Using Temperature for Performance, Brain & Body Health | Dr. Craig Heller

(Instrumental music) 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, I have the pleasure of introducing Dr. Craig Heller as my guest on the Huberman Lab Podcast. Dr. Heller is a professor of biology and neurosciences at Stanford. His laboratory works on a range of topics, including thermal regulation, Down syndrome, and circadian rhythms. Today, we talk about thermal regulation, how the body heats and cools itself and maintains what we call homeostasis, which is an equilibrium of processes that keeps our neurons healthy, our organs functioning well. And as Dr. Heller teaches us, thermal regulation can be leveraged in order to greatly increase our performance in athletics and mental performance as well. Learning to control your core body temperature is one of the most, if not the most powerful thing that you can do to optimize mental and physical performance regardless of the environment that you're in. He also dispels many common myths about heating and cooling the body, including the idea that putting a cold pack on your head or neck is the optimal way to cool down quickly. And in fact, as Dr. Heller tells us, it actually can be counterproductive and lead to hyperthermia. It's a fascinating conversation from which I learned a tremendous amount of new information, and we didn't even get into the other incredibly interesting work that Dr. Heller does on Down syndrome and circadian rhythms and sleep, so we hope to have him back in the future to discuss those topics. As you'll soon see, Dr. Heller is a wealth of knowledge on all things human physiology, biology, and human performance. It's no surprise then that he's been chair of the Biology Department at Stanford for many years, as well as director of the Human Biology Program. So, if you're interested in human biology and how to improve your performance in any context or setting, athletic or otherwise, I think you'll very much enjoy today's conversation. 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 ROKA. ROKA makes sunglasses and eyeglasses that are of the absolute highest quality. I've spent a lifetime working on the visual system, and I can tell you that the visual system has to go through a lot of work in order to maintain clarity of what you see when there are shadows, when you go into different types of indoor lighting, and so on. And a lot of glasses don't work well because you put them on, and then you're in bright light, and you can see fine, but then you move into a shadow, and then you have to take them off, and they don't adjust or they don't adjust quickly enough. With ROKA, their eyeglasses and sunglasses are designed with the visual system biology in mind, so you always see things with perfect clarity. The glasses are also terrific because they're very lightweight, and they won't slip off your face if you're exercising, if you're running or biking. In fact, they were designed for the purpose of being able to be worn while you are engaging in those sorts of activities or simply working at your desk. I happen to wear readers at night, uh, when I drive or when I work, and I love their sunglasses 'cause I can wear them anywhere, and also the aesthetics of their sunglasses and eyeglasses are terrific. Unlike a lot of other performance glasses that frankly make people look like cyborgs, the aesthetics on ROKAs are really terrific. You could wear them anywhere you'd like to go. If you'd like to try ROKA glasses, you can go to roka.com, that's R-O-K-A dot-com, and enter the code Huberman to save 20% off your first order. That's ROKA, R-O-K-A dot-com, enter the code Huberman at checkout. Today's podcast is also brought to us by InsideTracker. InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA to help you better understand your body and help you reach your health goals. I'm a big believer in getting regular blood work done, and now with the advent of modern DNA tests, you can also analyze your DNA to see what you ought to be doing for your immediate and long-term health. We hear a lot these days about optimization, optimizing hormones, optimizing your metabolism, optimizing this, optimizing that, but unless you know the measurements of metabolic factors, hormones, and other things that are in your blood and DNA, you don't know what to optimize. With InsideTracker, it makes all of that very easy. They can come to your house to take the blood and DNA test, or you can go to a nearby clinic. They send you the information, and you take those results, and unlike a lot of laboratories doing blood work out there and DNA tests, they have a simple platform, a dashboard that walks you through your results and helps you identify what sorts of nutritional or behavioral or other types of practices you might want to incorporate into your life in order to positively impact your immediate and long-term health. It's a very easy system to use, and you will gain a ton of information simply by doing that test, whether or not you end up making changes to what you're doing or not. If you'd like to try InsideTracker, you can go to insidetracker.com/huberman to get 25% off any of InsideTracker's plans. Just use the code Huberman at checkout. Today's episode is also brought to us by Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin mineral probiotic drink. I've been using Athletic Greens since 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started using Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens once or twice a day is because it covers all of my nutritional bases. In fact, if people ask me, and I often am asked, "What supplement should I take?" I always recommend Athletic Greens, and in fact, if you were to take just one supplement, I recommend Athletic Greens for the simple reason that the vitamins, minerals, and probiotics and adaptogens cover all your nutritional bases, and the probiotics optimize gut brain health, which we now know is essential for mood, for immune system function, for metabolic function. It's just got so many great things in there. I really do feel better when I'm drinking my Athletic Greens. I mix mine up with some water.... little bit of lemon juice. And as I mentioned before, I'll drink it once or twice a day. If I travel, I might even drink it a third time just because of the additional stress on my mind and body. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs. So these are little travel packs that make it really easy to mix up Athletic Greens if you're on the plane or in the car. And they'll give you a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. There is now ample evidence that vitamin D3 K2 is supportive of the immune system and a bunch of other biological functions, and K2 has been shown to be important for cardiovascular health. So again, if you go to athleticgreens.com/huberman, you'll get the Athletic Greens, the five free travel packs, and the year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. And now for my discussion with Dr. Craig Heller. Great to have you here.