Cold can be healthy - and even help you lose weight

Created: 2022-12-23 05:36

By: Carolin Gehrmann

Cold can have a health-promoting effect and even help you lose weight.

But, as so often, it depends on the dose.

Otherwise there is a risk of the next infection.

Because viruses also like low temperatures.

Bremen – Every child knows that it is cold outside in winter and that there are even severe cold spells.

But this year, due to the energy crisis, many things are a little different than usual and we are not only freezing outside, but also inside.

Heating energy has become an expensive commodity, which is why the heating systems in public buildings have already been turned down.

But is there anything positive to be gained from freezing?

Yes, say some scientists.

At least from a medical point of view, cold stimuli can have a positive effect on the organism.

Cold to some extent has health benefits and helps to lose weight

"Thermogenic lifestyle" is what the Munich biomedical scientist Alexander Bartelt calls this to the

.

If you feel a little cold every now and then throughout the day, you stimulate your metabolism and can even lose weight in this way, explains the expert.

But the right measure is crucial.

Excessive cold, in turn, has a negative effect on our health and can mean that we become ill more quickly or are even less able to concentrate.

Because our brain also reacts to cold - at least for a certain group of people this has been proven.

Is cold healthy?

Outdoor exercise at low temperatures leads to shorter illness duration

Outdoor sport, on the other hand, is healthy even in cooler temperatures and stimulates the immune system.

Because it increases the release of certain hormones that downregulate the inflammatory mechanisms in the body.

The white blood cells also multiply - and thus form a stronger army against invading pathogens, as Dr.

Heinz-Wilhelm Esser explains in the

health podcast "Ask yourself fit".

If you do sports outside even when the temperatures are low, you will be ill for less time.

© Westend61/IMAGO

From a scientific point of view, there is still no clear evidence for the classic "hardening" by cold, so that you no longer get sick at all.

However, it has now been proven that training at low temperatures can at least shorten the duration of a cold.

For people who do not exercise outdoors, this averages 7.5 days.

Anyone who regularly does sports in the cold can reduce the duration of the infection to around 5.2 days, says the expert.

The cold makes pathogens less sensitive - that's why many people get sick in winter

In the interior, however, you should have a "comfortable temperature" of at least 20 degrees so that you don't get cold.

Cold in itself does not make you ill, but it does help viruses such as the influenza virus.

Because it has been proven that the envelope of this pathogen goes into a gel-like state at low temperatures, which makes the virus much less sensitive to external influences.

This is also the main reason why so many people get sick in the winter months.

In addition, there is the aspect that in the cold season people increasingly sit together indoors and thus pass on the pathogens.

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My space

Cold in the office: being cold makes it harder for women to concentrate

For sedentary work in the office or light work, the temperature at the workplace should be at least 20 degrees or more, recommends Dr.

Eater.

A study was able to prove that the cognitive performance of women continues to decrease the lower the temperatures fall.

At high temperatures, on the other hand, their performance increased - in contrast to the men who were also examined, whose brains did not cope so well with heat.

The men, on the other hand, were able to perform better at low temperatures, as scientists Tom Y. Chang and Agne Kajackaite found out.

The temperatures evoked very different reactions in the subjects' brains.

And how was that?

Can you lose weight from cold without moving?

That's true, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

Because it is not about permanent, sickening freezing, but about short cold stimuli spread over the day.

Professor Bartelt explains that anyone who consciously feels the cold from time to time without becoming chilled can lose about a kilo a year.

The reason for this is the so-called brown adipose tissue, which is activated by the cold stimuli.

It's located where it can quickly warm the blood, such as around larger blood vessels.

If it is active, the white fatty tissue that is found in the pads around the hips, for example, also melts away.

The metabolism is stimulated by short cold stimuli - but if possible without freezing

At 100 to 150 grams, however, an adult has relatively little brown fat, and its activity also decreases with age, Bartelt said.

You can stimulate it, for example, by wearing a down vest instead of a thick down jacket, so that parts of the body feel cold and the body has to activate the metabolism and thus the brown fat.

According to Bartelt, cold showers and Kneipp cures with cold water also contribute to this.

"As long as you don't freeze, but feel the cold, that's ok."

Regular sauna sessions make you less sensitive to high temperatures

Ice bathing, on the other hand, is an extreme stimulus and should only be completed by very healthy people.

One should not exaggerate with the cold stimuli, this also applies to office work, according to the expert.

However, thermoregulation can also be trained, as Dr.

Esser emphasizes, for example, through regular sauna sessions.

When you come out of the heat, you also cool off in the ice pool, which not only makes you less sensitive to the cold, but is also beneficial for body and soul.