Health benefit from cold temperature

Health Benefit from Cold Temperature When the weather dips into the single digits, most of us want to do absolutely nothing but dive back under the covers. And it’s all for a good reason: With extreme cold weather comes health hazards like frostbite, seasonal affective disorder and even an increased risk of heart attacks. Now that the thermostat is dropping and sweater weather has arrived let’s try to look on the bright side. Cold weather, believe it or not, has quite a number of positives in the form of health benefits. Read on to learn how the cold can actually help you feel better!

1. Help Fat Loss Humans have stores of active brown fat tissue (BAT). Unlike white fat, which stores energy and comprises most body fat, brown fat is active in burning calories and using energy.BAT can essentially turn calories from food into heat. It generates heat by uncoupling proteins, particularly UCP1, within the mitochondrial membrane.Indeed, studies show that cold exposure increases BAT activity which leads to increased calorie expenditure. Researchers concluded that frequent cold exposures might be an acceptable way to address the current obesity epidemic.It is very helpful in fat loss.

2. You fall asleep more easily Your body temperature rises and falls during any 24-hour period. It’s usually highest in the early afternoon and lowest at the crack of dawn. As your body prepares to sleep, it loses heat as you get drowsy. Studies of sleep-onset insomniacs have warmer core body temperatures than normal healthy adults. One way to bring on sleep is to lower the room temperature. Similarly, a study of insomniacs performed by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that people who suffer from insomnia have more action going on in the frontal lobes of their brains — the planning part — hence the common complaint about the inability to turn off their brains.

By literally cooling off their heads, the study subjects fell asleep almost as fast as those without insomnia.

3. It helps you think more clearly The glucose in our bodies helps our mental agility and regulates our internal body temperatures. So when we’re in hot or cold climates, the glucose in our bodies adjusts accordingly to regulate things. Warm temperatures force our bodies to use up tons of glucose to keep cool and thus can affect our decision-making abilities.

4. It reduces muscle inflammation As published in The Atlantic, the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance examined seasoned runners with muscle damage for three weeks. Using three forms of therapy — cryotherapy (exposure to temps as cold as -166°F), far infrared (heat therapy) or good oldfashioned rest — they monitored the runners healing processes. And, what did they find?Cryotherapy returned the athletes to maximum muscle strength faster than the other therapies. Of course, those with heart issues are best kept warm because blood vessels narrow in the cold.

5. Cleaner Air, Better Breathing Winter means goodbye to all the bad air quality and high ozone levels so common in the spring and summer months. The crisp, clean quality of cold air makes this time of year a great time to be out in nature, taking long walks and deeper breaths of fresh air.

There's no reason to be afraid of winter weather. Embrace it, layer up and you, too, can enjoy the season.