Cold Water Immersion & Dopamine - Issue 37 - 27th November 2022

On the subject of sacrificing modernity, the majority of us thankfully have theluxury of hot showers and warm houses. However, it has been proven that sacrificing this form of modernity is beneficial. The Dutch Iceman Wim Hof is the shining example of what benefits cold immersion can have. This is another way in which travelling back to the time of our hunter-gatherer ancestors is a wise route. Our ancestors lacked warm showers and baths but what if that was a benefit rather than a hindrance? Hof advocates for cold immersion as it has been proven to hold many benefits including the speeding up of metabolism, inflammation reduction, muscle recovery, improved sleep quality and improved immune response (1). Furthermore, it seems that cold-water immersion has profound effects psychologically. An experiment was carried out at Charles University in Prague in which ten male volunteers submerged themselves (head out) in cold water (14 Degrees Celsius) for one hour.