Why Cold Thermogenesis Might Be What You’re Missing From Your Health Routine – Part I
Cold thermogenesis (cold training/cold exposure) involves experiencing a short bout of cold exposure on a regular basis. Cold training can run the gamut from a daily cold shower to a post-run ice bath, a brisk winter walk to a dip in an ice-cold stream. And the alleged physical and psychological benefits can vary. Everything from improved immunity, enhanced mood, fat loss, and better muscle recovery. Believe it or not, one of the secrets to improved health can be found in embracing the cold.
Why Cold Exposure Can Be Beneficial
The evolutionary mismatch hypothesis posits that as Homo Sapiens, we evolved to end up surviving in the natural world by living a lifestyle as hunter-gatherers. These adaptive biological systems are what make us strong, resilient – and healthy – human beings. They help us adapt to both internal and external stressors, and help to strengthen our nervous and immune systems.
The human ability to adapt to our surroundings helped us survive, but is a fundamental reason for why we were able to thrive. From a species standpoint, walking on foot using primitive tools and wearing primitive clothing, we experienced the most extreme temperatures and thrived despite the conditions.
Unfortunately, much of what we do in our modern lifestyles or have in our environment can go against our natural biology. As a result, our bodies can respond in maladaptive ways, leaving us more susceptible to stress, sudden illness, and chronic disease.
It stands to reason that the more we differ from our ancestors’ blueprint for surviving, the more sick and unhealthy we can get. Although experts on evolution may disagree about all the specifics, in general their prescription for ideal healthy living is basically the same: eat and move as our ancestors did, and deliberately expose ourselves to some uncomfortable environmental conditions.
Environmental Conditioning And Hormesis
Environmental conditioning involves exposing the body to extreme temperatures in order to improve our health and well-being. The technical term for this concept is called ‘hormesis,’ which is when a minimal amount of exposure to a possibly deadly stressor can surprisingly end up having beneficial effects.
Many of us are familiar with hormesis in terms of exercise: We understand that progressive doses of stress have positive results such as improved strength, endurance, resilience, and other health benefits. But what about exposure to extreme temperatures? Does being exposed to extreme ends of heat and cold end up making up healthier and more resilient. It certainly seems that way.
Adapting to extreme temperatures is like a workout for our immune system, central nervous system, endocrine system, cardiovascular system, and more. Even brief exposure to temperatures outside of our comfort zone can initiate a sequence of physiological reactions that stimulate and upregulate our physiology, and few environmental stimuli have the transformational power of cold.
Benefits Of Cold Thermogenesis
Taking cold showers or plunging in ice baths or doing cryotherapy is a common practice among biohackers. The idea of restoring some of our lost evolutionary vigor and resilience is a great motivator in and of itself, but for those who need more of an incentive there’s ample concrete research on the physical and mental benefits of cold exposure.
Some research indicates that regular cold exposure can:
- Strengthen our immune systems
- Elevate our mood and mental functioning
- Reduce the amount of stress we have
- Improve our body composition
- Improve our cardiovascular fitness
As always, it’s recommended that you check with your primary health care provider before begin any new training regimen, including cold thermogenesis.
When we reintroduce cold exposure into our lives, even if it’s just a quick cold shower, we have the potential to improve our health and achieve and experience a type of vitality once commonplace among our ancestors. By tapping into the environmental stressors our ancestors adapted to — like cold temperatures — we may find a robustness we never imagined possible. And that’s pretty cool.