Essentials: Boost Your Energy & Immune System with Cortisol & Adrenaline

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health and performance.
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. Today, we're going to focus on how particular hormones influence our energy levels and our immune system. We're going to talk about the hormones cortisol and epinephrine, also called adrenaline. If you're somebody who has challenges with sleep or you're somebody who has challenges getting your energy level up throughout the day and getting your energy level down when you want to sleep, today's episode is also for you. And we're going to talk about the immune system and how to enhance the function of your immune system. I think it's fair to say that most people would like to have a lot of energy during the day, if you work during the day and they'd like their energy to taper off at night. And I think it's fair to say that most people don't enjoy being sick. And it turns out that the two hormones that dominate those processes of having enough energy and having a healthy immune system are cortisol and epinephrine. I just want to cover a little bit about what cortisol and epinephrine are, where they are released in the body and brain. Because if you can understand that, you will understand better how to control them. First of all, cortisol is a steroid hormone, much like estrogen and testosterone, in that it is derived from cholesterol. So understand that cholesterol is a precursor molecule, meaning it's the substrate from which a lot of things like testosterone and estrogen are made. Please also understand that cholesterol can be made into estrogen or testosterone or cortisol, and that cortisol is sort of the competitive partner to estrogen and testosterone. What this means is, no matter how much cholesterol you're eating or you produce, whether or not it's low or it's high, if you are stressed, more of that cholesterol is going to be devoted toward creating cortisol, which is indeed a stress hormone. However, the word stress shouldn't stress you out because you need cortisol. Cortisol is vital. You don't want your cortisol levels to be too low. It's very important for immune system function, for memory, for not getting depressed. You just don't want your cortisol levels to be too high and you don't want them to be elevated even to normal levels at the wrong time of day. Epinephrine or adrenaline has also been demonized a bit. We think of it as this stress hormone, this thing that makes us anxious, fight or flight. The fact of the matter is that epinephrine is your best friend when it comes to your immunity, when it comes to protecting you from infection. And epinephrine, adrenaline, is your best friend when it comes to remembering things and learning and activating neuroplasticity. We're going to talk about that as well. Once again, it's a question of how much and how long and the specific timing of release of cortisol and epinephrine as opposed to cortisol and adrenaline being good or bad. They're terrific when they're regulated. They are terrible when they're misregulated. And we will give you lots of tools to regulate them better. I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge one of our sponsors, BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist carried out entirely online. I've been doing weekly therapy for well over 30 years. Initially, I didn't have a choice. It was a condition of being allowed to stay in school. But pretty soon I realized that therapy is an extremely important component to overall health. In fact, I consider doing regular therapy just as important as getting regular exercise, including cardiovascular exercise and resistance training, which of course I also do every week. There are essentially three things that Great Therapy provides. First of all, it provides a good rapport with somebody that you can trust and talk to about all issues that you're concerned about. Second of all, it can provide support in the form of emotional support or directed guidance. And third, expert therapy can provide useful insights. With BetterHelp, they make it very easy to find an expert therapist with whom you resonate with and can provide those benefits that come through effective therapy. Also, because BetterHelp allows therapy to be done entirely online, it's very time-efficient. If you'd like to try BetterHelp, go to betterhelp.com/huberman for this month only, March 2025 BetterHelp is giving you the biggest discount offered on this show with 90% off your first week of therapy. Again, that's betterhelp.com/huberman to get 90% off your first week. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need, but nothing you don't. That means the electrolytes, sodium, magnesium and potassium, all in the correct ratios, but no sugar. Proper hydration is critical for optimal brain and body function. Even a slight degree of dehydration can diminish cognitive and physical performance. It's also important that you get adequate electrolytes. The electrolytes, sodium, magnesium and potassium, are vital for the functioning of all the cells in your body, especially your neurons or your nerve cells. Drinking element dissolved in water makes it extremely easy to ensure that you're getting adequate hydration and adequate electrolytes. To make sure that I'm getting proper amounts of hydration and electrolytes, I dissolve one packet of element in about 16 to 32 ounces of water when I wake up in the morning, and I drink that basically first thing in the morning. I also drink element dissolved in water during any kind of physical exercise that I'm doing. They have a bunch of different great tasting flavors of element. They have watermelon, citrus, etc. Frankly, I love them all. If you'd like to try element, you can go to www.drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab to claim a free element sample pack with the purchase of any element drink mix. Again, that's www.drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab to claim a free sample pack. Cortisol biology 101 in less than two minutes.