AMA #3: Adaptogens, Fasting & Fertility, Bluetooth/EMF Risks, Cognitive Load Limits & More

ANDREW HUBERMAN: Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast,

where we discuss science and science-based tools

for everyday life.

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I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor

of neurobiology and ophthalmology

at Stanford School of Medicine.

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Without further ado, let's get to answering your questions.

And as always, I will strive to be as accurate as possible,

as thorough as possible, and yet as concise as possible.

The first question today is about adaptogens.

Some of you may have heard of adaptogens.

I'm guessing many of you have not heard of adaptogens.

The strict definition of adaptogens is still evolving.

Meaning, no one really knows what adaptogens mean

and what's included in adaptogens

and what's excluded from adaptogens.

But the most common definition of an adaptogen

is a compound that is typically a supplement or a drug.

Although, it could be a behavior, if you really

think about it, that helps you adapt to and buffer stress.

So when you hear about adaptogens,

there are three main categories of adaptogens

that come to mind.

The first are things that are contained in food.

So these would be vitamins or micronutrients

that one could easily find in food.

But one would have to consume a fairly restricted number

or type of foods in order to obtain those things,

or consume a lot of those foods in order

to get sufficient dosages of those adaptogen compounds

in order to buffer stress.

Some good examples of these would

be any kind of vitamin, either water-soluble or fat-soluble,

that can adjust or reduce what are so-called reactive oxygen

species.

And then that's what gives rise to this idea

that antioxidants are good for us.

Now, over the last 10 years or so, there's been a shift.

What shift has occurred?

Well, about 10 years ago, you often heard

about antioxidants, antioxidants, antioxidants

and vitamins, antioxidants in this food,

this superfood, et cetera.

And why were people talking about antioxidants?

Well, just to remind you, reactive oxygen species

are types of reactions and molecules

that occur in cells when cells get stressed and/or age.

And antioxidants are the compounds

that reduce those reactive oxygen species.

Reactive oxygen species are bad for cells

because they tend to hinder the function of mitochondria,

which are associated with energy production in those cells.

So what do we know for sure?

We know that as cells get older, or as any cell

or biological system organ tissue,

et cetera, get stressed a lot over time,

the number of reactive oxygen species

increases in those cells and tissues and organs.

And antioxidants, which can include certain vitamins

but also some micronutrients, are

effective in reducing those reactive oxygen species.

Now, what's occurred over the last 10 years

is that we know that reactive oxygen species are

a major source of depleting cellular function by way

of depleting mitochondrial function.

But they are just one of many mechanisms

that can deplete cellular function

mitochondrial function.

So nowadays, you'll hear about reactive oxygen species

and antioxidants, but not as much as you used to.

Now, you hear a lot more about inflammatory responses

and inflammatory cytokines also being an issue.

And the truth is all of these things are an issue.

So going back to this question about adaptogens,

adaptogens include these three categories.

I've told you the first, which are the vitamins

and micronutrients that are contained in food that

can reduce reactive oxygen species

and other aspects of cell or stress,

such as inflammatory cytokines.

What are some of those things that occur in foods?

Well, in order to answer that, let's

just think about what sorts of foods, themselves,

can act as adaptogens.

It's commonly held that the dark, leafy greens type foods,

for those of you that eat plants.

And I think the majority of people out there do eat plants.

I know that the carnivore diet and lion

diet and some other diets tend to exclude plants,

and we'll address that briefly at some point

in today's discussion.

But dark, leafy greens are known to contain

a number of compounds in the form of vitamins

and micronutrients that are very effective in reducing

reactive oxygen species and inflammatory cytokines.

So if you're somebody who's interested

in adaptogens and adaptogenic processes, reducing

stress and buffering stress, which, of course, has

its role in buffering daily stress in order

to help you sleep better to improve

cellular function for longevity sports performance,

cognitive performance, that is all good

and it makes sense why people would

be interested in adaptogens.

But remember that the two main adaptogens

that you should think to first are going

to be behaviors and nutrition.

I started with nutrition on purpose.

As I mentioned, we'll get to behaviors in a moment.

So if you're interested in adaptogens at all,

I highly recommend that you include at least two

to four servings of dark, leafy greens

and/or cruciferous vegetables per day.

I think that would be highly advantageous.

And just be aware that excessively heating dark,

leafy greens or cruciferous vegetables

can actually destroy the very nutrients

and micronutrients that act in an adaptogenic way.

That does not mean that you need to eat raw broccoli

or cauliflower, just the thought of that makes me nauseous,

it's very hard to digest.

Some people might like that or can digest it more easily

than others.

So it's perfectly fine to cook your cruciferous

vegetables and dark leafy greens,

but you don't want to overcook them.

What's overcooking and what's undercooking?

There's no strict cutoff in terms of temperature.

But basically, what the literature

says is that if you heat vegetables to the point

where the colored fluid is leaching out

of them into a broth type, into water

or whatever fluid surrounds them, well, then you

would be well off to ingest that fluid as well because it

contained in the water or the fluid that's leaching out

from the cruciferous vegetables or from the dark leafy greens,

are going to be a lot of those very adaptogenic molecules

that you're interested in the first place.

OK.

So I probably surprised some people

by starting off my answer to the question of "What

are adaptogens?

Are they worth thinking about in pursuing?

And if so, how can I get them?" by talking about food.

But I think it is important to understand that you can get

a lot of adaptogens from food.

And indeed, some of the best adaptogens

do come from dark leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables.

So I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that.

The other two categories of adaptogens

are going to be supplement-based adaptogens and then

behavioral adaptogens.

Again, here adaptogen defined as anything

that can buffer stress in a substantial or meaningful way

in order to support cellular health, organ

health, and overall daily living and functioning,

including sleep and performance in mental health.

So the second category of adaptogens

are going to be supplements.

And here, again, I just want to take a step back,

make sure that we are clear about

our operational definition about what a supplement is.

We had an episode all about how to design a rational guide

to supplementation, which included,

for example, the idea that for some people,

the optimal dosage of many supplements

is going to be zero.

And for other people, the dosage will be something else.

But to really pinpoint the key message from that episode

that I'd like to reiterate now, but a key message

from that episode that I'd like to reiterate now

is that many people think of supplements

as just vitamin supplements.

And for that reason, you'll often

hear the argument, "Oh, well, aren't supplements just

expensive urine.

Couldn't you get all of that from food?"

Aren't you just urinating out all the water-soluble vitamins

and maybe even storing excess amounts

of the fat-soluble vitamins in a way that's unhealthy

or not cost-effective?"

And so on.

When we talk about supplements, yes, it

can include vitamin supplements.

However, there are many compounds

that we would describe as supplements that are not

vitamin supplements, and that you could not obtain from food

or that you could never obtain from food

in sufficient enough qualities to have

a robust positive biological effect without consuming

an enormous number of calories or overriding your gut

mechanically.

For instance, if there were, say, a herb, and we'll

talk about such herbs in a moment,

that contained an effective adaptogen,

but you would never want to eat the plant

itself or include that herb in any kind of recipe,

well then, chances are this herb, which

we'll define in a moment, is not a vitamin supplement.

It is probably not even best thought of as a supplement,

it's best thought of as a compound

that sold over the counter, much like a prescription drug.

Although, it's not prescription.

It doesn't require a prescription to get it.

So there are a lot of things like that we

include under the umbrella of this word supplements.

And unfortunately, because of that, a lot of people

think, "Oh, you don't need supplements."

And, of course, you don't need supplements per se,

but many people do derive tremendous benefit from them.

In the context of adaptogens, there

are two or three in particular that

can be very beneficial for buffering the stress

response, especially, over short periods of time

of about two to three weeks.

So when would you use these?

Well, for instance, if you are in a particularly stressful

mode of life, either because of family or relational or school

or work demands or new kid in the house

or-- any number of different things, or you've been ill

or you're recovering from injury,

taking an adaptogen in the form of a supplement

can actually be very useful for buffering this hormone

and the general system is associated with,

called cortisol.

It's very healthy to have high levels

of cortisol early in the day, shortly after you wake up.

And then that ought to taper off toward the afternoon

and evening.

However, if cortisol is chronically

elevated throughout the day, or if that peak in cortisol

is arriving too late in the day, that

is known to be associated with mental health

and physical health issues.

Has been shown by labs at Stanford and elsewhere.

It's been shown in animal models and in humans.

Talked many times before, and I'll just remind you again.

One of the best ways to restrict that cortisol peak

to the early part of the day is to get morning sunlight

in your eyes as soon as you can.

Once the sun is up, get outside face

in the direction of the sun, even on overcast days.

Don't wear sunglasses, look at it for five to 30 minutes.

Definitely blink so you don't damage your eyes,

so on and so forth.

Why five minutes or 30 minutes?

Well, five minutes on a clear day should be sufficient,

longer would be fine.

Again, blink so that you protect your eyes.

Blink as needed.

Face in the general direction of the sun.

On days when you have a lot of overcast or it's really dark,

dense cloud cover, well, then, you'd

want to be outside longer.

And if you don't have access to sunlight for whatever reason,

then you want to do the same thing

with bright artificial lights indoors, either so-called SAD

lamp or otherwise.

That's a great way to restrict that cortisol peak

to early in the day.

But even if you're doing that, if you

have a stressful life for whatever reason,

even if you're getting that morning sunlight, which I hope

you are, you're getting your exercise,

you're trying to sleep better and more as we all

should most of the time, well, then you

may be somebody who wants to take a adaptogen

in the form of a supplement.

And the three supplements that can

be very effective in buffering cortisol

are ashwagandha, which I'll talk about first, lion's mane

and chaga.

Lion's mane and chaga are in the fungi group,

so they count as mushrooms.

They are not psychedelic mushrooms.

Let's talk about ashwagandha first.

Ashwagandha is at the top of the list

because it is indeed a very potent adaptogen.

How can I say that?

Well, there are a number of studies

now, including several excellent ones

in humans, that report that taking

two doses of 300 milligrams of ashwagandha per day

can, very dramatically, buffer cortisol.

So this is something that you would

have a near-impossible time accessing from food.

I can't imagine that, unless you're

cooking with the very sources of ashwagandha

and extracting exact amounts that you'd

be able to get this in any other form except supplement form.

So here I'm going to just briefly reference a paper

and we can provide a reference link to this, that is.

This is a paper from 2012 that's had

a lot of excellent follow-up papers that support it.

The title of the paper is A prospective randomized

double-blind placebo-controlled study of safety and efficacy

of high concentration of full spectrum

extract of ashwagandha root in reducing

stress and anxiety in adults.

And it's a really nice study.

Not a huge subject pool, but both men and women, and

has carried out for long enough that they

got to see some really interesting results.

And I think the most interesting result

is that taking 300 milligrams of ashwagandha twice a day

led to enormous--

I mean, just enormous changes in serum cortisol.

The statistical significance that they observed in the study

was really fantastic, fantastically high

statistical significance.

They saw the effects of ashwagandha on day 15,

having initiated the ashwagandha consumption on day one,

of course, day 30 and day 45.

And again, this was dramatic reductions

in stress as perceived by people.

So subjective stress and cortisol levels.

So ashwagandha is very potent at reducing cortisol.

How would you recapitulate this if you

wanted to use ashwagandha to buffer stress?

Well, a couple of key points.

I mentioned earlier that you want your cortisol peak

to come earlier in the day.

Therefore, you would not want to buffer

cortisol early in the day.

In fact, cortisol peaking early in the day

provides an anti-inflammatory immune-supporting, focus

and mood supporting effect all day long.

So I would recommend that people take

their first dose of ashwagandha anywhere from 250 to 300

milligrams.

Sometime in the early afternoon and again in the evening,

as opposed to taking a morning dose in an afternoon dose.

Also, if you're somebody who's exercising

for sake of trying to induce adaptations like hypertrophy,

the growth of muscles or strength,

or improve your endurance in any way,

muscular endurance or more traditional cardiovascular

endurance, then I recommend that you not take your ashwagandha

prior to exercise because part of the adaptation response

is triggered by increases in cortisol during exercise.

Sort of in the same way that some of the best

adaptations to exercise are reductions in blood pressure

and resting heart rate.

And those are stimulated by increases in blood pressure

and increases in heart rate during exercise.

That's just how these biological systems work.

So the takeaway is pretty simple.

If you're interested in using ashwagandha as an adaptogen,

I would restrict it to later in the day

if you can and not before exercise.

Divide it into two doses of 250 to 300 milligrams.

That's what this paper and other papers

like it seem to indicate.

And then a very important final point about ashwagandha,

which is that if you're going to take ashwagandha,

I recommend not taking it for longer than a month-and-a-half

as they did in this study.

In fact, I would suggest that you only

take ashwagandha around periods of moderate to extreme stress.

What's moderate, what's extreme is

going to depend on what you're going through.

Only how much stress and life events you can tolerate.

So if you've had trouble sleeping and that's

unusual for you.

Or, you're dealing with a very difficult life circumstances

or excessive work demand, or a new kid, as I mentioned before.

Well, then buffering stress with ashwagandha,

buffering cortisol in the afternoon and evening

can be very beneficial for you.

But then I would say after about 30 days maximum,

I would take at least two to four weeks off.

Two weeks is probably enough, but four weeks off

because you don't want to chronically buffer cortisol.

It's just not a good idea.

But that said, I think ashwagandha

is a very powerful adaptogen. I would

place at the top of the list of supplement-based adaptogens.

But keep in mind that even if you're

taking a supplement-based adaptogen,

that's no reason to abandon the nutrition and behavioral type

adaptogenic effects that you can create through eating

dark leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables,

then we'll talk about the behaviors in a moment.

The other two supplement-based adaptogens, as I mentioned,

are lion's mane mushroom and chaga.

And I get asked a lot about lion's mane and chaga for sake

of their purported roles in acting as nootropics as quote

unquote "smart drugs."

There are fewer data on the beneficial roles

of lion's mane and chaga for sake of nootropic effects--

we'll do an entire episode on nootropics at some point.

But there have been a few studies showing

that lion's made in supplementation and chaga

supplementation can improve memory,

and maybe even divergent thinking

associated with creativity and things of that sort.

Again, these are not psychedelic mushrooms.

That said, there are good data showing that 1,000 milligrams,

that is 1 gram, of lion's mane per day and/or--

I will talk about the end/or portion in a moment,

and/or chaga mushroom at 500 to 1,500 milligrams per day

can act as adaptogens in, again, reducing cortisol.

But also and mainly reducing some of the anti-inflammatory

cytokines that are known to circulate in high abundance

when you're under a lot of psychological and/or physical

stress.

Things like interleukin 6 and some related molecules.

So here's what I would recommend.

If you are interested in exploring adaptogens,

I'm a big fan, as some of you probably

know, if you heard that episode on rational guide

to supplementation.

I'm a big fan of mainly focusing on taking supplements

in single-ingredient formulations

so that you can figure out what dosages are best for you,

and so that you can toggle in and out those adaptogens as

needed.

So I, of course, am a fan of taking

certain blends and mixes, the one that we talk

about a lot on this podcast and we have been

a sponsor from the beginning, I've taken for a decade

now long before I ever had a podcast,

is Athletic Greens, which some of you might note

does contain some ashwagandha.

Although, the levels of ashwagandha

that are contained in Athletic Greens

are low enough that I don't see any issue with taking Athletic

Greens consistently, day to day, every day, because you're

not getting anywhere near that 600-milligram dosage.

But the idea is that if you were going

to take any adaptogen for sake of buffering stress

over the short term, say for a week or two weeks or a month,

and then taking that recommended time off,

I would start with ashwagandha.

And then if you feel you need something else to buffer

stress, keeping in mind, of course,

that you're doing the behavioral and the nutritional things

to buffer stress as well.

You can never abandon those, right?

Well, then I would suggest adding 1,000 milligrams

or 1,000 milligrams of chaga per day

and seeing how that further benefits your system in terms

of buffering stress.

How would you measure if your stress is being reduced?

Well, you're going to be sleeping better at night.

You're going to feel subjectively better, lower

levels of anxiety.

All the things that are measured in the types of studies

I described before.

Now, of course, there's nothing preventing you

from taking 600 milligrams of ashwagandha,

a gram of lion's mane, and a gram of chaga.

I know some people like to just kind of go

full tilt into everything.

But I am a big believer in really trying to isolate which

supplements and molecules work best for you and which ones

don't.

Do you need to cycle on and off lion's mane and chaga?

I'm not aware of any data showing that you do.

If, however, you're taking them every day,

I recommend that you cycle off them after a period of 30 days

or so.

And I want to be very clear about this,

just because I said cycle off after a period of 30 days

or so does not mean that you can't take them

for a shorter period of time.

So for instance, if you know that you're coming up

on a big week of stress, well, then you

could take ashwagandha and/or lion's mane and/or chaga

for that week or just that week or heading into that week

or in the following week and then stop.

There's no reason why you couldn't take them even just

for one day.

Although, the effects tend to be a bit cumulative, at least,

when we're talking about buffering anxiety.

In terms of buffering cortisol, that's

a very potent effect that as far as we know,

is going to take place on day one.

Again, keep that cortisol buffering effect away

from exercise.

At least, don't take it before exercise.

And try and buffer your cortisol in the afternoon and evening,

and this is assuming that you're working a conventional shift

and you're not up all night and sleeping

all day for sake of shift work.

So hopefully, that clarifies things

about what adaptogens are.

In fact, I never actually read the specific question,

but I think I've touched on a number of issues

that were related to the specific question.

And then I'll answer the last portion of the answer

to this question in a moment, as it

relates to behavioral tools that can act as adaptogens.

The question, itself, was there's

a lot of mixed information out there about adaptogens

like ashwagandha.

And I think that relates to what I said earlier, which

is that the definition of an adaptogen

has not really been cemented in various communities.

It's different in different communities,

and it's generally used as a matter of convenience

rather than really strictly defining what it is.

And hopefully, we've defined it accurately and broadly enough

today as something that buffers stress.

The second part of the question was

what does the scientific evidence say about adaptogens

and their ability to mediate body stress response?

They say quite a lot, and they say

that the stress response can be buffered substantially

by certain adaptogens.

Mainly, dark leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables,

ashwagandha, lion's mane, and chaga,

and of course, all the behavioral things

that are critical that I will list off in a moment.

And then the third portion of the question

is, is there any solid evidence that

has an effect on neurotransmitters or the HPA,

which is part of the stress modulation access?

The best evidence is that adaptogens can reduce cortisol

itself.

There is very little evidence that adaptogens can directly

modulate neurotransmitters or neuromodulators like dopamine,

serotonin, et cetera.

But by adjusting the timing and levels of cortisol,

especially in the afternoon and evening,

that is going to have indirect effects on levels

of dopamine, norepinephrine, et cetera, and serotonin.

But not direct effects.

So the general contour that makes for an ideal diurnal

schedule-- you heard of nocturnal, well,

the opposite that is diurnal, being awake during the daytime

and asleep at night.

The ideal kind of landscape of neurotransmitters

is higher levels of dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine

in the early part of the day and cortisol,

so-called catecholamines, dopamine, norepinephrine,

and epinephrine.

And high levels of cortisol early in the day as

directed by sunlight, exercise, caffeine, hydration, movement,

all that stuff, being awake and busy and outside

or indoors with bright lights and moving

about in the early part of the day

and into the early afternoon, that's the best possible way

that we are aware of to try and get

those catecholamines released at the highest

levels in the early part of the day.

And then the ideal contour of a 24-hour cycle

will be in the later half of the day.

The evening and nighttime, you have higher levels

of things like serotonin the GABAergic system,

all the things that are somewhat sedative in preparing you

for sleep and lower levels of the catecholamines and cortisol

as I described before.

So to directly answer the question,

"Is there any evidence that adaptogens can

alter your neurotransmitters?"

Yes, but only indirectly.

And yet, that indirect control over neurotransmitters

is substantial and is important.

And if you do what I described, such as getting morning

sunlight and ideally, you'd get a little bit of deliberate

cold water exposure, by the way, to boost

adrenaline and norepinephrine and dopamine,

those catecholamines early in the day.

So quick one-minute cold shower, even

or a three-minute cold shower, or if you have access to an ice

bath early in the day, plus some sunlight,

doesn't matter which one you do first,

doing that early in the day is really

going to create that peak of cortisol, dopamine, epinephrine

early in the day.

I can't emphasize how beneficial all of that can be.

And exercise, if you can, early end of the day.

Some people can't exercise till later in the day.

I'd rather see people exercise later in the day

than not at all, provided it does not

disrupt their nighttime sleep, which of course, sleep

is the foundation of mental health, physical health,

and performance.

So yes, there is modulation of neurotransmitters,

but most of those are downstream of the effects on cortisol

that we've been talking about.

So we've defined nutritional adaptogens,

supplement-based adaptogens-- although, I don't really

like the word supplements anymore

unless we're talking about vitamin supplements

for reasons we talked about earlier.

And then there's the third category

of adaptogens, which are the behavioral tools that you

can use to buffer stress, which qualifies

those as an adaptogen. I think it's really important that we

always keep in mind that yes, there are supplements,

yes, there are prescription drugs out there.

In fact, there are prescription drugs

that you can get from a doctor that will potently

zero out your cortisol.

But most doctors are very reluctant to prescribe

those drugs because cortisol provides

a very important and functional role early in the day.

Behaviors are very effective at reducing cortisol.

What are the most effective behaviors to reduce cortisol?

Well, we talked about, one, to restrict cortisol

the early part of the day, which is viewing morning sunlight.

But how would you buffer cortisol in the late afternoon?

It's going to be all the things associated

with reducing stress.

For instance, 10 minutes or even--

my laboratory and other laboratories have shown

is even five minutes a day of just what

would be called mindfulness meditation, very simple.

You don't need to overcomplicate this.

You could use a great app like the Waking Up app

or another app of the sort.

Or, you can simply sit down, eyes

closed, breathe through your nose,

and just concentrate on your breathing.

Every time your mind drifts to something else,

bring it back to your breathing.

That's shown to reduce stress.

You could do a five-minute deliberate breath work

practice.

My laboratory has published some work related to that.

The breath work practice could be any number of things.

The two that I recommend the most

would be double inhale, followed by a full exhale,

and then repeat for a period of five minutes.

Known to substantially reduce anxiety, stress,

and the various physiological systems

associated with arousal.

You could also use box breathing,

inhale, hold, exhale, hold for equal durations

for a period of five minutes, will substantially

reduce stress.

I'm a big fan, as many of you know, of yoga nidra,

which involves no movement.

It involves just lying there, listening to a script.

Lots of yoga or scripts available online.

If you're not interested in the intentions and other things,

including yoga nidra, you can buffer stress

using an adaptogen like NSDR, non-sleep deep breast.

If you're interested in trying these sorts of things.

There's a NSDR protocol that's 10 minutes long.

Just put my name, Huberman, and NSDR

into the search browser on YouTube.

And Virtusan is provided in NSDR that's completely zero cost

and works very well for reducing stress.

It will also help teach your system

and teach you how to learn to fall asleep better at night.

So any of those practices, five to 10-minute breathing practice

or meditation, or a NSDR yoga nidra.

If you can do longer 20 or 30 minutes in the afternoon,

that's known to buffer cortisol substantially as well.

Any time you're encountering stress in real time,

I highly recommend a tool over and over

because it's so effective.

The fastest way we to buffer stress and calm down

is the so-called physiological sigh,

big Inhale through the nose till your lungs are empty, but then

sneak in a little bit more air by second inhale,

maximally inflate the lungs, then

a long exhale until you're lungs are empty.

One to three of those will reduce your stress

substantially.

Over time that should reduce, that is, buffer

your cortisol acting as an adaptogen.

There are a lot of things.

You can take a hot bath, you could take a hot shower,

you can listen to some pleasant music.

Anything that reduces your stress, technically,

is an adaptogen. So I hope I've thoroughly answered

your question by yours--

I mean, of course, this answer is going out to all of you.

This is a question that was asked by Justine Bevilacqua.

I hope I pronounced that correctly, Justine.

And thank you for that question.

I think there are a lot of people

interested in adaptogens.

So now, you can use nutrition such as cruciferous vegetables,

dark leafy greens.

And I should also mention, if you're not

ingesting enough calories each day, well,

then you are going to be in a mild mode of stress.

That's not to say that some people shouldn't take in fewer

calories than they burn in order to lose weight,

some people really need to do that for their health

or for whatever other reason.

But if you restrict calories too much,

you are going to increase cortisol output.

So keep that in mind.

So ingest sufficient calories for you and for your goals.

Aim to get dark leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables,

don't overcook them.

If you want to explore supplements,

the best supplements to act as adaptogens

are going to be ashwagandha, lion's mane, and chaga.

One or two or three of those-- although, if you're

going to pick one, I'd recommend ashwagandha, 600 milligrams

per day, taken in the later-half of the day.

And then there are the behavioral tools

that we just talked about now, which are anything that reduces

stress can reduce cortisol.

And in doing so, are technically adaptogens.

If you want to know more behavioral tools

and other tools for adjusting stress

and learn more about adaptogens, we

did a whole episode called Mastering Stress.

So you can look to that-- that episode also

pretty clearly defines, I like to think, what short-term,

medium-term, and long-term stress really are.

Keep in mind, stress is part of life.

Learning how to work with it, how to dance with it,

how to buffer it is terrific.

But zeroing out cortisol is not the goal.

The goal is to learn to modulate and control your cortisol,

and that's really what adaptogens are all about.

Thank you for joining for the beginning

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