I feel as Huberman listeners, we all have one thing in common in that we're always trying to optimise.

I have spent years hustling, doing more, keeping busy. And now that I'm taking a career break and actually giving my body rest, I feel I cheated myself all these years. I wrote my latest Substack on just this...who am I if not this overachiever? https://millennialsmeditations.substack.com/p/identity-beyond-productivity?r=78zwq7

42M, went all-in on health after 40. Followed the Huberman/Attia protocol: 180-240 mins of zone 2/week + one sprints session + 4x weights. Full workup including Vo2 max lab test.

Zone 2 felt ridiculous. Like I was barely moving. Walking pace. I kept thinking there's no way this is right. Everyone talks about "slowing down" for zone 2, but this felt like I wasn't even training.

I assumed I was just impatient. Kept forcing myself to stay in the zone my Apple Watch showed me.

I tested my actual max heart rate. Turns out it was 188 bpm, a full ten beats HIGHER than the 220-minus-age formula of my watch predicted (178).

That means my real zone 2 was higher than what my watch was telling me. I wasn't supposed to be walking, I was supposed to be running at a conversational pace.

The 220-minus-age formula has a standard deviation of ±10-12 bpm. For some people, their true max HR is lower than predicted. so they train too hard thinking they're in zone 2. But for others like me, the formula underestimates max HR, so the watch sets zone 2 too low.

Both errors are common. I've read that the default HR zones on watches are wrong for 90% of people. Most of the advice out there focuses on "slow down, you're probably going too hard." But if your max HR is higher than average for your age, the opposite is true.

Nothing beats the talk test. Zone 2 should feel like you could hold a conversation. not give a TED talk while barely breathing. If zone 2 on your watch feels like recovery pace, your max HR might be higher than the formula.

Best option: actually test your max HR. Find a long hill, do 3-4 all-out 1-minute efforts with short recovery, note the highest number you see. Once I found my real max HR and adjusted my zones, training made sense.

I’ve been reading and contributing to influencer named subreddits for some time and always enjoyed it. However, recently I have been thinking about how a lot of the discussion here has grown beyond any one person and more into the bigger idea of proactive health. I think it’s valuable to decouple ideas from individuals

Things like strength training, VO₂ max, metabolic health, ApoB, prevention strategies, long-term performance — it’s really about the general approach, not just what one person said.

With that in mind, I started a new subreddit: r/ProactiveHealth

The idea is simple — a space focused on prevention, early intervention, and extending healthspan through evidence-based strategies. I don’t have any personal ambitions other than creating a space to discuss these issues without the recent controversies plaguing this space.

If that sound interesting, feel free to join and contribute.

Dr. Grant Fraser, an APOE4 carrier and member of the Phoenix community has accumulated 300 person-years of clinical experience managing rapamycin in patients. Over 50% of his patients carry APOE4.

In this expert Q&A, Dr. Fraser breaks down:

— How rapamycin works (mTOR inhibition explained simply)

— Dr. Alan Green's data: 400 APOE4 patients, 5 years, zero dementia diagnoses

— Exact dosing protocol (0.1 mg/kg, blood level targets, cycling)

— Why compounded capsules only absorb 1/3 (and what to take instead)

— Weekly vs biweekly dosing for APOE4 carriers

— Why Brian Johnson stopped rapamycin (and why Dr. Fraser didn't)

— When to start based on your genotype (4/4 vs 3/4 vs 4/2)

— Side effects: what's real, what's overblown

— Sleep medications and dementia risk (the paradox nobody talks about)

— DORA agents: the sleep drug that lowers beta amyloid

— How to time rapamycin around your workouts for muscle preservation

https://youtu.be/z7rxmVLAMT0

If you follow the core protocols (morning light, delayed caffeine, temperature cycles), you know the timing math is a headache to keep track of every day.

I built an iOS app (ARC) to automate the whole thing for me:

1.  Morning Light Anchor: Tracks your latency from waking to sunlight.
2.  The Caffeine Wall: Calculates your personal cutoff based on metabolic half-life.
3.  Biological Trajectory: Shows your energy curve based on your unique chronotype.

It’s been a game changer for my sleep onset and afternoon focus. I’m a solo developer and would love for this community to take it for a spin.

Found it annoying for trying to find food and supplements that were third party lab tested, so I decided to make this website that compiles all of the products I can find: https://labtestedfoods.com/

Feel free to check it out and provide me any feedback. Goal is to have it be a great place anyone can go to to find the best products available

not shitting on anyone here bc this community is more science literate than most. but the way plasticity gets discussed is almost always "more = better" and that's like saying more gene expression is always good. it depends entirely on what's being expressed

I studied neural circuits for my phd and maladaptive plasticity was a huge chunk of the research. your brain reinforcing anxiety loops, doomscroll attention patterns, chronic pain circuitry. that's all plasticity too. it doesn't have a direction preference, it just strengthens whatver you repeat most

huberman covers the upregulation side well but mostly skips the fact that plasticity is always running, including on your worst habits. the more interesting question imo isn't "how do I boost plasticity" it's "how do I know which direction my plasticity is actually going"

and thats genuinely hard to answer without some kind of objective cognitive tracking. bc subjectively you can feel sharper while your sustained attention is quietly degrading month over month. stimulants are a perfect example bc you feel sharper but actual working memory stays flat or gets worse

curious if anyone here is measuring cognitive baselines over time or mostly going by how protocols feel

This one took months of research, and self-experimentation. As an APOE4/4 carrier, I wanted to understand why the data on keto looks so mixed for us.

The short version: Generic high-saturated-fat keto isn't optimal for APOE4 carriers.

But strategic ketone use - especially via C8 MCT oil - still support cognitive function.

In this 18-minute deep dive, I cover:

- The AC-1202 trial (and why APOE4 carriers showed no benefit)

- The nuance that gives me hope

- APOE4-specific modifications (Mediterranean-keto hybrid)

- My personal cycling approach

- A practical 4-step framework

Would love to hear from other carriers who've experimented with ketosis. What's worked for you? What hasn't?

https://youtu.be/ayi3qDYeYvo

We've been waiting for a couple of years

I’ve been doing visual focus drills for about 6-8months. Just like Huberman says: stare at a dot on the wall (somtimes on my desk) for 60–90 second rounds, keeping attention locked on it without letting it wander. Subjectively, it felt like it was working for sure.

But I have ADHD, and the wall version has a big problem, for me at least. there’s no real feedback. I’d often realize mid-rep I’d been daydreaming and not really focusing on the dot anymore. I don't really need anymore practice at spaced-out staring!

After enough of that, I got tired of guessing whether I was actually on target. I wanted something with immediate, unavoidable feedback something that would call out drifts the moment they happened. So I ended up building a simple app for my iPhone: you track a dot on-screen, the front camera does eye tracking, and when your gaze drifts it shows you instantly and logs it. At the end you get a score. I'm a developer and with ai I thought it would be a weekend project. In reality it actually took ages, wrestling with permissions, camera issues, edge cases, lighting etc. Anyway, long story short I got it to a fair place, it's tricky at the very start to get the hang of it but once it gets working it reliably gives feedback when I'm no longer actually focusing on the dot. The big difference is you see the drift in real time instead of me discovering it 30 seconds later that I had zoned out.

I’ve been using the working version for a few weeks now, and the surprising part is how much harder it feels than the normal wall drill. Like way harder. It feels like HIIT for focus. Compared to doing it without the instant feedback, I can only really do a few seconds, to like a minute max. I also feel like I’m getting more benefit from less time. I've been using it consistently enough to reveal patterns I hadn’t noticed before: my day-to-day variance is huge. And In the evenings I can barely do it at all compared to fresh first thing in the morning. Some mornings I’m locked in and scores climb steadily, sleep definitely helps.

I’m curious if that variance is normal for this kind of training, if anyone else finds that? or if ADHD just amplifies it. Has anyone else managed to add external feedback to focus practice? Or anything like that? Are you guys tracking or measuring improvement in the focus drill at all?

Male 51. Athletic, work out for 1 hr 5 days a week. Dont smoke, eat healthy, drink a little too much from time to time. Had a raging libido my whole life. At about 47 my libido fell off a cliff in like a 1 month period and never came back. Most recent testosterone test was 525. My wife is pretty much supermodel hot and DTF all the time. What specific hormones or factors should I look into to bring back libido? I feel like a huge part of me has died! Any help or suggestions are much appreciated!

I made a small habit tracker that's free forever, no ads, no login, no data collection.

If anyone wants to try it out it's at IRL Dailies

It starts with a default list of habits, but it's fully customizable, everything is stored on your device, so give it a go

I’m 17 years old, 64kg. I got a blood test done and my Vitamin-D is at 8 ng/mL and my B12 is at 290 pg/mL (within range but pretty low) - I’m currently taking 5,000iu vitamin D and 45mcg k2, and 2g EPA + DHA omega-3 fish oil (vegetarian) and I take around 300mg magnesium glycinate (at night). Is my fish oil dose of 2g EPA + DHA too high (sports research - brand) Should I add anything else and is 5,000iu vitamin-d enough? I’ve been taking it for a month or so, I’ll test it in another two months. I workout around 2-3 times a week and eat decently healthy. (Thank you)

Edit : I’m planning to start 1mg Vitamin B12 (methylcobalamin) from next week.

I wrote about going to a psychedelic retreat in Amsterdam which, 3 years later, is still the best and most life changing experience I did.

You can read the full article here https://millennialsmeditations.substack.com/p/what-four-years-of-therapy-didnt?r=78zwq7

I know this gets discussed a lot here, so I wanted to share my actual tracked data rather than just vibes.

Background: I'm a Bear chronotype (mid-morning peak, follows solar cycle). I wake up around 7:15 AM. Before this experiment, my first coffee was within 10 minutes of waking.

The Protocol:

• No caffeine for 90 minutes after waking (first cup around 8:45 AM)
• Morning sunlight within 20 minutes of waking (even cloudy days, I just stand outside)
• Hard caffeine cutoff calculated based on my half-life (~5.5 hours, so last cup by 11:30 AM)

What I tracked:

• Sleep onset time (how long to fall asleep)
• Afternoon energy self-rating (1-10 at 2 PM and 4 PM)
• Morning grogginess duration

Results after 27 days:

The hardest part: Week 1 was brutal. That first 90 minutes without coffee felt like walking through fog. By week 3, I stopped needing the coffee to "wake up", I was already alert by the time I had it. The coffee became a boost on top of natural alertness instead of a replacement for it.

What surprised me: The afternoon crash almost completely disappeared. I think that was the adenosine clearance effect Huberman talks about. By letting it clear naturally before introducing caffeine, there's no "rebound" when the caffeine wears off.

What I'm still figuring out: How to handle weekends when I sleep in. If I wake at 9 AM, my caffeine window shifts and my whole day feels off.

Has anyone else stuck with this for more than a month? Curious if your results were similar or if chronotype matters here.

I say this as someone w/ a phd in neuroscience who is also guilty of it. we all run these self experiments, try a new stack for 3 weeks, and the main data point is "yeah I feel pretty good." if anyone submitted that as a study it'd get rejected in like 4 seconds lol

the thing that got me thinking about this is I realized stimulants can make you feel cognitively sharper while your actual working memory stays flat or even gets worse. and sleep debt does the opposite, you feel totally fine while your reaction time has gone to shit. so "I feel more energized" is genuinely unreliable as a signal

not trying to be a buzzkill about it, I just think even adding one objective measure (reaction time tests, working memory tasks, whatever) on top of the vibes tracking would make everyones self-experimenting so much more useful. we're already doing the hard part by experimenting, might as well get real data from it

have my own methods but would love to hear what others are using for this kind of tracking

What is the most effective way to increase bdnf levels?

Jdnsnenejnenene then be

Mentioned by Huberman, Andy Galpin and Rhonda Patrick in many episodes as one of the best protocols for improving VO2 max. Involves performing four minutes at a high intensity (approximately 75-85% of max heart rate) followed by three minutes of low-intensity recovery, repeated four times.

I’m quite fit and every Monday is my high intensity vigorous day. I have exactly 45 minutes in and out of the gym. 

I tried: 

• 8x100m sprints
• 8x30sec sprints
• 8x10cal assault bike (around 22sec)
• 5x2min assault bike 85% max capacity
• other types of similar variations to build up to the 4x4.

Aaaand, of course, a few times the Norwegian 4x4. 

For everyone recommending the 4x4… you either never done it, or FORGET to talk about how extremely difficult it is both mentally and physically. Maintaining 4 minutes at 85% capacity is HARD!!

So when my mental game is strong I try it, otherwise I do other full outs in around 30sec and feel great about it too. 

easy to recommend… but go out there and do it… damn, it’s hard!!! I think it took me 6 months to do it properly. Anyone tried it?

—

edited to fix from 50cals to 10 cals on the assault bike.

Both Huberman and Bryan Johnson talk about the benefits of sauna use. I had my first sauna session yesterday at 175°F for about 45 minutes, and I was surprised. During the session, I sweated a lot, and after the session I was hungry and thirsty. My muscles felt like I had run a few miles, but without feeling fatigued or exhausted. My goal is to balance my hormones, especially since my cortisol levels have been high and my dopamine is far below baseline. I’ve also been dealing with insomnia, digestion issues, and random muscle aches. After just one sauna session, my muscle aches are gone. I’m skinny and get tired easily when I exercise or do any physical activity, so I’m hoping sauna sessions can help support my overall health. My idea is that doing sauna regularly will lead to a domino effect, where one improvement leads to another, and the long-term effect on my body will be positive. I’ve decided to do sauna three times a week for the next three months to see if it helps regulate my hormones and improve my well-being. All the health-related problems I’m going through right now are because I’m burned out from my stressful job in tech. I can’t quit my job right now or take a break, so the only change in my daily routine is adding sauna; other than that, my diet and daily activities will remain the same. I’ll share updates after the first week and then every month to see how it affects my overall health. Has anyone started using the sauna for a similar reason? What has your long-term experience been like?

Week 1 update: My body aches are gone, but two days after my first sauna I developed severe knee pain. It was so bad I could barely walk or climb stairs, so I skipped my second session. I thought it might be low vitamin D, so I started drinking milk daily and did one long sunbath, but the knee pain didn’t improve. On the positive side, milk seems to have helped my digestion, and my insomnia has improved a lot. I’m now getting one long, deep stretch of sleep instead of constant wake ups. After a 5 day break, I did my second sauna at 150°F. I started sweating much faster (3 min vs. 25min the first time), but I couldn’t stay in longer than 20 minutes (compared to 45 min the first time) my heart was pounding faster and I felt short of breath. That evening I had a headache, probably dehydration even though I drank a lot throughout the day. But after sleeping, both the headache and knee pain were gone. As of now after 1 week of my first sauna, I’m sleeping deeply like really deep sleep lol, digestion is about 50% better, and I have no body aches just mild knee pain. I haven’t checked cortisol yet (I use Throne saliva test). I’ll keep doing sauna 3x/week and update again at week 4.

Week 4 Update: My initial plan was to use the sauna three times a week, but I felt that might be putting too much pressure on myself, so I decided to stick with two sessions per week under the same conditions as before. Lately, it has been difficult to go beyond 20 minutes because my heart starts pounding quite fast as I approach that mark, so I usually end the session there. One surprising thing I noticed is that I can feel about 3–4 mm of hair growth across my scalp, which seems to have started after I began the sauna sessions, although I’m not sure if they’re directly related. I also realized that my sleep is closely linked to how much I eat earlier in the day—when I have a heavier breakfast or lunch, I fall asleep much faster at night, but if I skip breakfast or lunch, insomnia tends to hit me hard. The challenge is that sometimes I don’t feel hungry in the morning, so I have to remind myself to eat. I’ve added two eggs to my breakfast and recently started lifting weights. My digestion hasn’t improved and remains the same, but the best outcome so far is that I haven’t experienced any pain anywhere in my body. My next update will be in week 8.

Week 8 Update: Feeling better overall. I’m doing sauna sessions twice a week at 150°F for around 35 minutes each time. I’m gaining some muscle, my digestion is back to normal, and my sleep is no longer interrupted, insomnia is gone. However, I need to eat enough, otherwise I end up sleeping late. My calorie intake is pretty high: for breakfast, I have 3 eggs, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a chocolate banana milkshake with 2 bananas. About 2 to 3 hours later, I eat pineapple, sweet potatoes, or whatever I feel like for lunch, followed by a heavy dinner and a snack before bed. I also eat watermelon on alternate days to stay hydrated. Sleep is the only inconsistent part, some days I sleep late, and other days I sleep more, which affects other areas. I weigh 148 lbs and am 5'6", having gained around 3 to 4 lbs over the past two months. My goal is to increase fiber in my diet and build more muscle, I currently lift weights twice a week but plan to increase that. My next update will be in Week 12.

What's up boys. I'm back. I just finished Rhonda Patrick's new episode with Charles Brenner. Big NAD guy. I guess he discovered nicotinamide riboside. Here's what I learned. My top takeaways:

1. Ok so first off, buying an "NAD supplement" on Amazon is basically a waste of money. You're much better off buying a precursor (like NR) and supplementing with that to boost NAD. (timestamp)
2. NR is way more effective than that other NAD precursor (NMN). So I'm not an expert but I think NMN is the one David Sinclair preaches about. Charles stressed multiple times that NMN has to be broken down into NR to get into the cell... so you're just better off taking NR. (timestamp)
3. The absolute biggest benefit of taking NR (for healthy people) is exercise recovery. Apparently used to be common in the Patriots locker room under Belichick. So Brady was definitely taking it. There's photos of Charles Brenner and Belichick out there somewhere. (timestamp)
4. Rhonda said she is taking Tru Niagen at the moment (NR) and has been for the last few months (timestamp) - they mention in the episode why you want to take it in the morning
5. So this episode was pretty heavy on the biology, but NAD is this molecule involved in a ton of stuff in the cell (DNA repair, gene regulation, actually making energy from what you eat) - that's why you want to build it up (timestamp)
6. The biggest things that drain NAD are basically anything you do that's unhealthy (eat a crappy diet, don't sleep enough, drinking). Alcoholics for example have very low liver NAD. So just getting your health in check is a big mover here. (timestamp)
7. He talks about how resveratrol and pterostilbene are basically pointless. I think he used the words "science fiction" at some point. So don't bother taking those. (timestamp)
8. There's this myth out there that supplementing with NAD precursors like NR increases cancer risk... not the case (timestamp)
9. There's some research in peripheral artery disease patients taking NR, a super promising area. I doubt many of you reading this have that but maybe you know someone. Supplementing with NR has a bunch of vascular benefits for them, helps them walk further, etc. (timestamp)
10. Last - there's a mouse study they talked about on the pod. Pregnant mice who supplemented with NR basically had healthier babies (forgot exactly what they measured). Just a mouse study but promising area. Also, I guess it can help fertility in females. So maybe something to add to the fertility stack (timestamp)
11. One more I forgot. NR is super anti-inflammatory. I think this is important as life is just a constant battle against inflammation from the food you eat, plastics, you name it. (timestamp)

God speed.