Whole body cold exposure reduces the redox potential of mitochondria, leading to an inflammatory response and oxidative stress.

“what these authors have done is they've done a study with some folks who have got into some very very cold water which causes an effect on function of the mitochondria in those individuals the effect is that it reduces the redox potential of those mitochondria which leads to an inflammatory type response and also leads to the generation of an oxidative stress situation where you have too many oxidants not enough reducers and so you have a pro-oxidant Pro tissue damage a basically a bad situation going on there”