Cold Therapy Benefits

• Reduces inflammatory responses throughout the body and thus stimulates the body to heal.

• Cold temps make your blood vessels tighten up (vasoconstrict). When that happens, blood moves to your body’s core and vital organs. The blood naturally becomes oxygen- and nutrient-rich during the process. 

• As your body heats up again, the blood vessels expand (vasodilate), bringing that oxygenated blood back to your tissues. As it flows back, it helps to flush out inflammation — a cause of delayed-onset muscle soreness, which can occur a couple of days after exercise.

• Increases positive immune response for fighting disease and infection.

• Reduces symptoms and inflammatory markers present in blood from autoimmune disorders.

Going from a hot to cold shower, even for a couple of minutes might protect you from circulating viruses. The shock of cold water can stimulate the blood cells that fight off infection (leukocytes). A study in the Netherlands found that people who switched to cold showers for 30, 60, or 90 seconds for 90 days called out sick from work 29% less than people who didn’t switch to cold showers.

• Helps the brain release norepinephrine during cold stress, which is shown to reduce depression and anxiety.

• Mood and brain function improve through stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system.

• It was said by Joe Rogan that he felt more of an energy boost from 3-4 minutes of cold therapy than a cup of coffee.

Sympathetic system gets activated, which triggers the release of epinephrine/adrenaline, making you more alert and efficient in fighting infections. Once you acclimatise, your parasympathetic system kicks in (aka vagus nerve).

In a nutshell, cold water in the morning makes you alert but calm if you practice calming your mind down while in the shower and staying long and often enough to acclimatise. It also increases your mental and physical resilience.

Cold exposure affects thyroid hormones and increases brown and beige fat, which are metabolically active tissues that can help you get lean. Active brown/beige fat upturns energy expenditure, and it's also associated with reducing blood sugar and blood cholesterol levels. Its degeneration and inactivation have been linked to obesity and ageing. Some studies concluded that even daily facial cooling increased fat loss!

Numerous studies indicated that regular exercise in the cold increases fat metabolism. The reasons include a cold-induced release of ketones and increased metabolic rate, decreased circulating insulin levels, and increased release of dopamine, epinephrine (adrenaline), and norepinephrine.

Cold exposure might be one of the best anti-ageing and longevity methods alongside exercise and fasting as it increases mitochondria and improves mitochondrial function. We need mitochondria to produce energy in cells, and this function declines with ageing or with poor lifestyle habits. The degradation of mitochondria also inactivates the brown fat and turns beige fat into white fat.