Cold Therapy: Rejuvenate Like A Pro

Cold Therapy and Thyroid Health Overview 0:00

Hi, it's Dr. Jen. So I want to talk about something. Fine, which is cold therapy and your thyroid health. So is it good? Is it bad? And what are the studies show? So what is cold water emergency? So cold water immersion is actually

Benefits of Cold Water Immersion 0:31

cooling your body down with water. So most of the studies are based on cold water swimming, which is winter swimming in different areas, different countries. It's a practice where people go out in the cold water. So what it is, is usually from the neck down, you're submerged, but you can also get the same kind of benefits with taking a cold shower. You can also do cryotherapy, even though the studies are a little bit different and based on cold water, swimming with that. So there's a lot of different benefits, such as reducing inflammation, improving circulation and improving muscle recovery and performance.

And also all the exposure causes a prolonged release of dopamine. So dopamine is a chemical that is name found in your brain, that is going to help with motivation, feeling good, feeling happy. Right. And sometimes if we have thyroid autoimmune problems going on, we our mood is kind of frustrated. Right.

Thyroid Safety and Hormone Effects 1:35

And not motivated, but this is really helpful. So I personally love how I feel when I do cold One, Jane. And basically when you look at this, quote, plunging, some people are concerned about is this going to cause increased cortisol? Is this going to affect the thyroid in a negative way? Well, they actually two studies I found on women show that there was no ultra secretion of growth hormone prolactin through troponin or thyroid hormones and the free T4 and free cheese rerun of altered. So while this has a benefit on positive excretion of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine, it's not really going to affect your thyroid in a negative way.

Another positive effect is that increases bad or brown adipose tissue, and this is through shivering. Most of our brown adipose tissue is found in between our shoulder blades.

Brown Fat, Thermogenesis, and Metabolism 2:25

So after you plunge in, you're shivering. After you will feel it. And in the back. And what does that mean? Increased thermogenesis, increased metabolism. So they've found with the sweet spot is 11 minutes of cold water immersion or cold therapy a week. And that is going to it's going to increase your thermogenesis and increase the metabolism, which is great. And that is really positive when you are dealing with some thyroid issues. So cold water immersion definitely approved by Dr. Jun for patients with thyroid problems.

But talk with your doctor about a specific plan for you now.

How to Start Cold Exposure Safely 3:08

How do you get started now? The best way is probably just at the end of your shower, just turning it to cold. Okay, so getting used to that cold, you're going to feel that breath like suck in. And what you want to do is slow your breathing down and use your four, seven, eight breath slowly. And that's really going to help you get through that initial cold sensation, because that is ramping up your sympathetic systems you want to get in that parasympathetic state. So turning the water in the shower to cold is going to be the best way to kind of ease yourself into it.

And then really you can just you can go for it. I like to when I first started, I would start going 3 minutes at a time, set a timer to my breath work, and then you just get used to it and you actually really enjoy it, but make sure that you are when you are practicing cold water therapy and cold water emergency, that you do have something with you and watching you, especially if you're putting your whole face in,

Getting Started Resources and Wrap-Up 4:12

you want to make sure that there is someone there just for safety purposes. So I hope this mini talk was helpful. If you want some more information, an actual entire plan and workbook to get your therapy started off, then you want to download it is I do have a cold water download available for all of you. Thank you so much for being here.