COLD THERAPY
It may sound crazy but I have been in love with cold therapy for more than a decade. To be honest, cold therapy comes with the territory when living in Wisconsin! Especially when you are a runner and despise running on a treadmill. Getting cold just happen when you run in 20 below zero degrees!
In recent years cold therapy has gotten so popular. You often see people posting photos on Instagram in cryotherapy therapy chambers in order to get the benefits of being cold. You can even purchase a Chili Pad mattress cover to keep you cold at night! Yes, I have one of these and found it to be one of the best investments for great sleep; which I once suffered from terrible sleep and now I sleep like a baby! BEST investment! Click HERE to find.
Cold therapy has been used for some time to speed recovery in athletes, but being cold is important for everyone’s cellular health. Cooling your body shrinks your mitochondria, and smaller mitochondria are more efficient at burning fat. The mitochondria are the powerhouse parts of your cells that burn fat.
When I started preaching about cold therapy to my clients, I had someone tell me to look into the Ice Man. His name is Wim Hoff, and he has quite an amazing story. He can withstand being in ice cold water for HOURS without having issues of hypothermia. His practice has proven the benefits of cold therapy is fantastic for boosting immune health.
I practice cold therapy about an hour before bed. I started by placing my feet in a large bucket. I fill it slowly with ice-cold water from the hose outside, which gradually gets me used to the cold temperature. If this is too difficult for you, you can start with a large bowl of ice water and dunk your face into the water. I love taking an ice bath in my outdoor bathtub but I find that starting with my feet is easier. Once my feet and legs are submerged in the ice water, I submerge my arms, head, and then back. The upper back is still the hardest for me. This cools my body down for a nice long sleep!
Taking a ice cold bath before bed helps cools my body down for a nice long sleep! I’m not sure where the idea of taking a hot shower or bath came from. This sets me up for a restless night of being terribly hot. If you find yourself with sleep issues or a damaged mitochondria, yes, you can get your mitochondria tested, I highly suggest starting cold therapy. It doesn’t have to cost a single dollar! Especially if you live in an area like Wisconsin. Just go outside!
Hi, Maria. You may well be right about cold helping people to sleep, but not me. I discovered that being cold at night meant I was wakeful, trying to warm up. I agree that being too hot is utterly miserable (my bedroom gets to 84F in the summer here in France) but medium warm is my sweet spot.
Wim Hof is amazing, one of my heroes!
Sometime when my feet are too cold it hinders my sleep. Do you get cold at the extremities ?
Maria,
do you have any resources for cold therapy impact on mitochondria?
I’d love to read the science articles.
Thank you,
Roberta Zuccarello
I will have to look around for that. 🙂
A quick google will give you a few results like this.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3726172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3726172/
I would like to know if you have any credentials from a university or is you are self taught. What makes you a wellness expert?
I have a bachelors degree in health and human performance but the nutrition taught was mostly food pyramid junk. So I am self taught from the last 20 years of researching and writing books. 🙂