Improve Energy & Longevity by Optimizing Mitochondria | Dr. Martin Picard

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
What's the deal? Can people reverse the graying of their hair by reducing their stress? Can people accelerate the graying of their hair by stressing more?

**Martin Picard** (0:07)
Likely both are true, yes.

**Andrew Huberman** (0:09)
Okay.

**Martin Picard** (0:10)
And I think what we discovered is that hair graying, at least temporarily, is reversible. This was surprising because it goes against this notion that aging is a linear process that just happens over time no matter what you do. And here we should know actually a hallmark of aging, which is de-pigmentation, losing color in your beard and your hair. It's something that happens to almost everyone, but at different stages of life and so on. And then on the same person, and the reason we got into this was that this felt like the perfect experiment. Every hair has the same genome. They're all genetically identical twins, right? And they're all exposed to the same exercise regime, the same food, the same stress levels. Yet some hairs go gray when you're like late 30s, and then some hairs go gray when you're like in your 80s. What the hell is happening? If we could figure this out, maybe we can understand why different people age at different rates. Because it's very clear that there's no more than 10% of how long you lived that's genetically driven. Like the best studies put this at around 7%. 7% of longevity is genetically inherited maybe, and then about 90% is not.

**Andrew Huberman** (1:20)
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. My guest today is Dr. Martin Picard. Dr. Martin Picard is a professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University. He is also a leading expert on how your daily behaviors and your mode of thinking, meaning your psychology, change energy production in your cells, and can accelerate or reverse biological aging. Most people have heard of mitochondria as the energy-producing organelles within their cells. And of course, that's linked to what we call metabolism and metabolic health. And of course, most people understand that eating properly, exercising, and sleep are critical for metabolic health. But it turns out that's only part of the story. As Dr. Picard explains, mitochondria don't just make energy. They act as sort of antennas to link your psychological experiences to your organ health, your rate of aging, and your sense of vigor, meaning your mental and physical readiness. He explains that how well your mitochondria work in different organs and brain areas reflects what specific forms of exercise you do, as well as how you think and how you manage stress. Today, he explains the things that you can do to enhance mitochondrial function that go beyond the typical get sleep, eat right, and exercise advice. His lab has shown that aging is not linear. It's not just a progression from youth to death where your mitochondria decline over that time. At different ages and stages, mitochondrial health drops off like a cliff, but there are critical things that you can do in terms of how you eat, your mindset, and exercise that can offset those changes. His lab also famously showed that graying of hair is indeed related to stress and is also fortunately reversible. By the end of today's episode, you will not only have had a masterclass in mitochondria, he explains mitochondria with immense clarity so that you really will understand how these incredible organelles work to produce energy and as the sort of antennas to direct that energy from outside you and by the things you do. And by the end of today's episode, you'll also have a lot of actionable items that you can apply toward your health and to offset aging. 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, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. Martin Picard. Dr. Martin Picard, welcome.

**Martin Picard** (3:52)
Thank you.

**Andrew Huberman** (3:53)
Your work is so relevant nowadays. I suppose it was relevant always, but these days we hear so much about mitochondria. Most people have perhaps heard of mitochondria. They think the powerhouse of the cell, but you're going to tell us that it's a lot more than that. And I should say right off the bat that if people think that perhaps a discussion about these little organelles we call mitochondria is not for them, keep in mind Martin's laboratory was the one that discovered that you can indeed reverse the graying of your hair. That graying of hair is not a prerequisite of aging. There's some other ways that hair grays. So we'll get to that later. Super interesting work. I have a million questions for you. Let's start off with the most important and most basic question, which is, what is this thing that we call energy? There's electrical energy. We know the sun gives us energy, et cetera. But when we're talking about the energy of life, physical and mental vigor, the feeling that we want to do something, as opposed to have to force ourselves to do it, what is this at the organism and cellular level?