Water, Light, and Sound Are Medicine: Everyday Elements that Shape Cellular Health, Coherence, and Resilience
by Dr. Catherine Clinton, Eugene, OR
You start the day with a feeling you can’t name. A tiredness coffee can’t touch, a scattered mind, not exactly a feeling of illness but one of being out of synch. You go through the day doing all the right things. You drink water, answer emails, move through the routine, but a sense of coherence, that feeling of safety, never quite arrives. Modern health focuses on food and fitness yet ignores the relationships we evolved with. Our body’s first languages were water, light and sound. These are the medicines that are calling us home.
The dominant model of health speaks to a chemical mechanical model of the body. If there is illness or disease, a chemical or mechanical solution is offered. This has many benefits, but it only goes so far. Our cells also rely on the flow of energy, the resonance of sound and the water organizing to the tune of structure. It is time to expand our understanding of health and medicine. Our fascia, mitochondria and the water within us are information centers, not just parts of a machine. They exist in a bodywide tapestry of energy. When we tend to this flow of energy, the healthier we become. To understand health, we must understand the signals we have evolved with.
We are water beings: 60-70% of our body is water. The work of Professor Gerald Pollack from the University of Washington shows us that water in living systems takes on a different structure. As water lines our cells, DNA, and fascia it can take on a distinct structure that is different from regular bulk water. This water has a negative electrical charge, just like our cells run on. As this organized water builds it produces a zone of positively charged water. Just like a 9-volt battery, this separation of charge between the negative and positive charge creates potential energy. Some researchers suggest that this liquid crystal water acts as a battery, helping conduct energy and information throughout the body. Our modern life filled with indoor living, artificial lighting, and processed foods can degrade this water within. Light and sound can rebuild it.
Light is a primary signal for our biology. In 2017 three researchers were awarded for their work in chronobiology or how light impacts life. They discovered that almost every cell in our body has a circadian gene or what researchers call a circadian clock. These circadian clocks are tuned to the light in our environment.
Getting natural light in our eyes upon waking cues over 20,000 circadian sensitive genes and several biological cascades like hormones, metabolism, neurotransmitters, and the immune system. Infrared light, the kind that is abundant any time the sun is up, builds that liquid crystal water and improves mitochondrial cellular energy. Artificial blue light like that found in our modern lighting can skew our circadian rhythm, impair mitochondrial function and decrease cellular water. Aligning with the rhythm of the sun by getting morning sun, even on cloudy days, and lowering the lights after sunset serve as powerful signals that guide our body towards health.
Sound changes our biology on a cellular level. Humming, chanting, breathwork and singing increase dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin — those feel good, love hormones in the body. It also stimulates the release of nitric oxide in the nasal cavity which causes dilation of the blood vessels, allowing more oxygen into the body. Research suggests the pressure waves of sound can help tone the vagus nerve and soothe an overwhelmed nervous system. This means sound has an influence on inflammation, blood flow and stress chemistry. There’s even research out there showing that low frequency sound can revitalize blood cells, expanding our understanding of how sound impacts health. The vibrations of sound can reverberate throughout the body, guiding biological action.
Water, light and sound conduct the body into a state of coherence. Coherence refers to harmony in biological systems. We could say different cells, tissues and organs in the body represent different instruments in an orchestra and coherence is the conductor of this orchestra. Water, light and sound work together to build coherence and cellular energy within. They reestablish the natural rhythm and electrical conduction that the body runs on. Stress, artificial lighting and overstimulation can cause decoherence. When we have coherence, the cells can clearly communicate but when there’s decoherence it is just static. Coherence allows for the beautiful song of life to play throughout the body so health can come more easily.
Health isn’t just about supplements and exercise. It lies in the elemental signals that surround us. Health begins by aligning with the elemental signals of water, light and sound. By getting morning light and nightly darkness, by singing or humming, by drinking water with gratitude and by getting outside – we can build the coherence of health. Returning to these fundamental signals allows our bodies to remember what healing looks like. It is this remembering that lays the foundation for wellness. This is the first medicine.
Dr. Catherine Clinton, a licensed naturopathic physician, has spent over 17 years helping people overcome their health issues. She completed her Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine from the National University of Natural Medicine. Diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions and Lyme disease while in medical school, she began the long and difficult journey of healing — a path that led to the commitment to help others to not only heal physically but to return to the relationships we evolved over millennia with for a deeper sense of health and belonging. Dr. Catherine is the founder and chair of the Quantum Biology Health Institute where she is actively pursuing research into the practical applications of quantum biology on health. Dr. Catherine teaches doctors, healthcare practitioners and health enthusiasts from around the world in how to apply the principles of quantum biology for health and is a sought after speaker with speaking engagements across the globe.
