In this solo YouTube monologue, Dr. Ashley Frazee, a direct primary care physician, presents three evidence‑backed reasons to incorporate cold‑water immersion (cold plunging) into a wellness routine. First, she explains how cold exposure triggers the release of norepinephrine and dopamine—neurotransmitters linked to alertness, focus, and sustained motivation—citing a study that found a 250% increase in dopamine after an hour of cold exposure. Second, she describes how regular cold plunges train the brain’s stress response, reducing fatigue by conditioning the nervous system to handle uncomfortable stimuli with controlled breathing and calmness. Third, she outlines the metabolic benefits of activating brown adipose tissue, which, due to its high mitochondrial density, increases thermogenesis and calorie burn. Throughout, Dr. Frazee emphasizes that she only discusses benefits with solid scientific backing, provides practical exposure guidelines (≈3 minutes at 40–50 °F, with flexibility for shorter durations), and encourages viewers to consider cold plunging as a medication‑free strategy for better mental health. The video concludes with a brief promotion of her direct primary care practice and a call to action to learn more via links in the description.
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Today I wanna share with you one of the things that can help 3 major problems that people come to me for every day. I only like to recommend things that have evidence to back them up, and I'm telling you, the evidence behind this thing is life-changing. So if you'll bear with me, the only thing that I have left to do is convince you that the pain of it is worth it. All right, I've referenced this before in other videos, but I'm talking about cold plunging. Hate me if you want to, but really quickly, I'm gonna show you 3 reasons why you should do this. Number 1, it elevates your mood and increases your mental health. Cold exposure literally causes your brain to release norepinephrine and dopamine, We think it also causes release of endorphins too, which make you feel really good. But for sure, it causes norepinephrine, which is the brain's way of feeling alert and focused. Norepinephrine is literally what your brain releases when you take things like Adderall and Ritalin for ADD. So think about that. And dopamine is your feel-good or reward-seeking neurotransmitter, meaning that it increases your motivational capacity to do things. And I see a lot of people who come to me complaining of some sort of depression, But really what they're explaining to me is a lack of motivation. They just can't get that get up and go to do the things that they know they enjoy doing. Dopamine is the fix for that. But I'm not talking about quick dopamine hits like you get from social media. I'm talking about a sustained release of dopamine throughout the day, which cold plunging is proven to give you. In fact, when you do something really uncomfortable or painful, what happens later is your brain releases a steady amount of dopamine throughout the rest of the day. And the amount of dopamine you get from cold plunging is— Huge. A lot. In fact, in one study, researchers had people exposed to cold for about an hour, and the amount of dopamine they got was 250% more than they got without the cold exposure. I'm not recommending that you expose yourself to cold for an hour, but this just goes to show you that cold plunging does increase your dopamine release, and that allows you to be more motivated. Now, how does cold plunging fix fatigue? Now, the same mix of neurotransmitters I mentioned just a second ago also have serious positive effects on your energy levels. The energy and the way that we think about it is all about our brain's capacity to get things done or to go do things, right? The brain has a major impact on this. If you're feeling fatigued from working too much or maybe scrolling social media, what happens is you get a level of stress-related fatigue in the brain. It's kind of tapped out, if you will. The really cool thing about cold plunging is it literally trains your body and brain to adapt to stressful stimulus. Better. Think about it. If you can withstand 40 to 50 degrees of cold freezing water for 3 minutes, which is the general recommendation for how long you should cold plunge. But listen, I'll take a minute if you can do it. Heck, I'll take 30 seconds if you can do it. But for however long you can withstand that shock, that initial uncomfortableness, that pain. When I get in the cold plunge, I literally have to go to my happy place, take really deep breaths to be able to calm myself down and not overreact to the painful stimulus. That's exactly what you need to be able to do to get over life's Stressors, everything that life throws at you day to day. So cold plunging literally trains your brain to react to stress in a way that makes it seem like no big deal. All right, and metabolism. Now when you go out into cold environments, and the same thing goes for when you put your body into a cold plunge, you activate something called brown fat. Brown fat, we don't have a whole lot of it, but it surrounds our vital organs like our heart, surrounds our spine. It's up in the shoulders where we create a lot of heat. But it has more mitochondria than your regular fat does, your white fat, the stuff around your belly, your thighs, et cetera. And because it has more mitochondria, that makes it more thermogenically active. So brown fat has this ability to actually turn up the heat and allow your body to burn more calories. When you expose yourself to cold, you're burning more calories throughout the day and improving your metabolism. There are a few other benefits that I'm sure a lot of you are aware of to cold plunging that I left out of this video. And my reason for leaving those out is because the research isn't quite there yet. And I only want to talk about the things that we have Scientifically proven, but we're close. And hey, I'm sure the viewers out there would love to know all the benefits of cold plunging. So if you put 'em in my comments, I'm sure it'll help people. But in summary, cold plunging helps you with so many things. And if you don't want to take medication and you want to be a healthier version of you, start doing it now. I'm Dr. Ashley Frazee. I run a direct primary care clinic in Mesa, Arizona. I'm on a mission to spread the word that there are doctors out there who really care about you. To learn more about direct primary care, see the links in my description, and you guys have a good day.
