Longevity
Getting Into the Cold!
Ice bathing is trending, but do you really need to jump into an ice tub? Learn how cold activates your metabolism and which simple daily habits are enough.
Longevity
Ice bathing is trending, but do you really need to jump into an ice tub? Learn how cold activates your metabolism and which simple daily habits are enough.
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Ice bathing is quite trendy right now. Social media is full of posts where people sit in a tub filled with ice water on their balcony or in their garden. Mind you: Some people overdo it, like so many things.
Many know the pioneer Wim Hof and his spectacular feats, such as running a marathon north of the Arctic Circle at -20 °C wearing only shorts and sandals.
But why do people do this? And more importantly: Should you do it too? But let's start with the basics first.
The term cold thermogenesis describes the generation of heat in the body through a cold stimulus. Crucially: This form of heat generation occurs in brown adipose tissue, a fat depot particularly located in the shoulder-neck area.
Through the oxidation of fat, heat is produced here and transported throughout the body via blood as a carrier fluid. Brown adipose tissue is special because it comes from the same precursor cells as our skeletal muscle and therefore has similar metabolic properties. It contains more mitochondria than white adipose tissue and therefore burns more fat and carbohydrates.
Babies still have a lot of brown adipose tissue to protect themselves from cooling down. Over the course of life, this amount decreases significantly, and most adults accumulate a large energy reserve in the form of white adipose tissue. White adipose tissue, unfortunately, is much less metabolically active and serves primarily for fat storage.
But there is a third type called beige fat, which is a kind of hybrid form and can emerge from white subcutaneous fat when exposed to cold. It simply reprograms itself. Amazing!
Developmentally, it comes from white adipose tissue, but behaves more like brown, metabolically active tissue. It gets its beige appearance through an increased number of mitochondria. In short:
More mitochondria = more active, healthier metabolism.
Studies show that adipose tissue becomes healthier the more «beige» it becomes. Accordingly, an organism becomes healthier from an energy metabolism perspective the more beige or brown adipose tissue we have.¹
We now have two options: Convert white, inactive adipose tissue to beige. And activate our brown adipose tissue, which we primarily find in the shoulder-neck area, from its dormant state. How do we do that?
Research has a non-prescription recipe for us ;-)
Sport and cold
Both sport and cold increase the «good stress hormone» noradrenaline, which is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter and ensures that certain signaling pathways are activated that stimulate the formation of new mitochondria.
Long-time edubily followers already know this: Noradrenaline activates energy metabolism in all cells. Under the skin – that is, in white adipose tissue – as well as in brown adipose tissue, noradrenaline is like the «switch» for thermogenesis.
Oh yes, «coaching» in this area is also provided by nicotine and caffeine, two popular psychoactive substances that for precisely this reason – via noradrenaline – keep adipose tissue and metabolism healthier... But back to the point:
No. Don't worry, to make your adipose tissue more metabolically active, you don't have to torture yourself with an ice bath every morning. Much weaker cold stimuli are sufficient. We have a few everyday examples for you on how you can activate cold thermogenesis.
A study showed that after just one month at a sleep temperature of 19 °C, the amount of brown adipose tissue increased significantly. After the subjects then slept at 24 °C the following month, the amount of brown fat decreased considerably. After another month at 27 °C, there was hardly any brown adipose tissue left.²
Fun fact: In Scandinavian countries, it has long been tradition to put babies outside to sleep. This is said to strengthen the babies' sleep and immune system. Warmly bundled up, the little ones then slumber on the balcony in sub-zero temperatures, while their parents sit comfortably in the living room by the fireplace.
Next time, instead of wearing a down coat, simply put on a hoodie when you go outside. You'll see that after a few walks you'll have adapted to the cold quite well. The advantage of walking is also that your body releases some heat through the movement anyway and you therefore won't get too cold.
You don't have to immerse your whole body. To activate thermogenesis, it's enough to splash individual body parts with cold water. This way you can gradually work up to cold showers or cold baths. You'll find that over time you become less stressed about more cold – so much so that eventually you can stand under a cold shower with little to no problem.
It can hardly be simpler or more understandable to make your energy metabolism healthier at the push of a button, so to speak. By the way: The search for such simple ways to quickly make energy metabolism healthier – if only in pill form! – consumes enormous sums in research!
You can do it right now. Essentially free of charge. Simply by coming into contact with (cold) nature and experiencing a bit of positive stress (noradrenaline). The rest your body will take care of for you.
So now you know why cold is so healthy for us. And most importantly, you know how best to use it. We wish you lots of fun freezing! ;)
(1) Michalk, C. Cold Thermogenesis im Jahr 2018: Brandneue Erkenntnisse. Link: https://genetisches-maximum.de/kontroverses/cold-thermogenesis-im-jahr-2018-brandneue-erkenntnisse/ (2018).
(2) Lee, P. et al. Temperature-Acclimated Brown Adipose Tissue Modulates Insulin Sensitivity in Humans. Diabetes 63, 3686–3698 (2014).
