From hot to cold: benefits and risks associated with cold water immersion after sauna use
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A common practice in Finland is cold water immersion immediately after sauna use, which further stresses the cardiovascular system. Although this extreme cooling could provoke a life-threatening condition called coronary spasm in people with underlying cardiovascular conditions, it poses little risk among healthy people. In this clip, Dr. Jari Laukkanen discusses the benefits and risks associated with cold water immersion following sauna use.
Rhonda: Having been in Finland now for a few days and having the privilege of going to The Finnish Sauna Society and also hanging out with some other friends here in Finland, I've had a chance to experience the sauna culture, the traditional smoke saunas, and also the other, you know, dry saunas and the Löyly.
Jari: Löyly, yeah.
Rhonda: But what I also noticed is that almost a 100% of the Finnish people that use the sauna, after the sauna, like to go run into a jump into a cold lake or the Baltic or something cold, very, very cold. And they do this, you know, several times. I mean, it seems to be a very normal part of Finnish sauna culture. Is that accurate, you would say?
Jari: Yeah, yeah. Many people are using. I know it, yeah, yeah.
Rhonda: So I have a question on whether, you know, what is the safety? Is there any safety issues? Because I've read a couple of case reports where because you're going from hot sauna where vasodilation is occurring and then you're going into cold where vasoconstriction is occurring, norepinephrine is being released and vasoconstriction is occurring. There have been a couple of documented cases of, like, coronary artery spasm, I think it's called. Maybe do you think there is a potential risk of going from hot to cold in terms of people with maybe a pre-existing heart disease or something?
Jari: Yeah, among those patients who have coronary heart disease and, especially if it's not stable condition then you have to be very careful. You cannot do that because there can be a spasm in the coronary artery, so it can be harmful, yeah.
Rhonda: But for the most part of the population, it seems to be pretty safe. I mean, I've done it before, and it feels really good. I mean, you feel amazing after doing the hot and cold. Also interested in if it blunts any of the positive effects, but what's interesting is I've seen that cold also activate heat shock proteins because heat shock proteins are part of the stress response, you know? It's called hormetic stress. Are you familiar with hormesis?
It's like a little bit of good stress where it's not too much stress, but it's enough stress to activate all of these genetic pathways that help you deal with stress. Well, heat shock proteins are one of those genetic pathways. And so cold is also a little bit of a hormetic stress, and exercise activates heat shock proteins as well. But heat robustly activates them, very robustly. It's good to know that both the hot and the cold are activating some of the same good genetic pathways. So maybe you're not negating all the good stuff you just did with the sauna, right? Maybe there's synergy.
Jari: We would be really happy to investigate those possible mechanisms between sauna and memory disease, because we have been thinking through, you know, more like improve cardiovascular system, and circulation, and these, if they have a effect on the memory diseases because some cardiovascular diseases and memory diseases are sharing the bit similar risk factors.
Rhonda: Yeah, like vascular dementia. Of course, yeah, blood flow is absolutely linked to dementia. So there's probably multiple mechanisms by which the sauna...
Jari: Multiple mechanisms, yeah.
Rhonda: Man, it's great. We gotta get the word out there, you know, more research, more people using the sauna. I think that's...
Jari: Because I think nowadays there are so many studies showing the positive effects of physical exercise on these outcomes and vessel function and so on, but there are quite limited data on sauna use, and warm exposure, and these similar outcomes, so there are space to do this kind of research.
Rhonda: Yeah. You're like, you know, an explorer in new territory, and no one is really doing this, you know, and it's really great. I'm very glad that someone is, you know, so please keep up the good work.
Jari: And in the best case, of course, we can combine these positive effects in, like, exercise and sauna.
Rhonda: Exactly. Are you going to look at that as well? Are you going to see if there is a synergy?
Jari: Yeah, yeah, we try to do something, yeah. What is also important for public health level that also we have to emphasize that there are many other factors in addition to exercise and sauna, there are other also. Of course, we have to take care of other risk factors like blood pressure, lipids, smoking, obesity in addition to that.
Rhonda: Yeah.
also known as ischemic heart disease (IHD). a group of diseases that includes: stable angina, unstable angina, myocardial infarction, and sudden cardiac death. In 2015 CAD affected 110 million people and resulted in 8.9 million deaths. It makes up 15.9% of all deaths making it the most common cause of death globally.
A general term referring to cognitive decline that interferes with normal daily living. Dementia commonly occurs in older age and is characterized by progressive loss of memory, executive function, and reasoning. Approximately 70 percent of all dementia cases are due to Alzheimer’s disease.
A family of proteins produced by cells in response to exposure to stressful conditions. Heat shock proteins are expressed in response to heat as well as exposure to cold and UV light, and during wound healing and tissue remodeling. Many heat shock proteins function as chaperones by stabilizing new proteins to ensure correct folding or by helping to refold proteins that were damaged by cell stress. A 30-minute 73ºC sauna session in healthy young adults has been shown to cause a robust and sustained increase in the production of heat shock proteins for up to 48 hours afterward.[1]
Biological responses to low-dose exposures to toxins or other stressors such as exercise, heat, cold, fasting, and xenohormetics. Hormetic responses are generally favorable and elicit a wide array of protective mechanisms. Examples of xenohormetic substances include plant polyphenols – molecules that plants produce in response to stress. Some evidence suggests plant polyphenols may have longevity-conferring effects when consumed in the diet.
The steam that rises from the sauna stove (kiuas) or the heat of the sauna.
A substance produced in the brain. Norepinephrine acts as a hormone and neurotransmitter and is best known for its role in the body’s “fight or flight” response to stress. Its role as a neurotransmitter has been exploited as a molecular target for a class of drugs known as norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, which were developed for the purpose of treating disorders ranging from ADHD to narcolepsy and depression. Norepinephrine also plays a role in converting white adipose tissue into brown adipose tissue via an uncoupling protein 1 (UCP-1) mediated mechanism.
A progressive worsening of memory and other cognitive functions that is thought to be due to chronic reduced blood flow to the brain which is commonly due to the accumulation of cholesterol and other substances in the blood vessel walls that obstruct the flow of blood to the brain.
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