Foods that boost energy and increase metabolism: - Fermented foods (kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, full-fat yogurt) - feed the gut microbiome and may improve glycemic control and reduce gut inflammation. - Coffee oligosaccharides - extracted from spent coffee grounds, shown to reduce adipose fat tissue in men in a placebo-controlled trial. - Ginger dissolved in warm water - a single serving significantly elevated the thermic effect of food over a six-hour measurement period, likely through the capsaicin receptor. @MPStOngePhD on @hubermanlab

Rick Rubin explains why the Grateful Dead were so good. "The Grateful Dead is a good example of a band where I feel like their albums are not their strong point." "But if you hear live recordings, they're really interesting and really different from each other." "Part of what makes the Grateful Dead interesting is their unpredictability." @RickRubin on @hubermanlab

The data on seed oils vs. saturated fats may be more nuanced than you think: In a 25-day controlled study, participants who snacked on corn chips (fried in seed oils) twice daily had better lipid profiles and lower lipoprotein(a) levels than those eating low-fat high-carbohydrate or high-saturated-fat snacks. Lipoprotein(a) is an independent cardiometabolic risk factor and the chips came out ahead. A reminder that the lipid story is more nuanced than the label on the package. @MPStOngePhD on @hubermanlab

Rick Rubin's daily routine: "I try to wake up slowly... going out into the sun as naked as possible to start the day." "I tend not to engage in any work until probably 11:00 a.m. would be the soonest, and some days not until 1:00. And then I do focused work until maybe 6." "From the time the sun sets, I'm wearing red glasses. I'm in a space with only red light." @RickRubin on @hubermanlab

Cell phone usage and EMFs can have a negative impact on sperm health and testosterone levels: "The electromagnetic fields and the heat-related effects of smartphones can indeed have a detrimental effect on sperm quality and, yes, indeed, on testosterone levels as well." "Phones emit radio frequency electromagnetic waves and have potential adverse effects on brain, heart, endocrine system, and reproductive function." "Probably not a problem for most males to carry their phone. But probably best to not carry it in the front pocket. Maybe even avoid carrying it in the back pocket as well." @hubermanlab

Do you have to be dissatisfied to be driven? James Clear: I look at my current state and I realize there's a gap between where I am and where I want to be. And that dissatisfaction with that gap is what drives you forward. It's the drive to close the gap that gets you to show up and work hard or take the test or do the thing. And I think certainly there are many times in my life when that has been the driving force. But the healthiest response I think that I've come up with, or the counterpoint, is imagine that like an acorn falls from a tree and it manages to take root and starts to grow. And at first it's just this little acorn and then it's a sapling and then it grows into this eventually this large mature oak. And at no point in that process was it like berating itself for only being an acorn or for only being a sapling, right? For not being enough yet, for not being big enough, for not having achieved that outcome. Nobody looks at it and thinks, "Oh, what a failure. You aren't a full oak tree yet." And yet, despite that, there isn't this dissatisfaction going on. It continues to grow. And I think the answer there is it grows simply because that is what an oak tree does. It grows because that is what it is encoded to do. And so I feel like the healthiest version of me, like just flowing with it, you know, or just stepping into it is: What do I feel like I'm encoded to do? This is my strength. This is what I like. It lights me up. It makes me feel alive. And then I can be quite driven and not feel dissatisfied in the moment. @JamesClear on @hubermanlab

Diet quality is one of the more underappreciated levers for sleep. Closer alignment with the Mediterranean or DASH diet is associated with better sleep duration, fewer insomnia symptoms, and lower likelihood of developing insomnia over time. Insomnia isn't static. It can resolve. Diet appears to be one reason why. @MPStOngePhD on @hubermanlab

Tinnitus is very common, also the No. 1 military disability & costs $1B per year to taxpayers. In most cases it’s preventable. It happens because of neuroplasticity gone awry. Neuroplasticity is also how you fix it. Dr. Michael Kilgard on @hubermanlab

Why deep focus is difficult to drop into and how to improve your ability to do it: - The first 10-15 minutes of distraction-free work feel excruciating... If you push through, sustained focus becomes available for hours. - Phones literally drain acetylcholine, the brain chemical that creates attentional focus. - Changing your environment resets your focus, moving to a new cafe or seat can break a mental rut the same way interval training resets the body. - Effortful cognition works on its own timeline: scheduling thinking-intensive work before downtime (a flight, a walk) lets ideas marinate without forcing them. @JMGrohNeuro on @hubermanlab

Simple test for gauging recovery and workout readiness: "How do you know when a muscle is ready to be challenged again?" "If you're training when you're really sore, it's probably not a great idea and it's a good indication that that muscle's not recovered." "When you start to see a drop-off of 10% or so, or even greater, of your grip output, you really should skip the gym that day." @trainer2thepros on @hubermanlab

Supplements that can help improve sleep: - Myoinositol - Theanine - Magnesium threonate - Magnesium bisglycinate - Apigenin @hubermanlab

How dopamine controls your motivation: "Dopamine is released in anticipation of what we want." "Desire for things increases dopamine, but then our level of dopamine drops below baseline." "That drop below baseline triggers the motivation to bring that dopamine level back up by going and pursuing the thing that you wanted in the first place." @hubermanlab

3 steps for curing a hangover based on science: 1. Restore the gut microbiome: "Ingesting low sugar fermented foods or maybe a prebiotic or probiotic to support the gut microbiome might assist in some of the gut-related malaise associated with hangover." 2. Deliberate cold exposure: "One could imagine using deliberate cold exposure as a way to accelerate the recovery from hangover, provided that's done safely... There's some evidence pointing to the fact that when levels of epinephrine, adrenaline are raised in the brain and bloodstream, that some of the components of alcohol metabolism can be accelerated." 3. Consume electrolytes: "Making sure that you have enough sodium, potassium, and magnesium, so-called electrolytes is going to be important for proper brain function, bodily organ function." @hubermanlab

Peptide that might improve sleep & cognitive function: - Pinealon is a tripeptide (EDR) originally developed from Soviet-era research to reverse accelerated aging in soldiers, submariners, and astronauts with disrupted circadian rhythms. - Taking it at the start of the night can reduce deep slow-wave sleep and spike REM. Taking it mid-sleep, after waking, shifts the ratio toward more REM in the final hours. - Anecdotally, users describe less morning brain fog, sharper daytime alertness, and better performance during high-intensity training. @AbudBakri on @hubermanlab

3 steps for improving your communication skills: "The only way you get better at communication is three things: repetition, reflection, and feedback." "Nobody has ever thought their way to better communication. You have to do it." "That definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. That's how many people communicate." "Every night before I go to bed, I spend one minute writing down what went well and what didn't go well in my communication that day." "Every Sunday, I spend five minutes going back over the previous week, and I make a plan for the following week." @Abrahams_Matt on @hubermanlab

James Clear: "Almost every thought that you have is downstream from what you consume." "When you choose who to follow on social media or which podcast to listen to or which book to read or what YouTube channel to watch, you are choosing your future thoughts in a sense." "If you want better, more productive, more creative thoughts, then you need better, more productive, more creative inputs." @JamesClear on @hubermanlab

What we still don't know about GLP-1s: "The GLP-1 is a giant signal to the brain of don't eat." "What happens to all these young kids that are 18, 19 years old on 5 milligrams of retatrutide that have lost 30, 40 pounds? Are they going to have to be on that for life now to maintain that weight?" "We don't know what the long-term effects of those are on neuroplasticity." @AbudBakri on @hubermanlab

.@davidgoggins on how to create your own motivation: "Everybody has the ability to do it, but they just don't want to." "They want to keep asking questions and going to seminars." "Hard work looks horrible, it's not motivating. It looks like a man being stuck in a dungeon and there's no way out." @hubermanlab

Where BPC-157 peptide comes from and how it affects the body: - Croatian research group in the '90s isolated BPC-157 from a much larger 40,000-unit peptide naturally found in the gut - it is 15 amino acids long and is not something the body produces on its own. - Researchers theorized the stomach contained a cytoprotective compound after Pavlov's gastric juice experiments showed healing effects on GI tissue. - BPC-157 accelerates repair by upregulating VEGF signaling (new blood vessel formation), boosting nitric oxide synthesis, and increasing growth hormone receptors on tendons. - Corticosteroids normally halt wound healing - BPC-157 administered alongside them maintained or even improved healing outcomes in animal models. - In mouse models, BPC-157 reduced intoxication, blunted alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and appears to modulate dopaminergic signaling - effects that get far less attention than its musculoskeletal uses. @AbudBakri on @hubermanlab