Icy Waters and Health: Unraveling the Truth Behind Cold Plunging Benefits

Immersing self in cold/iced water has become a part of so many people's recreational routine, and a lot of people have come up to say that it doing this has a lot of benefit including recovering from exercise and sport, they also claim that it helps in reducing inflammation, as well as boost the immune system. Some people say it is great in reducing blood sugar level while others say it is great for stress and relaxation. So in this post, I will be looking at cold plunging and if it has any benefits medically.

Cold is one of the human body natural stressors as an exposure to cold will stimulate a strong physiological response such as the release of catecholamines which are dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine. This will cause increase in heart rate, vasoconstriction of peripheral blood vessels so as to enable blood to be pumped to the major parts of the body that need them for survival. The response would also lead to the increase in respiratory rate, but then when a person is out of the cold, there is an after drop effect. When people say it helps them relax, I then look at what the body is doing and I see that catacholamines are actually released as the body's response to flight or fight mood or stressful condition.

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When discussing about cold and the body acting, you will mention Brown Adipose Tissue which is made up of brown fat cells, mitochondria, and lots of blood supply and it is great at thermogenesis (it's ability to generate heat). Its mitochondria burns through carbohydrate or fat in the presence of oxygen to give energy. The mitochondria of brown fat contains the protein Uncoupling protein 1 which makes the entire process uncoupled thereby not generating ATP instead, it will generate heat which will be taken to other body tissues to keep them warm.

The brown cells have receptors for catacolamines and are thereby triggered by fight or flight sympathetic response. Brown fat is found in everyone and to make it clearer, there are more brown fat in newborns compared to adults. Newborns can get a maximal Sympathetic stimulation due to cold exposure which leads to the stimulation of brown fat that increases their metabolic rate by 100% while in adults, the metabolic rate is 15%. But with recent research, the rate can be improved upon through repeated cold exposure. With repeated cold plunging, the mitochondria in the brown fat increases over time.

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There are studies that show that cold exposure can lead to improvement in inflammatory markers in blood, and can help with the perception of pain. While some evidence have shown that cold plunging have positive effect on inflammation, there is still a lot of study to be done in that aspect. When talking about more studies being done, the fact that cold plunging helps to boost the immune system also needs more research as some studies show increase in white blood cells with cold exposure, while some research didn't show this.

There have been lots of report with cold plunging and cold exposure, and its relation with stress, depression, and anxiety but this is still not valid for me because it isn't like anxiety and depression can be measured in the bloodstream, also most of the reports are reported statements of how they feel but then their response were positive.

While cold plunging offers intriguing physiological responses, its comprehensive medical benefits require further substantiation through systematic research and clinical studies. As enthusiasts continue to embrace this practice, a balanced understanding of its effects on various health parameters will contribute to informed decisions regarding its incorporation into individual wellness routines.

Reference

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK232852/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cold-plunge-health-benefits_l_644684bfe4b039ec4e800163
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507716/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7330484/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3661118/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8421355/
https://mentalhealthcenter.com/cold-exposure-ice-plunge/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518606/
https://www.onepeloton.com/blog/cold-plunge-benefits/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8925815/