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Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety | Huberman Lab Essentials — Transcript

by Andrew Huberman · 5,605 words · 921 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials,
0:02where we revisit past episodes for the
0:04most potent and actionable science-based
0:06tools for mental health, physical
0:08health, and performance.
0:11I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor
0:13of neurobiology and ophthalmology at
0:15Stanford School of Medicine. Today's
0:17episode is going to be all about the
0:20science of emotions. And today, we're
0:23going to talk in particular about
0:25something that most often is called
0:28stress.
0:30Now, you might be thinking, "Wait,
0:31stress isn't an emotion." But stress
0:34really lies at the heart of whether or
0:36not our internal experience
0:39is matched well or not to our external
0:42experience or the events that are
0:44happening to us and around us.
0:46And as you'll soon see, those converge
0:49or combine to create what we call
0:51emotions. I'd like you to come away from
0:54today's episode with what I call an
0:57organizational logic, a framework for
0:59thinking about these things that
1:01typically we just call happy or sad or
1:03depressed or anxious. And I'm going to
1:06make sure that you have tools that are
1:08grounded in physiology and neuroscience
1:11that will allow you to navigate this
1:13otherwise complex space that we call
1:15emotions that will allow you to ground
1:18yourself better when you're feeling
1:21like life is weighing on you or you're
1:23kind of being pulled by the currents of
1:25life, as well as to support other
1:27people, whether or not that's in a
1:29psychological practice, if you're a if
1:31you're a practitioner, or you have
1:33clients or children or spouses, really
1:36to be able to support other people in
1:38your environment better.
1:40And as you may recall, the nervous
1:42system, which includes the brain and the
1:45eyes and the spinal cord, but also all
1:47the connections with the organs of the
1:48body,
1:49includes the brain and body. And those
1:51organs of the body,
1:53your gut and your liver and your spleen,
1:56they're also communicating with the
1:59brain.
2:00So, I look forward to a day, in fact,
2:01when we no longer think about
2:03neuroscience as just the brain. And many
2:06neuroscientists now also think about the
2:07body, of course. The brain controls the
2:09body, but the body is also having a very
2:12profound and concrete influence on the
2:14brain. Today, we're going to talk about
2:16objective tools that match the
2:19brain-body experience or separate the
2:22brain-body experience in ways that
2:24leverage your ability to lean into life
2:27better, to feel better, literally to
2:29just feel better about what you're
2:31experiencing, and
2:33believe it or not, to be able to control
2:35your emotions when that's appropriate.
2:37Okay, so what is stress? We hear all the
2:38time that stress is bad. We hear people
2:41saying they're really stressed out. What
2:44is stress?
2:46Stress, at its core, is a generalized
2:49system. It wasn't designed for tiger
2:51tigers attacking us or people attacking
2:53us. It's a system to mobilize other
2:56systems in the brain and body. It wasn't
2:58designed for one thing.
3:01And that gives it a certain advantage in
3:03taking over our the state of our brain
3:05and body, but it also gives you, all of
3:08us, an advantage in controlling it
3:11because it's based on hardwired
3:13biological mechanisms,
3:15and
3:16there are hardwired biological
3:18mechanisms, meaning cells and chemicals
3:20and pathways and tissues that exist in
3:22you right now,
3:24that require no neural plasticity, that
3:27allow you to put a brake on stress. And
3:30so, we're going to talk about those. So,
3:32let's talk about the stress response,
3:33and by doing that, you will understand
3:36exactly why the tools I'm going to give
3:38you work. For those of you that are
3:41saying, "Wait, I just want the tools.
3:42Just give me a summary."
3:44Trust me, if you understand mechanism,
3:46you are going to be in a far better
3:48position to incorporate these tools, to
3:50teach these tools to others, and to
3:52modify them as your life circumstances
3:54change.
3:55Let's be clear about what we already
3:57know, which is that
4:00stressors can be psychological
4:02or they can be physical.
4:04Okay? If I put you outside on a cold day
4:07without a jacket for a very long time,
4:09that is stressful.
4:11If I have you prepare for too many exams
4:14at once and you can't balance it all
4:16with your sleep schedule and your other
4:17needs for comfort and well-being like
4:20food, rest, sleep, and social
4:21connection, that is stressful.
4:23So, what happens when the stress
4:25response hits? Let's talk about the
4:27immediate or what we call the acute
4:29stress response. We could also think of
4:31this as short-term stress.
4:33So,
4:34you have a collection of neurons that
4:36start right about at your neck and run
4:39down to about your navel, a little bit
4:40lower, and those are called the
4:42sympathetic chain ganglia. When
4:45something stresses us out either in our
4:47mind or because something enters our
4:49environment, that chain of neurons
4:51becomes activated like a bunch of
4:52dominoes falling
4:55all at once. It's very fast.
4:57When those neurons are activated,
4:59acetylcholine is released, but there's
5:01some other neurons for the aficionados
5:03out there, they're called the
5:04postganglionic neurons. Those ones
5:07respond to that acetylcholine and then
5:09they release epinephrine, which is the
5:11equivalent to adrenaline.
5:13So, we have this system where very fast,
5:16whenever we're stressed, the core of our
5:18body, these neurons down the middle of
5:20our body, release these chemicals and
5:22then there's adrenaline
5:24or epinephrine
5:25released at particular organs and acts
5:27in particular ways. Some things like the
5:30muscles of your legs and your heart and
5:33other things that need to be active when
5:35you're stressed,
5:36they have a certain kind of receptor
5:39which is called the
5:41beta receptor and that beta receptor
5:43responds to epinephrine and blood
5:45vessels dilate, they get bigger and
5:47blood rushes in to our legs. The heart
5:50rate speeds up. Lots of things happen
5:52that get activated. And at the same
5:55time, that epinephrine activates other
5:58receptors on certain tissues that we
6:01don't need, the ones involved in
6:02digestion, reproduction, and things of
6:05that sort that are luxuries
6:07for when things are going well, not
6:10things to pay attention to when we're
6:11stressed. So, the stress response is
6:13two-pronged. It It's a yes for certain
6:15things, and it's a no, you may not right
6:17now for other things. That's why you
6:19feel blood in certain organs and tissues
6:22of your body, but not in others. But
6:24basically, you are activated in ways
6:27that support you moving. And that's
6:29because fundamentally,
6:31the stress response is just this generic
6:33thing that says,
6:34"Do something." You're going to feel
6:36agitated, and that's because it was
6:37designed to move you.
6:39So, this is important because if you
6:41want to control stress, you need to
6:44learn how to work with that agitation.
6:48I'd like to give you a tool at this
6:51point because
6:52I think if we go any further with a lot
6:54more science, people are going to uh
6:56begin to wonder if this is just going to
6:57be a kind of standard university lecture
6:59about the stress response.
7:01If you want to reduce the magnitude of
7:03the stress response,
7:05the best thing you can do is activate
7:08the other system in the body, which is
7:10designed for calming and relaxation.
7:13And that system is called the
7:15parasympathetic nervous system. And the
7:18parasympathetic nervous system is really
7:21interesting because especially the
7:23cranial nerves, the ones that are up in
7:25the brainstem, and in the neck area,
7:28those have a direct line to various
7:31features of your face, in particular the
7:33eyes. They control things like eye
7:35movements, pupil dilation,
7:37things of that sort, as well as the
7:39tongue, the facial muscles, etc. So, I'm
7:42going to teach you the first tool now,
7:44so I don't overwhelm you with all this
7:46academic knowledge without giving you
7:47something useful.
7:48And the tool that, at least to my
7:51knowledge, is the fastest and most
7:55thoroughly grounded in physiology and
7:57neuroscience for calming down in a
7:59self-directed way, is what's called the
8:02physiological sigh, s i g h. What I'm
8:05talking about when I refer to
8:06physiological sighs is the very real,
8:10medical school textbook relationship
8:13between the brain,
8:15the body,
8:17and the body as it relates to the
8:18breathing apparatus, meaning the
8:20diaphragm and lungs, and the heart.
8:23Let's take the hallmark of the stress
8:25response. The heart starts beating
8:27faster, blood is shuttled to the big
8:28muscles of the body to move move you
8:30away from whatever it is the stressor
8:32is, or just make you feel like you need
8:34to move or talk, your face goes flushed,
8:36etc. There is, however, a way in which
8:38you can breathe that directly controls
8:40your heart rate through the interactions
8:43between the sympathetic and the
8:44parasympathetic nervous system.
8:46Here's how it works.
8:48When you inhale,
8:50so, whether or not it's through the nose
8:52or through the mouth,
8:53this skeletal muscle that's inside your
8:56body, called the diaphragm,
8:59it moves down, and that's because the
9:00lungs expand, the diaphragm moves down.
9:04Your heart actually gets a little bit
9:05bigger in that expanded space. There's
9:07more space for the heart. And as a
9:09consequence, whatever blood is in there
9:12is now at a lower volume, or moving a
9:15little bit more slowly in that larger
9:17volume, than it was before you inhaled.
9:21Okay, so more space, heart gets bigger,
9:23blood moves more slowly, and there's a
9:25little group of neurons called the
9:26sinoatrial node in the heart
9:29that registers, it's Believe it or not,
9:31those neurons pay attention to the rate
9:33of blood flow through the heart, and
9:36send a signal up to the brain that blood
9:38is moving more slowly through the heart.
9:41The brain then sends a signal back to
9:43the heart to speed the heart up. So,
9:46what this means is if you want your
9:47heart to beat faster, inhale longer,
9:52inhale
9:53more vigorously
9:55than your exhales.
9:57Now, the opposite is also true. If you
9:59want to slow your heart rate down, so
10:00stress response hits, you want to slow
10:03your heart rate down.
10:05What you want to do is again capitalize
10:07on this relationship between the body,
10:09the meaning the diaphragm and the heart
10:11and the brain. Here's how it works. When
10:13you exhale,
10:14the diaphragm moves up, which makes the
10:17heart a little bit smaller. It actually
10:19gets a little more compact. Blood flows
10:21more quickly through that compact space.
10:24The sinoatrial node registers that blood
10:26is going more quickly, sends a signal up
10:28to the brain, and the parasympathetic
10:31nervous system, some neurons in your
10:32brainstem, send a signal back to the
10:35heart to slow the heart down.
10:37So, if you want to calm down quickly,
10:40you need to make your exhales longer
10:43and/or more vigorous than your inhales.
10:46Now, the reason this is so attractive as
10:49a tool for controlling stress is that it
10:52works in real time. This doesn't involve
10:54a practice that you have to go and sit
10:56there and do anything separate from
10:58life. The physiological sigh is
11:00something that people naturally start
11:01doing when they've been crying and
11:03they're trying to recover some air or
11:04calm down,
11:06when they've been sobbing very hard, or
11:08when they are in claustrophobic
11:09environments. However,
11:11the amazing thing about this thing that
11:13we call the diaphragm, the skeletal
11:15muscle, is that it's an internal organ
11:16that you can control voluntarily. So,
11:18this incredible pathway that goes from
11:20brain to diaphragm through what's called
11:23the phrenic nerve, p h r e n i c,
11:26phrenic. The phrenic nerve
11:28innervates the diaphragm. You can
11:29control anytime you want. You can double
11:31up your inhales or triple up your
11:32inhales. You can exhale more than your
11:35inhales, whatever you want to do.
11:37Such an incredible organ. And the
11:38physiological sigh
11:40is something that we do spontaneously,
11:42but when you're feeling stressed, you
11:44can do a double inhale
11:51long exhale. Now, I just told you a
11:52minute ago that if you inhale more than
11:54you exhale, you're going to speed the
11:55heart rate up, which would promote more
11:58stress and activation. Now, I'm telling
12:00you to do a double inhale exhale in
12:02order to calm down. And the reason is
12:04the double inhale exhale, which is the
12:06physiological sigh,
12:09takes advantage of the fact that when we
12:11do a double inhale, even if the second
12:13inhale is sneaking in just a tiny bit
12:15more air, cuz it's kind of hard to get
12:16two deep inhales back to back. You do
12:18big deep inhale and then another little
12:20one sneaking it in. The little sacs in
12:22your lungs, the alveoli of the lungs.
12:24Your lungs aren't just two big bags, but
12:25you got millions of little sacs
12:27throughout the the lungs that actually
12:29make the surface area of your lungs as
12:30big as a tennis court. It's amazing. If
12:33we just spread that out. Those tend to
12:34collapse
12:36as we get stressed and carbon di- carbon
12:38dioxide builds up in our bloodstream and
12:40that's one of the reasons we feel
12:41agitated as well.
12:43But when you do the double inhale
12:45exhale, the double inhale reinflates
12:47those little sacs of the lungs. And then
12:49when you do the long exhale,
12:51that long exhale is now much more
12:54effective at ridding your body and
12:56bloodstream of carbon dioxide, which
12:58relaxes you very quickly. When you're
13:00feeling stressed, the physiological sigh
13:03done just one to three times, so it'd be
13:05double inhale exhale, double inhale
13:07exhale, maybe just two times, will bring
13:09down your level of
13:12stress very, very fast. And as far as I
13:14know, it's the fastest way to accomplish
13:16that. Be aware that if you're going to
13:18use the physiological sigh or exhale
13:20emphasized breathing to calm down,
13:22that your heart rate will take about 20
13:24to 30 seconds to come down to baseline.
13:27And you may need to repeat the
13:28physiological sigh a few times. So,
13:31let's think about something now. Let's
13:33think about stress
13:34from not whether or not it's acute or
13:37chronic, whether or not it's good for us
13:38or bad for us, but on three different
13:40time scales because then we can arrive
13:43at what this is all about as it relates
13:46to emotions. But, I really want you to
13:47understand the difference between the
13:49three kinds of stress on three different
13:52time scales: short-term, medium-term,
13:54and long-term and what it's good for and
13:57what it's bad for. I think we've all
13:58heard that stress is bad for us. We've
14:01seen these
14:03pictures intended to frighten us and
14:04indeed they are frightening. You see the
14:06nice, really plump brain on the left
14:09says healthy or control and then you
14:11see the brain that says stressed above
14:13it on the right and it's like withered
14:15or we see that the hippocampus, an area
14:17involved in memory, is smaller. People
14:20that are stressed. I think we've all
14:21heard now so many times that stress is
14:23bad.
14:24But, in that conversation,
14:27unfortunately,
14:28it's eclipsed some of the really
14:30positive things that stress does for us
14:32in the short-term. When the stress
14:34response hits, that is good for your
14:36immune system. I know that might be a
14:38tough pill to swallow, but it's
14:40absolutely true.
14:41In fact,
14:43stress often comes in the form of
14:45bacterial or viral infection.
14:48And the stress response
14:50is in part organized to combat bacterial
14:54and viral infection.
14:55So, short-term stress
14:57and the release of adrenaline in
14:59particular or epinephrine, same thing,
15:01adrenaline epinephrine, is good for
15:04combating
15:05infection.
15:07And this to me is just not discussed
15:09enough, so that's why I'm discussing it
15:10here. And it relates to a particular
15:12tool that many of you ask about,
15:15but
15:16I don't often get the opportunity to
15:17talk about in such an appropriate
15:19context. It's not that it's ever
15:21inappropriate to talk about, but what
15:23I'm about to talk about now is the use
15:25of again, respiration, breathing
15:28to
15:30somewhat artificially activate the
15:32stress response, and that will
15:34accomplish two things, okay? I'll return
15:36to medium and long-term stress, but I
15:38want to say short-term stress is good
15:40because the dilation of the pupils, the
15:43changes of the optics of the eyes, the
15:44quickening of the heart rate, the
15:46sharpening of your cognition, and in
15:48fact, that short-term stress brings
15:50certain elements of the brain online
15:52that allow you to focus. Now, it narrows
15:54your focus, you're not good at seeing
15:56the so-called big picture, but it
15:58narrows your focus, it allows you to do
16:00these what I call duration path outcome
16:02types of analysis, it allows you to
16:03evaluate your environment, evaluate what
16:05you need to do, it primes your whole
16:07system for better cognition,
16:09it primes your immune system to combat
16:11infection, and that all makes sense when
16:13you think about the fact that famine,
16:16thirst,
16:18bacterial infections, viral infections,
16:21invaders, all of this stuff liberates a
16:23response in the body that's designed to
16:25get you to fight back about against
16:27whatever stressor that happens to be,
16:29psychological, physical, bacterial,
16:31viral. Again, the stress response is
16:34generic.
16:35The tool
16:37takes advantage of the fact that when
16:39adrenaline is released in the body
16:42from the adrenals,
16:44it has the effect of also liberating a
16:46lot of these killer cells from the
16:48immune organs,
16:50in particular from the spleen, but from
16:51elsewhere as well, and interactions with
16:54the lymphatic system, that combat
16:56infection.
16:59The way this works in the real world is
17:02best captured by a study that can be
17:05mapped back to so-called Wim Hof
17:08breathing. Now, Wim Hof breathing is so
17:10named after the so-called Iceman Wim
17:13Hof. There are two components to a sort
17:15of breathing protocol that he developed
17:19that was based also on what's called
17:20Tummo breathing, t u m m o. So, before
17:23Wim, there was Tummo breathing and many
17:26people call this now super oxygenation
17:28breathing. So, it's deliberate
17:29hyperventilation.
17:31Why would somebody want to do this?
17:33Well,
17:34deliberate hyperventilation done for
17:35maybe 25 cycles. So, inhale, exhale,
17:38inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. That
17:40pattern of breathing, rapid movements of
17:42the diaphragm,
17:44will liberate adrenaline from the
17:45adrenals. When adrenaline is released in
17:47the body, you are in a better position
17:50to combat infections.
17:52And so, whether or not you breathe very
17:54quickly in these cycles of 25 breaths,
17:57and regardless of what you call it,
17:58doesn't matter. Adrenaline is released.
18:00If you take a cold shower, adrenaline is
18:03released. If you go into an ice bath,
18:05deliberately, and
18:07even if you do it non-deliberately,
18:09adrenaline is released. You are
18:10mimicking the stress response and that
18:13adrenaline
18:14serves to suppress or combat
18:18incoming infections. And this was
18:20beautifully shown in a study that was
18:21published in a very fine journal, the
18:23Proceedings of the National Academy of
18:24Sciences for the US.
18:26It's it literally called Proceedings of
18:28the National Academy of USA to
18:30distinguish it from other proceedings of
18:32other national academies in other
18:33countries.
18:36The way the experiment went is that
18:38people were injected with endotoxin
18:42or in some cases, they were injected
18:45with with a bacterial wall that mimics
18:47infection. It It gives you a fever. It
18:50makes you feel nauseous. It makes you
18:51feel sick. It is not pleasant.
18:53Half of the people did a particular
18:55pattern of breathing that looked very
18:57much like the pattern of breathing I
18:58described a moment ago of doing 25 deep
19:02inhales and exhales followed by an an
19:04exhale, holding their breath, then
19:06repeating 25 inhales, exhales,
19:08holding their breath. So, this would
19:09look something like this or if you're
19:10listening, it sounds like
19:1425-30 times, you'll start feeling heated
19:16up. You'll start feeling the adrenaline
19:17response. You're liberating adrenaline
19:19in your body. Then exhale, hold your
19:21breath for 15 seconds,
19:23and then repeat. Now, I want to
19:24emphasize, never, ever, ever do this
19:27anywhere near water. People have passed
19:29out. So-called shallow water blackout,
19:31people have died. Please don't do it at
19:33all unless you get clearance to do it
19:34from your doctor, because there are some
19:36pulmonary effects and whatnot. And the
19:38breath holds should definitely not be
19:39done by anyone that has glaucoma or
19:41pressure uh you know, concerns for the
19:43eyes. But these repeated
19:46cycles of breathing that liberate
19:47adrenaline
19:48allowed the group that did that protocol
19:51to essentially experience zero symptoms
19:54from the injection of this E. coli,
19:56which is remarkable. They had much
19:58reduced or no symptoms. They wouldn't
20:00feel feverish, they didn't feel sick,
20:02they weren't vomiting, no diarrhea,
20:04which is remarkable, but makes total
20:06sense when you think about the fact that
20:07the short-term stress response, that
20:09what we typically call the acute stress
20:11response, is designed to combat all
20:13stressors.
20:14Many of us are familiar with the
20:15experience of work, work, work, work,
20:17work, or taking care of a loved one, or
20:19stress, stress, stress, stress, stress,
20:20then we finally relax. Maybe we even go
20:22on vacation. Like, "Oh, now I'm finally
20:24going to get the break." And then we get
20:25sick.
20:26And that's because the adrenaline
20:28response crashed and your immune system
20:29crashed with it.
20:31So, please understand this. Now, many of
20:35you might say, "Well, how long? Is it 2
20:36hours? Is it 3 hours?" A lot of you out
20:38there that really like specificity. It
20:40will vary for everybody. I would just
20:42kind of use a rule of thumb. When you
20:44are no longer able to achieve good
20:46sleep, what good sleep means to you,
20:48please see the episodes on sleep if you
20:50want more about tools to sleep. When you
20:52are no longer able to achieve good
20:54sleep, you are now moving from acute
20:57stress to chronic stress. You need to be
20:58able to turn the stress response off.
21:01Okay.
21:02So, now let's talk about medium-term
21:03stress. Medium-term stress is going to
21:06be stress that lasts anywhere from
21:09several days to several weeks. What is
21:11stress threshold? Well,
21:14stress threshold is actually our ability
21:17to cognitively regulate what's going on
21:20in our body. A lot of stress
21:22inoculation,
21:24a lot of managing medium-term stress on
21:27the on the time scale of weeks or maybe
21:29even a couple months. So, we're not
21:31talking about years of stress.
21:34A lot of that has to do with raising our
21:35stress threshold. It's about capacity.
21:39And there are very simple tools,
21:42excellent tools that will allow us to
21:44modulate our
21:46capacity for stress. And they look a lot
21:47like the tools I just described.
21:50They involve placing oneself
21:52deliberately into a situation where our
21:55adrenaline is increased somewhat, not to
21:58the extreme,
21:59and then when we are feel flooded with
22:01adrenaline,
22:03and normally we would panic, it's about
22:06cognitively, mentally, emotionally
22:09calming ourselves and being comfortable
22:11with that response in our body. And what
22:14would this look like? You can use
22:16the cyclic hyperoxygenation breathing to
22:19combat infection if you're feeling kind
22:20of run down.
22:22And
22:23there is also a way in which you can use
22:24things like cold showers or if you
22:27exercise and you bring your heart rate
22:29up very high, you kind of go into that
22:31high intensity realm where your heart is
22:33beating a little bit harder than you're
22:35comfortable with.
22:36The key in those moments is to learn to
22:38relax the mind while the body is very
22:42activated. One way that you can do this,
22:44and this is kind of fun, if it's
22:45approved by your physician and you're
22:48able to do this, you can bring your
22:49heart rate up. You could do this through
22:51an ice bath if that's your thing or a
22:52cold shower or cyclic oxygenation
22:54breathing, or you could sprint, or you
22:56could go hard on the bike.
22:58Whatever it is that brings your heart
22:59rate up.
23:00And then what you want to do is you want
23:02to actually try and calm the mind while
23:04your body is in this heightened state of
23:06activation.
23:07When we are stressed, our pupils dilate.
23:10The effect of that pupil dilation is to
23:12create tunnel vision. It literally
23:14narrows our view of the visual world. We
23:15no longer see in panorama.
23:18And there's some other effects as well,
23:20but that's because the visual system
23:21through this cranial nerve system that I
23:23described before is tethered and is part
23:26of this autonomic nervous system.
23:29By deliberately dilating your gaze,
23:31meaning not moving your head and eyes
23:33around, but by deliberately going from
23:35tunnel vision
23:37to broader panoramic vision, literally
23:39seeing more of your environment all at
23:41once, it creates a calming effect on the
23:43mind because it releases a particular
23:45circuit in the brainstem that's
23:46associated with alertness, aka stress.
23:50Now, this is very powerful. If you're
23:52running, for instance, and you're at max
23:54capacity or close to it, where you're
23:56kind of hitting like 80, 90% of maximum
23:58on the bike, and you dilate your gaze,
24:01what you'll find is the mind can relax
24:03while the body is in full output. And it
24:05this is relates to work that in various
24:08communities people are working with this
24:10in the sports community, military
24:11community, etc. But, it's a form not
24:14really of stress inoculation, it's more
24:16about raising stress threshold so that
24:18the body is going to continue to be in a
24:21high alertness, high reactivity mode,
24:24high output, but the mind is calm. And
24:27so this isn't about unifying mind and
24:29body, this is actually about using body
24:32to bring up your level of activation,
24:34then dissociating, not the
24:36clinical dissociation kind of disorders,
24:38but dissociating the mental or emotional
24:41response from what's going on in your
24:42body. And over time, so if you do this,
24:45you know, a couple times, you don't have
24:46to do this every workout, but if you do
24:48this every maybe once a week or so, you
24:50start being comfortable at these higher
24:52activation states. What once felt
24:54overwhelming and like a lot of work, now
24:57is
24:58manageable. It feels tolerable. So,
25:00that's for navigating medium-term
25:03stress.
25:04And then there's long-term stress. Now,
25:06long-term stress is bad. You do not want
25:09adrenaline up in your system for a very
25:11long time. In fact, you you ideally you
25:14would have your stress go up various
25:17times throughout the day, but it would
25:18never stay elevated and it would never
25:20prevent you from getting a good night's
25:22sleep. We know that chronic stress,
25:24elevated stress, and especially in the
25:26so-called type A personalities,
25:29creates heart disease, leading killer of
25:32for in most every country, but in
25:34particular in the US.
25:36But by no means do you want to be
25:37stressed out all the time chronically
25:40for months and months and months and
25:41years on end.
25:44The best tools, the best mechanisms that
25:47we know to modulate long-term stress,
25:50might surprise you a little bit.
25:53First of all,
25:55there are going to be the things that
25:55don't surprise you, which is everyone
25:57knows getting regular exercise, getting
25:59good sleep,
26:00um using real-time tools to try and tamp
26:02down the stress response, et cetera.
26:04That's all going to be really useful.
26:07The data really points to the fact that
26:10social connection and certain types of
26:13social connection in particular are what
26:16are going to mitigate or reduce
26:19long-term stress. And this is a
26:21particularly important issue nowadays
26:23where we have all these proxies or
26:25surrogates for social connection. You
26:28know, we're online and texting with
26:29people a lot. Everyone has this kind of
26:31need to stay connected to one another.
26:33Humans are incredibly social creatures.
26:36The way to think about social connection
26:37and how it can mitigate
26:39some of the long-term effects of stress
26:41is really through the systems of
26:43neuromodulation, like serotonin.
26:46Serotonin again is a neuromodulator.
26:48Neuromodulators are a a bit like
26:50playlists in the brain. They tend to
26:52amplify or bias the likelihood that
26:54certain brain circuits and body circuits
26:56are going to be activated and that
26:58others will not. Serotonin generally
27:01gives us feelings of well-being. At very
27:02high levels, it makes us feel blissed
27:05and it tends to make us feel like we
27:06have enough in our immediate
27:08environment. When we see somebody that
27:10we recognize and trust, serotonin is
27:12released in the brain.
27:14And that has certain positive effects on
27:17the immune system and on other systems
27:19of neural repair and and synapses and
27:21things that really reinforce connections
27:23in the brain and prevent that long-term
27:25withering of connections. So, serotonin
27:28is tied to social connection. Now,
27:30social connection can take many forms.
27:32Some of those can be romantic
27:34attachments. Those could be familial
27:36attachments that are non-romantic
27:37friendship, pets,
27:40even attachments to things that just
27:42delight us. Having a sense of delight, a
27:45sense of really enjoying something that
27:47you see and engage in, witness, or
27:49participate in, that is associated with
27:52the serotonin system. And certainly play
27:55is one of those things, social
27:56connection of various forms. Those are
27:58things to invest in. I'll be the first
28:00to admit, social connection and
28:01friendship and relationships of all
28:03kinds to animals or humans or inanimate
28:05objects takes work. It takes investment.
28:08It takes time in not needing everything
28:12to be exactly the way you want it to be.
28:13Social connection is something that we
28:15work for, but it is incredibly powerful.
28:18Finding just a few people, even one, or
28:21an animal, or something that you delight
28:23in,
28:24believe it or not, has very positive
28:26effects on mitigating this long-term
28:29stress, on improving various aspects of
28:32our life as it relates to stress and
28:34emotionality.
28:35Now, how do you know if you're making
28:36serotonin? You don't know in the moment,
28:38but you can learn if you pay attention
28:41to kind of recognize these feelings of
28:43comfort, trust, bliss, delight. And
28:46those are not weak terms. Those are not
28:49associated just with uh psychological
28:51terms. They are they are every bit as
28:53physiological as the movement of your
28:55muscles or the secretion of adrenaline.
28:57Now, there are a plethora of things that
28:59will also impact well-being and allow
29:01you to
29:02modulate your long-term stress. Reduce
29:05the likelihood that you'll engage in
29:06long-term stress.
29:08There are compounds that are not
29:10prescription compounds that can modulate
29:13the stress system. And sometimes,
29:15because of the way that life is, we just
29:16don't have the opportunity to control
29:19life and to control our response to
29:20stress. The three I want to focus on,
29:22and one that I think you need to be
29:24cautious about that I've mentioned
29:25before,
29:26include
29:28ashwagandha,
29:30L-theanine, and melatonin. Let's talk
29:32about melatonin first. Melatonin is a
29:34hormone secreted from the pineal in
29:36direct relationship to how much darkness
29:38you are in, not emotional darkness, but
29:41light suppresses melatonin. Melatonin
29:43helps you fall asleep, it doesn't help
29:44you stay asleep. I,
29:47personally, do not recommend
29:48supplementing melatonin
29:50because
29:51it's supplemented typically at very high
29:53levels.
29:54You know, 1 to 3 mg or even more. That
29:57is an outrageously high dose. It also
29:59has a number of potentially negative
30:01effects on the reproductive axis and and
30:05hormones there. The other is L-theanine.
30:07I've talked about L-theanine, which,
30:09provided it's safe for you, can be taken
30:11100 mg or 200 mg about a 30 minutes or
30:1460 minutes before sleep. It can enhance
30:16the transition to sleep and depth of
30:18sleep for many people.
30:20It it increases GABA, this inhibitory
30:22neurotransmitter in the brain. It tends
30:23to turn off our forebrain a little bit
30:25or reduce the activity of our kind of
30:27thinking systems and ruminating systems.
30:29Help people fall asleep. But, theanine
30:32has also been shown for people that are
30:33chronically anxious or chronically
30:35stressed to significantly increase
30:36relaxation. It is known to have a minor
30:38effect on anxiety, but eight studies
30:40have shown that. It definitely has a
30:42notable effect on stress. The other
30:43supplement that can be very useful is
30:45ashwagandha. Ashwagandha is known to
30:48lower anxiety and cortisol. This is
30:51great. I mean, the opportunity for me
30:53anyway to be able to take something that
30:55can help me reduce my cortisol so that I
30:58don't get some of the long-term effects
30:59of stress. And I'm not going to take
31:00ashwagandha year-round. I would only do
31:02this if I was feeling like I wasn't
31:03managing my short- and medium-term
31:05stress well. So, I don't take it on a
31:07regular basis. I do take it when I'm in
31:09these
31:10times when things are particularly
31:11stressful. So, social connection and
31:14some supplementation, of course, diet,
31:16exercise, sleep for long-term stress.
31:19So, I hope today
31:21you were able to take a slightly
31:23different view of this thing that we
31:25call stress, not just see it as evil,
31:27but see it as powerful and useful in
31:29certain contexts, great for us in
31:30certain contexts, and problematic in
31:33other contexts, and as well to think
31:35about the various tools that I've
31:36presented that can allow you to adjust
31:39and modulate your internal levels of
31:42alertness or calmness so that you can
31:43lean more effectively into life, which
31:45includes sleep and social connection and
31:48the work you have to do, and of course,
31:50acknowledges that the events in the
31:52world are beyond our control. What's in
31:55our control is how we react to them,
31:57something that's commonly said in the
31:58wellness and self-help and psychology
32:01world, but for which there often aren't
32:03as many concrete tools that we can
32:05really look to and trust in real time.
32:08As always, really appreciate your time
32:10and attention today. I hope you practice
32:13some of the tools if they're right for
32:14you. I hope you think hard about stress
32:16and how you can control your stress, and
32:20above all, as always, thank you for your
32:22interest in science.

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