Nature Is Our Home: Why We Must Serve Its Healing Forces Before We Distort Them Everywhere

We have forgotten something fundamental: nature is not a resource to exploit, but our home—the very source of our healing forces. Every day, we distort nature’s rhythms with artificial lighting, indoor confinement, and sleepless nights, yet we expect modern medicine to repair the damage. The groundbreaking study on daytime light exposure and dementia risk reveals what we already know intuitively: nature’s healing forces work when we support them, not when we override them.

The Distortion of Nature’s Healing Power

Hongliang Feng’s research shows that daytime light exposure above 1,000 lux—equivalent to an overcast day outdoors—reduces dementia risk by 16%, while 42 minutes of bright light (5,000 lux) reduces it by 17%. This protective effect was most pronounced in high-risk groups, reaching up to 41% risk reduction. Yet, instead of embracing this zero-cost, low-risk intervention, we continue to distort nature’s healing forces.

We live indoors under LED lights, expose ourselves to nighttime device screens, and minimize outdoor time. We have replaced the sun’s rhythm with artificial illumination, disturbing the circadian system that evolution perfected over billions of years. This is not “improving on nature” by suppressing reactions; it is distorting nature’s optimal mechanism. Selye argued we can override protective reactions, but Davidovsky correctly saw that the mechanism is not suboptimal—it is merely disturbed by specific circumstances. 

Nature’s Circadian Home for Human Health

The core pathway is circadian regulation. Bright daytime light stabilizes rest-activity rhythms and preserves key brain structures such as the fusiform cortex. This is nature’s design: the sun’s rhythm is the primary cue for biological timing, and our circadian system evolved to respond to it. When we distort this rhythm with nighttime light and indoor living, we disrupt the mechanism’s optimal path.

Preclinical evidence indicates that daytime bright light reduces neuroinflammation and slows amyloid-beta aggregation—the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Vitamin D levels did not mediate the effect, proving that the cognitive benefit comes from direct neural and circadian effects, not metabolic byproducts. Nature’s healing force operates through sophisticated neural pathways, not just metabolic processes.

Why We Must Serve Nature’s Health First

1. Nature Is Our Home: We are not separate from nature; we are embedded in it. Every biological system—from cells to consciousness—depends on nature’s rhythms.

2. Healing Forces Work When Supported: The study proves that daytime light exposure is a simple, zero-cost intervention that supports long-term cognitive health. Nature’s healing forces function optimally when we do not distort them.

3. Distortion Creates Disease: Circadian disruption is linked to Alzheimer’s disease, dementia risk, and faster brain aging. By distorting nature’s rhythms, we create the conditions for disease.

4. Correction, Not Suppression: When we expose ourselves to bright daytime light, we correct the disturbance that prevents the circadian system from functioning optimally. We are not suppressing reactions; we are restoring nature’s flow.

5. High-Risk Protection: The effect is most pronounced in high-risk groups—evening chronotypes, people with high nighttime light exposure, and APOE4 carriers—offering up to 41% risk reduction. Nature’s healing force is most powerful when we support it in vulnerable populations.

The Disturbance We Create

We distort nature everywhere:

• Indoor living: Minimizing outdoor time reduces lux levels below the 1,000+ threshold needed for dementia protection.

• LED lighting: Artificial illumination disrupts the sun’s natural rhythm, disturbing circadian regulation.

• Nighttime device use: High nighttime light exposure increases dementia risk, yet daytime light can counteract this.

• Sleepless nights: Circadian disruption is linked to poor sleep, which accelerates brain aging.

This distortion is not nature’s fault—it is ours. The mechanism remains optimal in principle but requires correction when disturbed by specific circumstances. 

Serving Nature’s Health First

To serve nature’s health, we must:

• Get 42+ minutes of bright daytime light daily: Exposure to at least 5,000 lux for 42 minutes reduces dementia risk.

• Prioritize outdoor time: Natural outdoor environments provide the optimal lux levels for circadian regulation.

• Minimize nighttime light exposure: People with high nighttime light exposure benefit most from daytime light.

• Support evening chronotypes: Evening types are at higher risk and benefit most from bright daytime light.

• Respect the sun’s rhythm: Align our schedules with nature’s design, not artificial lighting.

Nature’s Home, Our Responsibility

We have forgotten that nature is our home. The study’s findings support recommending regular daytime bright light exposure as a foundational intervention for long-term cognitive health. This is not a luxury—it is a biological necessity. As we advance into the AI era and post-job economy, we must remember that human health depends on serving nature’s healing forces first.

We must not forget to think about and support nature at the first of our actions because nature is not suboptimal—it is merely disturbed. By restoring the circadian rhythm through bright daytime light, we correct the disturbance and allow nature’s home to function optimally.

The question is not whether we can improve on nature. The question is whether we will serve nature’s health first, before we distort it everywhere. Because nature is our home—and we must protect it.

Mykola Iabluchanskyi, Andriy Yabluchanskiy