- The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses science and science-based tools for everyday life
- The host, Andrew Huberman, is a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine
- The podcast aims to provide free information about science and science-related tools to the general public
- The first sponsor mentioned is InsideTracker, which analyzes blood and DNA to assess health and biological age
- InsideTracker provides information on metabolic and endocrine factors and offers protocols to improve health based on test results
- The second sponsor mentioned is Helix Sleep, which makes tailored mattresses and pillows for better sleep
- The podcast can be supported through a Patreon account at patreon.com/AndrewHuberman
- The episode focuses on the science of emotions, particularly stress
- The biology and psychology of emotions are discussed, as well as tools to control stress
- Common myths about stress are debunked, and the importance of internal state and alertness is explored
- The episode provides tools grounded in physiology and neuroscience to navigate emotions and support others
- Behavioral tools, supplementation, and specific disorders like depression and PTSD are discussed
- The mind-body relationship and the influence of the body on the brain are emphasized
- The episode aims to provide objective tools to improve emotional well-being and control emotions when appropriate

- Stress is not inherently bad, but rather a system designed to mobilize other systems in the brain and body.
- Stress is a generalized system and not specifically designed for animal attacks or physical threats.
- Stressors can be psychological or physical, and stress is the response to those stressors.
- The stress response involves the activation of neurons called the sympathetic chain ganglia, which release acetylcholine and epinephrine.
- Epinephrine acts on specific receptors to activate certain systems (e.g., muscles, heart) and deactivate others (e.g., digestion, reproduction).
- The stress response is a combination of activating and inhibiting certain bodily functions.

- The stress response activates certain features of the body and causes agitation, making you want to move or say something.
- The best way to reduce the stress response is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls relaxation.
- The parasympathetic nervous system can be activated through specific breathing techniques.
- Inhaling longer or more vigorously than exhaling speeds up the heart rate, while exhaling longer or more vigorously than inhaling slows down the heart rate.
- The physiological sigh is a specific breathing technique that can quickly reduce the stress response.
- The physiological sigh involves lengthening the exhales to calm down in real time.

- The physiological sigh is a natural response that occurs when humans and animals are about to fall asleep or when carbon dioxide builds up in the system.
- The diaphragm is a unique skeletal muscle that can be controlled voluntarily.
- The phrenic nerve connects the brain to the diaphragm, allowing for intentional control of breathing.
- The physiological sigh, which involves a double inhale and long exhale, helps reinflate the lungs and eliminate excess carbon dioxide, leading to relaxation.
- Ongoing studies are exploring how deliberate breathing patterns, including the physiological sigh, can modulate the stress response and emotions.
- The physiological sigh is the fastest way to quickly reduce stress levels in the body.
- It is important to note that the heart rate may take some time to return to baseline after using the physiological sigh.
- Using the body to control the mind can make the brain more available for controlling the stress response.
- The physiological sigh can be used in real-time situations to bring down stress levels and promote alertness and calmness.
- Nasal breathing is generally advantageous, but the physiological sigh can be done through the nose or mouth.
- The physiological sigh activates specific neural circuitry that relaxes the jaw and improves speaking abilities.

- Physiological sigh taps into neural circuitry that improves speech clarity and relaxation
- Parasympathetic nervous system controls facial muscles and relaxation
- Short-term stress is beneficial for immune system and cognition
- Stress response releases adrenaline, which helps combat infections
- Rapid deliberate breathing, like Wim Hof breathing, releases adrenaline
- Adrenaline suppresses or combats incoming infections

- The breathing pattern described involves 25 deep inhales and exhales followed by an exhale, holding the breath, and repeating the cycle.
- This pattern of breathing can help combat the symptoms of infection and activate the immune response.
- It is important to note that this breathing technique should not be done near water and should only be done with clearance from a doctor.
- Short-term stress is beneficial for combating infection and promoting healing.
- It is important to be able to turn off the stress response when it is no longer needed.
- Medium-term stress can be managed by raising the stress threshold and learning to relax the mind while the body is activated.
- Tools such as cold showers and high-intensity exercise can help raise the stress threshold.

- One way to manage stress is to raise your heart rate through activities like ice baths, cold showers, breathing exercises, sprinting, or intense biking.
- While your body is in a heightened state of activation, try to calm your mind by deliberately dilating your gaze and seeing more of your environment.
- This technique can help create a calming effect on the mind and dissociate the mental or emotional response from the body's activation.
- Practicing this technique regularly can help you become more comfortable with higher activation states and make them feel more manageable.
- Long-term stress is harmful and can lead to chronic health issues, so it's important to find ways to modulate and reduce stress over time.
- Regular exercise, good sleep, and real-time stress reduction tools can help with managing long-term stress.
- Social connection, particularly certain types of social connection, can also help mitigate and reduce long-term stress.
- Oxytocin, often associated with social connection, is released in specific circumstances and not necessarily in everyday social interactions.

- The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses science and science-based tools for everyday life
- Hosted by Andrew Huberman, a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine
- Aims to provide free information about science and science-related tools to the general public
- Sponsors mentioned are InsideTracker and Helix Sleep
- Episode focuses on the science of emotions and stress
- Debunks common myths about stress and explores tools to control stress
- Emphasizes the mind-body relationship and the influence of the body on the brain
- Provides tools grounded in physiology and neuroscience to improve emotional well-being
- Stress is a system designed to mobilize other systems in the brain and body
- Stressors can be psychological or physical, and stress is the response to those stressors
- The stress response involves the activation of certain neurons and the release of specific chemicals
- The best way to reduce the stress response is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system through breathing techniques
- The physiological sigh is a specific breathing technique that can quickly reduce stress levels
- Ongoing studies are exploring how deliberate breathing patterns can modulate the stress response and emotions
- The physiological sigh is the fastest way to quickly reduce stress levels in the body
- Short-term stress is beneficial for the immune system and cognition
- Tools such as cold showers and high-intensity exercise can help manage medium-term stress
- Long-term stress is harmful and can lead to chronic health issues, so it's important to find ways to reduce stress over time
- Regular exercise, good sleep, and social connection can help with managing long-term stress

- Social connection can help mitigate the long-term effects of stress
- Serotonin is a neuromodulator that gives us feelings of well-being and is released when we see someone we trust
- Social connection can take many forms, including attachments to humans, animals, or things that delight us
- Delight and play are associated with the serotonin system and can help mitigate the negative effects of stress
- Social isolation is associated with the release of tachykinin, a molecule that makes us more fearful, paranoid, and impairs our immune system
- Chronic isolation and high tachykinin levels can deplete the functions of our brain and body and promote negative emotions
- Gratitude and writing down things we are thankful for can have a positive effect on the serotonin system
- In addition to social connection, factors like diet, exercise, and sleep also impact well-being and stress levels
- Non-prescription compounds like ashwagandha, L-theanine, and melatonin can help modulate the stress response, but caution should be exercised with melatonin due to potential negative effects

- Taking too much melatonin can reduce the output of the adrenals and lead to pseudo adrenal insufficiency syndrome.
- Adrenal burnout is not a real condition, but adrenal insufficiency syndrome is.
- L-theanine can enhance sleep and reduce anxiety and stress.
- Ashwagandha can lower anxiety and cortisol levels.
- Examine.com is a helpful resource for more information on these supplements.
- Emotions are complex and context-dependent, and there is no single brain area for emotions.

- The internal state must match the demands placed upon a person in order for them to feel good.
- Feeling tired and needing to sleep matches the demand, while feeling wide awake and needing to sleep does not.
- Understanding the autonomic nervous system and stress modulation can help individuals better react to different demands.
- Modulating the stress response in real-time can help individuals be more responsive and mindful.
- Stress can be powerful and useful in certain contexts, but problematic in others.
- The goal is to provide tools and information to help individuals manage better through life.
- The podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
- Thorne is a trusted supplement company that offers high-quality products.
- Follow Huberman Lab on Twitter and Instagram for more content.
- Consider supporting the podcast on Patreon.

- Social connection can mitigate the effects of stress
- Serotonin is released when we see someone we trust
- Delight and play can help mitigate stress
- Social isolation can lead to negative emotions and impair the immune system
- Gratitude and writing can positively impact the serotonin system
- Factors like diet, exercise, and sleep also impact well-being and stress levels
- Non-prescription compounds like ashwagandha and L-theanine can help modulate stress response
- Caution should be exercised with melatonin
- Emotions are complex and context-dependent
- Understanding the autonomic nervous system can help individuals better react to demands
- Modulating stress response in real-time can be helpful
- Stress can be useful in certain contexts, but problematic in others
- The podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify
- Thorne is a trusted supplement company
- Follow Huberman Lab on social media
- Consider supporting the podcast on Patreon.

This episode explains what stress is, and how it recruits our brain and body to react in specific ways. I describe the three main types of stress, and how two of them actually enhance the function of our immune system making us less vulnerable to infections. I review tools that allow us to control our stress in real-time, as well as tools to prevent long-term stress, burnout and stress-induced illness and anxiety. As always, we cover behavioral tools and supplements that can assist or hinder stress control.

#HubermanLab #Stress #Neuroscience

For an updated list of our current sponsors, please visit our website as previous sponsors mentioned in this podcast episode may no longer be affiliated with us: https://hubermanlab.com/sponsors

Social:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab
Twitter - https://twitter.com/hubermanlab
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hubermanlab

Website - https://hubermanlab.com
Join the Neural Network - https://hubermanlab.com/neural-network

Timestamps below.
00:00:00 Introduction 
00:04:41 Emotions: A Logical Framework of Brain-Body Loops 
00:10:29 Stress: The (Falsely Narrow) Animal Attack Narrative 
00:14:31 The Stress RESPONSE: Generic, Channels blood, Biases Action 
00:21:08 Tools to Actually Control Stress: Reduce Alertness or Increase Calm  
00:24:15 The Fastest Way to Reduce Stress In Real Time: “Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia”  
00:29:45 The Fastlane to Calm 
00:34:53 Important Notes About Heart Rate Deceleration: Vaso-vagal Lag 
00:36:50 Cyclic Sighing For Calm and Sleep Induction 
00:37:57 Nasal Breathing For Cosmetic, Immune and Performance Enhancement 
00:38:46 Two Breathing Centers In The Brain 
00:39:45 Breathing For Speaking Clearly  
00:40:39 The 3 Types of Stress: Short, Medium and Long-Term  
00:42:10 Positive Effects of Short-Term Stress: Immunity and Focus 
00:45:32 Adrenalin (Epinephrine) Deploys Killer Immune Cells  
00:46:40 Cyclic Deep Breathing IS Stress: Wim Hof, Tummo & Super-Oxygenation  
00:50:58 Inflammation Is Useful and Good, In the Short Term 
00:52:02 Procrastination and Self-Manufactured Nootropics 
00:53:00 Relaxation Can Causes Illness  
00:54:30 Immune Activation Protocol 
00:55:20 Medium Term Stress: A Clear Definition 
00:56:07 Stress Threshold 
00:57:10 Stress Inoculation Tools: Separating Mind & Body, On Purpose 
00:59:50 Use Vision to Calm the Mind When the Body Is Agitated 
01:02:36 Beyond NSDR 
01:04:36 Long Term Stress: Definition, Measurement, Cardiovascular Risks  
01:06:30 Tools for Dealing With Long Term Stress 
01:08:20 The Oxytocin Myth 
01:09:15 Serotonin: Satiety, Safety  
01:12:00 Delight and Flexibility  
01:13:30 Chemical Irritants We Make But Can Control: Tackykinin  
01:15:40 Impactful Gratitude  
01:16:25 Non-Prescription Chemical Compounds For Additional Anti-Stress Support  
01:18:04 Melatonin: Cautionary Note About Adrenal Suppression 
01:19:15 Adrenal Burnout Is A Myth… But Why You Need to Know About It Anyway 
01:21:10 L-Theanine For Stress Reduction and Task Completion Anxiety 
01:23:00 Beware Taurine and Energy Drinks With Taurine 
01:23:30 Ashwagandha: Can Powerfully Lower Anxiety And Cortisol  
01:25:50 Examine.com Is An Amazing Free Resource  
01:26:20 How This All Relates to Emotions: State Versus Demand = Valence 
01:32:00 Modulating Reactivity, Mindfulness, & Functionality With Objective Tools 
01:34:00 Next Steps  
01:35:40 Topic Suggestions, Subscriptions and Reviews Please 
01:37:40 Additional Resources, Synthesis

Please note that The Huberman Lab Podcast is distinct from Dr. Huberman's teaching and research roles at Stanford University School of Medicine. The information provided in this show is not medical advice, nor should it be taken or applied as a replacement for medical advice. The Huberman Lab Podcast, its employees, guests and affiliates assume no liability for the application of the information discussed.

Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac https://www.blabacphoto.com

Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.

I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.

This podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford.

It is however, part of my desire and effort to bring 0 cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public.

In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast.

InsideTracker analyzes your blood and DNA to give you an accurate assessment of your health and your biological age.

There are many things about our health that can only be analyzed from blood and DNA tests.

I've been getting my blood assessed for many years now.

And about a year ago, I switched to InsideTracker.

What I like about InsideTracker is that you get all this information back about metabolic factors, endocrine factors, et cetera, that are really important to your health.

But unlike a lot of blood tests where you just get all the numbers back and it tells you whether or not things are high, normal or low, InsideTracker also has this really useful and really easy to use dashboard that takes the information for your blood and DNA tests and points you toward particular behavioral, nutritional, and other sorts of protocols that you can use to get the numbers where you want them for your health.

If you'd like to try InsideTracker, you can go to insidetracker.com slash Huberman, and they will give you 25% off any of their programs.

Again, their programs allow you to assess your health from the inside, things that you could just never assess from any kind of test that didn't involve blood and DNA.

And it also has this really interesting feature that it can measure your inner age, which is based on biology.

Your chronological age, of course, is very informative about your health and where you ought to be in terms of health metrics.

We know people, of course, that are in their late nineties who are doing well.

We know people that are in their fifties who are struggling or even in their 20s.

So blood and DNA are the way to analyze your health.

That's my belief, that's why I use InsideTracker.

So go to insidetracker.com slash Huberman to get 25% off any of their products and use Huberman at checkout.

Our second sponsor of today's episode is Helix Sleep.

Helix Sleep makes mattresses and pillows that are ideally suited to your needs for the best night's sleep possible.

I switched to using a Helix mattress and Helix pillow this last year, and I'm sleeping better than I ever have before.

The way that Helix mattresses work, and the reason they're different, is that they are tailored to your individual sleep style.

Your sleep style can be assessed by going to their website, you take a brief two-minute questionnaire quiz, ask you questions like, do you sleep on your back or your side or your stomach?

Maybe you don't know, or maybe you move around a lot during the night.

It also asks you questions such as, do you tend to run hot or wake up cold?

And then they tailor a particular mattress to your sleep needs.

For me, I matched to the so-called Dusk, D-U-S-K mattress, and I love it.

And right now, if you wanna try Helix Sleep, you can go to helixsleep.com slash Huberman.

And if you do that, you'll get $200 off your order plus 2 free pillows.

They have a 10 year warranty on their mattresses.

If you don't like the mattress for any reason, they'll pick it up for free from your home.

And they just make the whole thing really easy to try and determine whether or not it's right for you.

So again, it's helixsleep.com slash Huberman to get $200 off and 2 free pillows on your first order.

Some of you have asked how you can help support the podcast in yet other ways besides just checking out our sponsors.

We really appreciate the question and we've set up a Patreon account at patreon.com slash Andrew Huberman, which allows you to donate to the podcast at a variety of different levels.

We have, for instance, the 5-HTP, which is in honor of serotonin, 5-HTP is the name for serotonin, that it allows you to donate $5 per month.

We have the circadian, which as many of you, of course, will know is 24 hour day.

So you can donate $24 a month if you like.

You can also pick any value that you want.

We even have the Costello, which is $10 a month, which allows you to support the podcast in honor of Costello, the fact that he's 10 years old, that he eats 10 pounds of food a day, and the fact that he takes 10 1 hour naps per day on average.

So again, that's patreon.com slash Andrew Huberman if you'd like to support the podcast that way.

Today's episode is going to be all about the science of emotions.

The first month of the podcast, we talked about sleep and wakefulness.

Last month, we were talking about neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change in response to experience.

And this month, we're going to talk about these things that we call emotions.

We're going to decipher what they are, how they work, how we can control them, when we might not want to control them.

There are going to be 4 episodes on emotions.

And today we're going to talk in particular about something that most often is called stress.

Now you might be thinking, wait, stress isn't an emotion, but stress really lies at the heart of whether or not our internal experience is matched well or not to our external experience or the events that are happening to us and around us.

And as you'll soon see, those converge or combine to create what we call emotions.

Now, I want to be very clear that we're going to talk about the biology of emotions.

We're going to talk a little bit about some psychological concepts related to emotion.

And we are definitely going to talk about tools to control what we call stress or commonly think of as stress.

We're also going to clean up some common myths about stress.

For instance, that stress impairs your immune system.

And in other contexts, stress actually enhances your immune system and makes it function better.

There is going to be a lot of discussion about whether or not our internal state, whether or not we are alert or calm is good or bad, depending on the circumstances.

So where we're headed here is I'd like you to come away from today's episode with what I call an organizational logic, a framework for thinking about these things that typically we just call happy or sad or depressed or anxious.

And I'm going to make sure that you have tools that are grounded in physiology and neuroscience that will allow you to navigate this otherwise complex space that we call emotions that will allow you to ground yourself better when you're feeling like life is weighing on you or you're kind of being pulled by the currents of life, as well as to support other people, whether or not that's in a psychological practice, if you're a practitioner, or you have clients or children or spouses, really to be able to support other people in your environment better.

And the tools that I'm gonna focus on today range from behavioral tools.

We will talk about some of the more valuable supplementation tools that are out there.

And we're gonna talk a little bit about things like depression, PTSD, but we will be devoting entire episodes to things like depression, PTSD, and even attention deficit and obsessive compulsive disorder, which believe it or not, although this might not surprise many of you, have a very strong emotional component.

It's just not just about compulsive behaviors and intrusive thoughts.

It's also about the emotional load of being in that state.

So I promise that today we're going to clean up a lot of misunderstanding.

We're going to give you a lot of tools, and you're going to learn a lot about the biology of how your body and brain work together.

Because if ever there was a topic that brought together the brain and body or mind-body relationship, it's stress and emotions.

When we feel something, whether or not we're super happy or just feeling kind of pleasant, or we are feeling stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed, it isn't just in our head, it's also in our body.

And as you may recall, the nervous system, which includes the brain and the eyes and the spinal cord, but also all the connections with the organs of the body includes the brain and body.

And those organs of the body, your gut and your liver and your spleen, they're also communicating with the brain.

So I look forward to a day, in fact, when we no longer think about neuroscience as just the brain.

And many neuroscientists now also think about the body, of course, the brain controls the body, but the body is also having a very profound and concrete influence on the brain.

I think up until recently, people would hear about kind of brain body and always think about mindfulness.

We're actually not going to talk that much about mindfulness at all today.

Mindfulness is kind of a vague concept in fact.

When you think about mindfulness, it's good to take the opposite.

What's the opposite of mindfulness would be mindlessness.

Well, all of a sudden we're into territory that isn't really easy for 1 person to describe their experience or to help others with their experience.

Today, we're going to talk about objective tools that match the brain body experience or separate the brain body experience in ways that leverage your ability to lean into life better, to feel better, literally to just feel better about what you're experiencing.

And believe it or not, to be able to control your emotions when that's appropriate.

This isn't about trying not to feel human.

This is actually about being able to lean into life better as a consequence of being able to control some of your inner real estate, this nervous system that includes the brain and body and how that nervous system is interacting with the outside world.

So it's to place you in a greater position of power.

And so let's get started in deciphering what is stress?

And why did I batch stress and emotions into 1 discussion today?

We hear people saying they're really stressed out.

You've all presumably heard the arguments or the framework that stress is this horrible, ancient carryover from times in which humans were pursued by animals or other human predators.

And that whenever we feel what we call stress or feel stressed out, that it's just this unfortunate invasion of something that we no longer need in modern life that this was designed for when we were being attacked by bears or tigers or lions or whatever it is.

And we have so many creature comforts nowadays, but we have not eliminated this stress.

Almost as if it was like an organ or a system in our body that was bad for us that we're stuck with just because of the species that we are.

But first of all, all species experience stress.

And I think that it's fair to say, even though I wasn't there, that yes, in fact, throughout our evolutionary history, we were vulnerable to animal attack and other human attacks on a regular basis up until points where we started developing, you know, weapons and structures and fire and other things that allow us to protect ourselves better from those animals and invaders of various kinds.

But it is entirely naive for us to think that in ancient times, ancient times being a kind of loose term for previous time, medieval times, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, 10,000 years ago, of course there were infidelities, right?

In fact, before the advent of phones, which we're going to talk about today, You can imagine that someone might head off on a hunt or to go visit a relative and never come back and you would never know why.

There was the stress of losing loved ones.

There was the stress probably also of just worry.

This idea that ancient versions of humans a thousand years ago, a hundred years ago didn't worry.

I think that is entirely inconsistent with everything we know about the structure of the human brain a hundred years, a thousand years ago.

So all the problems that we're struggling with existed forever.

It's just that 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.

And that's the most important thing that I'd like you to understand today is that the system that governs what we call stress is generic.

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 neuroplasticity that allow you to put a brake on stress.

So you have a system for stress and you have a system for de-stress that are baked into you.

They were genetically encoded and you were born with them and you still have them now.

So if you're alive and listening, you have the capacity to control your stress.

And today I'm going to talk about ways that you can control your stress, not just by doing some offline practice of meditation or breath work or something like that, but real-time tools, tools that allow you to push back on stress when stress hits in real time.

You know, this is something that my lab works actively on in developing and testing these tools and evolving these tools.

And there are other laboratories that do this as well.

And by doing that, you will understand exactly why the tools I'm gonna 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.

If you'd like the cheat sheet or you just want the 1 page PDF, eventually we'll get that stuff out to people, but It's really important to understand the underlying mechanism.

Well, let's just distinguish between stressors, which are the things that stress us out, and stress, which is the psychological and physiological response to stressors.

I'm mainly going to talk about stress, which is your response to things.

Let's be clear about what we already know, which is that stressors can be psychological or they can be physical.

If I put you outside on a cold day without a jacket for a very long time, that is stressful.

If I have you prepare for too many exams at once and you can't balance it all with your sleep schedule and your other needs for comfort and wellbeing like food, rest, sleep, and social connection, that is stressful.

So stress, and as I mentioned before, is generic.

It doesn't distinguish between physical and emotional stress.

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.

It's called the sympathetic chain ganglia, and it has nothing to do with sympathy.

Sympa means together, And there's a group 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.

There will not be a quiz, but it's important to know that in the middle of your body, you have a chain of neurons that when something stresses us out either in our mind or because something enters our environment and we see something that stresses us out that we don't like heights, if you're afraid of heights, somebody you dislike walks into the room, et cetera.

That chain of neurons becomes activated like a bunch of dominoes falling all at once.

When that happens, those neurons release a neuromodulator, neurochemical that I've talked about before on this podcast called acetylcholine.

They release that at various sites within the body.

Now, this is important because normally acetylcholine would be used to move muscles.

Actually, every time we move a muscle, pick up a cup of coffee, write with a pen, walk down the street, it's spinal neurons connecting to muscle and releasing acetylcholine.

So in the brain, it's involved in focus, and at muscles, it's involved in making muscles twitch.

But if we were stressed, we wouldn't want all our muscles to contract at once because we would just be kind of like paralyzed like this, you know, in what tonic activation as it's called.

Something called tetanus, believe it or not, because the tetanus toxin will cause that kind of rigor of the entire body.

When those neurons are activated, acetylcholine is released, but there are 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 these chemicals, and then there's adrenaline or epinephrine released at particular organs and acts in particular ways.

We're going down into the weeds here, so just stay with me because it's going to make a lot of sense and you will appreciate having this knowledge in hand.

That epinephrine acts in 2 different 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, which is called the beta receptor.

And that beta receptor responds to epinephrine and blood vessels dilate.

They get bigger and blood rushes in to our legs.

Lots of things happen that get activated.

And at the same time, that epinephrine activates other receptors on certain tissues that we don't need, the ones involved in digestion, reproduction, and things of that sort that are luxuries for when things are going well, not things to pay attention to when we're stressed.

And that binds to other receptors that contract the blood vessels.

So basically the stress response, this is the key phrase here, the stress response A is generic, I said that before, and B, it basically pushes certain systems to be activated and other systems to not be activated.

It's a yes for certain things, and it's a no you may not right now for other things.

So that's the key thing to understand about the stress response.

That's why you feel blood in certain organs and tissues of your body, but not in others.

That's why your throat goes dry, because it turns out that when you get stressed, the salivary glands are shut down.

There's a lot less blood flow to the neurons that control salivation.

You feel like your throat is getting dry.

I'm not going to list them all off, but basically you are activated in ways that support you moving.

Second of all, the stress response activates certain things and shuts down other features of our body.

And then it's a sense of agitation that makes you want to move.

And that's because fundamentally the stress response is just this generic thing that says, do something.

And movement in this case can either be the bias to move in terms of action, or it can be the bias to say something.

When we are stressed, we are more likely to say something that probably we shouldn't say.

And if you're trying to suppress movement, you'll feel that as a tremor.

You're going to feel agitated and that's because it was designed to move you.

So this is important because if you want to control stress, you need to learn how to work with that agitation.

I'd like to give you a tool at this point, because I think if we go any further with a lot more science, people are going to begin to wonder if this is just going to be a kind of standard university lecture about the stress response.

I'm going to give you more science about the stress response, but I want to take what we now already know about the stress response and use that as a framework for thinking about how 1 might reduce or even eliminate the stress response quickly in real time should it arise when we don't want it.

So we're taking the podium or we're sitting down at a Zoom call and all of a sudden we're feeling flushed.

We're feeling a little worked up and we want to calm down.

As far as I am aware of, the best tools to reduce stress quickly, so-called real-time tools, are going to be tools that have a direct line to the so-called autonomic nervous system.

The autonomic nervous system is a name given to the kind of general features of alertness or calmness in the body.

It's typically, it means automatic, although we do have some control over it at certain what's so-called levers or entry points.

Here's what doesn't work to control stress, telling yourself to calm down.

In fact, that tends to just exacerbate stress.

Telling someone else to calm down also tends to exacerbate their stress.

If you want to reduce the magnitude of the stress response, the best thing you can do is activate the other system in the body, which is designed for calming and relaxation.

And that system is called the parasympathetic nervous system because as I mentioned before, The neurons that control stress run from about your neck to your navel.

The parasympathetic neurons, para just means near, exist in, they are some of the cranial nerves.

So it's kind of neck and lower brainstem, kind of back of the brain and in the neck, and in the pelvic area.

And the parasympathetic nervous system is really interesting because especially the cranial nerves, the ones that are up in the brainstem and in the neck area, those have a direct line to various features of your face, in particular, the eyes, they control things like eye movements, pupil dilation, things of that sort, as well as the tongue, the facial muscles, et cetera.

The parasympathetic nervous system, many people don't realize this, is the system by which We control the face and the eyes, and to some extent our airway, the trachea.

And it's these neurons that reside within the pelvic area.

Now, the neurons within the pelvic area are involved in control of the genitals, the bladder, and the rectum.

You don't have a direct way to control those.

It actually has to go from brain to spinal cord and then out to those organs.

Whereas the parasympathetic nervous system has certain entry points or what I'll call levers, right?

See all Andrew Huberman transcripts on Youtube

Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety | Huberman Lab Podcast #10