Susanna Søberg, PhD is a leading scientist in cold and heat therapy for stress reduction, improved health, and performance optimization. She is founder of Soeberg Institute, where she teaches her popular “Thermal Cure” courses. She recently published her first book, Winter Swimming: The Nordic Way Towards a Healthier and Happier Life.
What you'll learn from this episode:
How brown fat, a type of adipose tissue that increases heat in the body, becomes activated when the temperature starts to drop below around 66 degrees Fahrenheit. When brown fat becomes activated, it starts to burn white fat for fuel.
How it’s possible to grow more brown fat and increase your metabolism by simply sleeping in a room below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and the massive benefits to metabolic health that can be gained from this.
Different ways to do cold exposure, including cold showers, cold plunge, spending time outside in the cold air, winter swimming, and the most low barrier methods of simply plunging your hands or feet in a bowl of icy water—and the surprisingly low amount of time you need to spend in a cold water to gain the benefits!
Why doing hard things, like cold immersion, has been linked with better mental health and increased focus, and how it helps you develop mental toughness and become a more resilient person in general.
The importance of starting off slow with any type of hormetic stressor, and why you should understand there’s always an upper limit, where you start seeing diminished returns. They have found the upper limit in studies about sauna, but more studies are needed on cold immersion.
And much more!
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Resources from this episode:
Winter Swimming: The Nordic Way Towards a Healthier and Happier Life by Susanna Søberg, PhD | Amazon
Susanna Søberg, PhD | Facebook
Brown Fat, Brown Adipose Tissue: What It Is & What It Means | Cleveland Clinic
How Brown Fat Improves Metabolism | National Institutes of Health (NIH)
New Obesity Tool? | Harvard Medical School
Cool Temperature Alters Human Fat and Metabolism | National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The Science & Use of Cold Exposure for Health & Performance | Huberman Lab
Can Cold Water Plunges Really Reduce Anxiety and Depression? | The New York Times
The Role of Inflammation in Depression and Fatigue | PMC
Cold-Water Face Immersion per Se Elicits Cardiac Parasympathetic Activity | PMC
Vagus Nerve: Function, Stimulation, and More | Healthline
Hand circulation in the cold of Lapps and North Norwegian fishermen | Journal of Applied Physiology
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