Cold Therapy for Your Brain: How Cold Can Help You Think Better, Sleep Better & Live Longer
Cold therapy is when you subject your body to temperatures colder than you’re comfortable with. This article will examine some of its benefits on your mind, body, and life.
The different forms of cold therapy
As with many things, there isn’t a right or wrong way to do cold therapy. One of the most popular ways is via cryotherapy, where someone rubs a cold object (such as an ice pack) over your body. However, if cryotherapy is not an option, here are other ways to put your body through cold therapy.
- Sitting outside in the cold, wearing just a T-shirt and shorts.
- Taking cold showers.
- Laying in a cold bath.
- Swimming in cold water.
Effects on Mental Health
Our body has a nerve called the “Vagus Nerve.” This nerve is responsible for controlling things like heart rate and blood pressure. And every time we get stressed, it releases stress hormones that cause our heart rate to increase. Although this isn’t always pleasant, it’s an essential part of our evolution, allowing us to avoid dangers. However, today, many of us get stressed over situations that are not life or death.
However, when you subject your body to cold temperatures, the Vagus Nerve will not be as active in an attempt to save energy. Therefore, when your heart rate has slowed, you will have no choice but to remain calm, and your body is not releasing the hormones that make you panic.
Cold therapy increases your alertness.
Although you won’t panic as much, you will still be alert. In the past (and I mean long ago), when we lived in caves, many would have frozen to death. Therefore, being cold can trigger our survival hormones, Cortisol and Norepinephrine.
In the past, these hormones would have kept us alert to finding warmth and avoiding predators. But today, we can use this same alertness to do our work or fulfill other tasks.
Cold therapy Helps you sleep.
The best time to do cold therapy is just before you sleep. This is because subjecting your body to cold can cause it to release melatonin which induces sleep.
Cold therapy can help you live longer.
Before starting this section, we should clarify that the science must still be confirmed. However, based on experiments that have been performed, the results look promising.
When scientists studied the impact of the cold on flies, they found that flies lived twice as long at 21C than at 27C. Likewise, with mice, scientists have found that when the temperature drops to 0.3C, their average lifespan increases by 12%.
There are two theories as to why.
The first is called the “Hormesis” hypothesis. The body builds up immunity when exposed to something in small doses (whether that’s cold or a pathogen). So, being subjected to cold prevents your body from becoming damaged by the cold.
The second theory is called the “Rate of living” hypothesis. Lower temperatures slow our metabolic process (converting food to energy) and reduce the chance of oxidative stress.
However, more studies are needed to show how cold therapy impacts the longevity of homo sapiens.
To get in touch to book in for this, please call Salon House on 020 7404 7067, e-mail us at info@salonhouse.co.uk or you can even send us a DM on Instagram @salonhouse
