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Winter-swimming Scandinavian men can teach us how the body adapts to extreme heat and cold:
"Our data underscore that BAT in adult humans is part of the collective body temperature regulation system in collaboration with skeletal muscle and blood flow," says senior study author Camilla Scheel of the University of Copenhagen. "Regular winter swimming combining cold dips with hot sauna might be a strategy to increase energy expenditure, which could result in weight loss if compensatory increase in food intake can be avoided."
In the Denmark-based study, Scheele and her collaborators examined whether the Scandinavian practice of winter swimming is associated with changes in body temperature, resulting in acclimation to both cold and hot challenges. They also looked for differences in brown fat tissue, given its role in producing heat in response to exposure to cold environments.
To explore these ideas, first author Susanna Søberg of the University of Copenhagen recruited eight young male winter swimmers who had alternated several swims or dips in cold water with hot sauna sessions every week for at least two years. For the purposes of this study, winter swimming was loosely defined as swimming or sitting in open water and wearing only swim trunks or nothing. By contrast, the eight control participants did not use any cold or heat therapies during the study and had no history of winter swimming.
"We expected winter swimmers to have more brown fat than the control subjects, but it turned out that they instead had better thermoregulation," Søberg says. In preliminary tests, the participants submerged one hand in cold water for three minutes. While both groups responded to the cold exposure, the swimmers displayed signs of cold tolerance, with a lower increase in pulse and blood pressure. They also had higher skin temperature, pointing to greater heat loss as a potential adaptation to frequent sauna exposure. In another preliminary test, the researchers used an adjustable system consisting of two water-perfused blankets to control and lower the participants' body temperature. Here, the swimmers also showed a higher increase in skin temperature in response to cooling.
Journal Reference:
Susanna Søberg, et al. Altered brown fat thermoregulation and enhanced cold-induced thermogenesis in young, healthy, winter-swimming men Cell Reports Medicine, 2021 (DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2021.100408)
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday October 12 2021, @12:50PM
It's the look we find something interesting study that can't be used to draw any useful conclusions what so ever.
That said as you note it's hard to say something about this really. While the article doesn't go into any great detail about the 8 participants I assume it was 8 young danish males, or that is the impression I get from the article.
With that in mind it's not hard to find other issues with the study.
Firstly Denmark isn't exactly known for it's cold/winter culture. Danish Sauna culture isn't really a thing as far as I know. It's going to be some fairly weak steam saunas at best. I really don't know how common it is in Denmark. But I have serious doubt it's on the level compared to say Finland or even northern Sweden.
The other factor here might be if it's the "winter swimming" or it's the Sauna before and after that does the trick. I don't know a lot of people, or anyone for that matter, that just does cold swimming and then goes home. There is always Sauna after, and usually also before. Also you normally do it several times going in and out.
Then the type of Sauna might also matter, dry or steam, cause they are quite different. High steam Sauna becomes intolerable quite fast. It's more or less flash boiling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships [wikipedia.org]
The link to the actual paper goes nowhere or can't be found as I write this so this is all just based on the article.