Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast,

where we discuss science [music] and

science-based tools for everyday life.

[music]

I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor

of neurobiology and opthalmology at

Stanford School of Medicine. Today's

episode is a solo episode of the

podcast, meaning no guest. However,

there will be a large number of outside

voices heard on today's episode, and

that's because I solicited for your

questions on social media. that is

people had the opportunity to call in

and literally record their questions

about anything related to science and

health. Well, really anything. But

today, we're going to focus on science

and health. And I would answer them in

real time, meaning I'm hearing them for

the first time today as you hear them

for the first time today. And we're

going to cover, I'm told, because I

haven't heard the questions yet, a large

number of topics related to signs and

health that are relevant to women, to

men, to people of all ages, and covering

everything from health and fitness to

mental health, supplementation, and on

and on. I should mention that if you

called in with a question for today's

episode, and you don't hear it on

today's episode, that does not

necessarily mean that it won't be

included in a future Q&A episode. Again,

we got many, many more questions than we

could possibly include in a single

episode. And I also want to say to

everyone who called in with a question,

thank you. We really appreciate the

feedback even if your question isn't

included. It does cue us to what people

are interested in and absolutely will

shape the future of guest episodes, solo

episodes, and again perhaps a future Q&A

of this sort. So without further ado,

let's get to your questions. Okay, so

just to remind you, you're going to hear

the question from the audience member

played in real time. And again, this is

the first time that I'm hearing these

questions. Hello, my name's Anthony

Richards and I just want to thank you so

much for all the content that you put

out. It's helped me profoundly in so

many aspects of my life. My specific

question right now is on preworkouts. I

work out late at night because of work

and I generally go to bed an hour and a

half or so after I complete my workout.

I'm curious as to what's the most

effective pre-workout I could take to

maximize my strength training without

impairing my sleep. Thank you.

>> Well, first off, Anthony, thank you for

the kind words. I love to learn. I love

to teach and I especially love to teach

information that I hope can be of use to

people in their health journey. So, in

keeping with that, you asked, "What is

the best preworkout for someone who's

working out late in the day?" And in

your case, going to sleep about an hour

and a half after finishing your workout.

And your workouts, as you mentioned, are

going to be for strength and presumably

for some muscle size as well, which

suggests that they're going to be of

moderate to high intensity, which means

that they're going to pretty

impressively increase cortisol over its

baseline late in the day. And everyone

hears that and they think, "Oh my gosh,

cortisol stress hormone. We don't want

to do that." Yes and no. It is true that

we want our cortisol high in the

morning. You all know the ways to do

that. You get your morning sunlight, you

hydrate, you exercise, you maybe drink

some caffeine. If you like to drink

caffeine, you get into your day, maybe

even some stress, that's okay. But if

you can't work out early in the day,

what do you do? So, your question about

pre-workout is really a question of how

do I get energized enough, enough

autonomic arousal, enough alertness that

I can generate the kind of intensity

that's going to stimulate that cortisol

peak, right? We don't want to avoid that

high cortisol level during these

workouts. That's part of the stimulus

that's going to induce the adaptations

that we want. How do we do that? Well,

you've all heard me say that drinking

caffeine in the 8 to 10 hours before

sleep is going to disrupt your sleep,

even if you can fall asleep after

caffeine. So to be quite direct, one

thing and perhaps the only thing that

I'm aware of that can give you an

increase in alertness and that will

allow you more focus and intensity for

your workout, but that can also help

your sleep is something that increases

levels of acetylcholine. And the most

direct way to do that over the counter

and the safest way that I'm aware of to

do that is to use the supplement alpha

GPC. 600 milligrams to 900 milligrams of

alpha GPC taken simply with water will

give you a increase in focus and

alertness that you can devote to that

high intensity or moderate in to high

intensity workout. Alpha GPC is also one

of the few supplements that I'm aware of

that can increase the amount of rapid

eye movement sleep that you get REM

sleep. And that REM sleep is critical

for a number of things for inducing

neuroplasticity. So any learning that

you did in the preceding day or days is

going to be consolidated during REM

sleep. And importantly, REM sleep is

critical for removing the emotional load

of previous days, not just one day, but

days memories. And if we don't get

enough REM sleep, we tend to feel more

emotional. We tend to feel like the

emotional load of stressful things in

our prior days are not coming off those

memories. Okay. So, alphagpc has been

shown to modestly increase REM sleep.

But the great news here is even if alpha

GPC doesn't increase the amount of REM

sleep that you're getting, alpha GPC is

not going to hinder the amount of REM

sleep or slowwave deep sleep that you

get. So, it makes it a unique sort of

quote unquote stimulant. I'm reluctant

to call it a stimulant because it's not

really stimulant in the classic sympathy

sense, right? Things like caffeine, um,

other forms of stimulants that increase

dopamine, epinephrine, and

norepinephrine, the so-called

catakolamines are called sympathy

because they actually increase the

activity of the sympathetic arm of the

autonomic nervous system, which is just

nerdy speak for increased alertness.

Alpha GPC is a unique tool in its

ability to increase focus and alertness

by virtue of increasing the output of

the acetylcholine pathway which is

involved in focus and to some extent

energy. but it's not a classic sympathy

and it either doesn't seem to hinder REM

sleep or it can slightly again slightly

increase the fraction of REM sleep that

you get. So that makes it a great tool.

Now it's not a perfect tool and I'll

tell you why. Increasing the amount of

choline in your system can after a few

biochemical steps increase the amount of

TMAO that is circulating in your body.

Now TMAO can be increased by any number

of things, fish, meat, etc. Anything

that increases choline levels can do

this, but alpha GPC does it pretty

potently. And so the key thing here is

you don't want too much TMAO

consistently over time because it does

carry some cardiovascular risk. And

there was one paper a few years back

that suggested that perhaps people who

use alpha GPC regularly at high dosages,

so 900 milligrams multiple times

throughout the day over long periods of

time may have increased risk of stroke

and other cardiovascular insults. And so

that's something to pay attention to.

There is some literature that suggests

that taking 600 milligrams of garlic

pretty much any time in the 24-hour

period that you take alpha GPC, but

probably best to just take them

together. Garlic has something called

allisonin in it, which can inhibit some

of the production of TMAO. We don't have

time to get into the whole TMAO

production pathway, but this has to do

with your gut, and a lot of these

conversions are done in the gut. And

garlic can inhibit that. It's probably a

good idea to be ingesting some garlic

regularly anyway. These garlic capsules

aren't um stinky like garlic. Some

people like the smell of garlic, others

don't, but it's not going to give you

garicky breath. It's very inexpensive.

So, my suggestion would be just to be on

the safe side if you're going to take

alpha GPC pretty regularly. And you

didn't mention how often you're doing

these workouts late in the day. I don't

know if this is 5 days a week or if this

is three days a week. I would say

anytime you're going to take alpha GPC,

you should take 600 milligrams of garlic

along with it. or if you can't do it

along with it, take it at some point in

the in the next, you know, 12 to 24

hours to try and offset this TMAO. I

think you'll notice also that if you

take alpha GPC very regularly, like

every day or any more than like three,

four times a week, it's going to have a

diminished effect. So, I would reserve

taking the alpha GPC to just maybe once

or twice a week, maybe three times

maximum. And hopefully, you'll be able

to generate the kind of intensity that's

required for your workouts to stimulate

those adaptations that you're seeking in

strength, etc. without taking it every

single workout. How do you do that?

Well, you go into the workout relatively

rested. Okay, so this means getting the

proper amount of sleep the night before.

I think we vastly underestimate the

extent to which just getting your mind

in the right frame can help you generate

the kind of intensity that you need to

get a really terrific workout in. And

that doesn't require taking anything.

And if you happen to take alpha GPC2,

now you're doubling up these tools,

right? So when I say we vastly

underestimate, you know, most people

just kind of go into the gym, they're

looking at their phone. So if you can

afford to, if your life is arranged this

way, Anthony, and others, I recommend

make your workouts for you. Pour

everything you can into them mentally

and physically, maybe use alpha GPC

once, maybe twice, maybe three times a

week. Offset that TMAO effect. And then

there's another piece to this, which is

how can you ensure that you get the best

possible sleep coming off a workout

regardless of what you took. Okay, maybe

you drank some caffeine too late in the

day, maybe you didn't. I can understand

where there's kind of a pushpull of

things here. Here's what I suggest.

After you finish your workout, doesn't

have to be immediately, but take a hot

shower. Believe it or not, taking a hot

shower by virtue of the fact that you

warm up the surface of your body, will

trigger neurons in the medial preoptic

area of your hypothalammus, which act as

sort of a thermostat on your core body

temperature and will actually help drive

core body temperature down, which is a

prerequisite for getting to sleep. So in

other words, for many different reasons,

right, removing bacteria, etc., take a

nice hot shower after your nighttime

workout. And while you do that, or

perhaps while getting in or out of the

shower, do some long exhale breathing.

I've talked a lot about physiological

sigh. It's called physiological sigh,

not just sighing because it involves

this double inhale, long exhale, which

is involved in reducing the amount of

so-called sympathetic autonomic arousal.

Again, just alertness. When we do a

deliberate exhale, okay, so not just

passively exhaling, but when we draw out

our exhale [sighs] like so, you activate

a descending portion of the vagus nerve.

Everyone thinks about the Vegas nerve,

like sensory information coming up from

the body. That's 85% of the vagus

pathway. The other 10 to 15%, no one

knows the exact numbers, comes from the

brain down to the organs of the body.

And one of the main pathways there is to

your heart. And when you exhale, you

slow your heart rate down. And I've

talked a lot about this on previous

podcasts. So just doing that three or

four times, [sighs and gasps]

like so after your workout, could be

through your mouth, could be through

your nose, maybe while you shower,

getting out of the shower, you're trying

to bring your level of autonomic

activation down, down, down, and your

cortisol levels will follow. So even

though you spiked your cortisol levels,

you know, triple or quadruple from a

really effective workout, you can bring

them down deliberately using long exhale

breathing, nice hot shower to which is

warm and relaxing, right? It's not like

a cold shower which is stimulating. It's

going to help bring your levels of

arousal down. And then is the food

thing. Everyone has heard, me included,

don't eat two or three hours before

sleep because it will increase your

heart rate and it'll increase your

nighttime and morning glucose. will

impede your sleep. Well, yes and no.

Being super hungry and waking up in the

middle of the night because you're

hungry from a really hard workout, that

also will mess up your sleep. And I've

had that happen where I fall asleep

after a shower, I worked out later in

the day and then I'm awake at like 3:00

in the morning and I'm eating a bowl of

oatmeal or something and it's not

convenient. Okay, then usually I can

fall back asleep, but it's just not a

good not a good way to arrange things.

My suggestion would be after you work

out, especially if it's a moderate to

highintensity workout, that you should

eat something. There's some literature

out there that suggests that the slower

digesting proteins such as milk

proteins, casein, you could have some

Greek yogurt. You could get some, you

know, casein uh protein powder if you

wanted. It's easily available out there.

Any number of different, you know,

quality brands will work. Uh maybe a a

bowl of oatmeal, some starch after you

work out to replenish glycogen stores.

These are all good things to do even in

that final hour before sleep. And no,

it's not going to completely nuke your

growth hormone levels during sleep. you

just spiked them tremendously during

that workout anyway. Now, if you're not

working out late in the day, folks, then

probably good to put a little bit of a

buffer between your final uh meal,

certainly full meal, and your sleep if

you can. But if you don't do that every

day, it's not the end of the world. But

for you, Anthony, and others who are

working out late in the day, if you do

these things right, sometimes alpha GPC,

sometimes no. Get it get your head

straight before you go in the gym so you

can really focus. That's the main one I

have to say. You know, I was recently

down in Spain working out with six time

Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates. And before the

workout, you know, you said, you know,

you're going to go in the corner, you're

going to, you know, ride that stationary

bike for three, four minutes. And it's

as much about warming up your mind and

really focusing on what we're going to

do today than the warming up of your

core body temperature. Yes, that too.

But you have to get into the right frame

so that you're training. You're not just

working out. I actually prefer to call

it training because you're practicing

every single time trying to get better,

bringing more focus. Don't underestimate

the value of that. and it doesn't

require taking anything at all. And then

if you do the other things I described

and afterwards you take a nice hot

shower and you're feeling really jazzed

up, do a bit more long exhale breathing.

And then as a final final point, no one

does all these things perfectly every

single week, week in and week out, year

in and year out. Do some of these

things. You'll notice a significant

difference. I do believe that. These are

the things that I know to be most potent

for addressing the question that you're

asking. If you do all of them, great.

And if you can't do all of them, you're

still going to derive some benefit. So,

good luck with uh your later evening

workouts transitioning into sleep. I'm

sure it's going to go great. And if you

have additional questions, call us back

the next time we solicit for them. I'd

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All right, let's hear the next question.

>> I have been making a concentrated effort

to get outside first thing in the

morning to help reset my circadian

rhythm. Is it okay to just be outside

even though all I really see is the sky

above me and the western sky or do I

really need to walk 20 minutes so I can

see the eastern horizon?

>> Okay, this is a great question. The

person remained anonymous which is also

terrific but thank you for your question

whoever you are. I get asked this

question all the time. Here's the deal.

Any amount of ambient daylight that you

can get in the first hour after waking

will greatly benefit you. It'll increase

your morning cortisol peak, which by the

way is a great thing. No, it's not going

to give you Cushing syndrome. No, it's

not going to make you gain weight. Quite

the opposite. In fact, it's going to

kickstart so many beneficial mechanisms.

Okay? It's also going to increase your

mood focus and alertness all day long as

a consequence of that early morning

cortisol peak. So, get ambient daylight

in your eyes in the first hour after

waking. Of course, if you wake up before

the sun comes out, you're going to have

to wait. A 10,000 lux artificial light

can be beneficial in those

circumstances. I don't have any

relationship to any company that sells

them, but they're out there on the

internet. They're all basically equally

effective.

If you get outside and you can walk

eastward,

sunglasses off, brimmed hats off,

because the light's coming from above

and you don't want to olude that with a

brimmed hat. Wear sunglasses. Eyeglasses

and contacts are fine. If you can do

that, great. Many people can't. Many

people only have the opportunity to step

out onto their balcony of their

apartment and it's west facing. Okay,

you're still going to benefit from all

those photons, all that ambient light.

And the reason I say daylight and not

sunlight is that for some reason, it's

semantic, but it's semantic and it leads

to a lot of confusion. When people hear

you got to get sunlight in your eyes

early in the morning, they think, "Oh, I

have to see the sun as an object." No.

Compare how bright it is at, say, 9:00

a.m. in the depths of winter on an

overcast day facing westward in the

morning compared to midnight the night

before. It's so much brighter. There's

just so many photons. And that's what

are going to trigger these special cells

in your eye, the intrinsically

photosensitive melanopsin retinal

ganglen cells that literally send a

direct connection to your circadian

clock, set your circadian rhythm. So any

amount of ambient daylight that you can

get into your eyes, westward, eastward,

eastward being better, but westward

still being great. Clear day better than

overcast, but you can't control the

weather and neither can I. All are going

to help increase that morning cortisol

peak lead to larger increases in the

catakolamines, dopamine, epinephrine,

norepinephrine, which translates to more

daytime energy, improved mood, improved

focus. And here's the real key that most

people miss. By spiking all these

pro-arousal chemicals early in the day,

in particular in the first hours of our

day, ideally the first hour itself,

you're setting up the whole system to

have low levels of these proarousal

chemicals circulating come nighttime,

come evening. It makes it so much easier

to fall asleep. and cortisol and all

these other stimulatory chemicals that

you make they are in opposite phase to

melatonin. So by getting them high in

the morning and low in the evening and

at night with this daylight viewing and

that is the most potent stimulus to do

that you're setting yourself up for

increased melatonin your own natural

melatonin release at night and better

sleep more ease in falling asleep more

ease in staying asleep and more restful

sleep and on and on. So, the short

answer, totally fine to face westward.

The other short answer, please remove

your sunglasses. Please remove a brimmed

hat while you do it. You'll get more

ambient light in your eyes that way. If

you can rotate eastward and still get

some daylight, even better. If you can

walk eastward into the rising sun, even

better. Never look at any light,

sunlight or otherwise, that's so bright

that it's painful to look at without

blinking to protect your eyes. You have

a natural blink reflex to protect your

neural retinas, right? You don't want

blasting your eyes. You don't want to

force yourself to hold your eyelids

open. But I promise you, promise you,

promise you, if you do these things

regularly, you're going to benefit

tremendously. There's just so much

literature on that in humans in all

these different populations, ages, etc.

And as a final point, you mentioned that

you're benefiting from this to set your

circadian rhythm, and that's wonderful.

Just as a favor to everybody, I want to

take this as an opportunity to tell you

that your circadian rhythm when you feel

alert and when you feel sleepy is

dictated by these mechanisms. Okay? But

these mechanisms are slow integration

mechanisms. Meaning that your

supercismatic nucleus, your brain's

central circadian master clock that

organizes all of this is literally

integrating the number of photons that

you saw light energy in the previous two

or three days. So, if one morning you

have to just jump in the car and rush

off with your sunglasses on and get to

work and you can't do this, fine. Try

and get outside for a little bit longer

the next morning, okay? If you get a ton

of sunlight in your eyes one morning

because it's nice and clear and the next

day it's overcast and dreary, okay? or

god forbid you stay in bed and scroll

your phone which I don't recommend but

if you do that your super chaismatic

nucleus is making its physiological

decisions as to when your cortisol

should increase and your melatonin and

so on according to your previous two or

three days early day light exposure.

Yes, late in the day light exposure

matters. It really does. And you want to

keep your lights low late in the

evening. I talked about that just a few

minutes ago previous question. But that

morning bright light is really the thing

that sets the whole thing in motion. And

it's your last two or three days of

post-waking

bright light exposure that really

dictates your circadian rhythm. There

are other things too. Exercise, eating,

social interactions, etc. But that's the

biggie. That's the big what they call

zeitgeabber. That's the classic language

in the circadian literature. The classic

timekeeper. It means timekeeper. So if

you miss a day, double up on the amount

you get outside the next day. This, by

the way, is also why when you travel

someplace, your circadian clock doesn't

shift right away. It's still on your

previous city's schedule. It takes a few

days for things to adjust. That's a bad

thing when you travel. It's called jet

lag. It's a great thing when you're at

home because it gives you some

flexibility. So, you don't have to

optimize everything to the point where

you're like 20 minutes every day, 10

minutes every day. Get 20 minutes one

day, get five the next, perhaps get 15

the next. Do what you can. More photons,

better as long as you blink to protect

your eyes. But if you're getting fewer

photons, make it a little bit longer and

give yourself some ease. Give yourself

some grace. These mechanisms will take

really good care of you all on their

own. And next question, please.

>> Hello, Dr. Hub Berman. My name is Dr.

Datillos, MD. I have a simple question

about longevity and optimization

culture. I've seen people be strict and

diligent with their optimal protocols.

However, sometimes it becomes a source

of stress. When would you say longevity

protocols do more bad than good if

people worry about them?

>> Oh, thank you so much, doctor. I'm just

going to refer to you as doctor because

forgive me, I couldn't make out the

pronunciation of your name and if I were

to attempt it, I would probably not get

it right. So, uh, forgive me. I'm just

going to refer to you as doctor. But I'm

also going to extend my gratitude for

your question again because I know a lot

of people are thinking about this

overoptimization question issue these

days and it's a very important one. You

know I've uh spent the last six years or

so talking about protocols for health

for all sorts of things on the Huberman

Lab podcast and others have of as well

of course and the real issue I think

that everyone's dealing with right now

is kind of protocol overwhelm like like

what am I supposed to do? I barely have

time to do the basics and now we're, you

know, getting right down into the

details of, you know, particular

mechanisms at particular times of day.

Like, what am I supposed to do? Here's

the big picture. At least in my opinion,

optimization in its truest form is about

addressing each day of your life as an

independent unit and asking yourself,

okay, what can I do today to set myself

up for the best possible day given the

constraints upon me? Right? Maybe you're

dealing with a sick family member. Maybe

you're dealing with jet lag. Maybe

you're dealing with a deadline. You

know, I've dealt with all these things,

some of them recently. Maybe you're

dealing with being extremely well-rested

and you're on vacation and you wonder if

you should just kind of take the day off

and relax. These are real life issues

and optimization has to meet those real

life issues, not the other way around.

So optimization is about stepping back

and saying, "Okay, what are the things I

really enjoy doing and that clearly give

me energy, clearly make me feel better?"

These are the ones that are easy to do.

For me, that's getting morning sunlight.

It's hydrating in the morning. It's

exercise. I happen to like exercise.

Okay? Some days more, some days less,

but I happen to like it. Some people

loathe it. Okay? If you like a

particular protocol, you're more likely

to do it. That just stands to reason.

But then we also have to ask ourselves,

what are the most important protocols to

do consistently over time? And those are

very straightforward. Everyone knows

what those are. You want to do what you

can to get the best possible sleep.

Enough of it and high quality sleep. But

we're all human and it's also great to

stay out late doing fun things every

once in a while. Perfectly fine. I do

that. All of you should give yourself

permission to do that. In my opinion,

you will be just fine in the short and

in the long term. Okay. I do believe

that getting bright light in our eyes,

ideally from sunlight in the first hours

of the day, is one of the things to

really strive for because it's so brief.

It costs nothing and it is so well

supported by human data to create to

create excuse me outsized positive

effects on your mental and physical

health. It sets everything into its

right place. But as I just talked about

a few minutes ago to the previous

question, if you miss it one day, no big

deal. The next day, just make up for it.

I do think that a neurotic approach to

trying to get everything exactly right

is going to harm our mental health.

Maybe not severely in the short term,

but in the long run, it's just going to

lead to a different kind of burnout.

Kind of health optimization burnout,

which again is not about true

optimization anyway. So, we say morning

sunlight, great. Dimming the lights at

night. These are all zerocost, very

effective ways to improve our health and

well-being. If you're under the bright

lights at an event or doing something

fun, or god forbid, you have to be at

the hospital for a loved one or you

yourself in the hospital and the lights

are bright, you'll be okay. You want to

try and mitigate that if you're

confronted with it day after day after

day. You may get an eye mask, etc. But

every once in a while, no big deal. We

know that hydration is critical and is

very overlooked as a tool for increasing

energy and well-being. This is just

true, right? Most people don't think of

hydration as, you know, as exciting or

interesting, but it's very, very

important for mental clarity, physical

and mental energy. So, do that, right?

People argue how much you need to drink,

whether or not your urine needs to be

clear or not. It doesn't, by the way,

but making sure that you're getting

enough fluids. And by the way, the idea

that all fluids that aren't water are

dehydrating you, including coffee and

caffeine, the literature just doesn't

support that. I do think you should

drink some just good old water every

once in a while, but if you're getting a

lot of your liquids from, you know, I

drink a lot of yerba mate or coffee,

you're getting hydrated. Okay? Also,

drink some water if you can. And then we

know that exercise, nutrition, and

social connection are also vital. These

are the core pillars. Now, it's highly

individual as to whether or not somebody

needs these every single day, right? I

resistance training three times a week.

I do cardio three times a week. So,

that's six days a week of exercise. But

some of those sessions, in particular,

the high-intensity interval training,

it's very brief. 6 to 12 minutes to get

a sort of quote unquote max heart rate

V2 max type workout and very brief. One

of the cardiovascular exercise training

sessions is longer. It's an hourlong

hike or jog once a week. You have to

figure out what you can do consistently

over time. This is the other critical

feature. Overoptimization is going to

come from feeling that you have to do

everything all the time, right? Which

undoubtedly will lead to mental or some

other form of burnout or resentment of

this whole protocols health optimization

thing. It's what you can do consistently

over time. And when I say over time, I

don't mean your whole life. When I was

in graduate school, I literally only

exercised two to three days a week

because I was in lab all the time, but I

was going back and forth to the, you

know, I had to go to the vivarium. I had

to go back and forth and back. I was

doing so much physical activity. So, two

or three times a week. I wasn't happy

about that, but I was in heaven doing

experiments and I love doing science.

So, I was full and I was young, too. So,

I probably offset some of the whatever

health detriments would have been there.

And I didn't take very good care of my

sleep. It eventually caught up with me.

I made adjustments to my sleep. So what

I'm trying to say here is that true

optimization is about taking a rational

look at your life over the next 6 months

or year or if you're confronting a

deadline over the next month or two or

if you have a newborn child over the

next, you know, 6 to 12 months and

you're, you know, as anyone who's had a

kid will tell you, you know, you have to

constantly update what you can do and

what you can't do at particular times of

day because your job is to make sure

that they are taken care of first and

then that you're taken care of, right?

Uh this is obvious, but optimization is

not going to be about being rigid. It's

going to be about being adaptive. So

there's no simple prescriptive like when

you travel, cut back on exercise. In

fact, when I travel, I try to exercise

as much or more than when I'm at home

because I tend to do better on travel,

less jet lag, etc. I actually try to eat

better when I'm traveling. That means

mostly unprocessed or minimally

processed foods. And I enjoy doing that.

For some people going on vacation for

them is really just an opportunity to

just like I just want to be a complete

you know uh lazy lump and enjoy myself.

Okay, if that's your thing that's your

thing. You are in charge. I think this

is the key point. You are in charge of

which health quote unquote optimization

protocols you use. You are in charge of

which ones you don't use. I think the

burnout and the stress that people are

experiencing and I do think your point

is a good one that it can be detrimental

if we internalize the stress. I have to

I have to I have to can only be

addressed one of three ways. The first

one is to change your attitude about it.

Okay. Well, do I like this? Do I like

the effects? All right. Well, if I don't

like it, but I like the effects and

they're big enough for me, cool. I'll do

it anyway. Ideally, you like it and you

like the effects, right? That's ideal.

You're more likely to do those things.

The next one is you have to ask

yourself, can I be consistent about

this? Can I be consistent with six

workouts a week, even though some are

very short? Maybe I just need to work

out longer three times a week, or maybe

you just get two times a week to work

out. Can you eat clean, mostly

unprocessed, minally processed foods,

plenty of fiber, plenty of low sugar

fermented foods, get enough protein,

etc. whatever that means to you if

you're vegan, vegetarian or you, you

know, eat meat does, you know, everyone

has their different, you know, kind of

regimens. But you need to be able to do

that in a way that you enjoy. I like

eating healthy food, okay? I don't

really feel good after eating garbage

food. So, I don't like garbage food. I'm

not drawn to garbage food, but some

people really like their their treats.

They like their quote unquote bad food.

You're going to have to allow yourself a

little bit of that if you're going to

remain a happy person. And certainly if

you're going to resent all of the

process, that's the third category. If

you're going to resent something, you're

going to resent yourself or whoever you

think told you to do it. Look, I don't

tell anyone what to do. I make

suggestions that you can take or leave.

And that's what other people in the

public health communication space are

doing, too. So, you know, and this is

true for alcohol, too, as well. You

know, I've talked a lot about alcohol.

Zero is better than any. Two is probably

fine for non-alcoholic adults, etc.,

etc. But that doesn't mean that I

condemn people that drink. I personally

don't like drinking. I feel better when

I don't. But I have many people in my

life that enjoy having a drink every

once in a while and I've insisted that

they not apologize to me when they order

a glass of wine. I don't want that. I,

you know, that can only lead to resent.

Okay. So, the big one is to ask yourself

what you can do consistently over time.

And then really understand what that

time word means for you. This week, this

month, this period of your life. And

just be willing to be flexible, update,

and then check yourself for resentments,

right? Do you resent me? Do you resent

the world that's telling you to do this

or are you like, "Oh, this is cool."

Like, "I can take it or leave it." You

know, you're your own person. I'm

telling you this to everyone, not just

you, uh, doctor. Uh, of course, I'm

telling this to everyone. You're your

own person. You are in charge of you.

Self-care for you is going to mean

something different than it does to me

or somebody else. And by no means should

you feel guilty for coming off the the

the gas a little bit, as we say, and

like easing up a little bit. And I will

make this point. By no means should any

of you feel guilty for doing every

little thing perfectly as you see

perfect to be because you enjoy that and

because you think it makes you feel

better. Do not apologize for being you.

That's the most important point. And I

think that's what real optimization is

about. You know, the saying that I've

put out on social media a few times over

the years, but perhaps I haven't put out

enough is do what you want for you,

provided you're not hurting anyone else.

But know what you're doing. This podcast

is about trying to educate people about

what they're doing when they do A or B,

what you might benefit from if you do A

or B, but you have to be your own

laboratory, and most importantly, like I

just said, be you. I'd like to take a

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subscription. Okay, these are great

questions. So, let's get another.

>> Hello, Dr. Huberman. My name is Sarah

and I come from the south of England in

the UK. And I would love to know what

your top health hacks um from a

neuroscience perspective were for

improving your memory and also improving

your sense of smell. Um, those two

things I would really like to work on

and I was wondering if you could tell me

what the best things to try would be.

>> Great. Well, thank you Sarah from south

of England. Just came back from London

recently. Used to get over there a lot

more uh to the UK. It's a lovely place.

I won't attempt my British accent, but

I'm envious of the British accent. It's

um delightful. Okay. Neuroscience

supported tools for improving memory.

There is a vast neuroscience literature

on memory in particular that memories

are encoded, right? They're first made

in the structure that we call the

hippocampus. You actually have two of

them, hippocampi, one on each side of

your brain. And then memories once

they're formed are kind of pushed out.

They're not really pushed out, but

they're sent to uh different circuits in

the neoortex, which is the outer part of

the brain, the bumpy part of the brain

that appears wrinkly uh when the skull

is removed. And what we know about that

process is that memories change from

when we first make them to when they're

first stored to many years later

depending on whether we rehearse or we

have to recall in some instances what

those memories were. Meaning a memory

that you formed in the fifth grade that

might have been very relevant to your

life then. remembering the the um

intersection where a good friend, not

your best friend, but a good friend uh

lived and how to navigate there.

Important perhaps when you were friends

with that person in the fifth grade, not

later. Right? So, the memory was made.

It was put into your neoortex

and elsewhere presumably and eventually

it just sort of dissipates, but it's

still there. And the reason I'm giving

you this brief neuroscience lesson, this

and it's only a tiny tiny fraction of

what we know about the formation and

storage of memories, is because when

you're thinking about neuroscience

supported ways to increase your memory,

there's really two approaches to that.

One is about recall of things that you

very likely will lose if you don't

continue to practice them. The other is

about learning new things. Okay? And

these operate differently in terms of

how your brain is able to remember

additional things going forward. In

other words, you need to practice both

forms of memory. That is recalling

previous memories to keep them available

to you as well as learning new things in

order to keep the whole memory system

vital and able to continue to both

remember things like names, which people

often are upset that they start

forgetting as they get older. that they

see that as a warning sign that they

might be developing dementia or

something of that sort, which it isn't

necessarily, I should point out, and

their ability to continue to learn new

things. So, we can break this down into

either a 4-hour podcast or a brief

answer. And I'm going to try and provide

a brief but sufficient for now answer

for you and anyone else interested in

this issue.

If you are interested in forming new

memories, the most important pieces of

the formula are the following. And this

is very well supported in the

neuroscience literature. You must be

focused at the time of encoding. At the

time when you're trying to learn the

thing. Okay, that means you also have to

be alert. There's no focus without

alertness. That also means getting good

sleep. That also means exercise. And

this is a point about exercise and brain

longevity that most people miss, which

is that many, not all, but many of the

benefits of exercise on brain health and

memory are because of the pro- arousal

effects of exercise. Meaning, if you do

a 30-minute jog or brisk walk even, or

you do a moderate to high-intensity

resistance training session, or you hop

on a uh like an one of those uh

aerodyine bikes with a with a fan, which

you'll quickly learn is not designed to

cool you off, but rather to provide

resistance and you warm up for a minute

and then you sprint hard for a minute or

half a minute and then, you know, pedal

easy for a minute and then go 30 seconds

again. That sort of thing will get your

heart rate up up. There is now a vast

literature showing that all those forms

of exercise and others as well. Even

things as mellow as Tai Chi, which turns

out to be pretty difficult. I tried it

recently. It's not that easy to do

correctly. Tai Chi, a yoga class, all

forms of exercise because they raise

your levels of autonomic arousal and

alertness. And they get these again the

catakolamines is a repeating theme, the

dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine,

and circulating. Yes, they increase

things like brain derived neutrophic

factor etc. They set you up to learn

better in part because of the chemicals

and their ability to make your brain

connections more plastic. But the

biggest effect of exercise is the

pro-arousal effect. Put differently, it

increases alertness which allows you to

focus better which is the first real

step in triggering learning and

neuroplasticity. So this is a very

important point for people to understand

because people want to hear ah you know

um it's this form of exercise or that

form of exercise. It's the form of

exercise that gives you a boost in

alertness. Sure BDNF and there are other

things too. IGF-1. I mean, why could

make a list of 50 chemicals that

exercise increases that facilitate

neuroplasticity? But the most potent

effects are by virtue of the fact that

exercise increases arousal, which then

allows you to focus better in the

following one to six hours.

What do you do in those 1 to six hours

is really the key to actually learning

something that benefits your memory.

Just being more alert but not focused on

anything specific is not going to help

your memory specifically. Okay? It might

facilitate brain health. So the exercise

thing is the first domino that needs to

fall, but if you can be alert and really

focused on any kind of learning without

doing exercise first, yes, you should

still exercise for other reasons, but

there's nothing special about exercise

in terms of neuroplasticity of learning

other things except this arousal effect.

Okay. Alertness allows you to be

focused. When you're focused, the

neuroscience tells us that you have to

make errors. You have to make errors.

Whether or not you're trying to learn

dance, you're trying to learn uh do a

cross word puzzle, you're trying to get

better at chess, you're trying to learn

um how to code, you're trying to learn

um how to be different in certain social

interactions, whatever it is you're

trying to learn or a physical skill, you

have to push yourself past the limits of

your abilities. Why? Well, put simply,

if your nervous system can carry out

something that you're trying to do,

there is absolutely no reason for it to

change. Period. End of story. You have

to make errors through deliberate

effort to do things correctly, right?

You can't just do throwaway errors.

Like, you can't go just, this is

obvious, but just for sake of uh

example, you can't go out to the tennis

court and intentionally miss a bunch of

of serves and get better at serving.

That's obvious, right? What you have to

do is serve to the best of your ability.

serve to the best of your ability. And

when you fail, when you screw up, that

sends a signal through a very

interesting set of circuits that's

relayed through your mini brain, as they

call your cerebellum in the back that

then carries the error signal forward,

and then the rest of your brain has to

reshape itself. And here's a critical

point. The reshaping occurs during deep

rest, in particular, sleep. Both

slowwave deep sleep and rapid eye

movement sleep, which we talked about

earlier in this episode. Both are

crucial. Some people need six hours of

sleep a night, some seven, some eight,

some nine. Okay, do your best to get

what you need consistently. So you need

that sleep in the ideally the night

after you try and learn something or

every night. Please see previous

question about the problems with

overoptimization. I don't want anyone to

take these things as rule of law. If you

don't sleep well for a night or two,

it's not like your learning is

completely nuked, but you don't want to

do that consistently. The deep rest

piece is critical. But then there's

another one. There's a really impressive

literature that shows and this is backed

by neuroscience. Okay, so brain imaging,

it's backed by performance, which is

perhaps the most important thing,

people's ability to learn new

information. And remember the other

important aspect of memory to call back

memories of things from the past, and

it's self- testing. This is the most

overlooked powerful protocol for

neuroplasticity. In fact, I covered a

bunch of studies on this in the how to

study and learn episode of the podcast.

I'm guessing a bunch of students watch

that podcast. Very popular episode. Um,

but I'm guessing a lot of non-

studentents probably didn't because the

word study probably sounded like if

you're not in school, this wouldn't be

relevant. But it's highly re relevant.

And here are the the key takeaways.

People were given a passage of

information to read and they could

either do it once, twice, three times,

or four times. This has been done with

multiple uh iterations in different

studies. Some studies included taking

notes. Some studies included

highlighting. You know, all the

different ways that people study

information to try and learn. By far the

most impactful thing for forming stable

memories over time or calling back old

memories to keep this memory system

thriving was self- testing. That self-

testing can take the form of just, hm,

can I do a mental walk back to my

friend's house from the fifth grade?

Now, you have to ask yourself, is this

relevant information for your life now?

Well, perhaps not, but maybe you're just

testing your memory system, right? And

here's the key. Errors should be

expected and embraced. Whether you're

trying to learn some new information

from two days ago, whether you're trying

to remember information from uh three

years ago or 30 years ago, when you

can't remember, that's your nervous

system's cue that it's going to need to

draw it out of those circuits which are

now in your neoortex. It's deep within

your memory. Although it's a bit of a

misnomer because your hippocampus sits

deeper to your cortex, but anyway,

that's a nerdy side point. It's

distributed out there and you need to

call it back. And the only way to really

call back those memories in a way that

they're going to stay with you going

forward to keep your memory and keep

these circuits going that allow you to

continue to form new memories keep this

whole system robust is to make errors

where you go I can't remember what came

after three

in well question one of the Hubberman

Lab podcast Q&A like right now what was

that third thing? So you have to test

yourself. Now, if you go right back and

you just get the information, that's not

going to help you much. That's just like

reading it again or hearing it again or

highlighting it, it's not going to help

you that much. You have to remember what

you can remember and then you have to

hit the point of ah, I can't remember

that. Darn it. That friction point, that

tip of the tongue phenomenon. Like, I

can't remember that person's name.

Great. Those memories are now

resurfacing. If you wait some period of

time, typically they come back. If you

have to go look them up later, great.

You won't forget them as readily as if,

of course, you didn't go look them up.

The point here is that all of learning

is anti-forgetting. It almost sounds

like a giant duh when you hear it, but

all of learning and memory is

anti-forgetting. And we need to push

both the learning, right? Alertness,

focus, trigger that plasticity. Deep

rest and sleep allow the plasticity to

actually occur. The physical reshaping

of circuitry that's going to carry those

memories. But then we have to

consolidate that over time. We have to

recall it. Okay? and self- testing with

errors, pushing ourselves to the point

where we can't remember something and

then looking it up and reconsolidating

it. That's the key. That's what the

neuroscience literature says. That's

what the psychological literature says.

And there's just so much data to support

this. So Sarah, my suggestion would be

test yourself on things that you're

interested in learning regardless of

whether the learning occurred recently

or it's from the the past. Both forms of

of testing yourself. And again, this can

just be done mentally on a walk. You

could write down questions for yourself.

Most people won't do that. These days,

I'll use chat GPT to test myself on

material either from a podcast or even

some material that I learned long ago

and I'll sort of say design a basic test

at the level of kind of second year

graduate school at I don't know for me

it was you know graduate school

neuroscience and you know in synaptic

transmission. And I of course remember

that stuff, but they're little details

that over time, if you don't practice,

can Wayne. And of course, I'm learning

new things all the time. And in order to

put those to memory to really

consolidate those, I'll use chat GBT to

generate a a test for myself. And it is

really good because I can say, you know

what, that was too easy. Make it harder.

Okay. So, there's a lot more to say

about that. Um, I suggest listening to

the how to study and learn episode if

you'd like to go deeper into that. We've

done a number of episodes on memory,

including working memory elsewhere. But

the general themes here are consistent

across all forms of memory, all ages,

and all forms of learning. Your second

question, Sarah, was about how to

improve sense of smell. The one very

wellsupported way is to test yourself on

smells, to actually take a lemon. You

will probably also want a quite

different smell, maybe a rose, maybe

some chocolate. This could be a fun one

to do. Any number of different smells.

Let's avoid noxious smells. And I'll

tell you why you can avoid noxious

smells in this because there's a

hardwired pathway for that. You never

you actually never uh lose your core

ability to detect noxious smells unless

you've had some damage to the alactory

system. It's a different pathway. But

all these other smells, coffee, you can

lay those out and you simply want to

take some time to [snorts]

do more sniffs than you think you need

to do. We had a very popular episode of

the podcast with Noom soil who's one of

the world experts in uh olfaction in in

our ability to detect smells and he

taught there and I followed up on what

he taught and it's a beautiful

literature showing that our sense of

smell is actually on par with that of

canines. I know dogs and you might say

that's impossible. Well, it turns out

that if you look at the sheer number of

olfactory neurons, we don't have quite

as many but we're headed in that

direction.

our ability to smell at a given level

and their ability to smell at a

remarkably higher level has much more to

do with the amount of sniffing that they

do per unit time than the olfactory

system itself. And it turns out that

some people can get really really good

at detecting smells. The alactory

neurons, the ones that are critically

involved in our sense of smell, not only

do they turn over throughout the

lifespan. So this is very different than

other central nervous system neurons,

which you basically get one set for

life. There are a few others that turn

over, but the alactory neurons are

really the world heavyweight champions

of turnover throughout the lifespan.

You're constantly turning them over.

That turnover and their tuning to

particular smells, which translates to

your ability to smell, is activity

dependent. It requires the electrical

activity of those neurons. How do you

generate the electrical activity of

those neurons? You sniff. Sniffing is

what does it and smelling particular

odors is what does it as well. You need

those two things in combination

obviously. So, [snorts and laughter]

or and really paying attention. So,

close your eyes. Try and make it a quiet

environment. There's some background

noise. No big deal. If this is in a

crowded restaurant or something, give a

really good set of sniffs, a really good

deep long inhale. Why am I telling you

this? Well, the more act times that you

sniff, the longer those inhales, the

more those cells fire in the presence of

that odor. And by the way, odors are the

actual molecules of that thing entering

your nose, which is why we're not

talking about noxious things as well.

It's clear now why this is such a

beautiful system. I could talk about it

for hours, but I'm going to keep this

brief going forward. I promise just a

few more minutes. Dogs, when they sniff,

[snorts] they're actually getting many

more sniffs through one inhale. How can

that be? Well, if you've ever seen that

sort of J-shaped nostril on uh the dog's

nose, it's kind of like little notches

on the sides. It creates a a physical

environment where every inhale, keeps

the odor in and keeps it circulating.

So, they're spending a lot of time with

each odor, even if they smelled

something a few seconds or even minutes

ago. They're integrating odors across

space. They actually have stereo, which

simply means they're comparing the odors

coming in through one nostril versus

another unconsciously presumably paying

attention to odor plumes, what direction

they're coming from. They are so

spectacular. In particular, the scent

hounds. Other animals do this too of

course, but dogs are a great example.

And so when they sniff what's there,

they're getting a rich amount of

information in part because they have a

lot of neurons to detect it, but also

because they're paying total attention.

Watch a dog when it's really fixated on

a smell. They're almost, you know, it

almost seems as if they're deaf to

anything you're you're saying and blind

to anything that's around. They're

really focused. They're cutting out all

other sensory cues and they're spending

a lot of time with that odor by virtue

of the physical structure of their nose.

There's a beautiful literature on this,

by the way. So, to build up your sense

of smell, spend some time with some

smells. Inhale longer.

Pay attention. Focus on it. This might

sound like kind of just kind of trivial,

you know, uh, nuts and bolts type stuff,

like, oh yeah, well, of course, right?

You know, how else would I build up my

sense of smell? But this is really the

way that the activity dependent rewiring

and reestablishment of this ongoing

turnover of this population of neurons

occurs. Now, if you have a respiratory

illness or uh god forbid someone takes a

head hit, the cribopform plate, which is

a kind of it's like a Swiss cheese

shaped uh bone at the back of the nose

where the alactory uh neuron axons go

through, they can often get sheared off

and people can become so-called adnosmic

anosmic. So, they can't smell for some

period of time. And a lot of people

think they'll never get their smell

back, but these sorts of things have

been shown to help, especially

immediately after the injury. Although

there is some evidence that uh you can

get enhanced smell over time. And if you

haven't had such an injury, you can

really build up your sense of smell. So

improving our sense of smell is vital

enough that when it's reduced or

removed, it can be really rough on

people in a serious way. Okay? It um it

can really in inhibit their quality of

life. But if you're going to put in

major effort to get your sense of smell

back, well then I can just say if it

were me, I would do the kind of smell

training or I should say the multiple

sniff training. All right, let's hear

your next question.

>> Hi, this is Van Spina. There's a lot of

advice on the internet around eating

specific foods for fertility. What do

you see in the literature around any

specific foods that boost either male or

female fertility beyond just eating a

healthy balanced diet?

>> Thank you, Van, for your question. This

is a very interesting question and I've

hosted a number of guests on the

Hubberman Lab podcast, including some

female fertility experts. I had a

discussion about male hormone health and

fertility with Dr. Kyle Gillette who's a

medical doctor and there are a couple of

basic principles that apply to both men

and to women. So I'll cover those first

and those at least in the context of

nutrition can be summarized the

following way. You need adequate

calories to ensure fertility but you

don't want an excess of calories. Now

that might seem obvious but when you

think about it a little bit more deeply

it has some important implications not

just about caloric load but food choices

as well. So, I was in a discussion with

Dr. Kyle Gillette, MD, who is truly an

expert in male hormone health and

fertility. And we were talking on the

podcast a while ago, and I've had some

offline conversations with him as well

about should men be wary of cutting

calories too much if they want to have

their testosterone and their fertility

in the ideal range. Okay, what are we

talking about when we talk about ideal?

Yes, there's a reference range, the

so-called 300 NOGS per deciliter up to

typically 900 or in some countries 1,200

NOGS per deciliter. That's a huge

reference range. But keep in mind that

that's just one indication of hormone

health and testosterone health. There's

also your free testosterone, which is

critical. There's also the testosterone

to estrogen ratio. And contrary to what

many people believe, men do not ideally

want their testosterone really high and

their estrogen really really low because

estrogen is is actually very important.

So we were having this general

discussion and Dr. Gillette explained it

very simply. If a man is carrying excess

body weight, if he's starting to carry

more than, say, 20% body fat, then he

would be wise to cut calories to a

submaintenance level and lose some of

that body fat, ideally while doing

resistance training in order to preserve

or even build muscle and bring that body

fat percentage down. And that's going to

improve his testosterone, free

testosterone, and other hormone markers

of verility, vitality, and fertility.

However, he pointed out that if a male

is, you know, 15% body fat or less, if

he cuts calories below maintenance level

for too long, so I'm not talking about

one or two days per week. I'm talking

about consistently across the week, six

or seven days per week perhaps, and

doing that for two or three or more

weeks in order to lower body fat

percentage. That's very likely to reduce

his testosterone and free testosterone

levels. And in the context of fertility

that could could potentially have a

negative impact on his fertility. Now

fertility in males has a number of

different metrics. Okay? It's it's not

assessed by just one thing. It's not

just sperm count. It's also sperm

quality which has a number of different

measures itself. Fortunately, the

measures of male fertility in the

context of a sperm sample are very

inexpensive to obtain nowadays. Uh

there's some mail home kits that men can

use uh if they'd like to do that at

home. There are clinics that can do

this. It's and it's very inexpensive and

easy to assess. So, if you're a male and

you're interested in conceiving or

you're just generally thinking about

your fertility given some other things

you might be doing or your medical

history, you might want to get a sperm

analysis. It's easy to do. It's

inexpensive. All of that is fairly

straightforward to do nowadays and you

can get a snapshot into your fertility

at basically any age and in the context

of other medications and things that you

might be taking. Okay, so that's the

caloric either excess. Okay, so men who

are carrying excess body fat should try

and get that body fat level down. Men

who are in a healthier range of body fat

percentage would be wise to not go into

at least a severe caloric deficit. Okay,

probably no more than 500 calories per

day caloric deficit for extended periods

of time if you're thinking about

conceiving or you want to maintain

fertility. And then I should just put

this out there and this wasn't part of

the question, but I know there's a lot

of interest nowadays in testosterone

replacement therapy, be aware, this is

the critical point. If you take

exogenous testosterone, even a little

bit, even if you're quote unquote micro

doing it, so less than 100 milligrams

per week or so, it will negatively

impact your sperm count. It will

negatively impact your sperm count. It

can be partially to completely offset by

taking hCG which is typically taken you

know something like 500 IUs three times

a week. Some people do higher doses etc

alongside the the testosterone therapy.

But if you don't take hCG and you're

taking any kind of exogenous

testosterone because of the negative

feedback loop by which testosterone is

is made in the in the male body it will

deplete your sperm count. Okay. And

whether you can bring that sperm count

back up with hCG and other therapies

later on. Usually the answer is yes. But

sometimes the answer is no. So you want

to be very careful, very, very careful

about using exogenous testosterone. Do

it in the context of a well-informed

doctor. Let them know your fertility

goals and let them also tell you that

your fertility goals may change over

time. So if you're like, I don't want

kids, maybe someday you will and you

need to think about that. Maybe even

just freeze a sperm sample. Okay. for

women

who on average carry higher percentages

of body fat than do men, right? The same

general principle applies and this is

based on conversations that I've had

with Dr. Natalie Crawford who's a

fertility expert and I've had other

fertility experts on the podcast, Dr.

Tais Aliabati and they agree on several

things related to female fertility

generally in this context of nutrition

and calories and and so forth which is

if a woman is carrying a much higher

than is healthy percentage of body fat

there's a higher degree of inflammation

in the body and it would be wise to try

and bring that percentage of body fat

down somewhat or even considerably if

the goal is to get pregnant. the general

principle of if you're carrying excess

body fat, then trying to reduce that by

virtue of eating a submaintenance, not

by a ridiculous amount, but a

submaintenance caloric intake for some

period of time in a healthy way. Still

eating a nutrient-dense diet and so

forth, getting enough protein, getting

enough fiber, getting enough fruits and

vegetables and micronutrients, but

bringing that body fat percentage down,

excuse me, often can help. But as most

everybody knows, if a woman's body fat

percentage comes down too far, she may

stop menrating entirely or it could

adversely impact fertility in other

ways. So that's really a discussion that

you have to have with your OB/GYN. The

point being, you don't want to be too

lean, nor do you want to be carrying too

much excess body fat. What all the

physicians who work on either male andor

female fertility

agree on is that you want to consume a

low inflammation diet. Okay. What's a

low inflammation diet? Well, immediately

people jump to okay lots of fruits and

vegetables and you lots of fiber and you

know Mediterranean diet. Yes. Yes. And

we need to add a bit more information

here. High in micronutrient diet is

something that's often overlooked. And

in terms of reducing inflammation in the

body, I'm aware of one study that talks

about specifically what to do in

addition to what not to do because I

think we all now know too much

hyperprocessed food, you know, too much

packaged food, any food that can survive

for long periods of time on the shelf in

its near to ready eat form is considered

highly processed, right? You know, when

I talk about, you know, rice can sit for

a long time on the shelf, but it has to

be prepared, right? So, you're not

really processing it, you're preparing

it. But yes, fresh fruits and

vegetables. Yes, lean proteins like

chicken and fish. Probably some lean red

meat like beef if that's with within

your diet as well. Eating

monounsaturated fats like olive oil. I

think we all know this stuff by now.

Lentils, rice, starches, but not too

many. So, the whole idea behind this

lowinflammation diet is really also

thinking about micronutrients that are

going to be rich in fruits and

vegetables, eating quality proteins.

When I say quality proteins, it's about

high quality protein to calorie ratio.

Meaning, look at foods like lean beef,

chicken, fish, if you like shellfish,

scallops, this sort of thing. Think of

those as quality protein with all the

essential amino acids without, you know,

a high caloric load. The fruits, the

vegetables, and some of the starches

without excess fats. And if you're going

to eat fats, mostly unsaturated fats,

maybe a little bit of saturated fat from

the animal proteins. That's basically

the low inflammation diet. And I

mentioned there's one thing specifically

that has been shown in the human

literature to reduce inflammation and

that's low sugar fermented foods. Highly

overlooked, highly beneficial. This has

been shown in a beautiful study from my

colleagues Justin Sonnenberg and

Christopher uh Gardner at Stanford

University School of Medicine. people

were given either a low sugar fermented

food um sort of call to action to eat

more of those each day or increase their

fiber intake pretty marketkedly. They

did a ramp up because they need to you

need to do that kind of slowly for a few

weeks in order to get your system

acclimated to it. You don't want to go

from like no low sugar fermented foods

to tons of them. But slowly adding, you

know, a few servings a day, one serving,

two servings, you know, up to about four

servings a day, which isn't very much by

the way. you know, few spoonfuls here,

some, you know, Bulgarian yogurt there,

you know, maybe some low sugar kombucha

there, and, you know, you're getting

essentially what they quote unquote

prescribed in this diet for the

subjects. What they saw is that many

inflammatory markers were significantly

reduced in the low sugar fermented food

group. Whereas in the fiber addition

group, they found something interesting.

Some people who significantly increase

their fiber intake experienced a

reduction in inflammatory markers.

Others had an increase in inflammatory

markers. Does that mean fiber is bad?

No. It means that certain types of

high-fiber foods might cause some

inflammation in some people, not others.

And that's a important discussion going

forward. Personally, I have family

members who will take some selium husk,

like a small amount of pselium husk.

It's very inexpensive to increase fiber.

So, you could do that route, but ideally

eating fruits and vegetables plus maybe

a little bit of that for increasing

fiber is going to benefit most people

terms of colon health and reducing

inflammation. But the low sugar

fermented foods is a recommendation that

you know I've certainly adopted into my

own life. I eat Bulgarian yogurt. I eat

sauerkraut. It's you have to eat the

type that needs to be refrigerated. And

the low sugar part is important. So no,

we're not talking about beer. We're not

talking about sweetened pickles. We're

not talking about that sort of thing.

We're talking about the stuff that has

to be in the refrigerator. Natto,

kimchi, and so on. And really striving

for the low sugar variety. So low

inflammation diet. Okay, that's enough

about diet. I touched a little bit on

TRT in discussions with the other people

I mentioned earlier in this answer as

well as in the episode that I did about

male and female fertility which

admittedly is a very long episode. In

that episode I did touch on some of the

things that have some I want to be

really careful have shown some positive

impact on egg quality which is an

important um metric when trying to

conceive as well as sperm quality. I

talked about some of those metrics as

well. And those include things like

Lcarnitine,

co-enzyme Q10. Why would those be

potentially useful? And I should mention

when having discussions with now three

different fertility doctors, okay, about

male and female fertility. Okay, so

we're talking sperm and egg health and

quality. All three of them say, "Yeah, I

recommend to my patients co-enzyme Q10.

I recommend to my patients some LC

carnitine. Some fertility experts will

also recommend other things. And for

that, I'll just cue you to Natalie

Crawford's excellent book on the titled

the fertility formula as well as her

podcast episode that she did with us

where she gets into some details of some

other things that can be beneficial

because some experts will recommend

things like lowd dose melatonin at night

presumably to improve sleep uh perhaps

other things as well. Some don't. Some

will recommend DHEA, others not. So here

I'm just going to focus on the overlap

in the vin diagram as they say where

everyone says yep I recommend that to my

patients. I don't think it's necessary

for my patients but as long as they're

trying to increase their fertility their

egg quality or their sperm quality I

suggest they do it if they can afford

it. And that's Lcarnitine and co-enzyme

Q10. Both of which have been shown to

well in the case of males to improve

sperm motility. not so much count but

motility and quote unquote quality

because that's a multimetric

label quality as well as egg quality and

Lcarnitine can be taken orally as

capsules. Typically those are high

higher dosages. So those can be as high

as you know 500 milligrams or 750

milligrams a day. You don't absorb as

much of it when you take it orally. Some

people will actually do the injectable

form of Lcarnitine. And then with

co-enzyme Q10 the dosage recommendations

vary. I'll point you to Natalie's

podcast with me. We'll put a link to

that particular segment in the show note

caption. But these are the things that

seem to help with egg quality and sperm

quality. Why? Because they seem to

indirectly, perhaps directly, but

indirectly support mitochondrial health.

And so much of what's happening in

conception and the formation of the

early embryo is about taking that

fertilized egg and creating more cells

from it. And that's highly dependent on

a number of different factors that

mitochondria are critical for. And

mitochondrial health within the early

embryo, within the egg and the and the

sperm, but within the early embryo is

crucial for the normal development to

lead to a successful pregnancy. So I

want to be really clear. I'm not saying

that the lynchpin factor in fertility is

co-enzyme Q10 or it's Lcarnitine. It's

going to be multivaried. I think the

most important thing is to set a context

for overall reproductive health. So

that's going to be bodywide keeping

inflammation relatively low through the

low inflammation diet, exercise being

critical. So yes, nutrition, sleep being

a critical one to keep inflammation low,

you know, and so on and so on and so on.

a lot of it's age dependent. There

probably is some genetic variation, but

if somebody's struggling to achieve or

maintain fertility or somebody's at the

kind of um age threshold where they're

more and more concerned about these

things, then it just stands to reason to

do more to try and support fertility.

So, if you're trying to get your

fertility in the right direction for

you, well, these things have been shown

to help. I'd like to take a quick break

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