22/64 day cold plunge

Sunny morning with a temperature of 25°F in the air and water. Day 22 of 64 day plunge.

A new study suggests that ice baths may help burn body fat.

Cold water exposure also appears to protect against insulin resistance and diabetes.

Other health benefits were less clear, however.

Experts suggest starting slow and doing your homework before you begin.

Dr. Chris Minson, who is an expert in exercise physiology, women’s health, heart health, and thermoregulation at the University of Oregon as well as a member of the American Physiological Society, noted that one of the key things we should take away from this review is that we still don’t know enough about what the potential health benefits of cold water exposure are.

However, he noted that some of the stronger evidence revealed by the study suggests that cold water exposure seems to aid in blood sugar regulation.

“This is through improvements in the way that insulin works in our body,” he explained, “and it has real potential for helping to improve the risk of diabetes, and thereby may also improve cardiovascular health.”

Minson further noted that there is more limited evidence that repetitive exposure to cold water might reduce the amount of unhealthy body fat, maybe by changing it to be more like the healthy, more metabolically active brown adipose tissue.

As to how this might happen, Minson explained that cold water exposure creates stress on our physiology in much the same way that exercise does.

“If these stresses are repeated over time, and we are able to recover and adapt to the stresses, our physiology will be more resilient,” said Minson, “and we may have lower levels of background inflammation (which occurs when we are sedentary, eating poorly, or have excess body fat).”