whygetfat on Nostr: Irene Lyon: "What's the connection there with those hormones in the evening and that ...
Irene Lyon: "What's the connection there with those hormones in the evening and that blue light? And the sex hormones […] like progesterone […]"
Carrie Bennett: "I think everyone has heard of cortisol before. Right? We know it's our stress hormone. And I think everyone realizes we do get a surge of cortisol in the morning. It's meant to wake us up and energize us. So we have to have elevated cortisol in the morning.
"But before it's cortisol, it's actually the master steroid hormone called pregnenolone. So let's say, nine o'clock in the morning, the mitochondria […] make pregnenolone for us in all of our cells, but there's especially the ones that are in our sex cells.
"And that pregnenolone can become a lot of different things. So at that point of time, my body, my brain, takes a snapshot and says, 'OK. Is Carrie in a safe space to make a baby? Does she have enough body fat stored on her? Is this a time of year when food will be plentiful to feed a growing baby?' All of those things.
"And so I can funnel that pregnenolone to progesterone, to estrogen, to all the things that my body would need in order to prep, to create a baby, and grow a pregnancy.
"Or I can be in a state of, 'Wait. Carrie is in stress. She's being chased by a saber-toothed tiger. She's got a deadline at work.' And so they'll funnel a lot more of that pregnenolone into cortisol.
"And so every morning my body is making this decision for me in the morning.
"And then when ultraviolet light, the more intense frequencies of ultraviolet light appear, when the sun gets higher and higher, that actually is the off switch. That's why cortisol starts to slow down, it starts to decline.
"And that's where the other steroid hormones, the estrogen, the progesterone, the testosterone, also start to just kind of create this balance. They get regular. 'OK, Carrie has too much estrogen in here. We're gonna boot it out this way. Testosterone is low, we got to raise it up a little bit.' And so that's where the body starts to regulate those hormones.
"So picture what happens at night. When the day is waning, and all of a sudden we get that jolt of blue, and we're producing cortisol again. We're producing all of these steroid hormones again, and there's never any ultraviolet light to counter that. Which means that all of a sudden we're having the challenge of, 'I'm making the hormones, but I don't have the off switch to kind of regulate it.'
"And so what that means is, to regulate hormones, it's about just modifying your light environment. It's about getting outside key times during the day. OK. Let me get a little morning light. Let me get a little ultraviolet light. When the sun is going down let me make sure I tell my body the sun is going down, and I keep my house chill and dim and calm. Let me do what I need to do to mitigate the blue light from entering my eyes if I'm watching screens, so that you don't get that hormone surge at night.
"And you kind of get that nice sleep, your melatonin is giving you some repair, and then when you wake up and you go outside, you get the natural blue to start the process over in a healthy way again." —Carrie Bennett with Irene Lyon @ 52:03–55:14 https://youtu.be/_rGxeExQYjs&t=3123
Carrie Bennett: "I think everyone has heard of cortisol before. Right? We know it's our stress hormone. And I think everyone realizes we do get a surge of cortisol in the morning. It's meant to wake us up and energize us. So we have to have elevated cortisol in the morning.
"But before it's cortisol, it's actually the master steroid hormone called pregnenolone. So let's say, nine o'clock in the morning, the mitochondria […] make pregnenolone for us in all of our cells, but there's especially the ones that are in our sex cells.
"And that pregnenolone can become a lot of different things. So at that point of time, my body, my brain, takes a snapshot and says, 'OK. Is Carrie in a safe space to make a baby? Does she have enough body fat stored on her? Is this a time of year when food will be plentiful to feed a growing baby?' All of those things.
"And so I can funnel that pregnenolone to progesterone, to estrogen, to all the things that my body would need in order to prep, to create a baby, and grow a pregnancy.
"Or I can be in a state of, 'Wait. Carrie is in stress. She's being chased by a saber-toothed tiger. She's got a deadline at work.' And so they'll funnel a lot more of that pregnenolone into cortisol.
"And so every morning my body is making this decision for me in the morning.
"And then when ultraviolet light, the more intense frequencies of ultraviolet light appear, when the sun gets higher and higher, that actually is the off switch. That's why cortisol starts to slow down, it starts to decline.
"And that's where the other steroid hormones, the estrogen, the progesterone, the testosterone, also start to just kind of create this balance. They get regular. 'OK, Carrie has too much estrogen in here. We're gonna boot it out this way. Testosterone is low, we got to raise it up a little bit.' And so that's where the body starts to regulate those hormones.
"So picture what happens at night. When the day is waning, and all of a sudden we get that jolt of blue, and we're producing cortisol again. We're producing all of these steroid hormones again, and there's never any ultraviolet light to counter that. Which means that all of a sudden we're having the challenge of, 'I'm making the hormones, but I don't have the off switch to kind of regulate it.'
"And so what that means is, to regulate hormones, it's about just modifying your light environment. It's about getting outside key times during the day. OK. Let me get a little morning light. Let me get a little ultraviolet light. When the sun is going down let me make sure I tell my body the sun is going down, and I keep my house chill and dim and calm. Let me do what I need to do to mitigate the blue light from entering my eyes if I'm watching screens, so that you don't get that hormone surge at night.
"And you kind of get that nice sleep, your melatonin is giving you some repair, and then when you wake up and you go outside, you get the natural blue to start the process over in a healthy way again." —Carrie Bennett with Irene Lyon @ 52:03–55:14 https://youtu.be/_rGxeExQYjs&t=3123