Country music star Jelly Roll is amping up her wellness routine with cold plunges. This is what the singer revealed in conversation with Jon Bon Jovi for Interview magazine, in which the 39-year-old said he is taking his health seriously “for the first time in my entire life.”
His new regime includes less alcohol consumption, healthier eating and some exercise. “I’m just walking two or three miles a day, going into saunas, doing cold plunges,” Jelly Roll said, adding, “They’re so brutal, man.”
The musician went on to say that he spends 30 minutes in the sauna before diving into cold water “so he doesn’t feel so bad”. He credits the practice with making him feel better both physically and mentally.
Jelly Roll is far from the only celebrity to endorse cold dips. In March, Dune 2 star Josh Brolin stripped down to his underwear during his Saturday night live monologue to enter an ice bath on stage. He told the audience that he has “been doing cold plunges for 20 years” and compared the experience to SNL hosting duties. “It’s scary, it’s exciting,” he said. “There is simply no way to prepare for this. So what you need to do is simply start. Surrender to the discomfort!”
Actor and director Bradley Cooper also recently revealed to New York Times that he takes a cold plunge “every morning when I get up.” According to the publication, the Conductor It is Hangover star — pictured floating in a stream on a snowy day wearing just shorts — enjoys “meditating in freezing temperatures.”
For years, celebrities and athletes, including Justin Bieber, have been talking about using cold water immersion to increase muscle recovery. O Wim Hof Methodcreated by Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof, it also popularized cold therapy, which he says increases focus, increases energy and reduces stress levels.
The practice became more popular as social media showed that people even buy ice baths for their backyards in order to incorporate a dip into their daily routines. Some spas and workout studios also offer cold plunges.
But does growing access to ice baths mean more people should take part in diving? Here’s what experts think — and what a new study finds.
What is cold dipping and why are people doing it?
Cold diving is a cold therapy practice that involves full or partial immersion in water below 60 degrees Fahrenheit for a short period of time. André Jagim, director of sports medicine research at Mayo Clinic Health System, told Yahoo Life that immersion can be continuous or done in multiple intermittent sessions. Most people start with 30 seconds.
“It is common practice among athletes or fitness enthusiasts to start the day with a cold dip or follow a workout or training session with a cold dip, with the aim of improving recovery,” he says.
Cold immersion is said to improve muscle recovery by inducing what Jagim calls “a state of vasoconstriction, in which blood vessels contract rapidly to redirect blood flow to central organs.” By doing so, you can limit inflammation in your muscles post-exercise.
However, it’s not just people who engage in intense physical activity who participate in cold immersion therapy. Jagim says he has seen claims that cold snaps helped treat symptoms of chronic pain or resulted in “improvements in mood and strengthened resilience to stress, which may help immune system function.”
Although people on the Internet have listed these potential benefits as facts, experts admit there is limited research to support them. François Hamanprofessor of health sciences at the University of Ottawa in Canada, who has studied cold exposure for two decades, is among them.
“Assuming that cold improves inflammation and that cold improves the immune system, that’s not entirely clear,” he told Yahoo Life. “Measuring changes in the immune system is not that easy.”
Although “it’s not scientifically demonstrated,” he admits the importance of anecdotal evidence. “There is some indication that pain can actually be improved. … People feel better,” he says.
What Haman knows to be true is that immersion in cold water is a stimulant that acts like any other stimulant. “You experience very high stress initially and that is extremely stimulating, so you will have a dopamine releaseyou will get it norepinephrine being released”, he explains. “So basically, your stress hormones spike, and when you snap out of that situation, it’s almost like you’re given a new lease of life. You feel super activated.”
Haman says the effects on the mind are also clear. “When you hit that cold water, you can find a way to basically enter a meditative state,” he says. “You are experiencing a very strenuous type of stress and learning to maintain control of your body. So there is evidence that it improves the ability to set a different mindset and to be able to learn about meditation, learn about [mindfulness]all these things.”
These benefits are the result of immersing yourself in cold water for up to two minutes. Remaining in cold water for longer, however, carries certain risks. “When you say two minutes is good, people will think ’20 minutes is 10 times better,’” says Haman. “It is not how it works.”
What the research says
An analysis of eight assays performed in the Wim Hof Method (WHM) was published on March 13 in PLOS One magazine. The extreme athlete credits his ability to withstand the cold to his training method focused on practicing cold water therapy with a specific form of breathing. But this new review concludes that the quality of available research is inadequate to support the feel-good claims made by Hof.
According to the researchers, previous studies involved small samples and a high risk of bias (86.4% of participants were male, for example), which could distort their results. The review also reports that participants’ psychological outcomes were difficult to measure, noting that those trying WHM may simply be experiencing a placebo effect.
Some research supports the potential anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting effects of cold water immersion combined with the breathing method. However, studies have not been able to determine which part of the practice contributed to this benefit, be it breathing, meditation or exposure to the cold itself.
“Studies on WHM have not yet investigated all of the beneficial claims that WHM claims to have,” the report says. “There is still a lot to explore.”
Is cold diving safe?
Diving in cold water is “a calculated risk” at all times, according to Haman, because of the potential for hypothermia, skin damage, cardiac stress, increased blood pressure and even drowning. The lack of regulation surrounding the practice makes people more vulnerable.
“Assuming that everyone responds the same way to cold is extremely dangerous,” he says. “I’ve had some people who had a lot of difficulty with the cold; other people didn’t have any problems.”
He compares this to engaging in any strenuous physical activity, noting that certain precautions must be taken to ensure someone is physically fit and able to withstand a cold plunge. Without information about a person’s health or injuries, it could be fatal, as the National Center for Safety in Água Fria warns in its website.
“Certain individuals with chronic health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease or autoimmune diseases that affect blood flow…may want to consult their primary care physician before heading out into the cold to minimize the risks of adverse reactions,” says Jagim.
Haman recommends a series of precautions for those interested in trying a cold plunge, from doing it in water only up to your waist to ensure you can get out safely, to participating with a partner or in a group, to covering your hands and the feet. to avoid injuries. It also reiterates a two-minute time limit.
“Two minutes is enough to create the cold shock response, to regain control, do a minute of deep meditation and then come out,” says Haman. “That’s the safe way to do it. People who do this regularly may want to push it a little. But the longer you stay there, the more dangerous it becomes.”
And if a totally cold plunge isn’t your thing, he reports that a cold shower every now and then can provide many of the same benefits.
“My goal is not to stop people from cold diving,” he says, “my goal is to make sure people do it safely and do it well.”
This article was originally published on February 21, 2024 and has been updated.
