How to Optimize Your Hormones for Health & Vitality | Dr. Kyle Gillett

**Andrew D. 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. Kyle Gillett. Dr. Gillett is dual board certified in family medicine and obesity medicine, and practices out of a clinic in Kansas and via telemedicine. He provides full spectrum medicine, including hormone health, preventive medicine, obstetrics, which is the branch of medicine and surgery concerned with childbirth and the care of women giving birth, and pediatrics. I first learned about Dr. Gillett from a podcast of all things, and was immediately struck by the breadth and depth of his knowledge on all things, hormones and hormone optimization. As you'll see very soon today, Dr. Gillett can teach you how to optimize your hormones using behavioral tools, nutrition, exercise-based tools, supplementation and hormone therapies, if those are appropriate for you. There are many professionals out there, including many medical doctors, of course, talking about hormone health. What really sets Dr. Gillett apart from the pack is his ability to understand how the different factors that I described before, nutrition, supplementation, exercise and hormone therapies, how those interact with one another, and the safest and most rational ways to approach hormone optimization. During today's episode, you will learn how to optimize your hormones, not just testosterone and estrogen, but also prolactin and other hormone pathways that impact your mood, mental health and physical health. Dr. Gillett is also an avid educator about hormones and other aspects of health. He does this on zero cost to consumer platforms, such as Instagram and other social media. On Instagram, he is KyleGillettMD, that's K-Y-L-E-G-I-L-L-E-T-T, no E at the end, MD. So KyleGillettMD on Instagram, and he is Gillett Health on all other platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. If you go to his Instagram or his other social media, you will learn a lot about hormone health, about the latest science impacting obesity and metabolic health. He is a wealth of knowledge. And again, he's providing all that information at zero cost to you. The consumer, what you are soon to hear is a conversation between me and Dr. Gillett about all things, hormones and hormone health and hormone optimization. We dive deep into mechanisms, but we are clear to establish what each word or set of concepts mean. So if you have no background in biology or even if you do, I'm sure that you'll come away with a wealth of valuable knowledge. We also talk about specific protocols related again to lifestyle factors, nutrition, supplementation, and where appropriate, hormone replacement therapy. I know there's a lot of interest about these topics. Dr. Gillett is very thorough about addressing both male and female issues and addressing hormone health for people at all stages of life. I'm sure that you will come away from this episode with the same impression that I did, which is that Dr. Gillett is an extraordinarily clear communicator and that he has tremendous compassion for his patients and that he has a deep love of understanding biology and medicine in ways that can benefit you. Before we begin with today's episode, I want 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's 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's 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 in 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 elementlmnt.com/huberman.