Is a Red Light Device Worth It? | E053
Okay what is with all these red light devices you see everywhere? There’s even one’s you can get to do facials with!
Are they really worth it?
In this week’s episode we talk with Kyle Vonderharr of Midwest Red Light Therapy to dive into the real deal with red lights. Kyle shares with us what he has seen with his customers and family members and we talk about practical applications of using red light devices and when to use them!
Come on over to the red side!
In This Episode
00:00: Intro and Wellness Curiosity Collective
03:14 Where Kyle’s interest in red light therapy began
06:53 Importance of flicker rates and why to avoid flicker
11:24 When is the best time to use a red light device?
15:59 Sunscreen, sunburns and red light devices
24:16 How long to see results
29:45 Benefits for fatigue and eye strain
36:57 Where to find more information about Midwest Red Light Therapy
Resources Mentioned
Want some of the basics of Red Light Therapy? Catch up on the Health In Motion podcast episode 39 https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/39-red-light-therapy/id1548284749?i=1000543348018
Jack Kruse podcast episode on Light and the Gut Microbiome https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-jack-kruse-on-light-and-the-microbiome/id1433882512?i=1000431593011
Connect with Kyle Vonderharr
Website: https://midwestredlighttherapy.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/midwestredlighttherapy
Connect with Toréa
Website: https://www.torearodriguez.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/torearodriguez/
Connect with Evie
Website: https://holisticallyrestored.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holisticallyrestored/
Join the Optimized Wellness Community: https://torea.co/Premium
Submit a Question for the Show: https://www.torearodriguez.com/podcast-question
Transcript
Toréa Rodriguez 0:08
Welcome to the Wildly Optimized Wellness podcast. I am your host, Toréa Rodriguez. And I’m joined by the lovely co host, Evie Takacs. Both of us are Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioners and we love working with women from all over the world, through our virtual programs, helping women not only feel better, but actually achieve that vibrant, no holds barred version of themselves, they’ve been missing for a long time, and how we actually get there. Well, that is what this show is all about. Now, please keep in mind that this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. And if you like what you hear today, we would love for you to hit that follow button, leave a review in Apple podcast, share with your friends, and keep coming back for more. Let’s start today’s adventure shall we?
Toréa Rodriguez 1:07
Okay, welcome back, everybody. We've got a new episode for the wildly optimized wellness podcast and today, Evie and I are interviewing Kyle Vonderhaar. Kyle owns Midwest red light therapy. Welcome, Kyle, thank you so much for being here.
Kyle Vonderhaar 1:23
Yes. Thanks for having me.
Toréa Rodriguez 1:25
Yeah, so um, I guess I'll just start off right up top, saying that Evie has had a number of podcasts episodes with Kyle specifically about red light therapy. So we will be referring back to those for some of the basics. But I am really curious, Kyle, not many people go to school saying, hey, I want to own a red light therapy business when I grow up. So I'm kind of curious, like, how did how did you fall into this space? And what got you into being really tuned in so to speak to light?
Kyle Vonderhaar 2:02
Yeah, no, that's a great question. I think it's a combination of two things. I think the first is having kids. And I think the second is sort of, I guess a cool way to put it would be like a midlife crisis. Right around turning 40. I started, I guess over exercising a little bit. And I think subconsciously I was trying to be, I was trying to prove to myself that I was in the best shape of my life. And I think that was a way of me just coping with getting older. And I figured if I was in great shape, then I wouldn't be old or something. This was about six or seven years ago, I guess, was about when I was 38-39. I, you know, I kind of started aspiring to get into running. And then I did that get into triathlons. And just seeing how much endurance I could do, which at the time, I thought was a great idea. But real quickly, I noticed that recovery was a pretty important part. You couldn't just go out and run for or bike for swim for every day, without days that had recovery. So I just started looking into different recovery modalities. And this was before Wim Hof and all this stuff. It wasn't before him it was just before he became popular. And so yeah, it was I was testing out all kinds of different things. And I don't I can't remember exactly how it popped up. But I was in a lot of different forums and talking to different people. blue blockers were popping up. And I found Dr. Jack Cruz and a lot of searching, who's who's awesome. He talks about light about seafood and, and how it all connects together. And through him, I found red light therapy. And so you know, immediately I started saving money to buy one of these. And I was I had my goal set on buying a Juve because I thought that was the pinnacle of them, you know, they had the full body panels, like $2,500, or something at the time, which seems ridiculous now, because the prices have come down a little bit. But the more research I did, I found out that Juve wasn't the solution that I wanted. I, I didn't think it it held up to the standards that I quickly learned of, through Jack Cruz and some of his, you know, followers, or are really no, the right cronies sort of thing. And so yeah, I just learned about it real quick from over researching about it. I'm just like, yeah, do about everything. I guess I tend to over research stuff. And, yeah, to fast forward to it. I own another company, sunglass company. I've owned that for 13 years now. I think. Yeah, I started in 2010. So I'm used to dealing with manufacturers. So I just reached out to some manufacturers, and said, here's exactly what I'm looking to make. And I felt like what I was trying to produce was going to be a safer alternative to a Juve. I guess Who to allude to that a little bit is just that Juve is known to have high flicker rates, flickers where the light actually turns on and off. A lot of LEDs have flicker, which is what, if you go to the hardware store, go to Home Depot and buy LED lights. Some of the cheaper ones are just, it might not have anything to do with price, but some of them have real bad flicker. So if you take a cell phone, put it on, or I should say an iPhone, you put it on slow motion video, and you just film your light, you're gonna then playback in slow motion, you're gonna see it turn on and on and off. And that is considered flicker. And that's real bad for a nervous system. Our eyes don't detect it, or only our eyes only see it at a certain frame rate, which is, I think it's 38 frames per second somewhere around there. So don't quote me on that. But yeah, but our cameras can can film at a higher frame rate, and then play it back to show us this flicker that does affect us. So that was something I didn't want. In addition to that EMF is a concern, as you're standing real close to these lights. So I was able to get a manufacturer to make some I talked to some of my family members and said you guys want to chip in on this, you know, I'll pay you back if it works. And it did. And so it got real interesting. Because the first year here I am sitting with a bunch of lights, and it's like, Alright, who wants a red light? And they're like, why would I want a red light? It looks really bright. Yeah, it seems pretty bright. I don't know that I want it. So I had I was faced with the challenge of trying to explain red light therapy to you know, initially my friends and family because I figured if I couldn't sell it to my friends and family, that Who the heck am I selling this to? Which gave me a lot of time to practice, you know, what is a good for because, you know, I joke with my dad and be like, hey, you know, this could work on your back your backs up problems, your knees having problems. But he immediately was like, this isn't gonna work. You know, I don't want to do it. So I was faced with a lot of challenges. And that was the fun part. Because then, you know, I started researching more and trying to figure out the best ways to explain this to people.
Toréa Rodriguez 7:13
That's great! I've got some questions that are of that nature of like, you know, what am I going to feel? We get asked that a lot me and I get asked that. Yeah, like, what am I gonna feel when I'm using a red light? What do people feel?
Kyle Vonderhaar 7:30
That's a great question. Yeah, I guess the first way to answer that as well, what are you using it for? Or where are you shining the light? Okay, just the general answer. If I was to shine it on my back, a lot of people will claim that they feel a tingling, which is actually the light penetrating into our cells and affecting the mitochondria, which is the part of the cell that just creates energy. The other thing that it can do for somebody who's got, say, an injured knee, or shining it on the knee, they can feel the decrease in inflammation. So one of the most common uses of our lights is things that end in itis. So something that would have any sort of inflammation, or rheumatoid arthritis is a real common one. Yep. Oh, yeah. Yep, there you go. Yeah, there's a ton of them. And everyone's dealing with inflammation these days. It's a very common thing, which I believe ties but and I'm not a doctor, I just believe it, that it ties back to more of our indoor living environments that we're in we're disconnected from, you know, touching the earth or disconnected from the, the light rays, the photons from hitting us were disconnected from nature. So I think a lot of that just causes inflammation. Blue light can do the same, but I don't want to go down that rabbit hole fat, just Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say yeah, that's what you're gonna feel you're gonna increase circulation, decreased inflammation, and then just it penetrating your skin to the mitochondria, you're gonna feel this tingling, but it's not intense. Some people claim that it's hot. Our lights are very powerful, and they have built in fans and the fans. The purpose of it is to cool the light because it does heat up inside there. So it might feel a little warm, but it's not hot, like a, like a foreign for red sauna or anything like that.
Toréa Rodriguez 9:24
Yeah. So on this podcast, specifically, wildly optimize wellness, we talk a lot about nature and the outdoors and free medicine and the things that really help our bodies heal. And we've talked about light a lot from a lot of different people. We've talked about full spectrum light. We've talked about blue blockers, we've talked about all sorts of things and so, you know, for somebody who gets outside a significant amount, especially in the sunrise-sunset time, is there a benefit for them having red light, and if so, what is it?
Kyle Vonderhaar 10:01
That's a great question. Yeah, I get a ton of questions. And those are two really good ones. I don't know that I've received very much. I do get people initially when I started this company asking that, but it was more in a negative way. We're like, why do I need your product if I just go outside? And the short answer that I've always give them is, a lot of the times we're treating things that you can't just have shining, in your backyard or in your front yard. If you live in an apartment, let's say you work all the time. I mean, you can't take your shirt off, and you know, shine it on certain areas of your body. So it's, you're able to not be naked in your backyard, I guess. Yeah. But the other quick answer is, I mean, my logo kind of defines why we need it more than other people you live in California, or Didn't you say you live in California? Sounds more prevalent there. It's Yes, yeah, we don't have the sun quite as much as California has. We get it about six months of the year starts kind of right now. I mean, we just last Monday, and Tuesday was 43 degrees, in right around Sun sunrise. So I mean, that was pretty cold, you know, and not to mention the rain and wind, so we just can't get outside and we don't see the sun as much. So that's one reason. The other reason is you're able to direct this into a part of your body, like your lower back, which might be hard to, you know, to point at the sunrise, you know, kind of doing one of these things. So it's definitely easier, more convenient. We're harnessing the light and the two wavelengths that we have in our light, one is red, it falls in the red spectrum, and the other one falls in the near infrared. The red is visible. So when you turn our lights on, that's pretty much what all you're seeing is the red spectrum, the near infrared is invisible to our eye, and is more felt it penetrates deeper, as the red penetrates more on the skin on the surface. So I feel like I just shut off on a tangent there. But either way. I don't know where else going down?
Evie Takacs 12:21
Well, Kyle, so I think it's again, I think that's a good point. Because we do have people who are like, Oh, well, like I do get outside in the morning, or, you know, what about the red light? And I guess there's two questions that we also get a lot of is one we'll start with this one is what when is the best time of day to use the red light panel? Because some people are like, I feel better at night or like, Should I do it at night? Or should I do it in the morning? So what's your general answer for someone of when they should be using it? And then I'll get into the next question.
Kyle Vonderhaar 12:49
Yes, yeah, absolutely. That's probably my most popular question. And I always try to tell people, it's when the sun is in the sky. So you don't necessarily want to use it before the sunrise and I don't recommend it after the sunset, unless you're in some sort of pain. In the examples I have of that, it's just I know some people, family members, specifically, when we first started doing this, always use the light during the day, and then switched to using it after sunset, and it affected their sleep. I believe some people are more sensitive to bright light of any color, you know, at certain times it throws off their circadian rhythm. The sun at any point of the day produces around 40 Some percent 42, I think is it's the closest so it's a low 40% is always infrared light. So it's it's producing it at any time during the day, for us to to simulate that at a time when the sun is not in the sky would be kind of off. I mean, it would just it could throw off our circadian rhythm, which the thing you would notice is your sleeps being affected the most. Personally, it doesn't bother me. We've used it, we take it on beach trips, and I'll use it in the morning. Even though I do go see the sunrise and what I'm doing it for us to precondition the skin so I don't get burned during the stronger UV hours, and then in the evening, we come back usually try to watch a sunset dinner somewhere around there, hopefully before the sunset, and then in the evening, I'll use the red light again, for any redness that my skin has received from the UV. I'm not a huge fan of sunscreen, unless it's you know, mandatory meaning we're out and we can't hide from the sun. A good example would be like Christmas like we're, we haven't seen sun in months. Now we're in Florida, you know, under the sixth or seventh UV index. So it's pretty hard and we want to be on the beach all day. So we try to cover up but sometimes we're forced to use sunscreen. But it's So my favorite thing, but I'm not one of those people that like, you know, goes out of my way, just because I'm against something to not use it. I try to be realistic a little bit.
Evie Takacs 15:10
So what? What about the red light is regarding the sunburn? Does that prevent it? Does that help heal a sunburn? Why do you use that when you're out in the sun?
Kyle Vonderhaar 15:20
Yes. So the term we kind of use is preconditioning. The skin and what we're supposed to be outside more obviously, we have these beautiful homes now and apartments. So we're, we're missing the sunrise going out and getting the sunrise, the near infrared and the red light, that's, that's more prominent, meaning there's less UV light up in the morning, it preconditions or skin to allow it to receive UV. And I've tested this out, I've been really impressed by it. It works better if you're not changing latitudes. You know, I mean, like my example, I was just going into it's us in Ohio, going down to Florida, which is you know, almost tropical. So it's that's harder to do. But if if I was to use it here, and go out in my backyard and sit outside, you won't get burned. It just It prevents it, it's really cool to see. And then any any skin inflammation, you might get skin turning red, it looks like you might be headed toward a sunburn, using it in the evening, takes all that inflammation out. And by the morning, typically, you're not ready at all. So it's pretty impressive. You know that feeling when you go on vacation, and you got you got a little burn, and then you're laying in bed on top of the sheets, the news on fire, the red light takes out that fire, it's in fires, flame from inflammation. So it's pretty cool how it works, I try to tell people about it. Most people never buy the light for that purpose only. They just don't ever think of that. But I would never miss a beach trip without, you know, or never take a beach trip with without taking my red light with us. And we've gotten a lot of new people to try it out, and usually they won't try it before the beach day. It's after they get burned. They're like alright, I'll try it and then they're pretty impressed by how well it works, and you don't have to be right up on the light. I mean, you a lot of people think you have to be almost touching this bright light. You get back in arm's distance, it covers more of your body. And it's better for skin. If you're wanting to penetrate very far, then you want to get closer to the light.
Toréa Rodriguez 17:34
About my question has to do with the skin and the red light for skin. So somebody who has dealt with repeated findings of basal cell carcinoma? Is there anything that you've come across in the research in terms of red light therapy as a preventative measure for those kinds of skin cancers to show up? Have you seen anything?
Kyle Vonderhaar 18:00
I don't necessarily know. Okay. Skin cancer is a pretty tricky topic. I feel like there's a lot that goes in just personally. Yeah, we've experienced that through our families and such. And I think the sun gets blamed a lot when it comes to cancer. But I don't know that necessarily. That's that's always that's just my personal opinion. But to answer your question, no, I haven't researched too much with cancer, and interesting, generative stuff from it.
Toréa Rodriguez 18:32
It'd be really interesting to maybe do a study and I'm not a scientist that has the means to be able to set this up but to do a study of people who have been identified with pre cancer cells on their skin, and do red light therapy and see if they get better or not. Without putting somebody at risk of like full blown cancer, like to the point where you know, if it gets worse, you can just freeze it off or something. But anyway, just fascinating.
Kyle Vonderhaar 19:01
It's a tricky topic. I try not to get into it too much, especially on podcasts, just because the cancer world is a huge industry. I mean, it's a big thing, and it affects people emotionally and physically. And it's just it's pretty intense topic but like I said, my, you know, my family's involved in it, and I've got my theories on it. I but by no means am I an expert on that. And, and to be honest, I don't know that I want to be an expert on cancer. I like I like treating other things that that have to do more with getting back to a healthier state, physically and mentally.
Toréa Rodriguez 19:41
The work that you're doing and by introducing these kinds of therapies and being able to get more access to the light and the protons, like you mentioned, just like me and I are constantly asking people go outside like please go outside. Put your bare feet in the grass, get some sunlight, all of these things, we're now starting to see a trend coming out that people are referring to all of these things as quantum biology. Great, we've got a new buzz term, awesome. If it helps it take off, that's even better. But I think you're absolutely right. Like if we can build those foundations of health first, that will lead to less injuries, less, you know, overexcited size induced injuries, like I've been there with the over exercising not recovering properly thing. You know, and, and really help people more in the long run, providing these kinds of therapies than it would be in our traditional, you know, medical model, which is let's, let's go fix it after it's really really bad. Yeah, right.
Kyle Vonderhaar 20:47
Absolutely. Well put, yeah I like that.
Evie Takacs 20:50
That leads me to the next question, which is, when someone is doing red light therapy, how long should it like, how long does it take for someone to be like, Oh, this is working, because I've had clients use, you know, get your lights, and then get your panels. And then they sit in front of it. And they message me like, I don't feel anything. And I just did my first one. And I'm like, No, that's not the way it works. How do you, you know how well how long? Should people I guess? And I guess it depends on what they're using it for. But what is an reasonable expectation of you should notice a difference in this amount of time when we're using red light panels?
Kyle Vonderhaar 21:28
Yeah, so there's two quick ways I think I can answer that one I liked, like to start off and and just explain that light in treating yourself with light should be thought of as a diet or some sort of exercise routine, and that, you know, you don't eat a salad and then all of a sudden, you've lost a lot of weight and your blood pressure's fine. And same with running, you don't go out and run for three miles, and then all of a sudden you lost the weight, and you're ready for a triathlon. So it's, it's something that that needs to be incorporated into your daily or weekly routine for you to see your results. I mean, think about it from you know, a vitamin D level, that you don't just go out, you know, for 15 or 20 minutes, which would be a dose, you know, when the sun is high in the sky, and then your vitamin D levels are fine. So it's, that's one short way to explain it. The other way is kind of like you alluded to, it matters, what you're treating something with inflammation, like we were referring to earlier, like in arthritis or something, some of those people will notice almost immediately that it's decreased the inflammation, they've got more range of movement, it's less swollen. So you can notice that immediately, if you're trying to use it for, say, an anti aging purpose. That's one that would take a little longer, I mean, that that could take, you know, 6-10 weeks of using it before you started noticing some decrease in wrinkles, or the decrease in darkness and Melasma or something like that. Another one that would take a long time would be like hair regrowth. If somebody's trying to regrow hair, that could take you know, six months. So that's a much longer term one. But yeah, we've had people with back injuries, use it, and immediately respond and say, you know, this is unbelievable, like, I haven't found any treatment that helps like this. You know, and sometimes there's not a lot of a lot of treatments for back problems. So it's something that can penetrate in there. Another weird one that people notice somewhat fast, is treating their stomach like their gut microbiome, something they would never think of shining light into, they didn't even think it would work. And then we come to find out there's all kinds of photoreceptors in our gut. That's a really good one, another weird one. And I could go on and on. But I just want to name some of the more interesting ones for me, is their vision starts coming back. Like my mother in law, went to see her ophthalmologist and they tested her eyes. And she changed prescriptions for the better. And she was like, that's crazy and the doctors like whatever you're doing, just keep doing it. And she's like, Oh, I think it's this red light. You know, I don't stare directly into it, but I just have it on while I'm doing my hair or whatever. And all of a sudden her eyes her visions better. So there's just different things that that are awesome to hear that don't take as long stuff like that. I could go on and on.
Evie Takacs 24:33
Yes, I will say with the vision and I thought I saw somewhere in the literature that it was mostly for people who were over 40 that they noticed an improvement in their vision. I'm not over 40 But I went to the doctor last week, and my prescription in my right eye has improved. And I'm like, wait a second. You know, so I'm like, Okay, this is starting to get interesting to me because there's not much that I've done really For my eye health, other than just sit in front of the light. So I'm like, There's God, maybe maybe this is something for me to I don't know. But I just thought that was interesting because I knew that it could help people with their vision. So I'm like, maybe maybe I'm getting ahead of the game here. And I'm getting the benefits of it, even though I'm not in that age bracket yet.
Kyle Vonderhaar 25:15
Yes. So that study, you're referring to they, they noticed that distinction between people over 40 and under 40. But I don't know that that necessarily matters. What I think it has a lot to do with is just balancing out the wavelengths that we're currently getting. And I think nowadays, people are way younger than we ever thought, or getting too much blue light, blue lights are real high, intense, high energy has a lot of power in it. Red lights weigh less power, powerful, and that's why it's so safe for us. But the combination of red and blue is what balances out, it is balanced out by the sun in nature. So a lot of these kids, you know, because of school, and because of their hobbies, and they're, they're into games, they're using a lot more blue, dominant light. So balancing it out with red light can help somebody like that. Whereas the study that just took place, people who are over 40, they didn't grow up, you know, with LED lit screens in their face, you know, six, seven inches from their eyes. So that's just my theory, I haven't tested it. But I, I do believe, you know, as we're getting in the, as the youth is getting older, I think everybody can benefit from red light. And that's, that's one thing we've started doing in a handful last couple years is selling light bulbs that have red and orange wavelengths in it. And I started it out for a circadian rhythm purposes. But then the more that it's kind of caught on, people are enjoying it, and they feel like it's more soothing on their eyes. And when they're reading at night, you know, they don't feel the eyestrain, they're not as tired, it's more relaxing, allows him to go to sleep. So that's what's been really cool, is people using red light, but not from a therapy standpoint, using it more just incorporating that color into their life a little more. Because, you know, if you go and buy new light bulbs at the hardware store, or at Home Depot or one of these big box stores, and you don't know much about light, you're going to probably buy the wrong ones. And then that's going to have a big impact on your health. And people just don't know that. So I've had a lot of fun trying to incorporate just different colored light into people's daily lives. It's, it's been pretty cool. Well,
Toréa Rodriguez 27:45
I love what you were saying about the fatigue and the eye strain. Because, you know, my, I've been wearing reading correction for a while now. And my husband just recently had to go get some reading correction. He's a scientist, so he like dives super deep on this stuff. And what he found is there's a prototype device that is being developed in Japan, where it is asking people to refocus their eyes and practice, right. And what we're finding now with reading glasses, and what happens when we are over 40 is that it's more of a muscular fatigue issue. So you're kind of spot on, Kyle, if you're saying, you know, hey, we're getting too much of that blue light wavelength and screens in our face all the time and artificial light all the time, our eyes have to focus in a particular manner. And they're probably getting over fatigued, which is what's causing this to happen. And so with the red light, it's asking us to focus in a different manner. Right. And so it could be related, I don't know, it could also be a lot to do with the light given that we have, I don't know how many photon and light receptors in the eyeballs. And it's activating different circuits and neurological circuits. So, you know, it's probably a combination of those things. But it's really lovely to hear you have collected some anecdotal evidence with your lights in terms of people using it and their their prescriptions are changing. So I know I'm going to be at the light for six to 10 weeks to see if I can improve this thing going on.
Kyle Vonderhaar 29:27
You said something there that kind of sparked a thought. When I first started doing this, a lot of the evidence that I guess I tried to relate to people was from studies and tests. I thought that was kind of the gold standard for explaining to people that this has benefits but now that I've been doing this and selling these communicating with customers for the last, I think five and a half, six years. Hearing their stories and how it affected them and their family, to me is is way more valuable. To You know what the power of this this therapy is, it blows my mind hearing some of the stories and how it's affected people. And it's made me kind of stop, not totally stop, but reduce the amount of reading of studies that I've been doing. Because to me, it just, it feels a little disconnected with them with our product, talking to the customers has been amazing. That's something I've tried to do in the last year is to anybody who types in one of these general questions, you know, emails me, not everybody, because I can't do everybody, but some of them, I can just feel like this person who would benefit from a phone call. So I've been reaching out to a lot of these customers, or even potential customers and answering questions on the phone. And typically, we talked for about 30 or 40 minutes. And by the time we get off, they have such a better understanding of what they could be getting into, or what the dangers are. And, you know, I just keep thinking back to when I was, you know, 39, and I was training for this triathlon, and I wanted to buy one of these lights, how much I would have loved to have been able to talk to somebody like me, who's got years of experience talking to customers, you know, and family members, and people using these for all different reasons from you know, stroke recovery to, you know, trying to run the fastest 100 meter, you know, in high school, you know, it's just such a wide gamut of people that we've talked to, a lot of people that are going into surgery, will buy these lights to prepare for surgery. And, you know, we often hear the doctor saying back to this, this patient, or, in my case, the customer, saying, you know, that was one of the fastest recoveries we've seen from that surgery. So it's just all kinds of crazy. Yeah, it's anecdotal stuff, but it's to me that stuff gold, you know, being able to hear it. And it makes me feel like I'm really doing something worthy, which is, you know, completely opposite of my other job, which is to sell sunglasses, which I love doing, and it makes people look beautiful, but it's just, it's not giving me that same feeling that I get when I hear somebody saying, you know, this is helping my mom, Or is this helping my dad or, you know, it's helping my kid or whatever so.
Toréa Rodriguez 32:13
Transformation is the name of the game.
Toréa Rodriguez 32:20
I would love to kind of dive a little bit deeper, you kind of throw it out there a little casually when we were talking about benefits, and what you would feel, after a certain amount of time, say more about the light receptors in the gut and the effect on the gut microbiome, because people who come to see Evie and myself work very commonly looking at their gut microbiome in detail down to the species, and can see this a lot where people have what we call a Dysbiotic gut So things are out of balance. But more importantly, what's missing are keystone species. And keystone species are defined as those that have a huge leverage on optimal health. But a lot of those keystone species are not available in a supplement capsule. So you can't take them. So we have to naturally grow them back, say a little bit more and teach us if you would, how is light helping us with that effort.
Kyle Vonderhaar 33:20
I don't know that I want to get too far into it, it gets pretty technical and I do want to say that I'm not an expert on it. I have affiliates that that go into this more deeper than me. I've just learned that it has a big benefit. And honestly, I knew it all along. It's just supposed to my gut is the only times I've ever had problem where in the winter, which I always found interesting. So there was a lot of connections that were made all kinds of at the same time. And I've listened to Jack Cruz go on and on about it. He's he's actually got one specific podcast that that refers to, I believe, that's all he talks about in it. And it's it's very overwhelming to me. A lot of the podcasts that I get into and I dive into, you know, not always with red light, but any of them. They can get pretty heavy, and I can understand it. But I can't always take the understanding and then explain it to somebody else. And that's fine with me. I don't have to be the professor of a lot of the things that I I advocate for. I'm fine with that. But getting back to your question. There's a huge connection. And you're right, it's not always the it's not always the food we eat. I think a lot of people, they make that connection that that's unnecessary that well, you know, and so I've gone down that route, you know, thinking that well, maybe it's this or maybe it's that maybe I'll eliminate this and you hear stories of going on all these crazy elimination diets. And sometimes people are just going down the wrong rabbit hole. I think sometimes when you change your environment, and environment includes light, obviously, but once you, you change your environment, things change for itself. And light is definitely part of the environment, getting outside in nature, and exposing ourselves to different bacteria in, you know, different things, things that are alive, you know, getting out of the sterile house environment, I think changes everything. So, yeah, people will buy our lights, specifically the smallest one and shine it directly on their stomach. And then notice, relatively quickly that, you know, things are different with their stomach. So it's amazing. That's the type of thing I can say to you, you get it? Both you guys get it. But I could say that to a family member, or, or even more importantly, a friend. And the friend would be like, I don't, I'm not falling for that, you know, that doesn't make any sense. And I usually just leave it at that, you know, like, Okay, well, I'm not gonna push you into something or try to sell you on it. I'm just trying to open the door for you, you got to walk through it. And I'm fine with that. I think I was push here when I first started this company. And now I'm just kind of like, I'll throw it out there. If it's, you know, if it. If you want it bad enough, you'll you'll walk through that door, but I'm not going to try to push you through that door. So
Toréa Rodriguez 36:28
Fabulous. Fabulous. I think, you know, most people are going to find it and stumble upon it in their own time. And me and I find this to with our clients, we can talk all day long about one aspect of health that we think is really important. And that client two years later comes back to us. And they're like, can you believe this red light thing? I just found out about it more like we've been talking about it for years. What is happening here, but everybody just takes on that information in their own time. Kyle, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast and talking to us, we could definitely go deep on a couple of different topics. Where can people find you like? How did they find out more about some of the podcasts you've been on? Are you on Instagram? Where can people find out more about that? And more importantly, how can they get their hands on one of these red light devices for them?
Kyle Vonderhaar 37:19
Yeah, absolutely. I guess I wanted to say for to answer your question, there's Midwest red light therapy. And that's on Instagram, and online So Midwestredlighttherapy.com I've kind of stopped using Facebook, I don't really know why I just don't feel like doing it. Instagram, there's a lot of people there. And it's kind of fun, a little bit in the burnout phase on it. But I think there's some beautiful people there and some beautiful ideas. I feel like it's just kind of getting crowded out because some of this negativity which just, I don't really want to surround myself around. So kind of went down a tangent on that one. But, I love Instagram, I've found some really cool people, and made some really cool connections. But the thing I wanted to say is, and I alluded to earlier is I want people to reach out, I'd like to connect with them and explain some of this to them. I understand this, this can be a tricky topic, some of the lights that we have are expensive. So it is an investment. And I would like them, even if they don't buy from us to get some information. Rather than trying to read it online, it can get pretty tricky. Not so much red light. But anything you read about online, you can find two perspectives of it that kind of contradict it, you can, you know, eating spaghetti is good. eating spaghetti is bad. I mean, you can literally find two takes on everything online. And the weird thing about red light therapy is there's no one talking negatively about it. And that's a really interesting thing I had to bring up. Because I'm I've always kind of waited for that to happen. You know, like where people say, Oh, this is harmful or this and that. And then I can say, well, we've been using it safely for years. But no one's saying anything negative about it. But if anybody wants to know more about it, if it would help them, or if it might help them. I would love for them to ask me a question. And if they want, we could talk on the phone I that's something that I want to do until I can't do anymore. You know, maybe there's too much too much demand for but right now I love communicating with my potential customers or customers and trying to help them through this journey of getting outside more and exposing ourselves to different wavelengths of light.
Toréa Rodriguez 39:45
And is the best way to do that using the contact form on your website.
Kyle Vonderhaar 39:50
Yes, yeah, most people do. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Toréa Rodriguez 39:56
Well, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it.
Toréa Rodriguez 40:04
Hey, thanks for joining us for this episode of the Wildly Optimized Wellness podcast. If you’re ready to dig deeper into your health, stop playing the Whack-a-Symptom game, start testing to get better guidance, you can find more about Toréa at torearodriguez.com and you can find Evie at holisticallyrestored.com. Want a peek into what it’s like to work with us? Come join us at our Optimized Wellness Community. You can find the invitation link in the show notes below. And if you have a question for the show, you can submit your question under the podcast section of torearodriguez.com. Finally, if you found something helpful in this episode, don’t forget to leave a review, hit that follow button or share it with a friend. They’re gonna love that you thought of them. Until next time, see you outside!
