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Age Better with Liz Earle

Is a 'light deficiency' quietly ageing you faster? – with Professor Glen Jeffery

Age Better with Liz Earle

Liz Earle

Gut Health, Liz Earle, Women's Health, Supplements, Beauty, Education, Skincare, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Arts, Fitness, Midlife, Menopause, Healthy Ageing, Exercise, Fashion & Beauty, Better Second Half, Health, Wellbeing, Hormones

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the most powerful tools for healthy ageing might be something you've barely thought about: light. Most of us spend the majority of our time under LED lighting that's stripped of the very wavelengths our bodies need to function well – and the impact on our metabolism, energy and long-term health is only just being understood.


Professor Glen Jeffery, neuroscientist at UCL's Institute of Ophthalmology, joins Liz to explain why a light deficiency could be quietly accelerating ageing, what it means for your mitochondria, and the simple changes – starting with your light bulbs – that could make a real difference to how you feel and age.


In this episode:

  • Why infrared light is the most overlooked wavelength for human health
  • How LED lighting creates a "light deficiency" – and why Glen calls it modern-day scurvy
  • The profound effect light has on your mitochondria and energy production
  • Why morning light matters
  • What the research really says about red light face masks and infrared saunas
  • How changing your light environment could help regulate blood sugar and metabolism
  • The simple practical changes to make at home – and why Glen's first recommendation is to get a dog


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Transcript

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0:00.0

So if we think about light in terms of human health, it's been ignored, but we now understand that large components of these wavelengths are regulatory when it comes to understanding your metabolism, understanding how you generate energy in your body, how you use energy in your body. And we're now

0:23.9

correlating that against disease, health and ageing processes. Now, Glenn Jeffrey is a professor

0:32.5

of neuroscience at University College London. He's a leading expert in how different wavelengths of light

0:39.0

impact our health. Welcome to Age Better with me, Liz Al. Now, it's my mission to change the

0:45.9

conversation around aging. Through the conversations that we have on this podcast, I really want to

0:50.8

share the latest knowledge and helpful tools that can enable us all to thrive in our later life by taking action today.

0:58.5

Because, well, here's what I've learned.

1:00.6

Decline is not inevitable.

1:02.7

And when we understand what our bodies truly need, we really can age better.

1:08.8

And one thing that I've become increasingly convinced about our bodies absolutely

1:13.2

needing more of the right type is light. Now it's something that I've been actively researching

1:19.2

actually for the last three years or more now while writing my book called How to Age. That comes out

1:24.9

in April and during that whole process I I really came to realize more than ever

1:29.6

that when it comes to aging well, our relationship with light is fundamental. And this is why I am so

1:36.5

very delighted slash over-excited to be joined by our very good professor here today. Now, Glenn

1:44.0

Jeffrey's current research is examining

1:46.3

patterns of aging and disease that are associated with declining mitochondrial function. Yeah,

1:52.9

mitochondria, I've talked about that here before and we're going to go into that deep this time.

1:57.2

But this time, we're going to look at the profound effect that light could have on mitochondria function.

2:03.2

So I do think that you're going to want to pause and rewind and listen to a lot of today's chat again,

2:09.0

because coming up, we're going to be talking about everything from infrared to ultraviolet to artificial light,

2:14.9

how that's impacting our metabolism, our organs, our eyesight, our brain health,

...

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