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Investigating the impact of cold plunges on brain activity
- bitsinthesky 3y agoWearing only underwear and socks, I had the opportunity last year to do a guided ice plunge following breathing exercises. One curious piece is we were instructed to keep our hands above the water, supposedly it helps your body something with hypothermia regulation. It was stressful until I put my head under. The experience became amazing, I felt fantastic, and the entire event became a blast. I told everyone I'd start doing it weekly, which of course never happened. But I recommend more people give it a try. A fun side fact for those knowing University of Wisconsin Madison -- the established outdoor activities club is called Hoofer's, but my friend named his ice plunge club "Hoffer's", appropriately named after Wim Hof. Hoofer's gave him a laughably hard time over affront, but he hasn't backed down.
- number6 3y ago> It was stressful until I put my head under. I a similar experience: If I start a cold shower by splashing cold water in my face it is totally doable. If I start with any other body part it is extremely stressfull
- RHSman2 3y agoWhen I cold shower I do the initial grunt and then desperately want to get my head under. Every time. And then it is more manageable.
- culopatin 3y agoCold plunges or cold showers activate that “I accomplished something hard today” side of happiness for me. Hard to start, but once you calm down your brain that’s yelling “no way, we don’t need that” and do it, I come out with an envigorating sense of control over my desires.
- Full_Clark 3y agoAs anecdata rather than a commentary on the article's results, I find that a 10-min cold plunge produces up to 2 hours of elevated mood and energy. I think there's a decent dataset out there to back this up as a long-period increase in endorphin production, or maybe a heightened sensitivity to endorphins, but I can't find it at the moment. (SEO efforts by ice-bath merchants and fitness/recovery gurus is quashing any scientific publications when I search.) On the thought of that "I accomplished something hard today" feeling, after a cold plunge I also experience a decrease in how hard it is to get myself started on some difficult task I've been dreading doing. Would you say you have the same thing, where you've already done one challenging thing, so the next domino falls more easily?
- p1esk 3y ago10 minutes in ice cold water?
- Full_Clark 3y agoNot ice-cold. 10-12 C.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- vonnik 3y agoAnecdata: ice plunges are a meta-cognitive skill. Several minutes in 45 F water results in a 12h+ boost in mood and good feelings in the limbs and skin, and 2-3 hours of heightened attention. I’m currently doing this ~4 times a week. It’s the opposite of addiction’s dopamine cycle - a small pain the leads to a long-lasting high, rather than a drug’s small high that leaves you in its debt.
- RHSman2 3y agoMicro dosing versus macro dosing?
- Full_Clark 3y agoThere doesn't seem to be any clear signal in the data. Maybe with a higher n than 10 a multimodal distribution might arise. At the very least I'd be interested to know if all the participants had done cold plunges before or if there is a mix of experienced practioners and newcomers in the cohort.
- busssard 3y agothats my first thought as well. I hope to see a study with n in the range of 100s maybe when kernel headsets hit the market and reduced their cost
- ogundipeore 3y agoyep, this trial was to see if there were any neural effects. We plan to do a follow up study with a much larger cohort of people and also over many days. This will provide extra context for solid conclusions
- ogundipeore 3y agoSome participants were doing cold plunges for the first time and others had done it before. For participant 7 (who is an experienced cold plunger) we could see clear changes in their alpha power (dropping during the stroop task - attention & rising during resting state/cold plunge - being more relaxed)
- favflam 3y ago40->42->44 C, then drop to 12 C. Then drop the ground dead.
- lhoff 3y agoThere is a HubermanLab episode where he interviews Susanna Søberg. She’s a professor from Denmark who researches cold exposure during winter swimming. It’s mostly about physiological responses but not only. Link to the publications they talk about are in the shownotes. https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/dr-susanna-soberg-how-to-use-cold-and-heat-exposure-to-improve-your-health https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/dr-susanna-soberg-how-to...
- rattatossk 3y agoCold shower on most days is better than lemon haze.
- RHSman2 3y agoBut you know what? I couldn’t give a rats ** if science proves it one way or the other. It wakes me the hell up. Everytime.
- digitcatphd 3y agoI have to admit, my response to the study was "BS. Trendy BS." But then now reading these comments, I think I might need to try a cold shower...
- Full_Clark 3y agoIf you live near a coast or lake, see if there's a Polar Bear Club or other cold-plunge group nearby. The social aspect can be helpful in several ways.
- rednerrus 3y agoIf you have a bathtub, buy 40 lbs of ice and throw it in cold water and get in. Submerging is way better than showering.
- trabant00 3y agoOne of the latest trends in never ending search for the magical elixirs of health, youth, beauty, wisdom, etc. I have a few thoughts on these things: If any of them would work you would have to see significant results in the real world and not just in papers. Like somebody living 120 years because they always drink antioxidant teas. Or a geographical area where psychological well being is incredible because meditation is a local custom. For saunas and cold baths as well, they are long traditions in some places. What can we observe in those populations that is clearly out of the ordinary? If nothing, then they can't be doing much, can they? We already know elixirs that really boost our "stats". We have PEDs which have very clear effects. You don't need to calculate p-values to see that somebody has 3 times the muscle mass of a normal person or can focus to study uninterrupted for 48 hours after taking some pills. And we already know why the general population doesn't use PEDs on the regular. Because they have serious side effects. Why would you assume that we can find something with significant beneficial effects in one area that would have no drawbacks? It's like putting weights on one side of the scale to push it, but expect nothing to happen on the other side.
- reepooc 3y agoNo one is claiming it’s a magic elixir that will make you live 120 years (well I’m sure someone is, but that’s not the goal) At a bare minimum there’s a mental aspect to forcing yourself to do something extremely uncomfortable. Lots of people are seeing results in the real world. It’s really not equivalent to PEDs or medicine, or trying to replace those things. It’s just another tool that people into fitness can use in their routines I’d recommend trying it before having such a strong opinion on it
- ogundipeore 3y agoYour points are valid. However, I think it's important that we have standard frameworks for evaluating the impact of new interventions that aim to improve wellbeing (lifestyle changes, pills, neuromodulation) The number of years a person has lived is a good metric but that means if we're trying something new now, we need to wait for X years before saying this has an effect. X in your example being someone reaching 120years. We can't wait that long :)
- dvh 3y agoEvery cold shower study is fundamentally flawed as it can only be done on healthy individuals. This skews the result. The subconscious selection is often done before the official selection, this makes it really hard to do right.
- EGreg 3y agoSo what's wrong with that? You could also argue that almost all studies are done with adults, or individuals who aren't deceased, etc. PS: Look up the Doomsday Argument
- blackbear_ 3y agoSo what do you suggest to improve the situation? Do studies on unhealthy individuals as well? Or dont do any study altogether?
- ogundipeore 3y agoWe should definitely aim to do more studies that account for different people's conditions. As long as limitations are called out then it's fine imo. A core reason why we need to do as many trials as possible for different interventions is that there's no one-size-fit all approach. I believe that some things will work for some and not others. The bottleneck is in having a standard framework to validate the impact of interventions and understanding "whether or not it works for you" with empirical evidence (not anecdotes)
- HPsquared 3y agoCould this apply to exercise studies as well?
- sva_ 3y agoI've recently been getting into cold plunges at the local sauna and it is crazy how energized you feel when you come out from one (especially after sauna.) I now wish I had one at home, it is different from just taking a cold shower imo.
- jdthedisciple 3y agoSo the conclusion is there is no general conclusion because the response varies drastically across individuals, is that right?
- ogundipeore 3y agohaha yep that's correct. Observing how a single individual responds over time along side other contextual metrics of behavior, productivity will help nail down "why a person responds well vs. doesn't"
- rco8786 3y agoSo TLDR - it depends? I had the opportunity to do a cold plunge (twice over two days) recently and I really enjoyed it. I felt "better" for several hours afterward. All my little aches and pains were gone, felt more clearheaded somehow.
- ogundipeore 3y agoYeah, it depends but to answer the "does it help me" question, we need a framework to measure individual changes over multiple cold plunges. Now that we have this. We can use it as a reference for future longitudinal studies with larger groups of people.
- p1dda 3y agoI wonder if any study has been made regarding the diving reflex and 'cold plunges': could the extremely cold water and the following peripheral vasoconstriction lead to a central blood pressure rise to a degree that may be dangerous to the brain?
- seanhunter 3y agoIt certainly puts stress on the cardiovascular system. eg https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/26/woman-likely-suffered-sudden-cardiac-death-during-water-therapy-in-uk-inquest-hears https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/26/woman-likely...
- p1dda 3y agoThanks for the link.