ADHD & How Anyone Can Improve Their Focus

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
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. Today, we are going to talk all about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. We are also going to talk about normal levels of focus. What are normal levels of focus? And how all of us, whether or not we have ADHD or not, can improve our ability to focus, our ability to rule out distraction, turns out those are two separate things, as well as remember information better. We are also going to talk about how we can learn to relax while focusing, which turns out to be a critical component of learning new information and for coming up with new creative ideas. So whether or not you have ADHD or know someone who does, or if you're somebody who feels that they do not have ADHD, but would simply like to improve their ability to focus or to be more creative, this episode is definitely for you as well. We are going to talk about drug-based tools that are out there. We are going to talk about behavioral tools. We will talk about the role of diet and supplementation, and we will talk about new emerging brain machine interface devices, things like transcranial magnetic stimulation. If you don't know what that is, don't worry. I will explain it to you. These are non-invasive methods for rewiring your brain in order to make focusing more natural for you and to teach you how to increase your depth of focus. Now, just a quick reminder that anytime we discuss a psychiatric disorder, it's important that we remember that all of us have the temptation to self-diagnose or to diagnose others. So as I list off some of the symptomology of ADHD, some of that symptomology might resonate with you. You might think, oh, maybe I have ADHD, or you might decide that someone you know definitely has ADHD. However, it is very important that you don't self-diagnose or diagnose somebody else. The clear and real diagnosis of ADHD really should be carried out by a psychiatrist, a physician, or a very well-trained clinical psychologist. There are clear criteria for what constitutes full-blown ADHD. However, many of us have constellations of symptoms that make us somewhat like somebody with ADHD. And if you're struggling with focus nowadays, as a lot of people are, because of stress, because of smartphone use, which turns out can induce adult ADHD, we'll talk about that, well, then pay attention to the symptomology. You may actually require professional treatment. You might not. Equally important is to remember that some of the terms that we cover like impulse control and attention and concentration are somewhat subjective and they can change over time. Sometimes we have a better level of attention than others. Maybe it depends on how we slept or other events going on in our life or something that we're entirely unaware of. The important thing to remember is that we can all improve our attentional capacity. We can all rewire the circuits that make heightened levels of focus more accessible to us. We can do that through multiple types of interventions. And we are going to cover all those interventions today. Before we march into the material, I'd like to remind that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero 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. Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all in one vitamin mineral probiotic drink. I've been taking Athletic Greens since 2012 So I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens once or twice a day is that it helps me cover all of my basic nutritional needs. It makes up for any deficiencies that I might have. In addition, it has probiotics, which are vital for microbiome health. I've done a couple of episodes now on the so-called gut microbiome and the ways in which the microbiome interacts with your immune system, with your brain, to regulate mood, and essentially with every biological system relevant to health throughout your brain and body. With Athletic Greens, I get the vitamins I need, the minerals I need, and the probiotics to support my microbiome. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman and claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs plus a year's supply of vitamin D3K2. There are a ton of data now showing that vitamin D3 is essential for various aspects of our brain and body health. Even if we're getting a lot of sunshine, many of us are still deficient in vitamin D3. And K2 is also important because it regulates things like cardiovascular function, calcium in the body and so on. Again go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim the special offer of the five free travel packs and the year's supply of vitamin D3K2. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means the exact ratios of electrolytes are an element and those are sodium, magnesium and potassium, but it has no sugar. I've talked many times before on this podcast about the key role of hydration and electrolytes for nerve cell function, neuron function, as well as the function of all the cells and all the tissues and organ systems of the body. If we have sodium, magnesium and potassium present in the proper ratios, all of those cells function properly and all our bodily systems can be optimized. If the electrolytes are not present and if hydration is low, we simply can't think as well as we would otherwise. Our mood is off, hormone systems go off, our ability to get into physical action, to engage in endurance and strength and all sorts of other things is diminished. So with element, you can make sure that you're staying on top of your hydration and that you're getting the proper ratios of electrolytes. If you'd like to try element, you can go to drink element, that's lmnt.com/huberman, and you'll get a free element sample pack with your purchase. They're all delicious. So again, if you want to try element, you can go to element, lmnt.com/huberman.