This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Life Force" by Tony Robbins, Peter H. Diamandis, and Robert Hariri. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What are the benefits of hot and cold therapy? How does exposing your body to extreme temperatures help you increase your immunity and ward off disease?
Hot therapy and cold therapy are often used to treat sports injuries, but you don’t need to be injured to reap their health benefits. Research shows that exposing your body to extreme heat and cold can help prevent the onset of disease and improve your immunity.
Keep reading to learn about the health benefits and hot and cold therapy.
The Benefits of Heat and Cold
In their book Life Force, Tony Robbins, Peter H. Diamandis, and Robert Hariri advise using hot and cold therapy as a way to prevent the onset of disease and pain.
For heat therapy, they recommend using a sauna for about 20 minutes a few times a week at a temperature of 163 degrees Fahrenheit, noting that it reduces the risk of premature death from all causes by 40%. It also reduces the risk of heart disease, dementia, arthritis, depression, and stroke.
(Shortform note: Not everyone has access to a sauna, but a hot bath can provide some of the same benefits. Research suggests that sitting in a bath at 102 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour can lower blood pressure and blood sugar and have similar cardiovascular benefits as an hour of cycling. It can also help the body fight infections like COVID-19 by artificially inducing a fever.)
For cold therapy, they recommend whole-body cryotherapy, which involves spending just two or three minutes in a chamber filled with gas as cold as negative 240 degrees Fahrenheit with almost no clothing. This provides a shock to the system that dramatically reduces pain and inflammation. The authors also say that you can use ice plunges if you don’t have access to a cryotherapy chamber. This involves submerging your body in ice water for two minutes and achieves some of the same results as whole-body cryotherapy.
(Shortform note: In The Wim Hof Method, Wim Hof describes his approach of using cold exposure to condition and treat the body. Famous for climbing Mount Everest while wearing shorts, Hof recommends cold exposure through ice baths or cold showers to stimulate your body’s circulatory system and lower your heart rate and stress hormones. Cold showers may be a better option for people who don’t have access to cryotherapy chambers or bathtubs large enough for complete submersion in ice water.)
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- How new technology may dramatically expand the human lifespan
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- Whether or not it's possible for humans to become immortal
