In Canada we call this a "face wash." You pick up a handful of snow and find a "friend," usually a smaller kid and then you rub the snow in their face in a vigorous circular motion...
Your contributions were very much appreciated and on point. Thank you for being part of this great content. Subscribed to your channel. Though I have enough trouble with surfing RU-vid when I should be doing something else.
Thank you, Lee!! Bodhi - I don’t think so. Here’s how I’ve explained it to people I worked with: m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ku_s8hJRyyQ.html
If anyone has successfully installed a cold plunge pool in their apartment, please let me know 🍧 EDIT ABOUT THE ICE: The dive reflex is only thought to work in water temps below ~20°C. I wanted to cool the water down, as the colder the water the faster the response. The ice water cools the body faster (it's relative to water temp), so the response more intense with colder/ice water. People use ice water in most of the TikTok videos.
A lot of people doing the Wim Hof Method waterproof a chest freezer with plastic and fill it with water. As long as you remember to unplug it before you climb in it's perfectly safe.
Winterbathing (in the ocean) is a well established tradition where I live. They say it's very good for you, but it's "only" one dip in the morning. And we haven't had proper icy water in recent years.
Oh my gosh! This is so weird. I've never heard of this, but for years I have used diving into the ocean as a technique to calm my anxiety. I did this for years even before I was diagnosed with anxiety. I thought it just grounded me. I decided to do this because I felt that jumping into cold water without hesitation was my way to symbolically show myself that I can bypass my fears to confront whatever it is I'm anxious about. My thinking was jumping into cold water was like overcoming fears. Don't ask me why I thought that, but I did! 😅 Today I learned I wasn't psyching myself out, I was actually hacking into my vagus nerve! Who knew? 😂 Thanks for this video! I lean so much from your videos!
But diving isnt just cold water.When you dive you feel kind of disconnected from the world so it can work like sensory deprivation tank which is pretty good at treating anxiety on itself
The video mentions this in relation to anxiety, which to be fair is an important part of the thing I'm gonna add. However, unless I missed it, what isn't mentioned is that this is the first part of the TIPP-skills in DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy). It's a therapy developed by Marsha Linehan to treat emotional instability in (for example) Borderline and other personality disorders, and the TIPP-skills are discussed in the part of therapy dealing with problems regarding toleration of difficult emotions. I mention this because I think it's important to recognize that the strategy has been a part of formalized therapy protocols for a long time (DBT was first developed during the 90s), and that there is nothing exactly "new" about it. I mean, it is new to many people, and it is great that the strategy is being shared around. It's just that I think treatment developers should get some attention when strategies like this are discussed, since they are the people who actually champions them and often are the reason they are able to grow big in the first place.
For those that are not aware, I'll add that TIPP is an acronym for Temperature, Intense Exercise, Paced Breathing, and Paired Muscle Relaxation. If these posts prompt anyone to do a bit more of a deep (or even shallow) dive into the subject, that's a good thing.
Yes!! Thank you for mentioning Dr. Linehan. The other skills Dr. Ali Mattu mentioned are also TIPP skills - paced breathing and paired muscle relaxation.
If your concern is someone taking credit for other people's work, this is not an academic paper. Especially when a single part or a small fraction of some other protocol is used in a more narrow context, you can't cite everything. This is like, pop sci or citizen science, I personally wouldn't cite anything unless it's in the description. That's how you lose people. Blah blah blah here's the history of how this concept came to be in general and then we'll get to this video's specific application. No. Just no. This video was fun, informative, playful, and engaging. Didn't get bogged down in the bore of academic rigor. I'd put money on that bearded guy having come across the research you "want to draw attention to." There's a time and a place.
@@lexscarlet Yeah, I know, it's a bit nitpicky. I kind of just wish there was a throw away line that would have mentioned something about how long this has been a part of standardized therapy, and that some credit would have been given to the history of the strategy. It's not a big thing, and of course the video doesn't stand or fall with (or without) this information. I guess it just bugs me a bit when people get go take credit for other peoples work. It's a tiny hill that I would never die on, just maybe sit on for a bit until someone really wanted it. None the less, I thought it worth mentioning in passing, just to broaden the perspective. Considering your response, next time I do something similar I'll take care to formulate something that isn't as likely to be percieved as hard criticism.
@Oscca Thank you so much for your comment! I’ve only ever heard about this technique in relation to anxiety. I have BPD and had no idea that it originated **for** BPD. Will definitely look more into it :-)
Isn't it always the way; science observes some useful and very specific information and then someone reads the abstract and makes up an oversimplified model that they can either sell or leverage to gain influence.
Regarding reading the abstract section only of papers - well not much else you can do when nearly all of academic works are locked behind unfathomably tall paywalls, unless you have an active academic login to use... I usually have to resort to piracy or selective citations which often leave out the grasp or context of things -- as well as forgetting about the discussion part. But that's more a systemic issue rather than a societal or individual shortcoming):
@@zanderhenriksen6776 I don't blame people for not being able to read more than the abstract in general. I only have an issue with it when they go from that to trying to market a solution "based" on the research. If you want to advise people on health matters, especially as a business model, you ought to pay for the access. You might also be interested to know that many public libraries can get access to academic journals, even if you have to request it through interlibrary loan: at least it's accessible! Some libraries even provide access through online research databases. Nevertheless, I agree that there's a fundamental problem with the way that academic publication is handled, especially since too many journals will publish poorly designed studies, or studies with clear bias or conflicts of interest. Not all, obviously, but I would hope it would be none for how expensive that stuff is.
@@zanderhenriksen6776 often authors will send their article to you if you just ask them. It's not like they are getting paid or can't share it themselves.
Vagus nerve in triathlon training: I've taught open-water swimming to adult beginner triathletes for over a decade. By far the greatest fear among adult beginners concerns swimming in the ocean (or any large body of water). Some have intense or even extreme fears (a family member drowned, being unable to touch the bottom, being unable to see very far, a traumatic childhood experience, and so on), yet they show up to get past them. One of the first things we do is have the beginner wade into the water to waist-depth, then bend forward and put their face in the water and gently blow bubbles, rising when the lungs are empty. They are wearing a triathlon wetsuit and goggles, so the risk is minimal. Then we add simulating a slow swim stroke, twisting to breathe from the side. After a few cycles of this, taking only a handful of minutes, the beginner is relaxed and focused on their stroke. It's truly amazing. These first-time previously fearful adult beginners come out of the water as if they had been baptized and seen Jesus. They are relaxed and joyful. It's not about the swimming or teaching technique, because the same effect is NOT observed when training in a heated pool, at least not to nearly the same degree. I believe it is due to the open water being cool, often around 60F, stimulating the Dive Reflex.
The "Dive Reflex" operates in reverse for me. Nearly drowning a few times, water on my face immediately spikes my anxiety. Washing my face is hard, it's my only real phobia.
There is no need to plunge your face in freezing water to achieve this effect 🤨 Simply cupping my hands, fingers intertwined, and supporting the base of the skull as it’s cradled in the hands (in a sitting or laying down position), head facing forward. Then just look to the right at 3 o’clock and hold the eyes there until I yawn or take a deep breath. Same thing on the left at 9 o’clock until the same thing happens. This change in breathing marks the nerve relaxing. Bam, vagus nerve reset. Can be done anywhere anytime, just having a seat or a place to lay down for a few minutes. No need for the whole unpleasantness of the cold water, which in itself causes anxiety to many (cuz it’s clearly unpleasant) but to each their own. 🤷🏻♀️ Edit: for other techniques to do this reset that are not absurdly uncomfortable like this face ice bath thing, check out the YT channel Therapy In a Nutshell. Though I will say, the ice water IS good for minimizing the look of pores & tightening the skin. 😬 but I still prefer to do the non-ice water techniques, which include gentler things like ear massages.
Thank you for talking about the vagus nerve! The parasympathetic nervous system is also heavily involved in other organs like the intestines and there is research into using electrical stimulation to relieve constipation and diarrhea. I wonder how vagal stimulation would affect people with heart or GI conditions, so this is really exciting!
For a few years mt stomach was completely messed up and I was in constant pain. Having a lot of time on my hands (living around toilets) I read research papers on anything that could relate to me. Because of that I started using a TENs machine which helped to reduce my symptoms. I was back in France at the time and one of the top gastroenterologist laughed at me for this. Turns out about three years later a large experiment was conducted using electromagnetic simulation of the vagus nerve, or which a relation of my wife took part, really helped her. Also used a diabetic medicine that binds onto bile in the stomach. I over produce this and it's an irritant to the stomach. This massively helped me and now I only have discomfort rather than pain. The use of this medicine isn't standard but some researchers are quite angry about this been over looked.
I think this is something my body learned when I was a child swimming all the time in my unheated pool and now it's just something I crave, which is why losing the Y pool (to a tornado last year) felt so devastating to me and why I keep asking my husband to let me build a pool on our property.
@@braincraft 🤯 : I've been using the bionic nerve to calm myself down during phone calls before I even knew what it was ( without realising it ) . ♑️✍️🇸🇯🇦🇺
I've used this technique for quite a while as a way to snap myself out of anxiety attacks or crying jags! Maybe I should try using it more regularly cause it really does feel great
Fight/flight stress response is a function of sympathetic nervous system not parasympathetic (1:49). Both of them and the enteric nervous system belong to the autonomous nervous system.
I had a client at a previous job that experienced frequent grand mal seizures due to a traumatic brain injury they had had a few years ago. They were implanted with a vagus nerve stimulator that they could activate by holding a magnet (worn on their wrist) up to the sensor on their clavicle when they were feeling pre-ictal. It wasn't 100% effective, but it certainly seemed to make a difference.
My uncle has been having epilepsie after having meningitis as a baby. He had the same implant and it really helps him too, although he doesn't have the mental capacity to use the magnet himself
It may sound silly but now all those memories when my parents made me wash my face with cold water when I was being annoying , they make more sense now.
I've been doing this for over 10 years now. Using ice to calm myself is coping skill I learned through Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. I've always thought of it as when your primal senses take over because of the intensity of the ice and you direct your focus away from your emotions and onto how cold the ice is. I love the survival explanation of the dive reflex. It makes so much sense. Love this video!
I have trouble getting out of bed. Even after standing, the urge to lay back down is strong. I think splashing my face with water helps because it activates that "hey don't drown" response. It'll perk you up.
Im kinda addicted to this. Have been doing this for two weeks now and im so glad i tried this. i have tried all these breathing techniques and stuff for years and they never did anything for me, but this ice water thing has actually worked for me. I was very sceptical of this but wanted to try it since it's easy to do and im glad i did. First it feel horrible, but after that you feel very good. I got used to that cold water and it wont feel cold anymore at all.
Have you tried the cold showers yet? Similar effect with a few extra added benefits. Every thing for weight loss to body repair, and elimination of waste.
I'm so glad organizations are researching this. I have a friend who has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, (EDS) type 3. Among other things, EDS causes the nerve sheathes to have abnormal characteristics. This is most obvious when my friend try to use their fingers too quickly and the cross-talk between the nerves causes muscle actions they didn't intend. Where this intersects with the video is that EDS' effects on nerve sheaths also causes problems with their vagus nerve(s) which of course makes their whole body behave sub-optimally. It currently has them confined to a wheelchair because when they stand up their body does the wrong thing with their blood pressure and they pass out within seconds. I'm rooting for more progress in this area!
As somemone who practiced apnea for many years, I confirm this has a very relaxing effect. Although I'd partly attribute it to the apnea itself, contributing to lowering the heart rate and relaxing muscles.
This happens to me every time I get in the shower, doesn't matter what temp the water is. Something as small as a cold breeze hitting me in the back in the winter can cause it. The vagus nerve is also what makes you feel better after having a bowel movement. 😉
I have to do this (plunge my face in icy, icy water or snow) when I have an SVT (superventricular tachycardia) episode. It's either this or a cardioversion bc adenosine doesn't work on me.
I wonder if this is also why shower or even washing your face could be relaxing to some people. Sure it's not the same as submerging your face in water, but because how I usually do it, I often find myself holding my breath out of reflex. 🤔 (Edit: Yes, using cold water coz we don't use hot water here for that in most part of Indonesia lol)
For the last year I've been suffering from vagus nerve issues that unfortunately I can't resolve at the moment due to financial issues. I've been dunking my head in an ice bucket several times a day and it works great. Also throw in 30 second ice cold showers with that. From what I've researched, the vagus nerve flaking out is a symptom of something else going on, not the nerve itself, so I would need to go to a neurologist to do testing to find out what thing the nerve is attached to that is causing it to misbehave. The ice bucket thing has helped me get through this a lot until I can get it resolved.
I knew this tweaked my memory but it took me a little while to recall that Miles Vorkosigan, fictional madman and abbreviated hero, had an implant hooked up to his vagus nerve to prevent ulcers (in the second book published in 1986). Given his proclivities it would have been kinder to find some way to prevent his various employers from developing ulcers, but to be fair they knew exactly what they were getting into 🤣 I cannot recommend the Vorkosigan Saga enough: I cannot comment on ice-dunking but it looks horrendous 🥶
Sorry, I edited a lot out of that section for time, which was clearly a mistake 😅 The ice makes the response more intense, causes the dive reflex to kick in more quickly.
@@braincraft, why are you editing for time? I think you’re getting unfounded and bad advice, there is no time constraints on YT content, one can find evidence for one if you look for it but it’s demonstrably false. I criticise because I like your channel. It’s almost like you’re getting sabotaged by the envious, ‘show business’ is overwhelmingly inhabited by jealous wannabes who care only about their own self interest.
@@braincraft please don't edit because some nongs might think a video is too long, you're explaining and communicating info that is great and you are great at it.
I have a rare hyperlipidemia. A section of the brain perturbing from the base of the skull, unprotected from blunt force trauma. It is suspected that damage to this section of brain sustained in a car accident changed my life forever. Anytime I get upset or exercise in anyway that increases my heart rate cause's my heart to rapidly dive into a rate very dangerous to alertness. Increasing my previous pains associated with old injuries , lowering the amount of oxygen sent to the brain , leaving me light headed. Even epinephrine doesn't effect my heart rate at all . I suffer greatly . The doctors have no clue how to treat me , so they say nothing's wrong with me. Caught Hiding and ignoring my symptoms in a disability reevaluation. I have resently been cut off disability and never received any treatment or even testing on this problem after it's discovery . Only thing I've bean told was that possible damage to my hyperlipidemia is sending false signal's to my heart telling it I'm going into hypothermia . I'm willing to be a Ginny pig just to end my suffering. I would ask in this post , Could repeated icing cause permanent damage ? Similar to what I suffer ?
Vagus nerve in fiction: Steven Gould's novel Reflex (sequel to Jumper) uses an implanted Vagus nerve stimulator as a torture device for training/restraining the lead character.
When I was young, I was hanging onto the side of the shoppping cart while my brother was pushing it fast. He suddenly took a turn and flung me off. I was completely frightened to the point that it overstimulated my vagus nerve and I had a seizure. I had another seizure event under similar circumstances. It was blamed on an overactive vagus nerve. As an adult I've had a few incidents with either an upset stomach or being dehydrated. This can (rarely) result in me fainting. Again, the vagus nerve has been suspected as the culprit. That has been my introduction to this nerve. Nice to learn more and potential ways to help calm my nervous system when it starts to over-react. Although, if I get that feeling of fainting my first reaction is to get close to the ground quickly.
Yin yoga is by far the most powerful way to relax and engage the parasympathetic nervous system that I have found. It’s all about the breath. I use square breathing from 4-4-4-4 to 10-10-10-10 to engage the diving reflex. Slows everything down.
Try this sleep hack. Behind closed lids, rhythmically drop your eyes to the lower quadrant while taking slow deep breaths. Gently up on the in breath then slowly down on the exhale and hold. Clear the mind. The Vagus Nerve sends messages in both directions in an action-reaction conversation between your brain and your body organs. You can notice this in the eye shift when trying to recollect a memory, or looking askance at your flat-earther Uncle or, more to the point, the natural drooping of the eyes when nodding off while reading a book. It’s not an accident, its the mechanism. It’s the ‘poker tell’ embodiment of the thought or mood. The direction your eyes are pointing is related to what is happening in your brain and vise versa. When you’re sleepy your eyes droop so droop your eyes to stimulate sleepiness. 🧐
You incorrectly mentioned that the Parasymphatic nervous system (PNS) is responsible for two thing, while it is only responsible for our rest and digest response. It's the Sympathetic nervous system that is responsible for our fight or flight response.
wow growing up we were cutting edge!!!! of course more likely we were just being too poor to have hot running water, and had to wash/rinse our face with cold water. from the spring.... we just didn't know how good we had it
My favorite vagus nerve stimulation technique, pressing lightly just above the eyebrows. I saw it on TV years ago on a show about weird ER stories where someone used it to cure long-term persistent hiccups. The doctor had just read about it and was pretty surprised it worked when even sedation had failed. Now, does it ACTUALLY work? Hard to say. I've tried it a few times. Only had success once or twice and that was most likely more because I seriously surprised the person whose forehead I was touching. So I have my doubts. But real or not, it's still my favorite.
The easiest skepticism to this: how do you know its not immediate sympathetic activation or some sort of combination of sympathetic and parasympathic co-activation? The cold shock response could be cited here as well. Vasoconstriction to your face/upper body could produce relief sensation.
1:48 The Parasympathetic system is not famous for the fight-or-flight response. The Autonomic System is. The Parasympathetic deal with the rest-and-digest responses. The Sympatheic deals with the fight-or-flight response. Both branches work in a overall antagonistic way. Homeostasis is hard and there's no "better overall response", the better state is "adaptable", a responsive Autonomic System. Yeah, pretty small thing to get annoyed by, but I blame my hormones
Fine and dandy, but… Emotional stress, anxiety or other mental challenges mentioned in the video (yes, specifically) are symptoms. Symptoms have “reasons”, an inherent causality we may or may not understand. So, treating symptoms should only be an alleviation, a path to seeking the root cause of any ailment. I’m kinda old, so I find myself reacting to a subtle change in the social narrative around mental challenges. We talk a lot more about the “symptoms” than say 20 years ago, that’s fine. But, we seem to speak less often about what could CAUSE mental distress, especially if said stress vectors are linked to societal factors - more than individual factors. This way, we (as a society) only strengthen normative values, instead of the individual ones - those we link to diversity and personal sense of freedom. After all, those are the talking points of every kind of equality, acceptance or tolerance. So, treating symptoms with “hacks” or even peer reviewed methods should hopefully not make us “tolerate” unnecessary distress from whatever external sources grinding us down. I hope we can seek knowledge to avoid causes of mental distress, not simply a collective numbness to tolerate it.
Correction. The parasympathetic nervesystem is part of the autonomous nervesystemet which is devided into to parts: the sympathetic and parasympathetic system.
As I understand it: We don't always want to be in the parasympathetic/relaxed/ventral state. That'd be like tranquilization. You'd never feel excited, assertive, or determined. We want the branches of our autonomic nervous system to be in a dynamic balance which responds appropriately to the situation.
Hahaha. Great topic but laughed so hard when you described the the vegus nerve and you said the nerve running down your left side but your hand went down the right side and visa versa. Yes, I need a holiday. 🤪
I didn't realize the parasympathetic nervous system was responsible both for fight-or-flight response and for relaxation. I had always thought that the sympathetic nervous system was the fight-or-flight one and the parasympathetic the relaxation one.
They say too much of anything can be bad, so I wonder if the water can be too cold. Why not just cool water instead of ice-cold? "a yes I am so calm!" - Mr. Frostbitten Nose
Depending on the temperature of your ground water you can just turn the shower on max cold at the end of your shower. You may want to crouch or sit the first time to make sure you don't slip.
You should check out the Saluan Sama-Bajau people, the have developed several genetic adaptions which accentuates the dive reflex, the have spleens that are 50% larger than the neighbouring group to release more red blood cells during dives and can breath hold dive for 5 minutes or longer.
cold shower works in opposite way + adaptation to stress in long term. Actually shower doesn't work so well, studies were on submerging whole body in +5, +10 degrees water. Explanation how it works can be found in Huberman's lab podcast.
The vagus nerve is amazing but at the end of the day it’s a nerve. We are stimulating or relaxing nerves every part of every day. Other than the specific vasovagal response or vasovagal syncope (which is not just the nerve but also its cardiac interaction) this is all just about anxiety reduction. Someone just apparently really likes the word vagus and it got TikTok popular.
