How Cold Water Therapy Can Boost Brain Health – The Neuroprotective and Neuroplasticity Benefits of Ice Baths
We are always on the lookout for more evidence of the benefits of cold plunge. Generally speaking, most people use ice baths as a cold water therapy tool to recover faster from exercise or to improve mental health. There is now emerging research revealing something very exciting about taking a regular ice bath – improved brain health.
Cold water exposure has recently revealed itself to have positive benefits relating neuroprotective and neuroplasticity effects. If you are a beginner to or have had some sort of ice bath protocol in the long term, or just take cold showers, you have most likely experienced the way in which cold exposure can shock you into a state of increased focus, awareness, attention and energy.
The exciting discovery is, in addition to the noticeable physiological response of cold shock, there is also cold shock proteins at play, namely RBM3, which have been directly linked to neurogenesis.
In this article we will explore the reality of these findings and how they relate to the effects of cold water therapy on common issues like brain fog, sleep, neurodegenerative issues like Alzheimer’s Disease and Traumatic Brain Injury.
Cold Water Therapy For Neurogenesis
Historically, scientists believed that humans were incapable of generating new neurons or nervous system cells. It is now accepted that humans have the ability to regenerate neurons and form new synaptic connections.
RNA-Binding Protein Motif 3, or RBM3, is a cold shock protein induced by low temperature and hypoxia. This is the key cold shock protein, found in the brain, heart, liver and skeletal muscle, that has been found to assist in the regeneration of synapses in the human brain.
By exposing the body to cold water by way of an ice bath or cold plunge, the cold shock protein is released that encourages the repair and regeneration of synapses and therefore aids in the prevention of degenerative disease and reduce cognitive decline.
Multiple studies have attributed the benefits of cold exposure for brain health to the release of RBM3. One Alzheimer’s study on mice being exposed to extreme cold temperatures showing protection from neuronal cell death, while another study supports enhancing cold shock pathways as a treatment or potential protective therapy in neurodegenerative disorders.
How Norepinephrine Plays a Role in Brain Health
When taking an ice bath and exposing the body to cold water, norepinephrine has been shown to increase significantly to levels as high as five times baseline. When the body is submerged in cold water, adrenaline is released and the nervous system experiences a ‘fight or flight’ response. This causes a spike in the hormone and neurotransmitter, norepinephrine, which is has a cascade of effects both mentally and physiologically.
From a study of how norepinephrine enables synaptic plasticity, “Norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline, is a catecholamine produced by dopamine β-hydroxylase which is released either as a hormone from the adrenal medulla into the blood or as a neurotransmitter in the brain”.
The fact that exposure to cold water when submerging the body in an ice bath, cold plunge or wild swimming, gives rise to the idea or hypothesis that norepinephrine may have a strong correlation to improved memory, learning and retention.
Who would have thought that an innocent plunge in cold water could have associated benefits of promoting neuroplasticity and protecting from cognitive decline! There is another key neurotransmitter that is released during an ice bath that also has important implications for the mood, memory and brain health benefits of cold plunge – dopamine.
How Dopamine Plays a Role in Brain Health
Dopamine is well known to drive us humans to do the things we do daily. Dopamine, another neurotransmitter released at high levels from cold water exposure, plays a key role in everything from motivation, arousal, reward, sex drive and motor control and executive function.
It is true that exposure to the cold provides a sustained release of dopamine for hours following an ice bath and has been shown to consistently and reliably do so every exposure, without affecting baseline levels of dopamine negatively, unlike other dopamine-rich habits like smoking, caffeine consumption and more.
Dopamine has been shown to increase to levels of 250% of baseline from exposure to cold water. “A loss of 5–10% of dopaminergic neurons has been found in every decade of aging and an increase in brain oxidative damage is associated with age, and aging is considered a risk factor for Parkinson’s Disease”, according to a review article on The Role of Dopamine and Its Dysfunction as a Consequence of Oxidative Stress.
The fact that cold therapy causes such a spike in Dopamine and paired with evidence that it plays a key role in neurogenesis hints at strong evidence of the use of ice bathing as a preventative tool for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and brain related traumatic injury.
Conclusion on Cold Therapy for Brain Health
As we continue to expand our own knowledge on the benefits of ice baths and cold water therapy, new and emerging science contuse to bring good news for those who take a regular cold plunge.
After reading this article, we thrilled to give you even more reason to take up an ice bath practice and perhaps even get your self an ice bath tub for home. The benefits of cold plunge on brain health are an exciting excuse to add the list of reasons to submerge yourself in cold water if it wasn’t already for the exercise recovery, mental health, mood, metabolic and weight loss benefits.
I have personally found immense mental clarity and mental health in the habituation of ice baths and have a strong affinity to using cold plunge to promote better brain health from a preventative and strengthening standpoint. A bourgeoning of using cold plunge as a mental health tool is of no surprise and is a positive reason to ramp up your ice bath practice indeed.
Remember that the content of this, and all of our other articles, are purely for information and educational purposes only and do not describe any medical advice or methods of treatment for any health condition or illness. We love bringing the latest science based methods for recovery and wellness and hope this promotes more healthy habits to kick off you New Year 2023!
