Story
My name is Matt Maruca.
As a young kid, I struggled constantly with debilitating headaches, allergies, and gut issues. I spent years trying to mask these symptoms with Western medical drugs, Eastern diets and herbs, and modern diets and supplements, all to no avail.
Then, four years ago, I learned about mitochondria, the little engines in our cells that keep us alive by burning our food with oxygen to make water and energy. I learned that when we are young, our mitochondria work very well, and they slowly lose their efficiency as we age. I learned that health is a synonym for “how well our mitochondria work”, because when we can make energy well, we feel energized and our body can do everything it needs.
I learned that all modern chronic diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, obesity, diabetes, autism, autoimmune diseases, and even depression are mitochondrial diseases, meaning that certain tissues’ mitochondria are severely damaged in those diseases, and that my issues were mitochondrial, too.
I learned that mitochondria are “electromagnetic” in nature, meaning that how they process our food and make energy is controlled by light. This explained why diet alone was not enough to actually cure my symptoms.
It further clarified to me how so many people struggle with diet and exercise as their only strategies for health, and why focusing on diet, exercise, and supplements alone to improve health is like focusing only on the gas when trying to fix a car with a broken engine.
The most important time for mitochondrial function is SLEEP. I learned that every night, a hormone called melatonin helps to repair our mitochondria, and that my late-night TV, phone, and computer use was destroying my melatonin level and mitochondria, because light frequencies in these devices mimic the sun and trick the brain into thinking that it’s daytime.
I learned that more energetic light frequencies, especially blue light, exert the strongest effect on our body clock, and the less energetic frequencies such as red light have a comparatively minimal effect. I learned that getting UV light from the sun through our eye is critical to creating melatonin, before it can even be secreted in the hours after the sun sets. So, I began going outside in sunlight during the day to make melatonin, and wearing blue light blocking safety goggles at night to allow my melatonin to be secreted.
But, the goggles weren’t stylish and I never felt comfortable wearing them in public or to parties. Rather than a conversation-starter, they were a conversation-killer. One company tried to make true blue blocking glasses stylish, but they felt low quality and still looked really unattractive. So, I decided to make my own. I started by turning people's existing glasses into Blue Blockers, and when demand exploded, I launched our own line, Ra Optics, named for the Egyptian god of the sun, of natural light, medicine, and health.
We offer high-quality, attractive frame styles, combined with the Gold Standard of Blue Light Blocking Technology. Our lenses are made by the world’s top quality lens manufacturer and are infused with pigments specifically designed to absorb all harmful blue light frequencies, while providing superior optics.
By choosing Ra Optics, you are not only purchasing The World’s Finest Blue Blockers; you are investing in a mission to change the world by teaching people what health really means, and how to build it.
Our health may be created by the light from outside, but it all begins with the light from within.
May your light be warm,
Matt Maruca, Founder and CEO
