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My name's Mackenzie, and I started to go fund me
for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal,
autistic child.
The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able
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paying some back bills.
So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them
during this crisis.
And we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months.
I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story
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trusted by over 200 million people.
Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com.
That's GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe.com.
This podcast is supported by GoFundMe.
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Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast.
We'll be discussing science and science-based tools
for everyday life.
Hello everybody and welcome.
I wanna thank all of you.
Premium Huberman Lab Podcast subscribers for joining.
This is an exciting one,
even though the backdrop here looks very much
like the studio back in the United States.
I am doing this AMA Live from Sydney, Australia
where I and the Huberman Lab Podcast team have been
for well over a week.
We were in Melbourne and we just did two live shows here
in Sydney and we're headed off to Brisbane tomorrow
and it's been absolutely delightful.
That's so much fun.
Talking science, learning from people.
That's a wonderful place.
I wanna get right into your questions
and do my best to answer as many of them as possible,
as thoroughly, clearly and succinctly as possible
over the next hour.
So I'm gonna dive into those in just a moment.
Just one last important thing before I do that,
which is that I wanna thank everyone
for being a premium subscriber
and let you know that we based on your contributions
to the premium channel.
Have already, as you know, supported four laboratories
at Stanford Columbia University Salt Institute
and elsewhere for important projects on humans
that are already leading to important therapeutic breakthroughs
that we will soon share with you on the Huberman Lab Podcast.
But that this year, 2024, we were fortunate enough
to secure no fewer than $3 for Dollar Match donors
who have generously agreed to match our contributions
from the premium channel to additional projects.
Those are going to add out to a number
of different universities and researchers working
again on human studies, so no animal studies,
human studies on important projects.
Everything from novel treatments for mental health issues,
headache and migraine, some interesting stuff
on immunology and cancer, mindsets and immune system function
and much, much more also nutrition, physiology,
exercise, physiology, et cetera.
So your contributions to the premium channel
really do make a difference.
I can say this because I'm familiar with the challenges
of raising funding for doing truly breakthrough work
and getting things quickly out to the general public.
So thank you, thank you, thank you.
And now without further ado, let's get to your questions.
The first question was, is how are you managing
to achieve your key health pillars while in Australia?
And any other place you've enjoyed doing so,
all while working so hard?
Well, thanks for the question.
I'll answer this question in the context
of what I think we all can and should and really will do
because if you're a premium channel subscriber,
certain that you're taking your health seriously.
So first off, I think there's a bit of a misconception
about the protocols on the Hibberman lab podcast
being that we are all, including myself,
super, super regimented about them to the point
where we don't enjoy other things in life.
And that's simply not true.
So I view the protocols of the Hibberman lab podcast
as science-based, actionable, low cost,
zero cost, minimal cost in almost all situations.
There are a few exceptions to that.
But it really designed to mesh with the rest of life
and enhance mental health and physical health,
which of course means remaining social,
staying on typical sleep schedules, et cetera.
So the big ones for me when arriving here
were of course to get morning sunlight
as often as possible.
It saw a beautiful sunrise this morning over Sydney,
but even on the overcast days, we've had a few rainy
overcast days to really make it a point to get outside
and to get that morning sunlight.
Also, our crew did travel in with a red light,
not a red light panel.
Although I do have a couple red light panels,
those little portable ones that I use from time to time,
the red lights I'm referring to in reference
to answering this question are the red lights,
which are just red light bulb that we actually travel
with a little red light bulb unit.
It's just like a small screw and unit.
You plug it in here with an adapter, of course.
And then in the evening, we've switched off the lights
and the place where we're staying.
And it just brings the overall levels of cortisol down low,
very quickly.
And it makes it very easy to get to sleep each night.
It makes a big, big difference.
And this is a very low cost tool.
You could essentially purchase any red light,
even red party lights and put those up
and then switch off the regular overhead lights.
It makes a big difference.
That's probably even cost saving.
We've also stayed fairly regimented about exercise.
So this morning took a great jog down to the ocean,
jumped in the ocean.
If you don't have access to an ocean on vacation,
just getting outside and getting some movement
early in the day can help shift your rhythm.
Really the quad-fecta of shifting your circadian rhythm
in a new place or becoming an early riser.
If you want to do that is morning sunlight movement,
social engagement, and in my case, caffeine.
Although some people would opt for eating breakfast,
I'd just happen to prefer to eat a little bit later in the day.
So when you combine those things,
you are really amplifying that morning.
Cortisol increase that I've talked about on the podcast.
Morning catacolamine release,
so dopamine up and effort and nor up and effort.
And those act in synergy to create more early day and day
time mood focus and alertness and enhance the transition
to nighttime sleep.
But of course, that dimming of the lights
and maybe even red light in the evening
really, really can help.
And so those are the biggies.
And then of course, if you want to shift your circadian rhythm
really quickly to be on a local schedule,
it helps to hop on the local meal schedule.
But for me, that always means skipping breakfast.
I'm not a big breakfast eater.
I like lunch and afternoon snack sometimes and dinner.
So when you do all of those things,
it makes it very easy to stay with the health pillars.
And of course, stress control is important.
We're doing lives.
There's a lot of work to do.
So there's a daily for me non-sleep deep rest
or eugenedra protocol.
By the way, you may be familiar with non-sleep deep rest
in eugenedra terrific zero cost practice
for reducing stress, replacing or replenishing dopamine
and mental and physical vigor.
I've talked about this and the studies
that support this on the podcast.
There is a Huberman NSDR script on YouTube.
That's against zero cost.
But while down here, we recorded a 10 minute, 20 minute
and 30 minute NSDR script with a view of a beautiful
Sydney Sunrise.
Those should be posted to our Huberman Lab Clips channel
in the not too distant future,
probably in the next couple of weeks.
And then you can have different duration NSDR scripts
that you can use.
Again, complete these zero cost anytime you like.
We've recorded also some additional meditations
and we're considering putting out a Spotify album,
if you will, of NSDR and meditations
that are science based of different durations.
So if you like that idea, maybe just give a shout
into the internet and hopefully we'll hear it
or put a comment on the latest episode of the Huberman Lab
podcast on YouTube.
And if that sounds like a good idea to you,
we will do more of that.
These are again, zero cost, zero to access tools
for enhancing mental health and physical health.
So combining all of those is really what we've done.
Next question was, is I have followed your sleep advice
and I have seen a huge improvement.
Great, happy to hear that.
Wonderful.
But I still wake up at night and only get five or six hours.
Is that enough?
Can you please give more advice if possible?
Well, first of all, thanks for tuning into the sleep advice
so the question of whether or not five or six hours
is enough really depends on person context
and by context, I mean, it can even change
across the course of the year by life circumstances.
The criteria for insomnia are very clear.
Insomnia is excessive daytime sleepiness
due to lack of sleep at night.
Excessive daytime sleepiness due to lack of sleep at night.
So if you're not falling asleep during the day
and you feel reasonably good throughout the day,
maybe only need a brief 10 minute to 30 minute nap
in the afternoon, some people nap,
some people don't like to nap, doesn't matter.
But if you feel pretty good throughout the day
and you have enough mental and physical energy
and focus to complete the activities you need to complete,
then I wouldn't worry so much about five to six hours
and I wouldn't obsess over these scary things
that we hear if we're not getting seven day hours
that we get to mention, et cetera,
because that's not necessarily the case.
Everyone has different sleep needs, the other thing
and this is perhaps the most important thing
for everybody listening to this really to think about
is Q, Q, R, T, which is quality, quantity, timing, excuse me,
quality, quantity, regularity and timing, Q, Q, R, T,
Q, Q, R, T, which is an acronym coined by
the great Matt Walker author of the book, Why We Sleep,
he has his own terrific podcast in his own right,
there's a series on the human lab podcast coming out.
Soon, Q, Q, R, T is what you really need to think about
when you think about your sleep.
So you wanna think about the quantity,
how much are you getting?
Well, you, Rima, who asked this question,
are getting five to six hours a night.
Okay, what about the quality of that sleep?
Is it consistently five to six hours with no breaks
or is there a break in the middle,
one trip to the restroom in the middle of the night
is considered normal and healthy for most people.
If you're making multiple trips to the restroom
in the middle of the night,
you're waking up multiple times throughout the night
on a regular basis, that's something to try and overcome.
So the quality piece is important.
Also, whether or not you remember your dreams
or you don't, you want to make sure
that you're getting ample amounts of slow wave sleep
which dominates the first half of your sleep night
and rapid eye movement sleep which dominates
the second half of your sleep night
because they have different roles in recovery of brain
and body, namely slow wave, aka deep sleep
is responsible for growth hormone release,
rapid eye movement sleep responsible for the unpacking
or the uncoupling of emotions to prior day
and previous day experiences.
And in that way, actually, is a kind of scrubbing out
or a therapy for your emotional state.
So are you feeling emotionally rested
when you wake up as a good indication of whether or not
you're getting enough rapid eye movement sleep?
Some people like sleep trackers
using their aid sleeper, their loop or their aura ring
or something like that.
I'm a fan of sleep trackers, but I think that
relying too heavily on sleep scores can be risky
and there are data from Ali Krum's lab at Stanford
showing that if people receive a poor sleep score,
even though they sleep well, their performance will drop.
If people get a good sleep score, even though their sleep
was lousy, their performance is maintained or even enhanced.
So you don't want to take any one sleep score
and overinterpret it.
You want to look at the average
and compare that to your subjective experience of sleep.
Maybe I would say go about halfway through your day
if you can bear to do it before looking at your sleep score
and see how you feel.
Then look at your sleep score as opposed to the other way around.
That might be a good way to adjust for that belief effect,
just mention.
But if you're getting enough quantity,
let's say you get five to six hours
and quality you're sleeping through that bout,
maybe with one epoch of waking up.
And then the regularity of your sleep
is that you're going to sleep more or less
at the same time each night plus or minus an hour
on let's say five to six days per week
because sometimes we like to stay up on a weekend night
and have some fun or something like that.
And then the timing where that sleep is falling
near 24 hour schedule is really key.
And here's what we're learning as a field
that for many people who are early to bed, early to rise types,
if they go to bed around nine PM, nine 30
and they only get six hours of sleep, they feel great.
Whereas if they get the equivalent amount of sleep
but go to bed at 11 PM or midnight, they feel lousy.
Similarly, if you're a night owl, you're somebody
that really prefers to go to bed around one or two AM
and wake up around, let's say 10 AM,
if you take that equivalent amount of sleep
and you go to bed earlier, you're going to feel not so good.
So getting the timing of your sleep in the 24 hour cycle
correct and fairly consistent,
that's the R part of QQRT, correct is going to be beneficial.
So I wouldn't worry so much about five to six hours only.
Here's what I would do, Rima.
I would take that five to six hours
and before getting out of bed each morning,
I would do a 10 to 30 minute NSTR non-sleep deep rest protocol
which will allow you to feel deeply rested
and frankly to recover whatever bits of sleep
that you perhaps missed during the night.
I found that to be a tremendously beneficial practice.
Waking up, if I don't feel thoroughly rested
doing a 10 to 30 minute NSTR,
then getting out of bed and continuing the day.
And if you don't have time to do that,
do that 10 minute, maybe 20 minute NSTR later in the day
at any point.
And I think you'll see terrific results,
not just because you're recovering some sleep
that you lost perhaps during the night,
or maybe you just need five to six hours,
but also because you'll get better at falling
and staying deeply asleep through the practice of NSTR
in the morning or at some point throughout the day.
I wouldn't recommend anything else elaborate
unless you're feeling really exhausted during the day
in which case then I would move
to some of the more advanced sleep tools.
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I've had vertigo, I should announce this is a question.
I'm not just telling you about my vertigo.
I've had vertigo on and off
and wonder what causes it.
Is it hormones, adrenals, autolists moving around?
Ah, this person knows about the cochlea.
Hydration, virus, exposure, Zinnana,
I think is how you pronounce your name.
Forgive me if that's not the correct pronunciation Zinnana.
So vertigo is very interesting.
Unfortunately, it's uncomfortable,
but we can learn a thing or two right now
that should be able to help you.
It's Zinnana and others, even if they haven't had vertigo.
So vertigo, this perception of falling or dizziness,
needs to be distinguished from lightheadedness.
So if you're ever feeling dizzy,
it's worth stopping and sitting,
or if you can't sit standing and closing your eyes.
And asking yourself a question,
do I feel like I'm ready to fall straight down
or do I feel like I'm going to spin and fall down?
Because in answering that question,
you can determine whether or not you are lightheaded,
that would be the straight falling down,
or you have vertigo, which is your dizzy,
which is that you're gonna spin and fall down.
Now do this in a safe place, please.
You can do this while bracing yourself against a wall
or that's why I said ideally seated.
So you don't actually fall.
But in most cases, if you're feeling that spin,
if you're feeling truly dizzy,
you're feeling vertigo and move my head
or only on purpose,
then chances are you've got some issue
in either your visual system or your inner ear.
Okay, so since this is being recorded on video,
I can display what I'm about to say.
So your visual system and your inner ear system
for balance have some really important features.
I'm gonna make this a very quick tutorial.
Your head, as you move through space,
is experiencing visual images going by all the time.
Your retinas, your eyes,
are essentially exposed to a lot of what's called visual slip.
Imagine you're walking and you're trying to take a picture
on your iPhone or if you have an Android phone
on your Android phone and you're moving,
it's gonna be blurry, right?
Well, there's a stabilization process
in your body and brain.
It's a magnificent one that Frank is built
into all jawed animals, whereby your head,
because it can move forward, so think nodding, right?
So this is pitch for you pilots, right?
Y'all moving from side to side,
this would be the no, this would be the no, no.
So pitch, y'all, and roll,
which would be like the puppy, look, right?
Pitch, y'all, and roll, pitch, y'all, real.
Those are the three major angles of visual slip.
And in an absolutely magnificent set of things,
your inner ear has three hula hoop-like shaped structures,
one that's arranged vertically, so up on its end,
one that's at an angle of about 45 degrees to that,
and another that sits like a hula hoop flat on the ground.
And inside of each of those little hula hoop-like tubes,
there are little stones called autolists,
okay, you heard that word earlier,
that roll around on the bottom,
just like marbles at the bottom of a hula hoop,
such that when you pitch, nod,
the marbles in the vertical hula hoop slide back and forth,
when you say no, the marbles in that hula hoop-lying,
essentially parallel to the floor, move around,
and then the one at 45 degrees,
when you roll your head from side to side, those move.
And each of those sends neural signals
that converge on the neural signals coming from the eye,
and get this, when you move through space,
there is a precise offset of whatever visual slip
you happen to be experiencing by walking,
the images are moving, you're looking up,
you're looking at buildings, you're looking around,
you're talking to somebody, they're moving their head,
and your eye is making little tiny movements,
little microsecodes on the millisecond time scale,
that act as a perfect image stabilizer.
So what this means, this is, by the way,
called the vestibular ocular reflex,
the vestibular system, ocular reflex,
and it's me, through a structure called the cerebellum,
in the back of the brain.
This is why when you're on a boat,
when the horizon is tipping back and forth,
I have to be careful with this,
because I have such a prominent C-signus
based on a prior experience that if I think about this too much,
I might get nauseous.
When that horizon is moving around,
your system becomes uncalibrated,
because you can't really keep the system jolting about
in a regular way, to be really careful here,
and dizzy, as I said, dizzy, not lightheaded.
And you will end up disrupting that slip process,
and you'll essentially overcompensate,
which is why whenever you feel sick on a boat,
they say, look at the horizon,
fixate to something at a distance.
Okay, so if you have vertigo,
almost certainly there's something going on
in your inner ear, yes, it can be caused by viruses,
yes, it can be caused by hormones.
These things tend to be transient,
but the most important thing is going to be
to anchor the visual part of the vestibular ocular reflex.
So what you're going to want to do,
is you're going to want to fixate on a point,
maybe three or four feet away,
and then you're going to actually want to move closer
to that point, or if you don't have access to it,
you would want to look at your hand,
your finger out in front of you,
and then slowly move it in toward your nose.
At some point, you'll feel like you're going to go cross-eyed,
and you can stop at that point,
then move out again,
then in again, what are you doing when you're doing this?
What you're doing is you're overriding the error signals,
the incorrect error signals,
that exist in your kind of default setting
at that when you have vertigo,
and you're forcing the visual component to dominate,
and then your inner ear mechanisms will adjust to that.
So this is a very powerful tool,
if you ever feel nauseous or seasick,
it's a very powerful tool.
If you're ever in like me,
you sit in the back of an uber,
and in the ubers too small, you get out,
and you're like walk into a building,
where there are no windows,
you're like, I don't really feel good,
get outside and look at a fixation point,
some distance away.
This actually happened the other day,
we went to the gym,
we went inside this gym,
we'd been in a van,
and then went inside,
and weren't feeling well.
So we decided to get out and just take a walk
and fixate to the longest distance possible.
The fresh air probably helped as well,
but when doing that,
you are anchoring the visual part
of the vestibular ocular reflex.
Now, that's far and away better
than trying to avoid moving your head
to not get those little stones moving around
in the semicircular canals.
Lots to say about this.
I could go on and on,
but hopefully you learn some biology
and you learn to not be nauseous
if ever you feel dizzy or nauseous
based on movement, motion sick.
And we can talk about why you get motion sick,
but it's through the vagus nerve, et cetera, et cetera.
But this is a very useful tool,
and if you're ever just not feeling well,
unless you have a fever or something like that,
I recommend getting outside
and looking at the furthest fixation point
with your vision that you possibly can,
and then walking toward it as far as you can safely.
If not, by actually just doing a few of these exercises
of looking at your finger up close,
that's going to be very good
for anchoring the vestibular ocular reflex,
and not every time,
but many times people would report feeling better,
especially if you've moved from one closed environment
to another closed environment,
to another closed environment, and so on.
Okay, next question is,
what can be done to improve brain function
for people that have been negatively impacted by things
such as poor sleep, poor diet, and TBI, early in life?
James, yeah, this is a great question,
and I get this a lot.
I think that it reminds me that a lot of the conversation
that we have on the podcast is about
the good things that happen when you do things right,
and the bad things that happen when you do things wrong.
And while I think that's an important conversation,
what I've frankly failed to do enough,
and that's why I'm grateful for this question,
because it gives me the opportunity
to talk more about the fact that your system
is very robust.
There is neuroplasticity,
and also, as my graduate advisor used to say,
time machine's broken, which is not to say,
you're at a luck,
but I wouldn't spend any extra energy thinking about
how many seed, not seed,
excuse me, how many have to be careful.
The seed oil debate is still a debate, it's unclear.
How many trans fats you were exposed to in childhood?
We know trans fats are bad.
Everyone agrees they're bad.
Governments agree they're bad.
This is perhaps one of the few things
everybody agrees on in the nutrition space.
Trans fats are bad.
When I was growing up,
trans fats were abundant in foods.
There were probably fewer of certain things
that we have more of now that are bad,
but we ate a lot of trans fats.
We had margarine in our fridge.
There were other things that were probably
weren't good for us that we consumed.
In every once in a while,
I'll think, gosh,
if I had only been eating grass-fed meats
and fruits and vegetables and healthy grains as I do now,
back then, imagine how much healthier I'd be,
but I really don't spend too much time on it
and I don't think you should either.
I think the most important thing to remember
is that biological systems,
unless they're really damaged,
you're talking about a major injury,
and even then, they're very robust.
You can overcome years, decades of poor use
or misuse of those systems.
That said, if you have the opportunity
to take care of them now,
I highly suggest you do.
So, for instance, if you haven't slept well for years,
now's the time to get it right.
I wouldn't worry about the past, truly.
You can always rescue some of your health
and health span and lifespan.
Poor diet, same thing.
Just, it's just do it kind of thing.
Just hop on, hop on the train of getting things right,
80 to 90% of the time.
TBI, traumatic brain injury.
Well, the episode of the human lab podcast
that's out right now with Dr. Mark Despazito,
he's an MD and neurologist,
originally trained at University of Pennsylvania,
now at University of California Berkeley,
we talk about TBI, you know,
there are a lot different forms of TBI,
different origins, you know,
everything from bomb blasts to car accident,
to construction work to just, you know,
slip down the stairs at a party.
I know someone that slipped on some wet floor at a party
and, you know, has a brain injury.
What do we know?
Well, you get back to the basics.
Sleep is going to be important,
but there are some things like
transcranial magnetic stimulation,
certainly things that reduce brain inflammation,
like lymphatic outflow.
So, lymphatic outflow is this washing of the brain at night
that removes debris.
Very, very important in the weeks and months
after traumatic brain injury to get adequate sleep
for that reason,
but then there are things that also seem to perhaps
improve outcomes from traumatic brain injury,
such as hyperbaric chamber,
so hyperoxygenation treatments,
if you have access to those,
even things like elevating the feet slightly
when you sleep by about five to 15 degrees
is known to increase lymphatic flow during sleep,
which can, we believe,
by way of increased clearance of a bunch of,
basically, debris,
reactive oxygen species within the cells,
but also debris outside the cells in the extracellular space.
So, between neurons,
there isn't just empty space,
there's all this heavily glycosylated stuff,
which basically just means this kind of,
like, spongy carbohydrate stuff that fills in the spaces.
The clearance of some of the metabolites
and some of the debris that's accumulated there
by just sleeping with feet slightly elevated,
definitely not falling asleep in a chair upright,
that's the worst thing for a glimphatic flow,
things like that.
Some people go kind of bonkers on all things anti-inflammation,
they start taking tons of curcumin
and they kind of get obsessed with inflammation
as the enemy.
I wouldn't do that.
In fact, there's some negative effects of things
like curcumin turmeric.
If you take in high doses, like,
limiting the amount of the hydrochistosterone production,
which is not good, you don't want that.
Male or female, you don't want to take too much turmeric
or curcumin, they're really issues with that.
To say nothing of the studies they've showed
in lead contamination and a lot of turmeric,
so you want to check the sourcing very carefully
if you do consume any turmeric.
A little bit is probably fine.
Cooking with it is fine,
but we're here, we're talking about supplementation,
and just really not trying to turn inflammation
into this terrible thing to the point
where you're starting to do other things
that are potentially damaging.
There's some really interesting evidence
that five grams, maybe 10 grams,
depending on your body weight,
of creatine monohydrate per day can enhance
creatine phosphatementabolism in the forebrain
and enhance brain function under conditions
of high altitude or TBI.
I take five to 10 grams of creatine,
just creatine monohydrate powder.
Frankly, any creatine monohydrate powder should be sufficient.
There are other forms of creatine,
they are not any better.
Creatine monohydrate is the least expensive,
fortunately, that mixed in water.
You take it with or without food.
Some people ask, does creatine make your hair fall out?
No, it does not.
Think your hair fall out,
but some people do experience an increase in DHT
with creatine monohydrate,
and there can be a DHT hair loss link.
So if you think you're losing your hair
from taking creatine, then stop and see,
do the control experiment, it should grow back,
but five to 10 grams of creatine monohydrate,
something to explore, hyperbaric chamber,
something to explore, excellent sleep.
Definitely do that.
And I just wouldn't obsess over past.
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Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot
you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words.
When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder
know you can feel frustrated for Lauren even.
Like your efforts are futile,
and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people
only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine.
Fuck.
Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that.
And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free
at zippercruder.com slash zip.
With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations
because we find the right people for your roles fast,
which is our absolute favorite effort.
In fact, four out of five employers
who post on Zippercruder get a quality candidate
within the first day.
Fantastic.
So whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people,
get ready to meet first rate talent.
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Itals are wrongs to the extent that it impacts your ability
to try and correct those in the present.
I would say that about most everything.
But then again, I understand that as humans,
because we can remember the past, the present,
and the future that sometimes it's difficult to let go
of the mistakes of past that we made.
But that's just simply being human.
And I don't have a solution to that.
Are we any closer to finding the cause of OCD?
Well, I think we know what causes OCD.
I think it's pretty clear that OCD is some form of miswiring
in the basal ganglia, the structures of the brain
that are involved in go action and no go
withholding action type behaviors.
And some malwiring of those structures
to the dopamine reward system.
Because here's what's interesting about OCD.
OCD involves obsessions.
Obviously, that's the O in OCD.
Compulsions, the actions, that's the C in OCD.
But in a kind of weird twist of the neurology, OCD
is a situation where the compulsion does not remove the obsession
rather it exacerbates it.
But the compulsion does not remove the obsession
it exacerbates it.
So unlike an itch that you scratch with OCD,
the scratching of the itch makes it worse, which
is actually what we experience when we have a mosquito bite,
which by the way, I have absolutely
low with mosquito bites.
It's one of my least favorite things in life.
I have about 3,600 and counting pet peeves.
That's definitely high on the list of those.
The obsessive compulsive disorder is one
that really needs to be treated frankly
neurologically.
It's one for which there are behavioral interventions,
but it's clear that adjusting the pharmacology
of the neural circuits involved in OCD really can help.
Again, there are behavioral treatments,
but for severe cases of OCD, it's just very, very clear
that interventions, which include SSRIs, which have been demonized.
A lot of people say, oh, select a serotonin reuptake inhibitors
are terrible, blah, blah, blah.
The serotonin hypothesis of depression is in true.
Well, listen, the reality is this, that all treatments
for depression that are effective, which include SSRIs,
in some cases, cognitive behavioral treatments,
all of these sorts of things, which are shown efficacy,
are all about what?
They're not about serotonin.
They're about neuroplasticity.
That's why some anti-depressant center
on dopamine and norepinephrine, other center on serotonin.
They're about neuroplasticity.
They're about changing neural networks.
They're not about a neurochemical per se,
but the neuromodulators, such as serotonin,
allow an access point.
They are a wedge into the neuroplasticity process.
Now, with OCD, in order to overcome these malwireings,
it's very important to get plasticity.
How do you get plasticity?
Well, in my belief, you work with an excellent psychiatrist
who can prescribe the appropriate dose of drug
to release the appropriate amount of neuromodulator.
Then, and this is really key,
you have opened up the window for plasticity,
but then it's really important that the proper behaviors
are engaged in.
And when I did an episode on OCD,
I talked about what some of these are.
For instance, the person is exposed to the stimulus
that causes the obsession,
or maybe the obsession arises spontaneously.
They feel the impulse to complete the compulsion,
the behavior, and they resist with the support of a therapist.
But they're doing this in the context of having elevated levels
of serotonin, or some other neuromodulator
that then allows fewer trials of resistance,
fewer times of needing to withhold the behavior
that this person so badly wants to perform,
because it's coming from within as this compulsion,
literally, then they are able to achieve
plasticity more quickly,
perhaps also transcranial magnetic stimulation.
So a conjunction of the correct behavior,
the withholding behavior,
maybe a replacement behavior,
that's often used,
use a replacement behavior
with the appropriate neurochemical milieu
is the solution to OCD.
Okay, next question is,
if I'm just going to New York City from San Francisco,
how do I control shifting my circadian rhythm
by only three hours?
So if you're going to New York City from San Francisco,
the best way, frankly,
would be to get up an hour earlier two days before
you head off to New York,
and then another day you might try and shift by two hours
before you go and then head to New York
and do the last shift on the last day.
Most people won't do that.
It just takes a little bit of work,
but they just don't have the time ability
or your discipline to do that,
but it is perhaps the best way.
I would say the best thing to do is to know
your temperature minimum,
and I'll try and keep this pretty simple.
If you typically wake up at 8am, let's say,
just by way of example,
that means that your minimum body temperature is at 6am,
which means that if you want to get up earlier
in the days where you traveled to New York,
well, in the couple of days before you leave,
anytime between 6am and 10am,
get some bright light in your eyes,
even if you go back to sleep.
So for instance, get up at 6am,
say an alarm clock,
I know you normally like to get up at 8am,
get up at 6am, get some bright light in your eyes
from artificial sources or from sunlight,
maybe five, 10 minutes,
then go back to sleep until 8am.
You do that again the next night,
and then you head off to New York,
you'll find the shift to be much easier.
Now, here's what you don't wanna do.
You want to make sure that you do not
view bright light before 6am.
So in the middle of the night, if you get up,
you need to use the restroom,
try and use dim lights as dim as a safely possible, et cetera.
And what are you doing when you're doing this?
Yeah, I could get into a long description of the science
behind this, and I'll probably do a podcast
all about this at some point,
but really what you're doing,
if you get up at 6am and getting some bright light exposure
is, you think about it,
you're kinda looking at a New York sunrise of sorts, okay?
If it's not a sunrise,
you're getting some bright light,
the mimics sunrise, at least to some extent.
Nothing's quite like sunrise, but to some extent.
So in that sense, even if you go back to sleep,
what you're doing is you're sending the light signal,
the zeitgabre, the time signal,
to your circadian clock of your hypothalamus
that it should shift that you need to get up earlier,
and indeed that will happen over the course of about two,
three days.
The other thing you can do,
and I know this is just kind of rare these days
to get an answer like this,
the other thing you can do is just fly to New York
and force yourself to get up and just drink caffeine
and get out and exercise and use the social rhythm
of the activity of the city in order to get up earlier,
but you will feel lousy late morning.
And so you would only want to do that
if you could access a brief nap of anywhere
from 30 to 90 minutes late morning,
and then you'll feel fine.
But my suggestion would be to
something back there like some animal
or something like that answer so much,
so like that, yeah, it would be to just
try and get a little bit of light exposure
a couple hours before your normal wake up time,
then go back to sleep in the two days before
you head off to New York City.
And of course, everything here was set in the context
of the New York City flight from San Francisco
to New York City, but the principle, the logic holds.
And if you have any questions about this temperature minimum
and wake up time and you want to get your circadian
clock right for travel,
check out the episode that we did on jet lag and shift work,
and I'm realizing now as I say this,
and my team's here and they're listening,
that I will do a video on the Hebrew and Lab Clips channel
where I explain temperature minimum
and how to plug in your wake normal wake up time
in order to essentially arrive at whatever time shift you want.
We should probably put that out as a newsletter too,
which is a little chart where it says,
I currently wake up at 8 a.m.
And then which means my, and then it'll say,
subtract you hours, my temperature minimum is 6 a.m.
And I want to travel to whatever it is.
Sydney, Australia on this date from this city.
And then we know the time change
and then I can tell you exactly what to do for a couple days.
I've done this for various military groups.
I've done this for people and close friends
and who travel a lot and it works fabulously well.
I can't eliminate jet lag for you.
Don't I wish I could just eliminate jet lag.
I can't do that.
But I definitely can have the time that it takes for you
to shift maybe more.
Hi, hi.
I love the Sydney show.
Thank you.
Coming out, thanks for coming to Australia.
Thanks for having us.
I take fish oil, but I'm not sure I'm getting the dose right.
What are your thoughts on fish oil and dose?
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I have lots of thoughts on fish oil.
I think it's a terrific tool.
I think every time I see a study
or a news article saying fish oil not shown to,
I just go, oh gosh, all right.
Well, listen, whoever's reading wrote that article.
You know, I take no pleasure in your declining
health spanner lifespan, but whatsoever.
But the rest of us are going to be taken fish oil.
And here's why there's just so much evidence
that getting enough omega-3 fatty acids
is great for brain health, body health.
And I think that the issue around fish oil
is typically around contaminants.
So you want to make sure they doesn't have loads of mercury.
So things like sardines, cod liver oil, et cetera.
You can get those from natural sources,
except there's one problem.
I hate sardines.
And I don't want to slurp down a bunch of cod fat.
I'm just not interested in that.
So if you eat a lot of fatty ocean fish
and it's really clean fish, great.
I don't.
Most people don't.
So I believe in taking a high quality fish oil.
There are a lot of different sources of these.
In fact, in the episode that we do with Dr. Ronda Patrick,
there's a link in the show note captions, I believe,
that takes you to a chart of the different fish oil
sources and their relative levels of contaminants, et cetera.
But most of the reputable brands out there
are not going to have any contaminants
because they've been cleaned out.
It's been checked for.
So I take the fish oil from AG1 or from Momentus.
That's just me.
There are a lot of other great sources out there.
But I will say this, that's when I'm traveling
and I take capsules.
Typically, I like to take it in liquid form.
And I will take in liquid form.
I have no financial relationship to the liquid non-capsule
forms of fish oil.
And I get the one that has a lemon flavor
to overcome the absolutely disgusting flavor
of cod liver oil.
I guess, I don't know, presumably cod
like today still cod liver oil.
But I don't.
So that's what I do.
I'll take a tablespoon of that once a day.
And a protein shake, it tastes like lemon.
It doesn't take it's like cod and goodness.
And when I travel, I take the capsules from AG1 or Momentus.
Are there excellent ones from other sources?
Lots of great sources out there.
Now, what are we trying to do when we take fish oil?
Yes, it can reduce inflammation.
Yes, it can do a number of different things.
But that's all by way of omega-3 fatty acid intake, right?
Most people get far too much omega-6, right?
This is why there's a seed oil debate.
We're not gonna have that debate now.
We could put us all to sleep, frankly.
The key thing is to get enough omega-3s
and they're hard to get unless you're eating krill,
so unless you're large, you know, boiling whale.
You're probably not eating that much krill.
If you're getting fatty fish, great.
But when you take an omega-3 fatty acid
in the form of fish oil, or you start eating through that matter,
what you're getting essentially is the substrate
for a lot of other important building blocks,
not the least of which is the lipid bilayer
that surrounds the neurons of your brain.
And so basically, the omega-3 fatty acids
provide the substrate for some key building blocks
of nerve cells and other cells in the brain and body.
And, and this is perhaps the most important reason
I can think of when you get out past one gram
of the EPA form of omega-3, okay?
One gram of EPA form of omega-3 per day.
It's clear there's a either mild to moderate
antidepressant effect so much so that one can,
in some cases, talk to your psychiatrist or psychologist,
partially offset the dosage of any antidepressant.
I am not telling you to go off antidepressant
and go on to fish oil.
That is not what I'm saying.
I'm just saying that there's some impressive clinical trials
showing that fish oil.
If taken at dosages of one to three grams of EPA per day
can have a mild to moderate antidepressant effect
and I don't know anyone that wouldn't want to have better mood.
So I take one and a half grams of EPA,
which is not to say one and a half grams of fish oil.
You need to look at the package and see how much fish oil
but then look at how much EPA.
And typically, it's less than one gram per serving
so you may have to take two servings.
So we'll say, well, is it safe to take two servings?
I don't see any reason why not.
And then, of course, there are the high potency fish oils
for which there is certainly one gram or more of EPA.
Keep in mind that all this discussion about fish oil
might sound kind of health food hippie store
for dimming hippies, health food store kind of stuff.
But the reality is that EPA, high concentration EPA
is actually a prescription drug in the United States
and elsewhere prescribed often for enhancing mental health
and enhancing cardiovascular health and on and on.
So we're not out on a limb or out on a fin
as it were when we're having this discussion,
we're actually just talking about something
for which there's a lot of clinical evidence,
there's a lot about chemical evidence,
there's a lot of mechanisms.
So I take anywhere from one to two grams of EPA per day,
even if that requires taking six rather than the suggested
three capsules per day or taking a full table spoon
or even two tablespoons of fish oil.
And frankly, most people are getting too much omega six
fatty acids and not enough omega three.
So shout out to the fish oils.
What is the recommended protocol
for measuring hormone levels?
Interesting.
How frequently do you advise monitoring these levels
to accurately determine their typical range?
And I just have to try and pronounce your name
Valade Rez Nishenko.
What a cool name.
Valade Rez Nishenko.
I'm a big fan of like two syllable version.
Oh no, none today.
All right.
So Valade Rez Nishenko.
Thank you for this question and the opportunity
to try and pronounce your name.
So hormone levels, I think a good thing to do
is in the absence of any apparent
or suspected endocrine dysfunction, right?
So we're talking about, you feel pretty good,
you're wondering if you're good under,
if I say good under the hood,
that just sounds like weird, it rhymes.
So if you're feeling pretty good,
I recommend getting your hormone levels checked once
if you can, if you're still in your teens,
in your late teens.
After you've gone through puberty
to establish a sort of baseline.
Most people won't do that because it's too late.
I didn't do that.
Once in your mid 20s, again, we're talking about
no suspected or apparent endocrine dysfunction,
okay, in your mid 20s.
So you have a baseline, something to compare to
when you were in your, say, 18 to 20
and again, when you're 25, that would be ideal.
And then again, I would say when you're 30
and then start once a year, starting when you are 40
or older.
I think that just logically, I would love to know
what my hormone levels were when I was 25,
when I was 30, maybe when I was, yeah,
when I was 18, 25, 30, 35,
and actually 35 is when I got my first blood draw
for just getting a look under the hood.
Like what's there?
What are my estrogen levels?
What are my testosterone levels?
What are my growth hormone levels?
This kind of thing.
And then once you're 40 and older,
I think once a year, minimum,
and I realize that some people out there
are gonna say, well, that's ridiculous.
What are you gonna do with that information?
Well, you're gonna do a lot with that information.
You're gonna figure out whether or not
your LDL cholesterol is in healthy range.
You're gonna figure out whether or not your ALT
is in healthy range.
You're gonna figure out whether or not
your APOB is in healthy range.
You're gonna figure out a lot more than just
whether or not your testosterone is, you know,
400, 600, 800, or 1200.
And I think we also need to be careful
about over-interpreting results of hormones
because a lot of it has to do with the ratio
of testosterone, estrogen,
or the ratio of free testosterone
to testosterone, both in men and women.
So for instance, if your testosterone level is 900,
but your free testosterone level is two,
well, then you have a problem.
Whereas if your total testosterone level is 500 or 600,
but your free testosterone level is, you know, 15,
well, then you're probably doing pretty well.
So I would say getting your hormone levels checked
once a year after age 40
and prior to that, once every three to five years,
starting at about age 18 would be ideal.
But most people don't do that.
They either don't have the disposable income.
I certainly didn't when I was 18, 20, 25.
And at that time, it was really hard to get that measured
unless you had a clinical problem.
Now, if anyone has a clinical problem
that they suspect or is real,
then obviously more testing.
I think great sources for endocrine profiling
are things like Insight Tracker,
full disclosure, they are a sponsor of the podcast,
but they do an excellent job.
They'll even come to your house.
The flambatomist will come to your house if you want
or you can go to a clinic
so that they make it all very easy.
But there are other sources as well, right?
I'll never make these AMAs or anything else
about specific companies for its own sake.
I just think Insight Tracker does a great job.
There are a number of clinics like Mara Kelt
and others online clinics that will do that,
but it's part of a more comprehensive package
of agreeing to work with them.
At least that's how I understand it.
I hope I didn't get that wrong.
But check and see, nowadays it's pretty easy
to find ways to get your hormones checked.
But I would suggest that the following things
at least beyond there, growth hormone or IGF-1,
rather IGF-1 testosterone estrogen.
This is true for women and men, by the way.
So IGF-1 testosterone estrogen
that will show up as estradiol on their free testosterone,
dihydrotestosterone cortisol.
Keep in mind, morning cortisol is always elevated
relative to afternoon cortisol.
It will be impacted by food.
So you want to go in fasted in the morning,
ideally get this done early.
Your creatinine levels, which by the way,
will be elevated if you're taking creatine
or your exercising hard.
The doctor will say, your creatinine levels are elevated
and you say, well, great, well, my creatinine intake
is elevated too.
So take that.
It's not going to be a problem necessarily
to check with your doctor.
LDL cholesterol, APOB, and there are probably a few others
that would be good to have in there
for men and women, sex hormone, binding,
globulin, SHBG, and for women, especially,
progesterone and prolactin and any of the progestins
are going to be important.
And of course, for women, the chick is going
to be when you get your blood taken
with respect to your hormone cycle,
your ovulatory cycle.
And to try and make that at least consistent
from test to test, not necessarily having to go in
both during the follicular and the luteal phase
of your cycle, but always going in
during mid follicular or midluteal.
And that can be challenging to do, perhaps.
But that's going to be important
because of course, those are widely fluctuating levels
across the cycle.
But unless you're really obsessed with your hormone levels
and analyzing them, taking them at multiple times
throughout your menstrual cycle,
probably not necessarily unless you're starting
to think about conceiving or there's some issue,
PCOS or other issue.
Warning, the following Zipper Cruder radio spot
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When you're hiring, we at Zipper Cruder
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Like your efforts are futile.
And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people
only to get flooded with candidates
for just fine.
F**k.
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And right now, you can try Zipper Cruder for free
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With Zipper Cruder, you can forget your frustrations
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In fact, four out of five employers
who post on Zipper Cruder get a quality candidate
within the first day.
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get ready to meet first rate talent.
Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip
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Finally, that zippercruder.com slash zip.
Warning, the following Zipper Cruder radio spot
you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words.
When you're hiring, we at Zipper Cruder
know you can feel frustrated for Lauren even.
Like your efforts are futile.
And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people
only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine.
Fuck.
Fortunately, Zipper Cruder figured out how to fix all that.
And right now, you can try Zipper Cruder for free
at zippercruder.com slash zip.
With Zipper Cruder, you can forget your frustrations
because we find the right people for your roles fast,
which is our absolute favorite F word.
In fact, four out of five employers
who post on Zipper Cruder get a quality candidate
within the first day.
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Okay, I find that I need to do NSDR after working out.
Any thoughts on this?
Yes, well, first of all, I'm glad you're using NSDR
as your cost tool known to replenishment,
mental and physical vigor, works so well.
I think it's great.
I think it probably is accelerating your recovery.
I think this tells me that you're probably working out
really hard and hopefully not too long.
If you find that you work out in the morning
and then you're really, really sleepy in the afternoon
and the next day, you might be working out too long
or too hard.
So maybe ratchet back the intensity
a little bit or the duration.
It's amazing how great we can feel when we work out
to like 80 to 90% of our maximum output and duration.
We did this the other day, we went out for a little jog,
run, bounding, skipping, jumping jack thing
and stopped at like 80 to 90% of maximum
and then went about the rest of the day
and evening feeling great.
If you do this consistently, you'll find you have more energy
and there's actually a lot of solid physiology
and physics to support why that is.
As opposed to, if you go to the gym and you do
every set to failure or even every exercise,
you include one set to failure
and you're grinding out four straps
or you're, I don't know what kind of exercise you're doing
or you're running more and more distance each day
or with more intensity.
You know, it's understandable how one gets kind of drawn
to or addicted to that burn or the effort.
But keep in mind, that is stress.
You're stressing the body to produce a certain kind of adaptation
either endurance or strength or hypertrophy
or et cetera adaptation.
So there's real beauty in learning to love working out hard
but to leaving the gym or ending the run
with 10 to 20% of the gas in the tank
and knowing that you can come back and do more
and you actually kind of want to do more.
There's, it increases vigor as opposed to taking yourself
over that cliff even a slight 10 to 20%
and then finding that you're kind of depleted.
And this is something that we don't hear enough about
because most people that are into fitness
are into pushing themselves.
It's also true for work.
I think some of the best advice I ever got
in the professional landscape was when I was a graduate student
at UC Berkeley and an excellent neurologist
by the name of Bob Knight said,
the key is to figure out how much can you work each day
consistently.
If that's four hours a day fine, if that's eight hours a day fine,
we're talking with weekend breaks
because that was in the year of weekend breaks.
Maybe a weekend every once in a while where you have a deadline.
But by thinking about what you personally can really do
consistently while maintaining sleep
and mental health and physical health,
you're gonna go a lot further than doing like for instance,
what I did, which is maniac and working 100 hour weeks
as a graduate student and then ending up sick four times a year
and missing out on a bunch of days
when I could have been in lab.
So these days I try and get as much focused work done as possible
but trying to make that as consistent as possible
if not from every day to the next over time.
Figure out what those averages are
and don't be ashamed of those averages.
I would say declare those averages to people
so they know what to expect.
And the fact that you can do more
does not necessarily mean that you should do more
because I think one of the best pieces of advice
I ever got in the world of fitness
is more important than training hard,
more important than doing any particular exercises,
more important than anything is to not get hurt.
Because if you get hurt, you can't train.
So I love that you're doing NSDR after training.
I love that you're making that part of your practice
but maybe also throttle back a little bit
because you said I have to do it after training.
Maybe throttle back a little bit on the duration
or intensity of exercise and see how you feel.
What can we do to optimize the function
of our gut brain access?
That's very simple.
Get enough sleep in addition to that.
Avoid excessive intake of antibiotics
but if your doctor prescribes them, take them.
I am a believer in antibiotics.
Okay, before the internet jumps on me
I'm not anti-biotic.
I'm not anti-anti-biotic.
I always wanna say that.
I'm not anti-anti-biotic.
I am not pro-anti-biotic
but I am pro-biotics.
I'm probiotic.
So I think you should ingest wonderful servings
of low sugar fermented foods per day.
So sauerkra, kimchi, nato, or keyfurt
or otherwise whatever you like
and fits with your nutrition preferences and plan.
I think it's also very important
that you don't overuse antiseptics
like antiseptic mouth washes and hand rinses
and all that stuff.
This was all discussed on a podcast episode.
I did with Dr. Justin Sonnenberg
on the Uber and Lab podcast
which is just to say that Justin,
who's a professor at Stanford and is amazing,
even said that he lets his kids eat lunch
when they've been playing outside
without washing their hands before eating lunch
because he wants the probiotic makeup
of their gut to be diverse, including from outside.
Now I'm presuming that's not a public park.
I'm assuming it's their yard.
So we're not talking about gross stuff being on their hands.
We're talking about a little dirt here and there.
Turns out owning a pet increases the diversity
of your microbiome.
Lots of things like that.
I mean, you don't want to go around
licking people's pets.
It's okay to let them lick you
and depending on what your preferences are,
but don't lick them.
But when you interact with people,
you shake their hands, your pets,
you're increasing the diversity of your microbiome.
When you eat low sugar fermented foods,
you want to make sure also you get enough fiber,
both prebiotic and probiotic fibers
of fruits and vegetables.
The fiber debate for me just makes me roll my eyes.
I mean, it's so clear that fiber is good for us,
for gut motility and for offsetting cancers of the gut.
I mean, I realize there are the people out there
who are really into elimination diets
where they just only eat meat.
But I mean, there's just so much good data on fiber,
especially from fiber as vegetables.
It just seems like what?
Yes.
I mean, that's almost silly that we have the debate, frankly.
But I'm sure someone out there who's pure carnivore
will be shouting, but guess what?
You're shouting and you're constipated.
Last question.
Regarding the subject on tongue cleaning
from the oral health episode,
can you please share a bit on brushing tongue, scraping tongue,
and generally how best to clean the tongue?
So tongue cleaning came up on the oral health episode.
I talked to four different dentists
and a periodontist in preparation for that episode.
Almost all of them remarkably extraordinarily converged
on the same advice, except for some slight deviations
around frequency of flossing.
It's kind of cool, right?
A field where almost everybody seems to agree.
I realize that isn't the usual sample size,
but I picked them from diverse locations, backgrounds,
trainings, et cetera.
Every one of them said,
pressure and floss your teeth.
Every one of them said antiseptic alcohol-based
mouth washes are bad.
And every single one of them said that brushing your teeth
before sleep is especially important
because at night you produce less saliva
and you want to be able to remineralize your teeth.
That is fill-in cavities that are starting to form
while you sleep.
So pressure teeth floss ideally as well before sleep,
but at least brush.
And of course in the morning too, for everyone's sake.
But if we're talking about tongue brushing and scraping,
it was clear that the tongue scraping was advised
if done correctly, okay?
Because there are certain bacteria
that grow on the tongue that you don't want there.
And that scraping can help with the turnover
of healthy bacteria there in addition
to removing some of the bad bacteria.
But that most people scrape their tongue too hard.
And rather, it would be wise to brush your tongue gently
with a soft toothbrush.
And by the way, you should also use a soft brush
for your teeth, but not the same one that you use
for tongue brushing.
So the takeaway that I was told
and makes a lot sense to me based on what I know now
about the biology, physiology, and care of the mouth
is that you want to use a different soft toothbrush
or tongue than the soft brush that you use
to brush your teeth.
And that you do not need to use anything on it.
But if you wanted to put a little bit of salt
and baking soda, that is perfectly fine.
A lot of people wonder whether or not baking soda
scrapes the enamel off the teeth.
It actually is low on the abrasion scale.
Dentists have, believe it or not, an abrasion scale
with a list of things of how much enamel it scrapes off
and a given pressure.
Dentists have done their work.
It's really, really cool.
I can't say I always liked dentists.
I didn't like going to dentists.
They always seem like nice people.
But now I have newfound respect for dentists.
They really care about their craft and oral health
has been kind of pushed to the back seat
of the different aspects of health.
I consider it one of the major pillars
of mental health and physical health
because taking care of your teeth,
your gums, your mouth,
including your oral microbiome is critical
for cardiovascular health.
It's critical for brain health.
One of the bad bacteria is streptococcus mutants
that can proliferate in the mouth,
especially after sugary eating sugary foods.
I can make it through the blood brain barrier
and maybe it's thought one of the causes of dementia
can disrupt your neurons.
Your brain body is a system.
Everything's talking to everything else.
And so, yeah, brush your tongue.
We use a separate soft brush to do that
and replace it every few weeks to months.
I suppose I get expensive,
but probably not as expensive as some of the other health issues
that were just described.
So I appreciate that question.
We didn't talk about oil pulling on the podcast.
A lot of people asked about that.
Some people like to swish oil and then spit it out
as a way that's oil pulling for oral health.
All the dentists I spoke to said,
nah, not big fans of oil pulling,
but none of them said it would be particularly bad.
But, you know, so if you enjoy it
or you think it works for you great,
but none of them really pointed to any clear evidence
that it was going to be beneficial.
So I was told that was the last question
and we are coming up on the hour.
Again, I want to thank everybody for joining.
This AMA, doing this from Australia, Sydney, Australia.
What's interesting down here is
because we are below the equator,
everything is reversed, right?
So this was actually, it's being presented to you.
I was, I'm actually upside down,
but they turned the camera,
so I would appear right side up to you.
Also, when I'm down here, I drink my AG1.
Normally I swish it counterclockwise
by nose here reflexively, I'm swishing it clockwise.
So anyway, lots of interesting stuff going on.
We'll talk about how that all works.
It's not through the vestibular ocular reflex.
It turns out, but maybe on a future episode
of the podcast about the relationship
between location relative to the equator
and neural functioning, and I'm just kidding.
But what I'm not kidding about
is they appreciate that you tuned in.
And last, but certainly not least,
thank you for your interest in science.
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Huberman Lab

Huberman Lab

Huberman Lab
