How to Prevent & Treat Colds & Flu

**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, we are discussing colds and flus. We will talk about what a cold really is and what a flu really is in terms of how they impact your brain and body. And of course, we will discuss how to avoid getting colds and flus. There are indeed some excellent science-supported techniques to avoid getting colds and flus. But of course, it is impossible to completely avoid ever getting a cold or flu in your lifetime. So we also discuss how to more quickly get over a cold or flu should you happen to catch one. So during today's discussion, I'll talk about the immune system. I'll give you some mechanistic understanding of how your immune system works. And I promise to make that discussion accessible to everybody, regardless of whether or not you have a background in biology. And with that understanding of how your immune system works, you will be in a much better position to understand which tools, that is which protocols to implement, should you be exposed to a cold or flu, or if you are trying to get over a cold or flu more quickly than you would otherwise. You'll learn about some potent behavioral tools for bolstering your immune system. And we will also discuss various compounds that you might consider taking to enhance the function of your immune system to ward off or treat colds and flus. I will also be dispelling a number of common myths about treatments for the common cold and for the flu. There are oh so many ideas out there about what one could take or do in order to avoid getting the cold or flu, or more quickly get relief from a cold or flu. However, many of those are pure myth. There's just no science to support them. And indeed, there's some science that counters those ideas. But the good news is there are indeed science-supported behavioral protocols and compounds that one could consider in order to avoid and treat colds and flus. 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 Joovv. Joovv makes medical-grade red light therapy devices. If there's one thing I've consistently emphasized on this podcast, it's the incredible role that light can have on our biology. Of course, I'm always telling people that they should get sunlight in their eyes as soon as possible after waking on as many days of their life as possible for sake of setting circadian rhythm, daytime mood focus and alertness, and improve sleep. Now, in addition to sunlight, red light and near-infrared light has been shown to have positive effects on improving numerous aspects of cellar and organ health, including faster muscle recovery, improved skin health and wound healing, even improvements in acne or that is removal of acne, reducing pain and inflammation, improving mitochondrial function, and even improving vision itself. What sets Joovv apart and why it's my preferred red light therapy device is that it has clinically proven wavelengths, meaning it uses specific wavelengths of red light and near-infrared light in combination that trigger the optimal seller adaptations. Personally, I use the handheld Joovv every day. The handheld Joovv is about the size of a thick piece of toast. And I also own a Joovv panel that allows for full body exposure. And I use that one approximately five times per week for about 10 to 15 minutes per session. If you'd like to try Joovv, you can go to Joovv spelled joovv.com/huberman.
again, that's joov.com/huberman.
For this month only, January 2024, Joovv is offering exclusive discounts to Huberman Lab listeners with up to $500 off select Joovv products. again, that's Joovv spelled joovv.com/huberman to get up to $500 off select Joovv products. Today's episode is also brought to us by Helix Sleep. Helix Sleep makes mattresses and pillows that are tailored to your unique sleep needs. Now sleep is the foundation of mental health, physical health and performance. When we are sleeping well and enough, mental health, physical health and performance all stand to be at their best. One of the key things to getting a great night's sleep is to make sure that your mattress is tailored to your unique sleep needs. Helix Sleep has a brief two minute quiz that if you go to their website, you take that quiz and answer questions such as, do you tend to sleep on your back, your side or your stomach? Do you tend to run hot or cold in the middle of the night? Maybe you don't know the answers to those questions and that's fine. At the end of that two minute quiz, they will match you to a mattress that's ideal for your sleep needs. I sleep on the DUSK, D-U-S-K mattress. And when I started sleeping on a DUSK mattress about two years ago, my sleep immediately improved. So if you're interested in upgrading your mattress, go to helixsleep.com/huberman, take their two minute sleep quiz and they'll match you to a customized mattress for you. And you'll get up to $350 off any mattress order and two free pillows. again, if interested, go to helixsleep.com/huberman for up to $350 off and two free pillows. Today's episode is also brought to us by ROKA. ROKA makes eyeglasses and sunglasses that are the absolute highest quality. I've spent a lifetime working on the biology, the visual system, and I can tell you that your visual system has to contend with an enormous number of challenges in order for you to be able to see clearly. ROKA understands those challenges and has designed their eyeglasses and sunglasses accordingly so that you always see with crystal clarity. ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses are designed with a new technology called Float Fit, which allows them to fit perfectly and not move around even when you're active. In fact, whenever I'm wearing my ROKA eyeglasses or sunglasses, I usually forget that I'm wearing them. I happen to wear ROKA eyeglasses at night when I drive or if I'm reading at night. And I wear ROKA sunglasses during the daytime if it's very bright, especially if I'm driving into sunlight. If you'd like to try ROKA eyeglasses or sunglasses, you can go to roka.com, that's roka.com, and enter the code Huberman for 20% off your first order. again, that's roka.com and enter the code Huberman at checkout. Okay, let's talk about the common cold. First off, no, unfortunately today, I cannot tell you the cure for the common cold because indeed there isn't one. One interesting question, however, is why don't we have a cure for the common cold? And the reason is that the cold virus, as it's referred to, is actually a bunch of different viruses. Some colds are caused by one, what's called serotype of the virus. Other colds are caused by a different serotype of the virus. There are over 160 different types of what people call the cold virus. Now, cold viruses fall under an umbrella of a general category of viruses called rhinoviruses. You can remember that easily because rhino sounds like rhino's horn or the rhinoceros horn, which is of course in the center of the rhino's face, which is where your nose is. And the cold almost always causes some degree of nasal symptoms in humans. It's either runny nose or sneezing or stuffed up nose or sometimes unfortunately all three. Now, the reason we don't have a cure for the common cold is that all of those different serotypes of the cold virus mean that the virus itself has a different shape on its outside. And as a consequence, even if you've been exposed to a cold and you've developed antibodies against that cold virus, the next cold that comes along very likely has a different shape. And therefore your body's antibodies to the cold virus it combated successfully before can't latch on to and defeat that next different serotype of the cold virus. Now a little bit later, I'll talk about the immune system and how those different antibodies are generated. But for the time being, understanding that there are a lot of different types of cold viruses explains, first of all, why we don't have a cure for the common cold, but also why you can get multiple colds within a given year or even within a given season. Because even if you develop antibodies against one serotype of the cold virus, a different serotype can come along and you can get sick again with that new serotype of the cold virus. So how do you catch a cold? Now, one of the problems with the cold virus being called the cold virus and the fact that indeed there are more cold viruses present and transmitted between humans in the cold winter months of the year is that people generally assume that it is the cold temperatures outside that actually give you a cold virus. And that is simply not true. However, what you heard as a kid, if you're mom, most likely, but maybe your dad said, hey, don't go outside without a sweater or jacket on, you're going to catch a cold, or you're going to catch cold, has propagated this myth that the cold temperatures themselves are the cause of catching a cold virus. And that's simply not true. The virus that we call the cold virus is spread by breathing or by sneezing or by people sneezing or coughing or breathing onto their hands and then touching surfaces and then other people touching those surfaces and then touching most likely their eyes in order to self-infect. Now we're going to get into the details of how far the virus can spread with a sneeze, how long it can survive on the hands, et cetera. But for the time being, know this, the cold virus is a pretty stable virus in that it can survive on surfaces, non-human or human surfaces, meaning skin or on a table or on a glass or on a door handle for up to 24 hours. So for all you hypochondriacs out there, I probably just gave you a little spike in cortisol. And for you non-hypochondriacs, I hope what I just said cues you to the fact that just avoiding people who are sneezing and coughing is not sufficient to avoid getting colds and flus. However, the fact that a cold virus is alive and well on a given surface, let's say on a door handle, does not mean that if you touch that door handle, that you will necessarily be infected with that cold virus. And that's because your skin actually provides an excellent barrier against most viruses and bacteria. Your skin also includes a lot of antiviral substances on it. Even if you haven't put any of that alcohol stuff or the hand sanitizer stuff on, your skin is a very important barrier component of your immune system. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. But if somebody has a cold and they happen to perhaps, wipe their nose or sneeze into a tissue, hopefully into a tissue, and then discard that tissue, the cold virus particles are extremely small. How small? Well, most of us are familiar with thinking about centimeters or inches. If you think about a millimeter being one one hundredth of a centimeter, well, you can take a millimeter and you can divide that up into a bunch of little slices also such that you get the micron. The micron is one one thousandth of a centimeter. And if you want to get a sense of how thick or thin that is, the side of a credit card, the little thin side of a credit card is about two hundred microns thick. So if you set your credit card flat on a table and then you look at it from the side, that tiny, tiny thin little edge, that's about two hundred microns. The cold virus is made up of particles that are probably in the range of about five microns or so. So it's extremely small. I mean, the cold virus, therefore, with a good sneeze or even a light sneeze can spread really far. Now, the good news is those particles are relatively heavy. They don't tend to mist about in the air for very long. They tend to fall down onto the ground or onto surfaces. But as I mentioned before, they can survive for a very long time on those surfaces. So should you touch your hand to a door handle or table or shake the hand of somebody that has cold virus on their hands, either because they themselves have a cold or they contacted somebody else that had cold virus and it somehow landed on their hands just because the other person sneezed. All these scenarios are very realistic.