Andrew Huberman· PhD
Now, despite that people tend to do it very slowly. I have noticed an enormous variation with which people can embrace the experience of cold. I noticed it because I do some work with athletes and I do some work with military and I do some work with the general public. And one of the best tests of how somebody can handle pain is to ask them to just get into an ice bath. It's not a very sophisticated experience, but it really gets into the core of the kind of circuitry that we're talking about, both in the skin and in the brain. Some people regardless of sex, regardless of age, and regardless of physical ability can just get into the cold. They're somehow able to do it. Now, I don't know what their experience of the cold is. And neither do you. You only know your experience, but they're able to do that. Some do it quickly, some do it slowly. Others find the experience of cold to be so aversive that they somehow cannot get themselves in. They start quaking, they start complaining and many of them just simply get out. They can't do it. Some don't even get in past their knees. This isn't necessarily about pain threshold, but it's related to that. I think it can be helpful to everyone to know that even though it feels better at a mental level to get into the cold slowly and people ask, oh, I just want to get in slowly, I want to take my time. It is actually much worse from a neuro-biological perspective.