Transcript: Contrast Therapy: Heat, Cold, and the Vascular Practice Between

Full transcript grouped into roughly ninety-second sections. Timestamps open the source video at the corresponding moment.

0:00

Welcome to your new obsession, where every episode is packed with tools and science to help you become the best version of yourself. Whether you're a biohacking newbie or a season pro, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to the Biohacking Trainer podcast. I'm your host, Luke Chaplki, longevity enthusiast, personal trainer, and fellow biohacker. Today we're going to be diving into the popular wellness trend of contrast therapy, alternating between cold plunges and sauna sessions. Is it truly beneficial or could it have downsides? So, let's explore the science, benefits, and potential risks.

So, first question I want to pose to every single one of you. What if I told you one of the most powerful recovery tools for your body doesn't come in a supplement bottle, but an extreme heat and freezing water? However, here's another even better question. Is this actually incredible for your health or is it another wellness trend people are essentially overdoing without understanding the science? Let's go ahead and let's break down essentially what's happening in your body, what the real benefits are, the hidden risks, and how to do this the correct way.

So, I want to first start off just by going into what exactly is contrast therapy. So, contrast therapy

1:32

essentially involves switching between both hot and cold environments. Usually, this means starting off by sitting in a sauna for about anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, then jumping into a cold plunge or an ice bath for a short period of time and repeating that cycle uh a few times. This practice isn't essentially new. This practice has roots in ancient traditions and is gaining a lot of popularity now in modern wellness centers. However, Roman bathous have been using this. Nordic cultures have done it for centuries. essentially traditional thermal bathing practices all over the world used this hot to cold cycling.

Now what's essentially new about this is now we truly do understand what it's essentially doing inside our body. You're not doing this just to truly like wake yourself up. You're more so doing this to create a very specific stress adaptation response in your vascular system, your nervous system, and your hormones and even in your immune system. You're essentially training your body to adapt to stress a lot better. Right? So now let's go a bit more into the physiology behind this but in more of a normal human language. Right? So let's start off first.

When you're sitting in a sauna, you're creating vaso dilation. So your blood vessels are going to open up. Some cases they can actually open up to about four times their normal diameter. Your heart rate's going to increase similar to like a light cardiovascular activity. your core temperature is going

3:03

to rise and your body's going to release some heat shock proteins which are essentially linked to cellular repair and longevity. What's happening is your body thinks it's hot and I need to cool down so I need to circulate more blood. Now next you're going to jump into that cold water right or that cold plunge so to speak. Now immediately what happens is you create phaso constriction. So your blood vessels are going to dilate and become smaller. You're going to have inflammation markers drop. You're going to have a spike in norepinephrine.

In some cases, it can be anywhere from about two to three times the normal baseline levels. You're going to have a massive increase in dopamine levels. And your nervous system is going to go into a highly alert and focused state, more that state of fight or flight. Now, here's where the magic essentially is going to take place. So when you go back and forth between these two states, your blood vessels are forced to essentially rapidly open and close or dilate and constrict. You're literally training your vascular flexibility. And vascular health is one of the biggest predictors of longevity and heart health.

You're also going to be training your nervous system to handle stress without panicking because cold water is stress and heat is stress and you're essentially teaching the body how to

4:33

stay calm throughout the whole duration of this contrast treatment. So, just a quick review of the different benefits here, right? So, you're going to see improved circulation from alternating it from hot to cold. It's going to cause those blood vessels to dilate and constrict, which will boost circulation. You can help with improving muscle recovery. You're going to reduce overall inflammation because that cold exposure helps with reducing inflammation while heat can relax muscles and tissues. And then lastly, you're going to have that mental health boost. So, the intense sensations essentially going to trigger more of that endorphin release, improving mood, and reducing stress levels.

Now the benefits that you will typically feel from this again right faster muscle recovery reduce inflammation boost and energy levels you're also going to see an improvement in cardiovascular conditioning so regular sauna use is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and improve heart function. You're also going to see stress resilience. So you're teaching your body and mind how to comfortably without going into panic mode handle these different stressors which you can then carry into everyday life. Now let's touch a bit more on where exactly do people kind of get these two treatments incorrect in the use of contrast therapy wrong.

Doing more is not better for you. This is going to create a significant

6:04

cardiovascular stress. So there are people that can have contraindications to doing contrast therapy. So someone who has high blood pressure treated or untreated if they have any type of heart issues arhythmia wise pacemaker double bypass history or anything heart condition wise someone suffers from reods as well. If someone has circulatory issues, they should not go through contrast therapy treatment like this without speaking to a medical professional. Also, staying in cold water or staying in just a cold environment for greater than 6 minutes is not necessarily going to help you. It's actually going to cause more of a hindrance to you and increase your risk for injury.

So the goal is to essentially in some cases have a optimal temperature drop from the use of that cold exposure with the final temperature reading anywhere between 59 and 50 ° in surface temperature and that's for Fahrenheit. That's where a lot of the literature tends to show where that optimal drop in temperature is where you get all the cascading benefits. Now you don't get extra benefits essentially from suffering longer. You just get in pain. you can actually essentially overstress your nervous system, end up more fatigued instead of recovered. Now, if you've ever done cold exposure and you felt fatigued, this typically will correlate to having a temperature drop that's

7:36

greater than a final temperature or surface temperature reading below 50 ° Fahrenheit. Now, again, that's typically when someone is below that threshold of 50 degrees surface temperature. And just to kind of review and recap there on those causes for concern. So cardiovascular stress, you are going to have rapid temperature changes that's going to cause strain in the heart and blood vessels. And this is especially bad for people with heart conditions. And again, you know, contrast therapy treatments are not for everybody. So someone has hypertension or rens, this is not the best for them.

And you can overdo it if you do not follow a correct protocol. Now, a simple protocol that I would recommend typically to my clients and I would do myself, you're going to want to go for about two to three rounds typically. However, the way it should be set up, let's go say round one, you start with the sauna. You go for anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes in duration. And then you go directly into the cold plunge in some cases for about 30 seconds to a maximum 3 to four minutes.

You're going to want to repeat this about two times, in some cases three times at a maximum. And that's it. If your end goal is to improve energy levels and alertness and overall inflammation, you're going to want to end with the cold. If you want more relaxation and you want to sleep better, you're going to want to end on heat.

9:08

Now, one thing that each and everyone should do before going through either one of these modalities is always making sure they're well hydrated before and hydrated after. So, making sure you've had plenty of water before you even start these treatments and you drink water after you finish your final session. And most importantly, you should always listen to your body, not your ego. So, don't try to overdo it. Don't try to push it. Don't try to beat the person next to you. Everybody's goals, everybody's body is different. So, if I can tolerate only three minutes or two minutes in a cold plunge, doesn't mean that because Joe next to me that's doing three minutes, I need to try to do three minutes myself.

I should just go for what works for me. You should also leave feeling refreshed from doing the contrast therapy treatments. You should not feel drained. If you feel drained, then you're typically overdoing it. Whether you're overdoing in the sauna or you're overdoing in the cold plunge or you're overdoing it and you're doing too many rounds for your body to handle. Essentially doing these two treatments you should not feel wrecked. You should feel better. Now lastly to conclude here contrast therapy is not a trend. It is a powerful time tester recovery and resilience tool that we now understand scientifically.

You're essentially training your heart, your blood vessels, your nervous system, and your mind all in one session,

10:39

but only when it's done intentionally and correctly, not excessively, not recklessly, and certainly not for social media. And if you've been curious about trying sauna and cold plunge, this is certainly your sign to start the smart way. Now, as always, thanks again for tuning in to the biohacking trainer podcast. If you've tried contrast therapy, share your experience and tag me. I'd love to hear how it's worked for you. Stay healthy, stay curious, and we'll see you on the next time.