From Thursday to Tuesday (yesterday) I was camping on Canada’s East Coast in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia (near Halifax, Cole Harbour, etc.)
I was nervous about the trip. I’ve never winter camped before (in a tent, no less). I’ve winter surfed, but never without warm water or a wood-burning stove or central heating to come home to. Would I freeze? Starve? Feel wet and cold all weekend long?
No, no and no, but I learned a lot in the process. Particularly about our metabolism and circadian rhythms and how to best adjust to the winter season with its shorter days and cold temperatures for the winter months.
What I learned:
Our body is intelligent and wise.
We are able to cold adapt if we listen to our bodies’ needs. Mine was telling me to move, to stay dry, to expose myself to the sun, to eat enough calories (meat, eggs, trailmix and granola). I slept early and a lot. As long as I ate and conserved my energy, put on more layers once I felt a chill, and moved my body to improve my body’s circulation and metabolism, I felt warm and cozy and energized.
I realized that our bodies are equipped for anything, as long as we listen to their attempts to adapt. A friend who was travelling with us seemed disconnected from his body. Despite being an outdoorsman, I observed that he didn’t eat enough, consumed too much alcohol and chose to nap during the day despite the fact that we only had access to 8 hours of precious sunlight.
He fell in the river and rather than moving to warm his body up, he lay down and napped, which failed to keep him warm. I observed that his mood dropped throughout the trip and he had a hard time adjusting to the lack of warmth and light from the planet. This contrast emphasized the importance of respecting our bodies, nourishing them properly, moving them and caring for them, while adapting to the circumstances of nature and light-dark rhythms.
It made me think of how so many of us need to work inside during the few and precious daylight hours. How we access screens late at night after the sun has long gone down. How we avoid going outside because of the cold, even though outside is where the sun is.
It made me think how our appetite naturally increases in the winter as our bodies burn more energy to keep us warm and stoke out metabolisms and yet many of us rally against this, trying to eat less and go on diets to decrease our waistlines.
Our bodies are wise. What gifts will we derive from listening to them?
Adapt to the waves of light and dark.
The sun rose every morning around 7 am and set around 5pm. This gave us 10 hours of sunlight a day. As a result I rose with the sun (usually my bladder woke me up) and went to bed soon after the sun set.
I spent the day working (clearing an area for a driveway, making paths in the forest), surfing and hiking. We relied on the fire at night for warmth and food. The blankets we huddled under were hot and inviting and so it wasn’t long after the sun set and the fire died when we went to bed. There wasn’t much to do in the dark and the energy it took to keep warm didn’t feel worth it. The cold would cause sleepiness to overtake me.
We’d eat outside when we could, bundled in wool, plates balanced on knees, steam rising from our food like prayer. There was no rush. The night didn’t demand anything from us but stillness and gratitude. Sometimes we’d talk, sometimes we’d just listen to the crackle of embers and the sound of wind threading through the trees. The grill’s warmth, like the fire before it, held us together in a soft circle of light—another small sun to guide us through the dark.
I downloaded my Oura ring data when I got back and found that some nights I slept for 10 hours or more!
It struck me that we often try to fight this need for more sleep in the winter. We don’t get outside as much, so we don’t expose our eyes to sunlight. We use artificial lighting at night and so override our natural circadian rhythms. We might feel more tired and depressed during the winter months because we aren’t adapting to the light-dark cycles the way our ancestors were forced to–we try to maintain productivity despite the fact that the sun is delivering less light-giving energy.
When I got back from my trip, I went to sleep at 8:30pm, true to form. I woke up feeling fantastic and went for a morning walk to watch the sunrise.
Here are some important considerations for adjusting to winter:
1) Get sunlight as much as possible.
It can be tricky to have to spend 8 hours of the day in an office at work when there are only 8 hours of daylight to go around. If you can, spend time near a window, fit in a morning walk, or walk right after work, or a walk a lunchtime, prioritize this as much as possible.
If natural light is impossible, light lamps might help. They won’t be a full solution, though. Fire places provide infrared light, which can be helpful for healing red light in the evening hours.
Get sun exposure where it’s available. Avoid wearing sunglasses if possible and expose as much of your skin as your feel comfortable.
2) Vitamin D.
Take Cod live oil for the right ratio of vitamin A to D, along with magnesium for D activation. Talk to your ND about getting on the right supplement regime.
3) Go to bed earlier, if possible.
During the darker months, we might end up feeling sleepier than normal. If you can let go of your perfectionism and accept less productivity, priotizing sleep and rest during this Yin time, it may improve mood and energy levels throughout these months.
I definitely feel I need more sleep during this time. Keep in mind most mammals are hibernating. Birds have flown south. Our ancestors likely conserved fuel, lamp oil and heat by going to bed earlier, snuggling under the covers with family members and pets to stay warm. Sleep is part of nature’s demands for us at this this time of year. As the Earth slows down, so should we.
Perhaps lowering the temp in your house can help support this need for sleep, the way that the dropping night temperatures encouraged me to hibernate beneath the covers around 7-8pm. Turning off bright lights will also help with this.
Notice how, when you lower light and temp in the evenings, sleepiness overtakes you.
4) Move your body.
Movement improves circulation and muscle health, stoking metabolism, which supports cold tolerance and adaptation. It might feel too cold to go outside, but once your body gets moving you will notice how fast you warm up and how much tolerable the cold can be.
Movement outside, especially during daylight hours is essential for mental health at this time of year.
5) Honour your cravings.
Starchy vegetables, meat stew, soups, apples, granola, nuts. Notice if you crave different foods at this time. Notice when you’re overeating sugar and refined carbs and if this may be your body compensating for not getting enough whole-food calories.
Our bodies don’t work the same way in the winter that they do in the summer. In the summer you might feel great on salads, smoothies and low carb dinners like barbecued chicken and vegetables.
During the winter you might need more potatoes or rice, root veggies and warming spices. You might eat more meat as a way to get micronutrients. You’ll likely need more protein to preserve and build warmth and muscle. You might turn to canned foods, frozen vegetables, less tropical fruit and more starchy veggies.
Your mitochondria are working harder during these months to keep you warm (if you get outside and get the appropriate amount of cold exposure, which has tons of anti-inflammatory and mood-stimulating benefits). We need to respect them by consuming enough calories, protein, micronutrients (B vitamins, magnesium and other minerals, etc.) and healthy saturated fats from butter, tallow and eggs. We need salt.
It is good for our digestion to eat cooked and warming foods during this time of year. Pumpkin spices. Cinnamon, ginger, warm teas for liquids.
Warm foods and drinks warm up the body and help stoke our metabolic fire that supports cold adaptation. Hunger and a strong digestive system are a gift during these months.
Honour your appetite. Don’t fight your body. Eat salt. Don’t compare how you look right now to how you look in the summer months (or to that tanned, shredded health influencer posting from Costa Rica). You’re not them. You’re a winter bear. You need nutrients.
While winter is a hard time of year with its lack of light and warmth, it can be a beautiful time of year. It can be an opportunity for more stillness, quiet and nourishmment. It can be an opportunity for connection and coziness (what the Danish call Hygge). Warm socks, fires. Skating and hiking in the snow. Snow angels. Beautiful long sunsets and long shadows on the sparkling white snow.
There is a quote I’m reminded of at this time of year:
“If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow.”
Remember that the season is not the problem–our ancestors have adapted to the cold over thousands of years. What is different it our societal habits and attitudes–our addiction to productivity and image. If we lean into nature’s rhythms, we might learn to find joy in the snow and get through the winter better in touch with our bodies and a deeper respect for this time of rest and adventure that the Earth provides.
What I learn from surfing is to roll with, harness and absorb the waves of life. Don’t fight them. A year comes in seasons. Breathe into change rather than resisting it. Let your body do its thing to keep you warm, safe, energized and happy.
Hippocrates once said “all disease begins in the gut” and, even though as a naturopathic doctor I have internalized this to the utmost degree, I still forget from time to time.
So, when I was having an increase in histamine symptoms (itchy eyes, runny nose, inflammation, congestion, itchy skin, immune issues), dental issues (bad breath, swollen tongue, increase in plaque and bleeding gums), gut issues (bloating, constipation, sugar cravings) and mood issues (PMS, low motivation, fatigue, brain fog, lower mood, fatigue) as well as other random symptoms such as decreased stamina, cold intolerance and otherwise just feeling “blah”, it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to connect all these symptoms to being caused by a gut microbial imbalance.
Our gut bacteria outnumber the cells of our body by 10 to 1. These little guys influence our digestion, mood and immune system. They affect our brain function. A recent study in Frontiers in Psychiatry (Nguyen et al., 2021) even connects the diversity of our microbiome with loneliness and wisdom.
Interestingly, loneliness and wisdom have been found to occur in inverse relationship with one another. In other words, the wiser you are, the less lonely. It’s important to note here that loneliness is not the same thing with isolation or being alone–sometimes alone time is necessary for the type of self-reflection that imbues wisdom.
Wisdom is a complex phenomenon that is made up of traits like compassion towards self and others, self-awareness and reflective thinking and deep knowledge about the world and the meaning of life events. From this description we can imagine how protective wisdom might be against mental illness and how it may lend to mental, emotional and physical wellness.
The wiser you are, the better able you may be to make meaning of and persevere through life’s difficulties and connect with others. Wisdom lends itself to an overarching view of self, life and humanity that may allow us to respond to life’s challenges with resilience.
Perhaps a wise person who is alone may also be aware that they are also part of an interconnected ecosystem that includes self and others. They may be aware of their place within the fabric of existence. In this way, they are never really alone.
Further, the meaning they may derive from states of aloneness may protect them against the feelings of social isolation that are characterized by loneliness. Imagine a wise figure. Perhaps they are alone, but would you say they are lonely?
Our gut is sometimes called “the second brain” and forms part of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in which our gut bugs influence the health of our intestines and thus influence our nervous system, immune system and brain (Cryan & Dinan, 2012). Our gut microbiome can even influence personality traits such as agreeableness, openness and even neuroticisim (Kim et al,m 2018). Interestingly, unhealthy gut bacteria like proteobacteria (associated with SIBO) were associated with low conscientiousness and high neuroticisim (Kim et al., 2018).
Does this mean that diet can influence our tendency to hand things in on time and keep our rooms clean? hmm…
But what if we are less in control of our behaviour and even personality than we think? The truth is the bacteria in our gut produce chemicals that influence our behaviour: what we crave and eat and even how we act and think. In turn, this influences the composition of our gut.
Prosocial behaviour is associated with more gut biodiversity, and people who are more social tend to have microbiomes that are more diverse (Johnson, 2020). This makes sense if you think about it. If you’re exposed to a variety of people and environments, you’re likely exposed to a variety of bacteria and viruses as well. These microbes are ingested and incorporate themselves into our bodies.
When we visit different environments we consume foods in those environments. When we socialize with various people, we often share food. This increase in food diversity will also influence gut microbial diversity.
As I write this, I wonder about the effects of social isolation of the past 2-3 years. During Covid, our social circles decreased. Currently we are seeing a rise in infections: colds, flus and other illnesses (RSV, hand food and mouth disease, pink eye and so on), particularly in children. I wonder if this lack of socialization has affected our microbiomes and thus our individual and collective immunity. A hypothesis worth exploring, perhaps…
Further, the hypersanitization may also have contributed to shifting the health of our microbiome. It still remains to be seen.
We know that a lack of gut diversity can affect our immune system and is associated with obesity, inflammatory bowel disease and major depressive disorder (Jiang et al., 2015). In mice, the health of the microbiome is essential for their social development (Desbonnet et al., 2014)!
So, what does this mean practically and clinically?
Throughout my studies and years practicing as a naturopathic doctor, a clear-cut path towards improving microbiobial health of the gut is still unclear to me. We know that increasing the amounts of plants and fibre in the diet can support gut diversity. But we also know that fibre can cause constipation and bloating in some individuals and aggravate their digestion and that there are many indiviudals who at least anecdotally seem to thrive on diets that reduce fibre, such as the Carnivore Diet or an Animal-Based Diet (which, by the way, I’m not necessarily recommending here).
For me, gut health has largely been about paying attention and noticing when things have gone astray and then (and this part is harder than it sounds) correctly attributing what has gone astray to a shift in the health of my microbiome.
This has been years in the making. Our gut produces pain in response to stretch (i.e.: from gases in the intestines). We don’t necessarily feel pain in our gut if we’re experiencing intestinal permeabilty (leaky gut) or dysbiosis. This means that there is not a lot of feedback from our body that tells us about the state of our gut. Our gut doesn’t always hurt if it’s inflamed or imbalanced in the way your shoulder might. We need to look for other signs and symptoms that alert us to the state of health of our guts.
For me symptoms of gut imbalance often correlate with symptoms of candida overgrowth (something I, like many, am prone to). Candida, a species of yeast, tends to flourish in my body if my overall gut ecosystem is failing to keep it in check. Sometimes this can occur due to stress, and increase of sugar in my diet and other factors.
Symptoms I notice are:
– A change in oral health: more plaque on my teeth, bad breath, tongue coating, bleeding gums, and so on. – A change in mood and mental functioning: symptoms of depression or dysthymia such as apathy, low motivation and lethargy. Brain fog, difficulty concentration, poorer executive function (particularly initiating tasks or increased procrastination). – A change in digestion: persistent bloating, more constipation (involving not just frequency but stool quality. They might be stickier or harder to pass). – A change in immune function: more mucus production and congestion. Allergy symptoms. Trouble breathing,. – A change in energy and metabolism: reduced stamina despite exercising. Weight gain. Water retention. Fatigue. Feeling cold. – A change in cravings: wanting more sugar, binge-eating and overeating. Obsessing about food. Cravings for sugar after meals. Feeling “hangry” more often. Difficulty feeling full. Mental hunger (hunger despite feeling the presence of food in the stomach). – A change in hormonal health: changes to libido, vaginal flora. heavier periods, irregular periods. Increased PMS.
And so on. If this seems like virtually every system in the body is affected, I remind us all that Hippocrates said it first (or at least most famously): “all disease begins in the gut”.
What is the solution? Like recognizing the cause, the solution is often subtle. For me it was focusing attention to gut health and slowly steering the ship back to healthier habits.
The problem with dysbiosis is it often maintains itself. Low energy leads to less socialization and less motivation to cook healthy meals. More cravings lends to poorer food choices. These are just some examples of what you can imagine to be a variety of maintenance processes that are caused by and serve to perpetuate dysbiosis.
Therefore for me, the solution is not to make drastic changes but to identify and shift these patterns in support my microbiome.
1) I took sugar out of my diet. For me this involved shifting away from my 3 fruits a day to starchy vegetables (like squashes, etc.) I thrive on a Paleo-like diet (a whole foods diet that emphasizes fruit, vegetables and animal protein) and subtly shifted back to one.
I didn’t completely eliminate fruit sugar as I don’t believe there is a need. However, I recognized that I was likely overconsuming sweet foods as a response to dysbiosis and this wasn’t serving me.
2) I got on a comprehensive and broad-spectrum probiotic. I often tell my patients that probiotic prescribing is more of an art than a science and involves some trial-and-error. I typically look for one that has 8+ strains and a high CFU (colony forming unit) count. I took Colon Care 90 Billion by New Roots. This is certainly not the only good one and it might not be the right one for you, but it’s one I selected for myself based on a variety of factors I was looking for that supported my individualized assessment of my gut health.
For me probiotics can be highly effective, but they take time to work. They often can aggravate symptoms initially. The first symptoms I notice that indicate improvement are an improvement in oral health.
3) I supported my digestion in general. This involves for me supporting the liver and gallbladder, which influence gut motility, bile flow (which helps keep the small bowel free of bacteria) and fat digestion (which prevents growth of more pathogenic microbes and stabilizes blood sugar).
4) I consumed anti-candida, antimicrobial foods that work for me (again, this is after much trial and error). Raw garlic, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar and oregano oil. I also started on a candida herbal supplement that incorporates cloves, black walnut and other anti-microbial herbs that selectively kill pathogenic microbes while typically preserving healthy ones.
5) I supported my microbiome by integrated back into nature: getting outside more, reducing chemical exposure (soaps, fragrances, plastics, pesticides, etc.) and getting more sunlight. Camping outside in the cold, sleeping on the ground and brushing my teeth in a natural brook in Nova Scotia also likely contributed to shifting the diversity of my microbiome through encouraging the exchange of my microbes with those of the earth.
6) I supported the body’s stress response by getting more sleep. When I’m awake I try to get as much sun exposure as possible. Our microbiome and our Circadian Rhythms are intricately connected. Supporting one can support the health of the other (Bishehsari et al., 2020). Regarding this, I wonder if Daylight Savings Time made some of us more susceptible for microbial imbalances in our guts? Hm…
Getting off track is a holistic multi-facted process. We all know our own vices and susceptibilities if we look deep enough.
Therefore, getting on track is an equally holisitic and comprehensive process. It involves wisdom (which, conveniently, increases as your microbial health increases). I can help you figure things out if you’re new to this process.
After implementing these strategies and paying a bit more attention for a few weeks I slowly and surely notice myself feeling more like myself. Getting back on track: more energy, better mood, better cold tolerance (this is a big one!) and better gut health. My appetite has regulated incredibly. I feel like a different person. But the shifts have been slow and sometimes subtle (as is often the case with shifting an entire ecosystem) and paying attention to them is a very important part of the process.
Wisdom.
It’s not just diet. It’s not just supplements. It involves looking at the relevant factors and gently moving back in the right direction with patience and persistence. Maybe your main point of focus needs to be eating regular meals and meal planning. Maybe you need more strength-training. Maybe you need to start socializing more, getting out in public (knitting circle, anyone? I’ve been hearing so much about knitting circles these days, haha–a sign from the universe?).
Maybe it’s time to look at emotional eating with a pair of fresh eyes (perhaps through the lens of your microbiota). Maybe you need to take a walk outside today. Everyday. Breathe fresh air. Take a probiotic.
Contact me if you need support! I’m here for you.
What else do you do for your gut microbiome?
References:
Bishehsari, F., Voigt, R. M., & Keshavarzian, A. (2020). Circadian rhythms and the gut microbiota: From the metabolic syndrome to cancer. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 16(12), 731–739. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-020-00427-4
Cryan, J. F., & Dinan, T. G. (2012). Mind-altering microorganisms: the impact of the gut microbiota on brain and behaviour. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 13(10), 701–712. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3346
Desbonnet, L., Clarke, G., Shanahan, F., Dinan, T. G., & Cryan, J. F. (2014). Microbiota is essential for social development in the mouse. Molecular psychiatry, 19(2), 146–148. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2013.65
Jiang, H., Ling, Z., Zhang, Y., Mao, H., Ma, Z., Yin, Y., Wang, W., Tang, W., Tan, Z., Shi, J., Li, L., & Ruan, B. (2015). Altered fecal microbiota composition in patients with major depressive disorder. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 48, 186–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2015.03.016
Johnson, K. V. A. (2020). Gut microbiome composition and diversity are related to human personality traits. Human Microbiome Journal, 15, 100069.
Kim, H. N., Yun, Y., Ryu, S., Chang, Y., Kwon, M. J., Cho, J., Shin, H., & Kim, H. L. (2018). Correlation between gut microbiota and personality in adults: A cross-sectional study. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 69, 374–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2017.12.012
Nguyen, T. T., Zhang, X., Wu, T.-C., Liu, J., Le, C., Tu, X. M., Knight, R., & Jeste, D. V. (2021). Association of loneliness and wisdom with gut microbial diversity and composition: An exploratory study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.648475
What is your favourite season? Normally Fall is mine. Perhaps it’s because I’ve spent so many years as a perennial student, but the wool scarves, crisp leaves and fresh air (and pumpkin spice!) has always held a special place in my heart.
However, this year fall hit hard. It seems like within a weekend, the temps here in Southern Ontario dropped 10 degrees (celsius) and then within another weekend dropped another 10. We went from shorts weather to winter coats within a few short weeks. As an internet meme stated, “Summer left like it owed someone money” (haha!).
This rapid change can put pressure on our Spleens.
Now, what does the Spleen have to do with fall or temperature, you ask? In Western Medicine, nothing.
Anatomically, our spleen (located on the left side of the abdomen) is a reservoir for blood.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), however the Spleen is an incredibly interesting and special organ.
The Spleen in TCM works more like a pancreas. It’s job is to take digested food and turn it into energy, or Qi, for the body to use. The spleen helps transition the body during the change of seasons, particularly from summer to fall.
The Spleen regulates digestion, moving food Qi (the energy the food we eat) into energy that can be used by the body (think of how the pancreas’ job is to release insulin and digestive enzymes to incorporate sugars into cells to be used for energy.
It governs the flesh and muscles (supporting muscle growth from the food we eat).
It governs thought, memory and learning. An overactive or dysfunctional spleen can lead to rumination (overdigestion of thoughts). Digesting and incorporating too many thoughts can overload the spleen (think studying or ingesting large amounts of information—note the analogy to digesting food here!)
The spleen manages blood (moving energy and substance around the body to nourish the skin and hair).
It also supports immune function (or Wei Qi)
It gives us mental and physical energy
The spleen regulates our intellect and spirit as well as emotions (enthusiasm, sadness and worry).
During the change of season our Spleens are workinghard. Deficient Spleen Qi (or energy) can lead to an accumulation of mucus, digestive issues (bloating, constipation, diarrhea), fatigue, depression, muscle weakness, bruising and bleeding disorders.
Cravings for sweet can damage the Spleen (but also be a result of Spleen Qi deficiency). Phlegm and dampness (another word for weight gain in Chinese Medicine) can accumulate if the spleen is congested and having trouble cleanly converting energy from our food into energy from the body.
So think of typical fall symptoms (particularly if we consider that Fall is the time we are ingesting more information and mentally busier with back-to-school for students): congestion, susceptibility to colds and flus, fatigue, sluggishness, lower mood.
Spleen Qi deficiency can also cause dry skin and lips, a swollen tongue, feelings of sadness, rumination and worry. Prolonged spleen qi deficiency can lead to Spleen Yang Deficiency (feelings of deep fatigue, coldness, swelling and weight gain).
How do we support Spleen Qi?
Regulating our consumption of sugar (avoiding refined sugar and consuming natural sugars from starchy vegetables and fruit instead).
Taking time to rest the mind (meditation, yoga, prioritizing sleep)
Protecting the “windgate” or back of the neck using scarves to protect our immune system (the wind gate is where “cold” gets into the body).
Consuming nourishing and easy-to-digest foods that are warm and slow-cooked. Think soups and stews, bone broths, congee, root veggies, beef and chicken, warming spices like ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, etc. (hello, pumpkin spice!)
Consuming warm drinks like herbal teas like President’s Choice “feeling soothed” or “feeling revitalized” or “feeling energized” (all containing herbal combos that support Spleen and adrenal health).
Considering taking adaptogenic herbs like schisandra, astragalus, codonopsis, goji, Lycii and wild yam (some of which are ingredients in change of season soup) which support our adrenals and immune system.
Supporting the emotions, engaging in laughter, cuddles, and play more often to take the focus off the mind and thoughts and support deeper, spleen-y emotions like enthusiasm and child-like play.
Because fall hit so hard, I didn’t have time to get into my Spleen routines. I went from cold smoothies in the morning and lots of coffee to feeling tired, sluggish and congested–ugh!
Now that we’re well into October and Canadian Thanksgiving has past, I am remembering my Spleen practices. These involve spending time in the kitchen to create warm stews (cooking beef and vegetables with curry spices) and bone broths. I’ve given up coffee and started consuming copious amounts of green and herbal tea.
I’ve started taking herbs to support gut health like oregano and ginger.
I’ve gotten back into taking a probiotic.
And, finally, I’ve started taking my cod liver oil to get a healthy dose of vitamin D and vitamin A to support immunity and mood.
It’s also important to spend as much time outside as possible. Days are getting shorter and our exposure to mood-elevating and stimulating sunlight is getting sparser and sparser. We’re spending more time inside as we work on sedentary projects that tax the mind but leave the body unattended to.
While many patients state that they find it hard to get outside when the days cool off, I urge you to consider that cold exposure is the single most important thing you can do to prepare your mind and immune system for winter.
Get outside daily (without sunglasses–if appropriate for you) and go for a walk. Enjoy the fall colours. Protect your windgate. Breathe in the fresh air.
Cold exposure increases your body’s ability to create antioxidants. It also “hardens” the body for cold resilience making the transition to winter much more enjoyable.
And, of course, remember to tend to your spleen as the days get colder and shorter.
Did you know it can take modern medical research 17 to 20 years before it reaches mainstream medical practice?
Sometimes it takes us time to be sure and this means repeating study results over and over again with various populations. Sometimes, however it can take time to instill new consciousness into our habits and routines. We humans are creatures of habit and prone to bias. It can he hard to change our minds and change our ways, which can lead to even the most well-meaning and intelligent doctors making outdated recommendations or relying on old science.
For instance, have you ever been told (or know someone who’s been told) to avoid eggs for your cholesterol (facepalm). What about low-fat diets? Ridiculous as it may seem, this is still being said to my patients.
You get my point, right?
This brings me to the topic of supplementation for two nutrients that we North Americans are prone to deficiency in: Vitamin D and Iron.
Let’s start with iron.
Iron: Is needed to make hemoglobin in red blood cells. It shuttles oxygen around the body. We use that oxygen for cellular respiration (to make energy) in our mitochondria.
Low iron can lead to anemia (lack of red blood cells, hemoglobin and hematocrit).
Low iron can cause symptoms such as: low energy, low mood (dopamine), low thyroid function, feelings of cold, racing heart, anxiety, dizziness, weakness, hair loss, dry and pale skin, low stamina and exercise tolerance as the body is not able to move oxygen around the body to make energy.
So, what do you do when your iron is low? Supplement, right? Normally, I would have said yes.
That’s where things have changed for me.
So, I noticed that even if I recommended gentle iron supplements (iron bisglycinate or heme iron), patients wouldn’t take them. Even if they didn’t cause constipation (which the conventionally prescribed ferrous fumarate is infamous for) or other gastrointestinal symptoms, patients had a certain aversion to iron supplements that was hard to explain.
Further, sometimes they would raise blood iron levels and sometimes they wouldn’t. Sometimes they would raise levels and then levels would fall back down again.
It’s interesting to note that iron is the most abundant element on the planet, making up 35% of the Earth. It is fortified in commonly eating foods like bread and cereals. The problem is not iron intake, it is iron metabolism, or the way that iron is moved throughout the body.
We can have 10 times the amount of iron lodged in our tissues than is present and measured in our blood. And this isn’t good. Iron interacts with oxygen and causes oxidation (or “rusting”). This can cause inflammation of our tissues, like gut tissue. It can negatively impact our livers. We want iron safely stored in hemoglobin.
In order to get iron out of our tissues we need an enzyme call ceruloplasmin, which depends on the element copper. Copper is needed to get iron out of the tissues and into the blood in the form of hemoglobin so that it can be used to move oxygen to our mitochondria to give us energy.
Now, we also need preformed vitamin A (retinol, only found in animal foods) to load copper into ceruloplasmin.. (to get iron into hemoglobin so that oxygen can get to our cells, it’s like that song “The Farmer takes a wife”, haha). You get the picture.
Put simply:
Energy– > oxygen in mitochondria –> hemoglobin (with iron) –> requires ceruloplasmin (vitamin A and copper).
So, the key to supporting iron levels and energy production is not more iron! It’s the nutrients that help iron work properly in the body. Copper and Vitamin a, which are found (along with highly absorbable heme iron) in Beef Liver!
Interestingly enough Whipple, Minot and Murphy were awarded the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine in 1934 when they discovered that beef liver cured anemia and pernicious anemia (B12 deficiency).
Beef liver is rich in choline (supports the liver, especially fatty liver, cell membranes, brain health, digestion, gallbladder function, mood and memory), zinc, B vitamins and hyaluronic acid.
Very often we find that we are implementing too many interventions and the key is to go back to our roots: to nature and ancestral practices to solve our problems. Sometimes we don’t need more technology, but more nature. An ancestral food that few of us consume anymore (at least not regularly). Good old beef liver. I will tell patients to consume lightly cooked grass-fed liver or take it in a supplement form (which is what I do).
Vitamin D is actually a hormone. It regulates 900 genes in the body that are involved in bone health, immune function (supporting low immune function and autoimmunity) and mood.
We humans get vitamin D from the sun. Sun hits cholesterol in our skin and our skin makes vitamin D. This is the best way to get vitamin D. Therefore in sunny climates, get sun! Clothing and sunscreen blocks vitamin D, fyi. About 20 minutes a day of direct sun on 20% of your skin (t-shirt and shorts), can generally give you your daily vitamin D.
However, in the winter, our skin does not have access to sun exposure and we don’t make vitamin D. So what do we do? Well, up until recently I would have told you to take a vitamin D supplement, in the form of drops (as D is fat-soluble) to make sure that your blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH D) is >125 nmol/L.
However: vitamin D requires magnesium to be activated in the body (and most modern humans are notoriously deficient in magnesium). Sometimes low blood levels of D are actually an indication of low magnesium.
Further, high levels of supplemental vitamin D also deplete levels of vitamin A (or retinol). Vitamin A and vitamin D must be taken together as they are biological partners. In fact, one of the things that sunlight does is activate preformed vitamin A in the skin as well as activate vitamin D synthesis. Vitamin A helps activate Vitamin D receptors (and remember that vitamin A is responsible for iron metabolism as well).
The good news is that both vitamin D and vitamin A are found together in nature in Cod Liver oil (along with the antiinflammatory omega 3 fish oils EPA and DHA). So, I am more frequently recommending Cod liver oil as a vitamin D source along with magnesium to help support vitamin D metabolism in the body. We need to get vitamin D from a supplemental source in the winter if we’re not getting enough sun, however the precautionary principle will tell us that historic supplementation (what our Northern ancestors might have practiced) contains lots of wisdom.
Nutrients don’t work in isolation. They work in networks (just like our hormones and immune cells). We need copper and Vitamin A to regulate iron. We need magnesium and vitamin A to regulate vitamin D.
Isolating and supplementing with single vitamins and minerals may be indicated for some patients (going deep and narrow, particularly for people with pronounced and specific deficiencies), however in general I’m moving to a more holistic and ancestral prescribing practice with most patients when appropriate–this is where I see the current evidence pointing: to a more holistic vs. reductionist approach.
That being said, everyone is different and so all prescriptions are highly individualized. There are some people who these supplements are not indicated for or appropriate for and so alternatives are prescribed.
The reason my practice is built around 1:1 visits is because this is where the magic lies. In individualist prescribing. You are not the same as your neighbour. You have specific needs and considerations for your health.
I hope that makes sense. The world of nuritition is a fascinating subject. In order to stay on top of the current best practices it is my responsible to be on top of the research (sifting through the vast arrays of information) and flexible enough to pivot my approach when necessary.
I don’t practice the same way I did when I graduated. Or even the exact same way I did last year. It is important to keep things fresh and current and not let ego stand in the way of changing things for the better.
What do you think? Do you take beef liver and cod liver oil? How’s that been going for you?
We’ve been hearing quite a lot about The Science these days. So, what is science? How does science guide medical practice and naturopathic medicine?
The science council defines science as, “the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.” The answer is, science is a methodology.
It is applied in medicine through Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) which starts with the individual patient and incorporates: clinical expertise, scientific evidence (that best that exists according to a hierarchy), and patient values and preferences.
“Evidence medicine is the conscientious, explicit, judicious and reasonable use of modern, best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. EBM integrates clinical experience and patient values with the best available research information.”
The Evidence-Based Pyramid
In EBM, evidence exists in a hierarchy, represented by the Evidence Based Pyramid (shown above). Animal studies are at the bottom, case reports (clinical anecdotes) somewhere in the middle and randomized control trials and meta-analyses (the Gold Standard of evidence) at the top.
Dave Sackett (the Father of EBM) et al. write in the British Medical Journal (1996),
“Good doctors use both individual clinical expertise and the best available external evidence and neither alone is enough.”
In addiction to scientific evidence, EBM must incorporate:
Patient values
A bottom-up approach (it is patient-centred, not guideline-centred)
The needs of the individual (EBM is not a one-size-fits-all formula)
Clinical expertise
The best available evidence: this does not mean using only randomized control trials. Sometimes the best evidence we have are case reports, historical and traditional use of an herb or animal studies. We still owe our patients the opportunity to see if a treatment works for them, especially if the risk of a given treatment is low.
As clinicians, we use our knowledge in different ways. We start with an assessment of the individual in front of us. This assessment takes into account the factors that influence this patient’s life, their lifestyle, their health condition and their overall health goals.
We then turn to clinical experience, research, our scientific knowledge and guidelines.
We share this information with our patient. Our job is to educate and convey the options so that the individual can provide informed consent. How does this knowledge fit into the patient’s life? How does it inform their choice?
Science is not a set of values. It is not a religion. We do not follow it.
Science provides us with a methodology for seeking the answers to questions we might ask about how the principles of nature, including the human body, are organized.
Science encourages us to ask questions and testing hypotheses in order to find answers.
It is never settled.
Most of all, science doesn’t tell us how to use scientific knowledge.
Our choices are governed by our goals, preferences and values.
So, “follow the sicence?”
No. Follow your goals, preferences, values and dreams.
And use science to help guide your way.
Reference:
Sackett, D. L., Rosenberg, W. C., Gray, J. M., Haynes, R. B., & Richardson, W. S. (1996). Evidence based medicine: What it is and what it isn’t. BMJ, 312(7023), 71–72.
Brett Weinstein and Heather Heying have a t-shirt that says “Welcome to Complex Systems” on it.
Indeed.
Many patients and biological reductionism want to know what caused my anxiety, depression, hormonal issues, and autoimmune disease? What did I do wrong, or that went wrong for me? What was the food I failed to eat, the ingredient I was missing or the thing that caused the house of cards that represented my health to topple?
I think it’s appropriate to answer, “welcome to complex systems.”
Like everything else in nature, your body, your mental health is a complex system. This means that it consists of many factors, many of which have yet to be identified, virtually all that have yet to be correctly understood, that drive its function—even seeing health as an absence of disease, which is essentially how our medical system is organized, is a product of biological reductionism. Biological (or rather mechanical reductionism), the attempt to identify the loose screw or the spring that’s out of place, works for your car, but it doesn’t work for your brain, body, mental or physical health.
Understanding health might be better done using the Biopsychosocial Model, a framework for understanding where we sit today in terms of our health from the context of our biology, psychology, and social environment. Further, the biology part of the biopsychosocial factors that drive our health can be considered triggers and drivers rather than cause and effect.
This understanding is crucial when setting health goals. Because health is more than just the absence of disease, goals should extend beyond simply treating symptoms. They should encompass improvements in all aspects of our lives. While a balanced diet and exercise are foundational, some people may find that ideal supplements can address specific nutritional deficiencies or provide additional support for their unique needs. Whether it’s managing stress, improving sleep, or boosting energy levels, a personalized approach that considers the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors will ultimately lead to a more sustainable and fulfilling path towards a healthier you.
Say you are feeling terrible. You’re feeling exhausted and agitated, and you’re constipated, and your hair is falling out. You see your doctor, and they tell you everything is great. You push for some bloodwork. Your doctor says your thyroid is slightly off, but it’s likely nothing.
So you take the bloodwork to your naturopathic doctor, who tells you your stimulating thyroid hormone, or TSH, is out of range, indicating that your thyroid seems to be under-functioning. They order more testing to understand what else lies under the hood and find your anti-thyroid antibodies are sky-high. It turns out you might have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or a condition of under-functioning thyroid driven by autoimmunity.
You also have celiac and a family history of multiple sclerosis, thyroid issues, and other autoimmune diseases. How did this happen?
For months you were dealing with a ton of stress. You also haven’t been eating the greatest. But you haven’t been sleeping well either, and it’s hard to eat well when you’re so darn tired. You’ve been working a lot, dealing with a global pandemic and all, and things haven’t been great. But this is compounded by the fact that you’re not feeling great, which makes it harder to deal with the stress, making the condition worse–a vicious cycle.
At least now you know that something is going on, and it’s not all in your head, but what caused this?
We want to know the exact cause of something to find the specific treatment. This is biological reductionism. Something is missing; we’ve identified the thing, so here’s the magic bullet that will target the exact issue and either replace it or weed it out.
The problem with complex systems is that when we pull one thread on this ball of yarn that is your health, a knot gets tightened somewhere else. Like the post on Chesterton’s fence, complex systems are difficult to understand. So we must assume we don’t fully understand them, and therefore I believe we should exercise humility when it comes to tugging on pieces of yarn that comprise the whole operation.
For example, the side effects of drugs aren’t side effects; they’re effects. Some of these effects are wanted. But all the other effects that happen, such as weight gain, agitation, or migraines from anti-anxiety medication, are unwanted. And they are still effects of the drug. Side effects of drugs are indications that we have failed to understand the implications of messing with complex systems entirely.
Sometimes this might be warranted. The system might be so far out of bounds that it could kill you unless we intervene. Sometimes the drug is more specific–if you don’t have a thyroid, you need thyroid hormone. However, does the thyroid have a role beyond simply producing T4 (thyroid medication)? While thyroid hormone medication might be indicated or necessary, is it fully completing the thyroid’s function in the complex system? What about T3? (or T1 and T2)? What about iodine? What about the driver contributing to thyroid dysfunction? Is it still driving disease? Might it start to create other symptoms elsewhere in the body?
In other words, have we entirely dealt with the problem when we reduce thyroid dysfunction down to deficiency of a single hormone?
So, I explain to my patient; there isn’t a cause of autoimmune disease or a thyroid condition. There are drivers, such as chronic inflammation (which might be triggered by a specific food your immune system doesn’t like). There might be a driver like chronic stress triggered by a more stressful event. Genes can be drivers or susceptibilities triggered by environmental factors, such as nutrient deficiencies. So, it’s not gluten that caused your thyroid issue, but it might start or driveimmune system overactivation and chronic inflammation, contributing to the problem.
So what does this mean for treatment? It means we need to look at the ball of yarn respectfully. We need to appreciate how many symptoms are a healthy response and compensation by the body. If we randomly attack a symptom like fatigue with a stimulant, we might further drive the inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, or stress that underly that symptom. We need to understand what the body lacks (what’s it deficient in?) and when it might have too many environmental toxins, allergens, chronic stress, blue light, etc.
We need to look at the system and help it re-establish its equilibrium. Cleaning up garbage in a pond is likely a good idea–it probably shouldn’t be there in the first place. The pond didn’t create the trash. But what about something else we don’t want, like an algae overgrowth? But if we throw an algaecide in the water, what unseen harm might we be doing to the pond’s ecosystem if we mess with it? Has the pond created algae for the reason that currently escapes us, but wouldn’t if we looked a little deeper?
Why doesn’t our modern medical model treat our bodies as complex systems? I’m not sure. A few guesses, though. Complex systems are complicated, if not impossible, to understand. They require time to unravel. They need patience and education. They require effort on the part of the patient to try to shift their environment to eliminate or adjust possible triggers. They are impossibly hard to market and profit from.
Getting our concept of a complex system “right” can take time. It might take trial and error, collecting information, curiosity, and a willingness to try. It might take admitting that our culture has many aspects to it that are inherently unhealthy.
We might have to find a mini culture where people get sun, eat well, move, and sleep early to support our health. We might have to be “stricter” than the people around us. These people may have similar drivers working below the surface, but their symptoms may look different. They do not display symptoms like fatigue or anxiety until their systems have completely shifted beyond balance.
We are all a manifestation of complex systems. Laini Taylor says, “Inside each of us, there is a world that no one else can ever know or see or visit.”
“There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”
In other words, beware of tearing down structures until you fully understand their benefit.
Chesterton’s Fence can also be thought of as the Precautionary Principle. Not following this principle led to scientific practices like frontal lobotomies or removing the entire large intestine because doctors didn’t understand the benefits of these structures or the consequences of removing them.
A narrow range of focus, i.e., this organ is causing a problem, or we don’t know why it’s here, led to drastic action that resulted in unforeseen, disastrous consequences.
I believe that such is the case with our stomach acid.
The stomach is essentially a lined bag filled with acid. Stomach pH is from 1.5 to 3.5, acidic enough to burn a hole in your shoe. However, the mucus layer of the stomach protects it from being destroyed by the acid. The acid in the stomach helps dissolve and digest the food chewed up by the teeth and swallowed.
Stomach pH is needed for breaking down proteins. Stomach acid also plays a role in absorbing minerals such as calcium, zinc, manganese, magnesium, copper, phosphorus and iron. It activates intrinsic factor, which is needed for B12 absorption in the small intestine.
Stomach acid regulates the rate of gastric emptying, preventing acid reflux.
Fast-forward to a condition called gastric esophageal reflux disease, or GERD. GERD affects about 20% of Western countries, characterized by high esophageal pH and reflux of the stomach acid and stomach contents into the esophagus. While the stomach is designed to handle a shallow pH environment, the esophagus is not. A doorway called the lower esophageal sphincter, or LES, keeps stomach contents where they should be–in the stomach.
In GERD, the tone of the LES is weak, resulting in a backflow of stomach contents. This can damage the esophagus, causing heartburn, pain, bad breath, coughing and even problems like ear pain, sore throat, and mucus in the throat. Silent reflux occurs when these symptoms occur without burning.
The symptoms occur from the stomach’s acidic contents irritating the more delicate tissues of the esophagus. So, rather than treat the root problem, i.e., the reflux, drugs like proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), H2 blockers, and buffers like Tums are recommended to reduce the stomach’s acidity.
Essentially, with GERD, we are tearing down Chesterton’s Fence to pave a road without taking even a moment to consider why the fence might be there in the first place.
About 12% of people are prescribed PPIs. They are given for GERD, gastritis, and IBS symptoms like bloating and stomach pain. Most of my patients are prescribed them for virtually any stomach complaint. PPIs, it seems, are the hammers wielded by many GPs, and so every digestive concern must look like a nail. Most people are put on them inevitably, without a plan to end the use and address the root cause of symptoms, which in most GERD cases are low LES tone.
PPIs raise stomach pH, disrupting stomach function. This causes issues with mineral absorption and protein digestion. Their use results in B12, vitamin C, calcium, iron, and magnesium deficiencies. Many of these deficiencies, like magnesium deficiency, can’t be tested and therefore might show up sub-clinically in tight muscles, headaches, painful periods, disrupted sleep and anxiety, and constipation. Therefore they fly under the radar of most primary care doctors.
No one connects someone’s heartburn medication with their recent onset of muscle tightness and anxiety.
Many of my patients report difficulties digesting meat and feeling bloated and tired after eating, particularly when consuming a protein-rich meal. They conclude that the meat isn’t good for them. The problem, however, is not meat but that stomach acid that is too diluted to break down the protein in their meal, leading to gas and bloating as the larger protein fragments enter the small intestine.
Many digestive problems result from this malabsorption and deficiency in stomach acid, not too much. Zinc is required for stomach acid production, and one of the best sources of zinc is red meat (zinc is notoriously lacking from plant foods). I have recently been prescribing lots of digestive enzymes and zinc to work my patients’ digestive gears.
Therefore, beware of tearing down a fence without understanding why it’s there. Stomach acid is essential for digesting our food, and regulating blood sugar and building muscle mass through protein digestion.
It is necessary for mineral absorption and B12 digestion. Our stomachs were designed to contain an extremely low pH. They evolved over millennia to do this. Stomach acid is low for a reason. It’s highly unlikely that our bodies made a mistake when it comes to stomach acid.
Therefore, beware of messing with it.
Consider that our bodies know what they’re doing. Consider the importance of finding and treating the actual root cause, not one factor that, if mitigated, can suppress symptoms while causing a host of other problems.
Don’t block your stomach acid.
As Hippocrates said, “All disease begins in the gut.”
It is the boundary between us and the outside world, the border where our body carefully navigates what can come in and nourish us and what should stay outside of us: our fence. Beware of tearing it down.
References:
Antunes C, Aleem A, Curtis SA. Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. [Updated 2021 Jul 18]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441938/
Daniels B, Pearson SA, Buckley NA, Bruno C, Zoega H. Long-term use of proton-pump inhibitors: whole-of-population patterns in Australia 2013-2016. Therap Adv Gastroenterol. 2020;13:1756284820913743. Published 2020 Mar 19. doi:10.1177/1756284820913743
Heidelbaugh JJ. Proton pump inhibitors and risk of vitamin and mineral deficiency: evidence and clinical implications. Ther Adv Drug Saf. 2013;4(3):125-133. doi:10.1177/2042098613482484
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted something about DIY natural skincare. I used to tinker in my kitchen, mixing up concoctions using beeswax, cocoa butter, and other ingredients to create natural deodorants, lip balms, and dry shampoos.
It was a lot of fun but these days I don’t bother because now my go-to is this tallow salve.
I started putting tallow on my face when I learned that coconut oil was too drying. I needed something to solidify the castor oil and rosehips combo I was putting on my skin before bed and I learned that because tallow’s fatty acids are heat stable, it can moisturize while protecting the skin against free radical and sun damage. Saturated fats are less prone to oxidation, and therefore tallow with its CLA and stearic acid (plus the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K) can help protect the skin.
I have combination skin that’s prone to greasiness. I also have large pores that clog and I’m prone to milia, blackheads, and cystic acne. After using this mixture for about a month, my skin has never looked better.
I’m happy with how my skin looks– the acne that I’ve struggled with throughout my 20s and 30s has disappeared (even during that dreaded high-acne pre-period week). My skin tone is even and feels incredibly soft.
The mixture absorbs really well into the skin, leaving it non-greasy. I can put BB cream or makeup on right after, using this as a moisturizing base—especially during the drier winter months in Canada.
Rosehips oil adds extra sun protection and vitamin C. Castor oil is highly emollient, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory and helps to relax and reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
In fact, the entire concoction is anti-inflammatory, moisturizing and pro-skin protection and repair. It doesn’t clog pores or feel greasy, and can reduce rashes, acne, uneven skin texture, and clogged pores.
Ingredients:
Grassfed tallow
Rosehips oil
Castor oil
Sesame seed oil
(all preferably organic)
Fill half of a glass container with melted grass-fed tallow. Then mix equal parts castor, sesame and rosehips oil. Stir until even. Refrigerate until the mixture is solid. Store at room temperature.
You can apply it twice a day or more to face, body, and the ends of the hair. You can also use it as a hair mask that you wash out later for deeper conditioning.
This salve is not to be used to treat any medical conditions. Talk to your doctor, dermatologist or healthcare provider to determine if this salve is good for your skin.
In the winter of 2019 I took a surfing lesson in Costa Rica. I fell in love–the sun and salt water on my skin, the beautiful view of the beach, the spray off the back of the waves, the loud crashing of translucent turquoise, and the feeling of power, ease, flow and grace as I stood on a board, using the energy of the earth to fly across water.
The problem was, however, I would be going home in a week to a landlocked part of the world that spends a lot of its months covered in ice.
It was depressing.
Then I met a girl from Toronto, a psychotherapist who worked at a clinic just down the street from my old one.
“You can surf in Toronto, you know”, she informed me.
Where? I thought, astounded.
“On the lakes!” She exclaimed.
I was flabbergasted–perhaps I could be a surfer after all. The beach bum lifestyle, the rock hard abs, the zinc oxide cheek bones, the chronically wet hair, watching the winds and tides and slipping out for a sun-soaked hour during a work break. Could this be true–could you surf the Great Lakes?
“The thing is,” she continued, “the surf season is from October to March”.
Oh.
Winter surfing.
It was still interested, though.
Back in Toronto, I waited for the next strong February East wind and headed to a surf spot I’d heard about on Lake Ontario. I was met with a crowd of black neoprene-clad surfers, soaked by water, wind and sleet. The elements were harsh. The stoke, however, was infectious.
Ok, I could do this, I thought.
My next stop was the surf shop. I purchased gear and the rest is history.
Not a lot of us are built to slip into near-freezing water during the frigid winter months to catch a few waves. Lake waves are harder to catch, the currents are strong, ice chunks are a thing to watch out for, and… it’s friggin’ cold! But, surfing is surfing. The lakes provide beautiful landscapes, just like the ocean, and the feeling of catching a wave and riding it is the same.
There’s also the benefit of body hardening.
We modern humans are very different from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Our genes may be the same, but our lifestyles couldn’t be further apart. Down-filled jackets and central heating protect us from the discomfort of the elements. In a sense, our lives are temperature controlled.
However, our incidence of chronic degenerative disease has never been higher.
Body hardening practices involves exposure against natural stimuli, such as intense cold, that results in increased resilience–resistance to disease and improved health.
A 1998 study in QJM: an international journal of medicine looked at antioxidant production in German winter swimmers.
Winter swimming, just like winter surfing, is a thing. As of the 90s, there were 3000 Germans who participated in winter swimming clubs. They were known to experience a 40% reduction in respiratory diseases compared to the rest of the population, debunking the notion that if you exposure yourself to cold you’ll “catch a cold”.
The study looked at 23 male and 13 female who had been members of a Berlin winter swimming club for more than two years. On average they swam for 5 to 10 minutes on a weekly basis in water between 1 and 5 degrees celsius. Their blood levels of glutathione were compared with that of 28 healthy men and 12 healthy women who had never participated in cold-exposure body hardening therapies such as winter swimming.
Glutathione is our body’s main antioxidant. It protects us from free radicals (reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species, ROS and RNS, respectively) that are harmful to our cells. It is produced from three amino acids: glycine, cysteine, and glutamine.
Glutathione reduces oxidative stress produced by these free radicals that occur in cells as a result of their energy production, as well as toxins, pollutants and other stressors. A deficiency of glutathione is associated with an increased risk of cancer, accelerated aging, and other diseases, such as metabolic disease like diabetes and cognitive diseases like Parkinson’s. It decreases as a result of aging, chronic disease, toxin exposure, and chronic stress.
Elevating glutathione status has been shown to improve conditions like insulin resistance, autoimmune diseases, cognitive and mental health conditions, fatty liver and cirrhosis, autism, and respiratory diseases.
It was found that after cold water exposure, blood levels of antioxidants like glutathione decreases, indicating that cold water exposure induces oxidative stress on the body. However, after a period of time, glutathione levels rose higher than that of baseline.
Baseline blood levels of glutathione were higher in cold water swimmers, indicating that their bodies were more efficient at producing glutathione in response to the temporary oxidative stress imposed on them by the cold exposure.
In essence, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
This is called hormesis: when temporary stress is imposed on our bodies, we respond with adaptive measures, such as increased glutathione production to combat that stress. However, our bodies are smart. They figure that if we’re exposed to some cold stress, there might be more coming. Therefore, it might be a good idea to invest energy into hardening, preparing for more of that same stress in the future and, in essence, becoming more resilient. And so, when exposed to a stressor, we often produce more antioxidant than is needed to simply overcome that stressor, and this results in an overall net benefit to our health and well-being.
Just like lifting weights makes us stronger for the next time we lift weights, we become stronger and more resilient at our baseline as we prepare for the next hit of cold, heat, exercise, or stress.
The 1998 study also revealed that cold water swimmers had more enzymes that combat free radicals such as superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase, meaning that their cells were better prepared to ramp up antioxidant production quickly and neutralize free radicals at a moment’s notice, if needed.
Cold water swimmers also produced four times more norepinephrine after their cold exposure. Norepinephrine is part of our fight or flight response, but is also associated with increased energy, mood, motivation and well-being. Imagine a hit of caffeine–that’s a bit what cold burst can do to you via norepinephrine. Heart race increases, and we’re filled with an excited euphoria.
Norepinephrine is part of the reason why cold therapy has been touted as a remedy for depression. Cold exposure provides a much-needed burst of mobilizing chemicals to kickstart feelings of well-being and motivation for people who are struggling with low mood and arousal.
Cold therapy also increases dopamine by 250%, according to a 2000 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Dopamine gives us the sense of motivation and meaning in pursuing a goal. It fills us with purpose and drive. So many of us are starved of dopamine and therefore so much of our culture involves trying to increase dopamine: scrolling social media, consuming sugar, playing video games, and so on.
The problem with many of these attempts to boost dopamine is that they come with a cost. We get a hit of pleasure from consuming sugar, for example, followed by a dip in our baseline levels of dopamine. Overall, we’re left feeling empty, foggy, purposeless, and addicted. We experience cravings that need to be filled.
Even supplements like Macuna pruriens and l-tyrosine, designed to boost dopamine levels, result in crashes 30 to 45 minutes after they peak.
Cold exposure, however, gives us a hit of dopamine that remains elevated for hours without a resulting crash. This provides an intense boost to mood, motivation, cognitive function, concentration, focus, purpose and drive. Like norepinephrine this can also contribute to cold therapy’s anti-depressive effect.
It seems that if we engage in something hard and uncomfortable, something that requires effort–like cold exposure–our body rewards us with an increase in mood, motivation and drive through the enhancement of dopamine production in our brains.
Winter surfing has been an immense gift to my health and well-being. It’s given me purpose, community, exposure to nature, and a wonderful outlet for body hardening. If I go more than a week without a surf session I start to feel a bit of withdrawal. There is nothing more therapeutic than hours spent checking the forecast, and driving to chase waves in order to end up floating in the middle of a beautiful lake, surrounded by nature and friends.
With regular winter surfing I feel invigorated, energized and fit–the mood-lifting effects of the cold exposure is comparable to nothing else.
This winter my message to everyone is: get outside. Exposure yourself to cold. Expose yourself to nature. Use the elements and the changing seasons as tools to enhance your health.
There are incredible mood-elevating, immune system-boosting and anti-aging benefits to becoming more resilient. While it may be uncomfortable, cold adaptation is a sign of your improved vitality and disease resistance.
Nature’s harshness evolved us. Temperature extremes helped to shape our DNA. Our genes contain codes for amazing mental, emotional, and physical resilience. They are waiting to be turned on at a moment’s notice, if only they’re given a reason.
Cold exposure flips the on-switch to your body’s incredible superpowers. Let’s explore the potential of this beautiful vessel in which we all live.
References:
Šrámek, P., Šimečková, M., Janský, L. et al. Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures. Eur J Appl Physiol81, 436–442 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004210050065
W.G. Siems, R. Brenke, O. Sommerburg, T. Grune, Improved antioxidative protection in winter swimmers, QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, Volume 92, Issue 4, April 1999, Pages 193–198, https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/92.4.193
You know how you just want the recipe and yet you have to scroll through someone’s long story about their cat and their grandma and a blistery winter day?
Forget all that. I made this curry.
Here’s the recipe (you’re welcome 😜 ):
Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk (full fat, Arroy-D)
2 heads broccoli, chop off the florets into small pieces
2 large bell peppers, chopped into slices
1/2 jar of Thai Kitchen red curry paste (nice, clean, delicious, free of seed oils 👍 )
4 large chicken breasts
Salt, pepper, olive oil.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (you can also do all this in the air fryer). Add chopped chicken breast to a baking pan, add broccoli and peppers, drizzle with olive oil. Cook for 45 minutes (or until everything is cooked).
In a large stir-fry pan, add cooked vegetables and chicken, add red curry paste and coconut milk.
You can serve on rice, but you don’t have to.
Filling, rich in protein and veggies. Delicious, warming. I love Thai curries on snowy days.
