Using Salt to Optimize Mental & Physical Performance | Huberman Lab Essentials

Introduction to Salt's Role in Mental and Physical Performance00:00

Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance. Andrew Huberman is a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today we discuss salt, also referred to as sodium. Salt has many important functions in the brain and body. It regulates fluid balance, how much fluid you desire, and how much fluid you excrete. Salt also regulates your appetite for other nutrients, like sugar and carbohydrates.

We all harbor small sets of neurons called nuclei, little clusters of neurons that sense the levels of salt in our brain and body. There are a couple brain regions that do this. These brain regions are special because they lack biological fences around them that other brain areas have. That fence is the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Most substances circulating in the body do not have access to the brain, especially large molecules. The brain is a privileged organ. However, there are regions in the brain with a weaker fence. The areas that monitor salt balance and osmolality (concentration of salt) reside in these little sets of neurons just on the other side of these weak fences. The most important for today's conversation is the OVLT (organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis). Neurons in the OVLT pay attention to what's passing through in the bloodstream and detect if sodium levels are too low, if blood pressure is too low or too high. The OVLT sends signals to other brain areas, which release hormones acting on peripheral tissues, like having the kidneys secrete more urine to get rid of excessive salt.