Is Cold Therapy Good or Bad for the Immune System?

I remember when I was a kid, our family would go to Carmel Beach often to visit. If you haven’t been there, the water is always ice cold! One Christmas on college break, we decided to go back there and I wanted to challenge myself to immerse into the ice-cold ocean. Well most Asian parents don’t want their kids to get cold, because you could get sick. But my parents were pretty open minded. So my sister and I ran up and down the beach till we were warm, then polar plunged into the Dec 25^th cold ocean. It was cold. Photo Credit James Petts

To my surprise the shock of the cold made me laugh. When I got out of the water, the feeling of the blood rushing was invigorating. And then there was a sense of bliss, accomplishment, self-resolve and confidence that flooded over me. That was unexpected.

Cryotherapy, the “Ice Man”, and contrast hydrotherapy seem to be hot therapies lately. How does it work? A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10444630) showed an increase in WBCs (white blood cells) and NK cells (a particular type of T cell, the fights viruses and cancer) when subjects were exposed to cold, after having been preheated with exercise.

But a different study published in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17705968/) concluded that exposure to cold is associated with an increase in respiratory disease. And that the longer the duration of exposure to cold, the higher the risk of infection. This study seems to be in line with the Chinese old wives tales of “don’t get cold, or you’ll get sick.”

In-fact in Chinese medicine TCM certain conditions are associated with “cold” such as arthritis being worse in cold, or poor digestion with “cold” in the middle Jiao. Hives are often associated with “internal wind” imbalances. Sometimes “wind” imbalance in the head can cause brain fog, or dizziness. Usually patients with these conditions do not have enough qi (or prana) to expel these external influences trapped inside the body such as cold, damp, or wind and physical disease occurs. And here’s where herbs, and energy work come into play to help.

Back to cold exposure, there is a lot of evidence and people reporting improved immunity, improved circulation, decreased depression, improved mood, improved focus, decrease fatigue, decreased pain etc. that comes with practicing cold exposure. It looks like there is conflicting data. My personal opinion is that it depends on body type and also one’s current health in time. Someone who is constitutionally “depleted” may not do well with cold therapy. Cold therapy also should be done gradually and trained. It is also important that the body is warm (such as after exercise, a hot shower/bath, sauna etc) before exposing to cold. Do not let yourself feel internally chilled, because in my experience that can increase susceptibility to getting sick. But an invigorating shock of cool/cold to a warm body for a short period of time can sometimes be beneficial.

You can easily start by taking a hot shower, then doing a couple rounds of 2 min hot and (10-30 seconds of cold). Initially just turn the water cooler, so you feel a difference. This will alert the autonomic nervous system (often improving mood, decreasing anxiety, waking up the immune system etc). As you are more accustomed, you can slowly turn the water colder and increase the time for your cold blast.

“To expose to cold, or to not expose to cold…this is the question.” Let me know what you think and what your experiences are.

Ebola and How to Boost Your Immune System

Recently there have been cases of outbreaks of Ebola that have been reported all over the news and I've seen some people more concerned about this hitting home. I wanted to give you some information about Ebola as well as information on how to boost your immune system. There are many immune boosting natural supplements and I will talk about which ones are specifically anti-viral. 

Ebola is a virus similar to HIV because they are both RNA viruses. But unlike HIV, ebola is not a retrovirus. How does Ebola work? Ebola hijacks the host cells and uses your DNA to make more copies of Ebola. After there are enough copies of the virus, people start experiencing symptoms. Initial symptoms of Ebola include flu like symptoms and bruising, but the danger of this infection is bleeding from eyes, ears, nose and rectum.

There isn’t a specific drug against Ebola. The good news is that it is not that easy to contract so do not spend the stress worrying about it. Again good hygiene and hand washing after traveling or public places is a good idea. Anti-bacterial hand sanitizers are filled with chemicals and strip the normal flora your body produces that is protective to your skin. I would go with the old-fashioned warm water and soap.

In our modern era, we focus on germs and have the notion that if germs are around we get sick. However, there are many viruses and bacteria all around us. So why do we not get sick? When the immune system functions optimally, there is usually not a problem. So when I talk to patients, there are 2 things that are important. The first is to keep clean, but unless we live in a bubble, germs are inevitable. With Ebola, it is unlikely you and I will be exposed to it in the US anyway. The second is to keep your body less susceptible to succumbing to infection. This is very important and often ignored. Think about the earth and soil. There are different vegetation and plants that grow in various climates. A cactus cannot grow in an evergreen forest. There are certain conditions you can create in your body that would make it harder for the germs to infect you.

One of the ways to keep your body in an environment that is harder for germs to take hold of you is to make sure your body is alkaline rather than acidic. So if you buy pH paper from the drug store to test your saliva, your saliva pH should be right above 7 and the test strip should look dark green. If you test yourself and the pH test strip shows yellow or light green, your body is too acidic.

How to alkalize your body? Drink fresh lemon juice in water and keep drinking that until your saliva pH is right above 7. You can also consume more fruits and vegetables which tend to produce an alkaline reaction in your body. Eating lots of carbohydrates and sugars create an acid environment in your body, which is not good because you will be more susceptible to infection as well as inflammation.

Vegetable juice can also be alkalizing to the body and I recently started doing some juicing and have felt great having this everyday. I’ve been more energetic, focused and generally feel great and lost some fat around my belly. Carrots are high in vitamin A, which is a vitamin often overlooked for immunity. Ginger is anti-inflammatory and Lemon is high in vitamin C. Here’s my recipe:

3 lbs of carrots

2 bunches of celery

2 apples

2 inches of ginger

1-2 whole lemon including rind

Juice the above, which produces about 6 cups of juice.

Now I’ll share a few anti-viral remedies with you.

The following natural herbs and remedies have anti-viral properties, they are not necessarily specific to Ebola prevention, since we have not tested that, however, by principle helpful.

Andrographis

Andrographis is an herb used in India and China often used to rid the body of heat such as fevers. It is a great remedy and works very well to dispel colds especially when taken when the cold is first coming on. The leaves contain the highest component of its medicinal component andrographolide which is a diterpene lactone and tastes very bitter. This herb is anti-viral and works by stimulating anti-body production, which is part of the antigen specific immune system. Andrographis also works on the non-specific immune response by stimulating macrophages. Andrographis is helpful for defense against colds. Studies also show positive effects for cancer and HIV with use of andrographis. There is a product ANDROGRAPHIS PLUS by Metagenics and you can get it here. I’ve found andrographis working well for my patients who feel they are about to get sick and have prevented a full blown illness using this.

Elderberry

Elderberries are beautiful plants and the berry is a dark purple color containing many anti-oxidants and medicinal properties including anti-viral properties. Elderberries are highly effective for colds, flus and the herpes virus and works better than Echinacea for many people. The US national library of medicine showed that elderberry relieved the symptoms of the flu 4 days earlier than placebo. Another study showed that elderberries killed the H1N1 virus. It is thought that the medicinal component of elderberry extract coats a virus and prevents it from being able to penetrate and infect the host cells. There is a product called PRO BERRY LIQUID by North American Pharmacal (D’adamo) that tastes great and kid friendly and you can get some here.

Vitamin C

You need a lot more than 100mg, the RDA of Vitamin C for clinical effects such as its effect on the immune system. 100mg is just enough to prevent scurvy, a disease where sailors bled because they did not get vitamin C from fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet while at sea for a long time. For maintenance, 500-1000mg of vitamin C per day is good. However if you are coming down with a virus, Vitamin C to bowel tolerance is a dosage that will be much more effective. This is approximately 8000-12,000mg of vitamin C per day in divided doses, but different for each person. So taking 1000mg per hour is the way to go and I’ve prevented myself from getting sick numerous times by doing this. I like ULTRA POTENT C by Metagenics and it’s available here.

So remember to first and foremost make sure your body is in a position that is less susceptible to infection by keeping it alkaline, and we discussed how to do that above. Then also make sure you keep your stress levels down and get enough sleep. If you feel you need some extra support, the remedies mentioned above have anti-viral properties. Take care and be well.