The long-hidden secret of health: silver bullets aren’t worth very much.
We don’t want to rely on just one thing, or even one approach. Instead, we find that many things working together — in synergy — produces the most sustainable results.
The body can’t really heal without strength. What is strength? Not necessarily muscular strength. No, by making it energetically stronger, we give it the best chance to heal, grow, and recovery.
Your energetic metabolism — how your body turns food into energy is a major component of your body’s energy.
In this article, we’ll explore three areas that can strengthen and energize the body.
Light & Electrical Energy
The body’s energy levels can be dramatically improved by receiving free electrons from various sources — as well as daily therapeutic light.
What does this offer? When the body is struggling to extract energy (electrons) from food, we can quite directly support the body’s energy and reduce inflammation via electrons and photons. This can provide an energetic stimulus, boost immunity and rev up the metabolic engine.
I personally don’t know where I’d be without these important methods — methods like: Revitive, light therapy, grounding, TENS units, and more.
The Circadian Rhythm
The circadian rhythm is the primary regulator of all vital functions, and without a strong sleep cycle, health recovery will always be extremely limited.
When following healthy circadian principles, the body’s strength can steadily climb — even in difficult situations. No matter your other issues, sleeping even marginally better each night will make every step you take so much easier, and more successful.
The struggle eases — dramatically — when the circadian rhythm begins to align. And if even 10% improvement helps — why stop there?
You can recover deep, restorative sleep no matter your challenges.
Nutrition
Nutrients are required for every biological function: from improving immunity and restoring gut health, to turning food into energy and sleep.
Unfortunately, two realities are true in most chronic illnesses:
Nutrients do not reach cells properly
Nutrients are used too-rapidly fighting infection and toxicity
Poor gut health is the primary player in these two problems.
Addressing nutrient deficiently wisely can make a huge difference in both 1) the speed of your improvement and 2) how you feel along the way.
Those are the three areas we’ll cover in this section! Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
The High Energy State
Light & Electrical Energy
Powerful daily habits.
Heat is light.
Light is energy.
Water is an incredible chromophore (absorber of light energy) and heat-sink.
Light’s photons drive the photoelectric effect.
Electrons are electricity.
The body gets its energy from food by taking its electrons.
Grounding provides electrons.
The energy available to you via light, water, and electromagnetism is remarkable.
Let’s look at four methodologies for increasing your bodily energy — separate and apart from caloric intake.
Infrared and red light. Energizing, restorative, essential.
Infrared Is Restorative, Yet Entirely Missing In Modern Life
Infrared light is invisible — and makes up about half of sunlight.
Infrared is mostly felt as heat, because heat is infrared light.
Red light, on the other hand, is visible and makes up about 15% of sunlight.
65% of pure sunlight is comprised of restorative red and infrared.
The body needs large amounts of red & infrared frequencies to regulate thyroid function, digestion, immunity, circadian rhythm, enzyme activity, circadian rhythm, hormone production, and more.
The modern world we live in is extremely deficient in red and infrared light.
For comparison, Edison-style incandescents produced 90% infrared, modern light bulb technologiesomit infraRED light to improve energy efficiency.
Modern people are chronically indoors, receiving very little of these restorative frequencies from sunlight.
Throughout history, humans received large amounts of infrared and red all day and night — from both sunlight and fire.
Supplementing infraRED light is a critical step for recovery from every chronic illness.
Because our environments do not provide these spectrums of light, we must provide them ourselves.
Fortunately, supplementing infrared and red light is easy — if you know how to do it.
Best Sources Of Infrared & Red LIGHT
1) Sunlight
Over 50% of sunlight is invisible infrared light.
In the morning, the ratio is even higher (because blue and UV light are reduced by particles in the atmosphere).
2) Infrared Heat Lamps
When sunlight isn’t available, for any reason, heat lamps have been my personal go-to source of light for many, many years.
Heat lamps are about $3-8/ea at local stores or Amazon.
3) The Sauna
Traditional saunas are the gold standard.
Modern “Far-Infrared” saunas are inferior, because most do not emit the best, most healing frequencies of infrared.
4) LED Red Light Products
You don’t need fancy & expensive LEDs to provide infrared & red light.
Only buy these expensive items if the money spent is of no issue. The narrow wavelengths privided by LEDs are not optimal — and LEDs tend to flicker, which could be disruptive to cellular/brain metabolism.
Sweating is Deeply Healing
(Infrared is Heat)
The body sweats when it becomes warm.
When the body is hot, this warmth is infrared light — you could see this heat radiating away from the body with an infrared camera.
Heat (infrared light) is therapeutic whether from a sauna, the sun, or even from exercise.
When heat (infrared light) is coursing through the veins, good things happen: metabolically, nutritionally, for sleep, and for immunity.
Get warm enough to sweat daily — especially when trying to significantly improve your health.
Be sure to replace minerals (particularly sodium and potassium) after sweating.
Every single day, the body needs exogenous (environmental) heat — even a healthy body benefits from daily heat.
Infrared & the Metabolism
Infrared light’s impact on the body is similar to thyroid hormones, boosting metabolism and energy levels.
In fact, thyroid specialist Ray Peat Ph.D. has mentioned needing to take 75% less thyroid hormone in summer due to the presence of more environment infrared light (heat).
Make it a goal to receive nourishing infrared light on your body each day.
UV light is extremely healthy in low to moderate doses.
Struggling with immune problems? UV light boosts immunity (via mechanisms beyond Vitamin D, even), sterilizes pathogens on the skin, and — to some extent — helps sterilize the bloodstream.
Sunlight has many benefits, separate and apart from Vitamin D.
The only natural source of healthy Vitamin D is UV light. There isn’t very much vitamin D in food and supplements are a vastly inferior method of raising bio-available Vitamin D.
What’s more, there are loads of benefits to UV light that go far beyond Vitamin D.
For example, UV light spurs hormone production and the digestive process, while balancing brain chemicals. UV even helps the circadian rhythm.
Via the photoelectric effect, it’s also plausible that UV light frequencies help the body build up electrical (negative) charge — an essential component of an energized body.
Vitamin D
Your Vitamin D levels are critical to every aspect of health — and they are made by the UVB portion of the ultraviolet spectrum.
If your Vitamin D levels are low, you are sacrificing your health unnecessarily.
It’s good to know the UV Index when you’re outside. Fortunately smart phone Weather apps have this information.
Look at the UV Index in your weather app
Above 5 UV Index creates Vitamin D quite well
Below 5 UV Index, does not create Vitamin D
Get as much sunlight as you can! The only rule: Don’t burn.
Vitamin D ultimately must be balanced by other nutrients.
OTHER NUTRIENTS: You may want to take vitamin A, and magnesium sometimes to help balance rising Vitamin D.
Vitamin C 200-1000mg/daily is also good idea when getting lots of UV.
The Best Home UV Product?
The Sperti is the best UV product available, though it’s far from a perfect product.
The Fiji is better than Sperti’s original model because it contains a better balance of UVA to UVB — though it’s still much less UVA than the natural sunshine provides (and I consider that a problem).
The Sperti Fiji home UV lamp has a 3:1 UVA-UVB ratio, and is a top recommendation among home UV lamps, but it lacks UVA frequencies.
Even still, the Fiji lamp does not provide much UVA. Because of this, it can cause Vitamin D levels to rise (possibly) too high — UVA rays tend to counteract Vitamin D synthesis to somem extent. If you’re serious about using a Sperti lamp, it might be a good idea to supplement it with a UVA source (a true black light).
The optimal environment to improve the microbiome, circadian rhythm, metabolism, digestion, & mood? Outside.
Nature is a respite from the plague of sick buildings.
Fresh air, natural light, grounding, and negative ions in the air cleanse and energize the mind and body — facilitating better sleep later that night, better digestion during the day, and lower inflammation.
An hour per day in natural spaces can do wonders for healing. Two to four hours/day outdoors is even better.
Grounding
Grounding — your skin touching the Earth — provides a very weak supply of free electrons to the body.
The term refers to “receiving electrons” from the earth due to contact with the earth’s constant (very weak) electrical current. Anytime skin touches the ground, concrete, or grass, a very small amount of electrons jump from the earth to your body. These electrons are essentially free energy — and the Earth can even be used to make a very weak battery (called an Earth Battery).
This actually can be valuable for your health — but because the Earth’s electrical supply is so weak, hours need to be spent each day touching the Earth for a noticeable beneficial effect.
Typically, grounding is performed outside, with feet or skin touching the ground.
If “grounding” sounds strange, check this out.
Oxidative metabolism is how we extract energy from food.
Oxidation means “taking an electron.”
Yes, we use electrons — electricity — from our food for energy.
The body does not discriminate as to the source of its electrons, whether from food or the Earth.
But here’s a really important point: Grounding on land is not the best way to receive electrons.
Remember, the more skin that touches the “ground,” the better.
Rocks and dirt are *sort of* conductive.
Grass is a little better.
Water is by far the best source of Earth’s electrons
The best way to ground?In water.
Getting your entire body in a natural body of water means you’re maximizing the electrical supply to your body. All of your skin is available to receive electrons.
In my experience, 20-30 minutes in a pool is the equivalent of hours spent standing on grass, barefoot.
Some people say grounding in a concrete pool is better than a vinyl pool. Natural bodies of water are certainly the best. The ocean is absolutely ideal. (Try it — you’ll notice how good you feel!).
Keep in mind, walking in the grass has plenty of non-grounding benefits too: Fresh air, sunlight, relaxing natural environment, and stimulating the bottoms of the feet.
WATER QUALITY ALERT
In natural bodies of water, be cautious about the quality of the water, especially around cities and industry, where pollutants and pathogens are present in high amounts. Much better to find pristine, natural bodies of water, wherever possible.
This widespread problem of water pollution is jeopardizing our health. Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined.
A “both–and” mindset is always essential to recover lost health — it keeps us from idealizing silver bullet solutions, which narrow our options and restrict our growth.
In other words, looking for “that one fix” is almost never the right approach.
So when it comes to grounding, ground as much as you can — on both land and especially in water. The best benefits, though, will come from grounding in ways that provide more contact with the Earth — with the body submerged in water.
Update: There’s now an exciting article discussing grounding and free electrons. Read more in The Body Is Electric (below).
Read More:
The Body Is Electric
click image to open (free) article
The device covered in the above (free) article is called Revitive, and it’s a pretty incredible method to receive free electrons, in much more intense amounts than the Earth typically provides via grounding. I recommend this article, I put a lot of thought into it!
It’s also worth mentioning that outdoor, fresh air is loaded with negative ions. This is the exact same electrical energy (free electrons) we find when we touch the Earth.
Negative ions originate as wind blows over plant leaves and open water.
The wind picks up the negative charge from grounded plants and water, just like the body does when in contact with the Earth. Lightning also leaves negative charge in the air — you’ll notice how fresh air can feel and smell after a thunderstorm.
For the sake of negative ions, it is good to spend as much time as possible outside, in healthy spaces — and to open windows when inside (unless in a polluted area).
Negative ionizers devices can be purchased and placed indoors. They have a few caveats, though. Ionizers are:
Usually a little pricey
Unable to make a sick building healthy (although they can help some)
Able to increase metabolism, causing temporary effects such as: dehydration, a need for more minerals (especially sodium/potassium), interference with sleep until you adjust (because they are energizing). These become more likely when the body is more sick.
One negative ion generator that I’ve enjoyed is the IonBox, which produces 20 million negative ions per second (a moderate amount).
In my experience, it will cover a space about ten feet (3 meters) in front of it.
Additionally, the Wein negative ion generator has had consistently solid reviews for many, many years (though I haven’t tried it yet).
To be clear, while I greatly recommend grounding and ionizing technology — and consider them able to dramatically upgrade your baseline healing prowess — we must understand two things:
Ionizing and free electron devicescannot replace other therapies, they only improve other therapies
Ionizing and free electrons devices can supply massive quantities of free electrons, meaning they can affect intense change in the body’s metabolism and immunity. While this is a good thing, it can be intense at first.
Upgrade the environment you’re healing in! Spend time outside, in pools, in nature, with your feet on a Revitive device, and in front of an ion generator.
ReadThe Body is Electric article for much more in-depth discussion of why free electrons are so influential for health.
Your purchase of any individual Pillar will count toward your purchase of ALL Pillars later.
the TESTIMONIALS
Max: “Some of the best [information] in the world.”
“You have changed how I think about what I expect from every health professional I work with. You are a rockstar! You are practical, not selling an agenda and so open-minded, which comes through in your writing. It’s so clear how much thought you’ve put into the site, and the content and delivery of content is unparalleled. You are thorough, but also able to communicate in a way that’s not overwhelming, which I feel is really hard to balance. You’re able to communicate this stuff 100x better than anyone else out there. I’m often referencing your site in my mind as I’ve been helping my brother work through issues. I’m so appreciative of you and your work — the mindset you’ve given me is invaluable. You’ve trained and taught me well!”
Max Friedman
Massachussetts, USA
Josh: “The material on this website is extremely clear cut.”
“I just want to say: Travis Burch has been key to my healing process over the last year, which is getting better and better.
Coming from so many different dietary influences, I feel as though Travis has shown me the balance that I needed.
If I could have gone back in time 4 years ago, when I started searching into health, and had access to the knowledge on this website and Travis’ direct support I would have sorted a lot of issues I had out a long time ago and saved my self a lot of tim.
The material on this website is extremely clear cut, organised and actually very enjoyable and easy to read. Never have I been so interested and excited when looking into health. Everything is actionable and there are a million things I’ve taken from the website to improve so many issues I had (sleep improved greatly, circadian rhythm, energy levels, skin issues have improved, strength in the gym are just a few of many others, oh and also balance, so key). Everything you need to heal is here on this website.
Also working with Travis directly he has been able to troubleshoot a lot of issues and I am always so grateful for the time he takes to help me. He really does put thought and effort into every single response I have from him and honestly just cannot thank him enough.”
Josh Clement
United Kingdom
Luna: “I wanted to keep Travis a secret out of fear that his prices would go up a thousand fold, because he is worth that much.”
“I have been searching the internet for years trying to find solutions for the various health conditions my family and I have been suffering from. Because of that, I would go into various rabbit holes of I formation which would promise ultimate healing by following certain diets and or protocols. I had information and books about GAPS, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Paleo, Keto, Medical Medium, Jack Kruse, Ray Peat, prometabolic eating so on.
Every time I would find some new information — or some kind of answers — I would get excited, and I would try to apply the information! But I would also try to make sense of it in the context of all of the other information that I had gathered from the past
One day, while searching through message boards and forums, Travis’s website popped up. The guy seemed to have a handle on all of the information. I was highly impressed and decided to book a free call so I could basically spew all of the information that I had read for the past two years onto him.
From the beginning I was so moved by his kindness and vast knowledge. He was not only familiar with all of the things that I asked him, he was able to explain how that information fit into my particular situation. I had tried to reach out to various people in the past and they all demanded money for the slightest interaction or were incredibly pompous and rude to be asked even a simple question. I had SO many questions to ask him before deciding whether to work with him. I wanted to make sure that he know at least as much as I did about all the things. He was so patient and answered all of my questions without ever sounding annoyed or in a rush to “get” me as a paying client.
More than the actual knowledge that he has (which is vast) about various health theories and perspectives, it was his presence that was most healing. Just having someone whom I could bounce ideas off of and who would knew where I was coming from was so reassuring. I felt like I was literally juggling the whole internet’s worth of information by myself with no way to figure out which way to go or what to take as truth and what to discard and his amazing amount of understanding really helped me traverse it all.
Travis helped me to feel that I wasn’t completely alone trying to heal me and my family’s health. And that feeling was the most healing of all. I am hoping to start working with him again soon. In the meantime he is always willing to answer random questions that pop into my mind.
I wanted to keep Travis a secret out of fear that his prices would go up a thousand fold, because he is worth that much. But I know what it’s like to suffer alone trying to find answers in an endless sea of information. I believe that he can help many people. Thank you Travis! You have really been a God-send.”
Luna Tomy
USA
Jaemin — “Travis has given me my life back.”
“I’ve been on an 8-year long journey of struggling with hypothyroidism and a ton of health issues stemming from that (i.e. chronic fatigue, depression, weak immune system, insomnia, constant sore throats, digestive issues, etc.) I’ve seen tons of different doctors, naturopaths, healers (and spent thousands of dollars) with little to no results.
In the first few months of working with Travis, my issues started to reverse almost instantly! Within 6-12 months, I felt like I had healed 80-90% of my issues. It was remarkable. And with so much day-to-day support. He’s also very open-minded and non-dogmatic, so he’ll work with you however you want to explore things. Not to mention, he’s also just an incredibly caring and awesome human being. Navigating my health journey has been infinitely more manageable and less overwhelming with Travis by my side.
Travis has given me my life back and I can’t thank him enough for it! And his ideas and perspectives on health feel absolutely foundational to me. Your mileage will vary with any health coach or protocol, as everybody and situation is different, but I’m convinced that Travis’ coaching would be helpful to pretty much everybody. His protocols feel absolutely fundamental to me for better health.”
Jaemin Yi
California, USA
Diane — “I can personally attest that Travis Burch is the real deal.”
“There are seemingly endless numbers of health and nutrition gurus selling protocols, but very very few of them actually possess the qualities needed to heal for a person struggling from ill health or disease.
I can personally attest that Travis Burch is the real deal. I’m forever grateful to have crossed paths with him at a very crucial time during which the collective health of my family had fallen apart as a result of living in a moldy house.
His in-depth understanding of nutrition, lifestyle (and their interactions) and the way in which the environment influences our health (good and bad) is astounding.
But, the best part is that he’s big-hearted and has a faculty for tuning in and listening that effectively sets him apart from others in the field. Thank you, Travis!”
Diane Tantimonaco
California, USA
Shea— “I’m constantly reading and referring to this.”
Thank you so much! Love the content, I’m constantly reading and referring to it! Now I’ve got it for life! ❤️
Shea Frith
Australia
S.M. — “Saved me a lot of money.”
“I have suffered from chronic digestive issues for decades. I tried so many things and was feeling so lost, just getting worse, never better. Never knew what I should be eating-my health was getting worse and it was taking a toll on my work, my relationships. Working with Travis over the past year has helped me tremendously. He understands what it feels like to feel anxious and confused and so sick of being sick. He is a helping hand in a sea of confusing health information. He has such a level head and takes a reasonable approach to healing (starting with foundations). He really listens. He sends quick, thoughtful replies everytime I write him. He has been there for me when I was really scared or unsure how to proceed. I always feel better after our zooms. He is patient and answers all my questions and never makes me feel dumb no matter how many questions I have. He has saved me a lot of money with his many hacks and product recommendations! If you hire Travis as your health coach he will help you heal, and this may not be overnight, it takes time to undo years of being sick, but he will be there and stick with you as you figure things out, and teach you a lot!”
SM, R.D.
Massachussetts, USA
Viveka: “This is the most practical and helpful source…”
“Informed by Travis’ extensive personal experience, this is the most practical and helpful source of info on grounding, light, and electromagnetic healing I’ve seen on the web.”
Viveka Jagadeesan
USA
Bart: “Travis has helped me tremendously…”
“With his website and coaching Travis gives a very clear picture about what constitutes health, which he describes perfectly through his pillars of health. As a coach he is highly engaged and responds quickly to all your questions. He has helped me tremendously in dealing with illness and navigating the maze of online self help recommendations and I can’t thank him enough.”
Bart Lutmers
Netherlands
Mandy: “Extremely patient and really listens.”
“Travis Burch is extremely patient and really listens. He has helped me recently discover some major issues with my regimen and I’m forever grateful!”
Mandy Rode
Alberta, Canada
Brooke: “There’s no agenda or bias — only what works.”
“Without Travis my health wouldn’t be where it is today. The Pillars of health show EVERYTHING you need to know about health.
I honestly can’t put into words how helpful they have been to me. They flipped everything for me — it was the balance I needed in my life.
I find myself going back to this pretty often when needed now! Oh, would it have saved me time having access to this years ago!
Travis himself is different from anyone I’ve spoken to in the health world, I’m constantly blown away every time I speak with him. He will look at every angle of my questions and always give me the light at the end of the tunnel with my problems (Even my more silly questions!)
Travis you are a kind, amazing person: you listen, you are patient, & you want to help. Your understanding of health is essentially on a different planet. From every moving part, you’ve let me explore my issues in my own time and way, with no pressure that might make me feel overwhelmed. You put enormous amounts of effort into every single thing you do. I’m forever grateful for the help you have given me over the years.
There’s no agenda or bias with Travis, only what works, he is the real deal.”
Brooke Collins
U.K.
Krystie: “Thank you for this wonderful gift!”
“I’ve been happy to support your site as your information is extremely comprehensive, and you can see how much effort you’ve put into your research to help others heal.
Thank you for this wonderful gift!“
Krystie Kyes
USA
Erica: “A life-changing practitioner to work with. “
“I’ve been working with Travis for over a year. I can’t over-emphasize the influence he has had on my life, on my health, and my happiness. I started working with Travis just as I came down with a chronic health condition called gastroparesis (“GP”). I was convinced by the medical community, scientific literature, and the general consensus of anyone who has this condition that I would have it for life, and at the very best be able to manage my symptoms with medication and drastic, permanent dietary changes.
Over the past year, Travis helped me recover from an all time low with my health. Working with Travis gave me the gift of no longer believing I’ll suffer from a chronic health condition the rest of my life. It allowed me to be able to eat foods I wasn’t sure I could safely eat again, be able to feel energy I wasn’t sure would return, be able to have substantial periods of time where I’m healthy & feeling great and to experience my health continuously (but not linearly) improving.
I can’t recommend working with him enough.Travis is so methodical, thorough, practical, and an incredible person – which makes him a life-changing practitioner to work with.Thank you for everything Travis, endless appreciation for all that you do!“