Using Deliberate Cold Exposure for Health and Performance

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2022

⏱️ 134 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I describe mechanisms by which deliberate cold exposure can enhance mental health, physical health, and performance. I detail specific protocols to safely engage in deliberate cold exposure, including minimal exposure times, time-of-day effects, determining optimal temperatures, recovery, mindset, and movement during cold exposure. I discuss how cold exposure can be used to safely stress the body to improve attention, mood, and cognitive focus and boost metabolism and reduce inflammation. Also, I explain how cold exposure on specific regions of the body (called glabrous skin surfaces) can be leveraged to enhance endurance and weight training and increase work output. For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/huberman Thesis: https://takethesis.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Deliberate Cold Exposure, Health Warning (00:04:23) Tool: Moderate Exercise & Cognitive Work (00:11:32) Sponsors (00:15:37) Circadian Rhythm & Body Temperature (00:18:41) Tool: Quickly Decrease Core Body Temperature, Glabrous Skin (00:25:26) Mental Effects of Cold Exposure (00:29:02) Physical Effects of Cold Exposure (00:30:11) How Cold Should the Temperature Be? (00:34:53) Cold Showers vs. Cold Water Immersion (00:38:27) Protocols for Cold Exposure (00:50:57) Optimal Mindset(s) During Cold Exposure (00:55:26) Tool: Using Movement During Cold Exposure (00:57:51) Optimal Frequency of Cold Exposure (01:00:22) Cold Exposure for Dopamine, Mood & Focus (01:12:55) Cold Exposure & Metabolism, Brown Fat (01:25:55) Tool: Caffeine, Dopamine & Cold Exposure (01:29:14) Tools: Increasing Metabolism w/Cold – The Søberg Principle, Shivering (01:34:15) Norepinephrine & Fat Cells (01:36:22) Cold, Physical Performance, Inflammation (01:47:36) Hyperthermia & Glabrous Skin Cooling (01:53:27) Tool: Palmar Cooling & Endurance (02:03:18) Cold Exposure to Groin, Increasing Testosterone (02:07:50) Tool: Optimal Timing for Daily Cold Exposure (02:11:16) Neural Network Newsletter, Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify Reviews, Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Supplements, Instagram, Twitter Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:09.0	I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:15.0	Today we are going to discuss the use of deliberate cold exposure for health and performance.
0:20.0	Temperature is a powerful stimulus on our nervous system and indeed on every organ and system of our body.
0:27.0	And cold in particular can be leveraged to improve mental health, physical health and performance,
0:33.0	meaning for endurance exercise, for recovering from various forms of exercise,
0:38.0	for actually improving strength and power, and for enhancing mental capacity.
0:44.0	In order to properly leverage deliberate cold exposure for sake of mental health, physical health and performance,
0:50.0	you have to understand how cold impacts the brain and body.
0:53.0	So today we are going to discuss that. We're going to talk about some of the neural circuits and pathways,
0:58.0	some of the hormones involved. I promise to make it all clear and accessible regardless of whether or not you have a scientific background or not.
1:05.0	We are also going to discuss very specific protocols that you can apply, which leverage variables like temperature, how cold,
1:12.0	how to deliver the cold. For instance, whether or not you use a cold shower, cold immersion, ice bath, circulating water or still water,
1:20.0	whether or not you're going for walks outside in a t-shirt when it's cold, or whether or not you're purposefully using things like cryo,
1:27.0	if you have access to that or not. One thing I can promise you is that by the end of today's episode,
1:33.0	you will know a lot about the biology of thermal regulation, that is how your brain and body regulates its temperature.
1:39.0	You also have a lot of tools in your arsenal that you can use and leverage toward improving mental health,
1:45.0	physical health, reducing inflammation in the body, improving athletic performance, improving mental performance.
1:51.0	I promise to spell out all those protocols in detail as I go along and to summarize them again at the end.
1:57.0	I'd like to make a point now that I'm going to make several additional times during today's episode.
2:02.0	And that is that temperature is a very potent stimulus for the brain and body.
2:07.0	That also means that it carries certain hazards if it's not done correctly.
	...

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