Transcript: How Marijuana Affects Top Performers Dorian Yates And Dr Andrew Huberman

TITLE: How Marijuana Affects Top Performers | Dorian Yates & Dr. Andrew Huberman CHANNEL: Huberman Lab Clips URL: https://youtu.be/e2TEzAcIUe4?si=WgBb4Supv4lhk3_n

My stance is one where I’ve seen people benefit. I’ve seen data that for people with a predisposition to psychosis, the high THC can be problematic. This is just what I’ve seen. But you sent me a note saying that um first of all that your experience with it has been good. So I want to give you the opportunity to share that and then some of the things that you speculate about because I’m an open book. Well, to give you some background, yeah, I guess cannabis is a bit like cultural. Uh, in Birmingham where I grew up, they have a lot of Jamaicans. So, I mean, Jamaicans, they smoke uh cannabis, they make tea. It’s just a cultural thing. It’s normal for them, right? Uh, so it was about I had a couple of friends that their dads were Jamaican. So, I was smoking it anyway, but I didn’t wasn’t smoking it because I thought there was any particular health benefits. I just smoking it and drinking alcohol like hanging out. Uh, but my friends dads who were Jamaican was like, “Oh, this is protects against this and we drink tea for this and the women take it for menstrual pain that.” So, I kind of heard that, but yeah, okay, whatever. Uh, and I would smoke occasionally when I was training. And when I went to live in Amsterdam for a little bit, as I said, I did a lot of reading, started reading about it. I started searching for studies and uh, I found there’s massive, massive health benefits from THC and different canabonoids. Uh, some of it really counterintuitive I guess for people. Um, you had Peter Atier on here, right? So, you asked Peter, I think, what about smoking cannabis? How does that affect your lungs? And I think he was pretty much said it’s probably like the same as nicotine, uh, tobacco, right? I think that’s what he said. Well, he’s probably not aware of a 25 year long uh massive study that was done at UCLA, Dr. Donald Taskin, I think his name is. So, they put these peoples in into groups, cigarette smokers, cannabis smokers, and control group that didn’t smoke anything. Uh so, after 25 years, what did they find? Cigarette group. We already know, right? loss of lung function, increased cancers, blah blah blah blah. Yeah. In the cannabis group and heavy daily smoking 25 years, I’ll agree because I’ve been heavily smoking every day for 30 years, right? So, what was the effect on the lungs? Some negative, yes. Because of the heat and the tar and everything like that, it could irritate the airways. it reduced somewhat the antioxidant layer on your airways. So statistically you would be more susceptible to an infection maybe bronchitis or something like that. Although of all my friends I don’t know anyone that got it but statistically you would be more likely to get it. Lung function interesting 25 years of cannabis smoking compared to the non-smokers there was a slight increase in lung capacity in the cannabis smokers. I have to check out this study. Yeah, no cancers. Other groups got cancers, but this one don’t after 25 years. So, that’s the lung cancer. So, maybe Peter was not privy to this information. Well, I’ll check out the study. I’m not familiar with it, but I appreciate you raising it. I wonder um if it’s the THC and whether or not edible forms of THC would have the same effect or whether or not it’s the smoking of cannabis. So, you know, Rick Simpson. I know of Rick Simpson. RSO, you know, the Rick Simpson anyway, he made a concentrated oil from cannabis. Now they sell it in all the pharmacy called RSO, although I spoke to Rick. It’s nothing to do with him. He just because he’s the guy that originally did it in Canada and he cured hundreds of people with cancers. Uh he made a documentary called Run from the Cure. So the guy was growing cannabis on his farm in Canada, making the oil from it because he discovered by mistake. He had some skin cancer and he discovered by mistake that the the oil got rid of it and he started Anyway, he was persecuted by the authorities in Canada cuz he wasn’t selling it. He was literally putting his money into it, growing plants and giving it away for free. Right. Watch the documentary. is very explains it all and he was persecuted there and he lives in Europe now uh and there’s a lady at the University of Madrid Dr. Sanchez. She has proven in uh a lab setting THC. You can even get the the video, the speed it up video, literally eating of the cancer cells. Oh, yeah. I’ve seen this. I think we’re finally in 2026 breaking into new ground where people are looking at psychedelics, looking at other compounds, nutrition, etc. I do think we’re I’m an optimist. I like to think that in part because of discussions like this um and an open-mindedness that has not existed before um that we’re starting to break new ground in at least exploring things, right? Being willing to explore things. Um you won’t be shocked to hear, but many people might be shocked to hear that the initial group that was exploring um different types of breathing to achieve different brain body states, people like Stan Graph and all those people, a lot of them were run out of universities. They thought it was they somehow it was looked at as too counterculture. Now my lab I’m not running a lab right now but I still teach but my lab has published clinical studies right federally well in that case privately funded but peer-reviewed studies on breath work for anxiety control breath work for sleep augmentation bre and so to us now like breath work sounds like the kind of like oh of course right but 20 years ago if you said breath work people were like okay where’s your magic carpet and there’s the door and let’s lock you out. You can manipulate your your brain and your body with uh with breath work. Yeah. Yeah. You can really shift your state. And the thing with the cannabis, I’ve also seen it in my life. I’ve seen it with real people and there’s there’s thousands of people out on the internet if you search. Yeah. Well, certainly for glaucoma, a field that I was involved in for a long time. You know, eye pressure. Uh cannabis is a is a well um utilized tool to relieve eye pressure. And the major cause of blindness second to cataract only is glaucoma due to elevated eye pressure and cannabis. It reduces. That’s well established. And they’re so in the opthromology community. they’ve really embraced it. I do have one question that I think is in the back of many people’s minds or should be. Um, you were clearly and still are a very driven guy, although now you have this kind of additional balance now. Yeah, you have an additional you have you have an onoff switch right now. Um, maybe it was all gas pedal before. Um, many people that I know who smoked a lot of weed. Yeah. Some of them became very amotivated. They like I’ll do it tomorrow. Yeah. Exactly. So you’re you are a unique specimen in the sense that like super driven, right? And so I had this, you know, dime store psychologist theory for a long time with my friends, which was, hey, if you’re really driven, uh maybe you should do some things to relax, maybe cannabis is right for you a little bit. But if you’re lazy, I don’t know if that’s the right drug. If you’re lazy, you’re lazy, right? Maybe it just amplifies it. Um, you know, there’s a test you can do now. I don’t know if it’s here, but in I did it in Spain. So, we have an endockinabonoid system, right, inside your body. But it varies. Mhm. So, there’s a swab you can do and it gives you a report on your endockinabonoid system, right? And uh there was one of them is a likelihood of negative effects from 1 to 10. So the lady did my thing and I was kidding around with her. I said, “What does it say there? Do I need THC for life?” Just messing about. She said, “Well, you’re not far off.” She said, “Look at this. The likelihood of you having negative effects from cannabis, you’re on one out of 10.” So, uh, for instance, my wife, we’ve been married 12, 13 years now. Sorry, girl, if I made a mistake. She don’t go anywhere near it. she feels totally paranoid if she has a little bit of cannabis. So I’m well aware of uh you know different endockinabonoid systems maybe or different personalities. So for some people they will get a lot of negative effects. Uh so you have to find out for yourself. But it’s interesting they got this test now that actually proves that your endockinabonoid system might be slightly different for mine. So I might benefit more from THC. maybe you benefit more from CBD or a balance. So, it’s interesting now that we’re uh able to get this information and uh I’m very driven and I’m very disciplined. Yeah. And uh yeah, my wife thinks I’m hyperactive. I’m kind of quietly I’m look very relaxed but I’m constantly thinking and moving. So, probably for me it’s beneficial at this stage. And um I was having this discussion with my friend. Oh, it’s not good. And it’s only for losers. I said, “You like to watch that American football, don’t you?” on Saturday. He’s like, “Yeah.” I said, “You know, they did a survey with the NFL players and NBA players. How many of them use cannabis on a daily basis in between 70 and 80%.” So, we’re talking about the most elite athletes in the world, highest paid athletes. They wouldn’t be doing that if it wasn’t benefiting them. And they’re saying it’s benefiting them. But more to the point, how about the owners of these clubs? If they thought this was having a negative effect on their, they would stamp it out right away, but they don’t. Uh, and these are, you know, the basketball players are saying they smoke blunts before they go on the court and they play better and they recover better and so on. And yeah, it makes sense. So I would say it it’s good to hear you say that it probably varies by person. Your wife it’s not not for her. It’s clearly for you and um and it probably varies by profession and natural tend drive and but maybe other things too. I mean um I know some artist musicians who need to drink and smoke and others and others and others who don’t and um you know now nicotine’s made a big comeback in the oral forms of nicotine. You know, I feel like just like with dogs, there’s tremendous variation in body size, temperament, even food. Humans are different. Some food for some people, they’re allergic to it. It gives them bad effect and somebody else not. So, there’s no rule that applies to everybody, 100%. But cannabis has a very negative image, let’s say, because of uh 100 over 100 years of propaganda. Yeah, it was a medicine. You could get it on the shelves in America in 1900. It was for many many things. Uh Queen Victoria, the famous longest uh queen, she used to use cannabis for period pains and this and that. So it was used as a medicine for a long time until the pharmaceutical industry came along and then all of a sudden they’re making movies, you know, uh if a white woman smokes cannabis, she’s going to sleep with black men and all kind of crazy stuff. There was one called Reefer Madness. You know, smoking gonna send you crazy. I mean, this is in people’s minds. You know, it’s a bad thing. It’s a drug. It’s not. It’s a plant medicine. And it grows from the ground like that. It’s stronger now. It’s higher in THC because it’s been crossbreed and cross like a dog. You know, you want a dog with a long nose. It’s the same thing with plants. So, people want to get more bang for their buck. So the breeders are trying to breed more THC into it. And sometimes this is not good for people because the CBD is kind of calmed down and balanced with the THC. Now the CBD is down and the THC is up there. So that’s why it’s more likely to make you feel a little edgy now because the THC is kind of active, you know.