The story I hope people will tell when I’m gone is that I reminded them the sun was enough That I helped them see their body as perfectly designed, not broken That I have them the tools to reclaim their health without fear, dogma, or dependence on a system that profits from disease management and sickness If people say, ‘Because of Zaid, I started watching sunrise, developed a mad tan, changed how I lived, and passed that wisdom to my kids,’ then I’ve done my job That’s the legacy I want A ripple effect of people realigning with nature’s rhythm. Circadian alignment en masse

Blue light has the ability to shrink adipocytes (fat cells) and make them more efficient at burning fat But wasn’t this study done using isolated blue light, divorced from full spectrum sunlight? You’d be correct I will always argue that the results would be way more impressive with full spectrum sunlight because it shows us the full effect, rather than just proof of mechanism This study narrowed in on 450 - 480 nanometer blue light to show melanopsin/TRPC signaling in fat cells That’s elegant for mechanistic proof, but it only scratches the surface In nature, light is never monochromatic. Full spectrum sunlight is polychromatic and carries a dynamic orchestra of wavelengths (UV-A, UV-B, violet, green, red, infrared), all working in layered synergy What we see in this paper is the bare minimum effect. Blue alone tweaks lipolysis and adipokine signaling But in the real world, those signals would be amplified, modulated, and stabilized by the rest of the spectrum Researchers often isolate a single wavelength to prove mechanism, in this case, that subcutaneous white adipocytes (scWAT) have a melanopsin/TRPC mediated light sensitive pathway By showing that just blue light can trigger measurable currents and metabolic changes (lipolysis, adiponectin/leptin secretion shifts, reduced lipid droplet size), they establish causality Melanopsin (the blue light sensing opsin found throughout the body) absorbs in this range and directly mediates fat cell signaling This study shows proof of principle Your fat cells are literally photoreceptive, they “see” blue light through melanopsin and change metabolic behavior in response What does this mean from a physiological standpoint? That under the sun, blue light within the full spectrum helps tune fat metabolism, aligning lipolysis and adipokine signaling with the day’s activity/eating cycle But, this is a two way street It also means that isolated blue light at night will distort adipocyte signaling, promoting fat storage, leptin/adiponectin imbalance, and metabolic dysfunction through circadian disruption If the researchers used full spectrum sunlight (or at least a solar simulator), they likely would have seen: 🌞 Greater lipid mobilization because of red/infrared synergy 🌞 Stronger leptin/adiponectin modulation (hormonal entrainment, not just a stress response) 🌞 Circadian phase reinforcement with UV + blue acting as zeitgebers 🌞 Less oxidative “noise” or stress compared to blue in isolation Instead of proving that fat cells can sense blue, the paper would have demonstrated that sunlight orchestrates fat metabolism through opsins in fat itself That’s a paradigm shifting story

New Substack article is live

The Sun Is the Original Gym

Why training outdoors aligns your body with nature’s design.

The power of circadian principles