Behaviors That Alter Your Genes to Improve Your Health & Performance | Dr. Melissa Ilardo

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. Melissa Elardo, professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Utah. Dr. Elardo is a world-renowned expert in human genetics and epigenetics. She conducts pioneering studies on how our behavior and the environment can modify our gene expression. Today marks the first time on the Huberman Lab podcast that we really explore human genetics, epigenetics, and how behavior shapes gene expression across generations. We talk about the inheritance of physical traits like eye color, and we dive deep into fascinating mechanisms such as the mammalian dive reflex, a physiological reaction to breath holding in cold water that, as Dr. Elardo explains, can dramatically alter the physiology of your spleen to allow significant increases in red blood cell count and oxygen availability to your brain and body. And by the way, the mammalian dive reflex can be activated outside of free diving, and you can even do it at home. We also explore how mate preference and selection in humans relates to the immune system. That is, if you were given a choice of many, many different mates, as most people are, the mate you would select is the mate who has the immune system composition that is most different from yours, and you would know that on the basis of their smell and how attractive their smell is to you compared to the smell of other people. We also talk about how differences in external traits signal important variations in organ function, hormone levels, and even brain physiology. Toward the end of our conversation, we discuss the current state and ethical considerations of gene editing in humans, something that's apt to be an increasingly important topic in the years to come because gene editing in humans is now possible and is happening. As you'll soon learn, Dr. Elardo does incredible real-world experiments that reveal the remarkable interplay between genes and behavior, and she's an absolutely phenomenal teacher who makes complex genetic concepts accessible and practical. The conversation is sure to change the way that you think about mate selection, your parents, their parents, and what you can do to optimize your physiology and health through behavioral practices that influence gene expression. 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, this episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. Melissa Elardo. Dr. Melissa Elardo, welcome.

Thank you.

Nature versus nurture, super big question that we all wonder about, you know. How much of our capabilities and potential and just general themes of life, everything from how we look to what we're capable of doing or not doing in the moment or where we might be able to improve or not improve, we hear some of it's nature, some of it's nurture. So if we take a step back and we just ask a big question about human genetics, how much of our DNA is modifiable by our environment and what we do, what we choose to do in particular? Because that's most of what we're gonna emphasize today.