taking a cold shower can feel very uncomfortable give you Goosebumps and make your whole body feel freezing however cold showers and cold therapy in general can help you feel more alert and energized it can improve your health and can even help you burn fat these are just some of the benefits that you can use to justify going through the unpleasantness associated with using cold immersion as a therapeutic agent and really there are six amazing scientifically proven benefits when cold therapy is used correctly and I want you to understand what those are and how to start
using the cold to reap those benefits today now the first thing that most people don't realize is that cold therapy can drastically improve your mood and your mental health to the point that it may even help prevent and even treat depression one of the ways that cold exposure is able to improve your mental state is thanks to norepinephrine when your body is exposed to cold temperatures neopine is rapidly released into the bloodstream this is a neurotransmitter that's associated with things like vigilant attention focus and mood and this isn't debatable the fact that cold exposure can
increase neuropen is shown in multiple studies both in mice and humans interestingly when neopine phrine is depleted in a person that person becomes depressed and we actually see this in a study published in the Journal of neuros psychiatric disease and treatment that's why ice plunges and cold showers might help prevent and treat depression the cold therapy drastically increases neurop nephrine levels which helps support a better mood and cognitive function now of course the question is how cold should the temperature be to get the benefits of a boost in norepinephrine well one study found that 1
hour of cold water immersion at a relatively regular temperature of 68° F did not activate nephrine release meanwhile 1 hour at 57° F increased nephrine Levels by a whopping 530 per. of course 1 hour sounds painfully long but fortunately you can get similar benefit in a shorter time frame if you turn the temperature down further and we have evidence of this a long-term study found that by immersing yourself in cold water at 40° Fahrenheit for only 20 seconds and sticking to that routine consistently for 12 weeks that can increase neurop nephrine Levels by 200 to
300% and it could be possible that taking an ice bath in freezing cold water would require even less time to reap the benefits now you don't want to go straight to freezing cold water you do want to work up to it and I'll go over that process proc in a bit but first you should be aware that one of the best benefits of exposing your body to the cold is that it leads to a reduction in overall inflammation throughout your entire body now you've probably heard that inflammation is the root cause of most modern diseases
and even though inflammation gets a pretty bad wrap inflammation itself isn't entirely a bad thing in fact it's vital for your health and well-being because it's the first step of the healing process that's used to prevent further damage by eliminating the initial CA cause of the cell injury and then the inflammation helps clear out the damaged tissues and the dead cells this is actually what starts the process of repairing damaged tissues however when the inflammation process goes into overdrive so when you have chronically High inflammation markers for seemingly no reason that's when inflammation causes a
lot of trouble for a lot of people for example as stated by the Harvard Medical School chronic inflammation is associated with heart disease diabetes cancer arthritis and vowel diseases like Crohn's disease and Colitis on top of that research also identifies inflammation as the key driver of the aging process one specific study looked closely at elderly people ranging from 85 to over 110 years old and researchers found that low inflammation was the only biomarker that accurately predicted survival and cognitive capabilities across all the age groups remember that cognitive decline is what leads to the rising rates
of dementia and Alzheimer's that we see today the researchers also came to the conclusion that inflammation is one of the most important variables that determine mortality capability and cognition up to a very old age so according to the evidence if you can reduce inflammation it might be a way to increase the length of your life while also reducing the likelihood of you having to suffer with a chronic disease like heart disease diabetes or arthritis and this is where cold showers and Ice plunges come into the picture since they can help reduce inflammation we're still not
not exactly sure the exact mechanisms that lead to a reduction in inflammation but the 5x increase in norpine that we talked about earlier definitely has at least something to do with it Research indicates that neopine phrine inhibits the inflammatory pathway in the body by decreasing levels of a small protein used by the immune system known as tnf Alpha this is excellent news because tnf Alpha is a very potent molecule that increases inflammation and it's involved in almost all human diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes to inflammatory bowel disease research also shows that neopine phrine decreases
other inflammatory chemicals like mip1 Alpha for example now aside from norepinephrine taking a cold shower can also reduce inflammation by simply lowering your body's temperature and causing your blood vessels to constrict and even though that sounds like it'll feel horrible and potentially get you sick one of the surprising benefits associated with cold exposure is actually improved immunity and this is once again based on science we have a study for example that looked at whether cold water immersion at a temperature of 57° Fahrenheit could impact the immune system in men that would spend 1 hour three
times a week in the moderately cold water ultimately they found that cold water immersion three times per week for 6 weeks increased the number of lymphocytes and a lymphocyst they help attack invading bacteria viruses and other toxins in other words cold therapy benefits immunity this is most likely why we have tons of anecdotal evidence where people that take cold showers or swim in cold water claim to get sick less often there's also other scientific data that supports this claim as well for example a study found that swimming during the winter months decreases the incidence of
respiratory tract infections by 40% you would assume that you would be more likely to catch bronchitis from swimming in cold water but it turns out that the opposite is actually true of course like many healthy things exposing yourself to cold temperatures doesn't feel all that great while you're doing it and it will require some mental toughness luckily cold showers are by themselves a great way to improve mental toughness most people simply don't enjoy being exposed to very cold temperatures but if you can overcome those feelings and do it anyway that can increase your tolerance to
being uncomfortable by doing things that are outside your comfort zone you'll become more in control of your own emotions and you'll be more equipped to handle stressors that occur during everyday life one very big believer in this is whm Hoff and he's an extreme athlete that has been nicknamed The Iceman he's set multiple records for the longest time in direct full body contact with ice one of his longest times being just under two hours he also has broken other records like the longest distant swim under ice and the fastest Barefoot half marathon long story short
Hoff gives a ton of credit to cold exposure for increasing his mental toughness and he believes that anybody can do the same now another big benefit for those of you that are trying to lose weight is that cold exposure may actually help you burn fat when you're exposed to a cold temperature Brown fat gets activated Brown fat also known as brown adiso tissue is a special type of body fat that produces heat to help maintain body temperature in cold conditions this activation can cause a significant ific increase in your metabolic rate because the process requires
a lot of energy for the brown fat to keep your body warm so by exposing yourself to a cold temperature either in the form of a freezing cold shower or an ice plunge you could temporarily ramp up your metabolism and that can lead to additional fat loss an example of this can be seen in a study in which a group of men stood in room temperature water at 68° F for an hour during that one hour in water that's far from freezing they were able to raise their metabolic rate by almost 100% And when the
researchers lowered the temperature to 57° F the men were able to boost their metabolic rate by 350% now I'm sure this makes you wonder how high you can boost your metabolism in a much colder temperature like an ice bath however it's important to keep in mind that cold exposure can increase hunger in some people so if you want to use ice baths or cold showers to effectively assist with weight loss make sure you don't eat more and accidentally raise your caloric intake after starting to to expose yourself to colder temperatures now the last benefit before
I give you a step-by-step action plan is that cold therapy can also improve your endurance capacity by boosting mitochondrial biogenesis which is basically a fancy way of saying that cold exposure can increase the number of mitochondria that are found within your cells mitochondria are the powerhouses of your cells they provide energy by carrying out biochemical reactions and other cellular processes which is why they're crucial for end an capacity mitochondria are what gives us the ability to use oxygen for energy production which is why increasing the number of mitochondria benefits aerobic capacity or endurance for example
in a study in which male Runners were immersed in cold water at 50° Fahrenheit for 15 minutes three times a week after four weeks of that routine the men were able to increase mitochondrial biogenesis in their muscle tissue another study found that cold water exposure at 50° f after high-intensity run running increased pgc1 Alpha which is a gene that increases the number of mitochondria within muscle tissue now as promised I want to go over what you can do to start experiencing the benefits for yourself keep in mind there is no one best way to approach
cold therapy some people will also require slower more Progressive steps to adapt to this new stressor and with that said it's important to also mention that more isn't necessarily better if you're new to cold exposure don't aim to be in an ice bath for 20 minutes at a time time right away instead take it slow start with a slightly cold shower then next time make it a little colder and just like lifting weights you can make it more and more challenging to withstand over time alternatively you can also start by turning the shower dial to
the coldest temperature and only stay in there for a short 5 to 15 seconds that's totally fine for your first time and then over time you could work your way up towards staying in the cold temperature for longer another route you can take especially if you don't want to go straight into a cold shower is to alternate between a warm and cold shower this is also known as contrast therapy which gives you the benefits of regular cold exposure and it can also help you recover from your workouts in fact we even have a rather large
2017 meta analysis that found that contrasting between hot and cold baths was able to help Sports athletes recover faster from fatigue onset after their games so you can switch between hot and cold doing each for 60 seconds at a time or to work up to that you can start by alternating between 2 minutes under a warm shower followed by a minute in the cold you can do this for 5 to eight rounds and you'll probably feel great when you're done the last and my favorite way when possible is to use a sauna in combination with
a cold shower or ice bath this gives you the option to do something like 10-minute rounds of being in the sauna combined with a cold plunge or a cold shower in between each round the theory behind alternating between warm and cold like this is that it causes the blood vessels throughout your body to quickly open open and close the warmth causes them to open and the cold causes them to close this rapid opening and closing of the blood vessels creates a pumping action that can decrease swelling inflammation stimulate the removal of waste products such as
lactate and it can also improve delivery of nutrients to your muscles once you become more accustomed to the cold showers you can try an ice bath instead this is obviously much colder and much more intense but regardless of what option you start with the reom Commendation from people like whm Hoff in regard to dealing with the cold is to focus on your breathing and to try your best to calm your body down as much as possible almost like you're meditating that's the best way to cope with the cold so that about wraps it up I
hope you guys enjoyed this video and if you have make sure you subscribe to my channel also many benefits that you get at a taking cold showers especially improving mental toughness immunity and mood while reducing things like inflammation and body fat that's all also possible by following a healthy diet and a solid workout plan and combining cold therapy along with a healthy diet and workout regimen can only benefit you even further so if you'd like any extra help with setting up the ideal diet and workout plan for your body so you can feel and look
your best then click the link in the description or you can visit my website directly at gravity transformation.com see you guys soon [Music] he [Music]
