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

(uptempo 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, 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. Now, 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 discuss 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 covers all of my foundational vitamin mineral probiotic needs. There is now ample evidence that probiotics can be very helpful for supporting what is called the gut microbiome. The gut microbiome is an aspect of our biology in which little gut microbiota live all along our digestive pathway and help support various aspects of our biology, including our immune system, our metabolic system, our hormones or endocrine system, as well as what's called the gut-brain axis, which is literally communication between the gut and the brain to support things like mood, motivation, and various other aspects of brain health. With Athletic Greens, I get the probiotics that I need to support a healthy gut microbiome and the vitamins and minerals tap off any deficiencies I might have based on lack of certain foods and lack of certain nutrients in my diet. 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 plus a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. There's a lot of evidence now that vitamin D3 is critically important for various aspects of immediate and long-term health. And while many people get enough vitamin D3, many people do not. So, the year's supply of vitamin D3 ought to be very useful for many people, and K2 has been shown to be important for calcium regulation, various aspects of metabolic health, and so forth. So again, if you'd like to try Athletic Greens and get that special offer of the five free travel packs and year's supply of vitamin D3 K2, go to athleticgreens.com/huberman. Today's episode is also brought to us by Thesis. Thesis makes custom nootropics.Now, nootropic is a smart drug and personally, I'm not a big fan of the concept of a smart drug, at least not the way that most people talk about smart drugs or nootropics, for the following reason: Being smart involves various things. 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I've been using Thesis nootropics for over six months now and I have to say, it's been a total game changer and very unique from the experience of using sort of what I call catchall nootropics so with Thesis, it's really directed toward particular brain/body states. I should also mention that they tailor those custom blends to you, so by taking a quiz on their site, they will tailor the blend to you and your specific needs and the things you don't want. So if you want to try your own personalized nootropic starter kit, you can go online to takethesis.com/huberman. You'll take a three-minute quiz and Thesis will send you four different formulas to try in your first month and then based on the outcomes with those, they can update your formulations for you. That's takethesis.com/huberman and use the code Huberman at checkout to get 10% off your first box. Today's episode is also brought to us by ROKA. ROKA makes eyeglasses and sunglasses that I believe are of the utmost quality. The company was founded by two all-American swimmers from Stanford and everything about the design of ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses was created with performance in mind. There are a number of things about ROKA sunglasses and eyeglasses that I particularly like. First of all, they're extremely lightweight. You basically forget that you're wearing them. Second of all, you can wear them for work, for going out to dinner, et cetera, they have great aesthetics so you can wear them anywhere, but also for exercise. You can wear them when running or cycling and even if you get sweaty, they're designed so that they don't slip off your face. Another terrific feature of ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses is that they were designed with the biology of the visual system in mind. We all have the experience of being in a shaded area and then going to a bright area, it takes some time for your eyes to adjust or to adapt. Many sunglasses make it hard to see as you move from one environment to the next and therefore you have to take on and off your sunglasses. With ROKA sunglasses you don't have to do that. You don't even notice the transitions between those bright areas and those dimmer areas so you can wear them anywhere, anytime and again, most of the time you don't even realize that they're on your face. If you'd like to try ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses go to roka.com, that's roka.com, and enter the code Huberman to save 20% off your first order. Again, that's ROKA, roka.com and enter the code Huberman at checkout. And now for my discussion with Dr. David Spiegel. David, thank you so much for being here.