If you're looking to discover more about cold water therapy and why some call it a 'wonder drug' You're in the right place.

In this article, we will be diving deep into the scientific explanations of how cold water is used by athletes and people looking to lose weight alike. 

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Imidate exposure to cold water is a way of resetting the body and mind. Shocks of cold water are something humans have been doing since before we were even humans. All mammals have a series of built-in involuntary responses hardwired into our brains for when we receive a dose of ice-cold water...

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The imidate biological response is to 'save energy' - Blood vessels contract in an attempt to maintain the internal body temperature, which causes a burning sensation and reddening of the skin. Your heart has to work even harder to pump more and more blood all around your body and consequently you breathe faster. Aside from all of this, the number of calories you burn skyrockets, during 10 - 15 minutes in an ice bath you burn the same amount of calories as over an hour of moderate exercise. There are two hormones we can use to measure weight loss here, irisin and FGF21, these hormones are released from stores of brown (hard to burn) adipose fat cells in times of high-intensity exercise or when energy is in high demand. Irisin and FGF21 are solvent hormones that break down white adipose - the fat that builds up on our waistlines, thighs, and underarms. 

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Such a reduction in temperature is bound to cause a high increase in the calories burnt just to keep our internal body temperature the same. However, there are a ton of extra layers that contribute to fat burning. The microscopic layer of capillaries, essentially small blood vessels, that cover your entire body have a layer of hundreds of thousands of tiny muscles to help them contract shrink and affect the flow of blood. Cold water exposure is one of the only possible ways to exercise and contract these mini-muscles and as we know the expansion and contraction of muscles burn more fat.

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How to be double effective

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To get an even greater result, try alternating between hot and cold water which will make all these mini-muscles on our capillaries shrink and expand every time we change the temperature which will mean even more muscle action for an improved result. 

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This method is best combined with long periods of cold water to get the most energy out of our bodies as possible

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