Cold thermogenesis, anti-aging, and how to repair your DNA

I’d like to talk about cold thermogenesis and its effects on telomere length in DNA and the resultant anti-aging.

What is it? Neatly summed up as regularly freezing your butt of it can entail things like ice baths, cold showers, freezing buckets of water over the head, basically extreme exposure to cold. Cold thermogenesis not for the fainthearted. Recently experiencing a revival from its previous incarnation as cold water dousing due partly to the new research done by Dr Jack Kruse.

Dr Kruse found that cold thermogenesis combined with a fat based paleo diet caused a lengthening of the telomeres thought to be responsible for aging.

Telomeres are the bits on the end of DNA that get shorter each time the DNA is copied until it is no longer viable. Slowing or reversing this telomere loss is one of the grails of anti-aging. There is also links on Dr Kruse’s site to a DNA testing lab and he challenges any doubters to get their own DNA telomere length checked before and after cold thermogenesis.



Link

However, telomeres become progressively shorter each time the cell divides. When they get too short, cells reach replicative senescence and can no longer divide. The result can be the various conditions associated with old age.

From Wiki

Since shorter telomeres are thought to be a cause of poorer health and aging,

The theory behind this is that CTG triggers a parallel but previously non-functional neurological pathway. This pathway is hardwired into us and dormant since Palaeolithic times. If triggered it boosts the immune and confers almost mystical powers of endurance as well as giving longevity.

Some medical research on cold water benefits Link

When people entered the Neolithic age and started farming, living indoors, wearing more clothes, and eating more grains and other poor quality carbs. Fast forward to today. Most people rarely if ever get cold even in cold climates and our buffering from nature is endemic. This pathway is closed down in most people with the exception of a small number of people living tribally in very cold climes.

I first came across CTG while training in Systema (Russian martial art). These guys include the elite of Spetsnatz Special Forces and they use the dousing method – buckets of ice water over the head, outside, in freezing conditions, brrr.

Looking back at cold water dousing it was very popular in the 18-19000’s due partially to a most interesting character named Porfiry Ivanov.



Dying painfully of cancer, Porfiry just wanted to end it. He went outside, naked, in sub-freezing conditions and began tipping ice water on himself hoping to catch cold and cark. After a few days of this he started feeling better. He kept increasing his exposure to cold and getting better. His supposedly incurable cancer was gone.

After this he was known to walk around for weeks outdoors with no food in blizzards, wearing only shorts. This is in temperatures where a normal person would die of exposure in minutes. He believed in the idea of returning to nature and that nature provides for us if we trust and let go.

He had quite a following and of course the Soviets didn’t like this and threw him in the nutter for extended periods. Typical government.

There is a possible mystical or quantum element to cold thermogenesis. Tibetan monks use a combination of cold and tumo meditation to trigger kundlani, the fire within. The ritual where the monks dry wet blankets with body heat is quite well known worldwide. Wim Hoff, the iceman, uses tumo meditation along with ice. He recently climbed in the Himalayas wearing only shorts.

From Wiki

Cold water dousing is used to "shock" the body into a kind of fever. The body's reaction is similar to the mammalian diving reflex or possibly temperature biofeedback. Several meditative and awareness techniques seem to share similar effects with elevated temperature, such as Tummo.

CTG is can be an effective cure for many illnesses. It helped me get over the chronic (fatigue that is) along with liposomal vit c- ATS thread.

The method I use is to just sit in the recliner and cover myself with ice packs and ice bottles every couple of days. Then contrast showers every day. This is turning the shower from hot to cold repeatedly – 30sec hot, 30sec cold etc. Works for me and is also good to build mental strength!

So anyone like to freeze?

Very interesting topic. I wonder how this would work for those illnesses where over heating is a problem. Would wearing cooling equipment such as ice packed vests and hats work in the same or similar way?

One thought I have is that doing this causes the body temperature to rise - could this then be a problem for the above sufferers or would it on the contrary reduce symptoms of the illness?

reply to post by IAmD1


Thanks for answering, I was starting to think no one would lol.

I wonder how this would work for those illnesses where over heating is a problem

Not sure but I think because the heart rate drops from the
mammalian diving reflex that it is not the normal overheating
associated with illnesses. I had a bit of a problem with overheating
myself and it seems to help me regulate my temperature. Just my
opinion though, I would ask a good alternate doc if it was a serious
illness.

Would wearing cooling equipment such as ice packed vests and hats work in the same or similar way?

Yes, for the diving reflex to trigger you need to cover the face as well.


Mammalian diving reflex

reply to post by primalfractal


The human brain is like a computer ..with the right programming there is not much it cannot do.
It is the same as your first cigarette,first pint we get used to it,the humann body mind
is a wonderous organism..

reply to post by primalfractal

Well there is only one way to test the theory...


I will volunteer since I suffer from this problem and let you know how I get on. Did you say once ever two days for the immersion with ice water over the head? Granted it will be hard to prove any effect on my aging in general I will be able to tell if my overheating issue lessens or gets worse over time and what the immediate effect following the immersion will be. Since I do well with ice packs on my head I do not believe this will be dangerous in any way for me to trial. But I will involve my medical team in what I am doing. I am actually trying a 75% raw diet where I also avoid, gluten, animal produce and lactose. I say avoid because I do get some fish, egg and cooked veggies in my diet and a cafe latte sneaks in daily ;P so it is not a 100% anything. But If I do not reach the results I am after I will tighten my regiment. I also take a teaspoon mixture of vitamin C (1000mg), turmeric, cayenne pepper, dried ginger and honey once a day and vitamin D and selenium supplement. I have been pretty lax in doing this in the past 8 months but do notice when ever I stop sticking to my regime I get worse so for the past few months Ive been taking this more seriously.

I made a promise to my doctor that I will stop being a a patient of his in the next year or so. I plan on sticking to my promise .... So thanks for supplying another thing to add to my list of things to incorporate into my life for better health. If nothing else at the end I will probably be the healthiest patient with a chronic illness ever seen.




Going to perform my first set now and will report back how I feel in a few ....

reply to post by primalfractal


Your body adapts having done martial arts for some time i would often strengthen my knuckles
by hitting a hard surface many times a day while forming calluses on the knuckles making them
splinter and repair while getting stronger , the skin gets tougher i can break 4 bricks with my hands
But if someone else tried it with no impact training the hand would break and the brick still intact.

Back from the frozen version of hell and can honestly say that it hurt. I chose to start with the ice cold water over my head and did this in the shower for about 5 minutes to start me off. Making sure to cover my face and head with the water. Some of the symptoms I've been having today have subsided temporarily so that is a plus. But I'll carry on doing this once a day from now on and see what turns up.

Just wanted to add that in the Scandinavian countries it is an age old practice to go have a hot sauna and then run out naked and roll around in the snow (winter time), alternating sauna with snow bath a few times. Or as some practice ice water swimming, where they make a whole in the ice on a lake and take a dip in it and then sauna. The slightly kinder version is to have a sauna and alternating it with taking cold showers. So I truly do believe in this method for maintaining general good health. Not so sure it delays aging but I do believe it is a good practice to keep the doctor at bay. I'm glad you reminded me of this.... I do believe that the further we move away from nature both in what we put into our bodies and what we subject them to, the less well we will be.

so again for bring this up on here

reply to post by denver22

the humann body mind is a wonderous organism..

So true, we are able to adapt to some pretty full on things as your broken bricks show, and that adaptation leaves us stonger. Glad to meet another martial artist here on ATS Do you train a Karate style? They are renowned for conditioning. Mas Oyama, barehanded bull killer(I kid you not) and founder of Kyokushin meditated under cold waterfalls.

reply to post by primalfractal



I used to go to the Russian-Turkish Bathhouse here in Miami. They have one in NY City as well. The one in Miami closed after one of the hurricanes but they had an ice bath and ice cold showers that flowed over your head while you were in the steam room. When you got as hot as you could handle you pulled the chain overhead and an ice bath would tumble over your steaming body. Nothing better than that! After the eucalyptus room or the hot stones sauna you could also plunge into an icy pool.

I saw old fat men using the facilities and throwing buckets of ice water over their heads (you could step into the ice bath or just walk up to it and grab a bucket of ice cold water and throw it over your head) and at first I thought this temperature change is going to give one of the old fellas a heart attack - but never did happen. They seemed to be more invigorated afterwards.

There should be more of these facilities throughout the nation. I remember we paid $20 to enjoy the spa for the full day. You could also get beaten with palm branches or a nice Swedish Massage for an extra charge. They were open 365 days a year. You could go on Christmas or New Years Day.

reply to post by IAmD1

Back from the frozen version of hell

I'm really happy I might be able to help. Cool(ha) you are trying it now, I can say you are definately not faintharted, no messing about at all

Heard many good things about raw food diets and I dont maintain strict ketatonic Paleo, more like regular Paleo with extra homegrown vege so I think your diet is excellent. I did start taking a lot of fish oil (Dr Kruse recommends boosting omega 3) when I started CTG and this seems to help. Around 20000 mg day.

The ice water is only needed weekly, I do the ice pacs every second day and the showers every day.

When I started off it was pure torture but after a few weeks it got started getting better. Now after the initial shock I get an energy rush like "wooooow" and a refreshed clean feeling. On another level it reminds me of how dolphins might feel, ancesteral memory prehaps?

Good luck.

Originally posted by primalfractal
reply to post by denver22

 

the humann body mind is a wonderous organism..

So true, we are able to adapt to some pretty full on things as your broken bricks show, and that adaptation leaves us stonger. Glad to meet another martial artist here on ATS

Do you train a Karate style? They are renowned for conditioning. Mas Oyama, barehanded bull killer(I kid you not) and founder of Kyokushin meditated under cold waterfalls.

Wing - chun, ninjitsu karate for awhile, boxing wrestling . Swims in the sea at winter/ running up and down steep hills/ walking on glass hot coals etc. just like the in sparta people were encouraged
to strengthen feet arms bones i also don't use that many anti- biotics tablets, i tend
to let my own body do the fighting.
When i was a child we would play in the muck etc we never got ill like they do today, just like most
of our generation without all these cleaning fluids wiping down surfaces keeping our children to clean.
what happens is when they do get ill they cannot fight it so mumma takes them down docs for more tablets.Pretty soon the worlds next generation will be sicknotes.

When you have your first pint many will get drunk feel sick.
when you have your first smoke many will cough feel sick.

But soon after our body gets used to it..

Thanks for a great thread primal. While browsing some 'esoteric' stuff on YouTube recently, I came across the 'healing sounds ' section. There's a really interesting batch of those videos on the Tube.

One of the topics was DNA repair. Advocates claim that simply listening to a 528Hz tone can repair damaged DNA. The lazy man's DNA repair method?
I read up a bit on DNA. Wow! Our DNA is under constant stress caused by daily living. I'm taking a closer look at DNA repair methods.

I love the idea that some of these recommended methods of DNA repair seem to act almost like flipping a switch and 'reprogramming' one's DNA.

reply to post by primalfractal


I have one question....could water at cool temps....not freezing still accompish this to a lesser extent...or must it have to be extremely cold.

reply to post by newcovenant


Sounds real nice, wish they had them here, we only have hot here in oz.

There does seem to be a real tradition of CTG in Russia and (as IAmD1 mentioned) Scandanavia. I think, prehaps, people always did it.

at first I thought this temperature change is going to give one of the old fellas a heart attack - but never did happen. They seemed to be more invigorated afterwards.

After the pain, pleasure. I thought same cos I was quite sick when I started.

I almost forgot...
The ' healing tones' subject was discussed on ATS.
LINK

here's a vid that features the pure 528hz tone.

reply to post by kat2684

I have one question....could water at cool temps....not freezing still accompish this to a lesser extent...or must it have to be extremely cold.

I believe so. Ray Cronise at Thermogenex Link and others say you only need to get below body temp ie. cold but not freezing. Many build up gradually to lower stress.

reply to post by ColeYounger


Glad you like the thread. I'm also very interested in DNA repair, fascinating stuff!

Lyod Pye has some good evidence that we were genetically tampered with. He believes the Sitchin/Sumerian tablet/annunaki theory. The annunaki tales say that Enki, mad at Enlil for downgrading his creation in the garden of eden programmed a back door code into our DNA. When triggered it will restore our "powers".

I theorize that if this code exists it could be a combination of cold thermogenesis and tones/frequencies.

This vid is long but well worth the watch. Thanks for the healing tones, very soothing, I've got it on repeat.

reply to post by primalfractal


Thanks for the reply....

I have been going to a pool at our gym, I have noticed feeling more energized and less stressed since attending, I was wondeing if the effects had less to do with exercise and more with cooler water.

Thanks for answering.

I learned in the military how cold thermotherapy could benefit one's overall well being and health. Climb out of a toasty sleeping bag in the winter mountains of Korea, at 4am and plant your feet in the snow, naked and shivering getting dressed (sleep on your clothes not in them), slowly warming up again.
Today I love diving into ice cold water from a boat or an icy spring. I think that might have alot to do with my life pretty much being so healthy (50) now and people think I'm late 30's. All my hair, no gray, good skin, lots of energy.

Just be sure you are up on your heart condition before 'shocking' your body into it, I've seen athletes go into cardiac arrest entering an ice cold shower from summer exercise.

I have used the Alexander technique for years. Having a cold shower before school for years, sometimes I have cold(ish) showers now and often refuse to put the heating on and leave the window open at night when it's cold for a certain length of time. It's good for the metabolism as well and I feel it's energising. As long as it's controlled and with the ability to get warm afterwards I find it's a good way of keeping healthy.