Control Pain & Heal Faster With Your Brain

**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. 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.
Today's episode is also brought to us by Thesis. Thesis makes what are called nootropics, which means smart drugs. Now, to be honest, I am not a fan of the term nootropics. I don't believe in smart drugs in the sense that I don't believe that there's any one substance or collection of substances that can make us smarter. I do believe based on science, however, that there are particular neural circuits and brain functions that allow us to be more focused, more alert, access creativity, be more motivated, et cetera. That's just the way that the brain works, different neural circuits for different brain states. Thesis understands this. And as far as I know, they're the first nootropics company to create targeted nootropics for specific outcomes. I've been using Thesis for more than six months now, and I can confidently say that the nootropics have been a total game changer. My go-to formula is the Clarity formula, or sometimes I'll use their Energy formula before training. To get your own personalized nootropic starter kit, go online to takethesis.com/huberman. Take a three-minute quiz, and Thesis will send you four different formulas to try in your first month. That's takethesis.com/huberman, and use the code Huberman at checkout for 10% off your first order. Let's continue our discussion about neuroplasticity. This incredible feature of our nervous system that allows it to change itself in response to experience, and even in ways that we consciously and deliberately decide to change it. That's an incredible feature. No other organ in our body has that capability. Our nervous system, which governs everything about who we are, how we feel, and what we do, does have that capability. The issue is most people don't know how to access neuroplasticity. Children readily access neuroplasticity, and they don't even realize that they're doing it. Adults want neuroplasticity, and so that's what this entire month of the Huberman Lab podcast has been about. We've explored neuroplasticity from a variety of different perspectives. We talked about representational plasticity. We talked about the importance of focus and reward. We talked about this amazing and somewhat surprising aspect of the vestibular system, how altering our relationship to gravity, and in addition to that, making errors as we try and learn can open up windows to plasticity. But we have not really talked so much about directing the plasticity toward particular outcomes. And thus far, we really haven't talked yet about how to undo things that we don't want. I've talked about learning and I say learn a language, learn free throws, learn a particular motor skill, etc. But what about what we would call unlearning or about removing some aspect of our experience that we don't want? And so today we are going to explore that aspect of neuroplasticity and we are going to do that in the context of a very important and somewhat sensitive topic, which is pain, regeneration, and in some cases, injury to the nervous system. Now, for those of you that are fortunate enough to not have or had a concussion or not have or know someone who's experiencing chronic or acute pain, I encourage you to stay in here with us because a lot of the information that we are going to cover has direct relevance to neuroplasticity for other purposes. We, as always here on this podcast, are going to discuss some of the science, we get into mechanism, but we also really get at principles. Principles are far more important than any one experiment or one description of mechanism, and certainly far more important than any one protocol because principles allow you to think about your nervous system and work with it in ways that best serve you. They are very flexible batches of information. So we are going to talk about the principles of neuroplasticity for removing pain and wound healing and injury. We're going to talk about acupuncture of all things. We are going to talk about modern medicines attempt to try and restore youth to the aging or injured or demented brain. And we are going to definitely talk about tools. Got a lot of tools. I consulted a number of fantastic colleagues at Stanford, at Harvard Medical School and in the greater community of tissue rehabilitation, injury and pain management in preparation for this podcast.