I’m working on a draft about gray hair :) My problem with the paper there is that they say they don’t know why the melanocortin pathway can’t be influenced the way they want it to by their pharmaceutical interventions. This means they are either ignorant of the need for stimulation of this pathway by sunlight, or they are deliberately leaving the sunlight piece out of their hypothesis. I see very cruel research done on animals in this area—and all the while the animals are never going to give good responses because of being in especially poor health for never being exposed to proper light or thermal signals for circadian rhythmicity, let alone the inflammation from never being grounded. It’s really a shame that so many scientists aren’t yet factoring in light as a necessary part of health and science because I think they could be figuring things out so much faster if they were!
Ooooh, this makes total sense now and so crazy that we never gave these factors the importance they desperately claim. In fact, back in 2020 I gave a talk on the changes of the microbiome due to a low carb diet and I spent a whole lot explaining that the high fat diets that are given to mice will never reflect the actual low carb high fat that’s therapeutic in humans yet the scientists stuff rats full of terrible quality fat chow and in amounts that are not even natural. Scientists just keep publishing like machines neglecting so many important conditions that are crucial to be able to elucidate proper conclusions. It’s a shame. Thanks for shedding light, Nikko!!!
I’m not done reading yet but you’ve already got me thinking. Does lighter hair/skin mean someone needs more melatonin? Or less? I’ve noticed that my blonde child (4.5 yrs) has fine blonde hairs all over his body, which I also had as a very light-blonde child, while my brunette child does not have this, and now that I’ve gotten older and have darker hair, I don’t have this.
Also curious how this relates to hair getting darker as we grow older 🤔
Yes, it’s common to collect pigment with age! Your questions are all very good and I don’t know the definitive answers with regard to skin tone and melatonin but something I may look deeper into in my next post on this topic—thank you. It does seem that fine white hair makes it so they can absorb UV light faster, perhaps compensating for shorter UV light opportunities in far North climates?
This was so helpful! Would you recommend the D Minder app as the best way to ensure safe sun exposure for baby? I’m trying to figure out how much indirect sunlight is the right amount for a newborn…we also live at the 27th latitude. Thank you!
Hi Kate, for a baby 6 weeks to 6 months, evidence suggests 2+ hours per day in natural light—trusting mama to know best! Doesn’t need to be consecutive, but broken up across the day. I do like to use Dminder to check the UV index (especially if in a transitional season with baby). You can make the timers more sensitive by going into the settings and changing the Fitzpatrick Skin Type to a I or II depending on you and your baby (generally, setting it back at least 1 measure fairer than whatever your skin type is, since a baby won’t have built up any solar callus yet). In my post about baby’s solar callus I describe the ways babies are more sensitive (here: https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/babys-solar-callus), and in my Circadian Babyhood class I talk more about circadian development from birth to age 3 (here: https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/circadian-babyhood-workshop). Hope that helps!
This is very helpful, thank you! I apologize for the delayed response, I was deeply enjoying my new little one. This was the reminder I needed to download DMinder again (I had it on my phone many years ago when J Kruse first talked about it, but deleted it.) I know we can definitely increase our outdoor time!
My colleague Sarah Kleiner recently put out an app that does what dminder does, but also allows you to track sun sessions when the UV index is low (like for sunrise and low UVA) and other features more related to circadian health and not just Vitamin D. Here’s the link if you want to check it out: https://mycircadianapp.com
Thanks for sharing, I’m going to check it out now! We spend quite a bit of time outdoors early morning and around sunset, so I’d love to see the impact of that. Been gently working on baby’s sun exposure during the daytime too with walks and pool time.
Oh, thank you 😁 It was so much fun to research and write this one! and I’m loving the positive responses to it’s message, too—exactly what I had hoped to see! 🧡👏
Very much enjoyed this informative post. Each person in my immediate family has a different skin tone. What never seems to be addressed is those people who do tan, but their tanning brings on heavy freckling they find unattractive.
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Yes, facultative tanning and freckles can be seen as a kind of melasma or hyperpigmentation. I am also prone to this (especially once I started having children, as the hormones play a role). If they want to reduce the effect and have a more even skin tone, they might consider spending longer outside at sunrise and sunset when there is no UV light at all because this type of sunlight offers photobiomodulation (PBM) which may trigger autophagy in the melanocytes so they clear up the concentrated pigment, as well as give a protective factor against later UV exposure. In latitudes where this skin-type is more common, sunlight remains low on the horizon in this infrared range for many long hours during the extreme seasons of the year. Cold air exposure may also play a role in optimizing mitochondrial health in the skin, as well as elevated dietary need for seafood and to avoid plant-based fats and to avoid iron-enriched foods, as these types of fats and metals tend to oxidize in the skin leaving a less pretty look with the melanin having releasing oxidized metals instead of forming the desired sunkissed glow. In the healthy tan, the metals are reduced from their oxidative to neutralized state (ie, FeIII to FeII) and contained in the melanin for future release either by re-absorption or when the skin gets sloughed off. Interestingly, photobiomodulation seems to work for both hyperpigmentation like freckles, and for hypopigmentation, like vitiglio, even with less-ideal laser therapies: https://doi.org/10.1089/photob.2023.0040
I have olive skin and tan easily (partial Mediterranean ancestry -- it's pretty easy for me to avoid burns without sunscreen) but live in an area that doesn't have much sun for most of the year. I look TERRIBLE with pale skin. Just sickly and unnatural. :-/ So I try to get as much sun as possible.
When in a dark time of year, photobiomodulation and cold therapy can help with skin tone by increasing collagen and mitochondrial function. This is why steam/sauna and cold exposure were practiced almost universally in polar climates.
My good friend has always had extremely white / blondish hair, and is of nordic descent. I wonder if he has vellus hair? So much valuable information here - thank you!
I’m about to be on vacation in Florida and I found this not only incredibly informative, but as a fair skinned person I’m going to be applying some of this to my life
Fascinating! You mention melanin regulating copper/zinc in the body. I’d always heard grey hair meant a deficiency of copper, so now I’m wondering if melanin is a link that was missing in the grey hair/copper conversation. Get more copper and a tan and perhaps have less grey hair?
I sunbathe all day and have grey hair. My tan hasn’t changed that. When I was younger I had sandy blonde hair which lightened in the summer and darkened in the winter. I’ve always lived in sunny places. I think I’m level 3 on the Fitzpatrick scale.
Really enjoyed this read! I have always been drawn to exposing my skin to the sun as a way of warming - I often feel like a flower turning to the rays. But, can also immediately feel if the sun is too much for me and look for cooler, shader places. I’m of Sicilian and Irish ancestry and feel as though the Italian skin I’ve inherited makes me a three. Thank you for sharing!
I’m glad to know I’m in the facultative tan circle!
I didn’t really understand your critique on the Li et al, 2023, abstract if you mind me asking for a clarification.
Loved reading this article and I’m very curious to know if you’ve written more about gray hair 😊
I’m working on a draft about gray hair :) My problem with the paper there is that they say they don’t know why the melanocortin pathway can’t be influenced the way they want it to by their pharmaceutical interventions. This means they are either ignorant of the need for stimulation of this pathway by sunlight, or they are deliberately leaving the sunlight piece out of their hypothesis. I see very cruel research done on animals in this area—and all the while the animals are never going to give good responses because of being in especially poor health for never being exposed to proper light or thermal signals for circadian rhythmicity, let alone the inflammation from never being grounded. It’s really a shame that so many scientists aren’t yet factoring in light as a necessary part of health and science because I think they could be figuring things out so much faster if they were!
Ooooh, this makes total sense now and so crazy that we never gave these factors the importance they desperately claim. In fact, back in 2020 I gave a talk on the changes of the microbiome due to a low carb diet and I spent a whole lot explaining that the high fat diets that are given to mice will never reflect the actual low carb high fat that’s therapeutic in humans yet the scientists stuff rats full of terrible quality fat chow and in amounts that are not even natural. Scientists just keep publishing like machines neglecting so many important conditions that are crucial to be able to elucidate proper conclusions. It’s a shame. Thanks for shedding light, Nikko!!!
I’m not done reading yet but you’ve already got me thinking. Does lighter hair/skin mean someone needs more melatonin? Or less? I’ve noticed that my blonde child (4.5 yrs) has fine blonde hairs all over his body, which I also had as a very light-blonde child, while my brunette child does not have this, and now that I’ve gotten older and have darker hair, I don’t have this.
Also curious how this relates to hair getting darker as we grow older 🤔
Yes, it’s common to collect pigment with age! Your questions are all very good and I don’t know the definitive answers with regard to skin tone and melatonin but something I may look deeper into in my next post on this topic—thank you. It does seem that fine white hair makes it so they can absorb UV light faster, perhaps compensating for shorter UV light opportunities in far North climates?
This was so helpful! Would you recommend the D Minder app as the best way to ensure safe sun exposure for baby? I’m trying to figure out how much indirect sunlight is the right amount for a newborn…we also live at the 27th latitude. Thank you!
Hi Kate, for a baby 6 weeks to 6 months, evidence suggests 2+ hours per day in natural light—trusting mama to know best! Doesn’t need to be consecutive, but broken up across the day. I do like to use Dminder to check the UV index (especially if in a transitional season with baby). You can make the timers more sensitive by going into the settings and changing the Fitzpatrick Skin Type to a I or II depending on you and your baby (generally, setting it back at least 1 measure fairer than whatever your skin type is, since a baby won’t have built up any solar callus yet). In my post about baby’s solar callus I describe the ways babies are more sensitive (here: https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/babys-solar-callus), and in my Circadian Babyhood class I talk more about circadian development from birth to age 3 (here: https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/circadian-babyhood-workshop). Hope that helps!
This is very helpful, thank you! I apologize for the delayed response, I was deeply enjoying my new little one. This was the reminder I needed to download DMinder again (I had it on my phone many years ago when J Kruse first talked about it, but deleted it.) I know we can definitely increase our outdoor time!
My colleague Sarah Kleiner recently put out an app that does what dminder does, but also allows you to track sun sessions when the UV index is low (like for sunrise and low UVA) and other features more related to circadian health and not just Vitamin D. Here’s the link if you want to check it out: https://mycircadianapp.com
Thanks for sharing, I’m going to check it out now! We spend quite a bit of time outdoors early morning and around sunset, so I’d love to see the impact of that. Been gently working on baby’s sun exposure during the daytime too with walks and pool time.
You are such a WELL OF WISDOM, WOMAN! I INjoyed every last drop of thIS! Thank you, thank you, thank you Nikko!
Oh, thank you 😁 It was so much fun to research and write this one! and I’m loving the positive responses to it’s message, too—exactly what I had hoped to see! 🧡👏
I can really sense how much fun you have with it and how much it TRULY Lights you up! It’s so felt ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Very much enjoyed this informative post. Each person in my immediate family has a different skin tone. What never seems to be addressed is those people who do tan, but their tanning brings on heavy freckling they find unattractive.
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Yes, facultative tanning and freckles can be seen as a kind of melasma or hyperpigmentation. I am also prone to this (especially once I started having children, as the hormones play a role). If they want to reduce the effect and have a more even skin tone, they might consider spending longer outside at sunrise and sunset when there is no UV light at all because this type of sunlight offers photobiomodulation (PBM) which may trigger autophagy in the melanocytes so they clear up the concentrated pigment, as well as give a protective factor against later UV exposure. In latitudes where this skin-type is more common, sunlight remains low on the horizon in this infrared range for many long hours during the extreme seasons of the year. Cold air exposure may also play a role in optimizing mitochondrial health in the skin, as well as elevated dietary need for seafood and to avoid plant-based fats and to avoid iron-enriched foods, as these types of fats and metals tend to oxidize in the skin leaving a less pretty look with the melanin having releasing oxidized metals instead of forming the desired sunkissed glow. In the healthy tan, the metals are reduced from their oxidative to neutralized state (ie, FeIII to FeII) and contained in the melanin for future release either by re-absorption or when the skin gets sloughed off. Interestingly, photobiomodulation seems to work for both hyperpigmentation like freckles, and for hypopigmentation, like vitiglio, even with less-ideal laser therapies: https://doi.org/10.1089/photob.2023.0040
This is fascinating. I have never heard this discussed anywhere else. I have learned so much from you in such a short time! Thank you.
I have olive skin and tan easily (partial Mediterranean ancestry -- it's pretty easy for me to avoid burns without sunscreen) but live in an area that doesn't have much sun for most of the year. I look TERRIBLE with pale skin. Just sickly and unnatural. :-/ So I try to get as much sun as possible.
When in a dark time of year, photobiomodulation and cold therapy can help with skin tone by increasing collagen and mitochondrial function. This is why steam/sauna and cold exposure were practiced almost universally in polar climates.
Thank you!
My good friend has always had extremely white / blondish hair, and is of nordic descent. I wonder if he has vellus hair? So much valuable information here - thank you!
Yes, everyone has some vellus hair into adulthood (like the peach fuzz on our cheeks), and some people keep more than others.
Absolutely fascinating read, I’m really enjoying your posts.
I’m about to be on vacation in Florida and I found this not only incredibly informative, but as a fair skinned person I’m going to be applying some of this to my life
Fascinating! You mention melanin regulating copper/zinc in the body. I’d always heard grey hair meant a deficiency of copper, so now I’m wondering if melanin is a link that was missing in the grey hair/copper conversation. Get more copper and a tan and perhaps have less grey hair?
I sunbathe all day and have grey hair. My tan hasn’t changed that. When I was younger I had sandy blonde hair which lightened in the summer and darkened in the winter. I’ve always lived in sunny places. I think I’m level 3 on the Fitzpatrick scale.
There’s a point where the melanocytes at the root of the hair no longer work and cannot be restored (at least to present knowledge).
It’s potentially reversible in the early stages when it’s a stress situation, but not later on if the melanocytes have completely lost function.
Really enjoyed this read! I have always been drawn to exposing my skin to the sun as a way of warming - I often feel like a flower turning to the rays. But, can also immediately feel if the sun is too much for me and look for cooler, shader places. I’m of Sicilian and Irish ancestry and feel as though the Italian skin I’ve inherited makes me a three. Thank you for sharing!