Comment by scottlocklin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scottlocklin | Hacker News Reader

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"Cryotherapy" as used in this study is basically being nude in REALLY cold chambers; like -120 or -160C for fairly short periods of time. I have no idea how they came up with the idea of making the chamber that cold. I suppose someone looked at extreme saunas and tried the opposite.

You probably know about Wim Hof and the various sports/human performance things involving cold (no doubt as touted on Joe Rogan as every fruity health fad seems to be). Personally I think it probably does do something, though every individual reaction is different. I've always done the cold water at the end of the shower James Bond thing. I recently moved from the Bay Area where it is 70F all year to a place where it was recently -30F with the wind chill. The cold seems to fill me with vigor; love it. Love the Sauna as well. Generally speaking I think the human organism thrives best with a little hormesis.

>The cold seems to fill me with vigor; love it.

Wouldn't that just be a "you're-about-to-die-adrenaline" kind of response?

Whatever it is, it is not adrenaline.

There's nothing quite like the first deep breath going outside on a 0F day. Vigor really is the right word. Another would be clarity.

Unless you have the mindset of "I hate the cold, this is terrible" then it's just suffering.

Not sure about this study but my experiences are similar to yours. I switched away from the hot showers completely about 2 months ago for three reasons.

I started getting itchy skin and no amount of moisturizer helped. Now I need very little moisturizer. I think is is a gain.

Cold water immersion also helped me with fidgety legs. I tried with simple 10 seconds of cold shower at the end of bath but then liked it and increased it to 10 minutes of immersion on good days.

After a stressful day at office, a cold shower helps with sleep.

Yeah, that's dangerously cold: corneal, lip and ear damage territory. Sounds like "unpleasant must be magic panacea" department unless proven with good studies.

I think you wear masks and stuff like that to protect sensitive parts

Often these things are containers you get into that your head is not in.

Your point is well taken, but at least those 3 bits are probably safe from these types of containers.

There is a collar around your neck so only the body is in the cold. The head is warm.

The body builds a pocket of air around it so if there's no breeze like outside and one stands still it takes colder temperature to feel cold

I always thought the coldest you could possibly feel safely was in moving ice water.

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