The Rich Roll Podcast The Human Brain: Leading Experts On Preventing Cognitive Decline, Understanding Addiction, The Neurochemistry of Spirituality & The Mind-Body Connection
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Aug 28, 2025 
Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford, joins forces with Dean Sherzai, an expert on Alzheimer's prevention, psychiatrist Anna Lembke, spirituality pioneer Lisa Miller, and hypnosis researcher David Spiegel. They dive into how lifestyle choices can prevent cognitive decline and unravel the complexity of addiction, driven by dopamine. The discussion spans the interplay of spirituality and mental health, along with how hypnosis can heal. These insights reveal the brain's incredible adaptability and underscore the profound connection between mind, body, and spirit.
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Sustain Healthy Habits To Reduce Risk
- Adopt sustained healthy habits—diet, exercise and vascular care—to steadily reduce Alzheimer's risk over years.
- The longer you maintain healthy behaviors, the more you lower your lifetime risk and restore baseline risk over time.
Vascular Health Is Brain Health
- Brain health depends on vascular health because the brain's tiny arteries deliver oxygen and nutrients to fragile tissue.
- Microvascular damage, hypertension and diabetes impair cognition by injuring these small vessels and white matter.
Dopamine's Balance Explains Addiction
- Addiction reflects dopamine-driven plasticity where intense reward causes tolerance and a compensatory opponent-process.
- Overuse shifts the pleasure-pain balance so people use to feel normal instead of to feel good.
