Essentials: How to Build, Maintain & Repair Gut Health | Dr. Justin Sonnenburg

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Life Sciences, Science, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, my guest is Dr. Justin Sonnenburg, PhD, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. We discuss how microbes in our gut impact our mental and physical health and how diet and the environment affect the gut microbiome. We explain how lifestyle factors such as antibiotics and Western-style diets (high fat, low fiber and rich in processed foods) can damage gut diversity and whether prebiotics or probiotics are useful tools. Throughout the episode, we highlight evidence-based dietary and lifestyle strategies for improving gut health. Episode show notes: https://go.hubermanlab.com/VXfckJf Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Joovv: https://joovv.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Timestamps 00:00:00 Justin Sonnenburg 00:00:20 What is the Microbiome? 00:02:55 Microbiome Origin, Babies, Environmental Factors 00:04:47 Healthy Microbiome, Individuality; Industrialized vs Traditional Populations 00:07:06 Sponsor: AG1 00:08:30 “Reprogramming” the Gut Microbiome; Antibiotics, Western Diet 00:12:58 Cleanses & Fasting 00:13:55 Processed Foods & Microbiome, Artificial Sweeteners, Emulsifiers 00:17:35 Sponsor: Joovv 00:18:55 Inflammatory Western Diseases, Microbiome & Immune System 00:21:51 Fiber, Fermented Foods & Microbiome, Tool: Fermented Food Consumption 00:28:20 Sponsor: Function 00:30:00 Fiber, Depleted Microbiome, Industrialization, Sanitation 00:31:33 Antibiotics, Over-Sanitation, Disease, Hand Washing 00:33:26 Probiotics, Tool: Product Validation, 00:35:15 Prebiotics, Tool: Plant Consumption 00:37:48 Good Gut Book, Justin’s Research Disclaimer & Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance.
0:11.5	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:17.2	And now for my discussion with Dr. Justin Sondonberg.
0:20.8	Justin, thanks so much for being here.
0:22.5	Great to be here.
0:23.7	I am a true novice when it comes to the microbiome.
0:28.5	So I'd like to start off with a really basic question, which is what is the microbiome?
0:34.4	I think, you know, just to start off with clarifying terminology, microbiome and microbiota quite often are used to refer to our microbiome. I think, you know, just to start off with clarifying terminology, microbiome and microbiota
0:39.6	quite often are used to refer to our microbial community interchangeably, and I'll probably
0:43.9	switch between those two terms today.
0:46.2	The other important thing to realize is that these microbes are not just in our gut, but
0:51.3	they're all over our body.
0:52.8	They're in our nose, They're in our mouths.
0:55.0	They're on our skin. Basically anywhere that the environment can get to in our body, which includes
1:00.7	inside our digestive tract, of course, is colonized with microbes. And the vast majority of these
1:06.9	are in our distal gut and in our colon. And so this is the gut microbiota or gut microbiome.
1:13.2	And the density of this community is astounding.
1:17.9	You start off with a zoomed-out view and you see something that looks like, you know,
1:21.6	fecal material, the digested inside the gut, and you zoom in and you start to, you know to get to the microscopic level and see the microbes,
1:30.3	they are just packed side to side end to end. It's a super dense bacterial community, almost like
1:36.8	a biofilm to the point where it's thought that around 30% of fecal matter is microbes, 30 to 50%.
1:44.7	So, you know, it's an incredibly dense microbial community.
	...

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