Sunlight changes DNA

Quantum epigenetics is a brand-new field of scientific inquiry AND it is already an everyday reality already practiced by billions worldwide

Sunlight changes our DNA

In my grander aspirations for improving maternal-fetal outcomes (for example, investigating the onset and reversal of genetic disease¹), the actual quantum mechanics of sunlight and chronobiology offer an intriguing avenue.

For decades, it has been postulated that time scales for decoherence are too short for quantum mechanics to apply to macromolecules under ambient conditions, like DNA. Nevertheless, as outlined above, current models taking into account physiological temperatures and charge decoherence by the environment as well as experimental findings at corresponding conditions and using DNA in solution (and even embedded in histones), suggest quantum effects to be active in DNA in living cells… In summary, we think there is sufficient evidence for postulating a quantum physics layer of epigenetics, which we propose to name “Quantum Epigenetics". Our hypothesis on this layer’s existence, along with some features, is built on theoretical and experimental data from many groups. Remarkably, whereas physics principles in DNA have been extensively explored until the early years of this millennium, research on quantum effects in cellular DNA seems thereafter to have mainly focused on mutational mechanisms. It seems intuitive to us that the more volatile epigenetic landscape is much more susceptible to the transient and partly stochastic quantum effects.²

It was only indirectly that I started stumbling into these perspectives in the research, as initially, I was interested in the effects of sunlight for the rather selfish reasons of healing my own skin conditions.

Later, I discovered sunlight was very important for having a health pregnancy, which led to the creation of my 4+ hour Circadian Pregnancy Workshop.

Slowly, I learned there were genetic/epigenetic adaptive implications to sunlight exposure.

As I shared in a recent Substack Note:

A research perspective that started putting this epigenetic puzzle together for me has the below graphic and caption on the first page, describing how sunlight drives the organization of genetic information³:

This was huge in terms of explaining to me how very, very good it felt to spend long hours basking my pregnant belly in the sun, and led to a trio of posts that have become some of my most popular:

• U Need UV!

• Solar callus

• 3 types of tans and what they mean

Sunlight penetrates the body all the way through, and communicates information directly to the genes about how they should be firing for the exact time and place you are at present.

There are direct effects of sunlight on DNA itself, as well as indirect hormonal effects through the endocrine system, which I recently wrote about in terms of the importance of caring for the endocrine thyroid gland:

By engaging with the natural world while pregnant, mothers may actually be programming their babies’ DNA to fire differently (and in a way more attuned to the actual climate wherever they live) than the epigenetic profile of the baby if the mother had stayed indoors through the whole thing.

This was a big eye-opener to midwife educator Maryn Green when I shared this insight on her podcast Taking Back Birth.

Sunlight drives important genetic processes, likely through quantum mechanisms

I think people are rightfully miffed at people making up their own definitions of the word quantum; personally, I get especially bummed out when people have latched on to Einstein’s branding of everything quantum as “spooky action at a distance.”

Whether you think the idea of spooky action at a distance is a good or a bad thing, focusing on the most woo concepts related to the word quantum obscures the actual results & applications being sought by modern quantum biology research.

If we were able to understand the quantum mechanics at play in DNA, we could be so much farther along than we are at present in reversing and preventing genetic diseases.

And if you don’t think this is a big deal, we are seeing ever-more of this. For example, there was a rising trend of congenital abnormalities requiring hospitalization in England/Wales for all age groups from 1999-2019⁴.

Yes, there are nutritional and toxin-based things going on, but we are also seeing people living further and further from the natural electromagnetic signals (like sunlight) known to program DNA. By living further isolated from Nature, people are exposed to an ever-higher ratio of artificial/manmade electromagnetic signals.

Even if all the bought-and-paid for academia hasn’t settled on the reasons for rising trends in developmental, chronic, and degenerative diseases in modern societies, I think we can already interpret a lot as far as the why’s and the hows of re-incorporating natural light signals into our daily lives.

I believe attuning to the natural electromagnetic frequencies (ie, sunlight), is one of the most promising avenues of intervention available for the modern woes—especially genetic ones!

Quantum doesn’t readily lend itself to the uniformity needed for product development

The perceived distance between these theoretical research papers and everyday clinicians arises from the challenge of controlling & monetizing this information.

The optimal conditions for quantum dynamics of genetic programming are found in the real, physical world—yes, in all its complexity—it’s not a pathway that is easy to target chemically.

As we all know, development of new drugs is a major driver of the funding academic research.

If quantum pathways were easily manipulated with drugs (which they aren’t), I think we would have long-since been hearing about this in the mainstream.

This is just like circadian biology, where light remains more powerful than any known drug⁵. In the world of quantum biology, we find this perspective:

God created the most perfect quantum computer: the DNA.⁶

The complexity of Nature just can’t be turned into a pharmaceutical.

Learn Quantum Biology with me

There is so much room for you to expand within this emerging paradigm. Here’s how you can go deeper with me:

1. Head to my website and jump in to my video libraries about Pregnancy, Birth & Postpartum (for parents here, and for healthcare practitioners here)

2. Apply these health principles to your personal workflow for better productivity at my new Substack publication, Brighter Days at Work

3. As Director of Research at the Institute of Applied Quantum Biology, I would love to help you become a Board Certified Quantum Biology Practitioner (BCQBP). We are enrolling for our Summer Intensive and regular Fall/Winter cohorts right now. Here’s where you can learn more and sign up to join us: AQB Certification Overview

4. And as Membership Director, I am also happy to invite you to Quantum Biology Collective. We offer introductory information & practitioner matching for health seekers, and professional development resources and continuing education for BCQBPs and other new paradigm health professionals.

1. Mazzoccoli G. (2022). Chronobiology Meets Quantum Biology: A New Paradigm Overlooking the Horizon?. Frontiers in physiology, 13, 892582. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.892582

2. Siebert, R., Ammerpohl, O., Rossini, M., Herb, D., Rau, S., Plenio, M. B., Jelezko, F., & Ankerhold, J. (2023). A quantum physics layer of epigenetics: a hypothesis deduced from charge transfer and chirality-induced spin selectivity of DNA. Clinical epigenetics, 15(1), 145. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-023-01560-3

3. Slominski, A. T., Zmijewski, M. A., Plonka, P. M., Szaflarski, J. P., & Paus, R. (2018). How UV Light Touches the Brain and Endocrine System Through Skin, and Why. Endocrinology, 159(5), 1992–2007. https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2017-03230

4. Alanazi, A. F. R., Naser, A. Y., Pakan, P., Alanazi, A. F., Alanazi, A. A. A., Alsairafi, Z. K., & Alsaleh, F. M. (2021). Trends of Hospital Admissions Due to Congenital Anomalies in England and Wales between 1999 and 2019: An Ecological Study. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(22), 11808. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182211808

5. Hatori, M., Gronfier, C., Van Gelder, R. N., Bernstein, P. S., Carreras, J., Panda, S., Marks, F., Sliney, D., Hunt, C. E., Hirota, T., Furukawa, T., & Tsubota, K. (2017). Global rise of potential health hazards caused by blue light-induced circadian disruption in modern aging societies. NPJ aging and mechanisms of disease, 3, 9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-017-0010-2

6. Riera Aroche, R., Ortiz García, Y. M., Martínez Arellano, M. A., & Riera Leal, A. (2024). DNA as a perfect quantum computer based on the quantum physics principles. Scientific reports, 14(1), 11636. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-62539-5