Dr. Melissa Ilardo

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791 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard May 2025 last heard May 2025

Dr. Melissa Ilardo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Huberman Lab · Behaviors That Alter Your Genes to Improve Your Health & Performance | Dr. Melissa Ilardo · 26 May 2025 podcast

So their spleens were about 50% larger on average.

And this was true for divers and non-divers.

So that showed us that it was very likely to be something genetic rather than the fact that your diving increases the size of your spleen.

This is a question that I think is still open because in both of the populations where I've measured this, divers and non-divers have the same size spleen. However... Other people have shown that, you know, when you train, if you train people, if you recruit people to a study and train them in breath hold diving, their spleens increase in size.

This is a question that I think is still open because in both of the populations where I've measured this, divers and non-divers have the same size spleen.

However...

Other people have shown that, you know, when you train, if you train people, if you recruit people to a study and train them in breath hold diving, their spleens increase in size.

So I don't know if it's just that the populations that I've worked with have some kind of genetic factors that override that change.

So I don't know if it's just that the populations that I've worked with have some kind of genetic factors that override that change. But yeah, open question, I would say.

But yeah, open question, I would say.

The gene that we found that was evolving in the population correlates with higher than average thyroid hormone levels.

The gene that we found that was evolving in the population correlates with higher than average thyroid hormone levels. So not like clinically hyperthyroid, but higher than average. And this is actually also true for Europeans who are carrying the same genetic variant. We showed in another group of individuals that if you have this gene variant,

So not like clinically hyperthyroid, but higher than average.

And this is actually also true for Europeans who are carrying the same genetic variant.

We showed in another group of individuals that if you have this gene variant,

you have higher thyroid hormone levels and you have a larger spleen. So it's not just something that's true in the C-nomads.

you have higher thyroid hormone levels and you have a larger spleen.

So it's not just something that's true in the C-nomads.

And so what we think is going on potentially, and this relates to the work that we did with mice as well, is that because of these higher, I hesitate to say elevated because that's a clinical term, higher than average thyroid hormone levels, the mice, the humans, whoever it is, are producing more red blood cells.

And so now whether that's kind of stretching the spleen, you know, because the spleens that we saw in the mice were larger but less dense, or, you know, if there's some other mechanism, we're not completely sure yet.

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