Using Your Nervous System to Enhance Your Immune System

This episode teaches you a lot about the immune system, immune-brain interactions and offers 12 potential tools for enhancing immune system function. I discuss how our immune system works and science-supported tools we can use to enhance our immune system. I discuss the innate and adaptive immune systems and our various microbiomes-- not just in our gut but also in our nose, eyes and mouth and how to keep them healthy. And I review how specific patterns of breathing and foods maintain a healthy mucosal barrier that is crucial for fighting infections. I discuss how certain neurochemicals called catecholamines enhance our immune system function and how to use specific breathing protocols, types and timing of heat and cold exposure, and, if appropriate, supplementation to activate catecholamines. I also discuss the role and use of serotonin for the sake of accessing the specific types of sleep for recovering from illness, and I discuss how to increase glymphatic "washout" of brain debris during sleep. I also review fever, the vagus nerve and the use of atypical yet highly effective compounds for rhinitis (nasal inflammation). For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/huberman Thesis: https://takethesis.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) The Mind & Immune System, New Findings: Acupuncture & Fascia (00:03:00) Sponsors (00:07:41) Foundational Tools & Practices for a Healthy Immune System (00:11:20) Immune System Basics: Skin/Mucous, Innate & Adaptive Immune System (00:17:08) Killer Cells, Complement Proteins (“Eat Me!” Signals), Cytokines (“Help Me!” Signals) (00:21:06) The Adaptive Immune System: Antibodies (00:28:00) Tool 1: Nasal Microbiome and “Scrubbing” Bacteria & Viruses; Nasal Breathing (00:30:33) Tools 2 & 3: (Not) Touching Your Eyes; Gut Microbiome & Fermented Foods (00:34:20) Some Interleukins Are Anti-Inflammator