How to Build, Maintain & Repair Gut Health | Dr. Justin Sonnenburg

(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, my guest is Dr. Justin Sonnenburg. Dr. Sonnenburg is a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford School of Medicine, and one of the world's leading experts on the gut microbiome. The gut microbiome is the existence of trillions of little microorganisms throughout your gut, and by your gut, I don't just mean your stomach, I mean your entire digestive tract. Turns out, we also have a microbiome that exists in our nose, in any other location in which our body interfaces with the outside world. In fact, there's a microbiome on your skin, and while it might seem kind of intrusive, or kind of disgusting to have all these little microorganisms, they can be immensely beneficial for our health, meaning our hormonal health, our brain health, and our immune system function. Dr. Sonnenburg teaches us about the gut microbiome, how it's organized spatially, meaning which microbiota live where. He teaches us about these incredible things called crypts and niches, which are little caves within our digestive tract that certain microbiota take residence, and at that premier real estate, they're able to do incredible things to support our health. He also talks about the things that we can all do to support our microbiome in order for our microbiome to support our brain and body health. Dr. Sonnenburg co-runs his laboratory with his spouse, Dr. Erika Sonnenburg, and together, they've also written a terrific and highly informative book called The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-Term Health. Even though that book was written a few years back, the information still holds up very nicely, and today, he also builds on that information, informing us about recent studies that, for instance, point to the important role of fermented foods and the role of fiber in supporting a healthy gut microbiome. So, if you've heard about the gut microbiome, or even if you haven't, today, you're going to hear about it from one of the world's leading experts. He makes it immensely clear as to what it is, how it functions, and how to support it for your brain and body health. During today's discussion, we don't just talk about nutrition. We also talk about the impact of behaviors and the microbiome, behaviors such as who you touch, who you kiss, who you hug, whether or not you interact with or avoid animals, whether or not those animals belong to you, or whether or not they belong to somebody else. If all that sounds a little bit bizarre, (laughs) you'll soon understand that your microbiome is constantly being modified by the behavioral interactions, the nutritional interactions, and indeed, your mood and internal reactions to the outside world. This is an incredible system. Everyone has one, everyone should know how it works, and everyone should know how to optimize it, and today, you're going to learn all of that from Dr. Sonnenburg. I'm pleased to announce that I'm hosting two live events in May 2022. The first live event will take place in Seattle, Washington on May 17th. The second event will take place in Portland, Oregon on May 18th. Both are part of a series called The Brain-Body Contract. For this series, I will discuss science, so I will discuss the mechanistic science around things like sleep, and focus, and motivation, physical performance, mental health, physical health, a large number of topics that I believe many people are interested in, and that certainly are important for our health and well-being and performance. In addition, I will, of course, describe tools and actionable items, most of which I have not discussed on the Huberman Lab Podcast or anywhere else. Presale tickets for these two events go live Tuesday, March 8th at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. We've made these tickets exclusively available to the listeners of the Huberman Lab Podcast, so they are password protected. To find them, you can go to hubermanlab.com/tour and use the code Huberman. 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, now called AG1. I've been taking AG1 since 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking AG1 and the reason I still take AG1 once or twice a day is that it meets all my basic foundational supplementation needs. What I mean by that is it covers any vitamin and nutritional deficiencies that I might have 'cause I'm trying to be good about my nutrition and diet, but I don't always manage to get everything that I need, and I'm sure that there are a lot of gaps in there, so it covers those gaps. It also has probiotics, and as you'll learn in today's episode, and I've talked about on previous episodes, the probiotics are essential for a healthy gut microbiome. We need probiotics in order for our microbiome to thrive, and our microbiome supports things like gut brain health, indeed, things like metabolism, mood, hunger. It also supports the immune system. As you'll learn today, your gut microbiome actually manufactures neurotransmitters, the very chemicals that impact mood and brain function. Athletic Greens primes your system for a healthy gut microbiome, something that can be achieved with food and lifestyle factors, but is often hard to achieve with just food and lifestyle factors. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim a special offer. They give you five free travel packs to make it very easy to mix up Athletic Greens while you're on the road, and a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. Vitamin D3 has many important biological functions that support your immediate and long-term health, and K2 as well is very important for things like cardiovascular health, calcium regulation, and so on. Again, if you go to athleticgreens.com/huberman, you can claim the special offer of the five free travel packs and the vitamin D3 K2. Today's episode is also brought to us by ROKA. ROKA makes eyeglasses and sunglasses that I believe are of the very highest quality. I've spent my lifetime working on the biology of the visual system, and I can tell you that the biology of the visual system has a lot of mechanisms in there, so that, for instance, if you move from a bright environment to a dim environment...... your visual system needs to adapt. One issue with a lot of sunglasses and eyeglasses is, you move from one environment to the next, and you have to take the sunglasses or eyeglasses off. You get a glare, or you have to adjust because of the way that the lenses are designed. With ROKA, they've taken the biology of the visual system into account, and so you never have to take them off and on in order to move from one environment to the next. They're also designed for movement and athletics, or you can wear them for just things like work, and going out to dinner, and so forth. They have a terrific aesthetic. They're extremely lightweight. In fact, I often forget that they're even on my face. I wear sunglasses when it's very bright, and when I'm driving in the sunlight. I wear readers at night. I hardly ever remember that they're on my face. They also won't slip off your face if you use them when running or cycling. The company was developed by two All-American swimmers from Stanford, so everything about these sunglasses and eyeglasses was developed with performance in mind in a lot of different situations and scenarios. If you'd like to try ROKA, 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. Again, that's ROKA, R-O-K-A dot-com, and enter the code Huberman at checkout. Today's episode is also brought to us by Helix Sleep. Helix makes mattresses and pillows that are designed for your particular sleep needs. What I mean by that is, you can go to the Helix site, you can take a very brief two or three-minute quiz, ask questions like, do you sleep on your side, your back, your stomach, do you tend to run hot or cold through the night, maybe you don't know the answers to those questions, and then they match you to a mattress that's designed for your particular sleep needs. I match to the Dusk, D-U-S-K, mattress. I like a mattress that's not too firm, not too soft, I tend to sleep on my side. I sort of, in the, like, crawling soldier position, seems to be the most common position I sleep in, and that really works terrifically well for me. But you need to take the quiz to see which mattress works best for you. So if you're interested in upgrading your mattress, go to helixsleep.com/huberman, take the two-minute quiz, and they'll match you to a customized mattress. You can figure out how to get your optimal sleep, which is, as talked about on this podcast so many times before, sleep is the foundation of all mental and physical health and performance in any aspect of life. Sleep is key, and the mattress you sleep on is key to the sleep you get. After matching you to a customized mattress, you can get up to $200 off any mattress order and two free pillows. Again, if you're interested, you can go to helixsleep.com/huberman to get up to $200 off and two free pillows. And now for my discussion with Dr. Justin Sonnenburg. Justin, thanks so much for being here.