What You Wear Outdoors Can Affect Your Exposure to UV and NIR Light

Thank you, Dr. Seheult, for your ongoing emphasis on the benefits of Light as Medicine and the best techniques by which to expose yourself to sunlight.

You have my complete attention with this NIR series. First you showed very convincingly how important NIR is to our bodies, and now many of the factors in actually getting it outdoors. When the weather warms up (it is still snow season here in the Arizona mountains) I will definitely make tee shirts my choice for hiking while using sunscreen on my arms and face. As the father of a "moderately severe" asthmatic (three months in patient status in National Jewish Hospital to break his prednisone dependence have given him a future, but it looks unlikely he will outlive us) I have seen immune responses as the Next Big Frontier in medicine for 30 years, and here I'm seeing it happen! Such is medicine: major victories are not recognized until changes are widely adopted and real world numbers become big news. If you can put together information as comprehensive as this for artificial sources (e.g. heat lamps and NIR LEDs) I will jump on it as quickly as I did this video. Anyway, thank you for this series. You don't have to see us as patients to make these real changes in our lives.

Great video. Now I know why double denim is a fashion crime.

Huge gratitude to you for posting such a mass of research condensed into a video understandable by non medically trained people. This subject is one of my particular interest; I guess it's an idea whose time has come to the fore! As i scroll through the comments, it's obvious from the questions asked, that lots of people don't bother to check out the linked references. "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink".

I just want to point out one thing. Around 10:30 you point out that some colors absorb NIR while others don't. But I think it's important to note that this may be highly dye dependent, which may be why some of the colors have numbers (e.g. green 2). As an extreme example, the dye Blue #1 is completely transparent to NIR while copper salt solutions (e.g. cupric sulfate) absorb NIR light strongly. Admittedly, I'm not familiar with the presented study, but I'm just guessing that dyes used for fabrics may have their own variations.

I have some experience with NIR in plants. NIR bounces off the green leaves of plants, which allows it to penetrate deep. Each leaf that is exposed to NIR will absorb a little bit of NIR. If you are under a dense canopy, there won't be much NIR left, but when there is just enough to block direct sunlight, you will still receive significant amounts of NIR. Also, under an umbrella, in a field of grass, you will receive plenty of NIR bouncing off the grass.

Seriously though. I am not by any means in the medical field. But I have learned so much and actually had your videos effect my life and my family's. I'm just a nerd who paints cars for a living. But videos like this intrigue me.

Thanks doc, wish more people would talk about this. Continue to where my wide brim hat when taking a sun walk during the months of high intensity. No head burns. 👍

This ongoing advice has been shared with family, and we have been using near-IR lamps for two months as sunny days are limited from October to March here in Scotland.

I love this information! But this channel bring the good and useful info forward to the people always. Thank you, Dr! Merry Christmas!

At 10:41 you pointed out that blue will allow NIR to pass through relatively well. Please note that the line you pointed to was the WET BLUE line. The Dry Blue line was the nearest rival to Green for blocking NIR (at 5 to 6 layers). Thank you for sharing this fascinating information in this, as well as so many other videos.

I’ve been tempted to buy a UV transparent shirt also called “tan through”. I understand that UV can increase skin cancer but skin cancer is extremely treatable as long as you notice it early. I believe sunlight is a net positive but I never considered all the benefits might come from infrared.

Not sure if you'll see this, but Medcram has been instrumental in educating me as UC provider during covid especially. I have helped a lot of people through your education. I worry for you, not to get down by internet trolls, even those with MD after their name. Maybe best to ignore them, and just keep doing your good work. I'll try to follow my own advice. God bless you and keep you.

So do you think the use of Radiant or Infrared heaters would be beneficial to your health?

Some of this was kind of rushed, can you do another video on it, please? For example, what time to go outside and the fabrics was kind of raced through. I really appreciate these helpful videos!

This is f*cking wonderful! I am at a hotel on Christmas Eve, was getting ready to wash my face etc which is when I normally have my “YouTube time” and literally squealed when I saw this video load at the top of my suggested list. I have been thinking about this very topic so much, seeking and not finding the answers to the questions I have, and it feels like serendipity and a custom Christmas miracle that you guys made this vid. My younger self wouldn’t recognize this girl getting positively GIDDY over something like this, but she’d be happy for her nonetheless haha. Once again I am just so thankful to you for all that you do. I want to support you more than just liking every video you put out - but am just a medical hobbyist, not a professional - do you have any courses that would be friendly to someone w/o med school background? Or a Patreon? Happy Holidays to both of you, what a blessing you are to this world.

Thanks Dr. Seheult, I've followed you since 2020 and gotten IR light being outside almost every morning and take a daily evening walk in green spaces and I have yet to get a serious respiratory infection. I also take D3. The two combined have been fantastic for my health. You're a gift!

I would have never given this much thought to how much & what kind sunlight affects us. Very insightful. Thank you!

Something I noticed about the materials listed: The ones that had lesser penetration were denser weaves. Cotton towels, for example (terrycloth) are very thick, with the fibers sticking out in at least one direction. Same for the fleece, which can be made from several materials which have not been specified here. Denim is smoother, but it's also a thick and very densely wrapped material, to form that characteristic twill diagonal line. The tie is made by folding the edges of the cloth, and lining the back with another layer of fabric. Basically all of the fabrics that did poorly in 1-3 layers, are all technically already more than one layer of fabric. The material the fabric is made from seems to make almost no difference.

YOU ARE AMAZING ! MY WORDS WOULD NOT TRULLY EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK YOU HAVE DONE ❤… THANK YOU FOR SHARING WITH US ! YOU ARE SAVING LIVES .