About this video

• Video Title: Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety | Huberman Lab Essentials
• Channel: Andrew Huberman
• Speakers: Andrew Huberman
• Duration: 00:32:29

Overview

This video explains the science behind stress and provides actionable tools for managing it across different time scales. Andrew Huberman breaks down the acute, medium-term, and long-term stress responses and offers practical techniques like the physiological sigh, deliberate hyperventilation, gaze dilation, social connection, and supplementation to help viewers regulate their stress levels and improve overall well-being.

Key takeaways

• Understanding Stress: Stress is a generalized system that mobilizes the brain and body, not solely an emotion, and understanding its mechanisms allows for better control.
• Acute Stress Response Tools: The physiological sigh (double inhale, long exhale) is presented as a rapid, self-directed method to calm the nervous system by reducing carbon dioxide levels.
• Short-Term Stress Benefits: Acute stress, while often perceived negatively, can benefit the immune system and enhance focus and cognition.
• Medium-Term Stress Management: Raising stress thresholds through practices like deliberate hyperventilation (mimicking Wim Hof breathing), cold exposure, or intense exercise combined with mental relaxation techniques like gaze dilation can increase capacity to handle stress.
• Long-Term Stress Mitigation: Chronic stress is detrimental. Social connection, engagement in activities that bring delight, exercise, good sleep, and certain supplements like L-theanine and ashwagandha are crucial for mitigating its negative effects.
• Supplement Cautions: Melatonin supplementation is cautioned against due to high doses and potential negative effects, while L-theanine and ashwagandha are presented as potentially beneficial for relaxation and stress reduction.

Andrew Huberman discusses three supplements in relation to managing stress and anxiety:

• L-theanine: Recommended at 100-200mg, taken 30-60 minutes before sleep, it can enhance sleep transition and depth, increase GABA (an inhibitory neurotransmitter), and significantly increase relaxation for those experiencing chronic anxiety or stress.
• Ashwagandha: This supplement is noted for its ability to lower anxiety and cortisol levels, which is beneficial for mitigating the long-term effects of stress. Huberman suggests using it intermittently, only when feeling that short and medium-term stress is not being managed well, rather than on a regular, year-round basis.
• Melatonin: Huberman advises caution with melatonin supplementation. He does not personally recommend it, primarily because it's often supplemented at very high doses (1-3mg or more). He notes that these doses can have potentially negative effects on the reproductive axis and hormones. He clarifies that melatonin is a hormone secreted in response to darkness and primarily helps with falling asleep, not staying asleep.