Health Starts at Home

Why Beach Vacations Make You Feel Better: The Science Revealed | Ep 38

• Holly Jean Mullen

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Our bodies are designed to thrive under natural light and heal in salt water, yet modern living has disconnected us from these essential elements. When we realign with nature's rhythms, our cells can recharge and our bodies can heal.

• The sun is not our enemy but a source of life-giving energy and information for our cells
• Sunburns begin in the mitochondria, not on the skin
• Morning sunlight without sunglasses primes our body for UV exposure later in the day
• DHA from seafood is essential for our cells to convert sunlight into energy
• Seed oils damage cell membranes and replace DHA in our tissues
• Our electromagnetic environment affects our sun tolerance and cellular health
• Ocean water contains minerals identical to human blood plasma
• Salt water helps neutralize cellular inflammation and supports detoxification
• Beach vacations aren't just relaxing—they're a biological reset our bodies need

Return to the sun, sea, and simple wisdom of the natural world. Your body was designed to thrive when connected to these elements, not just on vacation but as part of regular life.


Your home should help you heal—not hold you back.
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Because health starts at home—and yes, that includes yours.


© 2024 Holly Jean Mullen

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, welcome to the Health Starts at Home podcast. I'm your host, holly Jean Mullen, and today I am coming to you beachside with a mini episode while I am quasi on vacation. So this is a no frills episode. I don't have my intro today, I don't have my outro. I am literally at the beach, so this episode is an inspiration piece from where I'm at.

Speaker 1:

I want to talk about what's really happening when your body feels better while at the beach or while on vacation better while at the beach or while on vacation, but specifically a beach vacation and why the sun and ocean are not threats to avoid, as some may want us to believe, but they are actually tools for healing ourselves and really super awesome. So let's dive into it, starting with the sun. And first of all, I just want to say the sun is not our enemy. I know sunscreen ads, the media, they would all have us believe that the sun is a flaming ball of cancer. Believe that the sun is a flaming ball of cancer, and in reality, we are solar-powered beings. Every cell in your body runs on electrons, charged particles, and what happens when sunlight hits our skin is our mitochondria, those little energy factories in our cells. They use light to create ATP, which is the currency of life. You guys remember this from science class that sunlight stimulates our melanin. That's going to help regulate melatonin. Um, that is, you know, the hormone that helps us sleep. It helps, um, it helps you sleep better at night. That's why sometimes, like after spending the day in the sun, you sleep really good and it also boosts your serotonin, which is your happy hormone. So you feel really good when you're on vacation after spending a day in the sun. And yes, we all know that the sun helps us make vitamin D, but that's just scratching the surface. So quantum biology that is teaching us that light is information. It tells your body what time it is where you are on the planet, whether it's time to detox, digest, sleep, run. It does a lot of things.

Speaker 1:

But I want to really specifically talk about this myth that we've all been like had crammed down our throat that the sun equals cancer. And if we spend too much time in the sun, that is what's going to cause cancer. Because for most of human history we have lived under the sun. We've worked, played, gathered food, worshipped, all under the sun's light, and skin cancer rates have only skyrocketed in the last few decades, but also they have also skyrocketed right alongside living, indoor artificial lighting, screen time, emfs, sure other things too. I'm not saying that's the only picture, but just stick with me while I paint this one picture. Yes, burning your skin regularly with the sun is not a good thing. Okay, we're not going to, I'm not debating that. But blaming the sun for skin cancer is like blaming food for obesity. It's the relationship that is broken.

Speaker 1:

Your body was designed to process sunlight. In fact, sunlight regulates our hormones, it sets our circadian rhythm, it supports our mitochondrial health and it even is protective against some cancers when we are exposed appropriately. But what our body is not designed for is fluorescent lighting eight hours a day under blue light screens, constant exposure to non-native EMFs and a lifestyle of this artificial stimulation environment and a total disconnection from nature. We have traded the sun for LEDs and Wi-Fi. And then we're wondering, hey, why are we sick? Why are we tired? Why am I feeling anxious all the time? And why are we getting burned by the very light that once gave us life?

Speaker 1:

Like, literally, when God said let there be light, he was not thinking about your iPhone screen, you know. He meant the sun, real life, giving rhythm, setting light. And in a deeper sense, I think he meant truth and goodness too. You know, if we want to get like philosophical about it, I don't think he meant man-made substitutes that mimic light and distort his design. But if we look at the theme of creation, isn't the enemy always taking what God creates for good and creating a distorted, false mimic of it? Kind of interesting there. So no, the sun isn't the enemy. The real danger is a lifestyle that pulls us away from how we were created to live. So I'm proposing that it's time to stop fearing the sun and to start questioning the things that we've accepted and wondering why is it now that the sun is being told to be a danger, and what has happened in our lifestyle and our environment that is maybe making us more sensitive to the sun?

Speaker 1:

So, while on that subject, let's talk about another myth, because this has been kind of bothering me for a little bit now and literally, as I'm sitting here at the beach, I feel like it's just it's pertinent to talk about this, because it's only partially true and that partial truth, or actually partial truths, I think, are the most dangerous kind. Actually, partial truths, I think, are the most dangerous kind. No-transcript is all it takes to protect yourself from sunburns. And that narrative goes something like oh well, ditch seed oils, ditch the sunscreen and boom, you are safe from the sun. And it's seductive. It's sexy to say, it's sexy to believe because it's simple. Simple sells, but the real truth is that's a dangerous half-true message and it leaves people vulnerable and falsely confident and literally leaves them burned because they're not getting the full story here.

Speaker 1:

Are seed oils harmful? Sure, they are not the best. Are they unstable? Yes, they're unstable. They're oxidized fats that can damage cell membranes and promote inflammation, and when your cells are inflamed, they are more reactive to stress, including UV radiation. So, yes, cleaning up your dietary fat intake choices is going to help you respond better to stress of all kinds, especially UV radiation stress.

Speaker 1:

But I want to be clear about something this is just one piece of a much bigger picture. If you are really wanting to build sun resistance it's often referred to as your solar callus you need to look beyond food and we need to really look into the way your body interacts with light, magnetism and energy. And I'm not talking about like in a woo-woo kind of way. So, my Christian sisters, don't start tuning me out. I'm not going to start going down some new age mantra hole here, mantra hole here. This is all biology, quantum biology, really.

Speaker 1:

But we'll start with the fact that sunburns don't really start on the skin. They start in the mitochondria. And I know we started with that in the beginning of this episode. We're all remembering biology 101. The mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cells. We were all taught to regurgitate that sentence, right? Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. It was in a multiple choice quiz, we had to write it in an essay, but they are so much more than that.

Speaker 1:

But we're going to keep it simple. And when your mitochondria are functioning well, they can handle oxidative stress and they can use sunlight to generate energy. But when they're dysfunctional because of things like processed food and artificial light, poor sleep or our constant exposure to Wi-Fi, uv light becomes inflammatory instead of therapeutic, becomes inflammatory instead of therapeutic, and that is why some people can sunbathe for hours without burning, while others fry in 10 minutes. It's not purely just genetics. Yes, genetics helps. Of course that plays a role, but it's more so about energy and what's going on at the cellular level.

Speaker 1:

And one of the most critical factors in sun resilience is morning sunlight and the red and infrared wavelengths you get at sunrise literally prime your body to be able to handle UV light later in the day. And this light in the morning charges up the structured water in your cells, and that water is called easy water or exclusion zone water, and it acts like a biological battery. And that morning exposure also tells your brain to start producing hormones, and hormones that are important to how your body is going to respond then to your light environment. Throughout the day. It's going to tell your brain to start producing melanin, which is your body's own natural sunblock. That's also what gives your body color, or a tan, or that skin pigment, and without that release signal your skin isn't prepared. So you're at a little bit of a disadvantage before you even go outside for the day, outside for the day, and we're so used to being indoors that we're missing that morning exposure day after day, year after year, and so we're just becoming more and more sensitive to the sun.

Speaker 1:

Then, adding in another layer, there's the DHA component, and DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid. It's found in almost exclusively in seafood and according to Dr Jack Cruz it is a non-negotiable, and others in the quantum biology space feel the same too, but DHA is special because it embeds itself in the inner mitochondrial membrane and, unlike any other fat, it carries a unique pi electron cloud and this allows it to absorb sunlight and convert it into DC electric current within the body. So, yes, our cells are designed to run on light, but that's only possible if they have the raw material to do the job. So if we do not have DHA, no light to electricity conversion can happen. So if we don't have an electrical charge, we're having poor mitochondrial signaling. That means we have low energy. We're having poor tissue repair, poor energy or poor cellular repair.

Speaker 1:

And this is why simply removing seed oils isn't enough. Seed oils contain linoleic acid, which damages cell membranes, like we talked about, they can be inflammatory, so they damage. The linoleic acid damages cell membranes and it replaces DHA in our tissues, which can short circuit our ability to process sunlight at the quantum level. So avoiding the wrong fats doesn't automatically give you the right ones. We have to intentionally rebuild our mitochondrial membranes with real DHA consumption. That means eating wild-caught seafood and not replacements with, like a, plant-based omega-3s like flax or chia, because those are only providing ALA and they don't really convert to DHA, if at all.

Speaker 1:

Like there's kind of different schools of thought there about how things convert to DHA and whether or not they convert effectively, if at all. And again, that's probably bio-individual as well. But are ancestral humans like, let's say, living inland, right? Because not all humans are coastal? So if we're thinking about ancestrally humans living inland, they may have gotten by with minimal DHA because they lived in alignment with the natural light and magnetism and seasons of their environments. But today we're surrounded by artificial light and EMFs and most of us are operating in a full-blown environmental mismatch. So in our modern context, dha becomes even more essential, because it's not just for our brain health but it's for restoring our mitochondrial integrity and reconnecting our biology with the light that we were designed to run on. So, yes, the seed oil crowd is partially right.

Speaker 1:

Those fats damage your system, but they're missing the deeper mechanism. They're missing part of the story here. It's not just about reducing inflammation, which is important, which is huge, and you will feel better doing so, yes, but the other part here is that it's more so about restoring your body's ability to create and hold energy from light, and that's where the DHA comes in. But supporting your mitochondria with DHA is also only part of the equation here. We also have to be able to let the light in, and that starts with our eyes, and you can be eating all the wild salmon you want, but if you're blocking the sunrise with $200 Ray-Bans, you're still kind of short-circuiting your system, because the light isn't just for our skin.

Speaker 1:

Our eyes are really ground zero for sun resilience, and when we're wearing sunglasses, especially in the morning, it's one of the biggest mistakes we can make, especially ladies I hope you're listening to this when we're trying to build sun resilience. And, just as an aside, if you're someone who feels like you need to wear sunglasses all the time, if your eyes are that light sensitive, that also is just a direct indication of how much you need to work on your sun resilience, because your adrenal health is suffering, which all ties into this whole cycle here and now and I also get that putting on sunglasses. It's habit, it's fashion and it's what we're taught. We're taught to protect our eyes. We're taught to avoid wrinkles to stay safe. But our eyes aren't just for seeing. Our eyes are literal light sensors, so they communicate with our brain and our skin to help our body sync with the season. So if we're blocking the light, we are blocking those messages that our brain is trying to receive and needs to receive. It's like we're trying to start our day with our phone on airplane mode, like nothing's syncing, nothing's downloading, and we're just kind of wondering hey, why isn't my phone working? It's like because you're not getting the messages.

Speaker 1:

If we take it a little bit deeper, because there's another factor that people completely ignore in this whole sun safety conversation, is that your electromagnetic environment plays a role too, and I've touched on this before in this episode. I kind of mentioned it, but I've touched on it in other things before. I'll keep saying it. We live in a sea of non-native EMFs. We have Wi-Fi, bluetooth, 5g, smart meters, cell towers. These invisible stressors are constantly disrupting mitochondrial function. They're draining our redox potential, which just basically means our body's battery life. And so, ladies again I'm just talking to you, especially my over 30 ladies.

Speaker 1:

So many of you are chasing answers to your exhaustion, like why are you tired? All the time You're blaming your hormones, your age, your thyroid iron levels, and those things matter. You're overlooking the most basic, foundational input your body needs to function, and that is your light environment. The wrong light at the wrong time is just as disruptive as the wrong food, and that's Honestly. There's strong evidence and strong arguments that it could even be worse, and that light is really the foundation of all of this, more than food, more than exercise, but our light environment.

Speaker 1:

And when our cells are energetically bankrupt, when they're not charged up by natural light and grounded by the earth, Even moderate sun exposure can become inflammatory. And at nighttime, the blue light from screens and overhead LEDs those trick your body into thinking it's high noon and that's going to suppress melatonin. It wrecks your circadian rhythm, it hijacks your body's overnight repair process and so you're not only not healing, but your skin is now aging faster, which is not what we want, right? We are not trying to do that. We're trying to do the opposite of that. So even if you've never stepped foot in the sun, you are aging faster. So all this talk about how the sun ages you well, the opposite actually might be true, more true. So this is why things like cold exposure, grounding, quality sleep, eating mineral-rich local food, being metabolically flexible, so being able to shift in and out of ketosis, as our bodies are designed to do, these things are so important because they support their mitochondria and the real gatekeepers of our energy and our metabolism and our sun tolerance are our mitochondria. Just an example like ketosis helps reduce oxidative stress, which means fewer inflammatory byproducts when you're in the sun and more energy available for healing energy available for healing. So the big takeaway here is that you don't hack your sun immunity by getting rid of seed oil. You build it by kind of aligning your lifestyle with nature, not just cutting seed oils or skipping sunscreen, which also I didn't even touch.

Speaker 1:

About skipping the sunscreen Like yes, sunscreen is important. If you're going to be outside in the sun all day, every day, like yeah or like right now, like my boys are doing junior lifeguards, like they are in the sun and on the sand and in the water all day, every day, for four weeks straight, they need some sun protection. But that isn't what we need if we're just outside a little bit every day. We need our naked skin to be able to receive the sun's rays and messages. If we're wearing sunblock we're blocking those, so we need our naked skin to be able to receive that. Real sun. Resilience is going to come from waking up with the sun, getting rid of the sunglasses in the morning, touching the earth with our bare feet, eating what grows and walks in our region within the season that it's supposed to, turning off our blue light at night and just living like a human again in the way that we were designed to live. So the next time somebody is saying, just ditch the sunscreen and seed oil and you'll be fine, just know that it's only part of the equation there.

Speaker 1:

But the next part of this I want to talk about is this like final ingredient in this vacation elixir of healing is the ocean. The ocean isn't just relaxing, the ocean is also electric. Seaawater contains a mineral profile that is nearly identical to human blood plasma. It has magnesium, calcium, potassium and sodium. These are your body's electrolytes. So when you soak in the ocean your skin actually absorbs these elements. You're not just floating, you're kind of also recharging your body's electrical currents. Salt water conducts electrons and negative ions, so they help neutralize oxidative stress and that's inflammation at the cellular level, as I mentioned earlier. So seawater is restoring electrolyte balancing. It's supporting detox. It delivers microbial diversity to your skin that can benefit your microbiome, because the ocean has microbes, it's not sterile. You know, especially if you're swimming here in Huntington by the river after it, rains Could be a good thing, could sometimes be a bad thing, depending on where you're swimming.

Speaker 1:

But that aside, then there is also the rhythm. The rhythm of the ocean, the sound of the waves, the pull of the tide, the way your body feels suspended and safe when you're floating in the ocean. This is your nervous system tuning into that. Your nervous system is hardwired to respond to that. Your vagus nerve literally chills out. Your thoughts get clearer. It isn't just in your head, it is how our body is designed to connect and respond to nature. It's very, very cool. It's very cool. The ocean water is more than just salty, it's alive. It's alive, it's mineral rich, electrically conductive and it's an environment that interacts with our body on this energetic level. And water in nature isn't just hydration, like food that we eat. Water is information, it carries charge, it responds to frequency and it moves in rhythm with the earth. So it's cool stuff.

Speaker 1:

When you're at the beach and the sunlight hits your skin, you're floating in the salt water. We think our body's just relaxing, we think we're recalibrating. But on the real geeky level, that's bioresonance and we just call it a beach day. So I am going to get back to my beach day and wrap this up here. We spend so much of our lives indoors, just cut off from the natural inputs that our bodies were made to receive, and we then wonder why are we anxious, why are we inflamed? Why are we exhausted? So the next time someone says the sun is dangerous or the ocean is dirty, maybe you'll remember this podcast and just smile and maybe share it with them. The sun charges us, salt water heals us. Our bare feet in the sand that grounds us. These things don't have to be on like save for luxury vacations. They can be biological requirements.

Speaker 1:

So the next time you are on your beach vacation, or if you're planning your beach vacation, just think of it as a reboot, because as I'm recording this, barefoot and salty at the beach, I am not just relaxing. I think of this as getting back into rhythm. I don't think of it as self-indulgence. I think of this as like something I need to regulate and reset and really just take care of what God has entrusted to me. I don't worship nature, but I do see God's design in it, and being here just reminds me that creation isn't random. It's so intentional and it's so amazing and beautiful how it's all intertwined and when I align with it, I can feel the order that he brings to the world and I love it and, yes, it makes me feel better.

Speaker 1:

But it's not just about feeling better. I feel like there's a special way in going to the beach that's also about honoring the way we need to live. So that's what I have for you today, and you need it. I don't think you need permission, but if you need it, you can just let this be your permission slip to return to the sun and the sea and the simple, ancient wisdom of the natural world. So, um, I hope you'll enjoy this mini episode and I hope you share it with a friend who needs a beach vacation. Maybe you guys can take one together. I'll see you next time. Thanks for joining me on the podcast. Podcast, man, I can almost talk. Thanks, guys, see ya.

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Holly Jean Mullen

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