Transform Your Metabolic Health & Longevity by Knowing Your Unique Biology | Dr. Michael Snyder

**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. My guest today is Dr. Michael Snyder. Dr. Michael Snyder is a professor of genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine. His laboratory focuses on how different people respond differently to different types of food and health interventions. And his overall goal is to figure out how different genes and proteins that different people express impact people's immune system function, reaction to different foods and diets, blood sugar regulation, immune system, and longevity. Today's episode could basically be summarized as, as you suspected, not everybody responds the same way to the same behavioral, drug, supplement or other treatment designed to improve healthspan and lifespan. For instance, the Snyder Laboratory published a paper earlier this year showing that different people spike insulin in response to different types of carbohydrates. Things like the glycemic index, which we may be familiar with because they are essentially a readout of how much a given food impacts blood sugar, depends on who you are. They identified so-called potato spikers. They literally refer to them as potato spikers in this paper versus grape spikers, people whose insulin spikes in response to potatoes, but not grapes and vice versa. While this might seem kind of silly or trivial or micro slicing, the identification of these different subtypes of people in the general population who respond differently to different types of foods is extremely important. Because I think most all of us are getting a little bit tired of all these discussions about carbohydrates are good, carbohydrates are bad, these carbohydrates are good, these carbohydrates are bad and on and on. It turns out it depends on which genes and which proteins you make. In other words, individual variability matters. We talk about that individual variability in the context of nutrition, also in the context of fiber. It turns out that fiber is something that people generally believe is good for your health. I certainly believe that. Well, different types of fibers impact people differently. Some people experience systemic inflammation of their brain and body when they eat certain types of fibers. That's bad. Other people experience systematic decreases in inflammation when they eat certain types of fibers. The key is to identify which category you're in and therefore which fibers to eat. And as it turns out, different foods have different fiber types. So it's tractable, there are things you can do about it. We also talk about GLP-1 drugs and how those impact longevity. This is something that's very controversial and very timely right now. And we discuss how different psychological interventions. Yep, the Snyder Lab has even looked at how different psychological interventions impact the genes you make and the proteins you make and their effect on health span and lifespan. So today's discussion is sure to change your mind about a lot of things related to nutrition and fitness and medicine. However, I promise that thanks to Dr. Michael Snyder, it will not confuse you. In fact, it will clarify many things that perhaps before the episode were confusing to you and many other people. Dr. Snyder's laboratory is recognized for doing extremely rigorous analyses of the genes and proteins that can explain individual variability and what people should do or not do in order to maximize their health and longevity. 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. Michael Snyder. Dr. Michael Snyder, welcome.

**Michael Snyder** (3:35)
Great to be here.

**Andrew Huberman** (3:37)
I'd like to start by talking about glucose regulation and food and food choice, exercise, sleep, and how they all interact. But I want to make it very simple to start.
How is it that what we eat impacts our glucose response? And maybe you could tell us a little bit about what a healthy glucose response looks like. Because by most people's view, any inflection in blood glucose is a quote unquote spike. But what are the sorts of spikes that matter for health? And what are the sorts of spikes in blood glucose or what are called glucose excursions? That, you know, okay, well, that's a normal response to eating some food. And then it goes back down to baseline. I think this is especially important nowadays with all the interest in metabolic health, in how particular types of foods, like processed foods are indeed far worse for us, and on and on. So if you could just give us your view and understanding of glucose excursions, what they mean when they're good, when they're bad.