Melanin Science Explained - Functions in Human Body, its Benefits, Cosmic Intelligence and Beyond! Melanin Facts, Melanin Research, What is Melanin? Eumelanin, Pheomelanin, Neuromelanin, Bioelectric

0:03 This is. The fitness wisdom podcast This is Part 1 of the three-part series. Enjoy the show Hello and welcome back to another exciting episode of the fitness wisdom podcast Today we're going to be talking about the fascinating nature of melanin and its incredible properties in the human body and in nature in general. Because there is many people who believe that melanin is just purely a tan or that it's just a sign of skin damage. But we're going to be running today how it has so many more incredible properties than what we think and how it could be even a massive contributor to our evolution as human beings.

0:39 So welcome to the show Melanin Research. I appreciate you coming on. Thank you for that fine introduction, and I appreciate you inviting me onto your podcast and of course, for the support that you've shown to the Instagram page throughout the years. I really appreciate that. Well, your information that you share is so critically important. I feel like the least that I can do is support your page and share it with the world. So I think that now that you're on here, it's time to shed light onto this area where it's so critically important.

1:11 Because, you know, as I mentioned in the introduction, many people believe that melanin is purely just a tan. So maybe we can start off with the foundational work. So what do you how would you describe melanin for the audience, for people who have never heard about melanin before? Oh, yes, All right, that's a great question. It's simple, but the answer is so profound. So I would describe melanin as referring to a family of dark carbon based organ, organic molecules that organize energy across different systems.

1:47 So when we talk about melanin, we're not just talking about the molecule that's in your skin that's giving you a tan, but also it's referring to a broader system of dark, I want to say carbon based particles that behave in a way that organizes energy. So you have melanosomes, you have melanocytes, you have melanopsins, you have melanin. These are all behaving, functioning as one organic system throughout your entire body to do 1 central thing, which is organize, protect and balance wherever they're found.

2:29 So you have you also. But the reason why I say across different systems as opposed to across different living things is because melanin is not just found in the skin, as you already know. It's also found in the brain. It's found in the liver, it's found in the kidneys. And this goes not just beings, but for creatures in general. So you have pets, you have a dog. If you have a cat, they have melanin, not just in their fur, in their eyes. They have it in their brain. They have it in their blood. They have it in their liver.

3:01 They have it in their kidneys, they have it in their lungs. But then there's also this cosmic aspect of melanin where, or I should say more so, this global aspect of melanin, where it's not simply found in living things, it's there even before life begins. So we find melanin in space and asteroids, which manifests as meteorites when they reach Earth. We find particles or carbonaceous chondrites is what they're called, which are very similar to melanin. And some astronomers believe that these are precursors to melanin.

3:39 So you have melanin, which is found all throughout the universe, but it takes on, you know, different shapes, right? You know, like if you here, you know, you're sitting with a tank top because you're in a warm room temperature room. But if we go to the Alaska, you're going to wear a coat, right? You're going to adapt. So you have melanin, but you're still you, right? So you have melanin that's in different areas of the universe. That's an Earth, it's in Amets, it's in asteroids, but it's they're still doing the same thing, which is organizing, absorbing, storing and managing all forms of energy.

4:20 Wow. So you could basically say that we have this molecule has come from the stars in a way or from the universe and we have somehow managed to have it embedded within our system, you know, in our biology. And clearly it must play an essential role in the human body, right? So maybe you could get into some of the fascinating properties that it has within the human body. You mentioned in the beginning that there are different types of melanin and you have the ones on the surfaces and you have the ones internally as well, which I don't think many people actually knew about because all before I started researching about melanin, I didn't know that we had melanin on the inside, right?

5:04 Because I think it's so important for us to think, Oh, well, if melanin is, you know, it's not just this molecule for protecting us from the sun, but why is it actually on the inside of our body as well when the sun cannot reach the insides of our body? So maybe you can dive into a little bit about the properties of of melanin within the body and the different types how they. Differ from each other Methylene blue, an incredibly powerful substance that has an affinity for the mitochondria. Discovered in 1876, at first as a textile dye, it didn't take long before it was noticed for its unusual biological effects.

5:40 Here is a list of all the things that methylene blue is known for. My personal favorites It is effects that it has on the mitochondria. Methylene blue acts as a redox. What this means is that it has the ability to grab onto electrons, donate and transfer them anywhere where energy is required in the body. And we know that most neurolithic diseases these days are due to a lack of cellular energy, ATP. The more electrons we can get through successfully along the electron transport chain in the mitochondria, the more deuterium depleted water we can make as well as the end of energy production, which is ATP.

6:11 The energy that we need to power all our cellular processes come from electrons, so it only makes sense the more we take care about mitochondria and our energy production, more energy we have for our overall health, well-being, and vitality. If you wish to explore the methylene blue that I use, head over to maragimedicinal.com/mobility Fitness and use the promo code MOBILITY FITNESS at checkout for 15% of your entire order. Yeah. So I would say, let's start with the basics, right? So you have three different types of melanin and the human we're talking about just human beings is 3 different types.

6:45 You have you melanin, which is the brown to black melanin that you find in black hair that you find on, you know, like would you get very when you tan, that's you melanin. And then you have fail melanin, which is the reddish yellow pigment. That's the reddish yellow form of melanin. So the easiest way to distinguish them is by the color, right? So and you can also see fail melanin and things like oranges, citrus fruits, right on the yellowy pigments. These are fail melanins and with you melanin and fail melanin, they're both in the body and however, you melanin is a bit more common within the body.

7:37 So when we talked about that internal melanin, that's really referring to you melanin. When you get when you get into like the internal, the deeper tissues like the throat, the lungs, when you go into the body, you realize there's melanin everywhere, but it's, it's you melanin, it's dark brown or it's black. And their properties also differ quite a bit as well because you melanin is very efficient at absorbing the entire spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. So UV rays, microwaves, radio waves, gamma radiation, you know, like the ionizing radiation in space like that is you melanin.

8:20 So when you hear, you know, I was reading the other day, you've probably heard about this too, that there's fungi in Chernobyl. It's like these fungi that's absorbing radiation at the nuclear site internal. Oh, yeah. And how they're basically using that radiation to turn the light into food, into a chemical source of energy. And when you look at them, like when you go, well, I haven't been there, but when you see the pictures, you see like this black looks like a black cloud that's just covering the walls.

8:56 And this is pure you melanin just absorbing all of that gamma radiation. So that's the easiest way to distinguish whether you're looking at fail melanin or you melanin. If it's yellow or red, fail melanin. And if it's E melanin, then you know it's dark brown or it's much darker. But then there's also a much more significant form of melanin, which is called neuromelanin. And this is a type of melanin that the brain produces. Neuromelanin, as the name implies, it's exclusive to the brain. So in your brain obviously we have neurons or we have nerve cells and these nerve cells produce their own type of melanin which we call a neuromelanin.

9:42 And this differs fundamentally from your skin melanin, which is consists of only you melanin fail melanin because neural melanin is not produced by tyrosine, which is the amino acid that gets converted and ultimately becomes melanin. Neural melanin does not come from the from melanocytes. So the way that the skin melanin appears is you have melanocytes, right? These are structures within the cell that convert or that play a role in the chemical conversion of tyrosine into melanin. And you need melanocytes to do that.

10:22 So in your skin and your hair, in your eyes and your organs, you have melanocytes all throughout your body that are constantly turning out melanin. However, in the brain, there are no melanocytes. The melanin is simply synthesized from the neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine. That's where it comes from. So you have neuromelanin in the brain that's produced exclusively by the neurons that are deep inside the brain. So these are all three different forms of melanin throughout the human body.

11:00 And as you explained earlier, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's the skin is just a window, right? It's just a starting point. But as you go right beneath the skin, it's in the blood. So do you think that it acts like a meter for the light to be reflected within the body or moved around really for the light to get where it needs to go from the exterior to the anterior? Would that be a good way to characterize it? I would say it's definitely intrinsic to that process, right? So when you absorb photons or you absorb light from the sun, the melanin is utilizing that energy.

11:45 You know, it's splitting water, it's use a lot, it's using that energy from the sun to do things like water splitting, right, to convert that energy into heat as well. So your cells don't combust. Because, you know, that's another thing about knowing that we don't really think about is we know that it absorbs energy, but if something just absorbs light or heat, eventually it's going to combust, right? You can't just keep absorbing energy without becoming overwhelmed by it. So that's where the act of conversion and the act of turning that light into different forms of energy that are useful for the body or that can help the body survive.

12:32 So This is why you're able to have a feature like an elephant, an African elephant, for example, which can be as big as 12,000 lbs living on the belt of the equator and out in the bare naked and the bare sun. And it's dark, right? It's dark Gray. Its body is just bathed. And this you melanin. And how is it able, you know, like it seems almost counterintuitive, like if melanin is absorbing heat or it's absorbing light, why would you? Why would it be in such a high amount in very humid area, very hot and humid area, right?

13:14 But it's really because it's not just protecting you from the sun, it's helping you balance the energy of the sun. So it's turning that light into heat, It's dissipating it, right? So it's emitting it, it's turning it into heat, it's helping your cells, it's helping your cells balance that energy. So, you know, This is why you have an app and you have in a creature like the elephant or the rhino, you know, where they are very dark, but they're in these hot environments and they need that melanin to basically to have equilibrium within their system.

13:51 It starts with the, but you did mention that I believe in interpreting your question correctly. Is melanin like a form of intelligence that can help us transfer that energy internally, right. So how are we using this energy from the sun to help us internally? And the answer is, of course, yes, it does, because when you're out in the sun, that's energizing your cells. So the melanin is using that energy. But then again, as I mentioned before, it's a whole system, right? So you have melanin and the skin, but the melanocytes are dendritic cells.

14:32 So these are cells that have dendrites. They can basically communicate with other cells within the body. They can communicate with the neural. The nerve tracks across the body, so I dendrites, just for listeners, that's referring to the branches that you see when nerve cells like a nerve cell, it's a circle and then there's branches, right, that help it conduct and exchange electricity with other nerve cells. Melanocytes are shaped exactly like nerve cells. They have dendrites, so they change information across the network.

15:06 So your skin is, you know, it's one big network, right, of connective tissue. And then you have melanocytes that are also there doing this role of enhancing that communication between the skin, the organs and the brain. And your skin is the biggest, it's not only the biggest organ on your body, it covers your whole body. So your skin is in contact with every organ. It's in contact with your heart, with, you know, your, your endocrine system, with your urinary tract, It's everywhere. It's your whole body is in direct communication with your skin.

15:43 So when we talk about having or building melanin levels on the skin, you're also inevitably going to affect on the communication that happens between these different systems because melanin is a blooming. That's so fascinating. Yeah, very. So, so basically if we break it down, the sun strikes our skin and then the melanin's role is to decode the information coming from the sun, but also the energy coming from the sun. Yeah. So the body is then able to process that information from the sun, or from the photons rather.

16:21 Exactly. Because any light can strike the skin, right? Like I assume that because as you said that melanin absorbs all electromagnetic radiation. And I guess now in our modern world with so much non-native electromagnetic fields coming from our Wi-Fi, cell phone towers, cell phones, laptops, all electronic devices these days, that's going to be bombarding our system. And it's a really fantastic tool or hack to have more melanin on our surfaces. You also mentioned about the internal melanin as well, which is the neuro melanin and the EU melanin.

16:57 And I'm just wondering how does 1 build the darker pigment of melanin on the inside? Because we know on the outside that you get sunlight, right? And that can help you through the UVB and UVA exposure. You're able to build your melanin in your skin. But how about the internal stores? Are we able to build those up as well? That's a great question. And I would say that I think the answer is it's a very interesting question and there's definitely a lot of speculation around it. Like if melanin, you have these baseline levels of melanin, right, where you produce baseline levels that are predetermined by genetics.

17:44 But then we also see through observation that we can shift or we can increase and sometimes decrease the levels of melanin that are in our system just by our lifestyle choices and by our environment. So, you know, as with all things in nature, it's never just one factor, right? It's not purely genetic. It's epigenetic. It's the environment interplaying with those genes. So I would say you start out with a baseline melanin level, right? But then you also have the ability to influence those melanins to supplement those melanin levels through the choices that you make.

18:27 So one very obvious example is sunlight exposure, right? Well, you go into the sun and this really this results in you getting a 10. And the reason for that 10 is because the sun is hitting your cells and you know it's hitting the nucleus, which contains the DNA. And that can be damaging, right? That radiation can be damaging. So that's when melanin is in place. But then the melanin is synthesize the body increases the amount of melanin to guard the nucleus of the cell, right? So then you end up getting a 10, you end up getting more melanin on the surface of the body.

19:06 And so that's a very, that's a super obvious example, right of how you're, you have a baseline level, but then you can obviously just build it up by doing something intentional you. Have a stressor which requires you to have it? Yeah, there, that's it. That seems to be from what I've researched that seems to be the most immediate way to build melanin levels is through stressors. So because melanin is there as a, as a protectant, that's what it's there to do, is there to balance and organize and to protect.

19:41 So you can really think of it as doing 3 primary things in the body. It balances, it organizes, and it protects, right? So if you need anything on the body that needs protection, melanin is going to be there. So beyond sunlight, you have things like inflammation, hormonal changes, stress, certain foods, even toxins can influence melanin activity. So I mean, it's kind of it's, you know, it's, it's interesting because the reason that I even got into this, like this melon research is it started as a personal venture for me because a few years ago while I was studying biology in college, I developed some hyperpigmentation around my underarms.

20:27 And these, you know, the underarms doesn't really see sunlight like your chest does or like your face does. So that was strange to me. But I also had something called hyperhidrosis or which is just excessive sweating, right? And I wanted to know why, Like I obviously I was curious about the hyperhidrosis, but what didn't make sense to me was why my underarms became darker in the process. So, you know, I asked my doctor, you know, like, why is this area getting darker? And I didn't really get a clear answer.

21:00 He didn't really seem to know. So that kicked off, you know, me being me being a student of biology, I wanted to do my own research. So it led to me doing some research into hydration, stress, and then eventually melanin. And what I find, what I found was mind blowing. You know, like I realized that melanin wasn't just about color, it was about healing on protection, stress management, even brain function like we talked about. And the deeper I went into that, the more I felt like, wow, like this is something that most people just don't know, but it's obviously something that is so fundamental and I feel like more people should know it.

21:47 So that's how melanin research was born. But going back to what we were discussing a few minutes ago about increasing melanin levels, that would be an example, right, of melanin increasing without intention per SE, right? Just the body doing what it does, the body responding to a stressor. So melanin being a protective molecule that has anti-inflammatory properties, antioxidant properties. So the body instinctively is going to secrete more melanin to sites and injury to sites of stress, right. So if you have, let's say, for example, you have a part of your body that is constantly exposed to friction, constantly exposed to stress, right?

22:36 You like your elbows, your kneecaps, like these are areas that we lean on. These are areas that are constantly touching things. So you'll notice and people like when they have some people have their elbows are darker than the rest of the body, their knees are darker than the rest of the body. And you'll notice the more you, the more you sit on your knees or the more you lean your elbows against certain surfaces, the more friction, the more stress you put on these joints, the darker they get, the more melanin is produced.

23:06 It's basically melanin is basically setting up camp in these areas serve as reinforcement to offer protection because this is a source of chronic stress. So it's going to lead to inflammation, right? It's going to lead to oxidative stress. So a chemical like melanin is there to manage that chaotic energy. So it's really is like the body's, it's like the body's internal doctor, if that makes any sense. Well, that's amazing. That's incredible. Yeah, I found that also as well. Is it, is it so that if you're more light skinned that you would notice that those areas that you mentioned like your elbows or your knees, would they go like more pink?

23:51 Because that would be the different form of melanin, right as well or? Yeah, exactly. That's a yeah, that's it, the failed melanin, right? Yeah, because I I just thought that if I was to, let's say, lean on my elbows or my knees, I would think of it going more reddish. But then at the same time, I was thinking that that's just the increase in blood flow coming to the area after I have come off of those tissues. But maybe what what you are saying is that's actually the melanin migrating to the tissues for protection?

24:24 Through chronic stress, right so the repeated action of doing that so you do that over time eventually melanin will appear right so the. I have noticed it in, in the Sorry, did I cut you off? Yeah, I've noticed in individuals who pray a lot, you know, and they put their head on the ground. You can see it especially like in places like Egypt or mainly Arabic countries where they pray and they put their head on the ground. And you notice that they have this little dark spots on the top of their head where their head touches the ground.

24:56 Yep, because the friction friction will put in your head against surfaces. And that's not just a friction, but it's also, it's, it's bacteria as well. You're exposing your cells to, to pathogens, to potential harmful substances. And melanin, in addition to being, you know, an antioxidant, it's also an antibiotic. So it also absorbs bacteria, it absorbs germs and it neutralizes them. So it's really something that manages all forms of energy, whether it be, you know, whether it be inanimate or animate or living, right?

25:36 So whether it be the sun or, you know, a pathogen that's landing on your body, it's going to absorb it and it's going to manage it. So putting your head against the ground where you know, where your feet is, where there's a constant tract of, you know, like microbes, that's where you're going to need more melanin. Wow, wow, that's insane. So what do you, what role do you think that melanin has had in our evolution as human beings? You know, throughout the years, through the millions of years, as we evolved as human beings, do you feel like melanin was the key stepping stone to us becoming who we are today?

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26:49 Man, that's such a great question. You know, there's a very interesting connection between evolution and the third type of melanin we talked about, which is neural melanin. Again, that's the brain. That's the brain melanin, the deep brain melanin. All mammals have this type of melanin, But we can see on like the scale of evolution that as mammals evolved more complex brains, they also developed more neural melanin. So you have humans and you have great apes, right? So you have humans, realize Demps, the great apes who have very high concentrations of neural melanin.

27:29 And we have it not just in our brain stem, but we have it in our cortices. We have it throughout the brain, but it's concentrated in the brain stem. And then beneath or not, shouldn't say beneath, but further along that evolutionary ladder you have other organisms like dogs and cats, right, who are intelligent and who have complex proteins, but they have less neural melanin than we do. And then we go further along and we get to reptiles who have even less than those mammals do. So reptiles have a too, but they have even less than mammals.

28:04 And then you go even further alone to fish and infinians and they have the least neural melanin out of all. So like that's to me, that's a big clue as you know, like a why is it in the brain? Because there's no sunlight. And we've been taught that it's really just a reaction to sunlight, right? But the brain is not getting, especially the deep part of the brain, the brain stem, which is close to your spinal cord, that's not getting any sunlight. So why is there so much melanin there? And be like, why does this difference, why does it have such an effect, right, where a fish has such little neural melanin and a human being has so much of it and we see such a massive difference in terms of behavior and ability, you know, to, to make use of our environment.

28:57 So, you know, neural melanin is obviously playing a very understated but very significant role in terms of how we came to be, as, you know, the species that seems to master its environment wherever it goes. You know that neural melanin plays a very active role in protecting the neurons, managing neurotransmitters like dopamine, like norepinephrine, which we need for things like attention, learning, emotional balance. All animals have these chemicals in their brains. All animals have dopamine, have norepinephrine, have cortisol.

29:39 But neural melanin is what the brain uses to not only protect these neurotransmitters, but to also manage their flow, to manage their activity as well, their electrical activity. So, you know, it really just seems, you know, you can just put two and two together as, you know, an increase in neural melanin as advanced species. It basically suggests that melanin is there in the brain to help it handle more complex things, right? To help it balance, press and to help it function with greater efficiency.

30:23 Wow. Wow. That's insane. Yeah. And when you look at fish, because the sea is like a Faraday cage, right? It's protected from electromagnetic radiation, pretty much. That's why getting in the sea is so incredible for human beings as well. So you can imagine that fish, because they're not exposed to that electromagnetic radiation that maybe they don't need so much neuromelanin like you mentioned. But as soon as you come out of the water and now the complexity of life increases dramatically. And now you have to navigate your environment.

30:53 And since we are standing on our two feet as well away from the ground, requiring, requiring us to have, you know, greater balance and ability to, you know, walk and move and hunt and gather our food, maybe that's probably one of the reasons. So you're basic, basically saying that the complexity of life was actually what led to the increase in melanin, rather than the increase of melanin helping us to become more complex. Right, It's, it's like, what's the game first, the chicken or the egg? I, you know, I, I can see like what you just described, I can see how that intuitively that's what it seems like, right?

31:36 Like as organisms become more advanced, they require more of this brain melanin, right, to handle these complex, the complexities, to handle the stressors in the environment. But I'd like to give melanin a little bit more credit. And I think it's because we can really view melanin as to me it's a system of intelligence itself. So it's something that doesn't just react to the environment, it's something that manages the environment. So, you know, you have different things that are taking place in the body.

32:15 You have energy management, right? Like you have light being absorbed, transformed, you have sound being absorbed transformed, heat, gravitons, magnetic fields, like all of these different forms of energy that us as human beings that we are constantly taking in. And melanin is there as basically the energy management system. But that implies that it's a form of intelligence. It's not just some material that's just reacting to whatever happens. That's just, you know, responding, you know, like you, you know, like, you know, you breathe and oxygen comes in or out of your body.

32:56 Like it's really a bit more. I would say it's more complex than that. And I think the clue to that is the fact that we see it throughout the universe. We see it beyond the beyond the human being, beyond mammals, beyond organisms. We see melanin in lakes. We see it in the dirt and soil. There's that's called owl melanin, which is melanin that just is basically the same as what we have in our skin, except it doesn't have nitrogen. So the soil in the ground, the humus, it's melanin. So you have. Yeah, it's it's everywhere.

33:34 It's in the atmosphere as soot. It's also in meteorites. So when meteorites, ancient meteorites that have been uncovered, they have these what are called melanin like particles, right? So these are substances that are very similar in nature and in physical characteristics to melanin. Where we were going to categorize it, we're going to put it in that family of melanins, right Where, you know, it's, it's really behaving as its own form of, you know, like intelligence. So, you know, to me it seems more so that, you know, I like to think of melanin as being like a guide or like a teacher in living systems.

34:28 Like it's something that's there to teach living systems how to balance, how to harmonize with the environment. So you know, like, and we see this again, not just in life, but we see it throughout, throughout, all throughout existence. So when I was talking earlier about those meteorites, there's something else here that's a little bit more that's related to it, but just goes a little bit deeper. So we know that stars on stars come from something called black globules, and these are dense dark clouds, interstellar matter that's in space, right?

35:09 So you have trillions of stars out there, but all of these stars have their genesis and these very dense molecular clouds. When you look at them, it just looks like a black cloud that's just floating in the Galaxy. It's like nebula, but it's just pitch black because it's so dense that light can't even get through it. And so this is where stars come from. But inside these stars, you know, sorry, inside these these nebulas, this is where stars are forming. But what's present also is that you have these organic, these black organic molecules with properties that are similar to melanin and that they manage energy, they're semiconductive and they help to organize other molecules around them.

35:58 So we can view it as cosmic, right, or extraterrestrial melanin. To me, that's just super interesting because it's within these, you know, these, these bot globules is what they're called. This is where stars are born. They collapse, these dense clouds become so dense so they collapse under their own weight. And then you end up getting a star that forms from that process. And then billions of years later you find the same material, the same carbon based material that you find in those nebulae. You find them inside of meteorites that have landed here on Earth.

36:36 And so that just begs the question, could these particles have seeded life here on Earth? Could they have helped organize the raw elements on Earth into living matter as they organize the elements within those clouds into stars? So it's, you know, it's kind of it's like it's a very powerful idea. This research, there's actually some research on this in radio astronomy where it's being suggested and that melanin, like particles were the precursor to life, which would then kind of just flip, you know, kind of just flip the idea that we were going with on its head, right?

37:20 And life is, as life becomes more complex, it requires or it necessitates more melanin. It seems almost like this would be swinging the pendulum in the opposite direction, where it's like melanin is directing life to become more complex. Oh yeah, I like this story better. It's really, it's really, it's very, very interesting. But that's why I think known as cosmic intelligence. And I don't, I don't mean that metaphorically. I mean it quite literally. Like you're talking about a molecule that's involved in the formation of stars and managing every known.

38:01 It's wild. Yeah. It's it gets pretty deep. It's insane when you realize how it allows us to connect with the environment around us in the immediate environment, right, with our basically our sun, our * but it allows us to connect with everything. And as you mentioned, you know, it absorbs all electromagnetic information, it decodes the information, it organizes, it transfers it throughout the body so the body can understand what's going on. And it's what's most fascinating to me is the locations where it's situated within the body, right, where it's in the inner ear, in the brain, in the part in, in the different tissues of the body where energy is actually required the most, right where the organ systems are.

38:45 So I think that when you realize that it's actually placed in those positions, you understand that wow, like energy needs to get there somehow. And melanin is facilitating this process because maybe the food that we eat is not a sufficient form of energy for us as human beings. Maybe we're actually supposed to absorb this cosmic energy, you know, from the sun, from the from the Galaxy, from the Earth. We can't just only rely on food as our form of energy to power our system, Would you agree? Oh.

39:18 Yeah, definitely, for sure. Yeah, it's, I think what you're referring to is like the the ATBATP based form of energy, right, Where you get food that becomes energy, but then you have this, this melanic system in the body that's also generating energy from water, right, Right. From the water, yeah. Water splitting where it's liberating electrons, that's, you know, it's tiny sparks of energy that's being provided to the nucleus of the cell. But I think going back to what you were talking about just now with terms of how melanin is, basically, you know, it's in very strategic areas.

40:02 Of the body, so it's in the eyes and the ears, it's all over the body, but it's concentrated and it's concentrated strategically. So it's kind of like non random distribution, right? You have it in your eyes and your ears and it's actually pretty. I would say that's probably the most easy concept to view melanin is when you view it through its foundation role in the sensory systems. Well, in terms of enabling us to see in here and we know, you know just through optometry that melanin absorbs Shray light.

40:40 So this is excessive light that enters the eye, right? But that light, when it enters the eye in the retina, it can get scattered if there's nothing there to absorb it. So melanin is there in the retina. So it's not just on the eye. And if you have a brown eye, you can see melanin. Even if you have blue eyes, that's still melanin. It's just light being scattered on the iris, which is why it occurs blue, but there's still melanin there. If there was no melanin, your eye would just be red from blood.

41:09 So even but behind, behind the iris in the retina, it's filled with melanin and the melanin is there to absorb the light, to absorb the light. That's excessive, right? So you know, that's, that's no small thing either, but that's critical for having clear focus vision. You need something to absorb that excess light. So when you have melanin that's missing or that's deficient, and the iris, the pupil or the retina, like in people who have albinism type 1, where you noticed a lot of them will wear sunglasses.

41:50 They can't really go outside without sunglasses because their eyes are totally devoid of melanin. And there's usually blindness that accompanies that are, you know, legal blindness. There's virtual blindness. But in many cases, creatures that have that particular form of albinism are usually blind because melanin is crucial for helping the brain interpret those visual signal, those visual signals, right? So, you know, you see, but you really, I think that it's what's most interesting though, and what seems to be, you know, again, this global property is how we see it throughout nature.

42:36 So something that's very obvious to notice is you see, all animals, regardless of where they are on the evolutionary scale, whether it be a fish, a dog, or an elephant, they all have a melanized pupil. So the pupil is the dot that's in the center of your eye. So that black dot in the center of your eye, it's melanite. It's all, it's pure melanin that's there. That's why it's black. It's just pure eumelanin. And every animal, every life form has a, has a melanized pupil. It doesn't matter what color your iris is, whether you have blue eyes, green eyes, haze, or brown eyes, your pupil is melanized.

43:15 It's extremely, it must be melanized in order for you to see anything. That melanized pupil is a universal trait in all living creatures. And what is it they're doing? It's it's regulating and harnessing the amount of light that enters your eye. So this basically reflects what melanin does as a whole. It's a regulator, right? So you have successful vision that is so intrinsically linked to melanin. So we wouldn't even be able to see without melanin, but that also is the same. It's just as important in the hearing.

43:54 So inside your ear you have melanin and the Colchilia and the shriovascularis and these structures that translate sound waves into electrical signals for the brain. So, you know, these areas are filled with melanin and the melanin is there doing a very similar function. That's what it does in the eye, where it's regulating electrical activity, it's regulating the cells that cable hearing, it's conducting electricity, it's managing that activity so these different communication systems can stay coherent and responsive well.

44:28 That's incredible. Do you think that because I wear earplugs in the night because I live in a bit of a noisy area? And do you think that when you wear earplugs, that interferes with your circadian mechanism? Because I find it harder to wake up in the morning when I'm wearing my earplugs compared to not wearing them. Do you think that the ears can actually wake your brain up? They can absorb the light through the ear basically and tell your brain what time of day it is. If there was 1 substance that could increase your energy levels, optimize mitochondrial function, boost ATP production, help to optimize your hormones, re mineralize the body with ionic minerals, boost cognitive function, assist detoxification and support your gut health via the microbiome.

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45:37 They have an extremely high quality shilajit product that has been rigorously tested for heavy metals and impurities. Grab yourself some Shilajit, the destroyer of weakness today and head over to mountaindrop.com. Use the promo code Mobility Fitness at checkout for a nice discount as well. Yeah, I'm, I would definitely agree on that one. You know, like wherever because the ear, the inner ear is filled with melanin. So even a little here, the tiny hair cells that are deep in the ear, you know, that regulate the vibration, that's those ear cells.

46:08 If you look at them, it's just it's melanin, it's melanin. So like definitely melanin plays a very powerful role in regulating not just the sensory systems, but also the picadian rhythms and especially through the cousin molecule melatonin, right where the sun sets and it gets dark and you have these melanin rich cells in the retina or even in the ears that send the signals to the pineal gland to trigger the production of the melatonin, right. So you have melatonin that helps you sleep and helps reset your body's internal clock now and in itself is playing a role in responding to these light cycles in these electromagnetic fields and it's helping to synchronize the body to these natural rhythms in the environment.

47:01 So it's a system. It's a system, you know, where you have melanin that's all throughout your body, and it's helping to coalesce to help all these different systems speak the same language.

47:17 Wow, that I kind of got a little bit mind blown there because you just made the connection for me with the circadian rhythms, which I didn't think about before, about how that yes, melanin does play a role in detecting that light in the environment, especially after dark. I can assume as well because that's basically the signal for us to start producing cortisol or to shut down melatonin production for us to wake up. Because if we understand that melanin absorbs all electromagnetic radiation once it senses a spike in electromagnetic radiation from the high energy blue light from the environment or even from non-native electromagnetic fields.

47:59 Because probably the melanin is decoding that into a form of energy and light within the system. So the body is thinking, hey, it's it's daytime now, am I right with. That definitely, for sure. And I would go even further than that. I would say that if you want the greatest efficiency of, you know, like these cricadian of the cycle with especially within the pineal gland, you need to have melanin there because the melanin is going to absorb just like it's doing in the eye, it's going to absorb that excessive light.

48:32 So that light can reach deep into the brain too, right? So you have rising bones in your pineal gland, which means that there's light that's coming in there because those are light cells. Those are cells for sensing light. So you have melanin there to protect the rods and cones and to help them function at their highest level. So when you have melanin that's present and that's healthy within your pineal gland, it's going to help your melatonin function and optimal levels and to reach peak levels of production because you have pitch blackness, you have pitch darkness, which is what you need to have the highest levels of melatonin.

49:11 So to have that pitch darkness, you need something that's going to eliminate the light or I shouldn't say eliminate, but to absorb the light, right, the waves and the rods and cones. So that can signal for the melatonin to reach the highest level that it possibly can. So that's, I mean, I think that's part of the reason why our brains have evolved to have melanin and, and within the pineal Glen. To be able to fall asleep easier at night. Fall asleep easier at night is 1. So the body can, you know, repair and do what it needs to, but also to optimize melatonin production as well.

49:51 I'm sure isn't. Yeah. And sure, as you know, melatonin does so many amazing things. So having that. Oh, absolutely. So having that functioning at its highest level, you know, is paramount. And that kind of just ties back in to melanin being this intelligent system. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah. And I mean, yeah, melatonin is supposed to be in our system basically 24/7, right? If you think about it, pineal melatonin is supposed to come out at night, but in the daytime when we're exposed to natural sunlight and we're getting that red and infrared light, we're able to generate that sub cellular melatonin.

50:31 So in reality, our body is constantly supposed to be exposed to red and infrared light all the time and our body is able to generate that red and infrared light internally, doesn't it from when it's making energy. So I can imagine that that's helping our body to make that melatonin. But when we're exposed to satellite, it supercharges ourselves to make even more of that melatonin on a cellular level. And when we're not exposed in the daytime, we're not getting that repair that we should. And especially at most people after sunset now these days with all our modern technology, they are not blocking the blue lights.

51:08 They are not, you know, regulating their circadian rhythms and respecting their darkness and light cycles. And therefore they're missing out on the total melatonin pool throughout the day. And that I feel like is extremely dangerous for humanity overall because, you know, as you know, and we know in the circadian and quantum biology space that melatonin is our heel repair, repair and regeneration hormone. It helps the body to basically come back bigger and stronger than before. But without that, we're not able to repair our system.

51:43 And so cells start to begin to become dysfunctional. And then and then again, yeah, the melanin plays such a critical role in with the release of the pineal melatonin, which is absolutely critical for allowing us to get that deep and restorative sleep where and then everybody realizes how important sleep actually is, you know, even if they don't understand what's actually going on, on a. Deeper and it's, you know, it's, it's regulating the melatonin, it's regulating the pineal in general. Right on.

52:11 Because you have calcium regulation, which is facilitated by melanin. So melanin regulates calcium throughout the body. And calcium is, yeah, calcium is pretty important for the pineal gland. If you have calcification of the pineal gland, then you have lower productions of melatonin. So you need a molecule that can regulate, you know, the proliferation in the activity of calcium within the pineal. These hormones that it's secreting these form or that it's producing can, you know, be in balance. So that's where melanin that's another reason on that melanin is so concentrated in the pineal is because it's helping it function at a level.

52:53 So you have melatonin, it's coming through there. And then you also have, you know, this other aspect, this organized, this organizational organizational property where it's regulating calcium. So it's a, you know, it's AI think, I think the good way to describe melanin in one sentence that captures the essence of what it does throughout all systems is that it's in it's the major organizing molecule and I'm going to say in the universe. That's amazing. Well, thank you for this discussion. It's been absolutely fantastic.

53:32 And this is a part one of our conversation. So everybody who is listening, we will be doing a Part 2 as well to cover a lot of other interesting areas that melanin effects. And I'm sure that we're going to touch upon the other areas where melanin is located within the body as well. And we're going to dive into those a little bit in the next discussion. We're also going to be talking about ways that melanin can become degraded from our modern lifestyle practices. So things that are actually influencing melanin in a negative way.

54:01 And also we're also going to be talking about solutions for that as well. So things that can positively influence melanin production. We already talked about a lot of those things today, but I feel like this was such an incredible foundational discussion to the melanin topic and we're going to dive more into the next one. So thank you for coming on. Oh, it's it was an absolute pleasure to have you. Thank you so much for having me, Andreas, and definitely looking forward to the next time and this was such a pleasure.

54:28 I'm discussing this with you. I don't get to talk about this often, so it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Yeah, I can tell that you're really passionate about it, so it must be, you know, so nice for you to be able to share it with the world because, you know, now you feel like, you know, it's it's it feels like your life purpose, right? Because it has so much value and so much meaning, it can benefit so many individuals on such a deep level because it's so simple, right to actually when you realize how melanin can be so protective and so incredible for our the energy management within our body and how critical it is in our, the systems of our body.

55:07 So work on people find you and connect with you and reach out to you if they wish to do so. Yes. So the easiest way to connect with me is through the platform. So the IG platform at Melanin dot Research, they can also e-mail me as well at [email protected]. So I'm definitely open to discussing more. And if you come with your inquiries, definitely interested in showing the research that I've amassed throughout the years. And yeah, thank you for sharing your platform and your podcasts. To touch on this subject, as you mentioned, it's so simple, but it's so overlooked, right?

55:52 So it's definitely something that can benefit every, every, everyone while listen where you are in the world, regardless of how old you are, you have melanin and you need melanin, so. 100%. Yeah, so. Yeah, I'm, I'm sure you're aware of Doctor Jack Cruz and and his work and he's a big proponent of, you know, building that melanin on the external, external surfaces and also on the internal surfaces of your body. And he he finds how a lot of his patients get better once they start building that melanin internally and externally.

56:31 So I think that this is such a huge message to share with the world. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Andreas. If you guys enjoy the topics and guests I bring on the show, I would really appreciate it if you left me a five star review on Spotify and also subscribe to Fitness Wisdom Podcast on YouTube as well as this helps us spread the knowledge and wisdom with the world. Until next time. This is the Fitness Wisdom podcast.