By day three of the Ultimate Human cold plunge for health Challenge, something has shifted. The initial shock has settled into something more like familiarity. The nervous system has begun its adaptation. And for Gary Brecka and the community gathered around this practice, the conversation moves into what mastery of cold actually means — and what it demands.
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e e hey guys we're back um it's great to see everybody I'm actually uh in a fit of Giggles right now because you know we have a we have an amazing special guest today I know you um may have heard if you saw my post this morning it's Damon John from Shark Tank so we're going to put a shark in the Shark Tank it's just a cold tank but um um I'm playing a little joke on Damon John so I have put considerably more ice in his cold plunge than my cold plunge which is why I'm laughing right now so um I'm trying to get his c i I know I said colder is not better longer is not better but for purposes of having Damon John do a coal plunge with us today I have put a ton of ice in his coal plunge so when I walk out there I'm going to purposely take the cold plunge on the left and force him into the cold plunge on the right and um so just keep an eye on it because it's going to be funny he's not going to like it but he'll probably see my humor after after he gets out but we have an amazing uh other special guest today I got so many questions um you know during when we were putting the cold plunge challenge out there and by the way do not tag jam and John yet I don't want him to know that he's getting in um an ultra cold plunge today for three minutes um so we'll see how the shark does in the cold shark tank but um I got so many questions guys about um uh you
so many questions guys about um uh you know women and um you know menstruating uh women's menstrual cycles and cold plunging timing of cold plunging if there's timing uh a cold plunging is related to hormone balance or or where uh women are in their menstrual cycle so in 15 minutes we're going to have Dr Gabrielle lion um one of the top female functional medicine MDS um on on the planet in my opinion uh she she wrote the uh um she wrote a great book on you know how muscle is related to longevity she's an amazing physician um I'll talk about her book when she uh when she gets on the on onto our live Zoom but uh I want so so women if you've got specific questions about that I want you to save those for Dr Gabrielle lion she's going to talk about um hormone balance fat loss metabolism um the safety of doing cold plunging whether you can cold plunge when you're pregnant um young or menstrating and wearing your cycle you know um cold plunging may be more beneficial than other areas so uh so stay tuned I sort of Consolidated all those questions and said I'll just get Dr Gabrielle Lion on and we'll have one of the top experts in the country take your questions directly and then of course we're going to jump in the coal plunge um with with Damon and then afterwards we'll take a little break and then Damon and I are going to sit with the VIPs for about an hour and we're just going to take questions direct so if if you'd like to get off topic from the ultimate human and for biohacking and Longevity and anti-aging and even ask some business questions he's going to be wide open so you'll have access to one of the top sharks from Shark Tank uh for a full hour if you're one of our VIPs and you can direct any question that you'd like at him I just wanted to open that up for you guys and say doesn't have to stay on topic um for you know biohacking anti-aging or um longevity you can direct those questions to me and you can direct any other question you want to to Dam and John so I'm super excited guys this has been I think my favorite uh challenge um you know a lot of you have been with me on a lot of these challenges we've done 10, 000 Step Challenge we've done cold plun challenges we've done breath work challenges um we've done three-day water
challenges um we've done three-day water fast we've done all kinds of challenges but for some reason this has been like the most inspiring one to me um you know seeing you guys some some of you on the west coast get up at 5 o'clock in the morning cold plunging before you even wake your kids up in the morning seeing a lot of firsttime families entire families moms dads and the kids all getting in the cold plunge together um it's just so amazing I mean you know when when the message gets out and it really starts to touch lives and people have fun with it and they bring their families into it um that's really just Chicken Soup for my soul so I really want to thank you guys for having the trust and confidence in me um to give me your time and then for just being uh so participatory in this you know but people have gotten really creative with cold plunges everything from going out and buying beer tubs to cattle troughs um to using your own bathtubs you know to to obviously cold showers you know you do not have to um purchase one of our pop-up Cal plunges or an expensive Cal plunge you can just get some ice put it in a tupperware container put it in your tub and let it rip the idea is to you know inspire you to make that transition and start incorporating this in your daily lives and then to hear some of the stories that are coming back from people that have been doing this for a while that have been following me and how they're using it to conquer um addiction depression um balance hormones making it a part of their daily routine for weight loss um for for um uh to get over getting off of ssris and all kinds of of mental challenges and really shift their mood um I I just think it's amazing guys you know I always tell people if you're ever at a crossroad in your life where you're you're just kind of lost um meaning you don't know what you know what direction your career is going maybe you don't know what direction your relationship is going maybe you haven't found that passion or that purpose it's a great time for you to just turn inward meaning turn inward on yourself be a little bit selfish start putting yourself first engage in some self-care you know go on that journey to find out how you can be the best verion of
how you can be the best verion of yourself and by that I mean start exploring things like cold plunging and breath work and natural sunlight in the morning you know make that shift to a whole food diet don't worry about if you're keto carnivore paleo um you know vegan vegetarian pescatarian just just say I'm going to get processed foods out of my life and I'm just going to start to eat Whole Foods and and then maybe make that extra step to the grass-fed meats and the pasture red eggs and the free range chickens and that extra step towards glyphosate free choices and and pesticide and herbicide free choices and and make that choice for organic start an exercise routine maybe start journaling and you'll find that when you turn inward on yourself and you you actually start to like yourself and like the body that you're in and you know your thought pattern starts to change and the frequency that you're sending through your body changes all of a sudden the rest of Life reveals itself to you and um you know my father's a uh Captain John Brea he's he's a salty old Naval Captain um by the grace of God both my parents are still with me and doing very well but my dad was or is um very simple creature right um he he uh he always spoke in military time um he was always so reliable um he was so dependable you know he's uh captain in the Navy um gave 30 years of his life to service but he had one of the best definitions of life you know very simple guy but he had one of the best definitions of life I've ever heard and he used to say life is what happens to you when you're on your way to doing something else and I I think it's one of the coolest descriptions of life it's so true sometimes we actually don't know what the future holds and during those times is it is a time where we actually lose touch with oursel and you know no matter what we're struggling with um you know if we turn inward on oursel and we really engage in some self-care and we do some of the things like we do on these challenges maybe make it the first time that you try a three-day water fast um maybe make it the first time you try a cold plunge maybe say I'm going to commit 30 days to waking up with the sun and just exposing skin to sunlight
and just exposing skin to sunlight touching the Earth and doing some breath work incorporating those things that cost you nothing but could really change the trajectory of your life and then life begins to be what happens to you when you're on your way to doing something else also thank you guys for all of the referrals and the kind words thank you guys for posting and being vulnerable about this I see so many of you guys getting in cold plunges you've been tagging me um you've been reposting I mean I just this has just been the best uh of all worlds uh for me in terms of the challenges that we've done so far next month I've got a really really cool challenge coming um so you're gonna want to keep keep an eye out for for my next challenge for September but uh but this one's been super inspiring for me so I'd like to get to a couple of questions if we could before um let me see what we got in the chat before uh we go over to Dr Gabrielle lion um man becom an ultimate human already oh my gosh who's that Joe missina how old is that little man we might we may have the youngest coal plunger ever um it's so Keith writes uh Gary doing my first cold plunge on day one was amazing after the plunge I had one of the worst days and my mood was better due to the plunge I just wish I had a better way uh of plunging but What a Feeling thanks for helping me get involved and doing this and um Keith you're super welcome um if you guys have any questions for me just go ahead and throw them in the chat um he's four was so excited to try it dude you can start cold plunging at four that he's going to be a man by the time he's in high school um you know I love to see it's very safe for little kids you know again we want to keep the water 48 to 55 degrees especially for children um but it's very safe for them in fact I I see moms getting in there and and dads getting in there and and they're like shocked and freezing and like super animated and and the kids just getting the cold punch and are like what what's what's all the fuss about Mom just
what's all the fuss about Mom just standing standing up to their chest in ice cold water and not not batting an eyelash so that's super awesome man and I know when you do it as a family um it just becomes like the talk of the you know talk of the table um so let's let's fire up a couple of questions um I'm so inspired by this audience uh Carrie Gosling says what effect do cold plunges have on concussion and Whiplash recovery day one plunge I had a headache going in did the plunge and it was gone for the day so basically what you're actually getting is a vasod dilation vasil constrictive effect remember that um the the arteries in our body are smooth muscle right we have skeletal muscle which is you know our biceps and our skeletal muscle um we have smooth muscle which is Our arteries and then we have cardiac muscle those are the three types of muscle in the body and the smooth muscle that we have in our arteries is actually layered it's they're at different angles and the reason why it's not a band muscle but actually muscles they usually three layers um the muscles in the arteries are are layered and they run uh the fibers run at different angles is so that it can create this peristaltic wave and this peristaltic wave as we get into the smaller and smaller capillaries of our bodies is called vasomotor it's called vasomotor activity you hear we talk about this all the time 70% check this out Google it and check it yourself 70% of our circulation is not done by the heart 70% of our circulation is basom motor it's like a snake swallowing a mouse which means that the heart beats you get a bolus of blood into the artery and then that smooth muscle vasom motor activity continues the circulation of that blood especially in our capillary systems liver lungs pancreas kidneys our brain behind our eye the arteries that supply and the capillaries that Supply our retina our rods our cones our macula that actually feed the back of our eye all those little muses Muses in our eye that move um not just
Muses in our eye that move um not just the orbicularis orus but all the ocular muscles that actually control the fine motor activity in your eye those all have small capillary circulation two of the things that are great for that cold plunging is excellent for that red light therapy is excellent for that sunlight is excellent for that especially in the morning when you don't have the UVA and UVB rays that are damaging your skin so what's awesome about vasomotor activity is that um as we age it becomes the most compromised portion of our um circulatory system right it's not the heart's inability to push blood into the arteries or return blood to the heart in the in in the veins it's the vasomotor activity so anything that we can do to exercise our vascular system is going to improve vasomotor activity so there is some research um that uh cold plunging can improve vasomotor activity which means better circulation so in your case this means a reduction in inflammation um actually being able to deliver oxygen to areas that might not otherwise be getting oxygen getting inflammatory factors out cyto kindes histamines prostag gland and e2s pretty kindness all of these inflammatory factors and when you exercise getting things out of the muscle like creatinin that cause delayed onet muscle Source um so I'm not surprised at all to see that your headaches um and some of your neck pain you know was resolved but it's a great uh testimonial Dr lion is on and we will be spotlighting her to get this conversation started W Dr lion I think you're muted I'm unmuting myself right now I think you're still muted oh am I I've unmuted okay you've unmuted we got you great to see you nice to see you too you this is a really inspiring group you know we we've we've had thousands of people on this uh challenge um D Damon John just walked into my unit so he's he's our guest I'm putting a shark in the Shark Tank today a nice chilly tank
the Shark Tank today a nice chilly tank um so such a blessing to have you on I've spoken about you and your book and all the work that you do and it's really inspiring to have you with us this has been the most inspiring challenge that I've done uh cold plun challenges 10, 000 steps we've done water fasting um we've done breath work challenges but in terms of like participation and breakthroughs and testimonials this has been by far the most gamechanging challenge that I've ever hosted so um thank you so much for joining us that's why this one why do you think it's been this one you know I I think because um I I think because it's just such a major transition and a breakthrough for so many people I think a lot of people sort of have heard about cold plunging they don't like cold water they didn't think that they could do it um and they they actually got through it and got to the other side and got to feel that sense of euphoria you know that elevated endin Rush the dopamine that that peripheral Vaso constriction the blood returning just that that incredible feeling that in some cases people have been saying they haven't felt this good in 10 years um yeah it's amazing yeah and so so moms started dragging their kids in and dads started dragging their wives and their sons in we just had a four-year - old in a c lch um so it's been really inspiring but we we've gotten a lot of questions um from women um about the safety of cold plung com plunging during their menstrual cycle um if there's a better or worse time during the month based on on their cycle to C plunge if there's any interruption in hormones so I just thought um we'd get the expert on and and have you speak to our female audience a little bit well first of all I'm so excited to be here I'm so excited that you all have just loved the experience of cold plunging it's something that I do I um I started with 11 minut a week um and I now am up to I probably go straight down the research
probably go straight down the research right there 11 minutes I exactly to the minute where the research is um yes as you guys know I am very evidence-based I will tell you when it's evidence and I'll tell you when it's my opinion I started with um 11 minutes which is absolutely where the research is I now go higher my husband which is this is really funny my husband um was a he's a former Navy SEAL and they have winter hell week and not everybody is in Winter hell week but it's essentially cold water immersion for four days um and I bet that individuals could do it certainly longer um I'm just curious Gary what is the longest stretch that you have done over a week um you mean the consistently cold plunging yes yes have you calculated your time wow I don't think I've calculated my total time in the tub but I mean I do 3 minutes minimum 6 minutes maximum and I've Done 3 to 6 minutes you know seven days in a row so probably 42 minutes is the most I've spent in a cold plun in an entire week it that is amazing that is absolutely amazing and for women do you know that um and I'm certainly not saying I recommend this but in other cultures they cold plunge even while pregnant and it has been thought to actually help symptoms of hyperemesis gravitum it's which is the the nausea it's thought to actually help with pregnancy and um we don't know the mechanism of action um certainly there isn't research done by that but there are certain cultures that continue to do that and your original question was is there a certain time of the cycle and I would say I haven't seen any evidence of that but I personally believe that cold plunging makes everything better regardless um also women I have many patients that are in um their perimenopause postmenopause phase and it actually helps with hot flashes for them
actually helps with hot flashes for them wow hard to have a hot fles when you're in 50 degree water this is true um the other thing that I have seen is when you emerge and or you go up there's a lot of women that really struggle with thyroid conditions whether it's Hashimoto or hypothyroidism um I think that there will be more emerging evidence its impact on thyroid health from a positive standpoint and that is extraordinary it is something that again I know that you mentioned Vaso constriction there's this shivering aspect and that's a good thing this increases metabolic heat production um there is a belief that it can improve and activate Brown adapost tissue which is the fat that you have as a baby a whole host of of things that can be extremely beneficial um and they also believe that those that are cold adverse are probably individuals that will even have more of an impact so if you disliked this initially but still continue to do it you are probably someone that has even a increased benefit which I I thought is wow I didn't know that yeah that's so good you know I I my history with um you know intermittent fasting you know we just crossed the the 150, 000 patient Mark in our Clinic system Nationwide so we've gathered a lot of data on on a lot of different you know protocols and one of the things we knew about intermittent fasting was that young men trating women that have very very narrow feeding women feeding windows can very often disrupt their menstrual cycle um and we we've just seen that I'm not sure of the mechanism of action there either I'm sure it has something to do with you know thyroid regulation um yes and hormone regulation with you know related to their insulin levels and their blood sugar levels um but we did notice that you know women that were on very restrictive some of them twoh hour or four hour feeding Windows um you know it would actually send their endocrine system into into a tail spin so I I
system into into a tail spin so I I hadn't seen any evidence with C plunging so thank thank you for clearing the air on that so why don't we open up a couple of questions for Dr lion lion um okay Saxton says should women Plunge at a different temperature than men that is a a wonderful question and I haven't seen any evidence that women should Plunge at a different temperature and one has to understand whether you are male or female there will be an acclamation period I personally plunge around 53 degrees and um that might be a little warm for some of you and uh it is just a matter of ultimately going through through that disregulation for example there's I'm sure that uh Gary spoke about the increase and norab nephrine and some of these catac colomines your body will acclimate to certain temperatures and it will become easier and you'll have less of this cold shock which I'm sure you guys have been experiencing um there is a component of lowering the temperature that will increase that experience over time um get really comfortable with it go through a period of time where you get comfortable with it you can again I went warmer it doesn't mean all women have to go warmer but there are C cly less of a stress if you go warmer so if you were to stack stressors for example what Gary's saying about intermittent fasting for women is absolutely true we see that we see a change in hormones not necessarily for the the positive especially over long periods of fasting we see a decrease in thyroid hormone if you were to in increase the stressor now you're adding fasting and cold exposure you're now pushing kind of um levels of stress so let's say say you are experiencing and again this is perfect this is purely anecdotal you are experiencing a tremendous amount of stress in your life and you're do doing things that are influencing your body in that way then
influencing your body in that way then maybe you want to go a little bit warmer if you are someone who started this Challenge and are like you know what I need a full reset I know my diet isn't where I wanted to be I know my training is not where I wanted to be um then maybe you go a little bit colder okay great um so um Don Don uh deao um I hope I said that right um please talk about the timing of cold plunge does it have to be done first thing in the morning or can I do it midday it doesn't have to be done first thing in the morning I would say I don't like individuals to do it around their training session I prefer that individuals there's a space four hours or so before sleep actually can have a positive impact on sleep um again it really depends on how your body regulates when I cold plunge I a very as Gary knows a very tiny person I'm fat one she is a tiny person I'm maybe 110 there's three inch boots though that's right um so for me I try to do it around 6 or 7 p. m. um that's about 4 hours before I go to sleep but it will it can be done anytime you will know when you are first starting and I'm sure you guys experienced this how many people did it actually make more tired initially did you get more tired some people right there's some hands going up there so you get more tired because you have this big dump of adrenaline and then you'll find that um some people are a lot hungrier or some people have no appetite some people experience it as if it was almost a workout and that's how I was initially so I initially started doing it earlier on in the day just wanted to get the pain out of the way I was EX exhausted I I couldn't do it you will find a a way in which you can function I have other patients that are bigger males they all do it
do it earlier um again I know you guys are plunging I got a message from your team they like are you plunging after this I'm like no I can't plunge right now I gotta work I can't how dare you call on the cold plunge Challenge and not plunge I didn't know that that was a prerequisite um yeah so to wrap that up um typically you want to do it again for me four hours before bed is great not really around training yeah so um Laura Cory said uh should you avoid taking a warm shower after the cold plunge rather than letting your body re acclimate normally that is a wonderful question I don't know that answer there are many people that do hot and cold Gary is one of them um and and it seems to you know it's interesting because if you look at Cold exposure and heat exposure they do various things like that brown adapost tissue they work differently one Vaso dilates one Vaso constricts but they work on uh they're both uh hormetic agents and many cultures do them back to back and there is some benefit to that could you do a warm show shower to warm up yes is it going to have that same impact as what what Gary does in his sauna probably not yeah so I like the contrast therapy um but you know my preference is that you let your body warm up naturally um you know let let it do what it does in its natural state right so um my preferences that you always end on cold uh so if you do contrast therapy just end on cold you can make the contrast therapy shorter meaning you can make the cold the amount of time you spend in the cold plunge shorter each time you do one of these rounds so you don't overstress the body you know again this is one of those things I think Dr lion would agree on where more is not necessarily better you know there's not a lot of evidence um that I have seen anywhere in the literature that colder is better or
literature that colder is better or longer is better you know I think we just sort of create these uh sort of man contest of you know how cold can I go or how long can I go and and we're not actually doing any any more benefit for ourselves but anytime that we can actually get behind the normal response of the body um I like that you know to allow it to do physiologically what it was designed to do so you expose it to cold and then allow it to warm up and go back into homeostasis by itself and she used that term hormetic or hormesis um you know that's the process where you know we put a stress on the body and it actually strengthens in response you know hormetic stresses um are not bad for the body um not all stress is bad for the body loading the bones causes them to strengthen tearing the muscle causes it to grow challenging the immune system causes it to become um stronger and so this is just one of those stresses we can apply to the body that should improve um our but you know you have a physiological positive response after a stress all right so um oh wow hi my 90-year - old mom was very active up until about two years ago when she got a very bad case of osteoarthritis of the knees how do I keep her muscle tone Oh this is right up her alley how do I keep up her muscle tone and how do I help her cold plunge if she can't get into a tub uh there are ALS that's a great question arth the cold plunge would be wonderful for arthritis especially if it's her knees this is while the evidence suggests that an individual should fully be immersed up to their shoulders you know the neck to hit the Vegas nerve for a full body systemic effect there is benefit for her to just get her knees and legs in she's 90 we don't want her to fall um and also getting her acclimated would be wonderful as opposed to just doing an immersion right away again I I'm certainly not her doctor but if that were my mom what I would do is I would arrange a um you know a safe like Tool
arrange a um you know a safe like Tool uh or you know a way to get in whether it's a stool or something to get her knees in the other thing is um for osteoarthritis that's very important an individual will do extremely well if her nutrition is intact which we know um I'm sure Gary talks about that a lot uh and also for muscle strength protein is going to be extremely important for her at 90 you're going to be eating less food as individuals age their appetite decreases the quality of the food is going to be critical to maintain her muscle mass and also the evidence suggests that she could literally do stretching some I worked on some of these early studies and the women were in their 50s we were able to do body recomposition just by managing their diet five days a week of walking and two days a week of resistance training just by using their body if she can walk she can strengthen her muscles she can do isometric movements really really critical and making sure that she is doing full ranges of motion so that the arthritis doesn't get worse and of course managing her weight um but cold plunge would be wonderful for her too yeah you know um I find that if if they're able to just sit down on the edge of a tub and kind of you know raise their legs over and get them um into the tub raise the you know other leg over and get them into the tub you can put the remember you can put the the calves all the way down up to the knees in cold water even if you can't get the knees submerged you know there's there's an area it's uh called the poal FASA and there's a lot of other um blood flow um that's actually all that cool blood returning from the calves is going to go by the knees on its way up to the thighs so you know whether or not you can actually get her thighs and her knees and her whole waist submerged you know I I would focus on just some progression rather than perfectly um um submerging those it might be a lot for
submerging those it might be a lot for her to put her entire body into cold water um but if you could just get um the water up to the back of her thighs and to the base of her knee she's still going to get that um Vaso constriction effect right there um so Joe Messina um is it safe for someone um with wolf Parkinson's white um an extra electrical pathway in the heart to whole plch that is a wonderful question um what I would do is I would run that by the cardiologist and they might not even know um what I'm guessing their suggestion would be so wolf Parkinson's white is an abnormal um EKG Rhythm it's an abnormal heart rhythm that is probably one of the biggest things that we're always concerned about um is the electrical Rhythm of the heart now here is what I am guessing your cardiologist would say your cardiologists would say would be to do a slow immersion and they probably will say to start warmer that is what I guessing yeah and maybe even start with cool showers before you go to full immersion um what was the next question Milli um so Daman little uh yesterday you talked about not cold plunging right after the gym but how long after the gym is it okay to cold plunge typically the data suggests at least two hours you want to give yourself at least a twoh hour yeah comp yeah because I know that you know we we talked about it yesterday we don't want to you know shut down the natural physiological response of the body you know um you know if you go and do a heavy squat workout like we talked about yesterday and you do a bunch of damage to your quad muscles um you know what's the body going to do it's going to increase the blood flow to that area it's going to increase the amount of oxygen it's delivering to that muscle it's going to bring more amino acids to repair those muscles it's going to pull creatinin and other you know byproducts out of that area so we don't want to shut that down you know I I love all the little bioh hacks um that
I love all the little bioh hacks um that enhance the body's natural physiological response to things you know just natural sunlight natural grounding breath work cold plunging these hormetic stresses that you would possibly encounter um in the course of of daily activity if you were out hunting and Gathering or you know you were walking in the woods or you know any number of things you know those are great hormetic stresses um Janet coven says I initially feel amazing after I plunged but shortly after I begin to feel some anxiety um water in the tub is 60 degrees because of L Louisiana weather at this time um so she said she initially feels amazing but afterwards she actually feels a little bit of anxiety my gu yes and this is what I would do if I were you is I would throw a continuous glucose monitor on I'm wondering if you're actually dropping your blood sugar because the you're experiencing a um adrenaline cortisol Spike sometimes you will see that um blood sugar post might be a little bit lower and that that's what I would check so here is what I would say eat something or drink something um you know keep your carbohydrates within range but I I see if that makes it a little bit better better so yeah it's by the way people said can I eat before getting into cold punch yes I don't think there's any reason to not you know if you if you've just eaten and your cold plunging I see no no reason to space your your food out you know based on on your cold plunging and I will also say I will not to interrupt you Gary I and I've experienced this is that I think that it can affect appetite so if you are finding that you are having a craving or you want something and let's say you're wanting to take care of your uh diet but you're struggling you get in that cold plunge you're not going to want whatever it is that you think that you want that is so true you will not want it so for example if you know that there is cake around because someone had a birthday and you're like you know what I'm gonna go do that but I'm gonna cold plunge first guarantee you don't want it yeah all you want is a towel not not a slice of cake terrible blood restriction yes hey Sarah
terrible blood restriction yes hey Sarah Campbell asks um how does cold plunging balance hormone levels um I have an extremely high shbg sex hormone binding globulin will plunging lower this I'll also give my input on that but sex hormone yeah so sex hormone bonding globuline is a little bit of um an annoyance for people when that goes High typically women that have been on birth control sex hormone binding globulin goes up and stays up it is very difficult to lower sex hormone binding globulin at least clinically for me um one of the things with that and I'm sure G will be able to weigh in on this um yes you can try to work on body composition and insulin resistance and sleep and and whether you add Boron or any of these other things but if it is high because of birth control I have seen it very difficult to lower and the one thing that I would say is you need your hormones higher so that your body can see the free hormones like for example testosterone and other things um will will cold plunging lower sex hormone binding globulin possibly if it is related to inflammation if it's related to body composition possibly but if it is done if it is elevated because of birth control um clinically I I've seen that it you have to do other things like hormone replacement uh to to Really optimize supp that you know um you mentioned Boron you know we we found Boron to be a very effective way to lower shbg um there you know birth control purposely drives shbg up um some of the birth controls are purposely designed to use shbg to interrupt the menstrual cycle but the um but you see this high in men and women and sex hormone binding globulin globulin is a protein It's A protein that binds to sex hormones just like it's its uh name sounds in men it has a special effect on
sounds in men it has a special effect on uh the conversion of testosterone into free testosterone so you'll see you know very often high levels of testosterone and very low levels of free testosterone in men and women with high shbg um but we found Boron to be a very very effective way to lower shbg and you just take it as directed um pure encapsulations makes a good one Thorn makes a good one uh symbiotica makes a great one um but it's called Boron it's a mineral um we found it to be pretty effective uh Jenny what about meds and supplements should I be uh should they be taken after plunging it's actually a good question um what I would say with meds and supplements medications depending on let's say you're taking something for blood pressure and um you take it at the same time because of the um circadian effect so this is kind of like Chrono medicine they'll say you know if you take for example your blood pressure medication in the morning maybe it is more effective because of X Y and Z but overall just being on a regular Cadence is most important if you take th thid medication then you always take your thy thyroid medication at the same time on an empty stomach fasted the physiological hormetic effect of cold plunging should not change the digestibility of the medication or supplement that's a great response um I also want to I'm going to get to the next question but I I wanted to give um Dr lion uh a minute to talk uh about her book because um I found this very impact I mean some of you know who who Dr lion is some of you don't but for those that uh don't I didn't really do a proper introduction for her um I'd like her to just spend a minute um talking about her book it's a culmination of her life's work she's she is an MD by the way um and you may have seen her on other podcasts or even seen her on my podcast or one of the podcast shorts that I've done she's actually become a great friend um tell us a little bit about
friend um tell us a little bit about your book and uh your work and especially it's focus on women's health yes and actually by the way I have two more books coming out and one is forever I know Forever Strong for women so this is my first book and this book is called Forever Strong and it's a new uh evidence-based approach to overall health and wellness and at the end of the day everybody believes that we have an obesity epidemic and that's really the problem but the work that I've done I trained seven years in nutritional Sciences I've been mentor by one of the world leading protein experts and I'm a trained geriatrician board certified in Family Medicine Fellowship trained at Washington University in St Louis and I did a clinical research fellowship and a um geriatric Fellowship what I realized is that we don't have an obesity problem we are not overfat fat is a symptom in part of unhealthy skeletal muscle and these diseases of Aging all are related insulin resistance fertility problems with PCOS you name it Alzheimer's hypertension cardiovascular disease yes there are genetic components but these are diseases in part of skeletal muscle first that manifest later but the primary site and the primary organ system that we have to address is skeletal muscle is the organ of longevity and it defines and determines everything about how we live and how we age and my book covers it's for anyone that is interested in reading it is not technical it is accessible talks about how to work out how to uh eat how to learn and think about these things and um it provides a counterbalance to all of the things that you hear in the media world of you know how protein is bad for you all of this
how protein is bad for you all of this stuff which is all nonsense yeah and you know I might add that uh you know it blows through some of the myth that it's um you know there's a a point of no return on building muscle or that it can be too late in life to to actually fight something called sarcopenia which is age related muscle wasting it actually gives a real evidence-based discussion on the impact you know she called muscle the organ of longevity and I think very few people think about muscle as an organ you know the skin is the largest organ in the body you know think we know the liver the lungs the pancreas the kidneys are organs we don't think about muscle as an organ and it's kind of like the Forgotten secret um to longevity and there are all of these um astounding statistics and evidence that really link our skeletal muscle to to longevity things like grip strength um balance um you know are all related to our skeletal muscle and she really does an excellent job of laying out the evidence and then giving you really practical steps that you can do at any age I mean there's there's several people on here right now that are um uh in their 70s um some folks on the challenge right now or in their 70s are doing their cold Pune for the first time it's important for them to know that if you've lost a lot of scalable muscle because of sarcopenia age related muscle wasting you can gain it back um yes yes and I'm going to give you a few statistics if you are in the lower one-third of strength you have a 57% greater chance of dying from anything all cause mortality mortality if you are in the lower 50% of muscle mass it's the same thing muscle mass and strength you know I wish you know I was thinking about what you did Gary when you um were looking at lifespan I wish that there was a way that we could look at muscle span which is the length of time that we live with healthy skeletal muscle because that is it's not about
muscle because that is it's not about lifespan it's not about health span it really is about muscle span you know and muscle is our metabolic currency you know it's it's a sponge for glucose um you know and uh you know it fights insulin resistance I mean it does so many things it produces hormones um and you know it does so many things that uh you know it's been fascinating my my journey even you know I I went to eight years of of undergraduate for biology and graduate school for for human biology we we didn't learn anything of this and I was actually getting a human biology degree and um in a naturopathic Institute and so I I was really kind of fascinated on my journey her book does just an excellent job of of explaining it she also is a podcast she's been on a bunch of podcasts um I just Andrew huberman's our friend Andrew oh you just on hubman has it come out yet did it's actually um tracking up as one of the most successful episodes that he's done which is okay I'm definitely going to watch it it just means you and Andrew been friends for a long time all right so we got a couple more minutes left do you have five more minutes for us of course okay so um Tracy Shepard says if willing is a cold plunge good for someone with early onset dementia oh that is a great question yes um early onset dementia is very challenging so there are two things that I would say for this person you have to be exercising I actually just published a review on with um a c with a few colleagues of mine we just published a review and we spoke about which I'll send it to you Gary so you can link it to your um to your group on exercise impact specifically resistance training on on Alzheimer's yes you must you don't regrow brain matter but you strengthen the connections that you have and so if someone wants to slow down the
someone wants to slow down the progression someone should be doing resistance training training um cold plunging I don't know if they've ever looked at Cold plunge and memory and um connection but again when you're lowering Alzheimer's disease is type three diabetes of the brain it is a metabolic disregulation of the brain we know cold plung is good for skeletal muscle we know that skeletal muscle is so important it's the primary site for insulin resistance and when you get um type 2 diabetes think about how you are not efficient at using the sugars and the glucose that you eat your brain is also getting type three diabetes of the brain that will amplify any kind of dementia so should you be cold plunging you certainly can should you be doing resistance training you must and you must get your diet together to make sure you are not progressing Alzheimer's because there's no cure for it yeah I agree um and we talked about type 3 diabetes yesterday it's essentially insulin resistance in the brain um that's right we know that the brain is crack addicted to carbohydrate and um you know what the brain wants the brain gets um I I you know I always tell tell you guys I mean the brain's nasty it's like the little Kim jung-un of dictators you know it sits up there and it just takes everything for itself and um uh so you know when it doesn't uh when it gets too much glucose and doesn't have a place to store it um you you start this this process of of neurofibrillary Tangles and amalo plaing and and all of these other things that we think is the cause of Alzheimer's but now the research is really indicating that those are the byproducts of the progression of the disease they're not the cause of the disease so Alzheimer's is not caused by amalo plaques happen in people that have already that are already on their way to having Alzheimer's remember circulation
having Alzheimer's remember circulation is the key um you know if we can get blood flow to brain you know we can improve short-term recall anytime you get hypoxic in the brain um you are reducing your short-term memory um and your recall so I I completely agree with what Dr lion just said all right let's fire up a couple more one last question and then um oh and then we're gonna do one last question I'm GNA close out with Dr lion and tell you how you can find her and then um uh and then we're gonna get the shark in the Shark Tank um so Dr uh Dr lion I am Perry Man ofap pausal 42 year years old with high blood pressure and psoriasis um which is maintained with immunotherapy I found I have I found my heaveness flow has lessened this week since plunging daily wow yeah that's amazing oh she said do you believe um this is because of the plunge have you heard of anything about plunging to lightening your menstrual flow um I haven't I have not um but I will say that maybe it was again when we think about these things the the way in which cold plunge can be acting on the body there's just a multitude of ways whether it is uh this hormesis effect lowering inflammation helping with insulin sensitivity all of this stuff so maybe you were having an abnormally heavy flow uh again how and why it works I'm not sure but I will also say with psoriasis we treat a ton of patients with psoriasis um and I'm sure Gary would agree you have to go and dig into the gut it I've just seen it too many times you have to check for pathogens um you have to check for h pylori and if you can figure out what is driving the immune system then you can certainly lessen the psoriasis I yeah the high blood pressure could be genetic or um or not but um you know exercise cold plunging all of these good lifestyle behaviors are just so
behaviors are just so impactful yeah I totally agree you know very often the skin the liver uses the skin as a secondary route of waste elimination um you know the when we have leaky gut and and bloodborne pathogens get into um you know they get out of the the gut into the bloodstream very often we use the skin as an elimination route and a lot of these skin conditions are just manifestations of problems in the gut or even problems with waste elimination in the liver what we call glutathione uh synthes or transulfuration where um those processes are interrupted and now you're you're manifesting a skin condition and you're trying to treat the skin for something that's actually happening internally um so I I wholly agree with that so Malia said we got one um more question okay um okay does cold plunging have a positive or negative effect on male or female fertility oh that's a good one I know that's a good one um I I haven't seen anything um negative I don't know if I've seen anything positive but I would assume that it just really depends on why um for example we know that when you exercise that you can in increase the quality of your sperm you can increase um the quality of the sperm and when you think on the other side the female side insulin resistance can be an issue and generate issues with fertility these are tools that can be used like cold plunging can help with insulin insulin sensitivity um okay you know I mean I know that getting in a hot tub you know can sometimes lower men's sperm count um but it's a great question about a coal punch I actually haven't seen uh any evidence either way so I really don't know how to answer that so um all right let me sneak in one one more Malia is typing it up for me
one more Malia is typing it up for me now there seems to be a lot of them coming in in okay so Damen little my wife has remid arthritis can this potentially help her oh that's a great one yes yes it can no question and also yes so you combine that with exercise because of the again how Gary said that muscle um releases hormones they release myocin and there is definitely an influence on rheumatoid arthritis for treat um with resistance training with exercise specifically because of that muscle effect and yes would I put someone in the cold plunge that has rheumat arthritis absolutely I would okay all right well great guys this is amazing um Dr lion how can my audience find out more about you where they can they find you on Instagram we know your book I'm going to put a link to your book um down there also put your Instagram but where can they find out more about you you can go to my website Dr Gabriel lion. com I have a great podcast the Dr Gabriel lion show um Instagram uh Twitter Youtube We have a great YouTube channel you name it we have a we provide a ton of free content if people sign up for the newsletter we give away free recipes all kinds of things we are really trying to help make this information accessible and that's amazing you know we do take nutrition clients and and clients everything is remote so if anyone is interested super Dr lion thank you so much you're always so giving of your time you've been a big supporter of mine I'm a huge fan of yours as as well um if you haven't checked out our podcast or our podcast short check out the ultimate human podcast that I did with Dr Gabrielle lion I've read her book I really think that you should too and um thank you so much for uh giving us your time today I have a lot of requests to to have a female plunge guest I mean guys I got Dave and John but you know they want a female plunge guest so now
they want a female plunge guest so now I've my wife um she's going to plunge with me first and then I'm going to plunge with Damon John so you're going to get Sage um my wife see I mean the the females love you they love my wife too Dr lion um so sage and I are GNA plunge first we're gonna take a short little break I'm just gonna um get dressed we're going to switch cameras over to uh the Cal plunge sage and I are going to Cal plunge together and then right after we'll do it with the shark we'll put the shark in the shark tank thank you so much see you soon Dr lion hi all right guys I'll see you in just a few minutes um and get ready to Cal plunge if you if you're getting near your Co plunge let's fire up the cameras and get ready
e e hey guys all right there has been a giant Karma reversal of my day here um so Karma just bit me right in the rear end so uh Damon is is coming in and and of course I made one super cold this one and one regular cold this one but now that I'm gonna do it with my wife I get the warm one she knows about the trick so she's actually forcing me to get in the ice cold one that's what karma is all right so there we go so the whole thing just uh just completely backfired on me but um all right here we go so we're g to put uh put a little extra ice in I actually shouldn't have to do this on mine but solid ice in there um and then Damon had just been on time you have to suffer he's like you got to tell him like 30 I think what happened was he saw my Instagram post and he slowed it down a little bit he was like oh I'll get this guy all right
was like oh I'll get this guy all right so guys what we do is uh so this is my wife's Sage for those you that don't know beautiful Sage um he asked for females to cold plunge with me so she volunteered um and she's been um you know so you know a lot of women you know that are uh smaller framed don't have a lot of muscle um you know they they say well you know I don't like to get into the cold water she didn't like getting in the cold water first either I have a LoveHate relationship with it still but she does it every day um and she loves it I love hate she means she hates getting in but she loves it how she feels when she gets out so we're going to do three minutes um we're going to do the same breath work technique that I always do you know four obnoxiously deep breaths on the fourth breath we're going to breathe in and hold and we're going to step in and go all the way down to our next it's a little slippery on the bottom so okay watch out and this is not super super um stable and then normally she listens to affirmations she has this affirmation tape that she plays for 4 minutes um and it's it's a great one maybe we could even post a link to that oh I'll post a link yeah it's great it's awesome it's four minutes and S seconds so it's the perfect amount for me okay all right you ready here we go this is a real coold punch this is yeah I am now in was supposed to be Damon John's cold punch um so again you can leave your hands out um if you have anals or you have um circulation um problems um you can absolutely leave your uh leave your hands out you know she and I both will sometimes focus on our breath soan you show them the breath work that you do long slow in I'm not good at the Box
do long slow in I'm not good at the Box breathing because I have OCD and and I overthink the Box breathing yeah she does she thinks that she doesn't do an exact specific four seconds like she's like I don't know if I did three and a half seconds across the top and then four seconds down and then three across the bottom I messed it up I'm like just don't worry about it just so the easy one is to just take a big big inhale breathe out through a straw straw we're already coming up on a minute and a half so those of you that are in the plunge with us right now you should be over the Shivers are you pretty pretty good yeah I'm good yeah um so now it's just a matter of time you know it's another minute and 30 seconds um I used to get a shiver response do you get that anymore no now I just inch my way in so the the better my lower B feels the higher I can go so I can't do it all the way to the neck right away you did today no no not today I still inched it down a little bit oh you didn't you you blew my whole technique I went to here and then I came down well that's not following the cold plch challenge guidelines sorry I haven't been on the B okay leave it to my wife ever listen to everything their husband say no it's terrible being married to a biohacker I'm in the gold BL it's call a win we'll just leave it at that okay guys 36 seconds so I am gonna do a little dunk um get that meleon di reflex uh Sage is is not even even for my audience there thousands of people relying on you right now babe oh come on don't make me my hair doesn't
come on don't make me my hair doesn't ever get warm all right so I'm GNA do a little dunk here we go like the glasses out he's braver than me my hair would never never dry you like that part because I can't talk talk yes I knew she was are we at three minutes we are we did it guys not bad all right let's see how Damon does in this one um all right amazing all hold my hand well yeah I was gonna give you a high po great job guys so that was three minutes um next we're gonna do it with Damon um so I guess I'm doing six minutes of cold punching today you are but that's what you want to do three to six minutes you can break it up so like what was the deciding factor that made you actually start cold punching my back I had back surgery like like seven years ago and my back still hurts a lot and um and it really really helps the pain and and gives me relief for a couple hours so I try to do three minutes in the morning and then if I've been on my feet all day I'll even do a minute before I go to bed a minute or two before I go to bed sauna beforehand yes and I warm up in the sauna if I can or out in the sun beforehand and then jump in and it makes a considerable difference you know she actually had an L5 S1 fusion um when we first uh started dating 10 years ago um she had had a car accident in Colorado and had dislodged her uh the disc in her spine and it it Deen degenerated to the point where um they actually had to put a spacer in so I know there's a lot of people that suffer from back pain that have had back surgery or even had neck surgery and I wanted you to hear from somebody that's actually had a benefit from getting into uh cold plunging um she doesn't take painkillers um you know
she doesn't take painkillers um you know she we fixed her methylation all of those things um we do a lot of things sleep on a a pmf mat y um she does red light therapy every day but the cold plunging is the one thing I've got to say uh of all the therapies that she's done that transition between sauna and cold plunging is when she never complains about her back and she gets the best sleep and it's just um remember you don't have to have a fancy sauna and a fancy cold punch you can do contrast therapy in the shower you know just run the water as hot as you can stand it on your back warm you know your spine up um you know nicely and then step out of that water turn it as cold as it will go and then get back in that's what I do in my travel because we don't always have access so okay um okay so thank you guys for joining us the last three days for this cold punch challenge you are truly ultimate humans I know you've gone above and beyond these last three days if you're a rule Breer or upgrade to VIP you're going to have access to them next hour with Damon John um so we're going to take a little break I'm actually not going to dry off because I'm going to be getting back in the cold lunge with Damon um and I'm going to really ice this thing down because um I want him to pay for being 15 minutes late to my C punch uh challenge but um I'll see the VIPs in 15 minutes will be back online at at 11: 15 um and for those of you that haven't become VIPs Now's the Time to upgrade if you don't get the the value of upgrading to a VIP I promise you at the end of the month I'll refund your money I just want to make it um worthwhile to you any closing comments bab you're doing awesome I'm proud of him I'm proud you guys this is awesome and I love seeing all these people really getting the benefits and and trying things for the first time especially females it's hard to get females to get on board especially skinny females because we're not necessarily looking to lose weight but this has great benefit even if you're not looking to lose weight there's a lot of great other benefits awesome see you guys back in 15 minutes
that actually felt good that did feel good that felt great
Transcript auto-generated by YouTube. Verbatim — duplicates intentionally preserved.
Day three also introduces a notable guest: Damon John, the entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor, making his first descent into cold water. The encounter is instructive, not for the drama, but for what it reveals about the first-timer's experience and how quickly the body and mind recalibrate when given no choice but to meet the cold.
Mastery in this context is not the absence of discomfort. After a thousand cold plunges, the cold still registers as cold. What changes is the relationship to that sensation.
Brecka describes it as developing "the pause" — the space between stimulus and response that grows wider with practice. Cold enters the body as a signal of threat. The trained nervous system can receive that signal without immediately interpreting it as danger, and the practitioner can choose — consciously, deliberately — how to respond.
This is the same capacity that mindfulness practices cultivate through attention to breath. Cold accelerates it. The stakes feel higher, the feedback is more immediate, and the learning curve is therefore steeper. Three days of consistent practice begin to establish a new reference point.
cold plunge produces a reliable, powerful shift in the autonomic nervous system. The initial shock activates the sympathetic branch — heart rate spikes, breathing quickens, stress hormones release. Then, for those who stay, something changes.
The parasympathetic system reasserts itself. Heart rate stabilizes. Breathing slows and deepens. A state emerges that practitioners describe variously as clarity, calm, alertness — a paradoxical condition where the body is simultaneously stimulated and composed.
This shift is the training benefit. Not the cold itself, but the practice of navigating the transition from sympathetic activation to parasympathetic dominance while remaining immersed. Over time, that navigation becomes easier — and its benefits extend far beyond the plunge itself.
Among the questions Brecka fields in day three: the relationship between cold plunge and the menstrual cycle. This is a genuinely underresearched area, and Brecka is honest about the limitations of current evidence.
What is known: hormonal fluctuations through the cycle affect thermoregulation, pain sensitivity, and stress response. Some women report that cold during the luteal phase (the two weeks before menstruation) feels more difficult and produces a less pleasant recovery. Others notice no significant difference.
The practical guidance: pay attention to your own cycle. Use perceived difficulty as data. There is no universal prescription — individual experience is the most reliable guide here, and that experience is worth tracking carefully.
Brecka reiterates one of the most important calibrations available to cold practitioners: colder is not better, and longer is not better. There is an effective range — cold enough to produce the hormetic stimulus, brief enough to avoid genuine hypothermia — and going beyond it does not multiply the benefit.
For most people, 50–59°F (10–15°C) for two to four minutes covers the physiological target. The norepinephrine release, the cold shock protein activation, the nervous system training — these do not scale linearly with temperature or duration beyond a certain threshold.
The ego wants to go colder and longer. The protocol does not require it. Mastery is not about extremes — it is about precision, consistency, and the quiet accumulation of thousands of sessions within the optimal range.
Mastery of cold is not the absence of discomfort. It's the development of a pause — the space between the cold's signal and your response.
Colder is not better. Longer is not better. Precision is better. — Gary Brecka
What you learn in three minutes of cold water is available to you for the rest of the day. — Gary Brecka
Aim for the effective range: 50–59°F (10–15°C) for two to four minutes. Colder and longer does not amplify the benefit.
The transition from sympathetic to parasympathetic — the shift from shock to steadiness — is the practice. Stay long enough to experience it.
Women: track your cycle in relation to cold practice. Perceived difficulty in the luteal phase is common; adjust duration and temperature accordingly, and let your own data guide the protocol.
