r/HubermanLab

I was reading more about red light therapy after hearing Huberman talk about light exposure, mitochondria, sleep, skin, and recovery. It seems interesting enough that I ordered the Sunmat from Sweat tent to use with my sauna/cold plunge routine. For anyone here who’s used red light regularly, did you notice better sleep, less soreness, skin changes, mood, energy, joint pain, or anything else? Also how long did it take before you noticed anything, assuming you did?

Hi, not sure anyone has this, but I have naturally high SHBG levels (78 nmol/L), based on my genetics. I have high Total T as well, with High SHBG, my free T is about average to lower. I do take a high dosage of Boron daily (6-8mg daily), is there anything else I can do to lower my SHBG levels? I am not looking to increase Total T (it is in the 800s). Does anyone else have naturally high SHBG levels?

I've been optimizing my entire routine for a year now, which includes daily cold showers in the morning, no coffee before 10 AM and going out to enjoy natural daylight at first opportunity. I feel absolutely focused throughout the day, yet my sleep pattern has been hit by a severe problem for the past 4 months now.

Falling asleep is not a problem for me at all, as I fall asleep every night at 11 PM, but I always wake up abruptly at 3 or 3:30 AM with heart palpitations, sudden rush of adrenaline and immediate thoughts about my work, clients' deadlines. Once I get a cortisol surge, there's no way I can get back into deep sleep; it becomes fragmented and shallow from that point. I wake up at 7 AM completely refreshed, like my body has been using up its dopamine reserve overnight.

The use of exogenous melatonin is not an option for me, given that Huberman has continuously emphasized how it affects the hormonal axis and disrupts testicular function. I experimented with using large amounts of L-Theanine at night time, and it ended up making me have vivid nightmares in the middle of my sleep that made me feel even more tired than I already was. As I travel quite often for my projects, carrying around individual bags with different aminos is becoming increasingly problematic at the airport.

What I really need is something that will help me stabilize my cortisol levels during the night time, while stimulating GABA receptors to help me sleep through the 3 AM hour. Has anyone managed to find a clean capsule stack that can do the trick?

So I went pretty deep on this one because I was about to make the same mistake myself.

Around 25% of Americans are below the clinical deficiency threshold on a standard blood test. Most have no idea because nobody ran the test. The USPSTF decided there wasn't enough evidence to recommend routine screening for people without symptoms, which basically gave primary care doctors permission to skip it. So they do.

Here is what that actually costs you. Not mortality stats, those are murky with vitamin D. The stuff that hits closer to home for anyone over 50: muscle loss accelerates when vitamin D is low because the receptors are sitting right in muscle tissue. Bone density drops. A 2025 study found deficiency more than doubled sarcopenia risk in older adults. And sarcopenia feeds fall risk, falls feed fractures, and hip fractures in older adults are genuinely one of the worst outcomes in medicine. That chain is real and it's modifiable.

The immune piece is more solid than people give it credit for. Martineau 2017, BMJ, 25 RCTs, 11,000 people. Respiratory infection protection was real, strongest by a wide margin in people who were actually deficient going in. Same story every time with this one. Works when you need it. Does almost nothing when you don't.

And this is where the whole debate goes sideways. VITAL. ViDA. D-HEALTH. The big trials showed nothing, people cite them constantly. What they don't say is that VITAL participants came in averaging around 29 ng/mL. That's already above the NAM deficiency cutoff. You gave vitamin D to people who weren't deficient and it didn't do much. Correct. That's not the same question as what happens when you fix a real deficiency.

The test is called a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, written as 25(OH)D. Not the active form, the storage form. You can walk into your next physical and ask for it by name. Out of pocket it runs maybe $30-60 if insurance doesn't cover it. The target most functional medicine practitioners and the Endocrine Society land on is 30 to 50 ng/mL. Below 20 and you have a real problem. 2,000 IU of D3 daily is a well-supported starting point for most people. Retest in 3 months.

K2 was one I didn't see coming. When D3 raises calcium absorption, that calcium needs somewhere to go. K2, specifically MK-7, activates the proteins that push it into bone and keep it out of arterial walls. A 2023 RCT in JACC Advances looked at combined K2 MK-7 and D3 in 389 older men. Primary outcome was null across the full group, but the subgroup with higher baseline coronary calcium scores showed slowing of progression. Early data, not definitive, but the mechanism makes sense and the downside is essentially zero.

D3 not D2 by the way. Most prescription vitamin D is D2, which is significantly less effective at raising your actual levels. Worth knowing.

Have you ever actually tested your level? If you take it every day and have never checked, you genuinely don't know if it's doing anything. If you tested, found a real deficiency, and corrected it, I want to hear what changed. Drop it in the comments.

Full breakdown with all sources at link in comment.

I was in a car accident. I'm not sure what happened to my body, but I was t-boned by a car going about 10mph, the seat belt tightened and I am pretty sure I braced myself as I got hit. I thought I was fine, an hour later I was in excruciating pain. It's been one month. The pain has gone down about 90 percent.

The doctor told me it may be a grade 2 adductor strain, but no definitive diagnosis bc they are garbage and didn't give me a pelvic mri. I can't get a physical therapy appointment for 9 more weeks. I know, it's insane, but this is how it is.

Currently, I can walk, I can stand, and the pain is just mildly bad, but constant. Sitting is horrible. Working is extremely difficult. My inner thigh burns. My butt muscles are really tight, especially by the end of the day, and the leg stuff hurts, but only if I do stuff. My lower back gets very very very painful by the end of the day. It's moderately bad, but obviously healing, just very slowly. Pain level is about 5-7 most waking hours. (Accident was 1 month and three days ago.)

Eight days ago I started bcp-157. I take 500mcg injected in my inner thigh or lower stomach every morning. It doesn't feel like it is doing much.

Question: Should I up it to 500mcg am and 500mcg pm?

Any advice would help. My job is active and I haven't been able to work since this happened without excruciating pain, and no more than 2-4 hours a day. I'd love to get back to at least 4 hours of work a day, as I don't have any unemployment. I'm a self employed artist.

I was trying to get through this one earlier and it seems like the man's just spouting pseudo-intellectual "profound" nonsense. Did anyone take anything positive away from this episode?

I'm a science nerd, and skim research headlines for articles of interest. A few months ago I read a neuroscience one that's helped my motivation, so I thought I'd share.

Apparently, scientists no longer think that Dopamine is used as a reward for accomplishing something. Instead, the brain uses Dopamine for evaluating whether an action is worth doing. People with high levels of dopamine quickly evaluate the pros and cons of doing an activity with little effort. They are active people and easily get things done. People with low dopamine levels become so exhausted trying to evaluate whether something is worth doing, that they usually just don't do the thing- they're wiped out just by evaluating! Fortunately, you can naturally increase Dopamine levels in your brain with aerobic exercise 3x a week.

This was all a big revelation to me, so I've been trying to get that aerobic exercise in as a starting point. It seems to be working, helping me make more effortless decisions, and therefore accomplishing more. Sorry I didn't save the research article to share with you!

Been reading into the sauna literature and wanted to share the honest version, including a part that changed my own plans, I was about to buy an expensive infrared unit and ended up reconsidering.

The core finding: 21 year Finnish cohort, 2,315 people, people using a sauna 4 to 7 times a week had 40% lower all-cause mortality and 63% lower sudden cardiac death vs once a week. A second cohort of 1,688 men and women confirmed the same dose-response pattern holds in both sexes. Real, replicated, dose-dependent. The actual average temperature used in the study was about ~80C/176F, not the upper 100C/212F range you sometimes see quoted.

On modality, I went down a rabbit hole on infrared vs hot tub vs traditional and found a solid 2025 head to head physiology study. Hot water immersion, basically a hot tub at 104F/40C, actually produced a bigger core temperature rise and cardiac output increase than either sauna type. Infrared raised skin temperature a lot, people felt hot and sweaty, but barely moved core temperature at all. So feeling intense isn't the same as getting the same internal response.

Practical issue I ran into, the study protocol was 45 min at 104F, which is genuinely hard to sit through. Realistic take seems to be build up gradually, shorter sessions still help, tolerance improves over weeks.

Net result for me, holding off on the infrared purchase and just using my existing hot tub more consistently instead. Curious if anyone here has been doing regular hot tub or sauna sessions long term and noticed real differences.

EDIT: A commenter correctly pointed out that calling the mechanism "unknown" was imprecise. The primary pathways are well established in the literature, heat shock protein upregulation, autonomic nervous system modulation, endothelial function improvement through nitric oxide, and cardiovascular adaptation mimicking moderate aerobic exercise. What remains less settled is the precise relative contribution of each pathway to the specific long-term mortality outcomes. I should have been more precise with that framing. Thanks for keeping me honest.

I’m personally not the biggest fan of supplements, as they are highly unregulated in the United States. Does Dr. Huberman ever mention this?

What are his thoughts on American supplement companies sourcing raw materials (overwhelmingly so) from China- and India-based plants with notoriously poor cGMP adherence? Supplement contamination is a real thing. And no supplement company can avoid this raw material supply-chain monopoly. I know this as an insider.

Does he ever mention the oxidative stress that supplements pose on the liver?

What about all those studies that link the overuse of supplements to chronic disease?

As a certified nutritionist, I will rank your choices below. Try to choose newer and out-there supplements that are not usually added in supplement rankings.

I’m 27, train 4 times a week, mostly lifting with some running mixed in, and I just ordered a sweat tent after going back and forth for way too long. I’m trying to use it more for recovery/sleep than just sitting in there until I feel cooked. For people here who sauna regularly, what protocols have worked for you? Temp, session length, number of rounds, cold exposure between rounds, morning vs night, anything you noticed with sleep or recovery. I’ve seen the basic 20 minutes a few times a week advice, but I’m curious what made a difference for you.

Started at 197lbs and my goal was 182. I tracked all my calories using macro factors and used the coach on the app. Calories started around 1800 but then closer to the goal date it dropped to 1680. I still prioritized protein and got around 180g per day. The week before the deadline I had set I was still 188 so I did a 70hr fast. I got to my goal weight and now want to maintain around 185lbs. Why am I no longer feeling hungry? And what should my macros be? 41M 184lbs, 5’11” strength train 5 days a week and get 10k steps a day.

Been wanting to get a proper panel done that goes beyond what my doctor runs. I've seen a few services mentioned around here but I can't tell which ones are legit vs just marketing.

Specifically interested in something that covers lipids beyond basic cholesterol, cortisol, micronutrients, maybe hormones. Anyone have a service they've actually used and gotten value from?

Also curious on pricing. Is this something that's like $500+ or are there actually affordable options?

I am taking 4g of ginger to improve gut motility for my gut issues and it helps a lot. As ginger is anti inflammatory, could it impede muscle growth?

Hey everyone,

I’m dealing with something kind of specific and I’m not sure how to fix it.

In my current relationship (about 1 month in), I have zero issues getting or maintaining an erection without a condom. Everything feels completely normal, I can last as long as needed, and there’s no anxiety at all.

But the moment I put a condom on, I get this sudden wave of anxiety like:
“Okay… this is where I’m going to lose it.”

And then that thought alone seems to trigger exactly what I’m worried about, I start losing my erection, which then makes me more anxious, and it becomes a loop.

What’s interesting is that in my previous 5-year relationship, I didn’t use condoms because my ex was on birth control, so I never really had to deal with this specific situation before.

I’ve tried tadalafil 5mg before and it basically made everything effortless, even with condoms, but I don’t really want to rely on it long-term if I can fix the underlying issue.

Or should I use it for like 1-2 times and use the condom as much as possible so I can somehow "train" myself for it? I'm not sure....

So I guess I’m wondering:

• Has anyone dealt with this specific “condom trigger” anxiety?
• What actually helped you get past it?
• Is it just repetition / exposure until it stops being a mental thing?
• Or is there something else I should be doing?

How common is this by the way?

I don't know how to get out of this loop...

Any advice or personal experience would really help.

Thanks

I absolutely hate to cook but want to provide my husband with healthy meals. He buys dinners from Trader Joe’s but I don’t think they’re very healthy. For me, I just est pre- prepared chili (that I cooked on a large batch and froze) and cook up some veggies.

I know these meals are expensive but maybe I buy 3 a week for him (we go out to dinner twice a week). There are so many companies making them now. One that’s particularly interesting is Tovalo where you buy a special microwave that cooks each meal portion separately (you tell it what meal type you’re cooking).

Has anyone used these meals? How healthy are they really?

So basically after any advice or if anyone knows what the long term affects on the body are for someone who only consumes home made olive oil that is infused with cannabis . I've happend to make my own thc oil from home grown cannabis and I've been taking it on and off like once ever 2-3 day at night time in the afternoon before dinner . It helps me sleep very well and I do get high off it but the next morning I wake up fresh and have a productive day and have no side affects whatsoever. What I'm asking is it dangerous to take it every day ? Are they any health concerns on the body for long term use ? In theorie if I have no side effects may I just continue to make it part of my daily routine and just start doing it every day?