Contrast Therapy Without the Hype: Full Transcript

Transcript from The Science Behind Cold Plunges, Saunas, and Contrast Therapy: A Doctor Explains.

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[music] [music] I have hundreds of videos of me doing contrast therapy and many, many have gone very, very viral. So, I'm sure I'm probably part of the problem. And [music] then when I started seeing things online, and then I saw a local contrast [music] therapy business pop up just a few miles from our house. I was like, "Okay, let me try this out." And then you have like the social media users who are like, "I just feel really good. I, you know, I [music] I need to do this contrast therapy. It makes me think straight." Contrast therapy might sound like the latest wellness craze, but you've probably experienced a version of it before. Ever stepped from a hot shower into a cold room [music] or grabbed an ice pack after a sweaty workout? That's the basic idea, alternating between heat and cold. Today's trend takes it a bit further with people cycling between saunas and ice baths in search of everything from faster muscle recovery to better mental [music] health. But does the science support the hype? Search on social media and you'll find plenty of people [music] jumping from icy plunge baths into bubbling hot tubs or steamy saunas and back again over and then raving about the benefits. People like fitness fanatic Andy Glaze, a 48-year - old ultra runner and firefighter, [music] who believes it's the secret to fast recovery from intense training. The immediate results would be like you feel [music] better, but then I also noticed that like I recovered quicker and [music] was sore for shorter periods of time. I've just kept doing it because I I see results. [music] And Erin Giles, whose wellness content targets women over 35. You know, it's very [music] invigorating to get into the cold water and then go back into heat. So, I definitely felt like, you know, more focused, more awake, overall like full body invigoration because it really wakes you up. [music] But does contrast therapy really help your body recover or your mind find its hidden zen? Does it actually improve blood flow or reduce inflammation?

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blood flow or reduce inflammation? [music] Is the intense shock to your skin and psyche actually the long-lost secret to better mental resilience? To answer those questions, [music] Dr. Chelsea Evans, a sports medicine physician at Lehigh Valley Health Network, joins the conversation. I think in general people are looking to be healthy and feel better, and I think people are realizing that shoving your body with more supplements and vitamins [music] and paying for expensive therapies aren't necessarily yielding that. Welcome back to Health vs. Hype with the American Medical Association. I'm your host, Trace Dominguez. [music] Today, we're talking about contrast therapy. What exactly is [music] that? Are there health benefits to changing temperatures quickly? And what does contrast therapy actually do to your body? Join me as we find out whether contrast therapy is all health or just hype. [music] [music] Contrast therapy is a good example of an ancient practice experiencing a modern resurgence. It's been around for thousands of years. [music] In ancient Rome, public bathhouses were designed with a progression of rooms, including caldarium hot baths and frigidarium cold plunge pools. Nordic cultures paired intense sauna sessions with icy lake plunges or rolling around in the snow. And for centuries in Japan, alternating between hot mineral-rich onsen baths and cooler water has been a common cultural bathing practice. Our more modern version of this seems to have been recently rediscovered by the online sports and wellness communities. I'm curious why this practice has endured for so long and what the appeal of it really is. Here's Andy explaining. So, there's a couple things like first of all, like I said, I'm 48. I'm considered a master athlete, right? Which means I'm old. [laughter] I'm on a 317-week

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I'm on a 317-week streak of running over 100 miles a week. That averages like 15 to 20 miles a day. So, I'm constantly having to recover like rapidly. I have like a pretty intense recovery routine that involves contrast therapy is like definitely one of the like main components, but you know, it's one component in a series of lots of things that I do so my body recovers like faster. Can you describe what it's like to do this kind of contrast therapy, you know, the sauna, the cold plunge in detail? What does it feel like? So, sauna is is not like a passive sort of exercise. It's work. And when you're in there, it is so hot and uncomfortable that your heart rate elevates and you you want to get out because you're just so hot. And then you get into the cold plunge and it's really uncomfortable in the cold plunge, too. Like, you immediately want to get out. You're fighting to to stay in there. And then you get out and then you go back in the hot. And when you first get in the hot, it feels cold in there cuz you're just your body is so cold and then it heats up really fast again. I mean, your body's going into shock and it wants to get out of that cold water. [snorts] Erin had a similar description of her contrast therapy experience. When we got to the contrast therapy place, of course, first we had to change our clothes. I wore my bathing suit. My husband was in his trunks. And you're basically alternating between 15 to 20 minutes in the sauna and I think it's like 2 to 5 minutes in the um cold plunge tank. But, um you know, after 2 to 5 minutes in that cold plunge tank, you are definitely very ready to get back into the sauna. And that you know, that lasts for an hour. So, it's a few times in both. Erin, it sounds like you liked the sauna part just a little bit more. Yeah, I mean, absolutely every time it was time to get out of the cold plunge, I was ready to move into the sauna. So, I would definitely say the sauna [music] was preferred and welcomed and loved and appreciated and probably adored. [music]

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appreciated and probably adored. [music] My teenager would say it's a vibe, you know? There's The sauna has aura, [laughter] okay? So, it's you know, it's the red light. It's just It's quiet, but then when you got to open the door and get in the cold plunge tank, it's like a complete shock to your system. For me, just like the overall, you know, dopamine rush that probably came with the cold to heat was fun, I guess I I could say. [laughter] And it's that shock to your system and rush that people are chasing. The cold plunge is like a dopamine enhancing like activity. So, if you have a headache, if you feel sad, you know, you got PTSD symptoms and you get in that cold plunge, a lot of times you're going to feel pretty good for like an hour or two afterwards. I shared that last bit with our medical expert for this episode, Dr. Chelsea Evans. I wanted to know what the science was behind the reaction Andy just described. Here's Dr. Evans. So, when you talk about cold exposure again, let's talk about like chemicals. You're looking at norepinephrine, where you have a surge of that and that causes that heart rate to increase. You have alertness and you have that energy. You have endorphins and you're looking at some pain relief and then you have some of that mood-enhancing effect of the endorphin. The interesting part about the endorphin piece of it, endorphins, especially beta endorphins, they're mu opioid receptor agonist. And then, like Andy said, there is an increase in dopamine. And then, you know, with dopamine, you have more motivation, reward, and focus. The thing about this is these are all temporary changes. They're nothing that you're going to see in terms of long-term. So, he's not wrong, but yeah. What you're saying, let me get this right, is beta endorphins, They're an opioid receptor agonist. You're saying that our bodies own natural chemicals when triggered by something like a cold plunge, they're activating the same receptors involved in the body's opioid system and they help reduce pain and promote feelings of well-being. All that sounds amazing.

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well-being. All that sounds amazing. Exactly. So Dr. Evans, I do want to play something else from Andy. As a firefighter, I have PTSD and so I've found that cold plunging is very beneficial for like PTSD symptoms. Again, I'm not a scientist, but I'm a paramedic and the way I understand it and the way it makes me feel is when I get into the the sauna, my pipes get really big. Meaning my my veins, my arteries get really big. And then when I get into the cold plunge, my pipes get really small. And then when I go back, they get big again and so that gives you a certain feeling in your body which is quite nice. Some would say like euphoric. It's like you know, dopamine rush, but also like it just makes you feel good. Why do we feel euphoric after something like a cold plunge? Because it releases those endorphins and those endorphins make our moods a lot better. So yeah, it's the release of dopamine and the beta endorphin. Those are the two chemicals that we're really looking at that really can affect our moods. Andy also described his pipes getting smaller and bigger by alternating hot and cold. Dr. Evans, what's he talking about here? What happens to our bodies when we're doing contrast therapy? So when your body gets in a cold environment, you have something called vasoconstriction which is when your blood vessels shrink and they tighten down. And as a result of that, you essentially reduce inflammation and swelling. There's also some what I should say that it blunts what the nerves signaling is and so as a result of that, you have less pain in that area. And then what about sitting in a sauna? A similar idea? So, when you're in a hot environment or a sauna or a hot tub or something like that, what happens is you have a bunch of vasodilation, and that increases blood flow and oxygen to delivery of tissue. So, you have tissue that's damaged or needs repairing, that's when you want a lot of blood flow in there because that's when you have those healing cells come, and they help to repair the tissue. So, that's the thought behind using the heat therapy.

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thought behind using the heat therapy. Got it. So, the cold plunge tends to make your blood vessels contract and might reduce inflammation and some other things. And then, in a hot environment like a hot tub or a sauna, the blood vessels open up and deliver more of your natural healing capabilities to that tissue. Correct. What happens then when we're alternating between those two environments? So, you know, there's a term that's been coined, it's a pumping effect. And so, when you have this effect of contraction and then vasodilation, you're able to get the benefits of both healing and pain reduction. Whether or not the literature supports this, this is in theory what people are going for when they seek this type of therapy. Okay, so in theory, we're going to get to the evidence of it in a minute, but first, I'm wondering, are there some people who should altogether avoid trying contrast therapy? Like, what are the risks? So, when we talk about some of the risks, you have to be careful about people that have cardiac arrhythmias because it can lower their threshold for having a cardiac arrhythmia. People that have uncontrolled high blood pressure, the last thing that you want is to do anything to increase their blood pressure, and they'll stroke out. We don't want to be responsible for that. Heart disease in general, if you think about what cold therapy does, it causes vasoconstriction. So, do you really want vasoconstriction around your coronary arteries? Probably not. Do we really want to cause STEMIs? Probably not. And that goes along with people with vascular disease, right? So, if you have a bunch of blood vessels that are littered with calcium deposits or lipids and you know, like cholesterol around their blood vessels, That's the one you want is any type of um um vasoconstriction as well. So, I think you need to approach this with a degree of caution in certain populations, but particularly those for cardiovascular events. Yeah. Forgive me, what is a STEMI? A heart attack. Oh, we don't want that. don't want to cause this. Definitely not. Yeah. All right, y'all. STEMI stands for [music] ST elevation myocardial infarction. It's the most severe kind of heart attack,

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the most severe kind of heart attack, where a coronary artery gets completely blocked. The reason cold plunging could theoretically cause one comes down to what's called the cold shock response. Your heart rate spikes, your blood vessels clamp down, and stress hormones flood your system the second you hit that cold water. If you already have some hidden plaque build up in your arteries, the sudden shock could be a thing that cracks it open, triggering a full clot. [music] Actual heart attacks from sauna or cold plunge use are genuinely rare. The bigger, real-world risk factor isn't the cold, it's mixing all this with alcohol. Okay, now that we've all dug into our curiosity here, let's go back to the interview. So, Dr. Evans, Erin had a question for you. Here's what she wanted to know. If I could ask the doctor about contrast therapy, I would say if it's something someone did consistently for maybe, I don't know, 60-90 days, maybe they did it two to four times a week, and maybe they had a serious health concern, or maybe they had um an injury in their 40s, cuz I know those things happen a lot. Would that speed things up, or would the benefits be obvious after being that consistent? So, what do you think about this question? Would the benefits be obvious for someone who consistently does contrast therapy? Truthfully, if somebody's dealing with muscle soreness, and they're working on exercise recovery, or they have certain chronic aches and pains, they may notice some improvement over that 60 to 90 day period. Thing is like contrast therapy alone is not going to have dramatic effects on accelerating healing. Um, and it's not going to reverse any health conditions per se that you have. I think it's more of one of those things you need to use as a supportive recovery tool rather than that therapy alone. So, yeah, it'll help a little bit. Is it going to be mind-blowing? Probably not. And then we'll play another clip from Aaron. Those extreme cold temperatures for women, especially women, um, you know, perimenopause, menopause, is not good

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perimenopause, menopause, is not good for our bodies. I guess the easiest way for a non-doctor person like myself to say it would be as like high cortisol, which we're already kind of in a high stress hormone time in our lives. I was open to trying it though because I did see that he had one tank that was the temperature for men and then he had one tank that was more ideal for women. Is that accurate? Is that something that we should consider? Are extreme cold temps not as good for people who are perimenopausal or menopausal? And is there something where there's like this temperature is better for this sex, men or women? There is no evidence to say that extreme cold temperatures are worse for perimenopausal or menopausal women. There is an interesting study about women who are perimenopausal and menopausal that swam in 50 ° temperatures on a regular basis and it actually showed that they had less perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms by doing the colder therapy. It's not a great study, right? They're women who exercise on a regular basis, but there's no evidence to say being perimenopausal or menopausal should have any effect on if you can do contrast therapies. Aaron's comment got me thinking about how cold is a cold plunge. Here's Andy. So, I keep mine in like low 40s. When I first started, it was like a like I think like a macho thing or like an ego thing and like I would keep it at like 33. And we would do like, how long can you stay in, you know, we do like 11 minutes and you know, go out and like break the ice, you know, and then get in. And as time goes by, I've realized that that doesn't necessarily matter quite as much. And so, yeah, like low 40s, mid 40 45, 43, something like that. That sounds pretty cold. But it actually brings me to another question about the protocol for contrast therapy. How hot? How cold? How long? Those sorts of

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How cold? How long? Those sorts of things. For someone looking to relieve muscle soreness and to speed their recovery, what is the science say? So, this is one of those things that when you look at the literature, this is what makes it really difficult. It's because it's so inconsistent with the protocols that people use. But I will tell you the majority of them and really what my patients tell me, they usually say, you know, if they're going to be in hot water, like a hot tub, you're looking at 3 to 5 minutes and then you're doing 1 to 3 minutes in the cold. If you're in a sauna, it takes a little bit longer to get that internal temperature up. Um and then you're looking at 15 to 20 minutes. Obviously, I wouldn't start there. I would work your way up. And when you're looking at cold, you're looking at 10 to 15 ° C or 50 to 59 ° F when you're looking at hot water. So, like the hot tub, you're looking at 100 to 104. Saunas [music] start at 120. You can like I've seen temperatures all the way up to 160, 170. That seems a little extreme. What you're really looking for is a solid sweat. So, if you're solid sweating, you got it hot enough in there. But um yeah, you just want to be mindful, work your body up to that because your body has to adjust and adapt to these temperature changes. Yeah. And is that sweating important? Like is that part of the help is having all of your pores excreting everything they can? No, that just that tells you that your body temperature is rising, which is what part [music] of the heat therapy is. A lot of athletes will do this and they'll cycle it two or three times. So, they'll do the, you know, 3 to 5 minutes in the hot tub, 1 to 3 minutes in the cold, or use the sauna for a little bit longer, and then they'll cycle through it two or three times. So, I think it it's just a commitment of time, right? If you have to do that two or three times, you're looking at an hour commitment. So, depending on what modality you use as your heating source. That makes sense. The timing does it it kind of matter? Should people avoid the ice bath immediately after, you know, coming out of their workout, jumping in the ice bath, or should they wait a little bit, or should they do heat first? Does it sort of matter? So, this is interesting. For a really

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So, this is interesting. For a really long time, it was always you want to do cold immersion early on. The thought behind that is if you had the vasoconstriction, you reduce the creatine kinase build-up, which is what you typically have that can make your muscles not function as well as you want. However, there's a growing literature suggesting that by doing the cold therapy right after exercise, you're also decreasing your body's ability to form new muscle. So, while it may allow you to work out sooner because your CK levels are better, it might not in turn allow you to build up as quickly as you want it because, you know, we don't fully understand all the hormones in the body and all the chemicals in the body that we create, and sometimes they carry benefits that we're not aware of yet, and there's something going on there that's preventing the muscle from building up as fast with doing direct ice therapy afterwards. I think at the end of the day, it really depends what you're looking for. If you have back-to - back soccer games, you're not going to care if your muscles build or not. You want that quick recovery so that you can perform the next day. So, I think for that indication, it makes more sense to do the cold immersion therapy, but if you're looking for long-term gains, maybe that's not the best option for you. Evidence is controversial. I think the more we know, the more we're changing our protocols for what we should be doing. So, what are the biggest mistakes you would say people would attribute to something like a cold plunge and a sauna routine when they're doing it? So, when we talk about people are trying new health trends, there's those quick adapters, the ones that try everything under the sun, and they go from zero to 100. I think that's a really bad idea. If your body's not ready for those temperature changes, you can cause a lot of systemic effects. So, biggest mistakes that we see, you're staying in the cold too long, you're staying in the hot too long. You don't know your tolerances. You drink alcohol before or afterwards. You don't want to jump from one extreme to the next until your body gradually adjusts when you first start. This isn't to say that you can't eventually work your way up to that, but that's not where I would start.

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that's not where I would start. So, I shouldn't go from the sauna and just go like jump right into a cold plunge like cannonball style day one. I wouldn't recommend that. [laughter] Cuz I I would when we were talking about this episode, I grew up in Michigan, and we would definitely go from the sauna to the snow. [laughter] Yep. As teenagers. Yeah. Yep. It was not probably smart. Nope. But it was hilarious. Yep. I was just in Norway, and they did the same thing there, too. They have all these saunas, and then you jump in the 47 ° ocean. I'm like, this is awful. But [laughter] that's a thing. Yeah. I mean, we we did it all the time. My mom was like, it's good for your pores. And I was like, okay, Mom. Sure if it's the pores, but sure, whatever. Closes them right when you jump in the cold. Yeah, sure. Okay, Dr. Evans, let's get into some of the more specific claims about contrast therapy. Let's start with any evidence of long-term benefits. What do we know? What do the studies actually show us? So, studies, when you look at big large meta-analysis, the evidence is really weak in terms of true benefit of long-term benefit of it, and that's because there's inconsistencies with the studies in terms of the protocols that are used. So, to say that it works or doesn't work, I think it's difficult to say. Literature doesn't really have enough evidence to say, "Hey, this should be standard of care for if you have this type of injury." So, I think for pain relief, there's evidence that cold exposure, that piece of it, can really help temporarily to cause long-term benefit, probably not. [music] For stiffness and mobility, is it the heat piece of it or the [music] thermal therapy, to make it a medical term, that can help in terms of the mobility and the muscle relaxation, but to say that it's actually speeding up recovery, there's no literature right now saying that it is actually effective in doing that. That's interesting, and that seems to be something that maybe in the future we can do more studies and they can be a little more consistent and perhaps we'll find something, but as of now we don't have a lot to support it.

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have a lot to support it. Mhm. That's where we're at right now. There's just not enough studies out there. I think the best studies that have have been done have been published in the 2024 and 2025 range, and they're meta-analysis, but that's the literature that we have right now. There's some older studies, but they're really limited in consistent protocols, so you can't really I don't really think they're good enough to use as standard of care or to base recommendations off of those. Yeah. What would you say between or I guess overall, what's the most impactful part of contrast therapy? Where do you get the most benefit? I think it's what you're looking for. Uh So, I think if you're looking for pain reduction, I think you're going to find it with the cold therapy, and I think if you're looking for tissue repair, in theory, the heat therapy really should be doing the most. So, I think it's really what your goal is at the end of the therapy piece. Um and it also depends on the population that you're coming from. If you're somebody with chronic aches and pains who are, you know, in your 40s, 50s, and 60s, I think your goals are going to be different than an athlete per se who is looking to get a competitive edge off of the next athlete that's sitting next to them that's looking to take their position. So, I think they're two different goals. Cold therapy, once again, it's better for pain reduction, for healing properties, and to get those muscles moving a little bit. You want the heat to work. So, it just depends where you're at in terms of what you need. Yeah. What does the research say about um, you know, muscle soreness and other recovery strategies that you can use in general? So, it was interesting. There's an article published about DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, and that contrast therapy may help restore functional performance faster than passive therapy, which is what most people do. What's, you know, like light activity after if they do the contrast therapy following a period of excessive physical exertion. There is some evidence to say that the contrast therapy following this does provide quicker return activity, which could be that competitive edge if you're really thinking about it. If they have an extra day where they can

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have an extra day where they can exercise because their muscles aren't sore, you know what? Maybe that extra day is going to be what can get them ahead of their competition. Yeah, give them a just a little bit of edge. Yeah. Can contrast therapy improve just overall circulation? Is it just in the extremities? What about cardiovascular health? Like, does it work all the way through the body, or is it just in parts of it? Let's talk about the short-term benefit of contrast therapy. So, when you go and you get dumped in that cold water, yes, you're going to have an increase in your heart rate, increase in blood pressure, increase in your breathing rate. You're going to have increase in that norepinephrine and those cortisol levels, which temporarily help, but long-term, there's no studies to say that the benefits of those changes are long-standing. So, we don't want our bodies to stay in some of these effects of the cold therapy. We want the results of it, but we also want the benefits of that norepinephrine rush and that cortisol rush from doing that. It's just right now when they check blood levels over a period of time after having frequent exposure to this type of therapy, there's nothing saying that it's lasting in the system long enough to have true long-standing cardiovascular benefits. I mean, the main benefit from my perspective is that little scream that everybody does when they get in. Yeah. I think that's the best part. It's that rush. that's [laughter] Yes. I completely agree. So, and then when it comes with uh those kind of things is something like cardiovascular health impacted by these hot and cold and you know, alternating? So, once again, it is temporarily. It's just not long-term. There's no evidence to say that you have sustained effects of it. There's risk of doing this if you have cardiovascular disease as well uh because of the short-term changes that it can change in your cardiovascular system. So, once again, I think there needs to be more research done in this topic. A lot of people claim the cold plunge is helping them with their mental health as well and their like stress resilience.

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well and their like stress resilience. Is there any evidence there at all or is this something we see on social media? Okay. So, this is an interesting one. There's a couple studies out there that showed that there's temporary mood improvement. There's temporary improvement in sleep quality and there's also reduced sickness-related work absences. The problem with these studies, they're done in populations that do regular cold therapy as part of an exercise routine. So, it's difficult to dis - distinguish if these benefits are from the exercise alone or if they're from repetitive contrast therapy that they have because the populations that they used are generally healthier populations who exercise on a regular basis. So, there's no published literature that shows any long-term benefit of contrast therapy in having any effect on depression, anxiety, or chronic stress. So, I think while it may give you temporary euphoria in terms of long-term benefit, I don't think we're there yet to say that contrast therapy adequately can change those symptoms. Yeah, we're using the term like short-lived and temporary. What does that mean? Does that mean hours? Does that mean days? Does that mean weeks? Like It means hours. Yeah, it means with within a couple hours of the time that you do the contrast therapy. Yeah. And obviously some hormones hang around a little bit longer, right? So increases in cortisol, cortisol can be in your bloodstream for 1 to 2 weeks before it starts to change when you're exposed to a certain environment. However, is it significant? The study really didn't show that there was a significant change in cortisol levels. So to say that it's in your bloodstream for an extended period of time with a significant change in your cortisol level, probably not an accurate statement at this point. Yeah, I mean that I think that puts it in a lot of perspective, you know, I'm not going to jump in a cold plunge in a sauna multiple times a day every day in order to be able to try and maintain some kind of level. Um but that's sort of what we're talking about we would have to do in order to maintain those kind of hormone levels. Yep, correct. Okay, so Dr. Evans, if there's not a huge long-term benefit in some ways, what about things that people talk about

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what about things that people talk about online a lot? Immunity, for example, is there any benefit there long-term? So there's no long-term benefit. There's a couple studies out there publishing showing short-term benefit of the cold specific therapy, which is the one, you know, is the part of the contrast therapy, but any long-term benefit of immunity is um there's still lots to be desired in terms of research. Yeah. Okay. Before I let you go, our wellness influencer Erin wondered about one more thing and she's got me wondering about it, too. So, here she is. I always wonder like, you know, doctors don't always, you know, they sure they know the science behind [music] things, but have they tried it? You know what I mean? Have they experienced it? So, Dr. Evans, have you tried contrast therapy or any of the separate components? Um Yes, I did. I decided it would be a good idea to run the Princess Half Marathon and I probably [music] didn't train long enough. And so yes, I did cold therapy afterwards. I was a little less sore than I anticipated. So I didn't do the heat following it, but I did do the ice therapy and the cold therapy [music] afterwards. So have I tried it again since now? Am I running another Disney Princess race? No. So maybe if I do something crazy again like that, then we'll talk about it. All right, I'm going to hold you to that. Thanks a lot for being here and talking to our audience about contrast therapy. [music] Yep, for sure. So let's turn this into a math problem. Cold therapy can in the short-term reduce inflammation, accelerate muscle recovery, stimulate the nervous system, and trigger the release of mood-boosting neurotransmitters like dopamine and beta-endorphins. Heat therapy can in the short-term relieve chronic pain, relax muscles, and increase circulation. The sum of these two [music] parts, contrast therapy, in theory accelerates circulation, reduces inflammation, [music] and triggers faster tissue recovery by forcing blood vessels to rapidly dilate and constrict. [music] But more studies need to be done to

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But more studies need to be done to confirm this and investigate if any long-term benefits exist. So [music] do you think contrast therapy adds up? Let us know what you think about it in the comments. As always, be sure to check with your physician first if you plan to take the plunge and try contrast therapy [music] for yourself. Thanks again to Dr. Chelsea Evans for breaking down the science behind contrast therapy, and thanks to Andy Glaze and Aaron Giles for sharing their stories and experiences with [music] us. We did it again, believe it or not, this was our seventh popular health trend, which means we only have one more episode left this season. Don't worry though, we still have plenty of interesting information to cover because next week we're going to dive into the world of [music] red light therapy and all the social media claims around it. If you haven't already, please hit the subscribe or follow button and join us next time on Health vs. Hype with the American Medical Association. For more information on all the topics we're covering, visit amahealthvshype. org. That's amahealthvshype. org. [music] Health vs. Hype is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeart Media and the American Medical Association. I'm Trace Dominguez. Our producers are Matt Stillow and Pamela Lawrence. Michael DePue Wilson is our writer. The show is engineered and features original music by Matthew Ernest [music] Filer. Health vs. Hype is intended for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, [music] or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.