Neurogenesis And Brain Repair—What Science Says About Red Light Therapy

Summit Introduction and Guest Welcome 0:00

Hello and welcome to another very special interview for the Reversing Alzheimer's Summit. I am your summit co-host, Doctor Christine Burke. And over the last decade, I've helped many patients reverse their cognitive decline. And that is why I have co-founded True Nura, brain health software designed around preventing and reversing neurodegeneration to help both patients and practitioners be extraordinarily successful in this work. In this summit, I'm bringing you interviews with thought leaders who can help you understand the pillars of brain health and the root causes of cognitive decline.

Because I want you to learn what you need to know to prevent and reverse cognitive decline and Alzheimer's for yourself and your loved ones. I am really looking forward today to introducing you to Sarah Turner, whose topic is can you heal your brain with red light therapy? Sarah is the founder and CEO of Sarah Thrive, a company pioneering photo bio modulation for the gut brain connection. With a background in neuroscience and biohacking. She explores innovative therapies that optimize wellbeing, performance and longevity.

Sarah is passionate about the intersection of light, biology and human potential, driving advancements in cutting edge wellness solutions. Sarah, thank you so much for being here. I really I really appreciate this opportunity to chat with you. Thank you. Yeah, it's lovely to speak to you today. Yeah, I mean, I there's so much going on in this field. There's this substantial body of growing research showing red light therapy or, you know, what you call transcranial photo bio modulation can help manage neurodegenerative symptoms.

Maybe you could just start us off with how red light therapy works. Sure. Yes. You're right. It's kind of a bit of a mouthful. Transcranial photo by modulation. But really, it's just the scientific term for red light therapy to the head, usually the. Hence the transcranial photo by modulation just means photo, as in light and then to modulate the biology. So generally we're using visible red visible light and also slightly invisible light, which is the near infrared light. So we tend to kind of use red light therapy for where we're, healing the body, that there are lots of other uses for different kinds of light.

But when we're trying to do something that's healing the body, generally we're using what's umbrella term red light therapy. So that's red a near infrared light. And actually the body's very reactive to light. Because evolutionary from an inflationary point of view we have evolved under sunlight. So our bodies are covered in light receptors. We respond very rapidly to light. And it's for a reason. You know, we are very much in tune with our natural environment as a species, mammals as a whole.

How Red Light Therapy Supports Brain Health 2:56

So we respond to light in a very significant way. I think really now we're kind of coming out of a much more, pharmaceutical paradigm and starting to look for alternatives. And that's why red light therapy is now becoming popular, because it is, an alternative way that we can heal our bodies, which is noninvasive and noninvasive and nontoxic, utilizing this power of light to heal us just just as we were kind of designed to do, from a long time ago, you know, from the evolution of our species. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. It's so fascinating how, you know, everybody knows that being in the sunshine feels good. And, you know, we've all had that experience of, you know, getting the doldrums in the, in the winter grays. And so it's just fascinating how this field is starting to harness the power of light to heal. What what kinds of things are we starting to see what's emerging in the research with respect to neurodegeneration and maybe even Alzheimer's disease? More specifically? Yeah, I think red light therapy, it's not a new thing.

So we've had red light therapy for a long time, and it's actually FDA approved for things like wound healing, increasing micro circulation. Now even, different kinds of things where people are looking at treating side effects of, of different drugs. So it's something that that's known by the medical establishment and is used quite often. The new thing is now applying it to different things like brain wellness. So at the moment we're still in the research stage of looking at specific disease conditions.

But as you said, the research is really starting to build up now. So, there's a lot of research on both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease for the use of transcranial near infrared light to do pretty amazing things. And I'm talking about not only symptoms management, but also sign up to Genesis neurogenesis. You know, that's making new brain cells, making new connections in the brain. We can also, modulate that signal. We now know that things like pulsing the light at certain frequencies, like 40Hz, which is sometimes called gamma, also helps with memory, with focus, with concentration and sleep.

All of these things are hugely important if we're talking about, managing the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. So I think, it's really starting to gather momentum now. Read a new infrared light for particularly for this kind of neurodegeneration. The other thing is it can be used as a complementary therapy. You know, it doesn't interfere with, pharmaceutical intervention and it's just helping with a healthy lifestyle. So people are actually getting some amazing transformations. The data is starting to gather, and I think it's something that that will become mainstream.

We just at the start of the wave. Yeah, yeah. It's always fun to be on the start of the wave. It's the best ride. You know, one of the things that's really fascinating to me in our previous conversations is how Sara Thrive emphasizes the connection between gut health and cognitive function. So, maybe let's start with a little bit. I mean, we've talked on the summit about the gut brain connection, but I think we could do that a little bit more service in our conversation. And then why, why addressing that combination with photo bio modulation with light therapy is important for brain wellness.

Yeah. Of course. Well, I'm sure a lot of your audience are already aware of the connection between the gut in the brain, especially for these long term neuro degenerative conditions. A lot of the time, people see symptoms in their gut before they any before they see symptoms in their brain. People, a lot of people. Now, do you have gut issues? Unfortunately, we know a lot of people have things like leaky gut. And this is when, you know, the, the membranes in the gut, the junctions become leaky or you develop gaps between them, sometimes by toxins, over exposure to, certain foods, maybe things in the environment stress.

And then you have, leaking of metabolites of bacteria, which can cause inflammation. So actually the main cause of inflammation in the body generally is usually through the gut. There can be other issues, but it's generally issues caused by the gut. And then that leads to inflammation in the brain. So we have this effect of inflammation systemically normally caused by inflammation in the gut. And then we have maybe some metabolites leaking into the gut which some of those can cross the blood brain barrier.

So then we can have more brain symptoms. And the brain in the gut are connected like a bidirectional communication with the vagus nerve. And a lot of these things can travel up and down the vagus nerve. So we know that if we were very, very stressed out, we have issues with our gut. If we have issues with our gut, it can lead to neurodegeneration. So we have this kind of crosstalk between the gut in the brain, which is hugely important when we're trying to deal with these conditions like Alzheimer's disease, where we have, you know, quite difficult symptoms to manage.

You know, having, inflammation is something that we really want to get control of very rapidly. So red light therapy to the gut is hugely important because you can actually heal those gap junctions using red and near infrared light. Stop neuro stop the inflammation. You know, in the gut before it gets to the brain. Also help with things like the communication between the gut and the brain through that vagus nerve. And so really, that's a good first step for utilizing these light therapies and something that I advocate doing.

At the same time, you know, if you're working on helping with symptoms of neurodegeneration, target the gut at the same time as the brain, you know, you're just increasing your chances of having a good effect of the therapy.

The Gut-Brain Connection and Inflammation 8:34

Yeah. Absolutely agree with you. You cannot have a healthy brain without a healthy gut. And so it doesn't happen. It can't happen. Yes. There's there's so much communication going between the gut and the brain. And we're I think sometimes so used to in conventional medicine our silos of care. Right. Our organ system silos. And you know, typically the field of neurology has nothing to do with the gut or almost nothing to do with the gut. So it's a it's a big paradigm shift for people to not only understand that there's a connection, but really, I think to to understand the depth of that connection, the importance of that connection and the prioritization that the body puts on that.

Which is why I love this dual approach that you've that you've developed. And then I also I think there's some I was going to say, Kathy, that is something that, Christine, it is something that people are starting to be more aware of now, don't you think the whole gut brain thing is starting to explode. And even though, yeah, historically it has been different disciplines, I think now people are beginning to understand we have a lot of neural tissue in our gut. Most of our neurotransmitters are made in our gut.

People understand the connection between our brain and our guts because of how we think. You know how we feel. People kind of understand when you're nervous, you feel it in your tummy. You know, we have these associations that are now being proven out by science. So I think although it does take a more holistic approach, I think most people now are on that page and they do understand, okay, this is what I need to do in order to maximize brain wellness is to really take care of my my gut as a as a first course of action.

Exactly, exactly. And to recognize those early gut symptoms like a common one in older patients is constipation. And how important a symptom is. We just often it just gets chalked up to oh, that's just something that happens as you get older. But as I hope everybody who's been listening and watching this summit is coming to understand, like all of those early changes are all really early warning signs. And the and the gut isn't any different. Yeah. And it becomes a little bit normalized. I have people who are using my system for, for managing symptoms of neurodegeneration or, you know, other brain conditions.

And sometimes after a few weeks, I ask them how they're getting on and they say, oh, did I tell you I had IBS? That totally cleared up? And I'm like, no, you didn't tell me that because people get so used to the symptoms of of constipation or diarrhea or having issues that they even forget that that's not normal to have that, you know, IBS is become something where people just accept it and deal with it. Maybe people stop eating wheat. Maybe people do all kinds of fairly and difficult diets because they're trying to navigate a problem rather than dealing with it.

And later down the line, you know, there's always a payback for that, because unless you do kind of help to heal your gut, it's just sitting the it's paving the way for, brain issues later on. Well and fascinating too. Right. You were mentioning red light therapy in the research with Parkinson's disease and how now we can see those alpha synuclein tangles, the tangles that happen in the neurons of Parkinson's. We can see that first in the gut. Yes. Yeah. It's a it's a reflection. People say it's the second brain don't they.

Maybe it's the first brain. Certainly it's you know, it's the best brain to develop is your gut. You know, we have the neural tube. So yeah, I think the, the importance of they got, you know, it should be up there. We should really be thinking about it as the first and the it's the Rodney Dangerfield of organs. Right. It doesn't get any respect. Exactly. Right. Yes. They will respect the gut. So I know I know this next question maybe a little bit deep for our regular viewers. So hang with us. But I know our clinician viewers will be very interested in how that near infrared light can change the structure of water near membranes, creating that all important exclusion zone water.

And maybe you could talk a little bit about how that process contributes to cellular energy and healing. Yeah, sure. Yeah. I'm glad you asked me about that. Because usually when people talk about red light therapy, they talk solely about how red light affects the mitochondria. And that is one of the main mechanisms that that red light is received by an enzyme in the mitochondria. And you have a lot more ATP. And so greater blood flow. Actually, the the way I got into looking at light therapy myself was looking more at, how light structures water.

And it's a very interesting topic and one that, you know, we're still doing a lot of research on that. And actually, for those people who are doing research into red light therapy, they're not looking at the structured water piece right now, but I think they will. And papers are starting to be published. So so to put it kind of reasonably simply, when you shine light onto a surface that's next to water and it has to be kind of a charge surface, which is the same for any of the membranes in our bodies.

So when you shine light on to water, that's next to one of the surfaces, like a membrane, you actually get what's called charge separation. So the water starts to order itself into a lattice structure, a bit like ice is ordered. You know, we know there's a difference between water and ice. You know, there's a very tangible difference. You know, ice is this hard, slippery substance. And of course, that we can see that that's very different to water. But actually, what happens when you shine light onto water is it starts to form these lattices the same as you would get in ice, but it pushes the protons, which is just the positively charged part, the hydrogens, into the bulk water.

So you get this, negatively charged layer. It's it's got the hexagonal structure. So it's slippery like ice, like a gel, almost like a slippery lubricant. But it's charged. So this has huge significance in the body. If you are talking about water being very different than bulk water, it has different properties. When it's charged. Now, this this has huge implications for things like protein folding where you need to have the correct charge to for proteins to fold correctly. Also, as I mentioned, because it is more viscous, it's more slippery.

It has implications for blood flowing through blood vessels. It has implications for how little rotors in our body like ATPase is an actual little machine. It's a rotor. And in order to make energy, we spin that rotor like we force electrons in it and we spin the rotor. If the water surrounding that is more biscuits and slippery, it would spin faster. So you potentially are making more ATP. So the implications for having this more ordered or structured water present in, biology, you know, are huge and far reaching, especially if we're thinking about neurodegeneration, which we know has got misfolded proteins.

We know there's a lack of ATP and energy, and we know that there's a decrease in blood flow. So now all of a sudden we have red light therapy, which increases energy. It increases efficiency of the brain, increases ATP and increases blood flow. So I think just looking at those things alone is enough for us to kind of think, okay, red light therapy is a very good that's a very good reason to try red light therapy for neurodegeneration. Right. They're just going on what red light does to the water in our bodies.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think it's you know, one of the things that we see in the cognitive decline reversal process is exactly as you said, it's such a highly energy dependent process. It takes a lot of energy to turn these things around, to heal tissues, to grow new connections. All of those components are highly energy and are highly energy dependent. And when we're trying to get someone's body to kind of, you know, turn the crank, so to speak, and come back online, that can be a really hard thing.

It's like trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you're exhausted and it so it it becomes a

Structured Water, Energy, and Healing Mechanisms 16:50

that in and of itself becomes part of the obstacle. And so having something that we could do, like red light therapy that can help us get past that obstacle or to improve the amount of energy that we can make. It's like it's like having a full bank account when you need to do a remodel like that makes a big difference in what you can accomplish very well. It's exactly that. We have a certain kind of inertia in our bodies when we don't have sufficient energy to do something. And like you say, it's very difficult to battle against that inertia when you know, you kind of don't.

You just don't have the energy in your batteries to do it. So in a very real way, red light therapy and, you know, even even like I'm talking about red light therapy, also like getting red light from the environment, you know, sunrise, sunset. They're all different ways that you can optimize red light in, in your daily routine, but that in a very real and literal way, charges your batteries to give you enough energy to surmount healing reactions and for your body, not only to kind of recover, but also to repair and, kind of develop new neurons, make more connections.

You know, you have to have the energy to do that. So whether you're getting it from, you know, changes in charge due to the water, whether you're getting it because you're activating the mitochondria, those organelles that make energy, that's probably one of the main ways that these red light therapy devices are so effective is because you're just overcoming that inertia, you know, that block you have to your body actually being able to heal itself. Yeah. Yeah. It's so important. And you know so many times advanced therapies like these are just confined to the clinical setting. Yes.

And I think it's super exciting that the Sara system makes these therapies more accessible for people to use in their daily lives. And to benefit from that. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how how the Sara Thrive system allows you to incorporate that into your day to day. That's right. I was actually go I actually did some studies, some clinical studies where I was looking at, I was looking at Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease using this longer wave near infrared light. But the system was a big system.

You know, it was clunky. It was heavy. And yes, you had to do it in a clinic and it's very expensive. So when I was looking to develop this, my whole idea was, let's make this something for people to use at home. And let's make it something where there's no, you know, we kind of take away, you don't have to be in a special room. You don't have to be sitting in a certain place, totally portable and lightweight. Because I think one of the again, there are so many things that we're told to do for our health.

You know, we have to eat, right? We have to sleep right. We have to go to bed at our past day, you know, we have to be doing certain things. The less, you know, barriers there are to doing some of these therapies, the better. So. So the Sara Thrive system is literally just a headband that goes on the head. It's lightweight. You can charge it. One charge will last you ten sessions. It's just ten minutes a day, you know. So that's really two weeks. You just have a body pad. Very simple and easy, a body panel.

We're putting light into that second brain. The gut. It's a good it's a good access point. You can actually get a lot of light into the gut very quickly. And you can do it anywhere. You can do it when you're sitting watching telly. You can be meditating, you can be cooking a dinner. Whatever it is, you can kind of, fit it into the daily routine. Because I think with any of these therapies, they work a lot of these alternative therapies, they really do work. But you have to do them. You can't have a device under your bed gathering dust.

And then, you know, wonder why it doesn't work. So I think from my point of view, yeah, that was one of my criteria is let's make something simple, lightweight, easy. And that's what I'm finding actually, when I'm getting reports, people can do a clinic and actually have a lot of clinics now who are offering red light therapy because they compare it with other things and because it's it is effective, but it is something that you can do at home and then you can share it with other people because, you know, there's so many different that, you know, even if you're if you have neurodegeneration, there is you can also prevent neurodegeneration.

You know, this is obviously it's a hard to sell prevention. It's always a difficult one to think about. But actually, you know, it's it is important and it is you know, this is kind of an empowering thing to know is that you can prevent some of these diseases by doing things, early. It doesn't matter when you, you know, you're going to improve your brain no matter where you start from. But, you know, if you have a device in the home and other people can use it, kids can use it even, you know, you're kind of setting you're helping yourself to kind of not develop these diseases in the first place, which is always the best, best place to be. Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, we've talked a lot over the summer at all of the different, you know, the eight pillars of brain health and what we need to be focusing on. And this is, you know, this is another addition to that as part of that composing health within the physiology. And it's fascinating that you mentioned kids know, is there a any age that's too young. No, not really. Because really what we're doing is very simple. We're just delivering a certain wavelength of light. And it's it's no different to the red light that you would receive if you were standing out at sunrise and sunset.

So it's not something that the body, doesn't recognize. So, you know, would you have a baby out in the sun? Yeah, of course you would. So it's really no different to that. So there's really no age limit. There are a few contraindications. Not because there's actually any evidence that there are any side effects. It's just for certain things like, perhaps active cancer. All of the regulatory bodies. Would you like there to be a lot more research to say that it doesn't have a harmful effect? There's absolutely no evidence that it does.

But for certain things, you know, you want to have a very strong foundation to say. We can definitely say it doesn't. But mostly there are no contrary indicate very few, just a couple. And any age group, you know, I have people sending me photos of their babies using it, their dogs using it. You know, it's it's something that's fairly universal because we are all diurnal mammals and we all need to get longwave light into our lives. Yeah. Yeah. Well it's so good that you tied that together with the early morning light and the, and the late evening light, because those are obviously very natural and nobody feels uncomfortable with those because I think sometimes people wonder like you know, what's being what's being shot into me here.

And so it's good to know, like, no, this is just the natural light that we can bring in to the body. And get the benefit of doing that. Are there? Now, I know that there's six programs that are somewhat specifically designed to target some of the brain functions. And so once someone has their device, how do they utilize those six different programs? Yeah. So one of the things that I was also looking at is pulsing, which is very, very simply just turning the light source off. And on a certain time, certain times, a second.

But the brain is doing its own pulsing at different times of day

At-Home Sara Thrive System and Daily Use 24:10

depending on what you're doing. You know, for example, you know, we kind of you and I like talking. We engage with each other. We concentrating. Our brains are kind of pulsing at a certain frequency because the brain is attending. It kind of emits its own pulse. So we can modulate that to a certain extent by kind of it's almost like a tuning fork. You know, if people are really struggling to attend to something, can their brain is not getting into that kind of natural rhythm. We can kind of show it a rhythm, like just by posting the lights and the brain, you know, starts to in train to that.

And people then find that maybe they are able to concentrate, or conversely, maybe people aren't able to relax. And you can kind of just post the light at a lower frequency, and it just brings the brain down into that lower frequency that we're naturally in. If we relax. So I have six different programs with different pulsing. It's it's a modulatory effect. It's a subtle effect, but people do tend to kind of see a slight difference. And it's just an app. So I have it on a and I also have sound files because the body responds to light and it responds to sound.

So we can also host or make light and sound files that kind of match each other. So if you're trying to I mean, it's very intuitive. You know, if you want to calm down, you're probably going to sit somewhere quietly and play nice calming music. You know, if you pull yourself up, you might start, you know, put on some dance music and kind of dance around. It's just it's because our body likes that kind of, frequency of the beat of the music. It helps to get us in that, in that kind of mindset. So I also have sound files in my app that in training the brain to be in different, states, if you like.

But it's very simple. It's all on an app. People can use an app. You don't have to. You can just operate the device on its own if you're not into using phones, but if you want to. There are six different programs and six different sound files. And I have things like, hypnosis meditations because things like visualizations also help, you know, for some people, making that connection between their gut and their brain and maybe I've lost a little bit of contact with that because we're not really taught to kind of sense what's going on with our gut.

So I do have also some other files in there to help people make that connection. So my idea is to give a relatively holistic treatment for your ten minutes sip. In ten minutes you're getting light. You're getting the brain, you're getting the gut. You're getting sound, you're getting hypnosis, and that's it. You're done for the day. And really it's a cumulative effect. You know, just doing some a little practice like that maybe three times a week. And people get quite incredible results just from implementing that kind of slight change into their routine.

Yeah. It's amazing what small but very intentionally designed interventions can accomplish. I can you're talking about 30 minutes a week, ten minutes, three times a week. And that you can have this profound change. And it's also it's not just in brain function and relaxation, that mood I would imagine as well, because the gut is so intricate, involved in our mood, regulation, anxiety, depression for sure. And we know how grumpy we can be. If you're kind of constipated, you know. Yeah, it's nice feeling.

You get grumpy, you know? So I think, you know, or if you've had a meal and you've eaten something that doesn't, you know, having something that can save that is kind of a soothing effect. And you're right, it's amazing what you can do with just a very short amount of time. I think the main thing of any of these things that people do, it's just consistency, you know, it's just doing something on a regular basis. You know, it brought home to me the other day, my sister challenged me. She's trying to do a little bit of exercise.

And so we did like 20 push ups every day, like for six months. Nothing. It takes a minute, but it was more than I was. It's amazing the difference. But it's it's a small thing, but it's a consistent thing. And I think it's exactly the same with these light therapies. It's a cumulative effect. It's like going to the gym, you know, if you just do it, if you just did a couple of minutes every day, you would see an effect. After a few months, you know, and it's something that it's minimum effort. But the main thing is to do it, you know, it's like anything you're not going to if you don't do your pushups, you're not going to see anything, but you just need to do one thing maybe like kind of integrate it, but do it in a consistent manner because the body likes that the body can build on that.

And really, you're right. You know, even little changes that you implement into your routine, as long as you kind of keep up with them gradually you see an effect. Like you say, it's like a bank account. If you just put in a little bit, you know, you forget about it, but then you've got a big pot of money because literally nothing is what the body seems to like. Yeah, that is really a good point because we can get, I think, sometimes kind of bogged down in feeling like there's so much that we need to do, but really there are many things we need to do a little of.

Yeah, just yeah, just a little love. I think it becomes overwhelming. Like it becomes a huge thing, like you're buying this tech and you have to do this crazy thing and it's overwhelming. But really, or even changing does, you know, just a simple thing, you know, just like removes remove sodas for a while, you know, just do one little thing and just keep at it. And and people see results. I think we do live in a world where, you know, even like you say, I come from the biohacking movement, it's all about, yes, maximum gains.

Maximum. You know, what can we all do to the max? And I think maybe the body, the body is very energy efficient, and the body kind of likes to do things in a slow and gradual way. And as long as you're kind of delivering something, every day in a way that the body can deal with, that's the way to do it, I think, you know, you you wouldn't, you know, if you've got to drink a gallon of water, you wouldn't want to drink it all at once. You just want to have a little glass spread out throughout your week and you'll get through it.

So I think acknowledging the way that the body works is, is something that we kind of we're not very good at now. We're kind of used to quick fixes. You know, we're kind of used to kind of take this drug and it will go go to the gym and see if you can knock out however many rats. You know, we're kind of used to that mentality. But the body doesn't do that. The body just kind of chips away at things and and if you think about how you got ill, you know, you don't get you don't wake up and you're suddenly ill.

It's something that kind of comes up on you like a little bit day by day. So it's kind of like working backwards from that. You have to, you know, however long it's taking you to get ill, you need to be okay. I need to just kind of chip at it. And every day you're going to get a little bit better. And I think once people take away that expectations of this quick fix and just start to acknowledge, like the little changes, it's quite amazing what you can achieve. You know, you can look back in a year's time and really you can make some very significant changes.

Yeah. Yeah. That's so important because that is very common too, that even in people that we're working with clinically, that they forget how how bad things were, they forget the small things that they weren't able to do because there are still things that they can't do or that they can't do the way they used to. And that is our human nature, is that we focus on those things that we haven't achieved instead of, you know, reveling in all of the things that are now different. And that's one of the things that I really like about this, this system, this treatment, because it helps to give you some of that inertia back.

Right. It helps to give you some of that energy, some of that motivation. And then that can be really helpful. Even though, you know, on a scientific level it's already helping you heal. But that getting that additional inertia really helps you to be successful in other areas as well, that you wouldn't expect to be directly related to your red light therapy. But it is. Yeah, for sure. And I've seen it time and time again. I have different support groups set up for people who have got different conditions, and they're using the device

Pulsing Programs, Sound, and Holistic Protocols 32:10

and you can see people's comments. You know, first of all, it's very much focused on what's the protocol. How do I, you know, people get very fixed data. You have to do things a certain way. But once people realize that, they start to see gradual changes there, they're not. And what did you say, you know, would be the best start on how much exercise and yeah. And slowly, slowly you can see people start to expand the way that they're doing things because you just need to like you say, you need to overcome that initial lack of energy, that initial lack of motivation.

But once you start seeing even the tiniest changes, you know, what's your goal? It could be somebody really wants to kind of get into Mensa, or it could be that somebody just wants to be able to remember their grandson's name. You know, whatever the goal is, it's good to kind of have set the goal and acknowledge when you get there, and then you can kind of move the goalpost just a little bit. Okay, now maybe you want to be able to walk to the kitchen on your own. Now, maybe you want to go out for a day out, you know, whatever it is.

And I see that in my groups, and it's so lovely to see that people are like, oh, did I tell you I did this? You know, that? That's pretty amazing, because when you first you couldn't do that. You have go on your own, and now you're telling me that you've been away for a holiday that's all of these little gains that we need to celebrate? Yeah, exactly. We had a patient that went on, went on a vacation and was able to find their hotel room in a big resort, and they wouldn't have been able to do that.

They wouldn't have been able to go out of the room on their own before because they couldn't find their way back. But they were they were able to. And that was just such a big win to celebrate. And then you just keep stacking those wins on top of each other. Yeah, that's really it's really true. It's that it's those small advances that all add up over time. Yeah. And it's very doable, I think, for anyone to kind of make just a little advance, you know, in a, in a time and build on it. You know, all these things are very much in somebody's control.

You know, I think sometimes we also have this mindset that somebody has to do something for us. You know, we have to wait for our next doctor's appointment and then they will tell us the next step. But actually, there's a lot more in our own control. You know, we can take control back of our health quite easily just by doing small things that are kind of going to move us towards a goal. Yeah I think that's really key. Well looking forward, are there any particular research initiatives or things that you're, you're looking at to further enhance the effectiveness of your therapy.

What's getting you excited. So like I said I I'm lucky enough that I have a lot of different support groups that are set up for people with different conditions. So I'm getting to get some very real and direct feedback on how the device is being used. So I have some fabulous creative ways that people are using my device. So I'm looking to see how I can then build those into different protocols. I have a, a fairly large ALS group at the moment because I have, a guy in the UK who's getting some great results and he publishes on social media.

And so I have people who join that group, and he's very supportive in the group, you know, simple things like, he had trouble swallowing. And so he took my device and he wears it upside down some of the days. And he says by wearing it upside down and kind of putting on underneath his jaw, head that he hasn't had a choking fit for months. And he used to have fun on a regular basis. So for me, that's like, okay, how can we support people to do that? Do we need to think about red light that goes on to there?

Maybe it's just a little protocol. So there are lots of once you start using these therapies, there are lots of creative things that come out of that. I'm also always looking at research data like, is there a different posting schedule that might be beneficial for a certain group? That's possible. I have four wavelengths of red light in my head. Bam! Because I'm trying to target different chromatophores, different, light receivers. But potentially we could tweak that, you know, do certain conditions respond to certain wavelengths of light?

These are all things that, you know, really, this is the kind of exciting cutting edge part of this being in this world right now is that we've got a lot to learn about these different therapies and how we can really enhance the effects. So, you know, I, I'm certainly not sure of, of what to do or ideas, you know, there's there's so much and I think everybody in the industry goes the same. You know, I go to these big conferences and everybody's kind of trading research, which is really nice. You know, it's really a stage where in collaboration rather than competition in the industry because so much, you know, there's, you know, it'd be impossible for one person to kind of be able to service all the people that, that are a good candidate to benefit from these therapies.

So there's a lot of research, you know, even in the States, like I it I was to set up a research clinic at Harvard and, it's amazing because now we can really start to see what's happening with psychiatric conditions. It's very interesting. So I think certainly I predict that these light therapies will gain popularity, will start to get more and more research eventually will meet medical device approval for the FDA for these devices, because at the moment they're still wellness. So all of the things I'm talking to you about, I'm talking about symptom management rather than curing or treating or diagnosing or preventing.

But but I think we are getting to the stage where the evidence is mounting up that soon we'll be able to make claims for certain health conditions. And that will be great, because that will mean that doctors will be able to actually prescribe. But even even without that, I think there's huge gains to be made in just people taking control of their own wellness and symptom management. Yeah. Well I think in medicine we focus so much attention on that chemistry of medicine and how that needs to be managed and how we manage the physiology and the hormones and all of those different chemical components.

But there's this huge big field in the energy of healing that is fascinating and powerful. And I think they really coming into its own power right now. Yeah, I think so too. I think, yeah, people are beginning to realize that it is possible to kind of make their own gains, to take control and that you can combine it, you know, you don't you don't have to do one thing or the other, but you kind of utilize Western medicine at the same time.

Research Directions, Longevity, and Closing Takeaways 38:30

You can be doing things which are empowering and moving you along at the same time. So I think, yeah, there's a huge movement right now, not just from the biohacking movement, but also longevity. You know, how can we maintain a healthy brain for longer because it looks like we're all going to live longer. You know, the aging rates are going up. So how can we do that? So, you know, this whole growing field of longevity is based on what do we need to do? Because none of, you know, we want to kind of be healthy as we age, right?

That health span, not just a longer life lived in misery, but a healthy, longer life. Exactly. We all want to have to have our brains be as good as they can be as we age. So I think that, yeah, there's a huge movement towards personalized devices, things that people can do at home, things that people can kind of recommend shared between friends and family. That just enables the whole society to come up and kind of age in a more healthy way. So yeah, you know, to me it's very exciting and I can kind of see it.

You know, I think even up to this year, it was something that was still a bit fringe. This year, it does seem to be that is becoming much more mainstream. And that to me is just brilliant. Yeah, that's really fantastic. That's been my experience as well that it's been something that we've been dabbling with, dabbling with, dabbling with, and then like there's been this big wave this year where it's like, no, it's here and it's important and valuable. Yeah, that's really great. Oh my gosh, Sarah, I always learn so much in my conversations with you.

I really, really appreciate you sharing this really important information with everyone on the summit. Today I, I shared what my key takeaway is on the chemistry versus the energy, the physics of medicine. What do you think is an important key thing for our viewers to take away? I think the important thing is to realize that really up until like a few hundred years ago, you know, we lived in tune with our natural environment. And I think to kind of recognize that one of the things that's causing a lot of the illnesses and our societies, we lead very indoor, artificially lit environments, and that's probably playing a huge effect.

And although we're kind of used to it because it is our world now, it hasn't it wasn't how we evolved. You know, we had whatever it was, 200,000 years of evolution. And then we had like 200 years of living in an indoor life. So bearing that in mind, just maximizing your light environment and, you know, it doesn't necessarily I'm not you know, kind of pushing that you have to buy a red light device, sit by a window, go outside, see sunrise and sunset, stand on the ground, eat natural food from where you live.

You know, all of these things we can do are just going to help us with, you know, our bodies are still a little bit primal, even though we're now kind of these animals that kind of have screens and phones and everything else that's going on. So as much as we can to kind of try and modify our life to, to kind of be more natural or to kind of be kinder to our bodies because our body, that's what our bodies crave. They crave, they crave red light, they crave longwave light, you know, touching nature, being outside.

So I think that that's my kind of takeaway for people is really just embrace the kind of the way our bodies naturally evolved being and everything else in moderation. I mean, I'm not, you know, we lead these lives now. It's great. We have convenience, but just acknowledge, that our light environment is, is is probably playing a bigger role in our health than we kind of care to admit. Yeah, yeah. Attention to the balance. Yes. Moderation in all things. Yes. So. Oh, excuse. So, Sarah, if people would like to know how to get in touch with you, with your company, how they can learn more about the Sarah Thrive device and where they can find it.

What information would you like to share with them? But really, I'm. I'm easy to find. It's just Sarah thrive. But it's about c.r.a.. So my name's Sarah. It's about the normal way. But the company is Sarah thrive because it's like the brain. So c.r.a. and then thrive. All of my handles are Sarah. Thrive. Sarah thrive.com Sarah thrived on LinkedIn, Facebook, anything like that. If anybody reaches out to me on any of those channels, I always answer, you know, I answer all my own correspondence. So I encourage people to, if they have any questions, I encourage people to reach out to me because I, I love kind of answering these questions.

So it's Sarah. Sarah at Sarah thrive.com. It's the easiest way. Awesome awesome. And then I understand that you have a special offer for our viewers as well. Yes for sure. Yep. They can get a code I can't remember what we made the code. Can you remember Cathy? Was it doctor talks ten? It can be. We'll make it. Doctor talks can. And then people could get 10% of the device. So that's doctor Talks ten at checkout and they'll get a 10% discount on the the Sarah system. And I say if people want to email me beforehand, they can.

But that's that's the easiest way to get the discount. Thank you so much for offering that. I think a lot of people are going to benefit from the work that you've done. No problem at all. Yeah. It's a absolute pleasure to talk to you about it and to kind of get the news out to people that there are alternatives. You know, there really are ways that you can get a better brain. So thank you for. Neon. Absolutely, absolutely. And if you my viewers have enjoyed this discussion today on the summit, please join some of our other sessions where we will continue to dive into my passion solving the root causes of cognitive decline and leading you to better brain health.

Thanks for joining us today.