Everyone knows my obsession with getting into cold water… I’ve talked about it a lot!
It’s the feeling that you get from doing it! It’s like a high… well it is a high
Czech researchers found that cold water plunging can increase blood concentrations of dopamine made in the brain — by 250 %
The affect can last for up to 6 days
Here’s the dilly… We need to build up more brown fat. It’s the brown fat that keeps us warm and burns our stored fat as energy… it helps lower the all important blood sugar. The brown fat is brown in colour due to the amount of mitochondria it contains. Mitochondria contain loads of iron which accounts for the colour these are the cells energy generators. The more of these in the cell the more it helps us produce more energy, keep warm, and burn more fat Brown fat is mainly concentrated around our necks, heart, kidneys. Our middles essentially. So we need to build up more and the easiest way to do this is cold exposure. Cold showers, even if you hate it, 30 seconds to a minute on the back of your neck. Ice baths and cold dipping. There’s isn’t anyone that can’t just pop the shower to cold and stand under it… it’s not supposed to be nice… however you will be feeling happier afterwards because it improves your mood and reduces stress. After the initial “shock” of stepping into ice-cold water, many people experience an elevated mood, even a high. This is due to the release of endorphins, hormones that act as natural painkillers, which have been shown to improve mood and reduce stress, and if course dopamine.