We know what you might be thinking. “Not a chance, ever! “.
Well, this was our thought at first, too.
Why, when you have a perfectly running hot shower ready and waiting to soothe your body into a state of bliss, would you opt for a cold option?
As it turns out, this never was about comfort. It was about human resilience.
Cold thermogenesis has been around for a long time, although only lately reaching a wider audience due to names like ‘The Iceman himself’ Wim Hof bringing it to mainstream awareness.
The benefits range from rapid fat loss, strengthening of the immune system, improved circulation, muscular recovery, lowered inflammation, improved adrenal function, and the ability to reduce depression. Plus, much more.
DISCLAIMER: This article is to inform and educate but is by no means professional medical advice, whilst cold therapy is very beneficial for the general population. Please consult your doctor before considering any form of hydrotherapy, especially if you have any medical issues or are on any medication.
1. Burn Fat, With Fat!
You heard us correctly!
Humans have two types of fat, brown adipose tissue (brown fat or BAT) and white adipose tissue (white fat).
Primarily found around the collar bones, neck, sternum and upper back, BAT is a unique type of thermogenic fat which can generate heat by burning regular white fat!
Many mammals, babies and individuals who are used to regular cold exposure will have a higher level of BAT in their bodies. Compared to those individuals living in a more moderate climate.
Think of the Nordic countries, for example.
In a normal situation, you would have to either be in a caloric deficit, a fasted state or running the treadmill to burn your glucose stores (blood sugar) first, then your glycogen (stored in your liver and muscles), then your fat cells, last.
Think of cold exposure and BAT activation as a shortcut to fat burning!
2. Stronger Immune System
Can you remember being a young child and hearing your parents say, “you must never go outside without a coat, you’ll catch a cold”!? What if the truth was the opposite? Staying warm all year round would be a far higher risk factor towards catching a cold.
Studies on cold exposure have shown that our immune cells can proliferate and activate during exposure. The act of putting ourselves into a moment of uncomfortable temperatures will train the body to adapt to that environment over time.
The more comfortable we are, the less our bodies need to work.
Try lowering that heating down in the winter, just a little!
3. Improved Circulation
‘My hands are cold!” We’ve all said that one.
Vascular health goes relatively unnoticed by many until it becomes a real problem. Our vascular system is a vast network of blood vessels that transport blood around our body, carrying nutrients, toxins, hormones, o2 and Co2, to name a few.
Within these blood vessels are tiny muscles that open (vasodilation) and close the veins (vasoconstriction).
A vascular system that is finely tuned will help the heart efficiently pump blood around the body.
How can we improve our circulation with cold showers?
When exposed to the cold, these tiny muscles strain to fully close the veins keeping the heat in and fully open to let the heat out.
With these muscles fully exercised, the heart has less work to do. Pumping blood around the body becomes less of a strain.
We exercise the vascular system!
4. Train Your Stress Response
On a basic level, your body has a nervous system that functions in two modes of extremes and the balance between them.
These are better known as your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).
When your body is under stress your sympathetic nervous system is switched on, your heart rate rises, HRV (heart rate variability) lowers and the body generally tightens up ready for an attack.
The natural ancestral response would be something like that of a predator hunting you down, these days it’s a little more complex with the number of external stimulants surrounding us, leading to heightened anxiety levels in our modern world.
The parasympathetic nervous system on the other hand has the opposite effect. This side of the nervous system kicks in when we are at our most relaxed, with no threats, no fears, just pure calm. At this point, we have a lowered resting heart rate, and a higher HRV, muscles are relaxed and the world slows down around us, bliss.
How can a cold shower balance the nervous system then?
For thousands of years, our ancestors would have experienced changes in temperature far more often than we allow ourselves, today. This lack of thermal exercise may have detrimental effects on our brains.
Cold water therapy has been shown to increase the release of norepinephrine and raise blood levels of beta-endorphin and norepinephrine
Endorphins are widely known as our happy hormones! These hormones allow us to feel a great sense of well-being and positivity towards our everyday lives. Norepinephrine has a few roles to play especially when it comes down to our brain function in social situations. The secretion and exercise of these hormones are especially down-regulated within depressed patients.
Cold showers and cryotherapy have had many positive results when it comes to studies on depression. In a controlled trial 3 weeks of cryotherapy (cold exposure) led 34.6% of people with depressive symptoms to decrease by at least 50% on a depression scale, compared to 2.9% of the control group. 46.2% of the study group also noted a decrease in anxiety levels by up to 50% on the scale compared to zero in the control group.
This study was carried out in cryotherapy conditions but in our experience, cold showers have the same benefit when it comes to cognitive response and learning to adapt to short-term stressors.
It might be the toughest thing you’ve tried but just like a workout, you won’t regret it afterwards!
5. Reduced Inflammation and Muscular Recovery
The skin has high-density cold receptors that when stimulated, fire electrical impulses to the brain’s nerve endings. This firing of information in the brain has been shown to create a pain-relieving effect.
As explained earlier on, we experience vasoconstriction through cold exposure, the very nature of this causes an anti-inflammatory state within the body.
When it comes to muscular recovery, fatigue is something we all experience from time to time, especially for those who train hard in the gym or are heavily involved in sports requiring a lot of muscle use.
During the workout, we create micro-tears in the muscle.
Inflammation is a part of the healing process, which is why you feel a bit sore a few days after working out!
Those tears will repair and the muscles continue to build.
Cold exposure has been shown to aid recovery because of these anti-imflammtorial properties it harnesses.
Recovery can also be achieved through sleep and heat therapy, the opposite side of the coin! Refer to our ‘sleep hacks’ article for further information regarding sleep and recovery.
If you made it this far without shivering, congratulations and thank you for reading our article!
Below is a link to the study mentioned above about stress management.
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