How to Breathe Correctly for Optimal Health, Mood, Learning & Performance

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2023

⏱️ 139 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, I explain the biology of breathing (respiration), how it delivers oxygen and carbon dioxide to the cells and tissues of the body and how is best to breathe—nose versus mouth, fast versus slow, deliberately versus reflexively, etc., depending on your health and performance needs. I discuss the positive benefits of breathing properly for mood, to reduce psychological and physiological stress, to halt sleep apnea, and improve facial aesthetics and immune system function. I also compare what is known about the effects and effectiveness of different breathing techniques, including physiological sighs, box breathing and cyclic hyperventilation, “Wim Hof Method,” Prānāyāma yogic breathing and more. I also describe how to breath to optimize learning, memory and reaction time and I explain breathing at high altitudes, why “overbreathing” is bad, and how to breathe specifically to relieve cramps and hiccups. Breathwork practices are zero-cost and require minimal time yet provide a unique and powerful avenue to improve overall quality of life that is grounded in clear physiology. Anyone interesting in improving their mental and physical health or performance in any endeavor ought to benefit from the information and tools in this episode. For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman HVMN: https://hvmn.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman WHOOP: https://join.whoop.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://www.insidetracker.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Breathing (00:05:41) Sponsors: HVMN, Helix Sleep, WHOOP (00:09:36) Respiration, Oxygen & Carbon Dioxide (00:18:18) Breathing Mechanics (00:30:08) AG1 (Athletic Greens) (00:31:23) Chemistry of Breathing, Hyperventilation (00:40:35) High Altitudes, Oxygen & Breathing (00:47:16) Tool: Sleep Apnea, Nasal Breathing (00:51:50) Brain Centers & Breathing Rhythm (00:57:23) Brain, Hyperventilation & “Over-breathing” (01:03:53) What is Healthy Breathing? (01:08:26) InsideTracker (01:09:44) Tool: Train Healthy Breathing, Carbon Dioxide Tolerance Test & Box Breathing (01:22:39) Tool: Breathwork & Stress Reduction; Cyclic Sighing (01:33:56) Tool: Physiological Sighing & Exercise Side Cramp (01:39:16) Breathing & Heart Rate Variability (01:46:21) Tool: How to Stop Hiccups (01:51:17) Tool: Stress Management & Cyclic Hyperventilation, “Wim Hof Method” (01:57:11) Deliberate Cold Exposure & Breathing (01:59:54) Tool: Inhales & Learning; Exhales & Movement (02:09:15) Mouth vs. Nasal Breathing, Aesthetics (02:16:19) Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:08.6	I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and
0:12.1	Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today we are discussing breathing.
0:16.8	Now breathing is something that we are all familiar with because, frankly, we are all doing it right now,
0:21.4	and we do it during our waking states and while we are asleep. And most of us have probably heard that breathing is essential to life.
0:29.0	We hear that we can survive without food for some period of time, maybe even up to a month or more.
0:34.0	That we can't survive that long without water, but we could survive a few days without water, depending on how well hydrated
0:39.2	We are when we go into that water deprivation and the heat of the environment we happen to be in.
0:44.2	But that we cannot survive without breathing for more than a few minutes. That if we cease to breathe,
0:50.1	that our brain and our bodily tissues will die. And in fact, that is true. However,
0:54.8	despite everybody's knowledge that breathing is essential to life, I don't think that most people realize just how important
1:01.6	how we breathe is to our quality of life. And that includes our mental health, our physical health, and what we call performance.
1:09.0	That is our ability to tap into skills, either physical or cognitive in ways that we would not be able to otherwise
1:15.5	if we are not breathing correctly. So today we are going to talk about what it is to breathe correctly both at rest
1:21.7	during sleep in order to reduce our levels of stress, in order to wake up or to become more alert deliberately.
1:30.1	And many, many other things including how to stop hiccuping. This is one of the most search for topics on the internet.
1:36.1	Today I will teach you the one method that is actually linked to science.
1:40.2	No, it does not involve drinking a glass of water backwards from the opposite side of the cup or holding your breath in any kind of
1:47.4	esoteric way. It actually relates to the neural mechanisms. That is the brain to body connections that
1:53.6	cause the hiccup is a spasm of that neural circuit. And I'll teach you how to turn off that neural circuit in one try.
2:00.6	And that's not a technique I developed. It's a technique that's actually been known about for several centuries.
2:06.7	And we now know the underlying mechanism. So today's discussion will give to you many tools that you can apply.
	...

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