COMMON SENSE SAFETY PROTOCOL

Common Sense Safety

Contrast bathing, which alternates between hot, cold, and neutral temperatures, can be practiced wherever there is access to heat and cold water. Heat is a powerful force with the potential to either harm or help and contrast bathing was available to our hominid ancestors and early humans who sought out access to natural hot springs in cold locations. Hippocrates, the “Father of Modern Medicine” is known to have elevated contrast bathing to a medical intervention and used hot and cold bathing to reduce pain, enhance circulation, boost recovery, and improve mental wellbeing.

It is hard to overstate the benefits of contrast therapy, which include positive molecular, metabolic, physiological, psychological, and social effects, and lead to a reduced risk of all-cause mortality. A growing awareness of these benefits has led to saunas, hot tubs and ice baths becoming popular in homes, gyms, hot springs, and urban bathing facilities where contrast bathing has become a lifestyle practice that is being used to treat a range of conditions without medical advice or supervision.

While contrast bathing can be a pleasant and enjoyable activity with many health benefits, heat is a powerful force and too much or too little heat has the power to harm as well as heal. In order to ensure a safe and enjoyable bathing experience it is essential to adhere to some common-sense safety principles that can be summarised under the following five headings:

Drink

Take care

Tune in

Be aware

Rest

Drink: Stay hydrated with good quality water.

When you get the basic things right other things tend to go right by themselves and if you get the basic things wrong, it’s very hard to play catch-up. Water is a basic requirement for life that forms the matrix for life, the bulk of our being, and the container for our consciousness. Proper hydration is therefore essential to health and is needed to regulate body temperature, detoxify your system, and flush away contaminants and metabolic waste, yet contrast bathing can easily lead to dehydration. Heat exposure causes water loss from sweating, while exposure to cold causes peripheral vasoconstriction, which increases urine production due more blood being channelled through the internal organs. It is therefore vital to drink quality water before, during, and after a contrast bathing session.

It seems obvious that drinking less poison is good for you, and that if you don’t use a filter, you become one. Yet many people regularly drink and bathe in contaminated water. Ideally you should use a Beautiful Water or similar filter for all your bathing, showering and drinking water so that your water is free of toxic contaminants and disinfectant by-products that strip away your natural body oils and alter the microbiome of your skin and gut. It is also worth examining your water’s pH and mineral balance, its ecological, financial, and social impact, and the intention and consciousness that directs it. It can also be beneficial to add salt and other minerals, herbs, and/or nutrients to your water to enhance its absorption and electrolyte balance. This can be done by simply adding a dash of living vinegar, a pinch of salt, or a splash of Extremely Alive probiotic tonics to your drinking water.

Take care: Heat sources can burn or scald, sub-zero temperatures can damage tissue, sudden changes in posture can cause dizziness or fainting and wet surfaces can be slippery.

Extreme temperatures can be hazardous. Special care needs to be taken near very hot water, heating elements, and steam to avoid burns or scalding. Tissue damage including frostnip or even frostbite can also occur from cryotherapy chambers or ice baths that have excessive salt that lowers the freezing point of water to sub-zero temperatures.

While exposure to extremes of hot and cold can cause direct harm, the most common adverse events from contrast bathing are due to faints, falls and funny turns caused by sudden changes in posture and/or slippery, wet surfaces. If you stand up suddenly after a hot bath or sauna, gravity will pull blood away from your head and into the dilated vessels in your legs making you dizzy, light-headed or faint. To avoid this, it is best to take your time and practice sitting for a few seconds before standing up slowly. It is also prudent to take extra care with wet or slippery floors and to hold onto a wall or rail to steady yourself and ensure your blood pressure has stabilised before taking a first step.

Taking care with extreme temperatures is particularly important for people with peripheral neuropathy, autonomic neuropathy and vascular or other conditions that reduce adaption to temperature extremes. Extra care also needs to be taken by people with heart conditions such as irregular heartbeats or myocarditis or pericarditis, as the sudden release of adrenaline cause by the shock of extreme temperatures can lead to potentially fatal arrhythmias in susceptible people.

Tune in: Enjoy ‘forced mindfulness’ induced by temperature extremes and relaxation induced by thermal comfort.

While extreme temperatures can be potentially life-threatening, saunas and ice baths provide the opportunity to control your exposure to thermal stress and allow you to practice being calm and composed under physical duress. This helps you cultivate physiological and psychological resilience and navigate the uncertainties of daily life. One of the great benefits of contrast bathing is the ‘forced mindfulness’ that arises when the physiological stress caused by temperature extremes builds up till it demands your full attention.

To ensure you achieve the benefits of physiological stress while remaining within safe physiological limits, it is best to start with milder temperatures and slowly increase your exposure while tuning in to your body and breathing calmly so that you do not feel overwhelmed. Staying in control is especially important for people with a history of anxiety or PTSD as sudden cold exposure naturally causes gasping and hyperventilation and reproduces the breathing pattern and blood chemistry of and panic, which can be distressing if you are not adequately prepared or feel out of control.

Feeling overwhelmed by temperature extremes can be traumatic, yet it also provides   the opportunity to recreate these feelings in a controlled environment and overcome them. There are a number of biohacking tools can help with this. For example the "Ten Hacks to Relax”, are physical actions that activate your parasympathetic ‘rest and digest’ response and help to convince your body that you are in control. These actions, which can be done anytime you are scared, anxious, upset or in pain can serve as emotional first aid and assist in extreme or overwhelming situations such as being in an ice bath, sauna, or extremely hot bath.

10 Hacks to Relax

Touch all your fingers

Wiggle your toes

Soften your stomach

Breathe through your nose

Sigh, smile, swallow, sing

Flutter your eyelids

Focus within

The aim of contrast bathing is to give you the ability to induce physiological stress while maintaining control over your situation. You should therefore never let anyone coerce or pressure you into contrast bathing or staying in an uncomfortable situation longer than you want to. You also need to ensure that you can always easily remove yourself from extreme temperatures and find a place to rehydrate, rest and recover.

Be aware: Heat tolerance varies widely. Use comfort as a guide to safe limits, don’t go beyond being 'comfortably uncomfortable’, and avoid extremes of temperature when impaired by drugs or alcohol.

Heat tolerance not only varies widely among individuals, it also varies widely within the same individual at different times. The amount of duress that you can endure without harm will depend on factors such as your age, fitness level, mindset, medical conditions, as well as your past experiences and familiarity with temperature extremes.  When adjusting your exposure, it is best to use comfort as your guide and aim for being ‘comfortably uncomfortable’.

The best way to ensure you stay within your comfort zone is by listening to your body and exploring your willingness to experience ‘comfort in discomfort’ while avoiding serious pain or discomfort. It can also help to adjust and fine tune your exposure as you go. For example, in the sauna you can alter your position or elevation, use a fan to direct hot air or steam towards your body, or use cold water or cold compresses on your feet, head or body. Similarly, in an ice bath you can adjust your cold exposure by keeping your hands, feet, or head in or out of the cold water, or by experimenting with moving or staying still.

Being aware of your own tolerance and limitations requires you to actively monitor your reactions and it is advisable to refrain from contrast bathing when under the influence of drugs, alcohol or other substances that can impair your judgment and/or ability to adapt to temperature changes. You may also like to consult a healthcare provider if you are unsure or have heart issues or other medical conditions. Furthermore, if you experience any adverse symptoms, such as fainting, dizziness, nausea, or excessive discomfort, stop the session immediately, drink some water and rest.

Rest:  Spend time resting comfortably after enduring extremes of temperatures. Explore the joy of cooling down when hot, warming up when cold and blissful state of thermal homeostasis.

Just as in a yoga class where physical practice is followed by a relaxation session, rest and rebalancing is vitally important when contrast bathing. The best approaches alternate hot and cold exposure with deep relaxation in a comfortable ‘thermo-neutral’ environment. This anchors the benefits of contrast therapy and gives your mind and body time to settle into equilibrium, achieve homeostasis, and experience the deep stillness that comes with actively doing nothing.

Somewhere in between feeling hot and cold is the perfect temperature where you are in harmony with the environment and your body does not have to adjust itself to achieve homeostasis. This blissful state can be cultivated by focusing on the joy of cooling down when hot, warming up when cold, and by actively doing nothing when you are totally comfortable. Actively doing nothing is not just a form of relaxation, it is a profound spiritual practice that lets your mind and body settle into a state of balance with the universe. However, while you may think you are doing nothing, there is always less you can do. Therefore, there is always more to discover and contrast bathing offers an endless path to stillness that reveal more about yourself.

Enjoy

Contrast bathing is both beneficial and enjoyable and allows you to practice being relaxed when unde stress as well as being deeply relaxed when you are totally comfortable. While there are some risks to consider, contrast bathing can be done safely if you remember to drink, take care, tune in, be aware and rest. It also helps to prioritize comfort, take it slow, and consult a healthcare provider if you have any medical concerns. Following these simple principles will help minimize risks and optimise enjoyment and health benefits.