[00:00:00] Speaker A: Patriot is WWTC Minneapolis St. Paul FM 107.5 K298CO Minneapolis Intelligent Radio with SRN News. I'm Bob Agnew in Washington. Envoys from Iran and the United States have arrived in Oman ahead of the first talks over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, the first serious talk since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. The talks will be between Iran, Iran's foreign minister, and the US Middle east envoy. That's Steve Witkoff. The president repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran's nuclear program if a deal is not reached. Senator Tom Cotton says Iran should have no doubt about where the President stands. The very first conversation I ever had with Donald Trump was in the late spring of 2015. He is just starting out as a candidate and I was fighting against Barack Obama's ill advised nuclear deal with Iran and he thanked me for my efforts on that, that he agreed with me.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Totally and he's never wavered.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Senator Cotton spoke this week with the Salem Radio Network. This is SRN News.
This week on the Michelle Tafoya Podcast.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: She's known as Stacy on the right. We're so egalitarian in that way.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Any person on the planet can be an American.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: So if we're going to give you.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Our complete acceptance and you get to.
[00:01:21] Speaker C: Adopt our heritage, a heritage of winning.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: If you want that, all you have.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: To do is learn how to speak.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: English, swear allegiance to the flag and love this country. You should get into us the way.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: We'Re letting you get into us. Dream the Michelle Tafoya Podcast at Salem Podcast Network what would happen if the church gathered as one on Friday, April 25? Experience a powerful night of worship and prayer at Merge Citywide Worship Night with special guest worship leader Joel Barnes. Early bird tickets are just $15. Don't wait. General admission is $25 starting April 15th at 10am Come expect it. Come ready. Register now at mergeusa.org that's mergeusa.org it's our spring sale at Master Pool and Spa. Now is the best time to buy. You'll save up to 30 to 60%. Get quick professional delivery and zero percent financing. We have spas for any backyard or budget. Huge variety of sizes and fe choose from one of our in stock spots or built to order a custom spa. We're locally owned and family run for over 20 years. Come in today and tap into our expertise to assist you in choosing the perfect spa for your family. You won't find any of those imported knockoffs here all our spas are built in the USA with full nationwide warranties. Build an outdoor oasis and save thousands without the expense and maintenance of a pool. Spend more quality family time together while melting the stress away. Transform your backyard in one day and save up to 60% off at our Spa Spring Sale. Visit Master pool and Spa 394 Louisiana St. Louis Park. Call 9522-5306-6595-2253, 0665. Be sure to tell them you heard it on the Patriot. Larry Olda here and I'm excited to.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Tell you about my new movie called.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Electric Vehicles the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Now I love my gas powered car but I also care about the planet and so I pose the question, are EVS RA really better for the planet than gas powered vehicles? An electric vehicle is a computer with four wheels and some seats. Torque is instantaneous. The batteries are lasting very long. Charging them at your house using solar is amazing. What do you do with these batteries when they go bad long distance? They create anxiety. Sitting in the parking lot just burst into flames. The components are made in China so.
[00:03:45] Speaker D: There could be tracking mechanisms put into Americans cars.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: We're gonna be relying on China.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: It's not just a movie about cars.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: It'S about how we choose to shape our future and the eth environmental and security issues they create.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Electric Vehicles the Good, the Bad and.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: The Ugly Produced by Impactful Pictures.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Watch it or buy the DVD on.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: April 22nd at SalemNow.com that's SalemNow.com did.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: You know that there's one place you can go to hear God's words of.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Hope spoken into your life? Anytime, anywhere?
[00:04:20] Speaker C: One place.
Listen to your favorite Christian programs, read.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Daily devotionals and get answers to your.
[00:04:28] Speaker C: Tough questions
[email protected] or on the OnePlace.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: App in the Apple and Android app stores.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: Visit OnePlace.com today.
[00:04:40] Speaker D: Join me to rally to read 100.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Books Reading is Fundamental invites you to visit rallytoread.org today to learn about our reading campaign. Join the pledge to read 100 Book your child's favorite authors, read their books and find activities to keep young readers motivated. Teachers can also enter the Rally to Read sweepstakes for a chance to win 100 books for their own school.
[00:05:03] Speaker C: Subject to rules.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Visit rallytoread.org today. Rally to Read Good morning, I'm Dr. Kerry Geld and welcome to Wellness 1280 on Open youn Eyes Radio. Please listen as I discuss the newest information in the world of health, nutrition and Sports. Every Saturday morning 6am Central Time on AM 1280, the Patriot. Also, please share your thoughts by emailing me at drkerrygelbmail.com that's D R K E R R Y G-E L bmail.com and visit my new website, wellness1280.com where we have all guest links, Wellness 1280 info and previous shows. Wellness is taking over the Patriot Airways for the next hour, so sit back and enjoy my interview with blue light experts Liz Condon and Anouk Williman. We're surrounded by screens, phones, tablets, computers, all these digital devices. They're constantly bombarding us with blue light. But what if this seemingly harmless light is secretly disrupting our sleep, altering our mood, and even increasing our risk of diabetes? Well, today's guest, Liz Condon and Anouk Williman, has spent years studying the impact of blue light. As executives at Felix Gray, they are on a mission to restore natural sleep, enhance health, and optimize human performance.
But is blue light truly as dangerous as some claim?
And more importantly, what can we do to protect ourselves? Stay tuned as we uncover the truth on Open YOUR Eyes radio and podcast with Dr. Kerry Gelb. Ladies, welcome. Hi, Liz. Hi.
[00:06:54] Speaker D: Thank you for having us.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Hi, Anouk.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Hi. It's a pleasure to be here.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: All right, Anouk, I'm going to start with you. So tell me, what is blue light? Where does it come from? Isn't it in the sun? Aren't we always exposed to it? Or when we're looking at digital devices, are we exposed to unopposed blue light and there is no protective red involved?
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Well, blue light is a part of the light emitted by the sun. It's part of the visual light spectrum. So more specifically, blue light is from 400 to 500 nanometers. And when we look at the sunlight, it emits a huge range of colors, and blue light is part of that entire spectrum. But when we're talking about artificial blue light emitted by digital devices and any LED light, that is a very different part of the spectrum with a high peak at 455 nanometers. So it's not part of a whole light spectrum, but it's very specifically 455 nanometers. That's a sharp emission of blue light. So blue light is natural from the sun. And we talk about overexposure to artificial blue light when we look at your digital screens or any LED lights.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: We're going to talk about toxic blue light in a minute. But I want to know about blue light that's good for us. When we wake up in the morning, we go out in the sun. Is that blue light good, bad? And what, what does it do for us?
[00:08:26] Speaker B: So you were right. We as human beings, we are animals really, and we need exposure to sunlight to wake up in the morning. It is what kickstarts our day and it tells our body it is time to wake up and be productive. But just the same way, we need the absence of blue light in the evening. So when we are exposed to blue light throughout the day, that tells our body it's time to rise and shine, be awake in the evening, there should be no blue light presence. When the sun goes down in our natural environment, there's no more blue light. And that is what cues our brain into starting to prepare for sleep, to produce our sleep hormone called melatonin.
The absence of blue light in the evening is very important for our good quality natural sleep. But when we are looking at digital screens in the evening, we are overexposing ourselves to artificial blue light. And that tricks our brains into thinking that, hey, it's still daytime, time to be productive, don't prepare for sleep. So that is the harmful part of blue light when it comes to regulating our circadian rhythms.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Liz when we get up in the morning and we go outside, the blue light from the sun is helping our pineal gland to make melatonin that's going to be stored for later on when it's going to be released as, as the sun goes down. So talk to us about when the blue light, when melatonin is released and, and how is, and how is mellow, what, and when does melatonin maximum release? Is it when we're sleeping? About 2 to 4 o'clock in the, in the morning? Is that when melatonin is mostly released and is melatonin very protective and how does it help us?
[00:10:22] Speaker D: That's a really good question. I'm not sure that I know exactly the answer to the specific timing of when melatonin is released or the maximum, but we do realize that when the sun starts to go down, that natural blue light that is allowing our body to then fall to the circadian rhythms that our body naturally needs to work towards in the evening, that is when melatonin starts to be produced. And that is the sleep agent that helps us to fall asleep and to have that restful night's sleep in order for us to recover, repair, re, energize for the night. So really it's the protecting that in the evening time, when that sun is going down, that's when our body starts to produce that melatonin and that starts to release for us to start that nighttime routine.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: And there's studies that show that if we have too much blue light or toxic blue light after 4 o'clock, that melatonin may be blocked a little bit. And melatonin has a lot of important functions in the human body. You know, it's an antioxidant. It works for our immune system. Of course, we all know that it helps us sleep and helps us with our gut health.
So, you know, it helps prevent, it helps with prevent infection. There's actually some studies out now that it has a role in cancer and cancer prevention. So it's very important that we have this melatonin. That we have this melatonin. So I'm going to ask Anuk this question now. When we. Well, if we don't filter out the blue light, why we're looking at digital devices all day, what's happening? How is that melatonin being blocked and what are you most worried about?
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Well, we are mostly studying the impact of that overexposure to blue light on the quality of our sleep. So what it will do is it will take you longer to fall asleep because your body hasn't properly prepared for sleep. You will find that you wake up more often during the night, so you're hitting less deep sleep. And the REM sleep stage, the repair sleep stage, is actually delayed. You hit it 35% faster if you have your natural sleep hormone production in the evening. So it really is the overall quality of your sleep that is affected when you overexpose yourself to that artificial blue light in the evening.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: I mean, that's. Those are great points. And you brought up 455 before nanometers. That, that is the one that we really want to block now when we buy good. You know, they sell glasses on Amazon, you know, all these different types of blue filtering glasses. They call them blue blocking glasses. So I think they're really blue filtering unless it blocks all the blue light. Now, the glasses that we're buying on Amazon, are they blocking 455? Number one, why do we want to block 455? Why is that the magic number? And two, are we blocking 455 with these glasses that we're getting on Amazon or these $10 blue filtering lenses?
[00:13:32] Speaker B: So in a nutshell, it is. 455 is the number I mentioned because that is where your digital devices LED light has its peak emission. The blue light spectrum is a lot bigger than that. When you Talk about the $10 glasses from Amazon with the clear lens. So not a yellow, orange, red tinted lens, a clear lens. That lens is only going to filter up to maximum 430, 435 nanometers. It's not even filtering where your digital light emission peaks. So that's one thing to look at. Another thing to look at is those orange lenses. You can also buy them for $10. They may filter out all of the blue light, but that does not mean that they will have an impact on your melatonin production. And that is what Felix Gray does differently. We focus on the light we filter 455Nm but also the way we filter the light. That makes us one of the only ones with the impact on the circadian rhythm on the quality of sleep.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: And how many studies have you done on this to be able to prove that?
[00:14:40] Speaker B: We have done in clinically controlled environments. In laboratory, we have studied the impact of wearing placebo lenses versus Felix Gray lenses on the melatonin level production and the impact on sleep. So we have the measurable data to back up what we are claiming with our products. That is what we do.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: We're speaking with Anouk and we're speaking with Liz from Felix gray. This is Dr. Kerry gel for open your eyes raise.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: I went to the eye doctor the other day with my daughter Maggie. I was shocked when the doctor told me that my daughter was already becoming nearsighted. It turns out that this problem affects more than 40% of Americans. My eye doctor thinks this disease is getting worse. Perhaps it's getting worse because of kids prolonged time spent playing with smartphones. Or maybe because kids now spend less time outside. My genetics probably aren't helping her a whole lot being nearsighted myself. But the good news is that the doctor told me about a new FDA approved product called MySight. This specific one day contact lens is already worn by thousands of children in the US. It is proven to slow down the progression of nearsightedness. And best of all, Maggie loves these contact lenses. The doctor taught her how to use them. Now it is so exciting to see her have even more success in the classroom and when she plays sports. I Recommend you visit openyoureyesradio.com to find an eye doctor that specializes in this treatment program. Learn
[email protected] you heard me talk about.
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[00:17:09] Speaker C: I went to the eye doctor the other day with my daughter Maggie. I was shocked when the doctor told me that my daughter was already becoming nearsighted. It turns out that this problem affects more than 40% of Americans. My eye doctor thinks this disease is getting worse. Perhaps it's getting worse because of kids prolonged time spending playing with smartphones or maybe because kids now spend less time outside. My genetics probably aren't helping her a whole lot being nearsighted myself. But the good news is that the doctor told me about a new FDA approved product called MySite. This specific one day contact lens is already worn by thousands of children in the us it is proven to slow down the progression of nearsightedness. And best of all, Maggie loves these contact lenses. The doctor taught her how to use them. Now it is so exciting to see her have even more success in the classroom and when she plays sports. I Recommend you visit openyoureyesradio.com to find an eye doctor that specializes in this treatment program. Learn
[email protected].
[00:18:11] Speaker A: This is Dr. Kerry Gill. You're listening to Wellness 1280 on Open youn Eyes radio on AM 1280, the Patriot. I'm speaking with Liz and Anuk and their executives at Felix Gray and their business is Blue Light. And as people that are out there looking at computers and digital devices all day, these we want to know if looking at the digital devices is really bad for us or is it really just hype? You know, when I go to eye doctor conferences, eye doctors aren't as on board with the dangers of blue light as the integrative medicine and my podcast is Integrative Medicine and Eye Doctors. And I've been to eye doctor meetings. And in the middle of the meeting, the speaker will be talking about blue light. And almost a fist fight breaks out between people. One side wants to filter the blue light, the other side says it's a bunch of malarkey. So before the break, we were talking about studies that you have done to show that protecting ourselves against blue light, why it's important. So tell us about Liz. Tell us why it is important and why it is not a bunch of bs. Why it is important to filter out toxic blue light.
[00:19:30] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. There's so many areas of our life that blue light impacts. I think a lot of people naturally think of blue light, and they instantly relate it to eye fatigue, eye strain. And those are things you can feel that's not fake. No one's making that up. So the more that you stare at your screens, the more that you're exposed to that artificial blue light, you can feel that impact. Your eyes are red. It starts to get blurry, dry, irritated. So those are things that are real that we feel every day. When we have that overexposure, we also. That starts to tend into getting fatigued. I know that when I work at the computer for long hours, by the end of the day, I'm feeling tired, I'm sluggish, I'm slow to respond. All of those things are impacted when we have overexposure to the blue light.
We know that there's a lot of people who are photosensitive. We know that when we're staring at screens for a long time, they're triggers for headaches. We also are sitting scrunched or at a computer for a long time. That muscle tension in our shoulders and our neck, in our eyes, all of those are triggers to headaches. So those are other things that we can see that are impacted when we have overexposure. But as we were talking before, the biggest area that we see impact is the impact to sleep. And that's where we have the biggest concern, because we know how important sleep is to our everyday performance, our productivity, our ability to stay sharp, our ability to stay healthy, to recover, regenerate, be energized, all of those great things that come when we're sleeping, along with some of the other things that you mentioned. That's where our studies have really shown how our lens and our lens technology have set apart from the everyday blue lenses that people see in the market and where a lot of studies appear to have been testing against products that don't even filter or protect against the environment in which we're working in. So the digital devices, computers, tablets, phones, LED lights in office buildings, warehouses, things like that, studies aren't allowing for that type of product to be tested. And so it's really unsure how blue light and what causes a lot of the confusion in the market and in the industry to say is this really impactful? And so I think that when we looked at the studies, when we looked at the product in this area, really trying to hone in on sleep being the biggest factor. And that's where we've seen through our studies that the impact in melatonin production and the impact that that has in sleep, it just compounds day after day in our ability to really be as productive as we can. And that's the mission that we really want to come after in this blue light conversation is not from a very kind of specific eye condition, but where the impact is and where we can see the physical impacts and results of having overexposure really hit our day to day lives.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Those are good points. And it's really important that people get out in the sun in the morning because the sunlight will stimulate serotonin which will help with the production of melatonin, which we need. And we don't want the blue light to affect the melatonin and delay the release or actually or significantly decrease the release of melatonin. As we talked about before, all the important things that melatonin does for our body, not only sleep, but helps decrease infections. There's some anti cancer properties. So melatonin is a very, very important point. I want to bring a nook into the conversation here. Now I know these are some things that you don't like to talk about, but there are studies that have been done that blue light could increase the risk of macular degeneration and that the blue light could act and in human studies as well could affect the RPE of the eye. And if the RPE is negatively affected. The RPE is important in the eye for transferring nutrients, removing waste, waste from absorbing light into the back of the eye. So I want to know if you're willing to go out on a limb and comment a little bit of nook about the impact of blue light on macular degeneration. We know in lab animals there's been at least four or five studies, maybe more on the negative impact of blue light on macular degeneration.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: It is, we tend to stay clear of it because, because the Go green revolution, introducing LED lights is fairly recent, right? It's only 10, 15 years ago that LED light was developed. So for us to really talk about the long term impact of blue light on our vision, there simply is not enough evidence to wholeheartedly say yes, it has been proven that. So all we can say is that studies indicate that there is a correlation between long term eye health and the overexposure to blue light. So the go green revolution has been great, but there are side effects that we just need to educate people on. The way we like to describe it is similar to remember like when we were kids, we hardly put sunscreen on when we went out to the beach, a whole day playing the sunshine. But that's because there was not enough known or knowledge amongst the general public about the harmful effects, effects of UV light. Today everybody knows you go out in the sun, you put sunscreen protection on, Everybody knows and SPF 15 is not going to protect you sufficiently for an entire days of exposure to bright, bright sunlight. You put an SPF 50 on. So the same kind of goes for blue light. It's fairly new to people. So we, I know we take the this responsibility quite seriously about educating people on the harmful effects of blue light. Prepare yourselves, put these glasses on. It is as simple as putting a pair of glasses on during the day to avoid that fatigue, that loss in productivity, that eye strain. Put this pair of glasses on in the evening to protect your natural sleep. It is very simple. It's not a big life change that you have to make. You just put your glasses on just like you put sunscreen protection on when you go outside for an entire day or you know there's going to be bright exposure to sunlight. So that's how we look at it with the computers.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: The F lux protection or the night mode does how much of the blue light does that actually, does that actually absorb? Like if I'm using my, my cell phone or using my computer like I am now and I have the F lux on or I have the night mode, does that actually absorb the blue light? Does it absorb enough where I wouldn't need these light filtering glasses?
[00:26:35] Speaker B: That is a really good question. And I'm going to say I have two things to say about this really. So first of all, yes, it will reduce to some extent the amount of blue light that is emitted by your screen. So that's one thing. But I noticed we spend a lot of time talking about how much blue light are we filtering. Now a very important distinction to make is it's not because you filter out all blue Light that you are restoring natural sleep. This is something we have been able to measure in our studies. So a pair of lenses was developed by a competitor. At one point it blocked out nearly 100% of all blue lights. So they were like, great. This is going to show a huge impact on melatonin production levels in the evening. Well, it only impacted about 10, 15% the melatonin production. Whereas our lenses are developed in a specific way to target 455nm, as well as the way we filter light in a natural way using naturally occurring ocular pigments inside the lenses. And it's the combination of what we filter and how we filter that makes there is an impact on that natural melatonin level production up to 300%. Whereas only about 45% of the blue light is actually filtered out. So it's important we look at how much we filter, which nanometers we filter, but also how it is filtered to be able to really establish the correlation between what is the effect of wearing this specific lens.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: If we're using the computers at night, the body thinks that it's daytime and it puts us back into daytime mode because of the blue light. Now, I think it's important to realize that I know you talked about sunscreen and there are physicians, especially in the integrative community, who will argue against sunscreen, especially in the morning, where you want the blue light on your skin to get into, into, into your body to be able to produce melatonin for later in the day through that whole process of the production of melatonin. So I just thought I would bring that up. Now we're coming up against the break. We got about a minute left. But I do want to bring up about, about mitochondrial dysfunction. There's been a number of studies that toxic blue light from the digital devices can affect our mitochondria and increase free radicals. And when we increase free radicals, we're at risk for many different types of disease. I want to know if this is something that you've studied and you have a comment on this.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: I can't say that that is something that is part of our field of studies. We have really been looking at the impact on sleep specifically and productivity, cognitive performance, and then in general, just the digital eye strain as people know it.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: And as far as cognitive performance, there's been studies that show that blue light blocks dopamine and that could affect mood. So we come back from the break. I want to ask you and Liz about that and, and if you have any suggestions for that this is Dr. Kerry Gelb. You're listening to Wellness 1280 on Open youn Eyes radio on AM 1280 the Patriot. I'm with Liz Condon and Anouk Williman, currently managing director at Felix Gray.
[00:30:08] Speaker C: I went to the eye doctor the other day with my daughter Maggie. I was shocked when the doctor told me that my daughter was already becoming nearsighted. It turns out that this problem affects more than 40% of Americans. My eye doctor thinks this disease is getting worse. Perhaps it's getting worse because of kids prolonged time spent playing with smartphones or maybe because kids now spend less time outside. My genetics probably aren't helping her a whole lot being nearsighted myself. But the good news is that the doctor told me about a new FDA approved product called MySite. This specific one day contact list lens is already worn by thousands of children in the US it is proven to slow down the progression of nearsightedness. And best of all, Maggie loves these contact lenses. The doctor taught her how to use them. Now it is so exciting to see her have even more success in the classroom and when she plays sports. I Recommend you visit openyourizedradio.com to find an eye doctor that specializes in this treatment program. Learn more at Open youn Eyes, it's tax season.
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[00:32:09] Speaker C: I went to the eye doctor the other day with my daughter Maggie. I was shocked when the doctor told me that my daughter was already becoming nearsighted it turns out that this problem affects more than 40% of Americans. My eye doctor thinks this disease is getting worse. Perhaps it's getting worse because of kids prolonged time spent playing with smartphones or maybe because kids now spend less time outside. My genetics probably aren't helping her a whole lot. Being nearsighted myself. But the good news is that the doctor told me about a new FDA approved product called My Sight. This specific one day contact lens is already worn by thousands of children in the US it is proven to slow down the progression of nearsightedness. And best of all, Maggie loves these contact lenses the doctor taught her how to use. Now it is so exciting to see her have even more success in the classroom and when she plays sports. I Recommend you visit openyourizedradio.com to find an eye doctor that specializes in this treatment program. Learn
[email protected].
[00:33:11] Speaker A: We'Re back with Liz Condon, director of operations at Felix Gray, Anouk Williman, currently managing director and partner at Felix Gray. And we're talking about a kind of controversial topic, but maybe not so much anymore, which is blue light. And we're having a great conversation and I'm getting them to tiptoe around some of the controversial areas because for those who are fans of Dr. Jack Cruz, who's a neurosurgeon biohacker, he's very big into being out in the sun. He's not into, he wants you to have safe sun. You know, maybe start off with a half hour and go with the 45 minutes. Obviously not to burn yourself, but he's not a big person when it comes to sunscreen. But he has studied blue light and he was, we were talking about mitochondrial disease. That toxic blue light could increase mitochondrial dysfunction. And you need mitochondria. Is the, is the, is the energy part of the cells, of all the cells in our body. And as we lose mitochondria, then that's how people get sicker. So it may be a contributing factor. Now, before the break, we were talking about dopamine and mood and blue light. So I'm going to bring Liz into the, into this.
Liz, there are studies that blue light disrupts dopamine, which can lead to anxiety, depression, maybe addictive behaviors, adhd, mood disorders, maybe. We can't go that far even though there have been some studies that have implied that. I want to know what you think.
[00:34:47] Speaker D: Absolutely. The dopamine is such an important hormone, things that impact our happiness, our productivity, alertness, all those things that we've talked about. In that mood stabilization throughout the day. So having something that impacts dopamine is definitely going to have an impact in your ability to be on top of your game, to have as much productivity, and all of that impacts your stability through the day, relationships, how you perform at work, how you perform and interact with family. So, absolutely, if there's correlations with blue light to dopamine and the overexposure of artificial blue light having an impact on dopamine levels, that's going to have an extreme impact in how you function from day to day.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, dopamine is a neurotransmitter and it's very important. Now, there's also studies that show that overexposure to blue light or toxic blue light from digital devices that people are not filtering, and I should be wearing my blue filtering lenses, which I'm not because they broke, but that it also increases our risk of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is the cause of diabetes. Anything that you guys want to add about insulin resistance and blue light? I mean, there, there are studies on this. There's a lot of studies that blue light toxicity can increase insulin resistance, which could lead to diabetes. It could also lead to obesity, can make us more obese because it affects the ghrelin.
It affects ghrelin, the hunger hormone. And so if you guys could comment on that as well.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, sure. We, I mean, we studied the at large, we've studied the impact of sleep on the body, and obesity is one of the things at risk. You're at greater risk of obesity as well if you don't sleep very well. So anything that disrupts our body, our body's ability to digest food, to take nutritions out, to function as we should do in a natural way is always going to be very important. And like we said, the importance of sleep is very underrated and especially in medicine. More and more attention is going to making sure that you preserve healthy sleep. It is one of the key parts of your immunity system of healthy digestion, gut health, your productivity, the next day, restoring energy levels. So it is something that we are very, very interested in. And we look at the over picture. It's not just as singular as, oh, blue light comes in through your eyes. So we should only study what it does to the eyes. It goes a lot further than that. There's so much that happens through the eyes to regulate the rest of the body that it is just. It's such an important field and a lot of work is to be done to really and truly understand the impact of our Light consumption, as we like to call it, on our overall health.
[00:38:01] Speaker A: We talked about how blue light disrupts natural melatonin production. We talked about how tryptophan we get, you know, we could get tryptophan from turkey and eggs and that's needed in the cycle to make melatonin. And so. But there has been some studies and clog. In 2011, he found that excessive blue light exposure was associated with higher cancer risks.
And night workers have a 50% increased risk of breast cancer. Now, is it from lack of sleep? Is it from being exposed to artificial light? We don't know. But is this something that Felix Gray would be interested in, studying the relationship between blue light and the risk of cancer?
[00:38:54] Speaker B: Yes, like we would absolutely be interested in that. That's our reason of being, is helping people thrive in the modern world. So a lot of our revenue that we generate, the gains that we have, we reinvest back into science. Everything we do has to be measurable and grounded in science. So any additional research that we can do, we are always open to and always looking into together with our production facilities and our partners.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: Liz, I want to know when Felix Gray or other frame manufacturers are going to make frames. What are the different qualities of frames? How do they find? You know, you could go to the drugstore and get $10 pair of glasses that frame. And we'll talk about the lenses after. Let's start with the frames part. How did, how does it go from a quality frame to a poor quality frame? And how could somebody listening to this tell a good quality frame from a poor quality frame?
[00:39:57] Speaker D: There's a lot out there to distinguish between. I'm going to let Anuk really tap into this one as she's the production and design manager for us and would be able to answer this in much more detail.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: And I have to do say before she says, I love the glasses you're wearing. They're really nice. They look really good on you.
[00:40:18] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: So there's, like Liz already said, there is a huge difference in the quality of frames. So when we talk about those $10 drugstore frames or Amazon frames, they will be plastic injected. So it is a simple plastic. There is a huge production volume and a lot of wastage of material during the production process, whereas the materials used in high quality frames are acetate. And acetate is a natural material. So it's better for the environment and the production methods as well. They are a lot more recyclable with all of the cutoffs. It's CNC cut. It's a lot more manual than an injected frame. So you have a lot more control over the shapes. The finishes are inside the material. So the coloration is not a paint job afterwards and everything is embedded in the material. Making like when you wear a vanna pattern like I'm wearing, every frame will be unique because it's handmade and it's all inside the material. Then we talk about the hinges. Quality of your hinges is really important. You get like flex hinges or you get double barrel hinges. You get so many different options there and materials you can use. A lot of the differences in quality is the density of the material that you have, the finishes of the material, whether it's bio based, fully bio based or not, and then the production methods as well. So it is up to your personal preference whether you like a metal frame, whether you like an acetate frame, or you like a very lightweight nylon based frame.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: You talk about the different types of hinges. A lot of patients like the hinges that go out, you know, the flexible hinges. I don't know what you call those kind of hinges, but those flexible hinges, is that really safer for the frame or does that break? Does that break easier or does it actually depend on the company that's making the hinge?
[00:42:17] Speaker B: Yeah, you got it right. Definitely depends on the company that's making the hinge. So there's a huge difference in quality. You can get cheap frames with a flex hinge, as we call it, the ones that hinge out, but they might break after 100 cycles of using them. So the durability of your frame and of your hinges is also part of the quality component that we invest a lot in.
[00:42:40] Speaker A: And you're wearing a very nice frame, a tortoise shell frame. How do they actually make a tortoise shell frame to get that design? You mentioned that the frames all look different. They're handmade. So how do they make that type of frame to get the different patterns like that?
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Well, these patterns you get different ways of making acetate. So there's acetate sheets, there's acetate blocks, we use acetate sheets and CNC edge the frames out of those sheets. But the pattern is inside the material. So it's by way of compressing these pellets of material together that you form these tortoiseshells finishes, actually. So compared to you can get a tortoise shell finish on a plastic frame, but it will simply be a spray on. So you use an air gun to spray different patterns onto the frame so it's not embedded inside of the material.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: And the one that you're wearing, it's embedded or is it sprayed on?
[00:43:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not sprayed on. We use very nice quality acetate. So this is embedded inside the material.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: I had to ask you that. Now explain what acetate is for people that never heard the word acetate.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: So acetate is a bio based material. It is made out of plants and you can, it is, it is also.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: Made, it's made out of what plants.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: So acetate celluloids. So it's a, it's a natural material as opposed to plastics that are chemically produced. So it's a lot better for the environment. When you use acetate for making your frames, the good thing about these is as you can reheat them up and then you can put them into frame. So if you want to curve the edges behind your ears for a very snug fit, you just heat up the temples of your frame and you can bend them into a shape. Should they deform, you can always put them back into, into its original shape. So that's a big differentiator between plastic injected frames and acetate frames that are customizable.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: No, it really is a beautiful frame. We're up against the break. This is Dr. Kerry Go. We're speaking with Felix Gray, executive tubes, Liz Condon and Anouk Williman and we're learning about frames. We're going to learn about ophthalmic lenses when we get back and how we can protect ourselves from blue light. So this is Dr. Kerry Gel. You're listening to Lomas 1280 on Open your Eyes radio on AM 1280 in the week.
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[00:47:09] Speaker C: Went to the eye doctor the other day with my daughter Maggie. I was shocked when the doctor told me that my daughter was already becoming nearsighted. It turns out that this problem affects more than 40% of Americans. My eye doctor thinks this disease is getting worse. Perhaps it's getting worse because of kids prolonged time spent playing with smartphones or maybe because kids now spend less time outside. My genetics probably aren't helping her a whole lot being nearsighted myself. But the good news is that the doctor told me about a new FDA approved product called MySight. This specific one day contact lens is already worn by thousands of children in the us. It is proven to slow down the progression of nearsightedness. And best of all, Maggie loves these contact lenses. The doctor taught her how to use them. Now it is so exciting to see her have even more success in the classroom and when she plays sports. I Recommend you visit openyoureyesradio.com to find an eye doctor that specializes in this treatment program. Learn
[email protected] we're back this is Dr.
[00:48:12] Speaker A: Kerry Gelb for Open youn Eyes Radio. We're back with Liz and Anush and we're talking about blue light and we've covered a lot of ground I got to say, but I want to in a summary. Liz how do we protect ourselves against blue light? The toxic Blue light we're being exposed to from the digital devices give us some things that we could do.
[00:48:34] Speaker D: So there's several different types of solutions that you can have to protect yourself from artificial blue light that's coming off of your devices, your computer screens, the lighting in your environment.
When it comes to lens options, you can have lenses that have a coating that can protect against blue light. You can have lenses that have color that's applied to the lens. Again, the color is going to help to filter out some of that harmful blue light. And then there are lenses that have the protection embedded into the lens material that's going to have that filtering effect. There's a couple different choices. So a coating, a color applied, or the protection baked right into the lens. So again, based on the aesthetics, based on your environment, you have some options that are going to pick from in order to make the best protection for the exposure that you have. From what we've talked about, just reiterating, not all solutions are going to give you the same protection. So when we talk about a coating, when we talk about a color that might give you some blockage or filtering of that blue light, but it doesn't necessarily give you the results in real life situations that you're dealing with. So like we talked about digital eyestring, we talked about melatonin, we talked about cognition and product productivity. Those are things that we want to see as a result of the protection that we're wearing. So when we look at the different solutions you really need to look at what is it that you want to get out of wearing and certainly want to make sure that you're applying the right either color coating or embedded material into the protection. As we talked about in our product, we've embedded our kind of secret sauce into the lens to give us the protection levels that we've studied to actually show the real world impact that can actually have improved melatonin levels, improved cognition, things that you're going to actually feel and see as a result of wearing our lenses.
[00:50:47] Speaker A: So if it's clear, we've already established the max we can get is 430. Is that correct?
[00:50:52] Speaker D: Correct.
[00:50:53] Speaker A: Now, if it's yellow or orange, does it matter the color yellow or orange?
[00:50:59] Speaker D: So the darker that the lens is, the color is, is typically your correlation to the, the more blue light that it's going to block. So you see a lot of yellow, you see a lot of orange. And where you've been seeing a lot of red lenses that are out on the market having the claims against protecting, again we go back to, it could block some, but is it really giving you the impact that you need?
[00:51:25] Speaker A: And how do we know when we buy these type of lenses that it's going to filter the 455 which is coming off the digital devices?
Is it put on a spectrometer, is it use any kind of meter to absorb, to tell us what it's actually absorbing? And should the company say, you know, this has been tested, is there anything that, any kind of regulations that we know what we're getting, what we're buying.
[00:51:51] Speaker D: So right now, in our industry there isn't a really great standard that's being adopted across all products. There's a lot of efforts happening within the Vision Council right now to establish those standards and to really break up the blue light into different bands. The problem is, again, it's just talking about what it's blocking, it's not talking about how it's being blocked, what part of the blue light it's blocking. And again, it does not correlate to any measurable impact. Right now there's a lot of companies that will say it blocks 50%, 80%, but of what? And that's the part that we're not seeing and we're not getting a lot of that data from companies and companies that do. We're still not seeing it. At the peak of what is coming off of your screens and your devices.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: If somebody buys Felix Gray product, is there something in writing that says what number it blocks? So we know we're getting 455.
[00:52:47] Speaker D: So right now, go ahead.
[00:52:50] Speaker B: We are deliberately not saying we block 455 because as we stated before, it is not just about what you filter, but also how you filter. Because if you would follow that theory, a red lens that blocks 100% of all of the blue light would be able to make the same claims as we have have measured, but they can't. So, no, we are not saying we filter out x percentage at 455nm, but we do make it very clear on the website, on all of our communication, what the benefits are. The measurable benefits, up to 300% increase in melatonin levels and 47% increasing cognitive functioning that you get when you wear these glasses. Because like we said, there's no set standard and there's not enough education out there for people to really understand what it means, how much it filters, at which frequency and what.
[00:53:46] Speaker A: What would you like to see in the industry? What kind of standard would you like to see the industry adapt. So when People buy these type of this product, these type of products, they know that they're getting what they're paying for. What would you like to see?
[00:54:01] Speaker B: It would be great if first of all there would be honest education about what blue light does so people are aware of the risks and then people can decide for themselves, do I just want to protect from the highest energy visible light, just that mild protection level. Then you're okay with a clear lens and a blue coating, but you're not impacting sleep or performance. And right now what we see in the industry is that people are saying that blue light regulates circadian rhythm. We block some blue light therefore, or we impact circadian rhythm. That is the marketing that you get in the industry today, but it's actually inaccurate. So what we as a company would like to see is an honest education to the larger group of people, to everybody out there consuming artificial blue light, that they understand what it is doing to them. So many people struggle to sleep, but they don't know why. If everybody knew it was as simple as wearing a pair of glasses, a suitable pair of glasses in the evening, I believe a lot more people would be wearing them because the benefits are huge.
[00:55:13] Speaker A: So I would turn my attention in the last three and a half minutes or so about the different plastic type of lenses. You go into a drugstore, the type of quality plastic is different than if you go into made by lenses from you or a high quality retail store that sells ophthalmic lenses. So when it comes to polycarbonate lenses, what different grades of plastic are there and how do you know if it's good or not good? Is there going to be optical distortion? What should people look for?
[00:55:46] Speaker B: You want to take that, Liz?
[00:55:47] Speaker D: Sure.
So I think when we're looking at drugstores or over the counter, most of that is going to be a CR39A plastic material. Optical quality is going to be good and we're really looking at at kind of disposable type of products at that point. When we're looking at when you need readers prescription things of that nature. There's different indexes of plastic that you can have either through your optical shop, not so much as over the counter solutions, but certainly some online retailers as well will give you solutions that have higher index of plastic material that allows for a a thinner lens within your prescription allows for less distortion. It allows for the aesthetics of your prescription to be very clear within the prescription and your final pair of glasses. So really it depends on what you're looking for as far as quick and disposable. If you're looking for something higher quality and certainly depending on your prescription range, would you want to explore higher index plastic materials in order to really have visual clarity that you're looking for?
[00:57:04] Speaker A: And Felix Gray makes prescription lenses, is that correct?
[00:57:08] Speaker D: We do, yes.
[00:57:10] Speaker A: So between CR39, polycarbonate, Trivex, high index, is there a big difference between those different categories of plastic?
[00:57:20] Speaker D: So there is. And certainly when we're looking at optical clarity, when we're looking at prescription types, the ranges and extreme verity of the prescription within a patient, your opticians, your staff that you're working with are certainly going to make sure that they are recommending the materials and the index that's going to be the most appropriate for your prescription. And because of the way that the light refracts through the lenses, the way that your glasses are fitting your face, the shape of your glasses, all of those are factors and picking the right lens material that's going to be optimal for your prescription.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: I want to thank Liz and Anouk for joining me today. Anouk, tell us about Felix Gray, how people could find out about it if they want to order Felix Gray lenses, how can they do it?
[00:58:10] Speaker B: So head over to our website, felixgrey.com to find out more about our brand, about our products. We'll help you select the right lens for you and if you have any questions, just reach out to us. We'll be very happy to speak to you and help you with anything that you may want to ask us us.
[00:58:27] Speaker A: And on the website you could try on virtually try on lenses, right glasses.
[00:58:32] Speaker B: Yes, you can try out the the glasses with the VTO tool so you can see what they look like on you. If you have questions about the measurements, they're all listed on there as well. So really to make it as easy as possible for you to find the right pair for you.
[00:58:44] Speaker A: Well, thank you, ladies. Until next week, this is Dr. Kerry Gel for open your eyes Radio at Hazelden Betty Ford. Treating mental health isn't just about breaking old patterns. It's about braving new ones. As the leader in alcohol and drug.
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