0:00

Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where

0:02

we revisit past episodes for the

0:04

most potent and actionable science-based tools

0:07

for mental health, physical health, and

0:09

performance. I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm

0:11

a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology

0:14

at Stanford School of Medicine. This

0:16

podcast is separate from my teaching

0:18

and research roles at Stanford. It

0:20

is, however, part of my desire

0:23

and effort to bring zero cost

0:25

to consumer information about science and

0:27

science-related tools to the general public.

0:30

Today we're going to focus on

0:32

how particular hormones influence our energy

0:34

levels and our immune system. We're

0:36

going to talk about the hormones

0:39

cortisol and epinephrine also called adrenaline.

0:41

if you're somebody who has challenges with

0:43

sleep, or you're somebody who has challenges

0:45

getting your energy level up throughout the

0:47

day, and getting your energy level down

0:49

when you want to sleep, today's episode

0:51

is also for you. And we're going

0:53

to talk about the immune system and

0:55

how to enhance the function of your

0:57

immune system. I think it's fair to

0:59

say that most people would like to

1:01

have a lot of energy during the

1:04

day, if you work during the day,

1:06

and they'd like their energy to taper

1:08

off at night. and I think it's

1:10

fair to say that most people don't

1:12

enjoy being sick. And it turns out

1:14

that the two hormones that dominate those

1:16

processes of having enough energy and having

1:18

a healthy immune system are cortisol and

1:21

epinephrine. I just want to cover a

1:23

little bit about what cortisol and

1:25

epinephrine are, where they are released

1:27

in the body, and brain, because if

1:29

you can understand that, you will

1:31

understand better how to control them.

1:34

First of all, cortisol is a

1:37

steroid hormone, much like estrogen

1:39

and testosterone, in that it

1:41

is derived from cholesterol. So

1:44

understand that cholesterol is a

1:46

precursor molecule, meaning it's the

1:48

substrate from which a lot

1:51

of things like testosterone and

1:53

estrogen are made. Please also

1:55

understand that cholesterol can

1:57

be made into estrogen. or

2:00

testosterone or cortisol, and that

2:02

cortisol is sort of the

2:05

competitive partner to estrogen and

2:07

testosterone. What this means is

2:09

no matter how much cholesterol you're

2:11

eating or you produce, whether or

2:14

not it's low or it's high, if you

2:16

are stressed, more of that cholesterol

2:18

is going to be devoted

2:20

toward creating cortisol, which is

2:22

indeed a stress hormone. However, the

2:25

word stress. shouldn't stress you

2:27

out because you need cortisol. Cortisol

2:29

is vital. You don't want your

2:31

cortisol levels to be too low.

2:33

It's very important for immune system

2:35

function, for memory, for not getting

2:37

depressed. You just don't want your

2:39

cortisol levels to be too high

2:42

and you don't want them to

2:44

be elevated even to normal levels

2:46

at the wrong time of day. Epinephrine

2:48

or adrenaline... has also been demonized

2:50

a bit. We think of it

2:52

as this stress hormone, this thing

2:54

that makes us anxious, fight or

2:56

flight. The fact of the matter

2:58

is that epinephrine is your best

3:00

friend when it comes to your

3:03

immunity, when it comes to protecting

3:05

you from infection and epinephrine, adrenaline.

3:07

Is your best friend when it

3:09

comes to remembering things and learning

3:11

and activating neuroplasticity? We're going to talk

3:13

about that as well. Once again, it's

3:15

a question of how much and how

3:17

long and the specific timing of release

3:19

of cortisol and epinephrine as opposed to

3:21

cortisol and adrenaline being good or

3:23

bad. They're terrific when they're regulated.

3:25

They are terrible when they're misregulated

3:27

and we will give you lots

3:30

of tools to regulate them better.

3:32

I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge

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6:08

Cortisol biology 101 in less than

6:10

two minutes. Your brain makes what we

6:12

call releasing hormones and in this

6:14

case there's corticotropin releasing hormones. CRH is

6:17

made by neurons in your brain.

6:19

It causes the pituitary, this gland that

6:21

sits about an inch in front

6:23

of the roof of your mouth and

6:26

the base of your brain to

6:28

release ACT-H. then goes and causes your

6:30

adrenals which sit above your kidneys and

6:32

your lower back to release cortisol.

6:34

A so-called stress hormone but I would

6:37

like you to think about cortisol

6:39

not as a stress hormone but as

6:41

a hormone of energy. It produces

6:43

a situation in the brain and body

6:45

whereby you want to move and

6:47

whereby you don't want to rest and

6:50

whereby you don't want to eat

6:52

at least at least at least at

6:54

least at least at least at

6:56

least. Epinephrine

6:58

or adrenaline 101 in less than

7:00

two minutes. When you sense a

7:02

stressor with your mind or your

7:05

body senses a stressor, excuse me,

7:07

from a wound or something of

7:09

that sort, a signal is sent

7:11

to neurons that are in the

7:14

middle of your body. They call

7:16

the sympathetic chain ganglia, the name

7:18

doesn't necessarily matter. They release more

7:20

epinephrine very quickly. It's almost like

7:22

a sprinkler system that just hoses

7:25

your body with epinephrine. That will

7:27

increase heart rate, will increase breathing

7:29

rate, it will also increase the

7:31

size of vessels and arteries that

7:34

are giving blood flow to your

7:36

vital organs. You also release adrenaline

7:38

from your adrenals, again, riding atop

7:40

your kidneys, and you release it

7:43

from an area of your brain

7:45

called locusurulius, and that creates alertness

7:47

in your brain. Okay, so we

7:49

have cortisol. and we have epinephrine

7:51

and their net effect is to

7:54

increase energy. So the first tool

7:56

is to make sure that your

7:58

highest levels of cortisol are first

8:00

thing in the morning when you

8:03

wake up. One way or another,

8:05

every 24 hours, you will get

8:07

an increase in cortisol. It's to

8:09

stimulate movement from being sleep, presumably

8:11

horizontal, to getting up and starting to

8:14

move about your day. The best way

8:16

to stimulate that increasing cortisol

8:18

at the appropriate time is that

8:20

very soon after waking, within 30

8:23

minutes or so after waking, get

8:25

outside. view some sunlight. Even if

8:27

it's overcast, get outside, view some

8:30

sunlight, no sunglasses. Do that, because

8:32

in the early part of the day,

8:34

you have the opportunity to time that

8:37

cortisol release to the early part

8:39

of the day, it will improve

8:41

your focus, it will improve your

8:43

energy levels, and it will improve

8:45

your learning throughout the day. So

8:47

here's how it works. On a sunny day,

8:49

so no cloud cover. provided that

8:51

the sun is not yet overhead, it's

8:53

somewhere low in the sky. Could have just

8:56

crossed the horizon, or if you wake

8:58

up a little bit later, it could be

9:00

somewhat low in the sky. Basically,

9:02

the intensity of light, the brightness,

9:04

is somewhere around 100,000 Lux. Lux

9:06

is just a measurement of brightness.

9:09

On a cloudy day, it's about

9:11

10,000 Lux. Okay, so tenfold

9:13

reduction. But bright artificial

9:15

light, very bright artificial

9:18

light, is somewhere around a

9:20

hundred to 200 looks. So even

9:22

if you have a very bright bulb

9:25

sitting right next to you, that's

9:27

not gonna do the job. Your

9:29

phone will not do the job.

9:31

Not early in the day. To

9:33

get the cortisol released at the

9:36

appropriate time, you need to

9:38

get outside. So let's just set

9:40

a couple general parameters. If

9:42

it's... Bright outside and no cloud cover.

9:45

Get outside for 10 minutes. If it's

9:47

a cloudy day, dense overcast, you're probably

9:49

going to need about 30 minutes. If

9:51

it's light cloud, broken cloud cover, it's

9:53

probably going to be somewhere between 10 and

9:56

20 minutes. This is why it's vital to

9:58

get this light on a regular. basis

10:00

to get that cortisol released early

10:02

in the day. That sets you

10:04

up for optimal levels of energy.

10:06

Now throughout the day, you're going

10:08

to experience different things. Most of

10:11

you are not spending your entire

10:13

day trying to optimize your health.

10:15

You know, some of you might

10:17

be, but most of you have

10:19

jobs and you have families and

10:21

you have commitments. Life enters the

10:23

picture and provides you stressors. Those

10:26

will cause increases in cortisol and

10:28

epinephrine. The key is these blips

10:30

and cortisol and epinephrine need to

10:32

be brief You can't have them

10:34

so often or lasting so long

10:36

that you are in a state

10:38

of chronic cortisol elevation or chronic

10:41

epinephrine elevation This system of stress

10:43

was designed to increase your alertness

10:45

and mobilize you towards things get

10:47

you frustrated and provide the opportunity

10:49

to change behavior. And the reason

10:51

it works is that cortisol, when

10:53

it's released into the bloodstream, it

10:56

actually can bind to receptors in

10:58

the brain. It can bind receptors

11:00

in the amygdala, fear centers and

11:02

threat detection centers, but also areas

11:04

of the brain that are involved

11:06

in learning and memory and neuroplasticity.

11:08

And this is why I say

11:11

that neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to

11:13

change itself in response to experience,

11:15

is... first stimulated by attention and

11:17

focus and often a low-level state

11:19

of agitation. So understand that and

11:21

you won't be quite so troubled

11:23

about the little stress increases that

11:26

you experience throughout the day. Now

11:28

there are ways to leverage stress.

11:30

epinephrine and cortisol in ways that

11:32

serve you and to do it

11:34

in a deliberate way. There are

11:36

also ways to do that that

11:38

increase your level of stress threshold,

11:41

meaning they make it less likely

11:43

that epinephrine and cortisol will be

11:45

released. So I want to talk

11:47

about the science of those practices,

11:49

because I get asked about these

11:51

practices a lot, things like whim-off

11:53

breathing, which is also called tumor

11:56

breathing, things like ice baths, things

11:58

like high intensity interval training. All of

12:00

those things have utility. The question

12:02

is how you use them and how

12:05

often you use them. Those tools, just

12:07

like stress from a life

12:09

event, can either enhance your

12:11

immunity or deplete it. That's

12:13

right. Those same practices of ice

12:15

baths, tumo breathing, high-intensity interval

12:17

training or training of

12:20

any kind, can deplete

12:22

your immune system or it

12:24

can improve them. Excuse me.

12:26

They can improve it. They can

12:28

improve your immune system. The key

12:30

is how often you use them and

12:32

when. And so I want

12:34

to review that now in

12:37

light of the scientific literature

12:39

because in doing that you

12:41

can build practices into your

12:43

daily or maybe every other

12:45

day routine that can really

12:47

help buffer you against

12:49

unhealthy levels of cortisol

12:51

and epinephrine meaning cortisol

12:53

increases that are much

12:55

too great or that

12:57

last much too long.

12:59

or you look at your phone and you

13:01

see a text message that's really upsetting

13:03

to you. That will cause an immediate

13:05

increase in epinephrine, adrenaline, in your

13:08

brain and body. And chances are

13:10

it's going to increase your levels

13:12

of cortisol as well. Let's say you

13:14

get into an ice bath or a cold shower.

13:16

That will cause an equivalent increase

13:19

in epinephrine and cortisol. Let's say

13:21

you go out for high intensity interval

13:23

training. You decide you're going to run

13:25

some sprints. You do some repeats, or

13:27

you're going to do some weightlifting in

13:30

the gym, or you decide that you

13:32

want to do some hot yoga, you're

13:34

going to increase your epinephrine and cortisol

13:36

levels. And guess what? They increase your

13:38

levels of energy and alertness. So if

13:41

you're somebody who struggles with energy and

13:43

alertness, it can be beneficial, provided you

13:45

get clearance from your doctor, to have

13:47

some sort of protocol built into your

13:49

day where you deliberately increase your

13:52

levels of epinephrine and your levels

13:54

of cortisol. So it's really important

13:56

to understand that the body

13:58

doesn't distinguish between a troubling

14:00

text message, ice, tumor breathing, or

14:02

high intensity interval training, or any

14:04

other kind of exercise. It's all

14:06

stress. Cognively reframing that and telling

14:09

yourself, I like this, I enjoy

14:11

it, is not going to change

14:13

the way that that molecule impacts

14:15

your body and brain. I sort

14:17

of chuckle because people would love

14:19

to tell you that all you

14:21

have to do is say, oh,

14:23

this is good for me. No,

14:25

what it does. to tell yourself

14:27

that it's good for you or

14:29

that you enjoy it is that

14:31

it liberates other molecules like dopamine

14:33

and serotonin that help buffer the

14:35

epinephrine response. Now the way that

14:37

it does that I've talked about

14:40

previous episode but I'll just mention

14:42

that dopamine is the precursor to

14:44

epinephrine. Epinephrine is made from dopamine

14:46

and that's why if you tell

14:48

yourself you're enjoying something and because

14:50

dopamine is so subjective that you

14:52

can in some ways, as long

14:54

as you're not completely lying to

14:56

yourself, you can get more epinephrine,

14:58

you get more mileage or more

15:00

ability to push through something, and

15:02

you can sort of reframe it,

15:04

but it's not really cognitive reframing.

15:06

The cognitive part is the trigger,

15:08

but it's a chemical substance that's

15:11

actually occurring there. It's dopamine giving

15:13

you more epinephrine, a bigger amplitude

15:15

epinephrine release, and it gives you

15:17

some sense of control. So here's

15:19

a protocol that anyone can use

15:21

if you want to increase levels

15:23

of energy, if you suffer from

15:25

low energy during the daytime, or

15:27

whenever it is that you'd like

15:29

to be alert. Pick a practice

15:31

that you can do fairly consistently,

15:33

maybe every day, but maybe every

15:35

third day or every fourth day,

15:37

maybe it's an ice bath or

15:39

a cold bath, maybe it's a

15:42

cold shower, maybe it's the cyclic...

15:44

Inhale, Exhale, Breathing Protocol, I describe.

15:46

If that wasn't clear, and people

15:48

always ask for a demo, I'm

15:50

not gonna do the whole thing

15:52

right now, but I'm willing to

15:54

do a few rounds of this,

15:56

or a few cycles, I should

15:58

say, so it's inhale. I would

16:00

do that more deeply, more like.

16:02

You do that 25, 30 times

16:04

repeatedly. You will start to feel

16:06

warm. People in the yoga community

16:08

say you're generating heat, you're not

16:10

generating heat, releasing adrenaline. Inhale, exhale,

16:13

exhale, exhale, 25 or 30 times.

16:15

You will feel agitated and stressed.

16:17

That's because you're releasing adrenaline in

16:19

your body and that's because you're

16:21

releasing norepinephrine in your brain. And

16:23

you'll be more alert. I'd like

16:25

to take a quick break and

16:27

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So if all these protocols, all

17:31

these activities are just equivalent, they're

17:33

just stress, then how do we

17:35

make them good for us? How

17:37

do we actually benefit from them?

17:39

Now, of course, the cold itself

17:41

can have some health promoting effects.

17:43

It can increase brown fat thermogenesis

17:46

and metabolism, high intensity interval training

17:48

or other forms of exercise. of

17:50

course has cardiovascular effects that can

17:52

be good for us, as does

17:54

weight training, etc. But what we're

17:56

talking about here are ways to

17:58

increase energy and to teach our

18:00

brain and body, to teach ourselves

18:02

how to regulate the stress response.

18:04

So in addition to the benefits

18:06

of the actual practices, what we're

18:08

talking about is building a system

18:10

so that when you experience increases

18:12

in epinephrine and cortisol from life

18:14

events, you're able to better buffer

18:17

those. And we are also talking

18:19

about ways that you can increase

18:21

energy overall, because that's what today's

18:23

episode is all about, energy and

18:25

the immune system. There's a biological

18:27

mechanism that's very important. If you

18:29

want to do those things, increase

18:31

energy and your immune system on

18:33

demand, learn to buffer stress on

18:35

demand in real time. And it

18:37

means taking these protocols, these practices,

18:39

whether or not it's cold water

18:41

or ice bath or exercise or

18:43

any of those, and Making one

18:45

small but very powerful adjustment in

18:48

how you perform them. But in

18:50

order to make that adjustment, I

18:52

can't just tell you the adjustment.

18:54

I have to tell you the

18:56

mechanism so that you know if

18:58

you're doing it correctly or not.

19:00

This is really a case where

19:02

if you can understand a little

19:04

bit of mechanism, you will be

19:06

far better off than just adopting

19:08

protocols. Cortisol, as I mentioned, is

19:10

released from the adrenals. It can

19:12

have action both in the body

19:14

and in the brain. Cortisol can

19:16

cross the blood brain barrier. Epinephrine

19:19

cannot. That's one of the reasons

19:21

why it's released both from the

19:23

adrenals in your body and released

19:25

from this brainstem area, the locus

19:27

surulius in your brain. That's a

19:29

powerful thing because what it means

19:31

is that the body can enter

19:33

states of readiness and alertness while

19:35

the mind remains calm. So I'm

19:37

presuming at this point that you're

19:39

getting your morning light to time

19:41

your cortisol increase. I'm presuming that

19:43

you want more energy or that

19:45

you want to increase your immune

19:47

system its function and its ability

19:50

to combat infections of various kinds.

19:52

Now, the simplest way to describe

19:54

how to do that would be

19:56

in the context of cold water

19:58

or... breathing protocol. Let's presume cold

20:00

water. So let's say you decide

20:02

you're going to take a cold

20:04

shower. You get into the cold

20:06

shower and if it's cold enough,

20:08

that will be stressful. You will

20:10

experience an increase in epinephrine.

20:12

It will increase your alertness. Now you're

20:15

using this as a practice, as a

20:17

tool, to build, you could call it

20:19

resilience, but the ability to stay calm

20:21

in the mind while being stressed in

20:23

the body. epinephrine in the body. And

20:25

you do that by subjectively trying to

20:27

calm yourself. Now you can do that

20:29

by telling yourself it's good for you,

20:31

by emphasizing your exhales, anything that you

20:33

can do to try and stay calm,

20:35

despite the fact that you are in

20:37

a heightened state of alertness. You do this

20:39

with exercise, you can do this with

20:41

music, pretty much anything that will give

20:43

you a really heightened state of alertness,

20:46

offers you the opportunity to try and

20:48

stay calm in the mind. What you're

20:50

trying to do at a mechanistic level,

20:52

is to have adrenaline released from

20:54

the adrenals, but not have adrenaline

20:56

epinephrine released from the brainstem

20:58

to the same degree. So you're

21:00

not just trying to buffer this. You're not

21:03

trying to say, oh, this is good for

21:05

me. This is good for me. I'm going

21:07

to grind this out. You're not trying to

21:09

grind it out. You're trying to move

21:11

through this calmly while maintaining alertness.

21:13

In the immediate period following that

21:15

practice, your system, your entire

21:17

brain and body are different. your

21:20

body is actually primed to resist

21:22

infection when you have high levels

21:24

of epinephrine in it for

21:26

short periods of time. So

21:29

the scientific study that explored

21:31

how increasing adrenaline in the

21:33

body can improve immune resistance

21:36

is grounded in a

21:38

well-known phenomenon that increases in

21:40

stress actually protect you

21:42

against infection in the short

21:44

term. So I want to look at the

21:47

classic data first. Describe what was

21:49

done, and then I want to talk about

21:51

the more recent study, which is immediately actionable.

21:53

There are classic set of studies that are

21:55

really based mainly on the work of somebody

21:57

named Bruce McEwen, who is at the Rockefeller

21:59

University. in New York. I'm not going

22:01

to go through all the details of

22:04

the study, but essentially what they were

22:06

doing was exposing subjects to some sort

22:08

of infection, either bacterial or viral infection,

22:10

and inducing stress. Sounds like a double

22:13

whammy, right? You'd think that maybe getting

22:15

a little electric foot shock or cold

22:17

water exposure or something to increase your

22:20

levels of stress and an adrenaline would

22:22

just make the effects of the infection

22:24

worse. But no, quite the opposite. Brief

22:27

bouts of stress, which now you should

22:29

be thinking about in terms of cortisol

22:31

and epinephrine release, were actually able to

22:33

increase immune system function. The duration here

22:36

is really important because if stress stayed

22:38

too high for too long, then yes,

22:40

indeed, stress can hinder the immune response.

22:43

But for a period of about one

22:45

to four days, it actually can protect

22:47

you by way of increasing the immune

22:49

response. There's a human study that I

22:52

definitely want to point out to you

22:54

because it was published more recently than

22:56

the McEwen work. The title of the

22:59

paper is voluntary activation of the sympathetic

23:01

nervous system. That's the system that causes

23:03

fighter flight and aka stress. This is

23:06

Cox, K-O-X-E-L-P-N-A-S, Procing is the National Academy

23:08

of Sciences, 2014, and they incorporate the

23:10

ever-famous Wim Hoff breathing. Here's what they

23:12

did. They injected people with E. E.

23:15

E. E. E. E. E. E. E.

23:17

E. E. E. E. E. E. E.

23:19

E. E. E. E. E. E. E.

23:22

E. E. E. E. E. E. E.

23:24

E. E. E. E. E. E. E.

23:26

E. E. E. E. E. E. E.

23:28

E. E. E. E. E. E. E.

23:31

E. E. E. E. E. E. E.

23:33

E And they had groups that either

23:35

did the sorts of breathing I've been

23:38

describing that increased adrenaline release, although I

23:40

should say I don't think you need

23:42

that breathing to get adrenaline release, you

23:44

could do it with cold exposure, you

23:47

could do it with other things, high

23:49

intensity interval training as well. And what

23:51

they found was that the response to

23:54

the E. coli was quite different in

23:56

the people that... had a protocol, in

23:58

this case breathing, to increase adrenaline. So

24:01

this is a remarkable. study because what

24:03

they found was that the fever, the

24:05

vomiting, all the negative effects of E.

24:07

coli, many of them, in some cases,

24:10

all of them, were greatly attenuated by

24:12

way of engaging the adrenaline system. The

24:14

point is, you can control your immune

24:17

system by finding a way that you

24:19

can increase adrenaline. And this runs counter

24:21

to what we always hear, which is

24:23

don't get too stressed or you will

24:26

get sick. Learn to control adrenaline. Turn

24:28

it on and turn it off. Learn

24:30

to control cortisol. Turn it on with

24:33

light in the morning, try and turn

24:35

it off, and then when it spikes

24:37

because of life events, learn to turn

24:40

it off. Learning to turn on and

24:42

off adrenaline, aka epinephrine, and learning to

24:44

turn on and off cortisol, affords you

24:46

the ability to turn on energy and

24:49

focus on your immune system. That's the

24:51

most important point from today's podcast and

24:53

understanding that it doesn't matter what protocol

24:56

you use. Maybe it's a cup of

24:58

coffee and running up a hill five

25:00

or six times. That will improve your

25:02

immune system function if you get adrenaline

25:05

in your system. You can use a

25:07

ice bath, you can use a cold

25:09

bath. It really doesn't matter. I'd like

25:12

to take a quick break and

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early access to function. So up

27:06

until now we've been talking about.

27:09

increasing energy and increasing the immune

27:11

system by way of cortisol and

27:13

epinephrine, but I'd be totally remiss

27:15

if I didn't cover how cortisol

27:17

and epinephrine, if chronically elevated or

27:19

if elevated too high, can have

27:21

a lot of detrimental effects. Your

27:23

immune system over time will get

27:25

battered and you won't be able

27:27

to fight infection off as well,

27:29

right? You can start laying down

27:32

the sort of... classic pattern of

27:34

cortisol-induced body fat. Why do we

27:36

seek high fat and or high

27:38

sugar foods when we are stressed

27:40

for a while? Why would that

27:42

be? And the reason is that

27:44

the so-called glucocorticoids, of which cortisol

27:46

is a glucocorticoid, it's caused, as

27:48

we've mentioned before, by releasing hormones

27:50

from the brain and ACTH from

27:52

the pituitary, etc. But normally, high

27:54

levels of glucocorticoid shut off. The

27:57

releasing hormones in the brain and

27:59

in the pituitary they shut down

28:01

in a so-called negative feedback loop.

28:03

Chronic stress, however, stress that

28:05

lasts more than four to

28:07

seven days, causes changes in

28:09

the feedback loop between the

28:11

adrenals and the brain and

28:14

the pituitary, such that now the

28:16

brain and the pituitary respond

28:18

to high levels of glucocorticords,

28:20

cortisol, by releasing more of

28:22

them, it becomes a positive

28:24

feedback loop. And that's bad.

28:26

It's a... cascade of stress

28:28

equals more stress equals more

28:30

stress. So this is why

28:32

it's very important to learn

28:34

to turn off the stress

28:36

response. So there's one study

28:38

that Dominere colleagues did where

28:40

they stimulated chronic stress by

28:42

increasing corticosteron, but cortisole.

28:45

And they found that subjects would

28:47

increase their consumption of sugar

28:49

and fat. In fact, they would even eat

28:51

lard. And that led to all sorts of

28:53

things like type 2 diabetes. led to

28:55

dysfunction in the adrenal output, etc. And

28:58

so the real key is to learn

29:00

to shut off the stress response. And

29:02

you should watch yourself next time you

29:04

experience stress. If it's a short-term bout

29:07

of stress, typically it blocks hunger. If

29:09

it's a longer bout of stress, typically

29:11

it's a longer bout of stress,

29:13

typically it triggers hunger in particular

29:16

for these so-called comfort foods, sugar

29:18

and fatty foods. Other bad effects

29:20

of stress is that, yes, indeed,

29:22

stress can make you go gray.

29:25

Pigmentation of hair. just like pigmentation

29:27

of skin, is controlled by melanocytes.

29:29

Well, it turns out that

29:31

activation of the so-called sympathetic

29:33

nervous system, which is really

29:35

just another name for the

29:37

system that liberates adrenaline from

29:40

the adrenals and epinephrine in

29:42

the brain, drives depletion of melanocytes

29:44

in hair stem cells. So indeed

29:46

there's a rate of aging that

29:48

we will undergo based on our

29:50

genetics, but stress will make us

29:52

go great. How do I know

29:54

the difference between chronic and acute

29:56

stress and how do I keep

29:58

chronic stress at bay? Once again,

30:00

getting your light and your feeding

30:02

and your exercise and your sleep

30:04

on a consistent schedule or consistent

30:06

ish is going to be the

30:08

most powerful thing you can do

30:10

in order to buffer yourself against

30:12

negative effects on mental health and

30:14

physical health for that matter. There

30:16

are things that one can take.

30:18

Supplements, prescription drugs, etc. All supplements,

30:20

of course. have to be checked

30:22

out for their safety margins for

30:24

you because it's going to differ

30:26

from person to person. You're responsible

30:29

for making sure they're safe for

30:31

you if you decide to use

30:33

them. One of the most common

30:35

ones is Ashua Ganda. It has

30:37

a very strong effect on cortisol

30:39

itself. How strong? The decrease in

30:41

cortisol noted in humans is 14.5

30:43

to 27.9% reduction in otherwise healthy

30:45

but stressed humans. The other compound

30:47

that I think deserves attention is

30:49

Apogenin, A-P-I-G-E-N-I-N-I-N, Apogenin, which is what's

30:51

found in kamomile. I take it

30:53

before bedtime, 50 milligrams. The major

30:55

source of action is to calm

30:57

the nervous system, and it does

30:59

that primarily by adjusting things like

31:01

Gaba and chloride channels, but also

31:03

has a mild effect in reducing

31:05

cortisol. So Ashua ganda and Apogenin

31:07

together, sort of I would consider

31:09

the most potent commercial compounds that

31:11

are in supplement non-prescription form that

31:13

one could use if they were

31:15

interested in reducing chronic stress, especially

31:17

late in the day by way

31:19

of reducing cortisol late in the

31:21

day. So you're probably getting the

31:23

impression that cortisol and epinephrine are

31:25

a bit of a double-edged sword.

31:27

You want them elevated, but not

31:29

for too long or too much.

31:31

You don't want them... up for

31:33

days and days and days, but

31:35

you do want to have a

31:37

practice in order to increase them

31:39

in the short term. So we

31:41

should talk about protocols that can.

31:43

set a foundation of cortisol and

31:45

epinephrine that is headed towards optimal.

31:47

Optimization is always going to be

31:49

a series of regular practices that

31:51

you do every day. So sleeping

31:53

at certain times, light at specific

31:55

times, food at specific times, certain

31:57

foods, etc. And that's highly individual,

31:59

but there are some universals, and

32:01

we've covered a number of those

32:03

in the discussion today. Kneel timing,

32:05

meal schedules has a profound effect

32:07

on energy levels. And as I

32:09

mentioned before, the energy I'm referring

32:11

to is not glucose energy. What

32:14

I'm talking about is neural energy,

32:16

epinephrine, and cortisol. Fasting and timing

32:18

ones eating are two sides of

32:20

the same coin, when our blood

32:22

glucose is low, cortisol, and epinephrine

32:24

are going to go up. Any

32:26

time we haven't eaten for four

32:28

to six hours, levels of epinephrine

32:30

and cortisol are going to go

32:32

up pretty substantially. One thing that

32:34

many people do to great benefit

32:36

is they follow a so-called circadian

32:38

eating schedule. They eat only when

32:40

the sun is up, they stop

32:42

when the sun is down, more

32:44

or less. The other way to

32:46

think about this is they stop

32:48

eating a couple hours before sleep

32:50

and they eat more or less

32:52

upon waking, assuming that they're waking

32:54

up more or less around the

32:56

time the sun rises. maybe plus

32:58

or minus two hours. Now, let's

33:00

say you decide to do what

33:02

I do, which is I skip

33:04

breakfast. I drink water, I delay

33:06

my caffeine for 90 minutes to

33:08

two hours, and then I drink

33:10

my caffeine, and then my first

33:12

meal is typically around lunchtime, 11,

33:14

30, or 12. So I've got

33:16

a cortisol increase, I've got my

33:18

sunlight in the morning, so I'm

33:20

getting a big pulse in energy

33:22

early in the day, and yes,

33:24

there's a little bit of agitation.

33:26

I am hungry sometimes early in

33:28

the At the point where I

33:30

eat, as long as I don't

33:32

eat carbohydrate, in my case, I

33:34

know that my epinephrine levels are

33:36

going to stay pretty high. So

33:38

for me, it's usually meat and

33:40

salad or something of that sort

33:42

or fish and salad. So fasting

33:44

is a tool for many reasons,

33:46

can increase growth. hormone, etc. But

33:48

today I'm talking about fasting as

33:50

a tool to bias your system

33:52

toward more epinephrine adrenaline release and

33:54

toward more cortisol release, but still

33:56

low enough that it's not chronic

33:58

stress, that it's not causing negative

34:01

health effects. One has to learn

34:03

how to regulate these hormones with

34:05

behavior, with nutrition, perhaps with supplementation.

34:07

I also wanna mention again that

34:09

I think there's great benefit to

34:11

having a practice that perhaps you

34:13

do every other day, but if

34:15

you can't, maybe every third day

34:17

or every other day, of deliberately

34:19

increasing your adrenaline in your body

34:21

while learning to stay calm in

34:23

the mind so that you learn

34:25

to separate the brain body experience.

34:27

The idea is to stay calm

34:29

in your mind so that then

34:31

you can regulate your action. So

34:33

once again, we've covered a ton

34:35

of material. I hope right now

34:37

you're thinking, okay, am I in

34:39

a state of chronic stress? Am

34:41

I underactivated or could I afford

34:43

to increase my levels of adrenaline

34:45

cortisol to my immune system and

34:47

to energy, neural energy? And I

34:49

hope that you'll think about some

34:51

of the ways in which cortisol...

34:53

And adrenaline are not good or

34:55

bad, that stress isn't good or

34:57

bad, but short-term stress is healthy.

34:59

Alertness and energy is healthy, even

35:01

if it puts you at the

35:03

edge of agitation. That's an opportunity

35:05

to learn how to control these

35:07

hormones better. And I hope that

35:09

if you're in a state of

35:11

chronic stress, that you'll do things

35:13

to start tamping down some of

35:15

that. stress and that you realize

35:17

that your nervous system and your

35:19

hormone system are linked, but they're

35:21

linked in ways that you can

35:23

control, that we don't have to

35:25

be slaves to our hormones, and

35:27

certainly not the hormones that cause

35:29

us stress. We can learn to

35:31

control those both to the benefit

35:33

of our body and benefit of

35:35

mind. Thank you for joining me

35:37

for what I hope was an

35:39

informative discussion and an actionable discussion

35:41

about how to increase energy and

35:43

the immune system by way of

35:46

cortisol and adrenaline epinephrine. I really

35:48

appreciate your willingness to learn new

35:50

topics as well as to embrace

35:52

and think about new tools and

35:54

whether or not they're right for

35:56

you. And as as

35:58

always, thank you

36:00

for your interest

36:02

in science. in science.