Cold Exposure: The One Health Trend you Should Actually Try

If you had told 20-something me that she would eventually jump into ice-cold water voluntarily on a regular basis, I would have absolutely laughed in your face. I live in Florida, and you couldn’t even catch me in the mild Atlantic ocean between the months of November and June. Today? I start every single day jumping into an ice cold shower.

So what changed? Well, honestly, I was influenced. No, not by all the biohacking bros posting ice baths on their instagram stories. (So many health and wellness influencers just follow the trends and I actually really hate to admit that they’re right about this one.)

I have always been very mindful of who I take health advice from, and I don't even need a whole hand to count how many people I will follow [almost!] blindly. One of those people is my mentor, Valerie. Now one of my best friends, she started out as my yoga teacher, and over the last 12 years she has completely changed my life by opening me up to so many wonderful practices. I am absolutely forever in her debt, but one of the times I wasn’t her biggest fan was the first time I went with her to the Russian baths.

The Russian baths are a sauna & steam lover’s DREAM, which is how she was able to get me on board. What I didn’t know, however, is that for Valerie, contrast therapy was an essential part of this experience. What do I mean by ‘contrast therapy?’ I mean that after every round of melty, relaxing sauna time, you ruin all of that relaxation by submersing yourself in ICE. COLD. water.

I now know that both cold immersion and contrast therapy are treatments people have been using for hundreds, if not thousands of years to heal from all kinds of illness. That day at the baths, I was already on board with the benefits of heat, but not yet at all familiar with the benefits of cold. I honestly did not believe that something that felt so horrible could be remotely good for you. Addicting in the moment because of the shock factor, like bungee jumping or race car driving? Sure, I get that. But actually good for you? No way, I thought.

Until I tried it.

If you want to feel the most awake and alive and clear and bright and energized you’ve ever felt, and yet somehow also calm, without any pharmaceutical assistance or exercise required, get in an unbearably hot sauna for 10 minutes then follow it up with a minute of immersion in ice cold water. There’s really and truly nothing else quite like it. (I say this with confidence; I’ve tried a lot of things in search of this feeling over the years. . .)

Anyway, back to the baths. So now I’m sold on the cold water thing, but only if it’s preceded by some heat. Getting in cold water when you’re starting from a normal body temperature? Um, no thank you.

Jump to a few years later. Almost certainly fueled by the rise in popularity of Wim Hof, more research started coming out about the benefits of cold exposure on its own. Enough to convince me to try it. Again, cryotherapy has been a healing treatment and wellness ritual for thousands of years. Any time you put ice on an injury, you’re doing a type of cryotherapy. But for many decades, full-body cold immersion had largely remained in the domain of professional athletes for the sake of quick physical recovery. Once I learned about the possible mental, emotional, and immune benefits, it suddenly became worth it to try. And now 4 years later, it’s become an non-negotiable part of my routine.

To be clear, I still hate getting into cold water. I have to psyche myself up for it every. single. time. This might seem to go against my ethos of listening to your body and not forcing discomfort, but it does still fit. Because in this case, much like the start of many workouts, despite the fact that it absolutely is uncomfortable in the moment, the way I feel after, and the benefits it gives me overall, are more than enough motivation to keep the practice going.

(Also, expecting results actually makes those results more likely to occur. Research shows that when you do hard things, such as practices that stress the body, voluntarily and expecting a positive outcome, you are more likely to get a positive result.)

The ‘good’ kind of stress

Not all stress is bad stress. Like exercise, cold exposure increases activity of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the system that correlates to our stress response, increased heart and respiratory rates, and cortisol and adrenaline release. SO many wellness practices are geared toward reducing sympathetic activity, and rightly so, but as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, we do need SNS activation for proper functioning. In a healthy circadian rhythm, cortisol is released in the morning to prime us for action and alertness, then gradually falls over the day, until it is at its lowest point at night. Taking a cold shower first thing in the morning can help to set and maintain this rhythm if it has fallen off track.

Just like exercise, a short repeated episodes of cold exposure over time eventually results in lower overall blood cortisol levels- something we want in the long term to ensure reduced inflammation and a healthy immune response- even while still continuing to stimulate the release of norepinephrine. Besides being a vasoconstrictor (which helps to conserve heat in the body), norepinephrine increases alertness, cognitive function, focus, and physical energy levels. This means cold therapy can be amazing for anything ranging from chronic pain to ADHD to depression. And the long term reduction in cortisol levels offers benefits for anxiety, autoimmune conditions, and even diabetes.

Getting Started

The good news is you don’t have to jump in a frigid lake or an ice bath to get these benefits. More and more research has been coming out on the benefits of cold showers. Even showers that start out hot and end up cold have demonstrated positive effects.

It’s a good idea to start out slow. This IS still a practice that activates the sympathetic system, and anytime we do that we’re generating a stress response in the body, and specifically the heart and lungs. Letting your body habituate gradually can reduce the risk of cold shock. Even if you’re not getting into water cold enough to risk severe adverse effects, you can still think of this practice as exercise for the nervous system. Just like exercising muscles, starting slow and increasing intensity gradually over time makes it more likely that we’ll reap the benefits of getting stronger while minimizing the risk of injury.

Cautions and Contraindications

I urge anyone with a chronic health condition, especially any that are related to ANS or cardiac dysfunction, to proceed with caution and consider consulting a health practitioner prior to beginning any type of cold therapy. Because cold exposure activates the SNS, sometimes significantly so, there are cardiovascular risks, especially if the water is very cold, or if the individual has a history of heart disease. Individuals with thyroid dysfunction should also proceed with caution and only after consulting a health practitioner to determine whether it is appropriate for your specific situation.

Cold therapy would generally be contraindicated for individuals with Raynaud’s syndrome and other conditions that cause poor circulation. (In many cases, heat therapy can be a good alternative!)