𝗜 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗞𝗘𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗢𝗢 — 𝗦𝗢 𝗜 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗜𝗦 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟. Andrew Huberman recently told Bill Maher something that sounds wild — that the long-wavelength red and infrared light present in sunlight and old incandescent bulbs actually passes through your body, charges your mitochondria,... improves your vision, and helps regulate blood sugar. And that the short-wavelength-dominant LED lights now in most of our homes may be quietly undermining mitochondrial function. His words: 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺. I was skeptical too. So I looked it up. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗿-𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗱. Professor Glen Jeffery at University College London — one of the researchers Huberman specifically names — published a study in 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 in July 2025 confirming that infrared wavelengths from sunlight measurably pass through the human torso, even through clothing, and that just 15 minutes of exposure improved color vision by 16% (blue axis) and 9% (red axis) in participants — measured 24 hours later, even when light was blocked from their eyes during exposure. A separate study from the same lab showed that red light exposure reduced post-meal blood glucose spikes by 27%. These aren't fringe blogs. This is University College London published in Nature's Scientific Reports. The mechanism Huberman describes checks out. Your mitochondria contain water that absorbs long-wavelength red and infrared light — the same reason reds disappear when you go underwater. That absorption drives better ATP production, the energy currency of your cells. The retina has more mitochondria per cell than almost any other tissue in the body, which is why vision improvements show up as such a clean measurable signal. 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗶𝗲𝗰𝗲. The Biden administration's energy efficiency regulations effectively phased out most incandescent bulbs. The stated reason was energy savings. What was never part of the regulatory conversation — at all — was the growing scientific literature suggesting that the near-infrared wavelengths stripped out of LED lighting may have real biological consequences. Whether that was ignorance or indifference, the result is the same: Americans were nudged by government policy into lighting that the emerging science suggests is metabolically inferior. 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁? Huberman himself is practical about this — he has LEDs at home and isn't panicking. Here's what the science actually points to: The primary solution is sunlight. Outdoors sunlight delivers near-infrared at levels no bulb can match. Even 15 minutes outside — clothed — appears sufficient to trigger measurable effects. If you work near a window, that helps too. For indoor lighting, not all LEDs are equal. Look for "full spectrum" or "broad spectrum" LED bulbs that include wavelengths in the 600–900 nm range. "Warm white" LEDs (2700–3000K color temperature) are closer to incandescent output and include more red-spectrum light than the cool blue-dominant bulbs. They're not a perfect substitute for sunlight, but they're meaningfully better than standard cool-white LEDs for this purpose. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱: get outside every day. Eat near a window. If you're replacing bulbs, choose warm-spectrum LEDs. And maybe ask why a government that claims to care about public health never thought to ask what stripping infrared out of every American home might do to the people living in them.show more

M.A. Rothman

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