AMA #13: Winter Months & Sickness, Wim Hof Breathing & Stressors

00:00:00.000 | - Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast,

00:00:02.260 | where we discuss science and science-based tools

00:00:04.900 | for everyday life.

00:00:05.900 | I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology

00:00:12.260 | and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.

00:00:15.340 | Today is an Ask Me Anything episode or AMA.

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00:01:42.600 | So without further ado,

00:01:43.900 | let's get to answering your questions.

00:01:46.140 | The first question is about colds and flus.

00:01:48.780 | And the question specifically is,

00:01:50.820 | why is it that we get more colds and flus

00:01:53.580 | in the winter months?

00:01:54.840 | Is it the temperature outside?

00:01:56.280 | Is it the fact that people are spending more time indoors?

00:01:58.940 | Or is it a myth that we get more colds and flus

00:02:01.460 | in the winter months?

00:02:02.820 | Well, the first thing is that the research very clearly

00:02:05.440 | shows that in winter months,

00:02:07.480 | there's a greater prevalence of colds and flus.

00:02:10.500 | Now, of course, the words in the winter months

00:02:12.800 | means many things.

00:02:14.520 | For instance, in most areas of the world,

00:02:17.700 | unless you live directly near the equator,

00:02:20.560 | in the winter months means that days are going to be shorter

00:02:23.960 | and nights are longer than in the summer months.

00:02:27.580 | In general, that's true.

00:02:28.940 | It's of course especially true

00:02:30.180 | if you live very far from the equator.

00:02:32.080 | So imagine somebody living up in Tromsø, Norway,

00:02:35.040 | which is very close to the North Pole.

00:02:37.380 | In winter, days are very, very short in Tromsø.

00:02:41.380 | And conversely, in the summer months,

00:02:43.180 | days are very, very long in Tromsø, Norway.

00:02:45.900 | Now, Tromsø, Norway represents an extreme

00:02:48.380 | of day length variation according to time of year.

00:02:51.840 | The closer you get to the equator,

00:02:53.380 | the less variation there is in day length

00:02:55.880 | and therefore night length across the year.

00:02:58.340 | However, in most locations on Earth,

00:03:00.540 | days will be significantly shorter

00:03:02.740 | by about an hour or two at least

00:03:05.240 | for certain parts of the year.

00:03:06.980 | And in general, shorter days correlate

00:03:09.140 | with colder temperatures.

00:03:10.820 | That's what's really important to know,

00:03:12.440 | which is that shorter days generally correlate

00:03:15.020 | with colder temperatures,

00:03:16.420 | regardless of where you live on the planet Earth.

00:03:19.980 | Okay, so in the winter months, as we're calling it,

00:03:23.220 | involves at least two things.

00:03:24.740 | Shorter days, which means what?

00:03:26.860 | It means less sunlight

00:03:28.620 | and either more artificial light or more darkness,

00:03:31.660 | depending on how much artificial light you rely on.

00:03:34.860 | It also means, as we mentioned, colder temperatures.

00:03:38.260 | Colder temperatures, of course,

00:03:39.580 | doesn't necessarily mean that you are exposed

00:03:41.620 | to those colder temperatures

00:03:43.120 | because what's the third thing?

00:03:44.840 | Shorter days and colder temperatures outside

00:03:47.680 | mean that people are spending more time indoors.

00:03:50.580 | So what the research clearly shows

00:03:52.340 | is that one of the reasons, not the only,

00:03:54.740 | but one of the reasons for the greater prevalence

00:03:56.820 | of colds and flus in the short days,

00:03:59.580 | AKA winter months of the year,

00:04:01.740 | is that people are spending more time indoors

00:04:03.900 | and therefore at closer proximity,

00:04:06.340 | which raises a whole bunch of really interesting questions

00:04:08.780 | that have been explored in the peer-reviewed research

00:04:11.040 | about proximity, cold, and flu transmission.

00:04:14.820 | There have been studies, for instance,

00:04:15.920 | where people come into the laboratory

00:04:17.340 | who are suffering from cold and flu and are sneezing,

00:04:19.940 | having them sneeze at different proximity

00:04:22.140 | to other people.

00:04:23.200 | Obviously, people are doing this under consent.

00:04:25.380 | They're agreeing to participate

00:04:26.680 | in these particular experiments.

00:04:28.020 | And there does seem to be a very nice relationship

00:04:31.180 | between physical distance between you,

00:04:34.320 | the uninfected person, and the sneezing,

00:04:37.500 | coughing, nose wiping, eye wiping,

00:04:40.900 | we'll get into why I mention all of those things

00:04:43.220 | in a moment, person that is suffering from the flu.

00:04:46.220 | In other words, the closer you are to somebody

00:04:48.020 | who's sneezing or coughing,

00:04:49.220 | the higher probability that you will contract

00:04:51.080 | that cold or flu.

00:04:52.420 | Okay, so we've already established two things.

00:04:54.300 | First of all, physical proximity is a key variable

00:04:57.880 | in terms of transmission of cold and flu.

00:05:00.380 | And at some level, that's sort of a duh.

00:05:02.260 | I mean, if you think about it,

00:05:03.220 | if you're in the next room or down the hallway from

00:05:05.860 | or across the street from somebody with a cold or flu,

00:05:08.300 | you don't expect to contract that cold or flu from them.

00:05:10.580 | Whereas if you're in the same vehicle with them

00:05:12.860 | or you're sitting next to them on an airplane

00:05:15.380 | or you are on the same bus or in the same classroom as them

00:05:18.380 | and they are sneezing and coughing,

00:05:20.260 | well, then the probability that you would get

00:05:22.200 | that cold or flu from them is increased.

00:05:24.200 | That's just obvious.

00:05:25.700 | But the studies that have explored the relationship

00:05:28.300 | between physical proximity and transmission of cold and flu

00:05:31.240 | have actually analyzed things down to the range of,

00:05:33.880 | well, if you're standing one foot apart

00:05:35.420 | or you're standing three feet apart or six feet apart,

00:05:37.900 | what's the probability that you will contract

00:05:39.740 | that cold or flu?

00:05:40.620 | And it follows a very direct relationship

00:05:43.040 | where the closer the proximity,

00:05:45.040 | the more likely that you're going to contract

00:05:46.460 | the cold or flu from that person.

00:05:47.780 | And of course, anything like exchange of skin contact

00:05:51.100 | or exchange of saliva,

00:05:52.620 | because obviously in cases of romantic relationships

00:05:55.860 | where people will kiss or in familial relationships

00:05:59.060 | or friendships where people hug,

00:06:00.620 | any kind of contact also further increases

00:06:03.660 | the transmission of cold and flu,

00:06:05.060 | not just from stuff emitted from the nasal passages

00:06:08.460 | and from the mouth when people sneeze and cough,

00:06:10.540 | but also when people wipe their eyes,

00:06:12.220 | even when people wipe their skin,

00:06:13.740 | because oftentimes they have cold or flu virus

00:06:16.240 | on their skin,

00:06:17.400 | it doesn't always survive terribly long on the skin,

00:06:19.920 | but if they wipe their face or wipe their nose

00:06:23.300 | or are using tissues

00:06:24.540 | and then don't wash their hands thoroughly afterwards,

00:06:26.920 | indeed they can transmit cold and flu

00:06:28.900 | simply through handshake, okay?

00:06:30.900 | So for all you hypochondriacs out there,

00:06:32.680 | I'm arming you with a lot of useful knowledge

00:06:34.860 | that will justify staying away from people

00:06:37.720 | who perhaps have cold and flu.

00:06:40.160 | Now, this particular point about proximity

00:06:42.420 | and people being indoors more during the winter months,

00:06:45.180 | and that's why there's more cold and flu transmission,

00:06:47.460 | raises a whole bunch of interesting questions

00:06:50.160 | and in fact, protocols that I plan to cover

00:06:53.000 | in a Huberman Lab podcast episode solely devoted

00:06:55.900 | to colds and flus and how to avoid getting colds and flus.

00:06:59.240 | But one brief mention or telegraph

00:07:01.100 | of what I plan to cover in that episode

00:07:03.080 | is that if people are telling you

00:07:05.340 | that they are sneezing and coughing due to a cold or flu,

00:07:08.800 | but that they are quote unquote not contagious,

00:07:11.560 | either because they are early in the cold or flu

00:07:14.420 | or late in the cold or flu,

00:07:15.720 | and they have these theories or claims that,

00:07:17.460 | oh, you know, I'm no longer contagious.

00:07:19.360 | Keep in mind that anytime someone is sneezing or coughing,

00:07:23.660 | they are in fact contagious.

00:07:25.320 | So I'll get back to that in that full length episode

00:07:27.600 | about colds and flus,

00:07:28.920 | but I felt it was too important not to mention right now

00:07:31.640 | that people's theories about when they are quote unquote

00:07:34.160 | contagious or not contagious are rarely substantiated

00:07:38.100 | by the actual data.

00:07:39.320 | The actual data point to the fact

00:07:40.800 | that when people are sneezing and coughing,

00:07:42.480 | if it's due to a cold or flu,

00:07:44.040 | they are still contagious.

00:07:46.580 | Okay, so we've established that cold outside

00:07:49.420 | means people tend to be indoors more,

00:07:52.160 | which increases physical proximity,

00:07:54.000 | which is one of the reasons

00:07:55.040 | why there's more cold and flu transmission.

00:07:57.200 | One of the other reasons why being indoors more

00:08:00.420 | tends to increase cold and flu transmission

00:08:02.900 | is that in the cold months of winter,

00:08:05.860 | when people are indoors,

00:08:07.580 | they tend to be not under air conditioning,

00:08:09.960 | not at neutral temperatures,

00:08:11.620 | but rather they tend to be in heated rooms.

00:08:14.540 | And depending on the type of heating that's used,

00:08:17.080 | but in general, due to all forms of heating,

00:08:20.140 | the heated air tends to be drier air.

00:08:22.900 | Now this is a little bit counterintuitive

00:08:24.660 | because if you ever go outside on a really cold winter day,

00:08:28.140 | you'll realize that the cold weather outdoors

00:08:31.360 | is extremely dry.

00:08:33.180 | You can almost quote unquote feel the dryness of the air.

00:08:36.020 | And if you can't quote unquote feel the dryness of the air

00:08:38.740 | or imagine what that's like, just imagine this.

00:08:41.460 | Think of yourself outdoors on a very cold winter day,

00:08:45.500 | taking a brisk walk.

00:08:47.620 | Then think about yourself taking that same brisk walk

00:08:50.300 | on a very humid summer day.

00:08:52.620 | Humidity is of course the concentration of water

00:08:55.360 | in the ambient environment, the air,

00:08:57.660 | whereas the dryness is the lack of humidity.

00:09:00.460 | And just that little simple gedanken or thought experiment

00:09:03.740 | will remind you just how dry the cold air is out of doors

00:09:08.360 | during the winter months.

00:09:09.740 | Whereas indoors, we're heating that air.

00:09:12.680 | And indeed the heating of that air does have the property

00:09:16.220 | of drying the nasal and oral passages,

00:09:18.580 | but especially the nasal passages.

00:09:20.620 | So another key reason why there's more transmission

00:09:22.680 | of colds and flus in the winter months

00:09:24.380 | is because people are spending more time indoors.

00:09:27.020 | And oftentimes the way those indoor environments

00:09:29.780 | are being heated is drying out the nasal passages.

00:09:32.460 | And the nasal passages represent a primary site of defense

00:09:36.580 | for viral infections like colds and flus,

00:09:39.380 | but also bacterial infections and fungal infections

00:09:42.000 | for that matter.

00:09:43.020 | Now, I've talked before on this podcast

00:09:45.280 | about the importance of using nasal breathing

00:09:48.800 | under any conditions where you don't have to breathe

00:09:51.380 | through your mouth.

00:09:52.220 | So if you are not eating, if you're not speaking,

00:09:55.300 | or if you're not exercising hard, which by the way,

00:09:58.260 | oftentimes requires that you breathe through your mouth,

00:10:00.200 | there's nothing wrong with breathing through your mouth.

00:10:01.960 | If you're exercising hard and you need to breathe

00:10:04.060 | through your mouth in order to bring in enough oxygen,

00:10:06.780 | there are conditions under which that's entirely appropriate.

00:10:09.120 | You can learn more about that in the podcast episode

00:10:11.120 | I did all about breathing and breath work.

00:10:13.720 | But for the most part, it's best to be a nasal breather

00:10:17.540 | except under the conditions I just mentioned.

00:10:19.700 | Why?

00:10:20.540 | Well, the nasal passages contain a number

00:10:23.080 | of physical barriers, including the hairs within your nose.

00:10:26.120 | I know that hairs in the nose,

00:10:28.460 | especially if they are super numerous,

00:10:30.420 | are not considered aesthetically nice.

00:10:32.460 | People will trim them, et cetera.

00:10:33.580 | But those hairs in your nose actually serve

00:10:36.020 | as a barrier toward infection.

00:10:37.980 | This is well-established.

00:10:39.360 | The lining of the nose, the mucosal lining of the nose,

00:10:42.760 | contains a lot of things.

00:10:44.080 | First of all, it acts as its own physical barrier

00:10:46.380 | and physical trap for incoming viruses,

00:10:48.920 | fungal infections, and bacterial infections.

00:10:50.740 | They literally get trapped in the nasal passages

00:10:53.340 | and therefore can't enter deeper into your physiology.

00:10:56.840 | And right now is not the time to go into the whole anatomy

00:10:58.820 | and physiology of the nasal passages, but keep in mind,

00:11:02.300 | if you saw the episode that I did with Noam Sobel,

00:11:05.020 | or you listened to the episode that I did on olfaction,

00:11:07.320 | both of those episodes highlight the fact

00:11:09.540 | that your brain sits not far behind your nasal passages.

00:11:12.360 | There's a bony barrier there called the cribriform plate,

00:11:15.340 | and there's some other things as well,

00:11:16.700 | but it's not far from your nostrils to your brain.

00:11:19.760 | And it is not far from your nostrils

00:11:21.940 | to the rest of your respiratory pathway, of course.

00:11:24.200 | And so the hairs of your nostrils,

00:11:26.880 | the mucus itself, and the microbiome,

00:11:31.300 | the trillions of little micro bacteria that thrive

00:11:34.020 | in the mucosal lining of your nasal passages

00:11:36.220 | actually serve to protect against

00:11:38.600 | many of the incoming infections.

00:11:40.960 | This is why it's so important to keep the mucosal lining

00:11:43.280 | of your nasal passages thriving and intact.

00:11:45.980 | How do you do that?

00:11:46.820 | Well, one of the best ways to do that is to make sure

00:11:49.340 | that the air that you're breathing

00:11:50.660 | is sufficiently humidified.

00:11:53.580 | So while there are many different claims out there

00:11:55.420 | about how to avoid colds and flus,

00:11:57.420 | as long as we're having a discussion

00:11:58.600 | about why there are more colds and flus in the winter months,

00:12:00.960 | because indeed there are, it's worth mentioning

00:12:04.140 | that if you suffer from colds and flus

00:12:06.340 | and you're going to spend a lot of time

00:12:07.620 | in a particular indoor environment,

00:12:09.960 | you might be wise to find a air humidifier,

00:12:13.740 | something that brings more moisture into the air

00:12:15.980 | that you're breathing, especially at night

00:12:18.180 | while you're sleeping.

00:12:19.500 | Now, that's not going to prevent the person

00:12:21.840 | in your environment who happens to have a cold or flu

00:12:23.740 | and is sneezing actively from transmitting that cold or flu,

00:12:28.260 | but it will keep your nasal passages

00:12:30.640 | and the rest of your respiratory pathways

00:12:32.260 | as healthy as they can be and as resistant as they can be

00:12:35.040 | to any colds or flus that you might be fighting off.

00:12:37.320 | And this is another key point,

00:12:38.440 | which is regardless of whether or not it's the winter months

00:12:40.580 | or the other months of the year,

00:12:41.780 | all day long, you're combating

00:12:43.440 | different types of infections.

00:12:45.080 | Different types of viral, fungal, and bacterial infections

00:12:47.900 | are bombarding your system, and your immune system

00:12:51.020 | counters that both through physical

00:12:52.900 | and through neurochemical and hormonal

00:12:55.300 | and pure immune mechanisms, okay?

00:12:57.780 | There's a whole discussion of this

00:12:58.980 | in the episode I did on the immune system.

00:13:00.500 | We'll do more on this.

00:13:01.780 | But keeping the air that you breathe, especially at night,

00:13:05.060 | sufficiently humidified is one great way

00:13:07.640 | to try and offset colds and flus

00:13:10.160 | that you might be combating

00:13:11.780 | because you brought that cold or flu home from work

00:13:14.920 | and your immune system needs to ward it off, okay?

00:13:18.220 | If you are having a hard time grasping

00:13:20.200 | how it is that you could bring home a cold or flu

00:13:22.340 | and then ward it off, do you have it, do you not have it?

00:13:24.740 | Is it sitting there trying to get into your system

00:13:26.660 | or do you have it a little bit?

00:13:28.100 | Well, this is some of the gray area

00:13:30.040 | around cold and flu and viral transmission generally.

00:13:32.800 | I mean, we don't know, for instance,

00:13:34.000 | if you got a mild sniffle

00:13:35.840 | as opposed to a really bad cold or flu,

00:13:38.400 | whether or not it would have been a really bad cold or flu.

00:13:42.020 | Had you slept less,

00:13:43.100 | had you not humidified your air better, et cetera,

00:13:46.200 | probably it would be.

00:13:47.360 | And if you've ever not slept well for a little bit

00:13:49.440 | and you're sick, you experience just how much worse

00:13:51.720 | that sickness feels.

00:13:53.080 | The symptoms of that sickness go from very mild to moderate

00:13:56.040 | or from mild to moderate to very severe

00:13:58.360 | when you are sleep deprived.

00:14:00.580 | That said, it's also clear that some strains

00:14:03.440 | of the cold or flu can be more mild

00:14:05.480 | than other strains of the cold or flu.

00:14:06.820 | So this can be pretty nuanced

00:14:07.960 | and we'll go deeper into this in the episode

00:14:09.520 | that I do on cold and flu and how to avoid cold and flu.

00:14:12.160 | But nasal breathing, whenever possible,

00:14:14.680 | day and nighttime is extremely important

00:14:17.640 | for encouraging the overall health and resistance

00:14:21.000 | of your respiratory pathways to incoming cold and flu

00:14:23.620 | and other types of viruses.

00:14:25.400 | Similarly, humidifying the air that you breathe,

00:14:28.620 | especially at night, but perhaps also during the day

00:14:31.160 | in your office environment or home environment

00:14:33.160 | can also be very beneficial for warding off colds and flus.

00:14:36.080 | And if you'd like to read more about the nasal

00:14:38.520 | versus mouth breathing components of colds or flus,

00:14:40.980 | I'll just mention one paper now.

00:14:43.320 | And again, I'll go into this in more depth

00:14:44.760 | in the future episode on colds and flus.

00:14:46.680 | But I want to mention that this is a bi-directional effect,

00:14:50.060 | meaning people who deliberately breathe through their nose

00:14:53.200 | tend to get fewer colds and flus.

00:14:56.240 | Also people who tend to breathe through their mouth more

00:14:59.120 | tend to get more colds and flus.

00:15:01.600 | Now you might think that's the same thing

00:15:03.520 | or just two sides of the same coin, but actually it's not.

00:15:06.760 | There's what we call a double dissociation

00:15:09.120 | whereby if people are mouth breathers,

00:15:11.560 | they are far more susceptible to colds and flus

00:15:14.680 | and other types of respiratory illnesses.

00:15:16.820 | I'll put a link to one particular paper

00:15:18.560 | that I like a lot in the show note captions entitled,

00:15:21.000 | Association of Oral Breathing with Dental Malocclusions

00:15:23.520 | and General Health in Children.

00:15:25.240 | This paper explores a lot of different things

00:15:27.020 | about nasal versus mouth breathing.

00:15:28.960 | All of which by the way, point to the fact

00:15:30.680 | that nasal breathing whenever possible is better for us

00:15:34.160 | health-wise, aesthetically, dental health-wise

00:15:37.800 | than is mouth breathing.

00:15:39.120 | But one of the key components here,

00:15:41.040 | and this is why I bring it up

00:15:41.920 | in the context of this discussion is quote,

00:15:44.780 | oral breathing is related

00:15:46.080 | to a significantly higher prevalence of allergies

00:15:48.480 | and a significantly more likely getting sick

00:15:51.340 | and taking medication for being sick, okay?

00:15:54.720 | So lots in this study, lots in related studies,

00:15:57.440 | but nonetheless, being a nasal breather,

00:15:59.880 | humidifying your air, paying attention

00:16:02.040 | to whether or not you're indoors with people

00:16:04.840 | who are coughing and sneezing because it's cold outside,

00:16:08.080 | all of those things are going to be relevant,

00:16:09.640 | perhaps keeping a little bit of distance,

00:16:11.040 | maybe a lot of distance from those people

00:16:12.520 | or encouraging them to wash their hands

00:16:14.060 | after they wipe their nose,

00:16:15.840 | maybe even sending them to a little bit of a,

00:16:18.340 | not necessarily isolation, although that might be necessary,

00:16:21.240 | but keeping them at a distance, right?

00:16:23.920 | I don't think it's too much to ask somebody who's sick

00:16:26.800 | to not get you sick.

00:16:28.440 | Personally, I think that's the polite thing to try and do.

00:16:31.640 | And there's actually not many things ruder

00:16:34.320 | than someone who knows that they're sick,

00:16:35.520 | showing up to something

00:16:36.600 | because they didn't want to miss that particular event

00:16:38.360 | and getting everybody else sick, frankly.

00:16:40.440 | That's my opinion.

00:16:41.320 | I think that opinion is shared

00:16:42.800 | with many of you out there as well.

00:16:44.760 | Now, as I mentioned earlier, when it's cold outside,

00:16:47.220 | the air tends to be drier, not always.

00:16:49.040 | I mean, you could live in an environment

00:16:50.380 | that's very cold and very rainy.

00:16:52.280 | Obviously very rainy is very humid.

00:16:54.400 | It's maximum humidity if you think about it.

00:16:57.800 | But if you are going to spend time out of doors

00:17:02.020 | in cold days of winter,

00:17:03.960 | which by the way is a really good thing for other reasons,

00:17:07.240 | and I'll get into those reasons in a moment

00:17:08.680 | because they relate directly

00:17:10.720 | to why there's such a prevalence of colds and flus

00:17:13.060 | because in general, people are not doing

00:17:15.620 | what I'm about to tell you to do.

00:17:17.140 | But there are two things to keep in mind

00:17:18.660 | if you're going to be out of doors.

00:17:19.900 | First of all, all the things about proximity still hold.

00:17:23.640 | There have been studies of people who have colds and flus

00:17:26.360 | sneezing in indoor environments versus outdoor environments

00:17:29.840 | and how much transmission there is.

00:17:31.640 | Again, it boils down to proximity.

00:17:33.480 | Yes, you can get a cold or flu

00:17:34.800 | from somebody sneezing out of doors next to you

00:17:37.160 | just as well as you can if they sneeze next to you indoors.

00:17:41.040 | There's a slightly higher probability

00:17:42.640 | that you'll get it from them

00:17:43.700 | if they're sneezing at that same distance,

00:17:45.780 | but you're indoors as opposed to outdoors.

00:17:47.780 | Obviously, sneezers, coffers,

00:17:50.240 | sneeze and cough in the other direction,

00:17:51.600 | cover your mouth and nose.

00:17:53.080 | If you don't have a tissue or something, we are told,

00:17:55.900 | and I subscribe to the idea that sneezing into your elbow

00:17:59.160 | or coughing into your elbow is probably the next best thing

00:18:02.560 | to not covering up at all as opposed to into your hand,

00:18:05.880 | which then you touch other things and yourself.

00:18:08.280 | Anyway, without getting into the mechanics

00:18:09.980 | of sneezing and coughing too deeply,

00:18:12.180 | if you're going to be outside in the cold winter months

00:18:14.680 | and you'd like to avoid getting colds and flus,

00:18:17.180 | when you run, when you exercise, when you walk,

00:18:20.820 | when you're in conversation, try to nasal breathe

00:18:23.200 | unless you have to mouth breathe.

00:18:25.300 | And if you can sense your nasal passages

00:18:28.740 | or your mouth drying out because of that hard breathing,

00:18:32.080 | and by the way, exercise during the winter months

00:18:34.000 | is still important, so I'm not discouraging people

00:18:36.260 | from exercising outdoors during the winter months

00:18:38.080 | as long as you can do it safely,

00:18:39.560 | but if you feel those air passages drying out,

00:18:42.520 | just be aware that when you take those dried out

00:18:45.060 | air passages indoors and you're around other people

00:18:47.740 | that might have colds and flus,

00:18:48.720 | you are going to be more susceptible.

00:18:50.240 | So that's cause for taking a hot shower,

00:18:53.300 | perhaps if you have access to a steam room or humidifier

00:18:56.600 | and rehydrating those nasal and oral passages.

00:19:01.360 | Now, if you're outside and running and you're breathing hard

00:19:05.160 | and your nasal passages are drying out,

00:19:06.740 | does that mean that you're more susceptible

00:19:08.380 | to colds and flus that are just out in that environment

00:19:10.600 | if no one else is around?

00:19:11.800 | Chances are no.

00:19:13.720 | However, what we were all told when we were kids,

00:19:16.020 | which is if you go outside and you get a chill,

00:19:18.580 | it's a good idea when you come back inside

00:19:20.840 | to take a hot shower or a hot bath,

00:19:22.520 | or if you have access to it, a sauna to heat back up,

00:19:25.480 | that's also true, why?

00:19:27.640 | Well, it does seem that there's a relationship

00:19:29.700 | between core body temperature

00:19:31.900 | and susceptibility to cold and flu.

00:19:33.600 | And this is something I'm going to go deeply into

00:19:35.160 | in the episode on colds and flus.

00:19:36.800 | Keep in mind that fevers that are the response

00:19:39.740 | to exposure to a cold or flu

00:19:41.720 | or being full-blown sick with a cold and flu

00:19:43.980 | are an attempt of your immune system

00:19:45.920 | to heat up that virus and destroy it.

00:19:48.340 | Keep that in mind if you're considering

00:19:50.320 | taking any kind of medication to lower your fever.

00:19:53.200 | Of course, know that highly elevated body temperatures,

00:19:56.880 | AKA fever, can be very dangerous to the brain and body.

00:19:59.920 | There's a fairly limited upper range of temperatures

00:20:02.520 | that we can go into before we start damaging ourselves.

00:20:04.780 | But also keep in mind that fever is an adaptation

00:20:07.500 | designed to destroy viruses, okay?

00:20:11.200 | So if you blunt the fever,

00:20:12.400 | you are actually letting a colder virus

00:20:14.460 | to proliferate more readily than it would

00:20:16.900 | if you allowed a slight fever to combat that, okay?

00:20:20.340 | So there's a whole discussion to be had there

00:20:21.860 | because obviously you don't want people

00:20:23.300 | cooking their brains due to elevated fever

00:20:26.380 | and not treating that fever,

00:20:27.760 | but you also don't want to reduce

00:20:29.460 | your core body temperature too much,

00:20:31.240 | which raises the question of things like cold plunges.

00:20:33.940 | Should you be taking cold showers

00:20:35.420 | and doing cold plunges in the winter months

00:20:37.440 | when it's already cold and you're susceptible to colds

00:20:40.080 | and maybe you're coming down with a cold?

00:20:41.360 | Should you do that?

00:20:42.440 | Ah, well, that segues into the next question

00:20:44.800 | that I'm going to answer for this AMA,

00:20:46.580 | which relates directly to cold exposure

00:20:49.740 | and so-called cyclic hyperventilation breathing,

00:20:51.840 | sometimes associated with so-called Wim Hof breathing,

00:20:54.140 | but other forms of deliberate breathing as well,

00:20:56.760 | and how specific forms of deliberate breathing

00:20:59.120 | and how deliberate cold exposure

00:21:00.660 | can indeed be used to offset or even prevent entirely

00:21:05.660 | infection due to bacterial or viruses,

00:21:08.880 | but if you're already coming down

00:21:10.980 | with a bacterial or viral infection,

00:21:12.940 | why cyclic hyperventilation breathing

00:21:14.980 | or why deliberate cold exposure

00:21:16.660 | may actually be the worst thing

00:21:18.860 | if you are already contracting or have contracted,

00:21:22.540 | if you are contracting or have already contracted

00:21:26.420 | a cold or virus.

00:21:27.580 | So we'll answer that question next.

00:21:29.860 | In the meantime, just know that, yes, indeed,

00:21:32.960 | in the winter months, you are more susceptible

00:21:34.860 | to colds and flus because there's more of them going around.

00:21:36.940 | We talked about some of the reasons

00:21:37.920 | why they're going around and some of the things you can do

00:21:39.920 | to protect yourself against those colds and flus.

00:21:42.040 | There are a bunch of other things that you can do

00:21:43.380 | that are very valuable that we'll explore

00:21:44.940 | in the full length episode on colds and flus

00:21:47.380 | and how to avoid getting them,

00:21:48.720 | and I'm hoping you all stay clear of colds and flus

00:21:52.060 | these winter months, and now you have some tools

00:21:53.820 | to try and reduce the duration and severity

00:21:55.860 | of those colds and flus should you get one.

00:21:58.620 | Thank you for joining for the beginning

00:22:00.180 | of this Ask Me Anything episode.

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00:22:19.940 | the Huberman Lab Podcast premium channel,

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00:22:23.020 | First of all, it's to raise support

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00:22:40.620 | So not animal models, but on human beings,

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00:24:10.040 | And as always, thank you for your interest in science.

00:24:12.660 | (upbeat music)

00:24:15.240 | (upbeat music)

AMA #13: Winter Months & Sickness, Wim Hof Breathing & Stressors

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