How Hormones Shape Sexual Development
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Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I’m Andrew Huberman, and I’m a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. This podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools. In keeping with that theme, I’d like to thank the sponsors of today’s podcast.
Our first sponsor is InsideTracker. InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA to help you better understand your body and help you reach your health goals. I’m a big believer in blood tests and DNA tests for the simple reason that many of the factors that are important for your short-term and long-term health and overall well-being can only be analyzed from blood and DNA tests. Things like metabolic factors and hormone levels really can only be assessed accurately from blood and DNA. The thing I like about InsideTracker is you don’t just get back levels of different hormones and metabolic factors and so forth.
You also get directives. It has a dashboard that’s very easy to use that tells you, based on your data, what sorts of foods you might want to eat more of or less of, what forms of exercise you might might want to do more of or less of. It’s really a wonderful way to assess how your behaviors and lifestyle choices are interacting with what’s going on deep within your biology. InsideTracker makes all of that super easy to understand. It’s also really easy to get the blood tests and DNA tests taken.
You can go to a local location or they can send somebody to your home if you prefer that. If you’d like to try InsideTracker, you can visit insidetracker. com/huberman to get 25% off any of InsideTracker’s plans. Use the code Huberman at checkout. That’s insidetracker.
com/huberman to get 25% off any of InsideTracker’s plans and use the code Huberman at checkout. Today’s episode is also brought to you by Helix Sleep. Helix Sleep makes mattresses and pillows that are designed to meet your sleep needs in order to optimize your sleep. I’ve done several episodes of this podcast and there’s a ton of information out there pointing to the fact that getting really deep restful sleep each night is vital for mental and physical health. And the mattress that you sleep on and the pillow that you use is very important for getting optimal sleep.
Helix Sleep has a brief 2-minute quiz that you can take. It asks you questions like do you sleep on your side or your back or your stomach or maybe you don’t know. Do you tend to run hot or cold as you sleep or maybe you don’t know. That 2-minute quiz matches you to a mattress and pillow that’s ideal for your sleep needs. I took this quiz, I matched to the mattress they call the Dusk, DUSK, and I’ve been sleeping on the Dusk mattress for many months now and I’ve been sleeping better than I ever have before.
It’s really wonderful to have a really good night’s sleep on a consistent basis. It’s a total game-changer. So if you’re interested in upgrading your mattress, you can go to helixsleep. com/huberman, take their 2-minute sleep quiz, and they’ll match you to a customized mattress. And you’ll get up to $200 off any of their mattress orders and two free pillows.
So that’s helixsleep. com/huberman, take the 2-minute sleep quiz, they’ll match you to a mattress, and if you order one of their mattresses, you’ll get up to $200 off any of their mattresses and two free pillows. They have a 10-year warranty and you get to try out the mattress for 100 nights risk-free. And if you don’t like it, they’ll pick it up and take it away. If you love it, then you keep it and I think there’s a very good chance that you’re going to love it.
I certainly love mine. And today’s episode is also brought to you by Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin, mineral, probiotic drink. I started using Athletic Greens way back in 2012. And so I’m delighted that they’re sponsoring the podcast.
I started using athletic greens because I found it rather confusing to figure out what vitamins and minerals to take. And athletic greens, I get all the vitamins and minerals I need to cover my bases. As well, probiotics are really important. Probiotics have been shown now in numerous studies to be important for the gut microbiome, which impacts the gut-brain axis, as well as various aspects of bodily health. So, in athletic greens, I get vitamins, minerals, and probiotics.
I also really like the way it tastes. It’s a greens drink, so you mix it with some water. You could mix it with something else like juice if you like. I mix mine with water and lemon juice, and I drink it once or twice a day. If you want to try athleticgreens, you can go to athleticgreens.
com/huberman. And if you do that, you’ll claim their special offer, which is to get a year supply of vitamin D3K2. There’s now also a wealth of data showing that vitamin D3 is important for various aspects of brain and body health. So, that’s athleticgreens. com/huberman for athletic greens and the year supply of vitamin D3K2.
You’ll also get five free travel packets. The travel packets are just a really convenient way to take athletic greens when you’re on the road, in the car, on a plane, or just moving around. You just empty one of the packets into a water bottle or a glass and mix it up really quickly. It saves any kind of mess or anything of that sort. So, once again, athleticgreens.
com/huberman to get vitamin D3K2. That’s a year supply and the five free travel packs. It’s a new month, which means it’s a new topic here at the Huberman Lab podcast. For the next four or so episodes, we’re going to be talking all about hormone effects on the brain and body. So, that’s a huge number of different topics.
We’re going to talk about sex. We’re going to talk about reproduction. We’re going to talk about puberty a little bit more. We talked about that in the previous episode. We’re going to talk about menopause.
We’re going to talk about birth control. We are going to talk about aggression, competition, winning, losing. Basically, we’re going to cover as much about hormones as we possibly can in this month. And in doing so, we are going to go deep into tools and protocols. We are also going to talk about a lot of tools that relate to things that you might not want to do in order to optimize hormone health regardless of stage of life or your goals, etc.
So, it’s sure to be a month rich with discussion, rich with tools, and you’re going to learn a lot of neuroscience and endocrinology. There’s actually a field of neuroendocrinology. It’s actually where I started my graduate work. I did a master’s in it, which is only to say that I love the topic. I have a lot of friends that work on this topic, many of whom I’ve consulted for these episodes, and I’m really excited to share the information with you.
Before we dive into today’s episode all about emotions and sex, I want to just have a few announcements that are designed to point you to some useful resources. Last episode talking about the science of emotions and relationships, I mentioned the Mood Meter app. The Mood Meter app was developed by um people out at Yale University who study the biology and psychology of emotions. It’s a really wonderful app. However, many of you quickly told me that the Mood Meter app isn’t available in your area.
You went to the link we posted, and it just was saying not available in your area. The situation was actually a lot worse than that. The situation was that when we recorded the episode, the Mood Meter app was working. I know because I downloaded a a fresh copy of it to my phone, and then in the ensuing weekend, they took the Mood Meter app down for some