Using Hypnosis to Enhance Mental & Physical Health & Performance | Dr. David Spiegel

**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. Today, my guest is Dr. David Spiegel. Dr. Spiegel is the Associate Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Stanford Center on Stress and Health. Dr. Spiegel is both a researcher and a clinician, meaning he runs a laboratory that studies the brain and the body and neural mechanisms of how the brain and body interact. And he sees patients as a psychiatrist at Stanford. His work is incredibly unique in that it bridges mind and body, but it also has a particular focus on the clinical applications of hypnosis. As you'll learn today, hypnosis is a unique brain state in which neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change in response to experience may be heightened. And indeed, the use of clinical hypnosis by Dr. Spiegel and colleagues has been shown to improve symptoms of stress, chronic anxiety, chronic pain and various other illnesses, including many psychiatric illnesses and even outcomes in cancer. Today, we discuss hypnosis in the context of what's called self-hypnosis to distinguish it from stage hypnosis. Many of you are probably familiar with stage hypnosis, which is really about a hypnotist getting a person to do things they would not otherwise do. In contrast, clinical hypnosis and the use of hypnosis for the treatment of various ailments of mind and body is vastly different. It involves getting people to change their brain state and to use that brain state as a portal to make adjustments in their brain and body and other aspects of their biology and psychology that benefit them. And it's been shown over and over again in studies by Dr. Spiegel and colleagues that those changes can occur extremely quickly. Not everybody can be hypnotized as readily as the next. And so today we also discuss a simple test developed by Dr. Spiegel that can help you determine whether or not you have a high, medium or low degree of what we call hypnotizability. Dr. Spiegel is truly an expert in this area. He has published over 480 journal articles, 170 book chapters on hypnosis and on things like psychosocial oncology, which is the interaction of mind and body in the treatment of cancer and cancer outcomes on stress physiology, trauma, and other aspects of psychotherapy. He's published 13 books. So he's truly the world expert in hypnosis and clinical applications of hypnosis for mind and body. I'm certain that in listening to today's episode, you're going to learn a tremendous amount about how the brain and body interact, about various treatments for all sorts of common ailments of mind and body, and you're going to get access to tools, in particular, a tool that was developed by Dr. Spiegel, which is the Reveri app, R-E-V-E-R-I. The Reveri app is currently only available for Apple, but will soon also be available for Android. It does carry a nominal cost, but there is a seven-day free trial. If you'd like to try it, we're providing a link in the show notes. The Reveri app is special in that it is based on clinical studies and research done in the Spiegel Lab at Stanford. So unlike a lot of hypnosis apps out there and resources for hypnosis, it was developed with clinical treatments in mind. Today we also discussed the use of breathwork, and I'm very fortunate that my research lab at Stanford has been collaborating very closely with Dr. Spiegel in testing and developing specific breathwork protocols to adjust mind and body for things like anxiety, improving mood and improving sleep. Based on his incredible and unique expertise and the clarity with which Dr. Spiegel communicates information, I anticipate that you will really enjoy today's episode and that you'll come away from it with a lot of actionable tools. Some of you might be curious what a clinical hypnosis session looks like. And for that reason, we had Dr. Spiegel hypnotize me. A clip of that hypnosis session is going to be posted to the Huberman Lab clips channel, which is available on YouTube. 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 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 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 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 drinklmnt.com.