AMA #10: Benefits of Nature & “Grounding," Hearing Loss Research & Avoiding Altitude Sickness
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Welcome to the huberman lab podcast, where we discuss science and science space tools for everyday life. I am Andrew huberman and am a professor neurobiology and open ology at stanford school of medicine today. Isn't ask me anything episode or A M A.

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So without further a do let's get to answering your questions. The first question is about nature, in particular, about the scientifically supported benefits of getting outdoors into nature. The person asks about the role of sunlight, the role of coming sounds, the role of observing wildlife, of observing Green colors, and quote other stuff.

And in fact, i'm glad that they asked about other stuff, because I get the question about the scientifically supported benefits of nature a lot. I often also get the question about grounding. For those of you that aren't familiar with what grounding is, grounding is a practice of putting your feet on the earth directly with bare feet, often times into soil or on a lawn.

And it's a question that I seem to get more and more, in fact, every week for quite a long while now on social media elsewhere, somebody asks me about the scientific support for this practice of grounding. So obviously, there's a lot of interest in what the scientific research says about getting into nature and putting one feet on the ground, a grounding and so on. okay.

So if i'm going to answer this question, I first have to be very direct with you. There is excEllent, meaning dozens, if not hundreds, of quality p reviewed studies which support value of getting sunlight in one's eyes, in particular early in the day to set their locating rythm. This is something that i've talked about extensively on the huberman lab podcast and is a guest on other podcast.

It's one of the first and Frankly most important items on the tool kit for sleep, which is a zero cost tool kit that you can access by going to hub band lab dot com, going to the menu, going to newsletter. You can see as a PDF there. You don't have to sign up for the newsletter, you can just access that took IT for sleep.

And you'll notice that very close to the top of that list. If not, top of that list is to get sunlight in your eyes. Early in the day, you don't have to see the sun cross the horizon, if you can, that's great.

But if you wake up after the sun has already risen, go outside, face the sun, blink as necessary to protect your eye, but get some sunlight into your eyes every single day, or as often as you possibly can, especially on overcast days. Okay, that's an absolutely, unequivocally science supported tool that will increase daytime mood, focus on alertness, and will improve your nighttime sleep. Viewing morning light also has profoundly positive effects on metabolism.

M, now those effects on metabolism could be the direct effect of viewing sunlight, or more likely, they are the indirect consequence of getting Better sleep at night. So getting sunlight in your eyes early in the day, and ideally in the evening, were late afternoon before the sun sets, is a very well supported protocol that we know is beneficial for numerous aspects of mental health, physical health and performance. And of course, sunlight.

And getting sunlight in one's eyes does require that you get outside. You simply will not derive the same benefits from viewing sunlight. If you try to do IT through a window or windshield, or if you look at a picture of a sun on a screen, forget IT. You are not going to set your catia rhythm. You are not going to derive all the positive effects of sunlight by trying to get IT from screens or from looking at pictures of sons or something of that sort.

Now if you are somebody that, for whatever reason, seasonality, where you live on the planet, work schedule at set a, who cannot get some light in your eyes early in the day on a consistent basis, well, then you might consider purchasing a so called sad langues for seasonal effective disorder, which is very bright light that you can look at in the morning for usually about five to ten minutes. People will put IT on their counter while they make the morning coffee, eat their breakfast, and that has also been shown to improve mood, focus on alertness and set one circuiting rythm. But IT is not nearly as effective as getting sunlight in your eyes.

Now why am I talking about this practice that i've already talked about extensively on numerous podcast before? Well, because the question is about nature, and sunlight is a key feature of our natural environment. But the person is also asking about other features of nature.

Seeing Green colors or blue colors are running streams for that matter. Well, here too, we can ask, what does the scientific data really say about things like going near a waterfall or a running stream or being near an ocean? And actually, this is quite interesting. There is actually A P reviewed literature on negative ionization, as it's called, which is a pattern of ionization that's present close to bodies of water and particular types of bodies of water, such as water falls, running streams at seta.

There's actually a laboratory at columbia university school of medicine that has publish fairly extensively on the health benefits of negative ionization as IT relates to setting circa dian rythm and some other aspects of mental and physical health, I intend to host the head of that laboratory on the huberman lab podcast. And there's not too distant future for now. We can safely say this.

There does seem to be some positive health benefits to placing oneself near bodies of water, in particular moving bodies of water. And of course, as is always the case when there's a discovery about how the natural world can impact help, there have been some technologies developed to create negative patterns of ionization within a home environment. But as with viewing sunlight exposure and comparing IT to, say, sad lamps, the negative innovation machines that one can purchase and put in their home environment have been shown in a few studies to produce some positive health benefits.

But those positive effects in no way reached the level of positive effects that have been demonstrated in studies where people are actually spending a dedicated period of time outdoors near a moving body of water. So in thinking about nature, natural environments, they're strong evidence for getting sunlight in one's eyes. There is some evidence for being near moving bodies of water.

perhaps. Again, I really want to highlight, perhaps because of negative ionization created by those moving bodies of water, there is far less evidence for sunlight simulators or negative ionization machines use indoors. And then the asked of this question also, quite correctly, asked about things like coming sound, watching wildlife, Green colors at sea.

And here in lies a really important point for everyone to digest. Well, of course, answering a question about the natural world there are about health requires that we first pose a hypothesis. For those people that are familiar with, a hypothesis is a hypothesis, is a stated prediction.

So it's not a question. A question would be something like, is getting out into nature good for our health? A scientific hypothesis is where one actually takes a stance.

For instance, you could take the stance and make the hypothesis that getting out into nature for thirty minutes per day, three days per week, improves mood and nighttime sleep because so that's a hypothesis that then one would go on to design an experiment to test and then evaluate the data from that experiment. And compared to the hypothesis, either validating or negating that hypothesis, that's essentially how science is done. There's a lot more to IT, but that's essentially the scientific method.

And well, of course, the scientific method is a fab ously powerful tool. For some questions, IT is a less potent tool. And the question of is getting out into nature helpful for enhancing our mental and physical health is the sort of question that, well, ideally you could design a really well controlled study to address. It's actually quite difficult to design such a study.

And here's why in order to perform a study that's very well controlled, meaning where you can actually individual variables like sunlight, like the sorts of color contrast that one sees in the natural scene, outdoors, in a forest or near a river, in order to address whether not the coming sounds or the presence of schools running through your environment or the relevant factors, IT becomes incredibly difficult to try and isolate individual variables. Meaning as soon as you bring people into the laboratory, yes, you have more control over which variables as they are called. You present them right by bringing them into a room that essentially has no art on the walls, and then having them look at a picture of a sun, or looking at sunlight, or listening to soothing sounds, or looking at a picture of a forest.

Of course, you're controlling the individual variables. However, there is a sort of gestalt, meaning, a collective picture of being in nature, that brings together lots of different elements. Write the element of surprise. For instance, the other day I was out for a sunday hike, and that morning I saw squirl running across my path.

And he was interesting because the squirl had a pine cone in its mouth, had had been chew down to the cob, and the square was probably only about seven, eight inches long, and the pine cone was probably about nine or ten inches long. The cover of the pco, that is. And the interesting thing is that the squirl was Carrying a long way from the tip of the of the cob.

And so I delighted in the fact that this little squirl was working so hard to Carry this object through the woods, and this object was literally longer than its own body lane. And IT looks so dedicated, and it's running across the. The path in order to do whatever IT would with that pine cone cob.

So something like that, obviously stuck in my memory is delighted me. And at the very same time, there were a number of other things happening. Besides the presence of that novel wildlife experience, there was the sound of a stream.

There's the sunlight, there's the color contrast everywhere. I'm breathing fresh air because I was far away from any cars or any civilization, in fact. And so here's what we know. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of studies that show that if people get out of doors into nature, this could be parks, this could be near a stream, this could be an ocean, any number of different natural environments.

And if they do that for anywhere from ten to thirty minutes, three to seven days per week, indeed, there are demonstrated significant reductions in things like blood pressure, resting heart rate, improvements in sleep, improvements in mood. And so I think we can very reliably say that yes, or perhaps even absolutely yes, getting outside into nature can enhance various aspects of mental health, physical health and thereby performance in different aspects of life. However, when talking about the benefits of getting into nature, we are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of variables, some of which we are aware of, such as the presents of wild life for sunlight or color contrast.

And then, of course, there are going to be dozens, if not hundreds, maybe even thousands, of other variables that were not even aware of perhaps its negative ionization. Most people aren't meagerly the ionization of the air when they go out into nature, but perhaps it's also the presence of certain smells from the soils that are being broken down. And then they're changing the oxyde state of the error around you, the plants at that. Again, so many variables that, Frankly, to try to icily any one of those variables in the laboratory seems not just artificial. But I think that I actually would just lead to a diminish SE of just how valuable nature is.

So well, of course, the huberman la podcast is a podcast where we always sent on science and science related tools, meaning protocols that are grounded in quality, pure, reviewed studies that have been subjected to control conditions, where some people are getting, say, the drug treatment to are taking the supplement or doing a particular behavioral practice and other people are not, or doing some vary of those in those response curves, all of that stuff. When IT comes to the question of whether not it's valuable to get out into nature, I think it's a very straight forward. Yes, absolutely yes.

Get out into nature as often as you can and safely can. Of course, I realized some of this is weather permitting. People live in different areas. Some people in cities, some people in deserts, some people are near the ocean. But getting out into nature has been shown over and over again to have numerous positive health effects.

And yet, unless we're talking about sunlight exposure and isolated the variable of setting one circadian rythm by viewing sunlight early in the day, all of the other features of getting out into nature, things like forest bathing, this is a term coin from some, Frankly, pretty nice studies that we're done in japan in which people place themselves into forest like environments. For a certain period of time, there were control groups where people were not placed into those environments. In the people that did so, forest bathing experienced enhanced mental and physical health that brought on a practice of people who could not get out of doors into forest, bringing plants into their home environment, which I think all of us would agree.

Look, they often will add plus and others to the air, and perhaps they do actually shift our mental and physical health in significant ways. I suppose that depends on how much you like plants, how much you pay attention to them and of course, how many plants there are. But, and I think this is a really important bt to emphasize, well, most all questions about tools and protocols for enhancing health immediately lead me to say, oh, this study or that study or, yes, there is evidence or no.

There is no evidence when IT comes to questions about nature and grounding. In particular, I take the stance that this is a unique instance where we know there are just so many benefits of getting out into nature that trying to isolate any one of those variables in a quality, rigorous way within the laboratory almost seems too are official to really justify the conclusions that arrive. Now i'm sure they're some of you out there who are aware.

And if you're not, i'll tell you there are studies that have explorer, this practice of so called grounding. We've had people come into the laboratory and place their feet on soil that is contained within a box, or there are other states where they actually have people go out of doors and place their feet onto the grass or the ground. And there are a bunch of theories as to how grounding could improve one's the mental and physical health that aren't just about getting outsides of the theories go that this has to do with the exchange of electrons with the earth and the surface in particular.

There's been the argument made that shoes and particular shoes that have rubber souls may block some of this electronics change with the surface of the earth. I've been theories about the tactile, that is, the touch sensation with the earth being important. Not a lot of science published in, let's just say, blue rib in journals, which is not to diminish some of the journals of these have been polishing, but just to say that, again, there are so many variables associated with a practice such as grounding that i'll simply say, yes, please do get out of doors into nature.

I try every sunday to do my zone two cardio by rocking or jogging, hiking, often with other people that i'm trying to be social with family or others. But the point is, getting out of doors has myriad positive effects on mental health and physical health. And of course, when you're moving out of doors, you're also getting that zone to cardio other forms of physical benefit by elevating your heart rider.

Perhaps you could even do your resistance training out of doors on other days. Now I also try to get out of doors other days of the week, but often times i'm by way of weather or by way of other commitments, forced to be indoors on planes here at the podcast studio, where certainly i'm indoors, but I try to get out of doors at least a few minutes each day for a morning stroll, looking at sunlight at sea. So the long and short of this is, yes, they're some evidence for grounding, is a super strong evidence.

No, it's not we don't really know what IT is about placing one's feet onto the earth that is producing the positive effects that were observed in those studies. And those studies made some reasonable attempt to isolated the variables and figure out whether not IT was iron exchange with the earth of the tactile, meaning the touch sensation of having once feet on the ground. Frankly, I don't think there's enough quality science to really draw firm conclusions about that.

However, if you like, the a of grounding, by all means, do IT. In fact, if IT feels good to you, I recommend getting your morning sunlight out of doors with your bare feet on the ground. Or if you're like me, you know, you put on your shoes and you take a walk.

Most days, although i've tried this practice of grounding and IT feels pretty good meaning IT feels nice to have my feet on the earth provided on on clean soil or or clean lawn um definitely don't do this at the dog park hookworm is a real thing, by the way, folks so pay attention of the sorts of surfaces that you're putting your feet onto. But the question about whether not nature is valuable for a mental and physical health is an easy one is an absolute yes, but isolated the particular variables about nature that are most beneficial. Well, that's a much tougher question.

It's one that Frankly, the scientific method is not in, to be honest, I don't think ever will be in a position to isolate and really nail down specifically because as soon as you get specific about that question, you start to diminish the value of the study itself. So the long short of this is get out into nature as often and as you safely can. If you can exercise out of doors even Better.

If you want to make IT social, great. If you don't want to make IT social, fine. Your life is up to you.

But they're certainly is value in getting out into nature. It's also just beautiful from a visual perspective, from an auditory perspective. And I myself trying take at least a few trips each year. None of these are are particularly expensive trips where I try and get out hiking, camping, the weekly walks in nature.

R A, no absolute must for me if I miss one because of weather conditions or travel, and making a point to try and get into nature more during the following week or whenever I can. And Frankly, I don't have a scientific explanation for why nature is also beneficial, except for the sunlight piece and perhaps this grounding piece and the negative ionization piece. And Frankly, I don't worry so much about the lack of variable isolating quality peer reviewed studies that support the benefits of getting out into nature.

I simply like getting out into nature and into different natural environments as much as I possibly can, because, for whatever reason, imagine those reasons have something to do with satan in dopamine hormones, oxytocin, probably a bunch of different things that are rooted in how our nervous system evolved in natural environment. Well, IT just feels really good. Thank you for joining for the beginning of this.

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