Breathing for Mental & Physical Health & Performance | Dr. Jack Feldman

**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, my guest is Dr. Jack Feldman. Dr. Jack Feldman is a distinguished professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known for his pioneering work on the neuroscience of breathing. We are all familiar with breathing and how essential breathing is to life. We require oxygen and it is only by breathing that we can bring oxygen to all the cells of our brain and body. However, as the work from Dr. Feldman and colleagues tells us, breathing is also fundamental to organ health and function at an enormous number of other levels. In fact, how we breathe, including how often we breathe, the depth of our breathing and the ratio of inhales to exhales actually predicts how focused we are, how easily we get into sleep, how easily we can exit from sleep. Dr. Feldman gets credit for the discovery of the two major brain centers that control the different patterns of breathing. Today, you'll learn about those brain centers and the patterns of breathing they control and how those different patterns of breathing influence all aspects of your mental and physical life. What's especially wonderful about Dr. Feldman and his work is that it not only points to the critical role of respiration in disease, in health and in daily life, but he's also a practitioner. He understands how to leverage particular aspects of the breathing process in order to bias the brain to be in particular states that can benefit us all. Whether or not you are a person who already practices breath work or whether or not you're somebody who simply breathes to stay alive, by the end of today's discussion, you're going to understand a tremendous amount about how the breathing system works and how you can leverage that breathing system toward particular goals in your life. Dr. Feldman shares with us his own particular breathing protocols that he uses and he suggests different avenues for exploring respiration in ways that can allow you, for instance, to be more focused for work, to disengage from work and high stress endeavors, to calm down quickly. And indeed he explains not only how to do that, but all the underlying science in ways that will allow you to customize your own protocols for your needs. All the guests that we bring on the Huberman Lab podcast are considered at the very top of their fields. Today's guest, Dr. Feldman, is not only at the top of his field, he founded the field. Prior to his coming into neuroscience from the field of physics, there really wasn't much information about how the brain controls breathing. There was a little bit of information, but we can really credit Dr. Feldman and his laboratory for identifying the particular brain areas that control different patterns of breathing and how that information can be leveraged towards health, high performance and for combating disease. So today's conversation, you're going to learn a tremendous amount from the top researcher in this field. It's a really wonderful and special opportunity to be able to share his knowledge with you. And I know that you're not only going to enjoy it, but you are going to learn a tremendous amount. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize 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 supply of vitamin D3 K2. 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 supply of vitamin D3 K2. 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.