Control Pain & Heal Faster with Your Brain

In this episode, I describe the science of how and why pain arises in the body and brain, and how we can actively control our experience of pain. I discuss inflammation, stress, acupuncture, limb damage and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). I review protocols that leverage the lymphatic and nervous system to accelerate pain relief and healing in a variety of situations. Other topics discussed include how heat versus cold impacts neurons and wounds, red-light, sunlight, stem cells and more. For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Waking Up: https://www.wakingup.com/huberman Momentous: https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction/Avenues for Support (00:00:31) Sponsors: AG1, LMNT, Waking Up (00:04:58) Deliberate Unlearning (00:06:43) Pain, Injury and Regeneration (00:09:17) A System of Touch (Somatosensation) (00:11:42) Pain and Injury are Dissociable (00:15:19) Objective versus Subjective Control of Experience (00:16:15) Plasticity of Perception (00:16:41) Lack of Pain Is Self-Destructive; So Is Excessive Pain (00:18:42) Homoculous, Ratonculous, Dogunculus (00:19:05) “Sensitivity” explained (00:21:30) Inflammation (00:22:24) Phantom Limb Pain (00:24:00) Top-down Relief of Pain by Vision (00:26:41) From Deaf to Hearing Sounds (00:28:10) Pain Is In The Mind & Body (00:29:44) Recovering Movement Faster After Injury (00:35:00) Don’t Over Compensate (00:37:34) Concussion, TBI & Brain Ageing (00:40:49) The Brain’s Sewage Treatment System: Glymphatic Clearance (00:43:05) Body Position & Angle During Sleep (00:44:30) Types of Exercise For Restoring & Maintaining Brain Health (00:47:33) Ambulance Cells in The Brain (00:49:20) True Pain Control by Belief and Context (00:51:45) Romantic Love and Pain (00:55:05) Dopaminergic Control of Pain (00:57:15) Acupuncture: Rigorous Scientific Assessment (01:07:32) Vagus Activation and Autonomic Control of Pain (01:08:30) Inflammation, Turmeric, Lead and DHT (01:11:40) Adrenalin: Wim Hof, Tummo, “Super-Oxygenation” Breathing (01:14:53) Protocols For Accelerating Tissue Repair & Managing Pain (01:17:55) Ice Is Not Always Nice (For Pain and Injury): Sludging, Fascia, Etc. (01:22:02) Chronic and/or Whole Body Pain; Red-Light Therapy, Sunlight (01:26:10) Glymphatics and Sleep (01:26:29) Stem Cells, Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP: Shams, Shoulds and Should Nots (01:31:38) Young Blood: Actual Science (01:35:44) Synthesis, Support & Resources Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer