Interesting comments from Gunther over at Evelyn’s blog on the question of cold thermogenesis:
FWIW, I agree from personal experience that cold therapy can help us lose weight, but not as scripted by Devany and the other Paleo 1.0 folks (meaning not for BAT reasons).
I believe it helps weight loss in a roundabout way by helping us regain hypothalamic and vagal nerve tone. This is definitely something we civilized folks don’t have anymore due to warm showers, climate controlled homes and compressed high-tech fabrics.
I think resensitizing the hypothalamus to your actual exterior environment will lower appetite and affect bodyfat setpoint. This is why just a little cold exposure can go a long way. …
Since bodytemp is regulated in the same brain area as bodyfat, seems if you get one working you are also fixing the other one.
Long-term meditators who can lower their heart rate are probably also inadvertently “toning up” all other hypothalamic processes. Hence they eat less/burn more/want to move more.
Gee, another reason to keep up the meditation ;).
Re CT, I do not see the usefulness or need to do crazy cold thermogenesis to support weight loss. I think the best bet is to get seasonal exposure (hot or cold) … or, as Ray Cronise suggests, go for the “chronic cool” over jumping in ice-water baths!
I’ve been reading “The Polyvagal Theory” by Stephen W. Porges, who reminds us that “the vagus [is] a primary regulator of the gut, with vagal afferents providing vital information to brain structures”, presumably this includes those pesky endocrine barriers (such as Leptin) we keep hearing about. I do think there are ways that humans can improve hypothalamic and vagal nerve tone. However, I’m not convinced that CT (in its extreme forms-ice baths!) repairs these functions. I (n=1) do feel best when I rise before sun-up, walk outdoors in nature with adequate (not excessive) protection against the cold, do meditative breathing (again, in nature), and turn out artificial lights inside at sunset. Thanks for this interesting comment about CT. The theoretical connections to polyvagal theory are (for me, a nerd/poet) exciting.