The Benefits of Cold Water Therapy - Max Badaev and Mikey Picard

Mike and Max discuss the benefits of cold water therapy and cold immersion therapy. They mention that cold water immersion can lead to sustained dopamine increases in the brain and can help with waking up and pushing oneself to do difficult tasks. They also discuss the release of epinephrine, which provides energy and focus similar to medication like Adderall. They mention the historical use of cold water therapy and its popularity in recent studies. Additionally, they discuss the use of ice baths for reducing inflammation after exercise. So, Mike, you've been hearing about cold water recently, isn't that right? Yeah, Max, I have. I've recently been looking into the concept of cold water therapy and cold immersion therapy and the benefits that it can have on your general health and mental health, and the results I've found have been pretty interesting. And so why did you look into it? So originally, I found on social media that this is becoming an increasingly popular thing for people to do. And my interest originally came from a neuroscientist who has his own podcast named Andrew Huberman. He's a tenured associate professor at Stanford University who teaches at the Stanford School of Medicine. And he's found that cold immersion therapy can have pretty incredible sustained and prolonged dopamine increases on the brain when you immerse yourself in cold water for a short period of time. A short period of time. Yeah, I mean, I've, I don't know, I've been really exploring with cold water in that I've started taking cold showers myself recently in the morning, and I found it to really help not only wake me up, but also kind of just push myself to do something hard in the morning. And I think that even makes a psychological difference in you. When you, like, are able to get into the cold water, chances are if you have something hard to do later that day, it becomes that much easier not to procrastinate. Have you heard anything on that? I have, actually. It's interesting you bring that up, because what happens when you immerse yourself in cold water, and the time and degrees, according to Andrew Huberman and his studies, is you can get the same effects if you go in 60 degree water for about an hour as you would if you went in 40 degree water for about 20 seconds. Although when you go in very cold water for a short period of time, even if it's like 40 to 50 degrees for, you know, two to three minutes, whatever, like the length of a shower, whether it's a shower or ice water, it really gives off similar benefit. It releases epinephrine in your system, which is adrenaline, and that it just, the energy and focus that it gives you is equivalent to, actually, a lot of scientists are comparing it to what Adderall or some other forms of medication give you. And I'm not a scientist myself, I don't really have any sort of backing on this, but I do believe I've heard some strong correlations between release of epinephrine and antidepressant, or anti-depression. So I do wonder if there's a sort of correlation there, but also I've read up a little bit on the history on it, actually, because I was interested in whether or not sort of Vikings would use it to, I guess, in a way, toughen themselves up. And I have found that it even goes back to ancient Greece. I remember back then, yeah, Hippocrates, like the original doctor, like the guy, the Hippocratic Oath, that's after him, he claimed that cold water could cure anything, and although maybe that's not the most scientifically backed thing today, I feel like that carries a good amount of weight. That's very interesting, actually. I actually didn't know that. I think that does carry weight, because you look at all of these studies that have been done recently, and you look at the amount of people that have begun to take part in cold immersion therapy, and it's a form of shock therapy, where the shock that it has on your muscles and how it stimulates your muscles and your brain, the results have been pretty incredible to look at. Oh, yeah. And so, I don't know, myself, I haven't used it for any sort of athletic purposes. I've heard a lot of stuff about people taking ice baths, though, after practice. Have you been into that at all? Yeah, when I played sports in high school, I would take part in taking ice baths right afterwards, but what cold shock therapy has been doing is people have been getting these tubs or just a normal bucket and filling it up with ice, and the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning is they'll do three to five minutes in an ice bath, and that's when they'll get those benefits, and it reduces inflammation, which is why people like doing it after exercise. Hmm. Wow. Well, Mikey, I believe it's been great talking to you, but we're coming close to time. To the audience, thank you for listening.