A cold shower trend is sweeping Silicon Valley as a way to cope with the notoriously high-stress environment.
The idea of using cold showers for health has been around for centuries, beginning with the Romans who swore by cold baths.
Now elite workers in America’s technology capital are saying it induces ‘positive stress’ that helps them get through long workdays.
While there is a growing body of research that suggests that moderate amounts of stress may actually help the brain and body perform better, there is little to no evidence that cold showers are beneficial.
There’s a growing movement in Silicon Valley, California, America’s technology capital, that supports using techniques like cold showers to induce ‘positive stress’.
Silicon Valley’s growing ‘positive stress’ movement is based on the idea that radical tactics such as starting the day with a freezing cold shower or taking regular hot yoga classes will lead to a longer life.
Triathlete Joel Runyon trademarked the term ‘Cold Shower Therapy’ and gave a TED talk about cold showers in 2013.
He also created a mobile app to help fellow supporters of the practice challenge themselves.
Runyon said told CNBC that doing something uncomfortable every day makes other tasks seem easier, which can be particularly useful to entrepreneurs.
He credits Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof for fueling the trend among tech elites.
Hof, nicknamed ‘Ice Man’ for his ability to perform in frigid temperatures using breathing exercises, helped spread the word about the benefits of cold showers during speaking tour and series of workshops in Silicon Valley last year.
‘There’s a really big segment that has gotten into it recently,’ Runyon told CNBC.
With regards to health, a study by Dutch researchers published in October found that taking a cold shower did not stop participants from coming down with colds, flu and other illnesses.
However, the study found that those who woke up with a cold shower were one-third less likely to call in sick to work.
Spas across the country have recently introduced whole body cryotherapy, which involves standing in an electric cold chamber for several minutes to reduce stress, improve circulation and boost the immune system.
One supporter of the positive stress movement is Zachary Rapp, who swears by cold showers, hot yoga and intermittent fasting to get through his 18-hour days running three health and biotech start-ups in Silicon Valley.
He credits the positive stress with the fact that he only gets sick once a year.
‘It keeps me balanced,’ Rapp told CNBC.
‘Like the stress is leaving my body, so I don’t feel like I’m hitting a brick wall.’
For the month of March, Rapp is going on the Whole 30 diet, which requires cutting out grains, legumes, dairy, sugar and alcohol.
Rapp said that he was first introduced to positive stress methods in college when he would take ice baths to recover after lacrosse games.
When he was launching his three companies in Silicon Valley, he got back into the habit.
He said that positive stress methods help the body build up a tolerance that makes day-to-day stresses less challenging.
A 2013 study of rats by the University of California, Berkeley, found that a group that was exposed to moderate levels of stress for short periods showed signs of advanced brain function and learning ability than the control group.
In a study by Yale University, students were given a survey with questions about how they viewed stress as well as a mouth swab to test stress-hormone cortisol levels.
Students who naturally perceived stress as helpful were found to have lower cortisol levels on average.
The same study found that a group of employees at a financial institution who were shown videos presenting stress as a positive force had better work performance and fewer psychological complications than a group that was shown videos presenting stress as harmful.
Joon Yun has been giving talks about the effectiveness of using low amounts of stress to restore the body’s balance to groups of tech entrepreneurs for several years.
‘That’s what health is,’ he said. ‘It’s in is the ability to tolerate stress.’
However, Yun advises against forcing the body to withstand extreme temperatures because it can be dangerous, specifically for older people.