9 positive effects of cold on your body

1. Exposing yourself to (a little) cold can really boost your health. Cold has no fewer than nine positive effects on your body - from more energy to a better mood.

1. Cold baths are perhaps the best known form of cold therapy and have been used since time immemorial. Hippocrates already noted its health benefits and through the ages doctors reported it. Yet this therapy has never broken through on a large scale: every era seems to have to rediscover the benefits of cold. That cold is good for your health is only now really scientifically proven.

1. A faster metabolism

1. Due to our modern way of life, we nowadays stay in houses and offices that are continuously heated. In those circumstances, our body has to make little effort to maintain a body temperature of 37 degrees. That changes when we move into a colder environment. As soon as the temperature drops drastically, our body reacts to it. â € œOne of the first things that happen when you are confronted with real cold is shivering, â € says Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, professor of ecological energetics and health at Maastricht University. â € œSo your muscles work and contract, just like they do with sports efforts. Only now it happens without exercising or moving, but in response to the cold. This muscle activity increases the energy expenditure in your body, which means that your metabolism must also accelerate. Such an increased metabolism is beneficial for your general health. Your body gets the energy needed to shiver from sugars and fat stores.â €

2. Due to our modern way of life, we nowadays live in houses and offices that are continuously heated. In those circumstances, our body has to make little effort to maintain a body temperature of 37 degrees. That changes when we move into a colder environment. As soon as the temperature drops drastically, our body reacts to it. â € œOne of the first things that happen when you are confronted with real cold is shivering, â € says Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt, professor of ecological energetics and health at Maastricht University. â € œSo your muscles work and contract, just like they do with sports efforts. Only now it happens without exercising or moving, but in response to the cold. This muscle activity increases the energy expenditure in your body, which means that your metabolism must also accelerate. Such an increased metabolism is beneficial for your general health. Your body gets the energy needed to shiver from sugars and fat stores.â €

2. More sensitive to insulin

1. You may consume extra calories, but that shivering is not really nice. â € œThatâ € ™ s right, and you can't keep it up for very long either, because after a while your muscles get exhausted. But new research that we have conducted shows that you can also provide an increased metabolism without shivering and chattering teeth. Your metabolism gets a boost from 18 to 19 degrees. We determined this phenomenon with a test in which we allowed a group of people to stay permanently in such a cool environment for ten days. How sensitive people are to temperature can differ individually. It depends, among other things, on gender, age and clothing. During our acclimatization test, we examined different body effects. Afterwards, it turned out that both the insulin sensitivity and the amount of brown fat in the participants had increased.â € Improved insulin sensitivity is good news for people with type 2 diabetes. And more brown fat may sound like something you wouldn't want, but it is precisely this fat that helps you to stay or get slim.

2. You may consume extra calories, but shivering is not really nice. â € œThatâ € ™ s right, and you can't keep it up for very long either, because after a while your muscles get exhausted. But new research that we have conducted shows that you can also provide an increased metabolism without shivering and chattering teeth. Your metabolism gets a boost from 18 to 19 degrees. We determined this phenomenon with a test in which we allowed a group of people to stay permanently in such a cool environment for ten days. How sensitive people are to temperature can differ individually. It depends, among other things, on gender, age and clothing. During our acclimatization test, we examined different body effects. Afterwards, it turned out that both the insulin sensitivity and the amount of brown fat in the participants had increased.â € Improved insulin sensitivity is good news for people with type 2 diabetes. And more brown fat may sound like something you wouldn't want, but it is precisely this fat that helps you to stay or get slim.

3. Better blood circulation

1. Not only the cold itself, but temperature changes also appear to be positive. When cold, the blood vessels constrict and contract as small as possible to maintain body temperature. “Then when you go into the heat, your blood vessels open wide again, which in healthy people provides a solid boost to blood circulation and the entire cardiovascular system.”

4. A higher fat burning

1. Not only the muscles, but also brown adipose tissue appears to play a role in maintaining body temperature and increasing metabolism. About ten years ago, Van Marken Lichtenbelt's team discovered the existence of active brown fat in adults. Brown fat cells have a very different function than the already known white fat cells, which mainly store fat and thus make you fat. Brown fat cells produce 300 times more heat than other body tissues, due to the high number of energy factories (mitochondria) they house. They also contain a protein that enables the direct conversion of calories into heat. In other words, brown fat cells burn fat at a rapid rate and thus keep you slim.

2. Not only the muscles, but also brown adipose tissue appears to play a role in maintaining body temperature and increasing metabolism. About ten years ago, Van Marken Lichtenbelt's team discovered the existence of active brown fat in adults. Brown fat cells have a completely different function than the well-known white fat cells, which mainly store fat and thus make you fat. Brown fat cells produce 300 times more heat than other body tissues, due to the high number of energy factories (mitochondria) they house. They also contain a protein that enables the direct conversion of calories into heat. In other words, brown fat cells burn fat at a rapid rate and thus keep you slim.

5. Increase in brown fat

1. In adults, brown fat is activated as soon as the temperature drops to about 18 degrees. Then the body uses up to 30 percent more energy to maintain the desired 37 degrees body temperature. Babies naturally have a lot of brown fat to regulate their temperature, but as we get older that supply shrinks. “Cold training allows people to regain their amount of brown fat, which also increases their metabolism. In the summer, the body will break down that brown fat again.â € Is it better for your health to start living a little colder again, like the generations before us? â € œOur bodies have now adapted to those comfortably higher temperatures in the house. As a result, we have become a kind of economical machines that store more fat. In this time of overweight and overweight, it doesn't seem like a bad idea to turn the thermostat in the house a few degrees cooler. It is best to work step by step, so that your body can get used to it slowly. As a result, your metabolism will remain elevated and you will use more energy, while still feeling comfortable. Even living a little colder now and then will have that beneficial effect. ”

6. Better immune response?

1. The immune system could also be stimulated by cold. Hard scientific evidence of this has yet been provided, but there are some interesting indications. Such as the approach of Wim Hof, better known as the â € ˜Ice Manâ € ™. Hof has the exceptional ability to keep his body warm in extreme cold. He developed his own method for this and had his body and that of other test subjects examined by numerous universities. One of the findings was that the number of white blood cells - an important part of the immune system - is significantly higher after exposure to severe cold and that fewer inflammatory proteins are present. â € œAlthough it is not clear whether this is only due to the cold or other factors as well, â € responds Van Marken Lichtenbelt.

7. More energy

1. In her quest for more energy, the Belgian television presenter Saartje Vandendriessche tested the Ice Man's cooling method. It consists of a combination of breathing techniques, meditation and a confrontation with ice-cold water. Vandendriessche: â € œThis method completely cured the cold in me. By focusing on it, I can let in the cold without shivering. I also have much less cold feet and hands and sleep much better. Even my athletic performance is now better, as is the recovery of my muscles afterwards thanks to a cold shower after training. Other benefits include improved circulation, tighter skin, shiny hair, more energy, a better mood and more confidence.â €

8. Less absenteeism

1. Taking a cold shower or bath regularly or ending with a cold shower is one of the best-known ways to do cold training. Although the frigidarium (ice bath) was already in vogue at the old Roman thermal baths, not much scientific research has yet been done on it. "It certainly has a positive effect on the blood flow and the functioning of the cardiovascular system, but this exposure to cold is too short for a boost in metabolism," says Van Marken Lichtenbelt. In 2016, a study by the Amsterdam UMC made a link between taking a cold shower and less absenteeism due to colds and flu. Three thousand volunteers were divided into four groups: one group simply showered, the other three had to take a cold shower for 30, 60 or 90 seconds for 90 days. From the first day to 30 days after the last day of the examination, they kept a record of how they felt and whether they had called in sick at work. The result: the people who took a cold shower were 29 percent less absent from work due to illness than the group that stayed in the hot shower. It didn't matter whether they showered cold for 30, 60 or 90 seconds.

9. A radiant mood

1. A lot tougher are the winter swimmers, who also dive into the water when the temperature has dropped. The phenomenon has been around for years and is now gaining popularity. â € œWinter swimming is an explosive sport, â € says general practitioner and winter swimmer Helena Peeters. â € œThe effort is comparable to that of a sprint. Your blood pressure and heart rate rise, your breathing speeds up, and your skin's blood vessels constrict to retain heat. Your body is put into a state of stress by contact with the cold water, which releases adrenaline and endorphins in the body. After a while, your muscles can stiffen because the blood supply decreases. That's when you need to get out of the water to avoid hypothermia. Hypothermia should be avoided, as it will destroy the blissful feeling you have after a winter bath. There is little hard scientific evidence for the exact impact of winter swimming on health, but I have noticed a lot of beneficial effects myself. ” Perhaps most striking is the positive mood and energy boost. Peeters: â € œWe owe this to the adrenaline and endorphins that are produced by the body. Some compare it to a runner's high, the kick that runners experience during a long session. The energetic feeling afterwards, which lasts all day for some, is the main motivation for winter swimming. After such a bath, all the stress is out of your body.â € Winter swimming is suitable for everyone. â € œEven people with epilepsy, MS and cancer swim here. We only recommend a check-up in advance for heart problems. You decide the way you do it. One holds it in for a while and then quickly gets out of the water, the other pulls a few laps. Listen to your own body. It is best to start from late summer, so that you can get used to the colder water.â € And can you also improve your mood with winter swimming when you are depressed? Probably, and maybe even a cold shower will help. As early as 2008, the American researcher Nikolai Shevchuck had people with mildly depressive symptoms take a cold shower every day: their sadness decreased. Shevchuck's conclusion: Cold hydrotherapy could be an effective treatment for depression.