Cold Water Therapy May Be the Secret to Losing Weight

Leave it to NASA scientists to find the overlooked secret to shedding pounds!  No, it is not NOT rubbing bacon on it!

Losing weight can sometimes feel like rocket science, but the formula for melting excess fat may be closer to rocket science than we could have imagined!

The secret… is body temperature.

NASA Scientist Discovers the “Body Temperature—Fat Loss” Code

Ray Cronise, a former NASA scientist, spent years trying to shed excess pounds but was never able to keep the weight off. Frustrated, he put his world-class brain to work. Using the tools available to him, he analyzed his goals and how to achieve them.  The new dawn of weight loss then started to shed its glorious light.  He realized there was something missing from the multitude of popular diet and exercise plans available.

For more of us, losing weight focuses on controlling a few factors: diet, exercise and calories.  However, we lack addressing one critical factor:  the relationship between body temperature and our surroundings. This is critical, because the human body must maintain its temperature at about 98.6 degrees, regardless of the temperature of its surroundings.

“It takes a lot of energy to keep it that way, no different than heating your house,” Cronise explains.

So, what happens when you expose your body to colder temperatures? Your metabolism is kicked into high gear.  Cronise doubled his weight loss in 6 weeks by exposing his body to cold temperatures! He  dropped 30 pounds of fat alone!

One of the techniques Cronise used for exposing his body to cold temperatures was to take cold showers. Not only does speed up weight loss, it turns out cold water therapy has some overall health benefits.

Power of Cold Water Therapy

Modern science and history has proved the use benefits of cold water therapy for various health conditions:

• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Chronic pain and inflammation
• Frequent colds
• High blood pressure
• Heart conditions
• Insomnia

Cold water therapy has even been useful for treating various forms of non-lymphoid types of cancer.

The How-To of Cold Water Therapy

Don’t have the guts to jump into the deep end of ice water? Don’t worry, Dr. Alexa Fleckenstein, M.D., a board-certified internist who practices traditional and complementary medicine in the Boston area, advises the gradual approach to cold water therapy is best. The shock of stepping into a purely cold shower can have a too-strong effect on your blood pressure.

• Start with your usual warm shower.
• Once you’ve finished with your usual shower, you can step away from the water stream and turn off the hot water, while leaving the cold water running.
• Only then do you gradually ease yourself into the cold stream, moving slowly from your feet to your hands and then your face.
• Then finally you can step your whole body under the cold stream.

Work towards a full body cold shower at your own comfort. If the shock of a cold water therapy shower is intolerable, start with just your feet, hands and face. Your whole body will gradually adapt in body temperature to the duration and area of exposure.

Cold water therapy can vary.  If cold showers are miserable, start with drinking cold water.  Cronise recommends then varying exposure by immersing your face into a sink filled with water and ice cubes.  Total dedication to cold water therapy may put you in the “polar bear” club, plunging into near freezing water!

As with many therapeutic health practices, the concept of cold water therapy has given rise to plentiful options. If you’re willing to experiment (in the true NASA spirit), you’re sure to find one you enjoy. Lastly, enjoy the secret benefit of weight loss that cold water therapy provides!