Cold therapy for a long life?

Since the famous interview of former German national player Per Mertesacker in 2014, cold therapy has become a household name among the general public. The football professional stated that he had “to put in the ice bucket for three days“. Especially in the sports scene, the use of cold has enjoyed a good reputation not only since his public statement.

There are also some trends that involve cold. You may have heard of skin icing, where you treat your face with ice cubes, or other cold therapies like placing chilled cucumbers on your closed eyes. You have probably heard of Wim Hof, who set several records in ice bathing.

In cryotherapy, a distinction is generally made between local application and whole-body application. In this article, the focus is more on whole-body application. Local application of extreme cold is mainly used by doctors to freeze and thus remove warts or small skin tumors, for example.

Ice sauna or cold bath?

Cold baths are widespread. Numerous sports doctors and fitness experts swear by this regeneration method – especially because the cooling brings with it a very pleasant feeling.

According to relevant experts, a cold bath is suitable for accelerated regeneration after strenuous exercise - a real ice bath is not necessary. A water temperature of about 10° C and a duration of about ten minutes should sufficiently stimulate regenerationThis is explained by various points: Firstly, the heated body cools down more quickly, that is obvious. By cooling down, the body can then begin the actual regeneration more quickly and remove disruptive metabolic products from the muscles more quickly. In addition, the Improves blood circulation and smaller inflammatory reactions that often occur during intensive exercise (you are probably all too familiar with sore muscles) are suppressed or weakened. The cooling bath is also said to have a soothing effect on pain.

In addition to the simple home application, so-called Cryosaunas or ice saunas. The institutional providers of ice saunas advertise many different benefits of the sessions, in which one immerses oneself for about three minutes in extremely cold Chambers with -190° C goes.

On the one hand, this is intended to improve athletic abilities. This is done on the basis of accelerated regeneration, higher oxygen saturation in the blood, reduced muscle soreness or the accelerated healing of muscular micro-injuriesThese points are consistent with the previously known benefits of cold.

Psychiatric benefits include mood-enhancing effects and better sleep. In addition, other medical purposes are also said to be fulfilled: wound healing is accelerated after surgical interventions, and Immune system Furthermore, improvements in the symptoms of autoimmune diseases are mentioned.

In connection with overweight and weak connective tissue, the product is advertised as having an increased calorie turnover, tissue tightening and positive effects on cellulite. Our body's own structure can therefore be strengthened.

Apart from positive anecdotal reports, scientific evidence for the diverse effects of this extreme cold is rare. However, the fact that some university hospitals have cold saunas certainly suggests that it has a therapeutic purpose.

And what does science say?

In fact, cold therapy – unlike the biohacking scene – is currently not a real trending topic in health and longevity research – but there are still some studies that deal with the topic.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis have been proven to benefit from cold therapyThe main focus of therapy here is to reduce pain in the joints. Joints of people with rheumatism are exposed to constant inflammatory processes that bring with them heat. Cooling the joints reduces pain and the dose of concomitant medicationThis was made clear by a study from 2014.

Another study from 2021 examined and confirmed the effect on delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). For the study, patients were exposed to cold and heat therapy. The effect of cold is therefore greatest when the therapy is used one hour after an intensive training session. An effect on muscle soreness is recorded up to 24 hours after the training session. Interestingly, heat has similar positive effects. This result was also confirmed by another study, which Use of cold therapy for injuries and accelerated regeneration investigatedThe focus here was the suppression of secondary processes after an injury.

A commentary from Thomas Jefferson University points out that many of the touted effects, are not sufficiently scientifically proven, especially in the aesthetic and dermatological spectrum and there is a continuing need for great research. Accordingly, many of the promises made by providers still need to be further investigated and verified in order to be able to speak of benefits on, for example, the appearance of the skin.

Ice bathing: more than just a trend?

At least since Wim Hof Ice bathing is present on many social media channels. Even Hollywood stars, such as Comedian Kevin Hart, can be seen regularly in the ice bath. In his show “Cold as Balls“ he interviews guests while both are sitting in the ice bath. But scientists, such as Stanford Professor Andrew Huberman, are also seen taking ice baths regularly. The question is, is this all a trend, or is there science behind ice bathing?

Is ice bathing healthy?

Let's start with the most important question. Is ice bathing healthy? And if so, why is that? We have already seen that there are some scientific studies on cold therapy. Now let's take a closer look at ice bathing and what benefits it brings.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of ice bathing, you should read the work of Dr. Susanne Søeberg She has conducted several studies on the subject and has published her results in her book “Winter swimming“ To better understand the benefits of ice bathing, we need to look at different areas of the body:

metabolism

Perhaps one of the most obvious benefits of ice bathing is its effect on metabolism. This does not necessarily mean the direct effect (the actual ice bathing burns only a few calories), but rather the long-term applications. The key word is beige fatty tissue.

We have different types of fat tissue in our bodies. White fat is our energy storage and more than 90% of our fat tissue is made up of it. As small children, we have another type of fat tissue: brown fat. This is metabolically highly active and ensures that we produce heat. For babies, this is even vital for survival, as they are vulnerable to cold and cannot produce enough heat through muscle shivering. However, the older we get, the less brown fat tissue we have. And this is where ice bathing comes into play. Ice bathing can transform white fatty tissue into brown or beige (an intermediate form)This allows our body to adapt to the low temperatures and boosts our fat burning.

Did you know?

Dr. Susanne Søeberg is a pioneer in research into ice baths, heat therapy and breathing exercises and their effects on the body. The so-called Søeberg effect was named after her. The Søeberg effect involves allowing the body to warm itself up again on its own after an ice bath. The muscle tremors promote the release of succinate, which in turn stimulates the synthesis of brown fat.

Neurotransmitters

During ice bathing, a whole cascade of neurotransmitters is released, mainly adrenaline and noradrenalineThese molecules put our body into an extreme state of alertness.

After ice bathing, the secretion of dopamine over a longer period of time, which can lift our mood. But it's not just our mood that improves through ice bathing, but also our focus and energy. Wim Hof ​​originally started ice bathing as a type of meditation to help him come to terms with the loss of his wife.

Resilience

Who hasn't felt the reluctance or inner reluctance when you have to get into cold water? Everything inside you is screaming at you that this is a really bad idea. Our body also has good reasons to warn us against it. Ice water is potentially life-threatening and our instincts warn us against it. If we get into the ice bath anyway, then our prefrontal cortex (this is where our rational, thinking self is located) has won over our more instinctive and primitive brain. Andrew Huberman calls this “top-down control,” which means that higher areas of the brain (our prefrontal cortex) take control of our instinctive brain. In other words, we increase our self-discipline and this can also help us in other areas of life. Be it self-discipline when exercising, sticking to a certain diet or studying for the next exam.

A guide to ice bathing

If you have never been ice bathing, you are probably asking yourself a few questions. How long should I ice bathe? How often should I ice bathe? And how cold should I ice bathe? And when should I ice bathe?

We will give you a brief overview in this guide to ice bathing:

• At the beginning: Never ice bathe alone. The cold can put a lot of strain on your circulation, so it is safer if at least one other person is with you
• Start slowly. You don't have to break world records. A few minutes a week are enough to activate the positive effects of ice bathing, such as fat burning. According to Andrew Huberman, 11 minutes a week is enough and you can divide it into several sessions
• Better two or three times a week than once for a long time.
• Cold is subjective: One of the most common questions is how cold does the ice bath have to be? There are no set rules. A good rule of thumb is that you feel the inner urge to get out again immediately. It doesn't matter whether the water is 12, 8 or 5 degrees Celsius. The colder the water, the less time you need to activate the health benefits.
• Evening or morning? Again, it depends on personal preference. Both are possible. However, the body temperature rises after ice bathing. As we described in our sleep article, this can make it difficult to fall asleep.

Are there any significant side effects?

With all the praise that cold therapy receives in flyers and magazines, there is often insufficient discussion of the associated risks. That is why we are now addressing the potential disadvantages of ice bathing and cold therapy.

The possibility of frostbite, if you sit in a cold sauna at -190°. In addition, a so-called Cold burn It becomes more dramatic when a suffocation The extreme cold triggers reflexes and thereby affects breathing – in very rare cases with fatal consequences.

There are usually safety precautions in place to prevent local frostbite of the hands or other problem areas such as the eyes. Nevertheless, these points must be mentioned.

Transparent providers of cold saunas have lists of Kontraindikationen, which indicate which pre-existing conditions are not allowed to be used in a cold sauna. These absolute exclusion reasons include PAVK (peripheral arterial disease), severe coronary heart disease or Arrhythmia, Pacemakerthe Raynaud's syndrome, untreated arterial hypertension or even one Pregnancy, at acute infections A cold sauna is also not recommended.

So cold therapy is not for everyone.

Cold therapy – the conclusion

The cryosauna trend will most likely continue to grow in popularity. There is certainly nothing wrong with taking a cold bath after a hard workout. This is a relatively safe way to test whether the effects are noticeable or not.

Apparently, the cryosauna is more of an interesting beauty secret. Here, possible side effects and the poor data must be taken into account.