# Essentials: Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety  ## Episode metadata - Episode title: Essentials: Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety - Show: Huberman Lab - Owner / Host: Scicomm Media - Episode publish date: 2025-01-16 - Episode AI description: Explore effective strategies for managing stress, both in the short and long term. Discover how acute stress can boost your immune system and practical tools like breathwork and the physiological sigh for quick relief. Learn about the benefits of deliberate hyperventilation and how raising your stress threshold can build resilience. Dive into insights on non-prescription supplements like ashwagandha and L-theanine, along with mindful practices to keep chronic stress at bay and promote overall well-being. - Duration: 37:23 - Episode URL: [Open in Snipd](https://share.snipd.com/episode/f17f9bd9-e7c7-45f3-8d1c-2dccf8cdae11) - Show URL: [Open in Snipd](https://share.snipd.com/show/a7002921-2fb5-4ee4-8faa-41d1e967f05e) - Export date: 2026-02-11T20:07:11 ## Snips ### [Stress: A Generalized System](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b342474a-4139-43b6-95a0-7cadb28f141f) 🎧 02:32 - 03:29 (00:57) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/c1b7e543-b4c0-4d9b-8f3a-f42771b1e80b" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Stress is a generalized system mobilizing other brain-body systems. - It's not designed for one specific thing, giving us an advantage in controlling it. #### 💬 Quote > Stress at its core is a generalized system. It wasn't designed for tigers attacking us or people attacking us. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman on the nature of stress #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** And believe it or not, to be able to control your emotions when that's appropriate. Okay, so what is stress? We hear all the time that stress is bad. We hear people saying they're really stressed out. What is stress? Stress at its core is a generalized system. It wasn't designed for tigers attacking us or people attacking us. It's a system to mobilize other systems in the brain and body. It wasn't designed for one thing. And that gives it a certain advantage in taking over the state of our brain and body, but it also gives you, all of us, an advantage in controlling it because it's based on hardwired biological mechanisms and there are hardwired biological mechanisms, meaning cells and chemicals and pathways and tissues that exist in you right now that require no neural plasticity that allow you to put a break on stress. --- ### [Understanding Stress Mechanisms](https://share.snipd.com/snip/94d2b7a1-1aa7-4a61-8d8f-41548c448b4a) 🎧 03:29 - 03:55 (00:25) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/ca85a7c2-cae9-4cef-bdb0-a1ec68e3f6bc" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Understand the mechanisms of stress to better incorporate and adapt stress management tools. - This allows for more effective application and personalized modification. #### 💬 Quote > Trust me, if you understand mechanism, you are going to be in a far better position to incorporate these tools [...] and to modify them as your life circumstances change. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman on the importance of understanding stress mechanisms. #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** And so we're going to talk about those. So let's talk about the stress response. And by doing that, you will understand exactly why the tools I'm going to give you work. For those of you that are saying, wait, I just want the tools, just give me a summary. Trust me, if you understand mechanism, you are going to be in a far better position to incorporate these tools, to teach these tools to others, and to modify them as your life circumstances change. --- ### [The Acute Stress Response](https://share.snipd.com/snip/11efa462-15eb-40f1-b330-40d963fc169e) 🎧 04:23 - 05:39 (01:15) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/a0da0861-6d6b-4984-9a1e-9a2c12b4d6ef" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Stressors can be psychological (e.g., exam pressure) or physical (e.g., cold exposure). - The acute stress response involves neurons from the neck to the navel (sympathetic chain ganglia). - These neurons release acetylcholine, triggering other neurons to release epinephrine (adrenaline). - Epinephrine acts on beta receptors in muscles and the heart, causing blood vessel dilation. #### 💬 Quote > Stressors can be psychological, or they can be physical. [...] If I have you prepare for too many exams at once [...] that is stressful. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman explaining the nature of stressors. #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** So what happens when the stress response hits? Let's talk about the immediate or what we call the acute stress response. We could also think of this as short-term stress. So you have a collection of neurons that start right about at your neck and run down to about your navel, a little bit lower, and those are called the sympathetic chain ganglia. When something stresses us out, either in our mind or because something enters our environment, that chain of neurons becomes activated like a bunch of dominoes falling all at once. It's very fast. When those neurons are activated, acetylcholine is released, but there's some other neurons for the aficionados out there. They're called the postganglionic neurons. Those ones respond to that acetylcholine, and then they release epinephrine, which is the equivalent to adrenaline. So we have this system where very fast, whenever we're stressed, the core of our body, these neurons down the middle of our body, release chemicals, and then there's adrenaline or epinephrine released at particular organs and acts in particular ways. Some things like the muscles of your legs and your heart, and other things that need to be active when you're stressed, they have a certain kind of receptor, --- ### [Physiological Sigh for Stress Reduction](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e8e42ce0-80e8-4ca9-824e-1e72b96e2b97) 🎧 07:48 - 08:23 (00:34) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/8ac77263-f039-4e80-a97d-0c07fa4eba67" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Use the physiological sigh (double inhale, long exhale) to reduce stress. - This breathing technique activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting calmness. #### 💬 Quote > The physiological sigh [...] is the fastest and most thoroughly grounded in physiology and neuroscience for calming down in a self-directed way. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman introducing the physiological sigh. #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** And the tool that at least to my knowledge is the fastest and most thoroughly grounded in physiology and neuroscience for calming down in a self-directed way is what's called the physiological sigh,-I What I'm talking about when I refer to physiological psi is the very real medical school textbook relationship between the brain, the body, and the body as it relates to the breathing apparati, meaning the diaphragm and lungs, and the heart. --- ### [Breathing and Heart Rate](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a94f4c48-b77e-4f52-9782-ae230fe66001) 🎧 08:23 - 11:38 (03:14) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/c51b58c0-5b70-4603-b6f9-ab50834439a5" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Inhaling increases heart rate, exhaling decreases it; this is controlled by the diaphragm's interaction with the brain. - Control your diaphragm to regulate your heart rate and manage stress in real-time. #### 💬 Quote > When you inhale [...] the brain then sends a signal back to the heart to speed the heart up. So what this means is if you want your heart to beat faster, inhale longer, inhale more vigorously than your exhales. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman explaining the connection between breathing and heart rate. #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** Let's take the hallmark of the stress response. The heart starts beating faster. Blood is shuttled to the big muscles of the body to move you away from whatever it is the stressor is, or just make you feel like you need to move or talk, your face goes flushed, et cetera. There is however, a in which you can breathe that directly controls your heart rate through the interactions between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system. Here's how it works. When you inhale, so whether or not it's through the nose or through the mouth, this skeletal muscle that's inside your body called the diaphragm, it moves down. And that's because the lungs expand, the diaphragm moves down. Your heart actually gets a little bit bigger in that expanded space. There's more space for the heart. And as a consequence, whatever blood is in there is now at a lower volume or moving a little bit more slowly in that larger volume than it was before you inhaled. Okay, so more space, heart gets bigger, blood moves more slowly, and there's a little group of neurons called the sinoatrial node in the heart that registers, believe it or not, those neurons pay attention to the rate of blood flow through the heart and send a signal up to the brain that blood is moving more slowly through the heart. The brain then sends a signal back to the heart to speed the heart up. So what this means is if you want your heart to beat faster, inhale longer, inhale more vigorously than your exhales. Now, the opposite is also true. If you want to slow your heart rate down, so stress response hits, you want to slow your heart rate down. What you want to do is again, capitalize on this relationship between the body, meaning the diaphragm and the heart and the brain. Here's how it works. When you exhale, the diaphragm moves up, which makes the heart a little bit smaller. It actually gets a little more compact. Blood flows more quickly through that compact space. The sinoatrial node registers that blood is going more quickly, sends a signal up to the brain, and the parasympathetic nervous system, some in your brainstem, send a signal back to the heart to slow the heart down. So if you want to calm down quickly, you need to make your exhales longer and, or more vigorous than your inhales. Now, the reason this is so attractive as a tool for controlling stress is that it works in real time. This doesn't involve a practice that you have to go and sit there and do anything separate from life. The physiological sigh is something that people naturally start doing when they've been crying and they're trying to recover some air or calm down when they've been sobbing very hard, or when they are in claustrophobic environments. However, the amazing thing about this thing that we call the diaphragm, the skeletal muscle, is that it's an internal organ that you can control voluntarily. So this incredible pathway that goes from brain to diaphragm through what's called the phrenic nerve, P-H phrenic. The phrenic nerve innervates the diaphragm. You can control anytime you want. You can double up your inhales or triple up your inhales. You can exhale more than your inhales, whatever you want to do. Such an incredible organ. --- ### [Implementing the Physiological Sigh](https://share.snipd.com/snip/44d00e42-4483-4aad-9156-566f9b5093e9) 🎧 13:00 - 13:27 (00:26) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/4b67558f-4860-4764-b56c-5e7734d5612f" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Perform the physiological sigh 1-3 times to quickly reduce stress levels. - Allow 20-30 seconds for heart rate to return to baseline, repeating if necessary. #### 💬 Quote > When you're feeling stressed, the physiological sigh done just one to three times [...] will bring down your level of stress very, very fast. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman on how to use the physiological sigh effectively #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** When you're feeling stressed, the physiological sigh done just one to three times, so it would be double inhale, exhale, double inhale, exhale, maybe just two times, will bring down your level of stress very, very fast. And as far as I know, it's the fastest way to accomplish that. Be aware that if you're going to use the physiological sigh or exhale emphasize breathing to calm down, that your heart rate will take about 20 to 30 seconds to come down to baseline. --- ### [Short-Term Stress and Immunity](https://share.snipd.com/snip/05aeb569-4966-4a38-8ede-d4f07055479f) 🎧 15:34 - 16:43 (01:08) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/d3415c2f-7368-4b57-8697-8b9b5ce77b8f" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Short-term stress can actually benefit the immune system. - The stress response, including adrenaline release, helps combat infections. #### 💬 Quote > When the stress response hits, that is good for your immune system. [...] stress often comes in the form of bacterial or viral infection, and the stress response is in part organized to combat bacterial and viral infection. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman discusses the unexpected benefits of short-term stress #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** But I really want you to understand the difference between the three kinds of stress on three different timescales, short-term, medium-term, and long-term, and what it's good for and what it's bad for. I think we've all heard that stress is bad for us. We've seen these pictures intended to frighten us, and indeed they are frightening. You see the nice, really plump brain on the left, it says healthy or control, and then you see the brain that says stressed above it on the right, and it's like withered, or we see that the hippocampus, an area involved in memory is smaller, people there are stressed. I think we've all heard now so many times that stress is bad, but in that conversation, unfortunately, it's eclipsed some of the really positive things that stress does for us in the short term. When the stress response hits, that is good for your immune system. I know that might be a tough pill to swallow, but it's absolutely true. In fact, stress often comes in the form of bacterial or viral infection, and the stress response is in part organized to combat bacterial and viral infection. --- ### [Hyperventilation and Immunity](https://share.snipd.com/snip/270fa24e-ced4-4a85-ad17-007db12b7ec0) 🎧 16:43 - 20:07 (03:23) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/7dba9179-14ce-4070-9c3b-6fde4ca8026c" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Deliberate hyperventilation (25 cycles) can release adrenaline, boosting the immune response. - Combine this with cold exposure for enhanced adrenaline release and infection combatting. #### 💬 Quote > Deliberate hyperventilation [...] will liberate adrenaline from the adrenals. When adrenaline is released in the body, you are in a better position to combat infections. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman on using hyperventilation to boost immunity #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** So short-term stress and the release of adrenaline in particular or epinephrine, same thing, adrenaline, is good for combating infection. And this to me is just not discussed enough, so that's why I'm discussing it here. And it relates to a particular tool that many of you ask about, but I don't often get the opportunity to talk about in such an appropriate context. It's not that it's ever inappropriate to talk about, but what I'm about to talk about now is the use of, again, respiration, breathing, to somewhat artificially activate the stress response, and that will accomplish two things, okay? I'll return to medium and long-term stress, but I want to say short-term stress is good because the dilation of the pupils, the changes in the optics of the eyes, the quickening of the heart rate, the sharpening of your cognition, and in fact, that short-term stress brings certain elements of the brain online that allow you to focus. Now it narrows your focus. You're not good at seeing the so-called big picture, but it narrows your focus. It allows you to do these, I call duration path outcome types of analysis. It allows you to evaluate your environment, evaluate you need to do. It primes your whole system for better cognition. It primes your immune system to combat infection. And that all makes sense when you think about the fact that famine, thirst, bacterial infections, viral infections, invaders, all of this stuff liberates a response in the body that's designed to get you to fight back against whatever stressor that happens to be, psychological, physical, bacterial, viral. Again, the stress response is generic. The tool takes advantage of the fact that when adrenaline is released in the body from the adrenals, it has the effect of also liberating a lot of these killer cells from the immune organs, in particular from the spleen, but from elsewhere as well, and interactions with the lymphatic system that combat infection. The way this works in the real world is best captured by a study that can be mapped back to so-called Wim Hof breathing. Now, Wim Hof breathing is so named after the so-called Iceman Wim Hof. There are two components to a sort of breathing protocol that he developed that was based also on what's called TUMMO breathing, T-U So before Wim, there was TUMMO breathing. And many people call this now super oxygenation breathing. So it's deliberate hyperventilation. Why would somebody want to do this? Well, deliberate hyperventilation done for maybe 25 cycles. So inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. That pattern of breathing, rapid movements of the diaphragm will liberate adrenaline from the adrenals. When adrenaline is released in the body, you are in a better position to combat infections. And so whether or not you breathe very quickly in these cycles of 25 breaths, and regardless of what you call it, doesn't matter, adrenaline is released. If you take a cold shower, adrenaline is released. If you go into an ice bath deliberately, and even if you do it non-deliberately, adrenaline is released. You are mimicking the stress response. And that adrenaline serves to suppress or combat incoming infections. --- ### [Hyperventilation Study](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a2b409be-2532-4ca9-9489-2dc952a6440f) 🎧 20:07 - 21:45 (01:38) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/2f7eb2de-5c0a-4bc6-a334-f4cc47bb80c9" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - A study showed that participants using cyclic hyperventilation experienced no symptoms after E. coli injection. - The control group experienced fever, nausea, and sickness. #### 💬 Quote > These repeated cycles of breathing that liberate adrenaline allowed the group that did that protocol to essentially experience zero symptoms from the ejection of this E. coli, which is remarkable. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman describing a study on the effects of hyperventilation on infection #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** And this was beautifully shown in a study that was published in a very fine journal, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the US, it's literally called, Proceedings of the National Academy of USA to distinguish it from other proceedings of other national academies in other countries. The way the experiment went is that people were injected with endotoxin, or in some cases they were injected with a bacterial wall that mimics infection. It gives you a fever. It makes you feel nauseous. It makes you feel sick. It is not pleasant. Half of the people did a particular pattern of breathing that looked very much like the pattern of breathing I described a moment ago of doing 25 deep inhales and exhales followed by an exhale holding their breath, then repeating 25 inhales, exhales, holding their breath. So this would look something like this, or if you're listening, it sounds like, ah, ah, ah. 25, 30 times, you'll start feeling heated up. You'll start feeling the adrenaline response. You're liberating adrenaline in your body. Then exhale, hold your breath for 15 seconds, and then repeat. Now I want to emphasize, never, ever, ever do this anywhere near water. People have passed out, so-called shallow water bracket, people have died. Please don't do it at all unless you get clearance to do it from your doctor, because there are some pulmonary effects and whatnot, and the breath holds should definitely not be done by anyone that has glaucoma or pressure, you know, concerns for the eyes. But these repeated cycles of breathing that liberate adrenaline allowed the group that did that protocol to essentially experience zero symptoms from the ejection of this E. coli, which is remarkable. --- ### [Chronic Stress and Illness](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e078ba2e-b78c-4374-bf66-0d6880e37a40) 🎧 22:01 - 22:24 (00:22) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/0833954c-d1b0-48a3-96e2-984c11ea80e5" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Chronic stress weakens the immune system, leading to illness when stress levels drop. - Sustained adrenaline crashes the immune system. #### 💬 Quote > Many of us are familiar with the experience of work, work, work, work, work [...] then we finally relax. [...] and then we get sick. And that's because the adrenaline response crashed and your immune system crashed with it. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman explaining why people get sick after periods of intense stress #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** Many of us are familiar with the experience of work, work, work, work, work, or taking care of a loved one or stress, stress, stress, stress, stress. Then we finally relax. Maybe we even go on vacation. Like, oh, now I'm finally going to get the break. And then we get sick. And that's because the adrenaline response crashed and your immune system crashed with it. So please understand this. Now, many of you might say, well, how long is it? --- ### [Raising Stress Threshold](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e0d5bd17-4ce4-4c55-85e9-d2687583682a) 🎧 24:28 - 25:11 (00:42) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/ad8240b8-f200-4865-a50b-9d0497ae42f2" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Raise your stress threshold by deliberately increasing adrenaline and then calming your mind. - This builds resilience and expands your capacity to handle stress. #### 💬 Quote > A lot of stress inoculation, a lot of managing medium-term stress [...] has to do with raising our stress threshold. It's about capacity. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman on stress inoculation #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** Medium-term stress is going to be stress that lasts anywhere from several days to several weeks. What is stress threshold? Well, stress threshold is actually our ability to cognitively regulate what's going on in our body. A lot of stress inoculation, a lot of managing medium-term stress on the timescale of weeks, or maybe even a couple months. So we're not talking about years of stress. A lot of that has to do with raising our stress threshold. It's about capacity. And there are very simple tools, excellent tools that will allow us to modulate our capacity for stress. --- ### [Calming the Mind During Stress](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0fa3baac-29a8-4192-8241-0022afdf078d) 🎧 25:11 - 27:51 (02:39) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/dfad008d-f4a6-429a-9d24-5fc4f0bc90c1" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Use cold exposure, cyclic hyperventilation, or intense exercise to raise your heart rate. - Practice calming your mind while your body is activated to increase stress tolerance. #### 💬 Quote > - The key in those moments is to learn to relax the mind while the body is very activated. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman on how to practice stress threshold #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** And they look a lot like the tools I just described. They involve placing oneself deliberately into a situation where our adrenaline is increased somewhat, not to the extreme. And then when we feel flooded with adrenaline, and normally we would panic, it's about cognitively, mentally, emotionally, calming ourselves and being comfortable with that response in our body. And what would this look like? You can use the cyclic hyperoxygenation breathing to combat infection if you're feeling kind of run down. And there's also a way in which you can use things like cold showers, or if you exercise and you bring your heart rate up very high, you kind of go into that high intensity realm where your heart is beating a little bit harder than you're comfortable with. The key in those moments is to learn to relax the mind while the body is very activated. One way that you can do this, and this is kind of fun, if it's approved by your physician and you're able to do this, you can bring your heart rate up. You could do this through an ice bath, if that's your thing, or cold shower, or cyclic oxygenation breathing, or you could sprint or you could go hard on the bike, whatever it is that brings your heart rate up. And then what you want to do is you want to actually try and calm the mind while your body is in this heightened state of activation. When we are stressed, our pupils dilate, the effect of that pupil dilation is to create tunnel vision. It literally narrows our view of the visual world. We no longer see in panorama. And there's some other effects as well, but that's because the visual system through this cranial nerve system that I described before is tethered and is part of this autonomic nervous system. By deliberately dilating your gaze, meaning not moving your head and eyes around, but by deliberately going from tunnel vision to broader panoramic vision, literally seeing more of your environment all at once, it creates a calming effect on the mind because it releases a particular circuit in the brainstem that's associated with alertness, aka stress. Now, this is very powerful. If you're running, for instance, and you're at max capacity, you're close to it, or you're kind of hitting like 80, 90% of maximum on the bike, and you dilate your gaze, what you'll find is the mind can relax while the body is in full output. And this relates to work that in various communities, people are working with this in the sports community, military communities, et cetera, but it's a form not really of stress inoculation. It's more about raising stress threshold so that the body is going to continue to be in a high alertness, high reactivity mode, high output, but the mind is calm. --- ### [Mitigating Long-Term Stress](https://share.snipd.com/snip/32bb27cd-9463-41ff-858d-6dd22f26a7c5) 🎧 29:00 - 29:44 (00:44) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/18d9167e-8c17-45b2-9113-88d60f92271b" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Mitigate long-term stress through regular exercise, good sleep, and stress reduction tools. - Chronic stress can lead to heart disease. #### 💬 Quote > - The best tools, the best mechanisms that we know to modulate long-term stress might surprise you a little bit. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman introducing methods to manage long-term stress #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** But by no means do you want to be stressed out all the time chronically for months and months and months and years on end. The best tools, the best mechanisms that we know to modulate long-term stress might surprise you a little bit. First of all, there are going to be the things that don't surprise you, which is everyone knows getting regular exercise, getting good sleep, using real-time tools to try and tamp down the stress response, et cetera. That's all going to be really useful. The data really point to the fact that social connection and certain types of social connection in particular are what are going to mitigate or reduce long-term stress. --- ### [Social Connection and Serotonin](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ec2ca635-1b63-4098-87d1-e5d0bfeaf7bc) 🎧 29:44 - 31:18 (01:34) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/a4485fd0-55ad-4896-a20a-799b353b831c" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Social connection, especially with trusted individuals, releases serotonin, promoting well-being and stress reduction. - This reinforces brain connections and improves the immune system. #### 💬 Quote > - The data really point to the fact that social connection and certain types of social connection in particular are what are going to mitigate or reduce long-term stress. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman on the importance of social connection #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** And this is a particularly important issue nowadays where we have all these proxies or surrogates for social connection. You know, we're online and texting with people a lot. Everyone has this kind of need to stay connected to one another. Humans are incredibly social creatures. The way to think about social connection and how it can mitigate some of the long-term effects of stress is really through the systems of neuromodulation, like serotonin. Serotonin, again, is a neuromodulator. Neuromodulators are a little bit like playlists in the brain. They tend to amplify or bias the likelihood that certain brain circuits and body circuits are going to be activated and that others will not. Serotonin generally gives us feelings of well-being at very high levels. It makes us feel blissed. And it tends to make us feel like we have enough in our immediate environment. When we see somebody that we recognize and trust, serotonin is released in the brain. And that has certain positive effects on the immune system and on other systems of neural repair and synapses and things that really reinforce connections in the brain and prevent that long-term withering of connections. So serotonin is tied to social connection. Now, social connection can take many forms. Some of those can be romantic attachments. Those could be familial attachments that are non-romantic, friendship, pets, even attachments to things that just delight us. Having a sense of delight, a sense of really enjoying something that you see and engage in, witness, or participate in, that is associated with the serotonin system. --- ### [Investing in Social Connection](https://share.snipd.com/snip/aa646178-18ce-431d-a4ca-2f1378294fd3) 🎧 31:18 - 31:59 (00:41) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/5504dfc2-8eae-498d-891c-fa8aff604f96" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Invest in social connections, friendships, and relationships, as they mitigate long-term stress. - Find sources of delight to boost serotonin and improve overall well-being. #### 💬 Quote > Social connection is something that we work for, but it is incredibly powerful. > — Andrew Huberman Andrew Huberman emphasizes the importance of social connection #### 📚 Transcript **Andrew Huberman:** And certainly play is one of those things, connection of various forms. Those are things to invest in. I'll be the first to admit social connection and friendship and relationships of all kinds to animals or humans or inanimate objects takes work. It takes investment. It takes time in not needing everything to be exactly the way you want it to be. Social connection is something that we work for, but it is incredibly powerful. Finding just a few people, even one or an animal or something that you delight in, believe it or not, has very positive effects on mitigating this long-term stress, on improving various aspects of our life as it relates to stress and emotionality. --- Created with [Snipd](https://www.snipd.com) | Highlight & Take Notes from Podcasts