Originally Posted by
kris90
Pretty much. I live on a well, so my water gets colder with winter. It's about 50 F when I fill it up, and I can usually drop it to about 45 F with ice.
I've been finding though that even 50-55 F is quite effective for CT (cold thermogenesis). It's been my miracle cure for seasonal depression as well as boosting endorphins, reducing inflammation, staying lean and significantly reducing hunger. Cold on the skin causes some pretty dramatic changes to the hypothalamus in the brain, because we burn fat to make heat by uncoupling the mitochondria. This causes massive release of leptin (the fat hormone) which circulates to the brain to activate POMC which has all kinds of magical effects.