#355 Cold Exposure for Longevity and Mental Health - w/ Inka Land

Siim Land (0:00)

Hey, welcome back to the channel. My name is Siim Land, and this is my wife Inka.

And we decided to do another, like a more podcast episode. And today's topic is gonna be about cold exposure, because there's a lot of, you know, new hype about cold exposure and taking ice baths. In part one on this channel, we will be covering the effects of cold exposure, primarily on the metabolism and longevity. And part two is gonna be on Inka's channel, which will cover the effects of cold exposure on the brain and neurotransmitters.

Inka Land (0:35)

Do it. So basically, you have looked a lot into the research between cold exposure and longevity.

Is there evidence that ice baths would be beneficial for longevity?

Siim Land (0:48)

So there is no, like, direct evidence to suggest that taking ice baths or cold exposure itself would have like an anti-aging effect or a longevity effect. And the only like real evidence in terms of cold exposure and longevity has to do with the body temperature.

And there is some evidence in like different kinds of animals, like fruit flies and mice and rodents, that lower body temperatures are associated with increased lifespan. And there is actually in humans as well, one particular study finding that the lower body temperature was associated with increased survival. You know, the problem here is that lower body temperature necessarily doesn't mean taking ice baths. So if you take an ice bath, then your body temperature drops lower in the short-term, in the immediate effect, but it doesn't really like lower your body temperature over the course of the rest of the 24-hour period. So it doesn't have like this cooling effect. It only lowers your body temperature in the short-term.

So the overall lower body temperature is mainly achieved, or it's mostly the effect of like your metabolic rate, your energy intake, your calorie intake, and your thyroid function. So those things, if you generally eat less calories and you're under calorie restriction, which is also associated with increased lifespan and longevity, it's going to lower your body temperature as well. And you have like lower thermoregulation, like your body produces less heat slightly because of being under this energy stress and having lower thyroid function. So there is no evidence to suggest that putting animals into a cold chamber for the rest of their life would increase their lifespan. But cooling them down and keeping their body temperature somewhat lower through whatever mechanism that is, that is associated with increased lifespan. But that isn't necessarily because of the ice bath effect or the cold thermogenesis effect. It's mostly the effect of a lower metabolic rate and lower energy expenditure. And if you basically burn less calories, your body runs cooler a few degrees than you're under less of this oxidative stress as well. Because if you do burn a lot of calories, you go through a lot of energy metabolism, then that increased reactive oxygen species, like healthy metabolism, already produces reactive oxygen species as well.

And that just wears the system out eventually. So hyperactivity, hyper metabolic rate, and hyper body temperature, those things will shorten the lifespan, at least in animals, because your body is burning too much energy and wears the organs out through increased oxidative stress. But there are some reasons to think that cold exposure as well with ice baths or cold showers, whatever, has longevity benefits in many different ways. Do you want to slow down aging? If you do, I'm looking for a few more people who want to reverse their biological clock.

If you're interested, then send me an email to info at siimland.com and I'll send you all the details.

Inka Land (4:06)

How ice baths or cold showers would benefit longevity?

Siim Land (4:10)

Yeah, well, first of all, when you are doing cold exposure, then you're going to lower your... You do lower your body temperature slightly, so that cools down the system slightly.

You also lower inflammation levels, so there's massive anti-inflammatory effects on cold.

Inka Land (4:25)

You shouldn't do it when you're sick, right?

Siim Land (4:28)

Yeah, it does boost your immune system over the long term. If you take cold showers and ice baths regularly, or you winter swim, so winter swimmers have higher levels of glutathione, because of the cold is a small positive stressor to your system that boosts the antioxidant defense. So yeah, I mean, it is a good idea and smart idea to do some sort of like cold exposure, whether that be cold showers every morning or like some sort of ice bath every once in a while, because it does boost your glutathione, it increases your antioxidant defense, and it also lowers inflammation, specifically from a longevity side.