THE LIGHT DOCTOR:

The Science and Solutions for Replacing Your Lights Now to Protect Your Health

“The light we see is as important
to our health as the air we
breathe, the food we eat, and the
water we drink.”

~ Martin Moore-Ede M.D., Ph.D.
Author of THE LIGHT DOCTOR: The Science and Solutions for Replacing Your Lights Now to Protect Your Health

Why is blue-enriched LED light not safe to use at nightime?

statistics of rates of breast cancer in urban area vs. rural area

Most electric lights deliver too little circadian blue during the day, and far too much blue at night. This disrupts our circadian clocks. As a result, today’s LED and fluorescent lights greatly increase the risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer, and double the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Why Everyone Should Read THE LIGHT DOCTOR

night skyline of city lit up with artificial lights

We take the light switch on the wall for granted. But we are quite unaware of the devastating effects that today’s LED and fluorescent lights can have on our health and well-being.

The right light at the right time can boost our energy and our health, and improve our sleep at night. But too often, without realizing it, we expose ourselves to the wrong light at the wrong time.

THE LIGHT DOCTOR helps you become a smart and aware user of electric light. This book explains why it is urgent that you must replace your lights now with healthy circadian lights to protect your health

THE LIGHT DOCTOR is the biggest game changer since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

An Overview of THE LIGHT DOCTOR: The Science and Solutions for Replacing Your Lights Now to Protect Your Health

Tres Riche Heures du Duc du Berry peasants harvesting by a castle

Limbourg brothers, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For most of human existence our ancestors were bathed each day in natural daylight and slept in the dark at night. But since the widespread introduction of electric light 100 years ago, more than 90% of our time is spent indoors. We have substituted the natural 24-hour light-dark cycle with human-unfriendly electric light.

Today’s LED and fluorescent lights are designed for energy efficiency with little regard for human health. Like DDT and asbestos, they are dangerously flawed technologies. These unhealthy lights disrupt our circadian clocks resulting in chronic ill health and hundreds of serious diseases.

THE LIGHT DOCTOR shows you how to recognize which lights are harmful and how they causes ill health. It also explains how you can use circadian lighting to protect your, and your family’s health

What Can Be Done About These Risks?

The solution is obvious and available. We don’t have to give up electric light. Instead, we need to get smarter by using electric lights that are sky blue-rich during the day and blue-depleted at night. Yet less than 1% of lights sold today meet this standard, and the rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer climb. There is no good reason why young nurses working night shifts should continue to have a 40% increased risk of breast cancer. There is no good reason why obesity, sleep disorders and fatigue should continue to be an international epidemic.

Dr. Moore-Ede brings a unique perspective from the forefront of the battle against unhealthy lights. As a professor at Harvard Medical School, he discovered the location of the circadian clock in the human brain, and how it was synchronized by light. He has seen first-hand the harmful effects of light at night in the real world as a consultant to over 50% of the Fortune 500 companies. His discovery of the narrow sky-blue signal that synchronizes circadian clocks led to his invention and patenting of evidence-based circadian lighting, and the demonstration of its effectiveness in protecting health and safety in many major companies.

Why Don’t More People Know About Circadian Lighting?

huge office building at night lit up by florescent lighting

THE LIGHT DOCTOR illuminates and attacks the barriers to healthy lighting. A failure of scientists to communicate effectively is one problem. As one leader said “The reason circadian lighting is not penetrating the market is that nobody knows about it … Scientists know, but they only talk to each other. If you talk to your neighbor, they won’t know.” This book breaks through this barrier of communication to provide the reader with the critical knowledge on how to choose safe and healthy lights readily available to everyone.

But that is by no means the only problem. The lighting industry is skittish about opening the door to asbestos-scale liabilities for the billions of unhealthy lights they have already installed. And single-minded Department of Energy lighting policies, backed by the “save our climate” lobby, have placed energy efficiency at a much higher priority than human health.

How To Be Your Own Advocate For Change

young mother reading to her son by warm lamplight

Ultimately it is you the reader, and consumer, of lights to demand healthy circadian lighting. Lighting decisions cannot be left to your local hardware store, or to electricians and building maintenance, or to a corporate sustainability executive bonused by energy-savings goals. You need to know the story, and understand the impact of the wrong versus right lights on you and your loved ones.

This book will arm you with the facts and the knowledge you need to make one of the most basic decisions about your health – as basic as the food you eat and the air you breathe. It tells you how to find and install the lights that will make your home a healthy haven, and how to become an advocate for healthy lighting in your workplace, schools, hospitals, senior living homes, and retail stores.

About The Author

Martin Moore-Ede MD PhD is a leading world expert on circadian clocks and light. As a professor at Harvard Medical School, he located the human circadian clock. He founded CIRCADIAN® Light Research Center which identified the key blue wavelengths that control the clock, and patented & developed the first evidence based healthy circadian lights.

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Night City Skyline Photo by Van Mendoza on Unsplash