In this episode 37 protocols
▶ 11:12 Intermittent Fasting Behaviors “Intermittent fasting, it turns out, can increase growth hormone by binding ghrelin to the growth hormone, releasing hormone receptor, and it does it also during the daytime.” ▷ 12:59 Chew Food Thoroughly Behaviors “If you don't want to be the person in the meeting or sitting there in a quiet theater whose stomach is growling, chew your food better. That's the simple solution.” ▷ 14:00 Sauna Tools “However, the sauna has this advantage of you being able to enter 175 degree or 200 degree environment, provided you're not pregnant, you're not a young child, et cetera, you can do that safely.” ▷ 22:26 Morning Sunlight Exposure Behaviors “And I've said it before, but I will say it again, the best way to stimulate that increasing cortisol at the appropriate time is that very soon after waking, within 30 minutes or so after waking, get outside, view some sunlight.” ▷ 24:47 Light Meter App Tools “If you want to download the app Light Meter, that is a free app that will allow you to do that. You can hold your finger down on the little button there and you can move it around and it will continuously give you a lux readout.” ▷ 28:55 Physiological Sigh Behaviors “So if you find yourself getting stressed and staying stressed, there are great tools that we provide in the stress episode that relate to things like the double inhale, exhale, the so-called physiological sigh, you can incorporate an NSDR, a non-sleep deep breath protocol, et cetera.” ▷ 28:55 NSDR Behaviors “So if you find yourself getting stressed and staying stressed, there are great tools that we provide in the stress episode that relate to things like the double inhale, exhale, the so-called physiological sigh, you can incorporate an NSDR, a non-sleep deep breath protocol, et cetera.” ▷ 34:05 Deliberate Cold Exposure Behaviors “Well, it's quite easy to turn the shower cold and get into that. That will wake you up and it literally wakes you up because of increases in epinephrine.” ▷ 34:14 Cyclic Hyperventilation Breathing Behaviors “You can do deep breathing of the sort where you inhale and exhale repeatedly 25 or 30 times, maybe hold your breath for a few seconds on an exhale and then repeat so-called Wim Hof or Tummo type breathing, lots of adrenaline is released into your system.” ▷ 48:18 High-Intensity Interval Training Behaviors “That means if you want to increase your immune system in the short term, you want to increase your epinephrine in the short term. That's why short bouts of very intense exercise, probably no more than an hour per day, provided you're doing everything else right, sleeping and nutrition, et cetera, maybe even shorter bouts of intense exercise or exposure to cold water, or the cyclic breathing that I talked about before, because they increase epinephrine, they will bolster the immune system.” ▷ 49:25 Hot Caffeinated Tea or Coffee for Immune Support Diet “Yes, indeed, what these data probably mean is that drinking some hot caffeinated tea or some hot coffee even, provided you don't get dehydrated from it because you're also drinking some water, can probably improve your immune system function by way of increasing adrenaline release.” ▷ 50:14 Adrenaline-Increasing Practice 2-3 Times Per Week Behaviors “I would say two or three times a week at a minimum, if your goal is to keep your immune system tuned up and you are in the presence of a lot of children, for instance, which carry a lot of bugs because their immune system isn't developed, or you work in a healthcare setting, or you're simply somebody who's prone to get sick.” ▷ 1:02:34 Increase Epinephrine Immediately After Learning Behaviors “Put simply, you can remember things better increase your alertness, AKA your level of epinephrine and cortisol after, immediately after something that you want to learn.” ▷ 1:02:46 Ice Bath Tools “So I'm reminded by people here at the Huberman Lab Podcast that the optimal strategy therefore would be a 90 minute session of focus or learning, then immediately after cold shower or tumultite breathing or ice bath or something of that sort, maybe a hard run or HIIT training if you can't get access to the other things.” ▷ 1:03:19 Caffeine Toward the Tail of a Learning Session Diet “And of course you could use caffeine to prime the whole process by drinking the caffeine towards the tail of the learning episode, which is counterintuitive, at least to me.” ▷ 1:04:03 Avoid Chronic Daily Coffee if Anxiety-Prone Diet “And the title pretty much gives it away. Habitual coffee drinkers display a distinct pattern of brain functional connectivity. Chronically drinking coffee changes brain connectivity.” ▷ 1:05:18 Delay Caffeine Intake 90 Minutes to 2 Hours After Waking Behaviors “Although now, not only am I going to start delaying my caffeine intake till two hours after I wake up for reasons I've talked about in previous episodes, but I'm also going to start drinking it later in learning and focus sessions as a way to enhance plasticity around those learning and focus sessions, not before.” ▷ 1:10:39 Avoid High-Fat and High-Sugar Comfort Foods During Chronic Stress Diet “And the question was, why do we seek high fat and or high sugar foods when we are stressed for a while? Why would that be?” ▷ 1:17:12 Meditation Behaviors “you can do that by either having a practice that helps you regulate stress on a consistent basis. So something like non-sleep deep rest or meditation, if you can get access to massages or vacations, those are great, but having a practice to keep stress clamped so that it's not chronically elevated, that will be great.” ▷ 1:17:31 Ample Sunlight Exposure Behaviors “As well, this is another case where sunlight, we know stimulates melanocytes, not just in skin, but in hair. And so getting ample sunlight, having a practice to regulate stress will offset the stress-induced graying of hairs by way of stress-induced depletion of melanocytes.” ▷ 1:18:38 Keep Light, Feeding, Exercise, and Sleep on a Consistent Schedule Behaviors “Once again, getting your light and your feeding and your exercise and your sleep on a consistent schedule or consistent-ish is going to be the most powerful thing you can do in order to buffer yourself against negative effects on mental health and physical health for that matter.” ▷ 1:25:18 Ashwagandha Supplements “And so I will supplement with ashwagandha, and typically I'll take it before sleep, and maybe also with my last meal of the day, which is at least two hours before I go to sleep.” ▷ 1:27:32 Avoid Licorice During Chronic Stress or Hormone Optimization Diet “If you did, forgive me, but licorice and some of the compounds in black licorice can actually increase stress, probably not the thing to be ingesting during periods of chronic stress.” ▷ 1:28:05 Use Licorice for Travel Wakefulness Diet “I suppose one instance where you might want to use licorice would be if you're traveling and you're trying to wake up at a particular location, because licorice has these effects on cortisol and cortisol is associated with the waking phenomenon and alertness and energy, you could use it in that regard.” ▷ 1:29:10 Apigenin Supplements “And it does have a bit of an anxiolytic effect of reducing anxiety. I take it before bedtime, 50 milligrams.” ▷ 1:32:25 Circadian Eating Schedule Behaviors “So one thing that many people do to great benefit is they follow a so-called circadian eating schedule. They eat only when the sun is up, they stop when the sun is down, more or less.” ▷ 1:32:53 Drink Water While Fasting in the Morning Diet “Now, let's say you decide to do what I do, which is I skip breakfast. I drink water, I delay my caffeine for 90 minutes to two hours, and then I drink my caffeine.” ▷ 1:32:53 Skip Breakfast Behaviors “Now, let's say you decide to do what I do, which is I skip breakfast. I drink water, I delay my caffeine for 90 minutes to two hours, and then I drink my caffeine.” ▷ 1:33:17 Blueberries Diet “if I see blueberries or nuts or something, I just kind of pick them up and put them in my mouth.” ▷ 1:34:03 Low-Carb or Keto-ish Eating During the Day Diet “I'm essentially low carb or keto-ish throughout the day. So I'm probably in a slightly elevated state of epinephrine and cortisol throughout the day.” ▷ 1:34:51 Eat Carbohydrates to Blunt Excess Caffeine or Stress Diet “If you ever had too much coffee to drink and you go and have a couple of pieces of bread you will feel the you might describe it as the caffeine getting soaked up out of your system, but what you're doing is you're elevating blood glucose, which is more or less saturating the effect of caffeine in your system.” ▷ 1:35:15 Eat Something When Very Stressed to Calm Down Behaviors “If you're very stressed and you sit down to eat something, it will calm you down. Yes, because some of the blood that goes to your stomach, but more so because these effects in blunting cortisol and epinephrine.” ▷ 1:35:56 Avoid Water Fasting Behaviors “I don't think water fasting is a good idea, nor should you be drinking so much water that you kill yourself.” ▷ 1:36:05 Drink Water in Healthy Amounts Diet “So I think ingesting water in healthy amounts is a good thing, stay hydrated.” ▷ 1:36:05 Stay Hydrated Behaviors “So I think ingesting water in healthy amounts is a good thing, stay hydrated. But if you want to be alert, stay hydrated.” ▷ 1:38:48 Warm Bath Behaviors “Maybe it should be a warm mellow bath, not an ice bath.” ▷ 1:39:45 Deliberately Increase Adrenaline While Staying Mentally Calm Behaviors “I also want to mention again, that I think there's great benefit to having a practice that perhaps you do every other day, but if you can't maybe every third day or every other day of deliberately increasing your adrenaline in your body while learning to stay calm in the mind so that you learn to separate the brain body experience.”