The Science of Mood And Your Microbiome with Dr. Uma Naidoo

Most women are told that midlife decline is inevitable—more aches, weaker bones, less strength. But is that really true? On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, I sit down with Dr. Vonda Wright, a double-board certified orthopedic surgeon and leading voice in women’s longevity and performance. She shares how muscle functions as medicine, how hormones shape longevity, and why women’s midlife health deserves a whole new conversation. Join us for the full conversation on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. What you’ll discover: • How to protect your strength, bones, and independence after 40 • Training shifts that build power, balance, and resilience you can feel every day • Why hormone therapy may be safer and more effective than you’ve been told • Nutrition habits that feed muscle, boost energy, and slow midlife decline • The key tests that reveal your true healthspan—and how to act on them Aging is universal, but frailty is not. With the right focus on strength, hormones, and lifestyle choices, women can move into midlife and beyond with vitality and independence. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Results https://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by Seed, Fatty 15, Function Health, Pique, PerfectAmino and BON CHARGE. Visit seed.com/hyman and use code 25HYMAN for 25% off your first month of Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic. Head to fatty15.com/hyman and use code HYMAN for 15% off your 90-day subscription Starter Kit. Join today at FunctionHealth.com/Mark and use code HYMAN100 to get $100 toward your membership. Receive 20% off FOR LIFE + a free Starter Kit with a rechargeable frother and glass beaker at Piquelife com/Hyman. Go to bodyhealth.com and use code HYMAN20 for 20% off your first order. Head to boncharge.com and use code DRMARK for 15% off your order.

17 Sep 1h 5min

Many psychiatric labels—like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia—can obscure underlying biology, and symptom checklists often fail to explain or heal what’s really going on. Emerging evidence reframes mental illness as a problem of brain energy, mitochondria, and inflammation—shaped by insulin signaling, circadian rhythm disruption, the gut–brain axis, toxins, infections, and nutrient status. Metabolic interventions such as ketogenic nutrition, already established for epilepsy, show promise for rebalancing neurotransmitters, lowering neuroinflammation, and improving overall brain function. With depression now a leading cause of disability, shifting from “manage the symptoms” to “fix the biology” could dramatically improve outcomes where standard drugs fall short. In this episode, Dr. Christopher Palmer, Dr. Todd LePine, Dr. Iain Campbell and I explore how rethinking mental illness as a metabolic and inflammatory disorder of the brain—rather than just a chemical imbalance—could transform the treatment and prevention of conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Dr. Chris Palmer is a psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health. He is the Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For over 25 years, he has held leadership roles in psychiatric education, conducted research, and worked with people who have treatment-resistant mental illnesses. He has been pioneering the use of the medical ketogenic diet in the treatment of psychiatric disorders - conducting research in this area, treating patients, writing, and speaking around the world on this topic. More broadly, he is interested in the roles of metabolism and metabolic interventions on brain health. Dr. Todd LePine graduated from Dartmouth Medical School and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, specializing in Integrative Functional Medicine. He is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. Prior to joining The UltraWellness Center, he worked as a physician at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA, for 10 years. Dr. LePine’s focus at The UltraWellness Center is to help his patients achieve optimal health and vitality by restoring the natural balance to both the mind and the body. His areas of interest include optimal aging, bio-detoxification, functional gastrointestinal health, systemic inflammation, autoimmune disorders, and the neurobiology of mood and cognitive disorders.  Dr. lain Campbell is the first academic research fellow to specialise in Metabolic Psychiatry as the Baszucki Research Fellow in Metabolic Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh. He has a PhD in Global Health from the University of Edinburgh and is a principal investigator on a pilot trial of a ketogenic diet for bipolar disorder. He is a workstream lead and co-investigator on the first publicly funded research hub for Metabolic Psychiatry, the UKRI Medical Research Council Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh. His research in metabolic psychiatry has been published in Nature press journals Molecular Psychiatry and Translational Psychiatry and presented at Mayo Clinic Grand Rounds and The Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress.  This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN to save 15%. Full-length episodes can be found here:A Harvard Psychiatrist Rethinks Mental Health As A Metabolic Disease Is Brain Inflammation The Cause of Depression, Dementia, ADD, And Autism? A Functional Medicine Approach To Neuroinflammation Is Bipolar Disorder Really a Diet Problem?

15 Sep 1h 17min

On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, I sit down with Nick Brewer, founder of Primal Moves—a method born from his own healing journey. Once a pro skier turned drug smuggler, he spent ten years in prison, including four in solitary, where he discovered the power of breath and movement to rebuild his body and mind. I had the chance to try Nick’s class myself, and I was struck by how powerful such simple movements can be. I’m excited to share that experience with you. You can watch the full conversation on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. [YOUTUBE THUMBNAIL] We discuss: • How to spot when your nervous system is stuck—and steps to restore balance • Why talk therapy alone can’t release trauma in the body • How group movement triggers natural feel-good brain chemistry • Why we feel cut off from our bodies and how to reconnect Healing starts in the body. By working through stress and pain, we gain the strength and energy to show up fully in life. My hope is that this conversation encourages you to explore these practices and see what they unlock for you. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Resultshttps://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by BON CHARGE, Timeline, Function Health, Big Bold Health, Paleovalley and LMNT. Head to boncharge.com and use code DRMARK for 15% off your order. Support essential mitochondrial health and save 10% on Mitopure. Visit timeline.com/drhyman to get 10% off today. Join today at FunctionHealth.com/Mark and use code HYMAN100 to get $100 toward your membership. Get 30% off HTB Immune Energy Chews at bigboldhealth.com and use code DRMARK30. Get nutrient-dense, whole foods. Head to paleovalley.com/hyman for 15% off your first purchase. Get a free LMNT Sample Pack with any order—just head to drinklmnt.com/hyman.

10 Sep 1h 2min

Inflammation is the body’s natural way of healing, but when it becomes chronic and hidden, it quietly drives many of today’s most common health problems—heart disease, diabetes, dementia, cancer, autoimmune conditions, and more. Unlike the redness and swelling from a cut or sprain, this “silent inflammation” often goes unnoticed while slowly damaging tissues and speeding up aging. Modern life fuels the fire: processed foods, food additives, pollution, plastics, chronic stress, too much sitting, and poor sleep. The good news is inflammation can be calmed by simple daily choices—eating colorful whole foods like berries, leafy greens, beans, nuts, seeds, and omega-3 rich fish; adding herbs and spices like turmeric and cumin; moving regularly; practicing relaxation; and repairing gut health. Even small shifts, like climbing stairs, eating within a shorter window, or reducing sugar, can make a big difference. By lowering inflammation, the body finds balance again, opening the door to more energy, resilience, and healthy aging. In this episode, I discuss, along with Dr. Shilpa Ravella and Dr. David Furman, why it’s important to be aware of systemic inflammation and how to address it. Dr. Ravella is a gastroenterologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. She is the author of A Silent Fire: The Story of Inflammation, Diet & Disease, which investigates inflammation—the hidden force at the heart of modern disease. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, TIME, Slate, Discover, and USA Today, among other publications.  Dr. David Furman is Associate Professor and Director of the Bioinformatics Core at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, as well as the Director of the Stanford 1000 Immunomes Project. He obtained his doctoral degree in immunology from the School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for his work on cancer immune-surveillance. During his postdoctoral training at the Stanford School of Medicine, Dr. Furman focused on the application of advanced analytics to study the aging of the immune system in humans. He has published nearly thirty scientific articles in top-tier journals such as Cell, Nature Medicine, PNAS, The Lancet, and others.  This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN to save 15%. Full-length episodes can be found here:What Causes Inflammation And How Can You Treat It? The Silent Killer: Inflammation And Chronic Disease How Silent Inflammation Accelerates Aging

8 Sep 45min

For decades, psychiatry has relied on treatments that are slow and often ineffective. But what if one intervention could reset the brain, break the grip of addiction, and open the door to an entirely new model of care? On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, I sit down with Dr. Nolan Williams, a Stanford neuropsychiatrist pioneering new therapies for substance use disorders, depression, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury. We dive into these fascinating topics and more; watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll learn: • Why ibogaine is unlike any other psychedelic—and how it could reset the brain • Its promise for treating substance abuse disorders and breaking cycles of addiction • The safety step that makes ibogaine treatment possible for real patients • Why psychiatry is shifting from trial-and-error to targeted brain circuits Talks like this remind me just how close we are to real breakthroughs in mental health. Dr. Williams calls it psychiatry 3.0. It’s a new era of treatments that actually heal the brain, and it gives me great hope for the future of medicine. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Results https://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by Seed, Sunlighten, Function Health,Timeline, AirDoctor and Pique. Visit seed.com/hyman and use code 25HYMAN for 25% off your first month of Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic. Visit sunlighten.com and save up to $1400 on your purchase with code HYMAN. Join today at FunctionHealth.com/Mark and use code HYMAN100 to get $100 toward your membership. Support essential mitochondrial health and save 10% on Mitopure. Visit timeline.com/drhyman to get 10% off today. Get cleaner air. Right now, you can get up to $300 off at airdoctorpro.com/drhyman. Receive 20% off FOR LIFE + a free Starter Kit with a rechargeable frother and glass beaker at Piquelife com/Hyman.

3 Sep 1h 20min

Nutrients are far more than supplements on a shelf—they are life-sustaining molecules that determine how well the body ages and resists disease. For years, their importance was overlooked because many studies were poorly designed, failing to consider existing nutrient levels or how vitamins and minerals work together. Strong evidence now shows multivitamins can slow brain aging, omega-3s can extend life expectancy, and shortages of vitamin D, magnesium, and B12 are widespread drivers of inflammation and chronic illness. Knowing and addressing individual deficiencies is critical, as these nutrients power billions of chemical reactions every second and are foundational to vitality and longevity. In this episode, I discuss, along with Dr. Rhonda Patrick and Steve Martocci, why nutrients are essential for a healthy body and how to choose the highest quality supplements. Dr. Rhonda Patrick is a scientist and health educator recognized for her leadership in aging and disease prevention. As the founder of FoundMyFitness, she provides evidence-based insights to a global audience through her website and podcast. On YouTube, she engages millions in in-depth discussions on evidence-based strategies for well-being. Dr. Patrick’s focus areas include genetic influences in dietary response, micronutrients, sleep, non-pharmacological approaches to mental well-being, and the surprising and paradoxical benefits of biological stressors such as exercise, heat, cold exposure, and plant phytochemicals. As an associate scientist and board member at the Fatty Acid Research Institute, she advances understanding of omega-3 fatty acids in aging and health. Her research has been published in high-impact journals like Nature Cell Biology, Experimental Gerontology, and FASEB. Steve Martocci is the co-founder and CEO of Suppco, a smart supplement tracking platform helping people take the right supplements with confidence. After years of struggling with his health and hitting 300 pounds, Steve turned to functional medicine and supplements to reclaim his well-being. That personal transformation—and the confusion he faced along the way—inspired him to build Suppco. Suppco helps users track what they’re taking, avoid unnecessary or low-quality products, and personalize their supplement routine with tools like brand TrustScores, protocol guides, and stack analysis. This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN to save 15%. Full-length episodes can be found here: The Nutrient Gaps That Could Be Aging You Faster My Favorite Supplements for Optimal Health & Longevity How to Choose the Right Supplements (and Avoid the Wrong Ones)

1 Sep 59min

It’s been five years since Ben Greenfield joined me on The Dr. Hyman Show, and a lot has changed. Ben isn’t doing many of the things he once swore by. In fact, he’s discovered that some of the most powerful practices for health and longevity are simpler and more sustainable than the extreme routines he became known for.  In this episode, we talk about the biohacks he’s left behind, the innovations he still uses, and the deeper priorities that now guide his life. Join us on YouTube for the full talk or listen wherever you get your podcasts. [YOUTUBE THUMBNAIL] We discuss: • How much exercise is truly healthy, and when it starts working against you • Simple training shifts that build strength and stamina while protecting long-term health • What recovery tools can actually speed healing and reduce inflammation • Can light and oxygen really reset your body’s rhythms and improve sleep? • Why community, family, and spiritual health may be the most overlooked keys to longevity True longevity isn’t found in extremes—it’s built through balance, connection, and simple daily practices that stand the test of time. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Resultshttps://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by  Sunlighten, Paleovalley, Function Health,Timeline, AirDoctor and LMNT. Visit sunlighten.com and save up to $1400 on your purchase with code HYMAN. Get nutrient-dense, whole foods. Head to paleovalley.com/hyman for 15% off your first purchase. Join today at FunctionHealth.com/Mark and use code HYMAN100 to get $100 toward your membership. Support essential mitochondrial health and save 10% on Mitopure. Visit timeline.com/drhyman to get 10% off today. Get cleaner air. Right now, you can get up to $300 off at airdoctorpro.com/drhyman. Get a free LMNT Sample Pack with any order—just head to drinklmnt.com/hyman.

27 Aug 1h 25min

As women enter perimenopause and menopause, hormonal shifts—declining estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone—can ripple through nearly every system in the body, impacting bone density, cardiovascular health, metabolism, brain function, and sexual wellbeing. Misinterpretation of past research left millions fearful of hormone therapy, yet newer evidence shows that bioidentical hormones, started within a specific “window of opportunity,” can protect the heart, brain, bones, and quality of life. Supporting this transition in a woman’s life also means addressing nutrition, gut health, stress, sleep, and strength training—powerful tools that work alongside hormones to restore vitality. With the right knowledge and care, this phase of life can be transformational, leading to renewal, resilience, and long-term health protection. In this episode, I explore, along with Dr. Mary Claire Haver and Dr. Cindy Geyer, how we can shift our thinking of peri-menopause and menopause to one of renewed health and vitality. Mary Claire Haver, MD, FACOG, CMP, is a board-certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist, and Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner. A graduate of Louisiana State University Medical Center with residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch, she is the founder of Mary Claire Wellness, a clinic dedicated to comprehensive menopause care. In 2023, she launched ThePauseLife.com, a global resource for menopausal women, and became a #1 New York Times bestselling author with The New Menopause. Her first book, The Galveston Diet (2023), reflects her passion for evidence-based lifestyle strategies to support women’s health. With over 4 million social media followers, Dr. Haver is a leading voice in “demystifying menopause,” empowering women to self-advocate and thrive through every stage of midlife. Dr. Cindy Geyer received her bachelor of science and her doctor of medicine degrees, with honors, from the Ohio State University. She completed residency in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. and is triple board certified in internal medicine, integrative medicine and lifestyle medicine. This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN to save 15%. Full-length episodes can be found here: Your Guide to Menopause: What to Expect and How to Thrive Menopause Relief: Hormone Tips Every Woman Needs To Know Is Hormone Replacement Therapy in Menopause Helpful or Harmful

25 Aug 55min