Short Stuff: Hot Cold Plunge | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff Josh. Chuck Jerry not Dave but Dave Short. Stuff let's go that's right we're. talking about a the very hot Trend uh. it's been around for a long long time uh. depending on where you are in the world. uh but it's a very hot trend of course. among probably celebrity types and uh. influencers we're talking of course. about cold plunging and specifically the. sort of hot C thing either hot tub or.

sauna yeah I'm sorry. SAA is that just you that says that no. we got uh when we did our SAA episode. every finished person in the world wrote. in and said it's pronounced SAA wow. great nicely done yeah I'm gonna start. saying. sausage sausage I already say. sausage yeah you want to see how the. sausage is made do you are you part. Finn uh no no I wish I was but I'm not. okay um so yeah it does kind of make.

sense that this would be like big in. Finland because the fins were the ones. who were credited with inventing the SAA. sauna um which supposedly in Finn SAA. means bath essentially what you would. call bath and before um the the fins had. running hot water that was handy. everywhere um they used saunas to. basically um. bathe rather than having to just go out. in the snow and bathe yeah I guess like.

a dry bath a hot dry bath exactly that. you make yourself wet in that's right. exactly you're you're you're lathering. up with your own uh uh liquids that. sounds really gross uh if you go to like. the Finn tourism Board website or. something you might see them also say. something like this when you come out of. the SAA jump into a lake or roll in the. snow cuz they all sound like Freud. apparently they do if you do roll in the. snow make sure it is fresh and powdery.

old icy snow can have an effect on your. skin like sandpaper that Chuck one of. the that voice is one of your um. Halloween episode voices I recognize it. from somewhere yeah so what they're. talking about though is this hot to cold. thing uh which is leaving a SAA and. jumping right into some cold water or in. their case a lot of times snow yeah. which is awesome it can be really great. but just like any Trend or um thing that. everybody's behind uh it's worth taking.

a extra look to see if it may or may not. be actually beneficial could even be. harmful and it turns out there is a lot. of evidence on each saunas and cold. therapy cold plunges that kind of thing. that say yeah these actually do have. some pretty good beneficial effects but. both of them also pose risks and there's. not a lot of actual um research.

on combining them which is purposefully. shocking your body temperature-wise. that's the point of that hot cold thing. we're not exactly sure if it's a good. thing for you yeah I mean I think we all. know that um like a SAA or something. like that getting a good sweat in uh can. be good for you there's a lot of. benefits to to sweating um you're. regulating your body temperature you're. activating your cardiovascular system uh. it kind of can mimic exercise even.

cardiovascular exercise right uh we also. know that it can help detoxify you and. we also know that cold stuff has. benefits and it's a great. anti-inflammatory and athletes have long. you know sat in like ice baths and stuff. after uh like the big game or something. like that not specifically the Super. Bowl any big game not capital t h big. game sure uh but these two things. separately we we already know and it's. kind of proven that they both have a lot. of great benef benefits uh but there are.

people that say well when you combine. them together you can reap even more. benefits yeah and what what the benefits. arise from ostensibly is um called the. hormetic effect or hormetic stress which. is technically a good kind of stress. it's the kind of stress you put on your. body when you're exercising and in doing. so by kind of pushing your body Beyond. its normal. homeostatic you know status quo yeah. you're actually you're you're training. it to um better respond to stresses that.

you don't intentionally put on it like. just being stressed in general and so. supposedly according to this idea of the. hormetic effect um which seems to be. pretty legitimate um by just kind of. slowly little by little stressing your. body you improve your body's stress. response your immune system that kind of. thing and exercise is one way to do it. but also exposing it to temperature. extremes like through a sauna or a cold. plunge also produces hormetic effects. because they put hormetic stress on your.

body too that seems to be the basis. behind um health benefits from saing or. cold plunging yeah and you know people. will tell you that it really also can. help you mentally uh it can like be an. invigorating experience and people you. know there is a little bit of research. that says that uh people have shown to. like improve their mood and stuff like. that uh so you know there there are a. lot of people that say a lot of things. about all the benefits um what you. haven't seen a whole lot of and I guess.

we'll discuss this after the break is. like all right well then show me the. large scale randomized controlled. studies with large data pools of people. from all kinds of age groups uh I guess. not randomize but just large uh you know. a variety of people doing this thing and. then like then we can actually talk. science so we'll get to that right after. [Music]. this.

[Music]. all right so go anywhere online to any. influencer blog and they tell you how. amazing this is for you uh a lot of. websites will say this is wonderful and. you should all do it but then when you.

start digging a little deeper and you're. like well let me see if there's any. studies about this it turns out there. they're they're trying to do it now and. we're only just now uh like the the. research or these articles that I kind. of picked from were from just a couple. of months ago like late in. 2023 where they're just now starting to. say like hey we need to get a thousand. people not you know 20 healthy young men. right you know 20 healthy young finish. men who are like this feels great yeah. uh and we need to really because you.

know some of this stuff is plausible uh. these doctors are saying but we really. need to dig in on it because it it also. could probably be dangerous yeah because. I mean it seems like what the whole idea. is predicated on is that we do have you. know like substantial research showing. that there are health benefits from the. sauna like it lowers blood pressure and. improves cardiovascular health and that. there's there's demonstrable benefits. from cold plunges like it's an. anti-inflammatory like you said it can. improve mood uh apparently um a.

technique for breaking a panic attack. when you're in the midst of it is to. sink your face into a bowl of ice water. for about 10 seconds um and it the it. produces What's called the diving reflex. and releases dopamine and norepinephrine. in enough amounts that it can actually. derail or short circuit a panic attack. so there is like actual legitimate. benefits to each one like you were. saying though it's them combined that. the jury is still out on right I wonder.

if huie Lewis was having a panic attack. when he plunged his face in ice water in. the I want a new drug video he wasn't. after that I'll tell you that much uh. not to make light of panic attacks of. course I was just kind of making light. of Huey Lewis sure and his news well we. had someone write in actually because. we've been flipped with that term uhuh. uh that's like if you've ever suffered a. panic attack he probably wouldn't just. say oh I almost had a panic attack sure. do doesn't sound like us say what that. doesn't sound like us oh it was us so.

depending on who you talk to there are. doctors that say uh this actually can be. very dangerous the um National Center. for cold weather safety website says um. you know you can uh this something. called a cold shock response where you. have such a rapid increase in breathing. and heart rate uh in blood pressure that. if you're not in great cardiac health. this could possibly kill you like you. could have Cardiac Arrest right there on. the spot yeah that's nuts which makes.

sense because I mean it feels like you. could like when you jump into a cold. plunge especially if you're already. really hot but supposedly in um less. than a minute you could die in water. that's 60 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. and um there's other things that can. happen too if you jump all the way in. like a lot of cold plunges don't involve. your head which is way way worse than. just jumping in or harder I should say. more difficult. but if you do jump in all at once the.

the shock of the cold could be enough. that you involuntarily gasp and if. you're underwater that's not good for. your lungs yeah and you know the first. time I kind of reconsidered this because. I had done this kind of thing I've done. some and it wasn't like oh let's do a. coal plunge like literally in high. school in the 80s we would like jump. into the icy lake at this uh sort of. youth group Camp so that wasn't being. try it was just the fun thing to do. gotcha it's like a polar plunge uh but I.

was with my good friend Adam pranica of. the greatest Generation over uh not too. long ago and I I was moving to do this. it was uh hey we're in the hot tub let's. jump in this cold pool yeah and he said. you better watch out bro you better not. Adam say bro and I what do you mean and. he went well I'm just getting ready cuz. you could have a cardiac arrest I was. like what and he yeah it's something. that can happen. and all of a sudden I was nervous cuz.

you know I'm not in you know like uh. headed toward the emergency room anytime. soon but I I have a cardiac score that. uh gives me a little bit of pause when. it comes to thinking about something. like this sure so I was like well gez. I'm not in high school anymore uh maybe. I should think about this and I jumped. out of the hot tub and I dove into the. pool head first and uh it was great it. was awesome and it was fun and I didn't. have a cardiac arrest but it did make me.

think twice and each time I move to do. this from now on I will think twice I. have to say I was really surprised by. that twist at the end there that you. actually went ahead and jumped in yeah I. was expecting you to be like no I'm not. doing that anymore no and you know what. the what I gathered and of course we. need the real research and the real data. to know this but from what I gathered. from the warnings it was like there's. probably a middle ground between like. being a healthy 22-year-old finish. person uhhuh and having like being in.

really really poor cardiac health and I. I'm somewhere in the middle there and. you should not do it if you're like in. really really bad cardiac health not. even really really bad if you're being. treated for any kind of cardiac. condition you probably shouldn't cold. plunge especially not after a SAA two at. the very least talk to your doctor about. it don't listen to us don't take don't. take our advice please um it but not. only um is the whether you have a a. heart condition or not um a different. ior the water temperature is a.

differentiator too um you'll see people. who are like yeah jump into water that's. like 57 degrees Fahrenheit that is. astoundingly cold that's the water. temperature that killed the survivors of. the Titanic going down like that's North. Sea in February cold water temperature. right you can get the same effect from. much warmer water I mean I'm talking. like 70° still sounds warm that's not. warm especially if you're in like a hot. tub first or a sauna first or you've.

exercised or something like that it does. the trick it does everything you need to. do um without or I shouldn't say without. the chance of killing you with a much. less chance of killing you yeah I mean. I've even seen that you can take a very. hot shower and then turn it to cold yeah. that's nice too and and that's even. enough to sort of give you some benefit. even worse Chuck is not taking the hot. shower first just getting into a cold. shower immediately turning the water on.

it's it's rough but if you can train. yourself to do it it's very rewarding. yeah I did that for a summer in Athens. when I didn't feel like turning the gas. on man and you were like ripped from it. all bet I was more ripped than I was now. and of course it was Athens in the. summer so it was hot so it wasn't quite. as bad as you might imagine for sure uh. so I guess we should probably just wrap. up one more time this can be dangerous. you should probably do a little more. research on it especially if you have a. questionable heart or your heart's.

questionably healthy um just use your. head use your noodle first don't just. listen to what people on Tik Tok tell. you listen to what people on podcast. tell you yeah and maybe even a pool. noodle in case you lose Consciousness. smart that means short stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts ihart radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite.

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