Cold Exposure / Ice Baths 100% Debunked @Institute of Human Anatomy

Watch on YouTube · 2023-12-18 · 29 min

0:00 Hey guys, as requested, I'm going to review the video called The Science of Cold Plunging by the channel Institute of Human Anatomy.

[video] 0:18 You've likely seen it. People submerging themselves in freezing cold water to then emerge victoriously and profess-

0:26 Yes, I have seen a lot of slaves do this. I've also done two videos on Wim Hof. He actually developed dementia because of the cold. There's very good evidence out there that the cold makes you more susceptible to developing dementia.

[video] 0:39 All the potential health benefits that a refreshing cold plunge can provide. Now I myself have been known to participate in such activities and we'll get into what happened to my clothes there.

0:50 You should go out into the sun more. Your arms are thin, but not the rest of the body. It looks abnormal.

[video] 0:55 Claims that it could help with recovery from sports and exercise, reduce inflammation and boost the immune system, help manage stress.

1:04 I can right away say that it most definitely doesn't help you recover quicker, but that's easy to prove. Reduce inflammation and boost the immune system. It does reduce the inflammation temporarily in the sense that you lower it by literally physically stopping it because of the cold. has to be warm, the body inflames your body on purpose to heal. And if you reduce the inflammation, then you stop the healing process. It's very bad to stop the inflammation, which is why cold exposure, if your body is inflamed, is very bad for you, obviously. And it does boost the immune system in the sense that when you're exposed to the cold, you produce a lot of white blood cells, for example, depending on how cold the temperature actually is. The colder it is, the more you're going to produce. Because your body is trying to fight the infection which is being caused by the cold. That's why you get colds in winter.

2:02 The cold literally comes from the cold because your body becomes infected. It becomes sick because... Abnormal temperatures, whether they are very hot or very cold, are unhealthy for your body. Your body temperature is 37 degrees, and if you expose yourself to freezing temperatures, then you're gonna get the cold or something even worse. Help manage stress, anxiety, depression. I have no idea what he means. We'll see maybe in the video later on. Obviously, cold exposure is incredibly stressful for your body, so that alone doesn't already make any sense. It most definitely could cause anxiety and depression, needless to say.

[video] 2:38 anxiety and depression, and even help regulate blood sugar levels.

2:42 Regulate blood sugar. We'll see about that.

[video] 2:45 So in today's video, we're going to discuss if cold plunging can really provide some of these health benefits. And of course, talk about some protocols on how to perform a proper cold plunge. It's going to be a frigid one. So let's jump right into this.

[video] 2:59 So let's start off with what we certainly know about cold exposure. Cold is one of the most potent natural stressors to the human body.

3:06 Huh, interesting that he mentions that because it seemed like before he's gonna say that it somehow helps you with stress. Of course, these videos about the cold usually don't make any sense, so he's probably gonna contradict himself soon.

[video] 3:17 Which means exposure to cold water will definitely stimulate a strong physiological response in that moment. This response would include the release of chemicals known as catecholamines,

3:27 What I noticed is that he has dark eye circles, which probably means that he exercises a lot, maybe he drinks a lot of coffee, who knows what, but he has a lot of stress in his life, that's for sure, which means that he doesn't know what he's doing, which already means that you shouldn't be taking his advice when it comes to the human body in general and what you should do with your body. He completely already discredited himself.

[video] 3:52 Which includes dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. And as an FYI, epinephrine and norepinephrine are also known as adrenaline and noradrenaline. And these catecholamines would cause further reactions to occur. Things like increases in heart rate, mesoconstriction of peripheral blood vessels or blood vessels out in your extremities in an attempt to shunt blood to the core of the body.

4:06 Yes, exactly, which is why you can actually get serious problems if you're exposed to the freezing cold for too long. You can absolutely lose your toes, your limbs. This has actually happened to some Wim Hof fans, brainwashed people.

[video] 4:20 You'd also see increases in respiratory rate, how fast you're breathing, and of course, your brain telling you to get out of there.

4:28 Yes, it's your body telling you to get out of there because it feels horrible because of how unhealthy it is. Everything, and there's absolutely zero exceptions to this, that your body tells you not to do or to do is either unhealthy or healthy. If your body tells you Not to do it, not to eat it, if something is bitter, if something generally feels really bad, such as the cold, especially the freezing cold, then it means that it's unhealthy. Always. And if something tastes good, as long as the food is natural, of course, then it's always healthy. Zero exceptions. And if something feels good for your body, then it's always healthy. Zero exceptions. And that's because your body knows best. Nobody out there can tell you what's good for you. Only you know literally what is good for you.

[video] 5:16 Now, once you got out of that cold water, you might also experience something known as the after drop. And we'll explain the details of what the after drop effect is once we get into the protocols of cold plunging. But all of these reactions are essentially your sympathetic nervous system ramping up.

5:33 responding to dangerous or stressful situations, activates the speed of up your heart rate, yeah of course because you gotta get out of there, deliver more blood to areas of your body that need more oxygen, yeah exactly.

[video] 5:46 Now the sympathetic nervous system is often nicknamed the fighter.

5:49 It literally says to get out of the danger but in this video he's probably gonna contradict himself and say that it's somehow good for you even though it's literally described as danger which is unhealthy.

[video] 5:59 The flight system. And it's likely not that.

6:02 Yes, exactly. It's the fight or flight system. And that's because it's incredibly stressful and unhealthy. Yeah. And this is exactly where you should end the video, except if you would want to give even more proof of how unhealthy the cold is.

[video] 6:13 Surprising to you that exposure to extreme temperatures would ramp up your sympathetic nervous system or your fight or flight response. But when you dig a little bit deeper into this fight or flight response specific to cold exposure, it's just a matter of time before you come across this discussion about brown adipose tissue or brown fat. Brown fat is a remarkable tissue and is different from the more typical fat that we find throughout the body known as white fat. brown fat gets its darker color from its rich and extensive blood supply, as well as from the brown fat cells containing numerous specialized pigmented mitochondria. This extensive blood supply and the specialized mitochondria give brown fat its function, which is thermogenesis, or in other words, its ability to generate heat. The mitochondria in the brown fat cells are incredible. Normally in our previous videos, or maybe in your previous biology class, you learned that the mitochondria will burn through carbohydrates or fats to produce ATP in the presence of oxygen. Instead of burning through carbohydrates and fats to generate a considerable amount of ATP, these mitochondria will burn through the fats and the carbohydrates to generate considerable amounts of heat. And because the brown fat has such an extensive blood supply, the heat generated in these special mitochondria can be carried away to other body tissues in order to help warm up the body. So how does repeated cold exposures or cold plunging change the brown fat?

[video] 7:10 Well, we obviously know that in the moment it will stimulate the brown fat to generate heat, but Are there any long-term changes or adaptations that occurs with this? You'll often hear people say that repeated cold plunging will build up the brown fat. The mitochondria in those brown fat cells will increase in number with repeated cold plunging exposures. Plus, the mitochondria that one does have in those brown fat cells will also become more efficient.

7:29 Okay, he talked a lot just to make one simple point. If you're exposed to the cold, which is very stressful for your body, then you're going to burn your brown fat to protect yourself from the cold. Your body temperature is 37 and your body wants to keep it at that, otherwise it gets sick, which is why it burns the brown fat. Otherwise you start shaking, you try to find shelter, put on some clothes nowadays, get into the warmth, but in nature there's no such thing, which is why you would 99.99% of the time die. And if you stress your body regularly, if you live in a cold climate, such as in Norway, for example, then you're going to be more adapted to the cold. Okay, that's just human adaption. What's the point here, really?

[video] 8:09 So back to the benefits of cold plunging, starting with... You haven't named any benefits yet. how cold plunging could potentially help regulate blood sugar levels. Now, if you've watched some of our videos in the past, you may have seen me geek out about how certain types of exercise could increase the number, size, and efficiency of mitochondria in the heart and skeletal muscle fibers. And increasing the mitochondria in these tissues will increase the amount of energy or ATP you could produce, thereby improving your fitness and exercise.

8:32 That again just means that your body adapts to the stress. That's it, literally. That's not a benefit. It's most definitely not a health benefit. It's literally just an adaption. And that's why you have those dark eye circles. We can clearly see that you work out. Now there's no doubt about it. You look pretty sick. It's just how it is. And that's because you expose yourself to so much stress. He probably started doing a cold plunging himself now.

[video] 9:00 But we also know that increasing the mitochondria and the heart and skeletal muscles will improve your overall metabolic efficiency. Essentially, if you have a lot of awesome, effective mitochondria, this pretty much tells your body how to utilize fats and carbohydrates as effectively as possible and will result in improved blood glucose or blood sugar levels and increased insulin sensitivity. So apply this idea to increasing the number of mitochondria in the brown fat due to repeated cold exposure. Yes, the mitochondria in the brown fat are going to produce heat rather than ATP, but they will still utilize carbohydrates and fats in order to...

9:27 Yes, because you're in a stressful situation. Again, how is that in any way? By any definition of the word a benefit, let alone a health benefit, you wouldn't be able to say it.

[video] 9:40 generate that heat and therefore can have a similar effect at improving overall.

9:44 It's called adaption. That's biology 101. How can he not understand that? And the channel is called Institute of Human Anatomy. Jesus.

[video] 9:53 Metabolic efficiency with potential improvements in blood sugar levels, as well as increased insulin sensitivity. And onto another potential benefit of cold plunging, and that is reducing inflammation. There are some studies that have shown improvement in inflammatory markers in the blood due to cold exposure. Now, we've been using cold exposure and ice for acute...

10:07 How is it good to reduce something that's good for the body?

[video] 10:14 Injuries for many years. Although there are some critics on how much ice or cold exposure can help with the inflammation during an acute injury, it's definitely pretty clear that it can help with the perception of pain.

10:26 You can numb down this spot because of the extreme cold that you apply to the spot? Absolutely. You're literally numbing down your nerves. That's not a health benefit in any way. It's the same as taking drugs, painkillers. Does a painkiller help you with an injury? No, but it does of course make you not feel the pain anymore. The cold could do something similar to that, but the injury doesn't go away. The body creates inflammation itself. The inflammation doesn't come from the outside somewhere magically. No, it's literally again biology 101. Very simple biochemistry and something that your body does for yourself can never be bad for you. The body only tries to heal you. The body never tries to hurt itself. Could you name one example where you're just walking around healthy and happy and your body hurts itself all of a sudden? No, the body never does that.

11:23 You are programmed for survival and inflammation is created by the body and is of course very good for your survival because that's what's gonna heal your injury.

[video] 11:33 reports of improvement in symptoms with patients that have certain inflammatory conditions. So there is some encouraging evidence that cold plunging can have a positive effect on inflammation. There just still needs to be some more research on this, as well as some additional research needs to be done on another claim about cold plunging, improvements, or... Cold water immersion has many benefits, steaming oxides, the white blood cells have the effect of sickness.

11:52 Yes, of course, that's what they do, yes. And that's why they are activated when you're exposed to the cold, because the cold creates sickness. The cold makes you sick, that's why it's called the cold. Oh my god. We call detoxes your body? How? Explain that biochemically, come on. I'm gonna be waiting forever. And boost your immune system. Yes, your immune system becomes more alert when you're exposed to cold or any kind of extreme stress, even exercise. Even exercise boosts your immune system because it's so bad for your body. By causing your lymphatic system to contract, which forces fluid through your lymph nodes. Yes, exactly.

[video] 12:29 boosts in the immune system. There have been some studies that have shown an increase in the number of white blood cells with cold exposure, while others did not.

12:37 But there was a very interesting randomized- It just depends on how cold the cold is. If it's freezing cold, it most definitely will because the freezing cold is gonna kill you if you stay in it for too long. And if you get out, then your white blood cells are gonna skyrocket because of how sick it could make you. If you didn't have any white blood cells, then you would die from the infection.

[video] 12:58 This control trial performed in the Netherlands where they had people take a 30, 60 or 90 second cold shower. And what they found was that the people that took the cold showers had a 29% reduction in sick related work absences. And the caveat and the interesting thing with that is that those that had that 29% reduction didn't actually have a significant decrease in the number of days they felt sick. They were just more likely to go to work, which would imply something else is going on there, such as an improvement in something like mental fortitude and resilience, which leads us onto some of our next set of benefits with cold plunging, improvements in management.

13:26 That's just people who hate themselves and enjoy pain, stress, and sickness. There's nothing good about this whatsoever. You're just completely debunking cold exposure with this video.

[video] 13:40 Stress, anxiety, and depression. There are multiple reports and studies that have shown improvements in stress, anxiety, and depression with cold plunging.

13:48 The results of the self-report mood questionnaire Alright, showed a significant increase in positive effect, decrease in negative effect after a cold water immersion after. This finding is relevant to previous studies that reported acute positive changes in mood following a single immersion in cold water. Yes, when you're in the cold, you feel incredibly bad, which is why your adrenaline pumps, the fight-or-flight mode is activated because you want to get out of it. And you feel as bad as you possibly could. It's horrible. It's absolute hell. It doesn't get any worse. Everybody who has been in freezing cold will tell you this. Nowadays a slave can go into the cold, which no human being in nature would ever do, and then he can go into the warmth afterwards. That's why you're rewarded. You somehow escaped. That's it. Again, how is that a benefit in general? And how is it in any way a health benefit? Come on, man.

14:46 It's like you're talking about drugs almost. You take drugs and that's why you elevate these chemicals in the body. You expose yourself to the cold and that's why because of this torture these chemicals are elevated afterwards. But that's not a benefit. It's not beneficial for your body to go through stress and then stress relief afterwards. Come on, what are we dealing with here? This is anti-science. Scientifically, this proves that cold exposure is incredibly unhealthy.

[video] 15:16 Cold exposure. Now, research with mental health can be a little challenging at times. One, there are multiple factors that influence our mental health. Two, it's not like you can measure anxiety and depression in the bloodstream like you could, say, a blood sugar level or even inflammatory markers. And three, most of these studies are people reporting how they feel. But again, most of those reports are showing quite a positive correlation.

15:34 But come on! Wait, let's see what he says. After the initial shock of stepping into the OS below top of heart, many people experience an elevated mood. After, this is likely due to the release of endorphins, hormones that act as natural painkillers. Yeah. Which have been shown to improve mood and reduce stress. Yeah, exactly. Come on! Endorphins are released when you are... done, if you do it yourself like an idiot, torturing yourself when you escape from this trace, that's not beneficial overall for your body. Come on! What are we dealing with here? This is so crazy. If you would do a so-called study, a questionnaire about how you feel during the cold exposure, then everybody would say that it feels horrible and that your mood is as bad as it can possibly be. But that they don't report about.

16:32 They only report about how you feel afterwards, which literally, literally proves that cold exposure feels horrible and that not being in the cold feels really good. Literally, that's what you're proving with this. I just don't get it. Is he this stupid? I don't know what's going on here. Why is this channel so ridiculous?

[video] 16:55 Those reports are showing quite a positive correlation with cold plunging and improvements in mental health.

17:01 No, literally not. It's showing that when you get out of the cold, that your mood gets better. It literally shows that cold exposure destroys your mood, literally. Literally, this is what it's saying, black on white right here, and you're somehow not reading it. What's going on in this video? I've never seen this before.

[video] 17:20 And something else to consider, is it the cold plunging all by itself that's contributing to these reported improvements in mental health? Or could it be other factors that are also contributing, such as just being outside in nature? Also, people will often cold plunge in cold plunge groups, where they're interacting with other human beings, which... Human beings are so incredibly lost, because this is beyond stupidity.

17:44 You can't call this stupid anymore, because... He's literally reading something that says the opposite of what he's saying and it's as if he is just not able to see it. It's just... I don't know what I'm looking at here. This is also beyond insanity because even somebody who's insane can get some kind of sense out of a black on white paper.

[video] 18:14 which could potentially create some improvements in mental health as well. So it could be multiple factors, the cold plunging, being out in nature, interacting with other humans that could be accounting or contributing to this overall improvement in mental health. Now I can give you my own personal anecdote, which is when I've done cold plunging, I've felt this natural high afterwards and improvement.

18:29 Yeah. You felt it afterwards when you got out of the cold. You yourself even experienced it and everything that you just showed also proved that you feel horrible during the cold and only good afterwards when you're in the warmth. So you're proving that the warmth, your natural body temperature feels the best, which everybody knows biochemically, biology 101. This is what everybody learns at the very beginning. What are you talking about, man? You just proved it yourself. What is this video even about?

[video] 18:57 in my mood and also had improvement in energy levels throughout the day. But before we move on from the mental health, I do wanna come back to the stress response and potential improvements in the stress response that can occur with cold plunging. So we have definitely established that the body will have a sympathetic response to the stress of cold water exposure. And even when you know it's coming, which is the case when you deliberately put yourself in cold water.

19:14 Yes, which only slaves do. No human being in nature has ever done that.

[video] 19:18 almost feels like the stress response is completely out of your control, which for the most part it is because your sympathetic nervous system is a branch of your involuntary autonomic nervous system, which is trying to protect you. However, even with this being primarily an involuntary response, repeated cold exposures can train almost tone the sympathetic nervous system to be less activated during subsequent cold exposures.

19:35 you may feel like that's adaption again.

[video] 19:38 Deliberately doing something that you know is going to make you uncomfortable could build mental fortitude and resilience that you could possibly also apply to your daily life. And one last benefit we'll discuss prior to getting into the details.

19:50 But you haven't named any benefits yet. Also, being more adapted to stress is only going to create dark eye circles. As you can see, you're going to have more wrinkly skin. adapting your body to stress is only gonna age it that's the only thing that you can get out of it details of how to do a proper cold plunge protocol and that is enhanced recovery from exercise it has been shown that cold water immersion a 2016 systematic review and meta-analysis in the journal sports medicine that has nothing to do with science in any way whatsoever Review of the cold water immersion has a more positive effect on muscle soreness than passive recovery in both the short and long term. Let's just assume that this is true anyway, even though it's not scientific. Muscle soreness is your body repairing the muscles. It's the same as inflammation. It needs to be there. The body does it on its own. It does it for a reason.

20:48 If you would reduce your inflammation or the soreness, then you would simply stop your body from healing the muscles because exercise damages the muscles and the healing process is the muscles being sore. That being said, I used to work out a lot back in the day when I used to eat a garbage diet and I had sore muscles for a long time. When I started eating raw meat, I didn't have sore muscles in any way at all. which already tells you that as long as you eat a very good diet, you're probably not going to have sore muscles in general, except if you didn't work out for years and all of a sudden you do a lot. You probably will no matter what you eat, but in general, as long as you eat food that repairs your body properly, it's not an issue anyway.

[video] 21:29 for this crazy strength workout, I'm gonna jump right into that cold water. Well, you may want to actually consider some of your exercise goals prior to just doing a cold plunge for recovery. Because yes, it has been shown that cold water immersion can reduce muscle soreness, but it has also been shown that cold water immersion directly after a strength workout could actually blunt or inhibit some of the processes necessary for increased muscle mass.

21:51 Now, that's the reason, that's literally what I just explained to you. It is about the soreness. It's about the inflammation. Oh my God, man. I like how it says it's really important to use ice baths with caution.

[video] 22:06 This isn't a huge negative effect. It only inhibits this by about 10 to 20%. So it's not like you wouldn't make it.

22:12 Yeah, and so if you work out, why would you want to inhibit it by 10 to 20%? Why not let your body do what it naturally does to get the best out of it?

[video] 22:21 any gains in muscle mass if you included cold plunging after like strength workouts. You would again just kind of have to assess your goals and figure out what's most important to you because if your main goal is to absolutely maximize increases in muscle mass, then you may want to avoid cold plunging or at least avoid it directly after a strength workout. And this is where we can get quite creative with these goals.

22:38 Yes, because you need the inflammation, the soreness. You need to be biochemically healthy as if you could be after a workout but as much as you can be to repair your muscles and to make them grow because what you do when you workout is adapt your muscles to a certain amount of stress And the more you apply the stress to your body, the more your body is going to adapt to the stress. If you go into the ice cold water afterwards, then of course you're gonna stop this adaption process. You're gonna be messing with your own biochemistry.

23:22 Why did he have socks on?

[video] 23:25 Alright, thumbnail it!

23:32 Yeah, it sounds like you're really enjoying it it sounds like your mood is being elevated by this Yeah, this is how a happy and healthy human being sounds like that sounds like joy

23:53 Oh my god. How can you be so stupid? How can you be such a slave?

[video] 24:01 It's freaking cold up here!

24:03 Yeah, because human beings hate the cold, naturally.

[video] 24:06 And as we go over these protocols, I do want to make a quick acknowledgement. One is to Dr. Susanna Soberg. A lot of the information presented today came from her recent research on cold exposure, and I first came across her on the Huberman Lab podcast.

24:15 Of course, Huberman. Yeah, I already reviewed one of his videos. He also has no idea what he's talking about.

[video] 24:21 He also posts the podcast to YouTube, so many of you may have already subscribed to that channel. If you haven't, it's an awesome channel, check it out. But she has some very specific protocols to get some of these benefits from cold exposure.

24:32 You didn't name any benefits whatsoever, just none.

[video] 24:38 And it is worth discussing cold water versus cold air. You can get benefits from being exposed to cold air, but cold water is going to be obviously more intense. You certainly wouldn't want to get hypothermic or something like frostbite. Now, this is much less likely if you're doing cold plunges at your house where you have easy access to warm yourself up.

24:58 Yeah, exactly. That's what I was saying. The slave of today goes into the cold on purpose because he or she is brainwashed to do it. And then they go into the warmth afterwards because the warmth actually feels good. And that's when your mood gets better. That's literally what these studies were saying. That's it. The cold always feels bad and the warmth always feels good. And in nature, if you go into the cold, then you simply die.

[video] 25:23 I kind of whisked out. I couldn't sit in that water for minutes at a time up to my neck. I was probably in there a little above waist deep for, you know, a little over 30 seconds. As soon as I submerged my head down below, totally threw off the next protocol there, I was done and wanted to get out. But what you didn't see behind the camera because I was

25:39 You never wanted to get into the water in the first place.

[video] 25:42 Please start slow and be safe with this. And keep in mind, cold plunging is not meant to replace other health practices, such as consistent exercise and healthy eating habits.

25:52 Exercise and eating man-made vegetables which don't exist in nature. Yeah, we can... Absolutely understand how incredibly stupid and brainwashed you are.

[video] 26:01 It's in addition to those other health habits. Almost like the icing on the cake that might help you get some additional health benefits. I personally will cold plunge. I enjoy it.

26:12 At least after... You don't... Oh, at least after he's gonna say or what... Yeah, you don't enjoy it. Of course, we literally saw that you expressed anti-joy emotions, feelings. Literally in your own video you proved that you hate it, literally. What is he gonna say now? I'm just amazed at this guy. I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this before.

[video] 26:36 Try to get out of the water, and I feel better for it.

26:38 So hopefully this video... Yeah, once you get out of the water, exactly.

[video] 26:45 Gave you enough information where you could decide if this is something that you want to incorporate and how to potentially incorporate it into your health routine. And of course, I want to say thank you for supporting our... What health routine?

26:56 Going into the cold, which you hate, exercising, which you hate, eating man-made toxic vegetables, which you hate. Everything that you hate is healthy for you, yes? Is that what you're saying? Okay, this was one of the worst videos I've ever watched. At the beginning, it was the typical cold exposure ignorance. He had no idea what he's talking about. I'm used to it. But later on, he was saying that there's these benefits. He just said it over and over again, but he didn't name any benefits whatsoever throughout the whole video. I'm just amazed by this because I understand that most people on earth are incredibly stupid and brainwashed, but this is beyond that. This is not even insanity.

27:41 You read your own papers which you present, but even though they say the opposite of what you said, still you say that, for example, your mood increases, but literally on the paper it says that the mood is the worst it could possibly be when you're in the cold and it only increases afterwards in the warmth, proving that warmth increases your mood. Because human beings feel happy, joyful and so on when they are comfortable and in this case in the warmth. Everybody knows this. This is biology, biochemistry 101. We absolutely have studied, and this is actual science, that when you're comfortable and in the warmth, then biochemically your mood chemicals are at their best. And when you're in the cold, they are at their worst. And he presents proof for that, but then says

28:40 something else i'm just so amazed by this guy and he looks incredibly sick his body fat is too low his skin is super aged i don't know how old he is but it just looks like it's in a very bad condition he has dark eye circles all of the fat is gone he just looks horrible and he promotes cold exposure exercising and eating man-made toxic vegetables which don't even exist in nature. If you follow such an unnatural lifestyle, you expose yourself to the cold, which no human being in nature would ever do, you exercise, there's no reported cases of a human being ever exercising in nature, and you eat food which doesn't even exist in nature, then you can absolutely expect to be as sick as this guy. Yes, thanks for watching.