Cold water therapy: my journey from avoiding the cold to embracing it

“I’m cold”.

“Are you too? Or is it just me?”

I’m starting this story on a cool winter’s evening in Melbourne about 18 months ago.??The house is quiet, and my husband and I are about to settle into the next episode of our favourite Netflix series.

I already have my Ugg boots on as well as being wrapped a giant blanket.?And I’m still cold.

This is not the first winter I have felt the cold more so than others around me and I’m starting to get rather annoyed by it all.?I know I shouldn’t be feeling this cold or need the heating on another 3 degrees higher!

This is but one scenario of my discomfort of the cold – there are many others including a preference to sweat it out on the sandy shoreline during summer beach days rather than go in and swim in the refreshing swell.?

So, I dislike the cold.?Well, with humble pride I can now safely say I did dislike the cold.

It was that winter evening 18 months ago I decided it was time to do something about it.

Facing fears

I had a feeling that part of the solution to this problem could be the old adage of “facing your fears”.?Maybe I could fix this cold aversion by getting more comfortable with it through deliberate cold exposure?

For years a handful of friends had gently spruked the benefits of cold-water dips and winter swimming in our local bay.?[Personally I thought they were slightly mad.?How could that be in any way enjoyable! That type of behaviour is for slightly crazy people or thrill seekers, neither of which is me].

"Personally I thought they were slightly mad.?How could that be in any way enjoyable! That type of behaviour is for slightly crazy people or thrill seekers, neither of which is me."

But, without much preparation I decided to go for it.??A friend agreed to take the journey with me and we started in the still balmy mornings of summer in 2022.?After our early morning walks on a Wednesday by our beautiful bay, we would simply walk straight into the clear waters. With a count of 3-2-1 we’d bob down to our necks, sometimes heads under and then spend a glorious 5 minutes in the salty water, chatting without rush as we watched the new day dawn.

A simple mechanism

I’d never been someone that could just get straight into water, usually it was a 2-5 minute affair of waiting till the immersed part of my body had acclimatised and I was ready to inch in further.?But with our 3-2-1 method we just made it very immediate.?Psychological principles support this simple method. Backing her famous 2017 Ted Talk, Mel Robbins explains the science behind the count down approach:

"When you feel yourself hesitate before doing something that you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and move towards action.”

-???Mel Robbins

Watch Mel here explaining in easy speak what’s going on in the brain that back’s up the success of this simple technique

Consistency, accountability and reward is key

January, February, March passed and we kept up our new weekly ritual of the Wednesday morning walk then dip.?The weather turned from warm to fresh during autumn yet we persisted.?April, May, J-J-June – yes, June was cold.?This was the hardest month by a long shot as the bay’s waters plunged to a mere 8 degrees Celsius.??

Post dip warm showers at home and a hot drink over a steamy hot savoury breakfast became a real delight and proved to be a powerful reward motivator to wake up early to brave the cold walk before the cold plunge.

A non-negotiable and pre-agreed day with a friend is a great way to start a habit of exercise and cold plunging.?The less decisions your brain needs to make when creating a new habit, the more likely ?you are likely to have in sticking to it.?Pair that with an accountability buddy and you will really be on your way to the new habit a success - some studies show by up to whopping 95% more.

So if you think cold plunging is something for you to try this year, set yourself up for success by roping in an accountability buddy, set the day and time and reward yourself.

Reaping the rewards

Whilst the health benefits of cold water plunging were not my primary driver, I am thrilled to report that upon reflection I noticed the following changes in my mind and body:

• Mood:?Wednesday’s by far were the days I had the most elevated mood states.?I noticed this seemed to persist for many days after each dip.
• Heart health:?I track my Heart Rate Variability as a measure of my heart and nervous system health.?During the winter and spring months when the bay was colder, I had better variability scores. (Impressive given HRV has been shown to lower in winter in some studies however, I was also doing another modality at this time called energy work which I may talk about it a future article)
• Strong immune system:?I hardly caught any of the bugs getting around in 2022. ?I know I was definitely exposed and had one common cold but it was over as quickly as it started.?I felt resilient.
• Cognitive function and focus:?On the days I dipped in the bay, I was able to take on a lot at work and operate efficiently because I noticed my focus and flow was improved.?This meant less loose ends to take home and finish off later and more me time. Win!
• PMS relief:?A monthly hormonal fluctuation for women is completely normal albeit, at times be more pronounced.?I am not one to experience severe PMS, but in line with my boosted mood state I rarely experienced even the slightest hormonal lows when doing my cold water dipping.?After having to pause on cold dipping for 4 months when the local bay was too dirty after the Melbourne floods then taking a summer holiday, I could feel the pre-menstrual mood dip return.?I will be curious to see if the dipping this winter can blunt the monthly mood lows.

What does science say about cold water immersion?

Since noticing these benefits in myself, I became very curious to understand the science behind it all.??I found cold-water immersion is a hormesis strategy offering profound and whole-body benefits that are available to almost anyone.?Hormesis = positive body adaptation after a ‘good’ stress and I talk about it more below.

Side note:?The benefits of cold are shown to be much more powerful when the body is immersed in water, compared to say a cold shower which still has benefits but not as impactful.

[Caution - some people with cardio vascular disease should discuss this type of hormesis with their GP or cardiologist before starting.]

It enhances mood

People who have just been exposed to the cold show increases in the release of dopamine which continues for up to 5 hours post exposure.?Dopamine is that famous and powerful molecule that can elevate our mood, focus, attention and get us moving towards our goals.?This is now a proven benefit of even very short bouts of cold water immersion.

It improves focus

Instead of reaching for your coffee the moment you wake, try a cold plunge instead.?(I know, words spoken only from the completely insane ?? ) But it has the same effect – it increases our production of adrenalin. ??I found cold plunge then coffee around 1 hour later meant I was able to hyper focus on those days with the ‘double shot’ of adrenaline.

It builds resilience to future stress and anxiety

Cold exposure is a way to build your own Teflon barrier to repel future stressors. It builds our resilience to tough situations.?In a way its like a muscle of grit.?

It helps us regulate anxious feelings quicker and some studies showing significant improvements in scores of depression and anxiety states – some up to over 90% of participants reported experiencing.?This effect is more reliable than any pharmaceutical or natural drug on the market.?With zero negative side effects and a whole lot cheaper. Win. Win.

Please note that the effects of this benefit are enhanced when experienced with others thanks to the social element and also when done in a natural body of water like a lake, river or ocean.??

It helps to lose weight, shed fat and improve metabolism

This has been shown because cold exposure can stimulate your body to make a rare type of good fat, also called brown fat or brown adipose tissue.?Having more of that stuff means a host of awesome things for your body like:

• The bad, white fat being shed by the body
• Being better able to regulate your body temperature in either hot or cold weather
• Being able to improve your tolerance to sugar (glucose).?This is a VERY good thing given the sugary food we are usually surrounded with and mostly tend to eat too much of.
• New research has shown in men that simply immersing in cold water once a week and having a few cold (only 30 sec) showers and all other things like diet being equal can drop centimetres off their middle (ladies, lets cross our fingers they can see this same result for us in a future study, in this study the women got a host of benefits but no fat reduction results that were measured!)

A key hack to enhance these benefits is to let your body warm slowly (with only?help of either movement, clothing or blankets) for 10 minutes after exposure.?So wait 10 mins before you jump in that hot shower or sauna.

Better able to handle the cold

Hooray, there is scientific evidence behind my experience.?Brown adipose tissue is one of the key ways our bodies can thermoregulate so it is no surprise that people who expose themselves to the cold tend to be able to regulate their body temperature better.

It’s a good pre-operative protocol

Have an operation coming up??It could be worth preparing your body for the physical stress of that.?

One of the body’s non-stop jobs is to keep the core and vital organs in the narrow temperature range of 36.5-37.5 °C.?Did you know that being anesthetised during an operation actually blocks parts of your nervous system that works hard to regulate temperature??This is often the reason hyperthermia is one of the biggest risks of going under the knife.

Anaesthetist and founder of chilluk.org, Dr Mark Harper has been curious about how pre-operative, deliberate cold exposure could help strengthen the nervous system and train it not to over react to hyperthermia.?He says “while this stress response has evolved to protect and heal us, following surgery it overreacts, which can exacerbate the adverse effects of hypothermia.”?He suggests that in his experience cold sea immersion (swimming in his case) can improve surgical outcomes.

It’s a good stress

Poor old stress as a word has gotten a bad name of late. ?Stress is synonymous for bad, busy and overwhelmed. This is experienced when we are in “distress”.?But not all stress is bad.

We live in a world of comfort like no other humans before us have – even in the last 100 years the advances in automated heating and cooling, gadgets that do all the household chores and the trusty laptop have made life far more sedentary.?We now operate in a much narrow band of extremes.

But the thing is, stressful extremes can be good for our body.?It’s how our bodies were built to thrive on this planet.?

But the thing is, stressful extremes can be good for our body.?It’s how our bodies were built to thrive on this planet.?

Lifting weights and exercise is one version of ‘extreme’ that we do that we know that is good for us.?This type of good stress grows our muscles and keeps our metabolism moving along.?Good stress, with appropriate time to recover, is how the body adapts to become stronger and more resilient. It's also called Hormesis.?

To age well and increase our health span, not just our life span, we should think about how much of this good stress we are getting exposed to. Some examples of good stress beyond deliberate cold exposure are:

• Challenging workouts
• Breathwork (that includes holding your breath)
• Heat stress like hot yoga, saunas and spas
• Eating colourful plant foods – (a way to skip the hard work because a plant already went through it. We then eat the plant and get the benefits of its hormesis.?If this fascinates you, watch this video to learn more)
• Intermittent fasting
• Doing mentally challenging things – learn a musical instrument, take dance classes, learn a language, study again.

Stress is a spectrum.?Between calm and distress. We don’t want to sit in the distress end of the spectrum for too long.?And we should be careful not to load these healthy stressors to our system if we've been in a long term, chronic stressed state for too long.?

This is a REALLY BIG caution - if you never seem to stop, or work is one constant grind endless stressful events, don't jump straight into more stress. Remember to pepper in moments of slow into your days and weeks and get your nervous system (and related chemical by-products) to a middle ground before adding in any of the protocols from the list above (with the exceptions being the inclusion colourful plant foods and breathwork ??).

It can improve a vast list chronic health conditions.

Cold water benefits are not just for healthy people to get healthier.?It can help people with serious health conditions not only get back to baseline but to thrive.?Cold water immersion and cold water swimming it has been reported to

-???????Significantly reduce back pain

-???????Reduce arthritis pain

-???????Reduce depression

-???????Help those with PTSD to function

-???????Reduce severity and incidence of migraines

-???????Help manage autoimmune disease

-???????Reduce episodes of fibromyalgia pain

“Cold ocean water dips take you to another place entirely, it frees the mind and resets the body”.

Nearly convinced?

If you have made it to this point, I am guessing you might be open to trying this seemingly crazy recreational activity.?If you do want to get going there are a few things you can do to get started:

1. Find one person who will join you
2. Agree on a weekly day, time and location to do it (even if you start at your local wellness centre with paid cold plunges)
3. Depending on the water temperature, immerse for 2-10 minutes.?
4. Commit upfront to do this for a minimum of 6 weeks in a row before you decide if its too hard or not.
5. ?Be curious as to how tough you really are!

In change lies possibility

We are so much tougher than we give our body credit for.?There is no way 20 or 30 year old me would have ever thought that she’d be regularly dipping in cold water to feel good.

Sometimes if we are brave enough approach change with curiosity and an open mind we can be treated to a plethora of unexpected benefits. ?And if it’s not cold-water immersion, I wonder what change is waiting for you to explore?

In good health,

-Liv

Liv has conversations with patients?Melbourne Functional Medicine?about how to implement the lifestyle changes recommended by their practitioners and support them through the universal human challenge of "why is it that we still do what we do, when we know what we know".

#healthcoach?#healthcoaching?#functionalmedicine?#mindset?#change?#healthylifestyle?#emotionalhealth #coldwater

Further learning

Podcasts

The New Science of Cold Exposure: Reduce Stress, Boost Immunity & Increase Resilience with Dr Susanna S?berg

https://drchatterjee.com/the-new-science-of-cold-exposure-reduce-stress-boost-immunity-increase-resilience-with-dr-susanna-soberg/

Cold Water Swimming is a Remedy for Overall Body Health

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-chase-jarvis-live-show/id1127915772?i=1000568118069

Cold exposure for high performance health

https://hubermanlab.com/using-deliberate-cold-exposure-for-health-and-performance/?

Book

Chill. The cold water swim cure. By Mark Harper MD, PhD. https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/chill-by-mark-harper/9781797213767#

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Websites

https://chilluk.org/

https://www.soeberginstitute.com/

Research articles

Kelly, J. & Bird E., “Improved mood following a single immersion in cold water.” Lifestyle Medicine, ?(December 2021) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356721099_Improved_mood_following_a_single_immersion_in_cold_water

Harper, M. “Extreme preconditioning: Cold adaptation through sea swimming as a means to improving surgical outcomes.” Medical Hypothesis, Volume 78, Issue 4 (April 2012): 516-519: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987712000333

Harper, M., et al., “Sea swimming as a novel intervention for depression and anxiety - a feasibility study exploring engagement and acceptability.” Mental Health and Physical Activity, Issue 23 (October 2022). https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/publications/sea-swimming-as-a-novel-intervention-for-depression-and-anxiety-a#:~:text=Conclusions

Hooper P. L. et al, “Xenohormesis: health benefits from an eon of plant stress response evolution.” Cell Stress & Chaperones, Volume 15, Issue 6, (Nov 2010): ?761–770. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3024065

S?berg, S et al. “Altered brown fat thermoregulation and enhanced cold-induced thermogenesis in young, healthy, winter-swimming men.” Cell reports Medicine vol. 2, (October 2021). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34755128/

Sramek P., et al, “Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures.” European Journal of Applied Physiology, Volume 81, (February 2000): 436-442. ?https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s004210050065

Westerlund, T., et al.,” Heart rate variability in women exposed to very cold air during whole-body cryotherapy” Journal of Thermal Biology, Issue 31 (May 2006): 342-346. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248534435_Heart_rate_variability_in_women_exposed_to_very_cold_air_-110_C_during_whole-body_cryotherapy