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Important Update: Maintaining Respect and Focus in Our Community

Dear HubermanLab Community,

As the moderators of this subreddit, we are committed to fostering a respectful, informative, and supportive environment focused on the scientific contributions and insights provided by Dr. Andrew Huberman and his team.

Our platform has always been a place for thoughtful discussion, learning, and growth centered around neuroscience and its application to improving our lives.

We recognize that recent events may have stirred strong emotions and led to an influx of content that deviates from our core mission. It is crucial to remember that the primary aim of this subreddit is to discuss and share knowledge related to the science of neurobiology and its practical applications, as shared through the HubermanLab.

To preserve the integrity of our community and ensure it remains a resource for those genuinely interested in its content, we must make it clear that any posts, comments, or content not related to the scientific and educational aspects of the HubermanLab will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, personal attacks, unsubstantiated claims, and off-topic discussions that do not contribute constructively to our collective learning experience.

We understand this is a challenging time for our community, and emotions may run high. However, we must ask everyone to respect the purpose of this subreddit. Let us use this moment as an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to science, learning, and mutual respect.

Please be aware that moving forward, a strict enforcement of our guidelines will be in place. Any individual found posting inappropriate or off-topic content will face immediate moderation actions, up to and including a permanent ban.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in keeping our community a positive and educational space. Let’s continue to support each other in our pursuit of knowledge and personal growth.

Thank you

P.s. If you want to help, the best thing you can do is flag any content that violates our rules. All flagged content will be reviewed.



After insanely abusing Adderall for years i decided to try a different approach to living with ADD in fear for my health, what's your thoughts about them? After insanely abusing Adderall for years i decided to try a different approach to living with ADD in fear for my health, what's your thoughts about them?
Seeking Guidance

Magnesium Glycinate PowderCapsule / 270 Capsules

1L-Theanine CapsulesCapsule / 365 Capsules

1L-Tyrosine CapsulesCapsule / 240 Capsules

1N-Acetyl L-Cysteine (NAC) CapsulesCapsule / 360 Capsules - 1000mg Per Serving

15-HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan) CapsulesCapsule / 360 Capsules (400mg)

How do you think it'll work out? in what ways will it affect me & help me without using Adderall ?



What do we think of Huberman's strength and supplement protocol? What do we think of Huberman's strength and supplement protocol?
Protocol Query

I have been consistently strength training for about 20 years, most of my knowledge and routines were learned in the mid-2000s (Max-OT, HST, Arnold, etc). As I am getting older, I am also thinking more about longevity. I have been a fan of the Huberman Lab podcast and have recently been looking at more overall wellness and longevity. I don't have the time for 5-7 days of heavy lifting anymore. For a 3-4 day split, can big strength gains be made with HIIT and longer cardio on the off days?

Training- is this a good recommendation within today's research? How long for rest? Based on prior programs I mentioned, 2-3min between sets was common, but now I am seeing more recommendations in the 3-5min range.

  1. Huberman recommends using weights ranging from 30% to 80% of your one-repetition maximum (1RM). For hypertrophy, focus on higher repetitions (6-8) within this range. For strength, use weights at the higher end of this spectrum to for reps in the 3-5 range, while also incorporating higher-rep sets to induce metabolic stress. Perform sets until failure or near-failure to recruit high-threshold motor units.

  2. Volume & Frequency: Huberman suggests a minimum of 10 hard sets per muscle group per week, distributed across 2-3 strength workouts. This aligns with research showing that higher training volumes generally lead to greater muscle growth.

Supplements- is this a good list? anything that should be added or taken away?

  • Protein

  • Creatine- seems like loading is out, is cycling still recommended?

  • Leucine- is there enough in whey supplements and other dietary sources?

  • Beta Alanine

  • Vitamin D

  • Magnesium Malate

  • Omega-3s

Here is the full detailed protocol- https://www.podcasterpicks.com/hubermans-muscle-growth-supplement-recommendations/




Has anyone noticed that Huberman is nowadays sharing FAR more personal stories/anecdotes? Has anyone noticed that Huberman is nowadays sharing FAR more personal stories/anecdotes?
Constructive Criticism

I've watched all the useful episodes, and there appears to be a stark contrast between how the information was presented earlier and how it is now. Nowadays, at a mention of, say, the amygdala being shaped like an almond, the dude will go on a tangent about how some dude who studied it ate a lot of almonds, which is something that he wouldn't do previously (with Castello being the only notable exception)


Optimal cognitive rest on a weekly scale Optimal cognitive rest on a weekly scale
Seeking Guidance

So, as far as I remember, Huberman mentions that he usually avoid working on Sundays. I'm talking about intellectual work here, not workout, as in the same episode he explains he tries to go on long walk/run during those "rest" days.

I think he also explains that he tries to "rest" in ways that keep his mind conditioned for the intellectual work he does on a daily basis, ie : trying to read a book during his deep work time slots, so even if it's not exactly work, his brain doesn't start to associate 7pm - 8:30pm to "having fun" or chilling.

I tried to apply this active rest philosophy, but I feel like I'm missing something.

I'm a knowledge worker, freelancing, working full remote, on my own terms, and I'm not exactly happy with my schedule. To be more precise, I'm neither happy with my current focus level, nor with the way I rest on Sunday.

During the last years, I was working as an employee, and was often working 7 days a week. Now that I'm freelance, I made a rule to "rest" on Sunday. This rest can include watching a movie, playing a non addictive video game, reading few pages from a book, listening to podcast / audio book, working out, or going on a 2 hours walk. And just to be clear, I don't do all of those activities each Sunday.

Anyway, sometimes I don't feel rested enough when Monday comes, though I don't change my sleep schedule. Plus, in order to respect this "non working rule", I sometimes feel myself resisting the desire to work on project related to my work. Sometimes I resists working for a client, and sometimes I resist writing some content to promote my brand (YouTube videos, articles, and so on).

So, it's a strange dilemma : I'm afraid if I start working on Sundays again I will burn out, but I feel like I could really gain some edge in my marketing if I was using Sundays to explore some ideas.

Do you have any insights about what I'm getting wrong ? Is there any scientific consensus about weekly rest ?

(first post here, so please tell me if I'm not doing something right)



HOW TO SET GOALS USING SELF IMAGE HOW TO SET GOALS USING SELF IMAGE
Personal Experience

As the title says, your desire is not to actually get X amount of money; it is to BECOME THE PERSON that gets X amount of money. You might say, "I already am that person; I just need to wait." No, because if you were that person, you would already have X amount of money. This concept can be applied to any goal you have in your life, big or small. Thinking like this will change the way you set the prerequisite goals to get that money or achieve that goal in a more helpful way. Instead of asking yourself, "What do I need to do to get to that goal?" ask yourself, "What does the person that already achieves this goal do?" While you think of solutions to this, don't think of this person as your future self; think of them as a completely different person. Once you have answered the question, start doing what that other imaginary person does. Yes, it's this simple. You might realize habits you have to start and stop doing; you might change the people you are talking to; you might even move back in with your parents.

The point is, when you imagine your ideal person instead of the things you need to do, you put your goal in the context of yourself. In other words, your goal has become personified by yourself! It isn't some abstract thing, or X amount of money, or your dream car anymore; the goal has turned into a person. A person that you conjured because you believe that is the ideal state to reach your goal. With this new perspective, it becomes easier to think of EVERYTHING you need to do to achieve the goal. Now, when you start trying to become this new person, the old person will not just disappear into thin air. The old you will struggle and fight to stay alive simply because it has had control for so long. These struggles to stay alive come in the form of self-doubt and the desire to indulge in bad habits. The old you will try its best, but as long as the current you keeps pushing the old you out to make room for the new you, you will absolutely achieve the goals you set in no time.

Another way to think of the transition between the new and old you is like voting for the president. Every action and decision you make can be seen as a vote. The candidates to be president are the old you and the new you. Every bad decision you make is a vote for the old you, and every good decision is for the new you.

Whatever way you decide to think, remember that every single action and decision you take, no matter big or small, has the effect of either pulling you back or pushing you forward.

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Mathew Hill and Huberman Podcast: CBD placebo Mathew Hill and Huberman Podcast: CBD placebo
Episode Discussion

Soooo did anyone check this episode out?? At 3:07:22 they talk about CBD and how most stuff that's on the market isn't a high enough dose to be effective and effects were mostly placebo or expectancy bias!! This blew my mind!! Also made me mad cus l've used a lot of CBD products in my life and had varying experiences. Crazy to me to think it was placebo According to Dr. Hill, effective dose of CBD is between 500-1500mg, and CBD has terrible bioavailability- I'm very curious about the other cannabinoids, but I don't believe this applies to smoked/vaped CBD either.




Vorinostat: Fear/Trauma Extinction (Report) Vorinostat: Fear/Trauma Extinction (Report)
Personal Experience

HDAC inhibition (Trauma/Fear Reducer)

given it's strong enough and hits the right HDAC type (there are multiple, just like there are multiple kinds of serotonin/dopamine receptors), can 'extinct fear' in human memory, something not much else can do, essentially weakening trauma significantly.

Vorinostat is the only known HDAC inhibitor to be strong enough to do so. Yes there is butyrate and valproate, but both of those are not strong or acute enough to work. HDAC works via enabling your memories to be overwritten over for a short period of time via some mechanism I personally do not understand. Check out the link at the end for a more scientific explanation on reddit. Here's a quote from that post.

The HDAC inhibitor holds open the transcription window during memory formation, enabling the real-time reevaluation of the old memories, and the ability to strongly consolidate the present moment into long-term memory. This double whammy makes sure the present moment is prioritized. HDAC inhibitors, while on them, also let you more deftly analyze any situation you’re in due to nearly everything during the session being written into long-term memory in one way or another. This allows for a relatively extraordinary amount of learning power. They give you not only a clean-slate emotion-wise, but the memory power to make more intelligent decisions.

Risks

Here's another quote before I give my own input.

First, I must give a general guideline and disclaimer about HDAC inhibitors. These are not piracetam… we can’t just take some and see what happens. These compounds, so far, are only used for cancer, they are relatively in their infancy for any use other than this, and are very powerful compounds. Please educate yourself on how they work and how exactly they should be used for what you’re planning on using them for. HDAC inhibitors can arrest the cell cycle (which is how they kill cancer), so they cannot be taken every day. HDAC inhibitors should also be taken at dosages much less than those recommended for cancer. They will still be quite strong enough for our uses at lower dosages. Vorinostat, for example, is taken at 400mg every day for cancer, but for memory enhancement one would take 150mg once in a four day period maximum.

That being said, HDAC inhibitors can be taken safely acutely, and have some incredible effects due to their unique mechanisms. Now let’s get to the good stuff!

Vorinostat carries some RISK. After all, it's an approved anti-cancer drug at 4 to 8 times the dose, and cancer drugs are risky because cancer is very lethal, so worse side effects are tolerated. At normal, daily dosages, it's meant to stop cell reproduction (I think t-cells), which obviously is not something to mess with, so avoid those effects by sticking to recommended dosages and dosing weekly at most.

  1. Pharma grade is pretty impossible to get and expensive, so you have to rely on chemists, say in china, to make/sell it to you. Your quality controls from buying from a lab is never guaranteed, and it's not intended for human consumption. Now, if you trust who you buy from, you should be ok, just be aware.

  2. Side effects while seemingly rare, can be bad. Out of everything I've read, one person allegedly got permanent tendon pain after 4 uses over the course of a month. I have no idea how it onset, but, this is the only person to have permanent damage from that out of the tens of thousands that have tried it for these purposes. I guess the last risk is that it doesn't work, but I think it's very much worth trying out. Just treat it with respect. I would wager at least 60% experience benefits, the rest not so much, and maybe significant side effects .1%. There is no data, but in my non-medical opinion, it's worth it.

There is nothing like vorinostat, but you NEED to be aware of the two risks mentioned. I am not giving medical advice (obviously), but I think good risk reduction would be, first, to test for a bad reaction, say take 5-10mg it, then try 50mg then 100mg, which is the highest dose for fear extinction, though 50mg should work too.

The idea behind using vorinostat is that you take it while you are clam and relaxed, wait 30-45 minutes for it to kick in, and then you reminisce and reflect on your anxieties and traumas that are deep within your memory, it should last an hour before your memories close again. You essentially replay these bad, traumatic memories and tell yourself why you should not fear it, and maybe spin it in a postive, non-stressful way.

After the second or third session, the trauma, whatever that may be, should be significantly weakened. It is also said whatever you do during the session is imprinted onto you. So I always made an effort to do good but still relaxed things while on it, and it may have helped.

It is said that it can't make anything worse, as your current calm and relaxed state in your 'session' can only overwrite negative or fearful things. There are no reports of fears being made worse because of this.

My Experience

For me, it removed my trauma related to hating drugs (it's complicated, but this trauma really has been a problem for me in the past year, trauma can be weird),

and it made me pretty much not care anymore about the rather stressful events of the past year, it also helped somewhat with social anxiety. It completely made me stop worrying about these things and I feel like a brand new person with a new handle on life.

Now that some of my traumas are gone, I'm able to love a girl I've crushed on for so long, able to be focus my time on life instead of worrying about things that did not affect me, and I have less social anxiety.

You have to space it out by at least a week and observe for any side effects, like I said, the single tendon damaged individual is real, but for me and a lot others, I feel fine and brand new.

There is no other nootropic or drug like this. I implore you to read people's experiences on reddit or longecity. People curing or weakening their social anxiety is the biggest one, but trauma comes in all forms and odds and for me, I am a somewhat sensitive person and this really helped me be better without therapy. If you can attack the trauma from the root source, your memories, memories that hold fear your brain wants to remember for the sake of survival, that it does not want to rid of no matter how useless or counterproductive it is. And even if it does not allow you to 'wipe' all the bad, it gives you a chance to not be frozen or burdened with emotions when trying to approach the problem.

In fact, there is a correlation in humans between the time a long-term fear memory has been in existence and how hard it is to overcome. The older a fear memory is, the harder it is to use clinical fear extinction methods to overcome the fear. In most cases, the fear memory becomes stronger whether the trigger is still there or not, because the fear memory is so strong that whenever it is recalled and reconsolidated, the additive effect of reconsolidation is always greater than the realization that there is no longer an actual threat, and that the trigger is in itself harmless.

It's the best thing I've ever tried and I am amazed by what it has done for me. My experience however is not indicative of what your experience would be. For some people it did not work. Do not buy something just because one post says this has #changedmylife. I have bought so many ineffective and benign supplements doing this, so you need to read read read to get an idea of how effective something really is for people in general. There are no statistics on non-response or side effect rates, so again I implore you to read online about it.

I would not talk about how to buy the stuff here. Answers I think can be found online, but I think this subreddit is for intelligent scientific discussion, not blatant sourcing or recommendations of remotly risky things without caution. Plus, that should be part of your reading process in understanding this potentially beneficial chemical.

Please ask any questions below.

Longecity Discussions (Much more than on reddit)

More In-depth Post

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That one episode where it's said that drinking fewer water equalized chem balance & solved her brainfog, day lethargy issues. That one episode where it's said that drinking fewer water equalized chem balance & solved her brainfog, day lethargy issues.
Episode Discussion

Probably not for me. I guess I just end up dehydrated. But there's certainly something about drinking too much water, especially before bed time this could mean more trips to the bathroom and disrupted sleep. But I was curious about this as the guest says too much water intake imbalanced her acidity or ph that it was a main cause for her day lethargy and brainfog. Is this true?



Getting Started with Intermittent Reward as a Motivation Tactic Getting Started with Intermittent Reward as a Motivation Tactic
Helpful Resource

(read the post)

In his "Toolkit for Setting & Achieving Goals" Huberman writes,

Motivation and the associated neurochemical dopamine have been the topic of many Huberman Lab episodes. In brief, consistently receiving rewards diminishes the reward’s power and reduces overall motivation. In contrast, only rewarding yourself at the finish line (~12 weeks) also reduces motivation. The solution? Use random, intermittent rewards (like a slot machine) to maintain motivation

Despite how often he has talked about intermittent reward, the actual practical details have largely been left as an exercise to the listener. This linked article fills in a lot of the gaps and introduces a new tool for implementing it



THE POWER OF IMAGINATION THE POWER OF IMAGINATION
Personal Experience

The ability to picture something that is not there, create things that don't exist, and recreate experiences all within your mind is one of the greatest abilities humans have. Consciously, we know that when we imagine things, they aren't actually there. Of course, the objects you can imagine could exist in real life, but specifically, they are only in your mind; therefore, they aren't real. You know they aren't real, but specific parts of your brain cannot tell the difference whether they are actually there or not. A great example of this is sexual arousal. You feel the physical symptoms when you watch or imagine things of that nature; you consciously know those people aren't there, yet your body and mind react as if they are.

We can use this mechanism to our advantage. When something happens to you over and over again in reality, your body and mind will adapt. Whether it's a good or bad thing, some neural connections will become stronger or weaker depending on what keeps happening to you and what needs to change to ensure the goal. An example of this is practicing literally anything for an extended period of time. Basketball players constantly practice to get better at their sport. Remember, our mind can't tell the difference; therefore, if we were to imagine ourselves practicing free throws, we would achieve the same result as the people who actually practiced it. I understand your doubts; The link to the study is pinned in the comments, I highly recommend you check it out as well as the sources. I know it can seem ridiculous, but it is absolutely real. The way I personally use this ability is to imagine myself getting hard work done. I picture myself sitting at my desk, feel the keys hit my fingers, feel myself struggling with something but getting through it, and anything else that comes with hard work. The key to this working is to simulate reality in your mind as closely as you can. Picture yourself in the first person and feel all the feelings you would if you were to do this in real life. A great way to make this process easier is to write down what you want to imagine and then fill out as many details as you can about what you are imagining. While you're doing the visualization, reference the paper as you go along to ensure your imagination is as close to reality as possible.

If you consistently stick with this practice, I guarantee you will be doing what you imagined in no time. Something I noticed while doing this practice is that the situations I visualized, which were more complicated or required other things to happen first, took much longer to actually happen compared to the simpler situations I visualized. In retrospect, it seemed fairly obvious, but for some reason, I expected it all to happen very fast when I found out about this practice. Stay consistent, and your body will naturally start doing things that align with the goal you are visualizing.

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