become a paid subscriber.

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“Cancer comes about because there is too much deuterium in the mitochondria. And cancer's job is to try to fix that problem.”

“What is it that deuterium depleted water does that helps it to heal the cancer?”

“Cells in the gut make 400 times as much melatonin as the pineal gland, and very few people know this.” - Dr. Stephanie Seneff

There’s a form of hydrogen in every glass of water you drink that Dr. Stephanie Seneff believes is quietly fueling cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. It has never shown up on a single lab test you’ve taken, and few people are talking about it.

It’s called deuterium — a heavier version of hydrogen, the most abundant atom in your body. It’s in every glass of water and every bite of food, and when it builds up in the wrong places, it disrupts the mitochondrial engine your cells run on. Stephanie’s argument is provocative: that cancer cells aren’t malfunctioning but running a metabolic cleanup operation in response to deuterium overload, and that the modern diet - grain-fed meat, processed food, glyphosate-sprayed crops is loading us with more deuterium than any generation in history.

This is a frontier hypothesis, and Stephanie (senior research scientist at MIT, published in PNAS, Frontiers, FASEB) is such an out-of-the-box thinker that it was a delight speaking with her. I came out of this two-hour conversation genuinely surprised at how underrated deuterium research is, and at how much she has worked out that hasn’t been published yet. Several ideas in this episode appear here for the first time.

“I don’t believe in supplements.” — Dr. Stephanie Seneff

This is Stephanie’s second appearance on Live Longer World. Her first, on what glyphosate does to your health, is below.

What we discuss in this episode:

1. What deuterium is and why it’s in everything you eat and drink

2. How deuterium breaks your mitochondria (and why this might be the root of chronic disease)

3. Why cancer might be your body’s repair response, not a malfunction

4. The two supplements Stephanie says you should stop taking immediately

5. The folic-acid-in-pregnancy and autism connection

6. How glyphosate breaks the body's deuterium defense

7. Why she drinks deuterium-depleted water every day (she drinks a brand called Litewater, use code LIVELONGERWORLD for 10% off subscription)

8. Practical steps to reduce your own deuterium load

Watch on YouTube, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Timestamps and related episodes below.

Follow me on X @aasthajs and Instagram @aasthajs for more on longevity. Check out my health stack of the exact non-toxic health products I use.

If you wish to support my work, you can become a paid subscriber. Hope you enjoy the conversation!

All other platforms: here

Timestamps:

0:00 Why deuterium might be the most important molecule you've never heard of
5:09 The hidden reason processed food is wrecking your health
7:25 How deuterium breaks your mitochondria
11:02 Glyphosate stops your body from rationing deuterium (and the osteoporosis link)
19:07 No one is connecting gut health to deuterium, until now
22:45 The two nutrients that help your gut clear deuterium
25:29 Methylation, melatonin, and protecting your mitochondria
33:14 Why melatonin supplements don't actually work
34:08 The two supplements you should stop taking immediately
38:06 How to make your gut produce low-deuterium water
41:12 How glyphosate suppresses your MTHFR gene
43:21 Why folate supplementation is a problem
45:06 "I don't believe in supplements", Stephanie's case against them
46:02 Why she's suspicious of fish oil
47:47 The folic-acid-in-pregnancy and autism connection
52:37 How glyphosate is quietly causing bone problems
56:22 Inflammation is really a deuterium problem
1:01:25 Gerald Pollack's EZ water and how your cells expel deuterium
1:04:59 Why breast milk is low in deuterium
1:09:03 Cancer's real job: repairing your mitochondria (and why chemo may be a mistake)
1:23:14 How deuterium-depleted water may help heal cancer
1:26:57 Deuterium and Parkinson's: how plaque traps it
1:30:37 How to fight Parkinson's
1:33:55 Why Stephanie drinks deuterium-depleted water every day
1:36:37 What glyphosate does to your sulfation system
1:38:38 How grounding reduces deuterium
1:39:42 Jack Kruse on glyphosate and melanin
1:40:08 Are seed oils high in deuterium?
1:45:05 Does where you live (and sunlight) affect your deuterium?
1:47:05 Practical tips to manage your deuterium load

I will be releasing my bonus takeaways from this conversation from Stephanie, so if you want those, please subscribe if you haven’t already!

Subscribe now

Introducing Health Stacked

I built the health store I’ve always wanted. Health Stacked is a vetted marketplace of 500+ health and longevity products across 12 categories like sleep, fitness, non-toxic home, lighting & EMF, and more. Products are screened for plastic, PFAS, and 20+ toxins.

Inclusion is 100% merit-based.

For years, I've been searching for a health store like this, and didn't find it, so I built it. Every product has been hand-picked by me. Would love to know what you think!

healthstacked.com

Related Episodes:

“View morning sunlight to set your circadian rhythm” has become common health advice, popularized by influencers like Andrew Huberman and Bryan Johnson. They’re wrong. It misses how our circadian clocks actually work.

Circadian rhythm is not just about viewing morning sunlight. Our body clock doesn’t start in the morning and keep running smoothly on its own. It needs cues and signals throughout the day.

I spend 6 to 8 hours outside every day. Morning sun is 2 hours of that. The rest of the day matters just as much.

Why does circadian rhythm alignment matter?

Circadian rhythm is not just your body’s internal clock to keep time. It’s what powers the timing of your hormones, metabolism, immune system, gut cells, and every cell in your body. If there is disruption to your circadian alignment, the coordination between cells and hormones breaks down. It results in different cells working per their own timing without coordinating with each other. Your body begins to function like a discordant orchestra - cells don’t work in harmony with each other and create a noisy machine. Brain fog, trouble falling asleep, poor digestion could all result from circadian misalignment. It’s not just about giving your body the right signals, it’s about the right signals at the right time.

There’s a reason night shift workers have higher rates of breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. It’s because their circadian timings are out of tune with how we evolved.

Circadian rhythm beyond morning sunlight

Viewing morning sunlight is sub-optimal advice on its own. Circadian rhythm alignment is about viewing the sunrise, getting ample afternoon sunlight, not using the wrong artificial lights at night, not eating out of sync with daylight, exposing your skin and eyes to sunlight, hydrating well, having good melatonin production, and going to bed by the right time.

Here is the full protocol I follow, sunrise to sleep. Skipping any of it disrupts your circadian rhythm.

1. Sunlight activates your master clock. We have a master circadian clock in the brain called the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN). Its activation is the most potent signal that the day has started. And it is activated by light, more specifically by full-spectrum sunlight. If your SCN does not get its sunlight cue, your body doesn’t fully know the day has begun. It will function sluggishly the rest of the day. Missing the morning sun is like driving a car with a broken engine. It’ll chug along but very sub optimally.

2. Go outside immediately upon waking and face east. No sunglasses, prescription glasses, contacts, sunscreen. The eyes are the gateway to the SCN. Spend at least 20-30 minutes in the sun if you can. Even 2-5 minutes is helpful versus seeing the sun hours after waking. As soon as I get up, I jump out of bed to go to my backyard. I brush my teeth outside in the sun - easy hack.

3. Catch the actual sunrise when possible. This is how we evolved. Sunrise is dominated by red and near-infrared wavelengths, with very little UV. These wavelengths support mitochondrial function and prime your skin and eyes for the UVA and UVB that come later as the sun climbs. The sun's spectrum changes from sunrise to midday to sunset, and the body uses these shifts to keep time. By missing sunrise, you skip the first cue and start the day on the wrong foot.

4. Sunlight cannot be replaced by artificial light, even on a cloudy day. No intensity of morning sunlamp can replace the signal provided by the sun. Direct sunlight is roughly 100 to 1,000 times brighter than indoor lighting (around 100,000 lux outdoors versus 100-500 lux indoors). Even on an overcast day, outdoor light is around 1,000-10,000 lux, far more than any office. Beyond brightness, each wavelength in sunrise gives a unique signal to the SCN and body, allowing us to start our day the way we evolved to. If you cannot view the sunrise, view the morning sun as soon as you wake up.

5. Afternoon sun is not to be feared. There is too much fear around UV light. The experiments demonizing UV have been conducted in isolation (UV is only a small fraction of the full solar spectrum) and are highly flawed. Humans evolved with full-spectrum sunlight for the entire day. The "UV is bad" explanation does not account for skin type, latitude, and the numerous benefits of UV light. In fact, avoiding the sun kills more people than skin cancer. Your eyes and body expect afternoon sunlight to keep the clock going. No afternoon sunlight is like stopping the clock midway. UVB in the afternoon helps not just with vitamin D production, but also with nitric oxide release that lowers blood pressure, beta-endorphin production for mood and pain regulation, and cholesterol sulfate which keeps cell membranes healthy. None of this happens with a vitamin D pill.

   I spend 6-8 hours outside everyday. In the afternoons, I'm in the shade. Most people can't do this, but there are easy ways to work afternoon sun into a normal indoor workday.

6. Sneak afternoon sun into your workday. Step out for a 10-15 minute walk. Again, no shades, eyeglasses, contact lenses, sunscreen. 10 minutes will not burn you. If you are afraid of getting sunburnt, then build up your capacity for afternoon sun gradually.

   1. If you work at home, open your office windows. Glass blocks UV and infrared light, and distorts sunlight’s full-spectrum. It also prevents Co2 buildup, which creates brain fog.

   2. Every time you take a break to go to the bathroom or get food, go out in the sun for 2-3 minutes. This too helps.

7. Don't skip breakfast - your gut has its own clock. Intermittent fasting has made it popular to skip breakfast. It’s not just our brain that has a master clock, but every cell and organ in the body has its own clock. When we skip breakfast, our gut clock thinks the day has not started yet. This creates a desynchrony between our brain clock and the other clocks, and shifts the timing of the gut clock to run behind. Smooth body functioning requires timing signals in the body to be aligned.

8. Eating after sunset confuses your body. For almost all of human history, before artificial light, we finished dinner by sunset. Eating post sunset creates a disconnect in our body clocks. Our brain senses that we should wind down, but our gut, liver, and kidney clocks (all involved in digestion) remain activated and so do different hormones and enzymes. This not only creates noise in the body, but also leads to poor digestion before bedtime.

9. Watch the sunset. Give your brain the cue that the day has ended, it’s time to start winding down.

10. Use red incandescent bulbs after sunset. Your blue-rich LEDs are wrecking your sleep. The ideal is no artificial light after sunset. The realistic version is red incandescents as they don’t disrupt sleep and melatonin. Our eyes are particularly sensitive to blue light, which suppresses melatonin production at night. Melatonin is not just a sleep hormone, it's a repair hormone. Disrupt melatonin and you disrupt your body's repair signals at night.

11. Strip blue light from your screens at night. Blue LEDs aren't just in your house lighting. They are hiding in your phone, computer, and TV screens too. If your house is red but your phone is blue, you are still signaling daytime to your brain. The same way I switched out the lights in my house, I have stripped blue light from every screen I use. The exact steps are laid out here - 60 seconds per device.

12. Expose your skin to sunlight, not just your eyes. Our eyes are not the only organ attuned to light signals. Our skin senses light too. Skin is the largest organ in our body, and exposing as much of it to sunlight as possible helps with proper circadian signaling.

Circadian rhythm alignment is not a single morning habit. It's a 24-hour conversation between your body and the environment. The sun, the dark, the food, the timing - they're all signals, and your cells are listening to all of them. Most of this is environment, not effort. Once you align your day with the sun, the rest takes care of itself.

Do Health on Easy Mode,

Aastha

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For 4+ years, I tried to shed my stubborn last 10lbs. I tried it all: calorie counting, intermittent fasting, long fasts, keto, gym grinding, you name it. I’d lose 1-2 lbs, then gain them back. This is despite working out every day and eating clean. I thought the problem was that I wasn’t restricting calories enough.

Then I got pregnant. I obviously wasn’t going to try and lose weight during this period. So I decided to let go. I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I would finish tubs of honey ice-cream and packets of honey chocolate on some days. The caveat was that I’ve never enjoyed junk food much, so my diet was still 95% clean. But I had zero self-imposed restrictions. I enjoyed my chocolate and ice-cream guilt-free.

I noticed that my relationship with food started to change. Despite having unrestricted access to sweets in the refrigerator, most days I simply didn’t want it. I started eating naturally based on hunger cues. I wasn’t bound to the clock by crazy fasting schedules.

I had a healthy pregnancy, gained ~27lbs, and delivered a healthy chubby baby. I lost all my pregnancy weight in the first 3 months and miraculously in the next 6 months, I lost those stubborn 10lbs that I’d been trying to lose for 4 years. And I didn’t even try this time.

I re-established my power over food

While sunlight and other factors played a massive role in my weight loss, I realized that a big part of it was changing my relationship with food. Pre-pregnancy, I lived in fear of eating too much. Food had more power over me. This fear caused me to eat artificially: gorge on cheat days, eat less even when I’m truly hungry, eat more when I’m not hungry to follow my diet plan, and eat foods that I didn’t want to. I was living in a scarcity mindset, worried about food.

In pregnancy, I let go of this fear. I had power over food. One thinks that without any willpower or restrictions, you’d eat junk food all the time. Quite the opposite. I started to live in a state of food abundance. Because I knew I had access to food whenever I wanted, I didn’t worry about overeating.

Why calorie counting apps make weight loss harder

Those who struggle with overeating and/or eating junk food have a tenuous relationship with food, that I described above. The irony is that calorie counting and weight loss apps perpetuate this fearful negative relationship with food. By making you log every calorie, they make you live in constant fear of food. The very fear that was stalling me from losing weight. These apps want you to be loyal customers, not ones who fix the problem and leave.

Losing weight is not so simple as “eat less and move more.” It’s not a matter of willpower and counting calories. It’s a psychological game. It’s about you having power over food.

The answer to weight loss lies not in calorie counting but in changing your relationship with food.

How to regain your control over food

If you want to change your dynamic with food, try this experiment for a few days: eat as much as you want, whatever you want. Guilt-free. The first couple of days you might eat more. But then you might begin to notice how your fear over food changes. You begin to control food, food does not control you. You might begin to eat naturally, more intuitively. In this fearless state, controlling your food choices will become easier.

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Weight loss is not about calories

Contrary to popular belief, calories are the least important metric when it comes to food regulation. Your appetite is heavily regulated by protein intake, circadian timing, light exposure, and hormones, not calories.

Below, I share the exact 10 things I changed to help me lose 10lbs without trying. No calorie counting. No willpower needed.

1. Morning protein breakfast: I used to do intermittent fasting and skip breakfast. My first meal of the day was around 11am. This shifted my gut clock to start the day later, which naturally pushed my dinner time later too. We have a master circadian clock in the brain and local clocks at every organ and cell. My master clock would get its cue from morning sunlight upon waking up. But my gut clock was getting its morning cue only much later in the day. This creates a desynchrony in our body clocks, disrupting circadian and hormonal signaling. Losing weight and optimal health requires your body to work in synchrony. Morning breakfast is key for proper circadian alignment. Aim for 30-40g of protein at breakfast. Eggs, meat, or Greek yogurt. This anchors your gut clock to your wake time and keeps you full until lunch without snacking.

2. Eat dinner by sunset: This was one of the biggest levers in me losing weight. I ran a simple experiment for a few days: eating the same dinner but finishing before sunset vs. after. I noticed that whenever I ate post sunset, I felt more bloated and had worse sleep. I also effortlessly started losing some weight after only a few days of eating by sunset. Eating after sundown not only delays the onset of melatonin which helps you wind down, but it also desynchronizes your body clocks which I discussed above. Eating late also tends to make you hungrier the next day and shifts your body toward fat storage. Your metabolism is highest earlier in the day and winds down as the sun sets. Eat with the sun, not against it.

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Dermatologists have spent decades telling us to avoid the sun. Wear sunscreen. Cover up. The fear is skin cancer. But one of the most thorough studies ever conducted on sun exposure and mortality found the opposite. Women who got the most sun lived the longest. Women who avoided the sun died at the same rate as smokers. And the most surprising finding of all? The women who lived the longest in the entire 20-year study1 got skin cancer AND were most sun-exposed.

And it wasn’t just about living longer. The study showed that women who got more sunlight were protected from:

• Cardiovascular disease

• Cancer (including skin cancer!)

• Type 2 diabetes

• Venous blood clots

• Death from all causes

And the more the sun, the better the outcomes. In this post, I break down the study and what it means for how you think about the sun.

Basics of the study:

Researchers recruited 29,518 Swedish women between 25 and 64 years of age starting in 1990. They asked four simple questions about sun exposure:

1. Do you sunbathe during the summer?

2. Do you sunbathe during winter holidays?

3. Do you use tanning beds?

4. Do you go abroad on holiday to swim and sunbathe?

No to everything = low sun exposure. Yes to one or two = moderate. Yes to three or four = high. They also recorded smoking status, exercise habits, BMI, education level, marital status, disposable income, and whether the women were on medication for diabetes, blood clotting, or cardiovascular disease, all of which were used to adjust the results. Then they followed these women for 20 years and tracked what happened.

Results: Risk of disease & death increased by avoiding the sun

• Not getting sun was as dangerous as smoking. Nonsmokers who avoided sun exposure had a life expectancy similar to smokers who got the most sun. Even among smokers, those around age 60 who actively sought the sun lived ~2 years longer than smokers who avoided it.

• Heart disease: The highest sun exposure group had ~60% lower risk of cardiovascular death.

• Cancer: The highest sun exposure group had ~40% lower risk of cancer death, including melanoma. In fact, women with the most sun exposure who developed non-melanoma skin cancer had the lowest mortality of anyone in the entire 20-year study. Lower than cancer-free women. Lower than every other group. More on skin cancer and melanoma findings below.

  • Melanoma: Melanoma incidence was slightly higher in the high sun exposure group (0.81% vs 1.1%), but the increase wasn't statistically significant. And when they did get melanoma, their risk of dying was essentially the same as sun avoiders who never got cancer at all. Meanwhile, sun avoiders who got melanoma had 4x the risk of death. And within the melanoma group specifically, sun avoiders had 8x the death rate of sun-seekers.

• Diabetes: Women who avoided the sun were at nearly 2.5x the risk of type 2 diabetes compared to those with the highest sun exposure. The relationship was dose-dependent: moderate sun exposure carried 47% higher risk, and low sun exposure carried 147% higher risk. The effect was even more dramatic in normal-weight women, where sun avoiders had nearly 4x the diabetes risk.2

• Other non-cancer deaths: The highest sun exposure group had over double (110%) the reduction in non-cancer, non-cardiovascular death (things like diabetes, multiple sclerosis, pulmonary diseases). Combined with the cardiovascular disease reduction, this is where the biggest increase in lifespan came from.

• Dying from anything: Women who avoided the sun had double the risk of death over the next 20 years compared to those with the highest sun exposure. This translated to 0.6 to 2.1 fewer years of life for sun avoiders.

• Blood clots: For every “yes” answer to sun exposure, women were at ~30% lower risk of venous thromboembolism. Blood clot risk was also 50% higher in winter compared to summer.

But is it really the sun? You might wonder: do sun-seekers just live longer because they're wealthier, more active, and healthier to begin with? The researchers tested this. They adjusted for age, smoking, education, marital status, income, pre-existing conditions, BMI and physical exercise. The results held. The survival benefit of sun exposure wasn't explained by lifestyle differences.

This study is not a one-off. A 2024 analysis3 of 376,000 UK Biobank participants found the same pattern: higher UV exposure was associated with lower all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality. A separate Swedish cohort study4 of women followed for three decades found sunbathing vacations were linked to 30% lower risk of death. The data pointing to sun exposure as protective against the leading causes of death is consistent across multiple large cohorts and countries.

But what about skin cancer risk?

Here's where it gets really counterintuitive. The women who lived the longest in the entire 20-year study weren't the ones who avoided skin cancer. They were the ones who got skin cancer and had the most sun exposure. They outlived everyone, including cancer-free women.

I couldn't believe this when I first saw it. For paid subscribers, I break down exactly what's going on:

• How women with skin cancer outlived every other group in the study, including women who never got cancer.

• The 8x death gap: why getting melanoma while avoiding the sun was the deadliest combination in the study, while getting melanoma with high sun exposure barely affected mortality.

• The vitamin D connection: why the same cancer can kill one woman and barely affect another.

• What no one tells you about the sun vs. skin cancer tradeoff: the risk of dying from skin cancer vs. the risk of dying from avoiding the sun.

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I threw away my polyester clothing. And switched to organic cotton.

Polyester clothing is literally wearable plastic. It’s not just a skin irritant, it might be contributing to the fertility crisis, hormonal imbalance, and reduced energy levels.

Roughly 60% of clothing is made from polyester and other synthetic fibers. Lululemon, Under Armour, Zara, Calvin Klein are all predominantly polyester. Testing on popular sports bras from Nike, Athleta, The North Face, and others found BPA levels up to 40x the safe limit under California law!1 These brands are great for the booty bump and coolness factor. Not so great for your health.

This is what the modern human looks like. We eat plastic, drink plastic, breathe plastic, and now wear plastic too!

What’s the big deal with polyester clothing?

• Poor sperm health: Polyester traps heat. Tighter underwear and more heat are linked to worse sperm markers. In one study2, 14 men who wore a polyester scrotal sling had zero sperm(!) within 5 months. And a 2024 study3 found microplastics in 100% of human semen samples tested. Enough for me to not want my husband to wear plastic down there.

• Disrupted hormone health: Polyester clothing carries phthalates, PFAS (forever chemicals)4, BPA5 and other finishing chemicals. These are endocrine disruptors - they mimic or block estrogen, testosterone, and thyroid hormones.6 A study of children's school uniforms found PFAS in 100% of products tested.7

• Loaded with PFAS and heavy metals: Water-resistant, stain-resistant, wrinkle-free, and performance finishes mean added chemicals like PFAS. Polyester is also commonly made using antimony (heavy metal) as a catalyst, and antimony can migrate from polyester textiles into sweat. Antimony is a possible carcinogen. What’s worse is that the antimony keeps leaching even after repeated washes.8

• Microplastics contribute to heart disease: A 2024 study9 found micro and nanoplastics in the carotid artery plaque of 58% of heart patients. Those with plastics in their plaque had a 4.5x higher risk of heart attack, stroke, or death over the following 3 years.

• Increased inflammation: Synthetic textiles are the dominant source of indoor airborne microplastics. It is estimated that you may shed up to a billion polyester microfibers into the air each year just by moving around. Indoor air contains roughly 6x more microplastic fibers than outdoor air, resulting in oxidative stress and inflammation.10 Investing in an air filter and opening your windows is worthwhile.

• Skin irritation: Polyester traps heat, sweat, and oils against your skin. Textile dyes and finishes, including formaldehyde (a Group 1 carcinogen used for wrinkle-free finishes), add chemical irritation on top of the physical discomfort.11

So what did I do about it?

• For my undergarments, I only do organic cotton.

• For the rest of my clothing, I do organic cotton or cotton 99.9% of the time. Pact is my favorite - they are affordable and fashionable.

  • Cotton is a natural fiber so it doesn’t come with the same plastic problem. The catch with cotton is that it is the world’s dirtiest crop. It is loaded with pesticides and accounts for 16% of the world’s insecticide use. These chemicals get absorbed into the cotton and don’t necessarily get off your clothes by washing them. Organic cotton is worth the extra money if you can get it.

• Our bedding, blanket, pillows, mattress are all organic cotton or organic wool. Never sleep on polyester sheets. Sleep is when your body is repairing itself, and polyester can even hinder the charge of the mitochondria.

I’ve compiled more safe non-toxic clothing brands at healthstacked.com.

The rest of the post is for paid subscribers. I discuss:

• Other materials that are safe (bamboo is not as safe as you think)

• Why to never wear polyester while working out

• More tips I practice to reduce clothing toxicity

• How to mitigate risk from textile dyes and carcinogenic wrinkle-free finishes. It’s not just the materials that matter, dyes too contain chemicals.

• Safe certifications when picking clothes

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Then, I gave birth to an angel in April 2025. Postpartum, I obviously couldn’t grind at the gym and go on a diet. I started living more naturally, more in tune with our environment, and how we evolved.

• I got a lot more sun.

• I learned about the impact of artificial lights on our metabolism and sleep, and switched to red incandescent only at night.

• I threw out all the toxic everyday products from our house. I wanted our house to be as non-toxic as possible for our daughter.

• I reduced our EMF exposure through hacks I’ll discuss later.

• I spent more time in fresh air.

• I started sleeping earlier and waking up with the sunrise.

In short, I fixed my environment to make it more in tune with nature. I noticed how great I felt.

What happened when I stopped grinding and fixed my environment

• I lost the baby weight in 2.5 months and in the next 5 months after that, I lost that stubborn 10lbs that I’d been trying to lose for 4 years!

• My deep sleep doubled to over 2 hours, despite waking up 2+ times a night to nurse my baby.

• I felt higher energy and happier, with few to zero afternoon slumps.

• Snack cravings and food thoughts throughout the day vanished. I didn’t need to use willpower.

I achieved better results in under 1 year than I did with grinding for 5+ years. This is why I keep saying: Environment over effort and Health on Easy Mode. Not because it sounds nice. But because I lived both ways.

What surprised me most

Along the way, a few things genuinely shocked me:

• Avoiding the sun can be as bad as smoking (in terms of all‑cause mortality).

• Artificial light isn’t just about eye strain - it impacts metabolism, stress, and sleep.

• CO₂ buildup indoors impairs decision‑making, learning, and sleep.

• Our clothing and furniture shed microplastics and chemicals onto our skin and air.

• Non‑native EMF exposure is likely more important than mainstream messaging suggests (especially at night and near the head).

I realized: diet, exercise, and sleep matter, but your environment is the substrate all of that rests on.

Why I built Live Longer World

I’m not a “theory only” person.

• I test things on myself first.

• I talk to scientists directly (Live Longer World Podcast).

• I dig through old papers and mechanisms.

• Then I try to turn that into something you can actually use.

This newsletter, Live Longer World, is where I:

• Share the protocols and experiments that actually moved the needle for me.

• Explain the biophysics of health (light, air, toxins, environment) in plain English.

• Help you avoid the years of “hard mode” I put myself through.

And because so many products are toxic:

I built healthstacked.com/aasthajs as my curated collection of low‑toxin, PFAS‑screened, lower‑plastic products I actually use at home (light, air, water, kitchen, diagnostics, etc.). Inclusion is 100% merit‑based. Brands don’t pay to place.

For the full catalog of vetted health products hand-picked be me, see Health Stacked.
This newsletter Live Longer World is where I share the protocols and research.

What paid subscribers get (first time I’m sharing this)

Up to now, all my posts have been 100% free. That’s not changing.

• The philosophy, the big levers, and a lot of tactics will stay free.

• But the deep protocol breakdowns (step‑by‑step, with research) are going to live behind a light paywall for members.

Think of it like this:

• Free: “Fix your evening light if you want better sleep. Here’s why it matters and what to aim for.”

• Paid: “Here’s exactly how I set it up (room by room), more under-the-radar protocols, and deeper research.”

If you become a paid subscriber, here’s what you get:

• Detailed playbooks on:

  • Light & circadian rhythm (day and night).

  • Sleep environment (light, air, bedding, EMF).

  • EMF basics and practical mitigation.

  • Non‑toxic living (materials, kitchen, water, personal care).

• Deep‑dive research behind each tactic.

• Early access to my Health on Easy Mode guides and experiments.

I’m not promising a $2M/year Bryan Johnson protocol. He spends millions and built a full‑time operation around his health.

My goal is the opposite:

Live Longer World through Environment over Effort
No grind. No $2M/year budget.
Simple, low‑cost environment tweaks that stack over time.

~$100 per year gets you the deep playbooks and research that took me years (and a lot of mistakes) to assemble.

Upgrade to Paid

Who this is (and isn’t) for

This is for you if:

• You care about energy and healthspan, but don’t want to live in a lab.

• You’re willing to change your environment, not just add another pill.

• You like understanding the “why,” not just copying checklists.

• You’d rather pay a little to save dozens of hours of your own research.

This is not for you if:

• You want a $2M/year Bryan Johnson protocol.

• You only care about macros and macros alone.

• You’re hoping I’ll sell you a miracle supplement stack.

Thank you + what to do next

The best ways to support my work:

1. Share Live Longer World with someone who cares about health & longevity but doesn’t want to live on hard mode.

2. Become a paid subscriber if you want access to the deeper protocols and research.

This Friday, I’ll publish my first paid breakdown, where:

• The first half (free) covers the philosophy and main levers

• The second half (paid) walks through detailed protocols and supporting research

Upgrade to Paid

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Thank you for following along as I parse through the snake‑oil in longevity and practice Health on Easy Mode.

Environment over effort,
Aastha

Follow me on X @aasthajs & Instagram @aasthajs as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity. If my work is useful, become a paid subscriber.

Browse my health stack across 12+ categories (sleep, fitness, non-toxic kitchen, clean water, skincare, diagnostics, lighting).

Two major contributing factors: protein and sunlight.1

Animals in the wild don’t calorie count. Yet they’re never fat in an unhealthy manner. Humans obsess over calories. We struggle, suffer, use willpower. And still gain weight.

What do wild animals know about eating that we don’t?

May the Protein Be With You

The answer lies in the "Protein Leverage Hypothesis." It was developed by David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson, authors of "Eat Like the Animals: What Nature Teaches Us About the Science of Healthy Eating."

Animals, including humans, have evolved separate appetites for protein, carbs, fat, sodium, and calcium. This is the big five that signals a nutritionally balanced diet.

But one nutrient sits above the rest: protein.

Protein is the primary lever for appetite regulation.

Our body prioritizes eating a target amount of protein. It’s our gauge for recognizing whether we’re full or not. Here’s how it works:

• If we under consume our protein target, we don’t feel full. So, our body goes searching for protein in the other nutrients, mainly carbs and fats.

• But carbs and fats are low in protein. So we have to eat a lot of them to make up the difference. That means overshooting on calories.

• For example, if your protein target is 15%, but you only consume 10%, your body will try to find that missing 5% in carbs and fat. Since those are protein-poor, you'll overconsume them trying to close the gap. That's how overeating happens: not from a lack of willpower, but from a protein shortfall.

When protein is high in the diet, the opposite happens. We naturally eat less because our appetite is satisfied sooner.

This applies to herbivores as well. Horses and cows don’t just eat any grass, they seek forage that is protein-rich.

Why eat carbs and fats at all then? Because they are the primary fuels for energy.

Why does our body index on protein?

Because we don’t store it. We can store energy from carbs and fats. But protein? We need to refuel it almost every day. Indexing on protein is our body’s way of making sure we get what we can’t bank.

What is your target protein?

Protein requirements vary by age, gender, muscle, and activity level. But the general pattern:

• Children and adolescents: ~15% protein from daily calories. Essential for growth.

• Young adults: ~18% protein. To support growth and reproduction.

• Pregnant and breastfeeding: ~20% protein. More protein to support the baby.

• Mature adults (30s): ~17% protein.

• Middle age (40-60s): ~15% protein. Protein targets can fall, which may promote healthy aging and potentially slow aging. This is where the association between low protein and longer lifespan fits in.

• Older age (65+): ~20% protein. Protein needs rise again because the body becomes less efficient at retaining it. The drain gets increasingly leaky.

How Small Protein Shortfalls Drive Obesity

Ultra-processed foods are a protein leverage trap. They’re low in protein, high in carbs and fats. So you need to eat a lot of them to hit your protein target, massively overshooting on calories in the process.

Even a 2% protein shortfall can set off a vicious cycle. Your body hunts for that missing protein in carbs and fats. But since those are protein-poor, you eat more of them to compensate. More calories → weight gain → now your larger body needs even more food → and if you’re still eating the same low-protein diet, the cycle repeats.

Practical take-away to lose weight

I’ve tried calorie counting and fad diets and they didn’t work for me. When it comes to food, this is what I did that helped me lose 10lbs:

• Make protein your lever: If you’re craving carbs, eat protein first. When I do this, I notice that I’m fuller and my hunger for sugary carbs goes away. It’s our body telling us to meet our protein target.

• Don't skip carbs and fats entirely: You need them for energy. Just make sure protein comes first.

Do Health on Easy Mode.

May the Protein be with you,

Aastha

Follow me on X @aasthajs & Instagram @aasthajs as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity. If my work is useful, become a paid subscriber.

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You can’t see flicker with the naked eye, but your brain can detect it.

This is a 10 second video that shows the flicker in your bulb.

Most indoor lights/LEDs rapidly pulse on and off 100 to 120 times a second. This is what causes them to invisibly flicker.1 Your computer and phone screens flicker too.

Even though flicker is invisible, it creates rapid light fluctuations that can stress the brain and visual system. Our eyes have to keep adapting to tiny changes in brightness. This is why low-quality lighting and screens can leave one feeling tired and cause headaches.

How to remove flicker from Computer screens:

Screens flicker when brightness is not at 100%. Instead of actually dimming the light, the screen flashes on and off very quickly to fake a lower brightness. (This technique is called Pulse Width Modulation or PWM).

The lower your brightness, the longer the off gaps are, making the flicker more aggressive and harder on your brain. I used to keep the brightness low to reduce the screen glare, till I learned about flicker.

Here is what I do and it significantly reduced my eye strain:

• Increase the brightness to 100%: This keeps the backlight always on and eliminates the flicker / PWM flashing.

• Use a software dimmer like Iris: Since 100% brightness is harsh on the eyes, you need a way to lower the brightness without the flicker. Iris is the best tool for this.

How to remove flicker from Phone screens:

iPhone:

• iPhone 16 and older: Keep your hardware brightness at 100%. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size. Turn on Reduce White Point and slide it to 80-90% to dim the screen safely.

  • Pro Tip: When in the sun, you will have to toggle off White Point so you can actually see your screen. You can set this to a triple click shortcut in your Accessibility settings.

• iPhone 17: Apple added a native setting to reduce flicker, but there is a catch: it only works if your hardware brightness is below 25%. Above 25%, the screen still flickers. Because of this, I highly recommend keeping your brightness at 100% and using the “Reduce White Point” method from the bullet above.

  • If you still want to use the native setting: Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and toggle on Display Pulse Smoothing. (Note: iOS will not let you use this at the same time as Reduce White Point).

Android:

• Just like the iPhone, keep your hardware brightness slider at 100%. Then, go to Settings > Accessibility > Vision Enhancements (or Display) and turn on Extra Dim. This applies a software shadow, allowing you to dim the screen safely without triggering the hardware strobe.

  • Pro Tip: You can add the “Extra Dim” toggle directly to your Quick Settings pull-down menu so you can easily turn it off when you walk out into the sun.

How to remove flicker from Home lights:

• Use Incandescents: While they aren’t always 100% flicker-free, they drastically reduce it. Because they create light using a physical filament that stays glowing hot even as the AC power cycles, the light output remains smooth instead of harshly flashing. The bulbs I use are flicker-free.

  • Additionally, at night, I only use red incandescent bulbs to protect my melatonin and prepare for sleep.

• Check your LEDs: Most cheap LEDs aggressively flicker 120 times per second. If you use LEDs, specifically look for and buy bulbs labeled “Flicker-Free.”

• Ditch the dimmers: Avoid using wall dimmer switches. Dimmers work by chopping up the electrical current, constantly pulsing the power on and off. This creates a harsh, aggressive flicker, even if you are using good bulbs.

These seemingly innocuous 60 second fixes to your home and display lighting will significantly reduce your eye strain. Do Health on Easy Mode.

See all my lighting and blue-light blocking products on my health stack. Inclusion is 100% merit-based. Brands do not pay to place.

Environment over effort,

Aastha

Follow me on X @aasthajs & Instagram @aasthajs as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity. If my work is useful, become a paid subscriber.

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My phone is red too.

Blue-rich LEDs in your house are ruining your sleep.

Blue LEDs are not just in your house lighting. They are hiding in all your device screens as well: computers, TVs, and phones.

At night, blue light signals “alertness” to the brain and suppresses melatonin, the hormone that helps you wind down. Blue light can also cause overeating and alter our metabolism. This is why I only use red incandescent bulbs after sunset.

But changing my lights wasn’t enough. If your house is red but your phone and devices are blue, you are still signaling daytime to your brain.

Here is exactly how I stripped blue light from my devices:

1. iPhone: The “Red Light” Trick

Most people use “Night Shift,” but that only warms the screen slightly. To fully protect your melatonin, you want to eliminate blue pixels entirely and turn your screen monochrome / entirely red.

I set my phone so a simple triple-click of the side button switches it to red mode.

Set it up in 60 seconds:

1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.

2. Tap Color Filters and toggle it ON.

3. Select Color Tint (the last option).

4. Scroll down to the sliders: Slide Intensity and Hue all the way to the right (Max).

5. Go back to the main Accessibility menu.

6. Scroll to the very bottom and tap Accessibility Shortcut.

7. Check Color Filters.

Now, simply triple-click your power button after sunset and your screen will turn pure red.1

2. Android: The Red Mode

If you are on Android, you have two options depending on your model.

Option A: Native Settings (Samsung/Newer Phones)

• Go to Settings > Accessibility > Visibility Enhancements (or “Display”).

• Look for Color Correction or Color Filter.

• Turn it on and select Red or Grayscale with a red tint.

• Like the iPhone, you can often set an “Accessibility Shortcut” to toggle this with a button press.

Option B: The App Solution If your phone doesn’t have a deep red filter built-in, you can try the free app Twilight. It allows you to overlay a red filter on your screen automatically at sunset, far more aggressively than the standard Android “Night Light.”

3. Computer: F.lux

I’ve been using F.lux for over 5 years. It is a free software that syncs with your local sunset time to remove the blue light from your monitor.

While Windows and Mac now have native “Night Light” modes, I find F.lux is much better at getting the screen to a deep, campfire orange/red color rather than just a pale yellow.

4. Blue-Light Free Tablet: Daylight Computer

This tablet has been one of my favorite purchases of the past year.

Unlike an iPad or Kindle, the Daylight Computer is naturally free of blue light and flicker.

I use it primarily for reading. It is a calming experience which makes you realize how aggressive the flicker and glare of traditional screens are.

Use code livelongerworld for $25 off.

5. Blue-light blockers

As evening approaches, I occasionally swap my regular glasses for blue-light blockers. Even though my home is lit by red bulbs, occasional blue light seeps in from the fridge light, the microwave clock, or streetlights outside. These are also very useful when you’re away from home in blue-light rich places or for watching TV at night.

Summary of my stack:

• iPhone: Triple-click for Red Color Filter after sunset.

• Computer: F.lux (all day, but aggressive at night).

• Reading/Browsing: Daylight Tablet.

• Glasses: Blue-light blockers.

See all my lighting and blue-light blocking products on my health stack. Inclusion is 100% merit-based. Brands do not pay to place.

Environment over effort,

Aastha

Follow me on X @aasthajs & Instagram @aasthajs as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity. If my work is useful, become a paid subscriber.

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Bryan Johnson1 uses a sunlight lamp in the mornings to “regulate his circadian rhythm.”

When I first learned about this, I jumped to buy it. I thought I’d use it on cloudy mornings, or while drinking my coffee before heading out for a walk.

Now, this lamp is buried in my attic.

Sunlight lamps are a gimmick and come nowhere close to replicating morning sunlight, even on cloudy days.

I watch the sunrise almost everyday and get over 2 hours of morning sunlight. I’ve lost 9lbs, have higher energy, and an elevated mood. Any amount of sunlight beats a fake sunlamp hands down.

Nothing compares to Sunlight for Circadian Rhythm regulation

Light intensity is an important cue to tell our biological clocks to wake up. Sunlight has 3-5x more light intensity than Bryan Johnson’s sunlamp. Without sunlight’s intensity, your brain’s master clock does not get the same alert cue.

But intensity is just one piece. Health influencers miss the other irreplaceable benefits conferred by morning sunlight. Morning sunlight is irreplaceable in its unique benefits. No sunlamp or LED/artificial light comes close.

Sun vs. Sunlight lamp

Unique benefits of Morning Sunlight

Watching the sunrise and spending time in the morning sun helps with energy production, repair signals, cognitive performance and blood flow. Each wavelength of sunlight is important.2

Morning light is particularly rich in beneficial red & infrared, UVA, and blue light.

Red & infrared: Mitochondrial fuel

• Boosts mitochondria: Recharges your cells’ batteries for higher energy.3

• Balances Blood Sugar: Helps smooth out glucose spikes after meals.

• Lowers inflammation: Soothes musculoskeletal pain and speeds up recovery.

• Blood Circulation: Delivers more oxygen to your body by improving blood flow.

• Repairs Skin: Stimulates collagen to repair damage and reduce wrinkles.

• Sharpens Vision: Revitalizes aging eyes to see clearly for longer.4

UVA: The Morning Repair signal

UVA and UVB have been demonized with little care for nuance and the benefits they confer.5 Morning UVA significantly improves cardiovascular health, among its many benefits.6

• Lowers Blood Pressure: Widens blood vessels to improve flow and heart health.

• Signals Repair: Tells your cells and mitochondria to start fixing damage.

• Boosts Mood: Triggers natural feel-good chemicals for a morning high.

• Fixes Sleep: Sets your internal clock for deeper rest at night.

• Builds Melatonin: Triggers production of melatonin in the morning so it’s ready for release at night. Melatonin is the hormone that lets you sleep better.

Blue light: Cognition boost

Morning sunlight contains blue light balanced with red and infrared. This signals your body to increase cortisol, helping you to wake up and feel alert.

Blue light from the sun also:

• Boosts Serotonin: Triggers your body’s happy hormone to elevate your mood.

• Sharpens Focus: Enhances brain power to keep you alert and dialed in all day.

• Sets Your Clock: Signals daytime to every cell to keep your daily rhythm on track.7

The problem is artificial blue light at night and isolated blue light without the other wavelengths that come from the sun.

If you don’t get morning sunlight, you’re doing health on hard mode. You rely on grinding and 100 pills like Bryan Johnson ;)

Without sunlight you miss out on energy production, deeper sleep, improved blood flow, higher cognition, cellular repair and so much more.

Be smarter. Do Health on Easy Mode.

Don’t be me 3 years ago. Don’t fall for Bryan Johnson’s sunlamp trap.

Go out and get the real deal: sunlight.

Environment over effort,

Aastha

Follow me on X @aasthajs & Instagram @aasthajs as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity. If my work is useful, become a paid subscriber.

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A friend came over for dinner carrying this monitor with him:

“Oh boy, you need to open your windows right now.”

“Why, what happened?” I asked.

He pointed to the carbon dioxide monitor which read 1,032.

“The carbon dioxide buildup in your house is making us dumber.”

Clearly, he isn’t your typical dinner guest. But his advice helped. I bought the same Co2 monitor that night and started opening windows.

Co2 buildup kills work performance and impairs sleep:

• Decision making: Impaired by up to 50% in office workers with high Co2 levels.1

• Sleep quality: High Co2 ruins sleep2 and work performance the following day. Sleeping with no ventilation unwittingly destroys our rest.

• Headaches: High Co2 levels can cause headaches and raise blood pressure.3

• Children’s learning: High Co2 levels impairs their ability to learn4 and makes them sleepy. They are more vulnerable given their high metabolic rate.

What Co2 levels should you aim for?

I aim for Co2 levels below 600ppm5 in the house.

Protocols for managing high Co2 levels:

• Ventilate well: Open doors and windows.

• Monitor Co2 levels indoors: I frequently check my Co2 monitor and if the levels are higher than 600ppm, I open another window or my backyard door.

• Use exhaust fans: Turn on kitchen and bathroom exhausts to pull out indoor air.

• Air filters vs Ventilation: Air filters don’t reduce Co2. Only ventilation works. Worried about outdoor pollution? Use an air filter for that.

See my exact Clean Air setup on my health stack. Inclusion is 100% merit-based. Brands do not pay to place.

99% of human life was spent breathing outside, not in locked boxes.

We evolved breathing fresh outdoor air in constant motion. Now we’re sealed in boxes re-breathing our own Co2. Open your windows and stop making yourself dumber.

This is Health on Easy Mode. No grinding. No pills. Fix your environment.

Environment over effort,

Aastha

Follow me on X @aasthajs & Instagram @aasthajs as I parse through the snake-oil in longevity. If my work is useful, become a paid subscriber.

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This is what our house looks like after sunset.

And it’s how I increased my deep sleep by ~40% (~2 hrs) for under $20.

It looks ridiculous. But this one change has been the single biggest lever for my sleep.

I fall asleep faster, sleep deeper, and wake up earlier.

The change: after sunset, we only use red incandescent bulbs instead of normal LEDs.

It cost under $20 and has already given me hundreds of hours of better sleep.

You might think: “How can one change have such an impact? This sounds like a gimmick.”

The right change has trickle‑down effects. The red lights help me:

• Eat smaller dinners.

• Be in bed by 9:30pm.

• Fall asleep within ~10 minutes.

• No more 3am wake-ups to pee.

• Wake up at dawn or with sunrise.

Sleep advice typically focuses on routines, alcohol, meal timing, and exercise. Very few people talk about how indoor light quietly sabotages all of those.

For me, better sleep started with changing my night lights.

How Your Indoor Lights Quietly Wreck Your Sleep

Most homes are lit with bright, cool‑white LED bulbs. LED bulbs are:

• Blue‑heavy, red/infrared‑poor: Blue light signals daytime alertness to the brain and suppresses melatonin, the hormone that helps you wind down.1

• Linked to overeating at night: Evening blue‑rich light has been associated with later eating, higher calorie intake, and altered metabolism.23

• Mismatched to nature: As the sun sets, natural light shifts from blue to infrared. Our indoor LEDs at night do the opposite: bright and blue right when your brain expects the opposite.

• Flickery: Many LEDs have invisible flicker that can trigger headaches or strain for people.

Why I Use Red Incandescent Bulbs After Dark Instead of Normal LEDs

• No night alert signal: Red bulbs emit no blue light, so they don’t send the same “be alert” signal at night.

• No night-time cravings: Less blue light = less evening snacking and a stronger melatonin signal.4

• Better glucose regulation: Red/infrared light has beneficial effects on mitochondria and glucose regulation. LED bulbs lack near-infrared light compared to incandescent bulbs. (See my podcast with Glen Jeffery for using red lights to lower glucose).

• No eye strain: Incandescent bulbs emit a smooth, continuous glow similar to firelight. In contrast, LEDs produce a sharp “spike” of light that creates noise to the brain and eye strain.

Practically, this looks like: no LED lighting after sunset → a few red lamps on → phone in red light mode → bedroom as dark as possible.

Fixing night lights was just the start of cleaning up my environment.

My Journey to Health on Easy Mode: Parsing the snake-oil in longevity

My longevity protocol was a second job: supplements, calorie counting, gym grinding, willpower.

So I was shocked when a simple $20 change to my night lights achieved what years of traditional sleep advice couldn’t.

Once I fixed light, it was hard to ignore everything else in my environment: air, water, plastics, EMF.

healthstacked.com/aasthajs is my curated collection of the exact products I use to change my environment so health becomes “automatic.”

• 100+ exact products I use at home (and why).

• 12+ categories (light, water, air, emf, haircare, skincare, diagnostics).

• PFAS‑screened, plastic-free, non-toxic vetted picks.

Inclusion is 100% merit‑based. Brands don’t pay to place.

Health on Easy Mode thrived in my ultimate stress test: Life after my daughter was born.

My rigorous longevity protocol wasn’t an option, so I went all-in on “Easy Mode.” The result? Effortlessly lost the baby weight, better sleep, higher energy than before, and elevated mood.

This journey led me to two big realizations:

1. Controlling your environment makes health the default. No willpower required.

2. You can’t out-supplement a bad environment. Environment over effort.

The goal is simple: Less hype. Less junk. More health.

Copy My Sleep Setup (what I actually use at home)

• My Sleep Setup: The red bulbs, blue-light blockers, mattress, and blackout curtains I use.

• Browse the full catalog: Explore the full Health Stacked collection of 500+ products.

  

Check out my health stack at healthstacked.com/aasthajs

If you start anywhere, start with light. Swap a few bulbs and see what happens to your sleep. Drop a comment if you try it!

I’m Aastha, and thanks for reading Live Longer World. I write about my Health on Easy Mode protocols and interview scientists at the frontiers of longevity. The goal is to parse through the snake-oil in longevity.

With the holiday season upon us, most of us will be indulging in some sweets with our families. Eating desserts as part of the holiday celebration is very different from eating treats mindlessly.

I have a hypothesis that If you generally eat clean, occasional desserts enjoyed with family won't hurt your health - the joy helps blunt the negative effects!

There is no better time than the holiday season to enjoy desserts in merriment. However, I do believe that many desserts can be made significantly healthier (to the point where they could be called “healthy1 snacks”) while still being delicious. I’ve long believed that healthy food should be yum. It’s the best way for people to avoid eating processed food.

I find store-bought desserts too sweet, so I make my own using almond flour and natural sweetness from berries or a tinge of honey. No added raw sugar.

Below are 4 of my favorite recipes. The best part is that they take under 15 minutes of cooking time.

Given how much I love these healthy home-made desserts, I thought I’ll share mine in case others enjoy them too. Feel free to tweak them or use AI to find healthier versions of your own favorite desserts. Hope these serve as some inspiration!

Almond flour Blueberry Muffins

My mother-in-law makes these delicious blueberry muffins with no sugar. I devour many at a time!

Ingredients

• 2 cups almond flour

• 3 eggs

• 3 tablespoons maple syrup (optional if you want more sweetness, we don’t add it)

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• pinch of sea salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 5 tablespoon melted ghee (can use coconut oil instead)

• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda and sea salt.

3. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, vanilla and coconut oil.

4. Combine both mixtures together. Once well incorporated, add blueberries and mix.

5. Fill a muffin pan with liners. Fill each liner with batter.

6. Bake in oven for 15–20 minutes.

Almond flour 5 ingredient cookies

These cookies take 5 minutes to make and it’s hard to believe how they taste so indulgent!

Ingredients and Instructions:

• 2 cups Almond flour

• Little bit of honey

• Dark chocolate chips

• 1 tsp Baking powder

• 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

• Add some cream / butter if too dry

• Mix well, make them into cookie shapes with your hands

• Bake for 11 minutes at 350 degrees F

Olive Oil Nutty Berry Chocolate Cake

Nuts, berries, olive oil and cocoa..hard to go wrong with this one!

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour

• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed

• 1/4 cup ground hemp seeds

• 1/4 cup ground chia seeds

• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (such as walnuts or almonds)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 cocoa powder (I forgot to add it in the cake in the picture!)

Wet Ingredients:

• 5 large eggs

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Berries:

• 1 cup or more mixed berries (such as blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries), fresh or frozen

Instructions:

1. Preheat the Oven: Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

2. Mix Dry Ingredients in a bowl.

3. Prepare Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, whisk together eggs, olive oil, almond milk and vanilla extract.

4. Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients: Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until well combined.

5. Fold in Berries: Gently fold in the mixed berries into the batter.

6. Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and spread it evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until done.

Notes:

• To give you an idea of proportions, for the big glass tray displayed in the picture above, I made was 4x the proportions in this recipe.

• You can also drizzle some melted dark chocolate on top when eating!

Protein berry ice-cream

Homemade ice-cream sorbet with berries, vanilla protein powder, almond milk, macadamia nuts, and a touch of pomegranate juice! Topped with pecans.

I’m a sucker for ice-cream but the ones in stores are too sweet. So I bought a Ninja Creami ice-cream maker and decided to make my own yum healthy rendition of it.

It’s surprisingly delicious and now I get to relive my childhood days of eating tubs of ice-cream everyday.

Wishing everyone happy holidays! See you in the new year for some more health and happiness.

Aastha

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“About two-thirds of the human body is water.”

This is a statement we’ve grown up hearing. When you picture this, I imagine you view liquid water inside our bodies being mixed with cells, proteins and all the other fun stuff. But what if I told you that this water is not the liquid water you and I are most familiar with? And no, it’s not ice or vapor form either.

Water in our cells behaves in its own way. And this behavior of water dictates many important functions of cells, including our health and the manifestation of disease. So what I’m saying is:

1. Water in our cells is not just free-flowing liquid water - it behaves in special ways.

2. This special behavior of water dictates critical functions in our cells that determines our health, including potentially, cancer.

In today’s essay, I will introduce you to one forgotten theory in biology that explains how water in our cells plays a large role in bioelectricity. And if you’ve read my previous essay on bioelectricity or listened to any of my podcasts with Mike Levin, you will be familiar with how bioelectricity1 is critical in cancer, regeneration, and longevity.

Here is what I will discuss:

1. A theory on how the structure of water in cells effects bioelectricity (Association-Induction hypothesis or AIH)

2. Longevity Implications of taking AIH seriously

3. My water-bioelectric theory of cancer (hypothesis, but not crazy)

Association-Induction Hypothesis

Don’t be afraid of the textbook-like name of this hypothesis. The basics laid out simply, which I’ll do, will widen your perspective on understanding not just cells, but also disease and health.

In my bioelectricity essay, I wrote about the role of ion channels and ion pumps in enabling the flow of selective ions in and out of the cell, which thereby creates a charge difference inside and outside the cell. This results in bioelectricity when these charges flow.

Pertaining to ion pumps, I made a small footnote saying that the ion pump theory had come into question, critiqued by what is called the Association-Induction hypothesis proposed by Gilbert Ling. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve taken some time to zoom in on this small footnote, and realized that this theory ought to be explained through more than a footnote.

Ion pumps don’t work - Membrane pump theory rejected

Ling rejected the membrane pump theory which was key in explaining how ions distribute inside and outside the cell. Briefly, the membrane pump theory states that ion pumps (proteins on the cell membrane) are responsible for pumping in and out certain ions - mostly pumping in potassium ions and keeping out sodium ions. This difference in ion concentration in and out of the cells creates a charge difference.

In addition to other critiques of the membrane pump theory2, Ling said that in order for the pump to work, it would require amounts of ATP that are larger than what is feasible for us to generate. So, there must be a different way in which cells create their ion distribution, and this different way was laid out through his AIH theory.

AIH states that there is a tight coupling between the proteins, ions, and water inside our cells, and it’s the nature and structure of this connection that gives rise to ion flow dynamics, and ultimately bioelectricity. Let me explain.

Water and AIH

As mentioned above, typically, it’s assumed that water in our cells behaves like the liquid water that is familiar to us. Ling said that water in our cells is in fact not in a free-flowing state - if you punctured a cell, you wouldn’t have water gushing out. Instead, water is bound in multiple layers to the proteins inside the cell in a structured way. The core concepts of AIH are as follows:

1. Proteins are central to cell structure and function. They have binding sites where other molecules, like ATP, can attach.

2. ATP (the energy currency of the cell) binds to proteins and polarizes them. What this means is that ATP shifts the protein’s electron distribution, thereby creating charge.

3. Polarized proteins generate tiny electric fields.

4. These electric fields of the protein in turn influence nearby water molecules, which get attracted to the protein and just like magnets, form ordered layers.

5. Each water layer in turn attracts other water layers. Thus, these water layers reinforce one another, creating what Ling called a “stacked dipole” structure.

6. The result is structured (or ordered) water bound to the protein surface.

   1. As mentioned, this water behaves very differently from normal liquid water — it’s more organized, stable, and selective.

7. Structured water and polarized proteins create an environment that attracts some ions and excludes others. Specifically, it favors potassium (K⁺) and excludes sodium (Na⁺). For why, see footnote3.

8. This natural preference for potassium helps maintain the electrical difference between the inside and outside of the cell, which is vital for processes like nerve impulses and muscle contractions.

If you glossed over the above points, here is the TLDR version of AIH that explains it.

TLDR:

ATP binds to protein and polarizes protein. Polarized protein attracts the nearby water molecules which get ordered in layers by the protein. This ordered water selectively adsorbs potassium ions, not sodium ions. Thus, the inside of the cell has higher potassium ions compared to sodium, which creates a charge difference. This charge difference leads to bioelectricity.

In the membrane pump theory version, the ATP pumps do work to push the sodium ions out of the cell, whereas in Ling’s version, the tight connection between ATP-protein-water creates an environment whereby potassium ions are naturally attracted to the inside of the cell, and sodium ions are not.

What this means is that in the AIH model, proteins, water, and ions work together as a coherent, self-organizing system.

1. The system remains stable without constant energy input, unlike traditional models that rely on membrane pumps and active transport.

2. This makes the living cell an electrically ordered environment, not just a bag of chemicals.

Before I can state my cancer theory, I have to explain how researchers have taken Gilbert Ling’s AIH ideas forward. Again, these are relevant to understanding how we age.

AIH extended: Coherence, Microtubules, and Mitochondria

As explained, AIH implies a tight connection between proteins-water-ions. This connection creates a stable configuration in the cell, providing organization to other molecules and structures in the cell and allowing them to work smoothly. At the same time as these structures benefit from the protein-water-ion stability, they also contribute to adding stability to the cell.

Microtubules are one such structure, I want to highlight. They are long, cylindrical protein filaments that form part of the cytoskeleton, the cell’s internal framework. Microtubules are traditionally known for roles in cell division, transport, and structural support, but emerging theories suggest they might even play a key role in consciousness. Because of their highly ordered and polar structure, microtubules may help maintain and transmit coherence across the cell by acting like biological cables — organizing electric fields, guiding molecular traffic, and possibly coordinating long-range order among proteins and water. They may even support subtle vibrational or electromagnetic signaling that helps preserve the polarized state described in AIH.

The below is how the connection between AIH, mitochondria, ATP, and microtubules likely plays out:

1. AIH maintains order in cells by organizing proteins, water, and ions into a stable, polarized matrix that functions without constant energy input.

2. This ordered matrix helps stabilize the surrounding intracellular environment, influencing the behavior of organelles, cytoskeletal elements, and signaling molecules.

3. Other structures contribute to maintaining cellular stability as well — most notably, the microtubules.

4. Microtubules are known to generate coherence / stability in cells by providing cell’s internal timing, communication, and spatial organization. They are like the conductors of a biochemical orchestra. For example, microtubule oscillations can help synchronize timing for ion channel openings, vesicle transport, gene expression timing, cell cycle transitions etc.

   1. The oscillations also generate EM fields which might be how microtubules coordinate these activities mentioned above

   2. So any dysfunction in these oscillations could result in internal EM field collapse, coordination across cells breaks down, and might lead to cellular incoherence (which could be a marker for disease and death)

5. There is a 2-way feedback loop between AIH and microtubules. Any disturbance in stability created by AIH may affect microtubule oscillations. And any disturbance in microtubule oscillations may affect AIH or in general the cell’s stability

6. There is also a 2-way feedback loop between microtubules and mitochondria.

   1. Microtubules guide mitochondria to areas where ATP is needed. Mitochondria frequently travel along or anchor to microtubules. Given AIH needs ATP, microtubules play a role in guiding ATP to AIH.

   2. Microtubules depend on mitochondrial ATP to maintain their own polarized state and structural integrity.

7. So any disruption in microtubules might cause mitochondria guidance to collapse. And any disruption in ATP might cause microtubules to not perform leading to incoherence.

Implications of AIH

If the Association-Induction Hypothesis (AIH) is correct, it challenges many foundational assumptions in modern biology and medicine. It suggests that the cell is not primarily driven by random molecular collisions or by membrane pumps using constant energy, but rather by a stable, structured network of polarized proteins, ordered water, and selectively adsorbed ions. This perspective radically elevates the role of water from passive solvent to active organizer of life. In terms of aging, it implies that cellular decline may not be caused solely by damage or mutation, but by the gradual loss of this internal coherence — the ability of proteins to maintain polarization and structure surrounding water. If that’s true, interventions aimed at preserving protein structure, ATP availability, and water ordering could become central strategies for extending healthspan. In medicine, this framework could lead to new diagnostic tools that detect early shifts in cellular order, and new treatments that restore the cell’s natural electrical balance. Overall, AIH reframes the cell as an organized, self-regulating system — and opens the door to rethinking aging, disease, and healing from the ground up.

My cancer theory based on AIH:

The ideas / inspiration are largely borrowed from a chapter titled A New Paradigm of Cancer: Loss of Coherence Precedes Mutation from Laurent Jaeken’s book The Coacervate-Coherence Nature of Life.

The common paradigm in the field is to think of cancer as being caused by genetic mutations. Due to damage, our DNA acquires mutations which turn cancerous - this is known as the somatic mutation theory of cancer. People like Dr. Seyfried have challenged this theory saying that it’s not genetic mutations that cause cancer, but in fact it’s damage to the mitochondria. In some cases, the mutation might be downstream of the mitochondrial damage, but it’s not the primary cause. Charley Lineweaver with his Atavistic theory of cancer says that the genetic mutations that cause cancer are not random as stated by the somatic mutation theory, but can be predicted using an evolutionary lens.

Based on AIH, another theory on cancer is that it’s caused by loss of coherence in the cell. According to AIH and AIH extended that I explained above, normal healthy cells are in a stable coherent state created by the coupling of proteins-water-ions, and the mitochondria-microtubule connection. A breakdown in any of these stages might lead to loss or order in the cell. What if cancer is this loss of order beyond repair? The theory of cancer I’m proposing is that cancer is a loss of order as maintained by AIH. So the question is what stage does this loss of order occur? There could be different levels of causation that creates loss of order in AIH. Similarly, there could be different levels at which to target cancer. Let’s start with looking at the different levels of causation in AIH that could cause disruption to the cell, and ultimately cancer.

1. ATP Deficiency -> Protein not polarized

   1. In AIH, ATP plays a critical role in polarizing the protein which leads to the protein-water-ion connection

   2. Any deficiency in ATP, might disrupt this coupling and hence the coherence in the cell

2. Protein dysfunction -> ATP can’t bind correctly

3. Water doesn’t polarize despite ATP + Protein being fine

   1. This could be due to the water structure itself breaking down

4. Water fails to adsorb the right ions, thereby disrupting the normal charge of the cell

5. Protein-Ion-Water connection is fine, but EMF field is still disrupted

6. Microtubule dysfunction -> Collapse of intracellular coherence

   1. Dysfunction in microtubules might mean that ATP is not guided to the right place or it might mean a general loss in coherence and EM fields given microtubules play a large role in being the cell’s conductor

7. Mitochondria dysfunction which not only disrupts ATP, but is also unable to guide microtubules to the right place

Based on AIH and AIH extended, these are the different levels which could get disrupted, potentially leading to cancer. I recognize that is a bit of a reductionist view, but it’s helpful in parsing out the details and figuring out what to investigate. Of course, given the feedback loop between these different levels, it could be the case that several of these levels fail and a failure in one level causes the other levels to fail. It’s not necessarily the case that in order to fix the problem, we have to fix the level that failed first. In other words, we may not have to address the root cause. We could make a fix at a different level which could restore order back to the cell (again due to the feedback loop and back-up mechanisms that our cells use). For example, if the cell’s coherent structure fails because of ATP deficiency, which in turn causes microtubules to fail as well, we don’t necessarily have to fix the ATP deficiency. We can perhaps fix the microtubule dysfunction without fixing the ATP deficiency which could be enough to restore the cell back to order.

Understanding AIH and its different levels gives us a starting point to investigate cancer from an AIH (loss of order) perspective.

Implications of Cancer theory

If cancer is due to a loss of order and coherence in the cell, and because of a breakdown in one or more of the factors I mentioned above, it implies that we should be looking at some of these levels to diagnose and solve cancer.

We could diagnose cancer by measuring a change in the water structure for example4. Some of these diagnostic methods have been tried, I haven’t gone deeper into them to know enough. Or we could solve cancer by restoring the normal EM field of the cell. Perhaps next time I’ll cover some of the different avenues we should explore to diagnose and solve cancer.

Deaths from cancer only keep rising. Clearly whatever we’re doing right now is not working. Maybe our current theory of cancer being a genetic disease is wrong. We need to test new cancer theories. And this cancer-AIH theory seems promising, yet very underexplored.

Follow me on X @aasthajs and Insta @aasthajs for more on longevity.

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Thanks to Benjamin, Cameron, and Glix for feedback on this essay.