Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

Today, we're diving into one of the most requested topics we've ever had, cold water therapy.

Cold showers, ice baths and wild winter swimming have exploded in popularity over recent years,

with supporters claiming a range of health benefits.

But are these claims actually backed by science, or is it all just another wellness fad?

I'm joined by Dr. Susanna Soberg and Professor Tim Specter to break down the studies

and discover if we could all do with a bit more ice in our life.

The cold plunge, what happens when, like, I'm thinking about my own personal experience of like going into the sea in England,

which I've done once because

it was way too cold. It's very unpleasant. What's going on in your body as you do that?

Yeah, a lot of things are going on in your body when you go into the cold water. It's very

different from a cold shower also, but we can get back to that. So emerging yourself into

cold water will mean that you will put this very, very big stressor on your body because the body is in a natural temperature.

You don't want to get too cold, but this is so potent because it surrounds your body immediately with no air, of course.

So the potent of activating your cold receptors in the skin is like 100%.

And that is like a huge stressor sending a rapid signal to your brain that now you are definitely

in a situation where you are in danger actually. So the body acts as if you

are in danger, even though you do it deliberately. And sends a signal to the brain to regulate

your body so that you can better survive this. So it sends out no adrenaline to activate your brown

fat. And Susanna, can you explain exactly what is brown fat?

We have two kind of fat tissues also in the body.

And one of them is the white fat, which we know it's on our belly, it's on our thighs,

...