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

About this Video

• Video Title: Behaviors That Alter Your Genes to Improve Your Health & Performance | Dr. Melissa Ilardo
• Channel: Andrew Huberman
• Speakers: Andrew Huberman, Dr. Melissa Ilardo
• Duration: 01:52:11

Introduction

This Huberman Lab podcast episode explores human genetics and epigenetics, focusing on how behavior modifies gene expression, impacting health and performance across generations. Dr. Melissa Ilardo discusses the inheritance of traits, mechanisms like the mammalian dive reflex, mate selection related to the immune system, and the ethical considerations of gene editing.

Key Takeaways

1. Gene Expression Modification: Our genes are constantly changing their expression based on environmental stimuli and behavioral choices. These changes can occur rapidly (minutes to hours) or across generations (epigenetics).
2. Mammalian Dive Reflex: Immersion of the face in cold water while breath-holding triggers the mammalian dive reflex, causing physiological changes (heart rate slowing, blood vessel constriction, spleen contraction) that increase oxygen availability to the brain and body by about 10%.
3. Mate Selection and Immunity: Humans are drawn to mates with immune systems significantly different from their own, likely to produce offspring with broader immune resistance. This preference is detectable through body odor.
4. Human Evolution and Adaptation: Humans continue to evolve due to factors like globalization and intermixing of previously isolated populations, leading to novel genetic combinations and adaptations (e.g., high-altitude adaptation in Tibetans).
5. Gene Editing Ethics: Gene editing technologies like CRISPR are advancing rapidly, raising ethical concerns about enhancement versus correction and potential societal inequalities in access.