Assertion Supported
Huberman: 1mg Melatonin Is ~100x Natural Secretion and Suppresses Puberty
“What you take in terms of one milligram melatonin, very small dosage, something like a hundred times what you naturally secrete. I get really concerned about this, especially in kids because melatonin is actually the hormone that suppresses the onset of pubert…”
Assertion Contradicted
Huberman: Mouth breathing causes deviated septums in most non-trauma cases
“The reason you have a deviated septum is because you're a mouth breather. There are rare exceptions where if people boxed or they had broken nose or something like that, but your sinuses can learn to dilate.”
Assertion Contradicted
Huberman: 15 seconds of bright nighttime light drops melatonin to zero
“Light viewed by the eyes inhibits melatonin, so much so that if melatonin levels are at their peak and you walk into the bathroom at night and you flip on the lights and it's really bright, if you spend more than 10 or 15 seconds in that light, your melatonin …”
Assertion Partly supported
Huberman: Cardiovascular exercise increases hippocampal neurons in mice, not humans
“There's some mouse data or studies published on, on mice showing that exercise, cardiovascular exercise can increase the number of neurons in the hippocampus. Turns out that's true for mice, but not for humans.”
Insight
Huberman: Brain Plasticity After Age 25 Requires Self-Directed Effort
“After age 25, the brain doesn't change unless it's self-directed change, so don't expect anybody to change unless it's self-directed. Forget trying to get people to change. It does not work. It works with children. It does not work with adults unless it's self…”
Assertion Supported
Huberman: PNAS Study Shows Hyperventilation Prevents E. Coli Symptoms
“There's a beautiful study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that shows that when people do this kind of breathing prior to an injection of E. Coli, something I don't recommend people do, they are actually able to remain symptom f…”
Opinion
Huberman: Sleeping with socks on is a terrible idea
“You've probably heard sleep with socks on terrible idea. I don't know why that caught on. That makes no sense whatsoever. You want to be able to dump heat in the middle of the night, because if you get too hot, you'll wake up.”
Assertion Supported
Huberman: Cold water exposure triggers a 2.5x sustained dopamine increase
“There's a paper published in the European Journal of Physiology. It showed that there's a 2.5 X huge increase in dopamine release, very long lasting. 2.5 X is the amount of dopamine that's triggered by the use of cocaine, but the difference is cocaine has a ve…”
Assertion Supported
Huberman: Sufficient Estrogen in Men Is Essential for Brain Health and Libido
“Having sufficient levels of estrogen for men, provided it's not too high, is important for brain longevity and health. It's actually really important for libido.”
Insight
Huberman: Delaying Morning Caffeine 90–120 Minutes Prevents Afternoon Crashes
“So if you keep caffeine out of your system for the first 90 to 120 minutes of waking and then have your caffeine, you'll notice that you'll push through the afternoon just fine without any afternoon drop.”
Assertion Partly supported
Huberman: About 10% of people experience a dopamine surge from alcohol
“Now about 10% of people have a genetic predisposition to get a big dopamine increase from alcohol.”
Insight
Huberman: Double inhales and long exhales rapidly eliminate acute stress
“That double inhale through the nose followed by a long exhale through the mouth will rapidly de-stress you. So much so that most people find they just need to do it once, sometimes two or three times in order to go from a state of real, Kind of stress and anxi…”
Assertion Partly supported
Huberman: Direct brain benefits of exercise stem from load-bearing skeleton stimulation
“The direct effects bring us to osteocalcin, and the direct effects of exercise on brain function and health actually come from stimulation of the skeleton and load-bearing exercise”
Insight
Huberman: Practicing impulse suppression in one task strengthens general self-control
“The thing to understand about neural circuitry is that it's generic. It doesn't, it's not designed so that you have a strong no-go response just to picking up your phone. It actually carries over to multiple other things. And this is also true of the go circui…”
Assertion Contradicted
Huberman: Sunlight through windows fails to set your circadian clock
“Bright light exposure through windows or windshields will not suffice. Those unlike corrective lenses on your eyes, glasses and contacts don't focus the light to your eyes. In fact, they're designed to filter The very light that triggers activation of these ne…”
Assertion Contradicted
Huberman: Late-shifted cortisol peak is a physiological signature of depression
“And actually it's a hallmark physiological signature of depression to have a late shifted cortisol peak.”
Assertion Partly supported
Huberman: Morning Light Triggers Real Cortisol, Adrenaline, and Dopamine Release
“That's not a placebo effect. That's a real effect of the release of cortisol and adrenaline into your body. The release of dopamine is controlled by light, powerful neuromodulator that makes you feel good.”
Assertion Supported
Huberman: Peak alertness occurs 90 minutes before natural bedtime
“The biggest peak in alertness actually occurs about 90 minutes before your natural to sleep time.”
Insight
Huberman: Behavioral tools must precede supplements by rewiring neural circuits
“Behavioral tools should form the foundation of
All your sleep tools, your wakefulness tools, behaviors first, for one simple but important reason, which is that behaviors rewire your nervous system.
They, so they engage what we call neuroplasticity, which is y…”
Assertion Supported
Huberman: Theanine, magnesium threonate, and apigenin activate GABA
“Theanine, magnesium threonate, and apigenin all trigger the activation of a neuro hormone, excuse me, a neurotransmitter in the brain called GABA, which tends to shut off our forebrain.”
Insight
Huberman: People with night terrors or sleepwalking must avoid theanine
“People who have night terrors or who have, who sleepwalk should not take theanine.”
Insight
Huberman: End cold exposure on cold to maximize metabolic fat burn
“If you want to increase your metabolism a lot, because this will increase your metabolism, you're looking at fat loss or this kind of thing. Well, then you want to end with cold because then you need to use your body's natural mechanisms to heat up.”
Assertion Partly supported
Huberman: Short Naps and NSDR Accelerate Neuroplasticity and Learning
“There are several very good papers that were published in the last few years in the journal Cell Report showing that short naps and NSDR, I should say, has some good science to support it, accelerates neuroplasticity and learning. Especially if you take that n…”
Insight
Huberman: Six sets per body part weekly maintains muscle mass
“It's very clear that the body and brain and the skeletal system and the muscular system benefit from any, from a minimum of six sets per body part per week, just to maintain muscle.”
Dr. Andrew Huberman