90. Kristin Weitzel: How to Use Cold Plunging for Ultimate Nervous System Control

What if three minutes in cold water could give you more confidence than years of therapy? In this episode of Extend, I sit down with Kristin Weitzel, a breathwork expert and cold plunge coach who has certified over 325 instructors worldwide in her approach to nervous system regulation. We explore how to use breathwork to downregulate your nervous system instead of just surviving the cold, and why women shouldn't fear the recent controversy around cold exposure. Kristin reveals her "ICE" method (Intentional Cold Exposure) and shares the free tools that can transform your mental resilience starting today. Kristin Weitzel is a breathwork expert, Sherpa Breath and Cold founder, and certified sauna master who has been pioneering nervous system optimization for over a decade. She specializes in helping women and athletes use cold exposure and breathwork to expand their window of tolerance and build unshakeable confidence in all areas of life. We Also Discuss: Why the Anticipation of Cold Plunging Is Worse Than the Cold Itself The "ICE" Method: Intentional Cold Exposure for Life Success How to DJ Your Nervous System for Optimal Performance Why Most People Are Cold Plunging Wrong (And Spiking Cortisol) The 2x Breathing Technique That Changes Everything Cold Plunging vs. Cryotherapy Why Wim Hof Breathing Isn't Right for Everyone Sauna Secrets: The 3-Minute Rule Between Hot and Cold Free Cold Plunge Coaching Tools You Can Download Today Thank You for Our Sponsors: IM8: Try IM8 today with a 30-day money back guarantee. You can get 20% off your first order with code DRSHAH at https://im8health.com/discount/DRSHAH. Function Health: The first 1000 get a $100 credit toward their membership. Visit www.functionhealth.com/drshah http://www.functionhealth.com/drshah or use gift code DRSHAH100 at sign-up to own your health. Learn more about Dr. Shah: Website: https://www.drshah.com/ Clinic: https://www.next-health.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darshanshahmd/ Learn more about Kristin Weitzel: Website: https://www.sherpabreathandcold.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinweitzelofficial/ Podcast: https://tr.ee/_aKc6TfA0K

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Welcome to Extend with me, Dr. Darshan Shah, a podcast dedicated to cutting-edge science, research, tools, and protocols designed to help you extend your health span. Having become one of the youngest doctors in the country at the age of 21, and trained and board-certified at the Mayo Clinic, I've accumulated three decades of practice as a board-certified surgeon and longevity expert. Over that time, I've discovered that a mere 20% of health knowledge yields 80% of the results when it comes to your health span. We're living in a new era where we are creating a new healthcare system, no longer focused on disease management, but achieving optimal health and vitality. Join me as I interview world-renowned experts, offering you a step-by-step guide to proactively avoid disease, and most importantly, extend your health span.

• 0:52Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Extend Podcast. Today, it's my pleasure to introduce Kristin Weitzel. She is a leader in the field of high-performance health, breathwork, and women's wellness. Kristin's a founder of a company called Sherpa Breath and Cold. Sherpa meaning she actually ools you through and guides you through multiple protocols that she's going to tell us about today. She's a pioneer in health and performance, and she also hosts a podcast herself called Well Power. She's a highly-regarded athlete, and she is bridging the science, the technology, and ancient practices together to explore biohacking, nervous system regulation, and holistic health. She has a particular focus on women's optimization, which is really helpful in her protocols that she's going to share today.

• 1:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Kristin has a background in Fortune 500 brand strategy, and she has decades of experience in health coaching. So this allows her to bring together that strategic combination of how to run a company and how to train people with scientific rigor in her own personal practice. She's a certified fitness trainer. She's a breathwork instructor and a nutrition expert that speaks about her protocols at international stages. She has a clear mission to empower individuals, especially women, to take control of their biology and their nervous systems. You can do this with breathwork, with cold plunging, and many of the techniques that she describes in the podcast today. Please join me in welcoming Kristin Weitzel.

• 2:21Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Kristen, so excited to have you today. Thank you for doing this.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 2:25Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, I mean, we've known each other for so many years. You came to my first office that was down the street 10 years, I think it was like 10 years ago.

• 2:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:35Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's incredible. And you've been such a monumental force in health, wellness, bio-acting women's perceptions around all the things that are available to them. And so I can't wait to dive in with you.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's amazing. It's also just, it's really nice to see really good things happen to amazing people. And just the advancement and the growth of your company is just, big congratulations.

• 2:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you. Thank you so much. And same feeling so mutual.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But I know we have so much to dive into, but I want to ask you a few quick questions that I think kind of set the stage for the conversation. First is, what is one thing that you wish all women would know about cold plunging? Or just cold therapy in general?

• 3:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. The one thing I want women to know about cold plunging is that the anticipation of cold plunging is worse than the cold plunge itself. I think that there's a bit of trepidation sometimes for every human, but specifically females, because we tend to be less risk averse.

• 3:33Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes.

• 3:33Speaker 01

  So we need to have a little bit more of that, you know, chutzpah to be able to dive in.

• 3:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, that's so true. I love to dive into the kind of some of the mental aspects of cold plunging a little bit later.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure.

• 3:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Another question I have for you is around breath work. I mean, these are your two big pillars. I know you have many pillars, but the breath work pillar for me is so powerful. And I'd love for you to kind of give us a few thoughts about why breath work is so powerful.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think the biggest thing is understanding, you know, quite often I talk about we need to learn how to DJ our nervous system. And DJing the nervous system just really means understanding regulation, that we can have the appropriate nervous system response to an experience or an event that's occurring in our life. And as we plug into breath work, which is the remote control to the nervous system, this is how we plug into activating our system when we need to, and then calming it or bringing it back down to homeostasis, normal flow state after something occurs.

• 4:31Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right. And to unpack that a little bit, are we talking about parasympathetic, sympathetic, HRV?

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, really talking about parasympathetic sympathetic. I mean, it's all the things together, but what we want is to have this term that my mentor Martin McPhilmy uses, which is arousal flexibility. So just like metabolic flexibility, arousal flexibility is like, how can we get to a heightened state where we need to take action? And that could be that like, a truck comes flying by on the highway and gets really close to your car. It could be that you're lifting 100 pounds in the gym. And so how do we take action with that level of nervous system tone, meaning sympathetic tone, charge, maybe be in a fight state and use that correctly and accordingly. And then after we're done with the workout or the thing is past, that we can come back down to a more down-regulated, parasympathetic, calmer state.

• 5:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Okay, I love that. And then lastly, what's one habit that you wish every person would start doing, health habit?

• 5:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, one health habit that I wish everyone would start doing is I think more nasal breathing, more stillness, you know, so connecting, even it doesn't have to be specifically when we talk about breath work. It doesn't have to be this like hour-long thing every day. It just can be that you're taking five minutes and the power of pause. And in society today, too, it gives us a little stillness, a little turning inward, which we all can, we all don't like, but we all can really use.

• 5:50Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, that's so true. And I find that unfortunately, people go weeks and sometimes months or years without doing any pauses. And it really catches up to you. It's just, it's just mind blowing to me. And this happened to me myself, actually. I spent years not taking a pause and it led to severe consequences in my own health, both mental and physical. And just putting those pauses in, it's dramatic how much it can change your life.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And also some time to understand who you are as a human being, you know, I like to say how you like your eggs. It's like, figure out what you like, what brings you joy, have a moment of reflection, and also gratitude in those moments, right? If we keep on going, then we never get to celebrate the ways that we're so blessed.

• 6:33Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's so true. So true. It's so funny when you say how you like your eggs. I just saw a comedian on Netflix the other day, and one of his little bits was about like, he said, I don't know anything about myself anymore. I got my wife for that. She tells me what food I like and what I don't like.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, that can be real. That can be so real. It's like also decision fatigue too, right? Sometimes it's like, just make them however you're gonna make them, honey, or whatever, you know, just having someone else do some of the smaller decisions for you so we can use our brain power for all the bigger things in the world.

• 7:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly, exactly. So with that, you know, I made a commitment a long time ago to having half of our guests on this show be women.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 7:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, I mean, I think it's so necessary because obviously like half the population is women and less than half the studies have been done on women. And less than half the people speaking about health, wellness, longevity have been women traditionally from what I've seen through this last 10 years.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:29Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And I think it's so important to really understand there's lots of nuances between men and women. A lot of things are the same.

• 7:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And a lot of things are different and things need to be modified as well. And so, you know, I want to start off with a little bit of your journey. You're an OG in this space, right? You see a lot of people coming into this space right now, but you've been there for almost a decade or more now with your podcast.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  Since Dave coined the term biohacking, I was floating around and then I've been blessed by speaking at biohacking conference and a number of the conferences around the world just on women's health and biohacking and also various other topics from like red light to breath to how we're utilizing tools over the years. So I've been, it's been, I've been fortunate and there were a lot, a lot of men running the show in the early days, as you know.

• 8:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, it was a very bro-centric culture and you were there kind of like, you know, you're tall, you're blonde, you're like out there like, hey, I'm here.

• 8:26Speaker 01

  I'm here, I'm here.

• 8:27Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I'm here doing the cold plunge.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, for sure.

• 8:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But now it's become, I think, from what we see at Next Health, it's become an equal number of men and women are super interested, not just in biohacking, obviously, but health, longevity, and it's really become in the forefront of their attention. So thank you for, you know, being that voice from the very beginning. But I'd love to hear kind of how you got into this space and what you were doing before and what was the impetus of you joining the movement?

• 8:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think the other interesting thing is like I was I was doing health practices and trying to figure out health before the term biohacking came into the landscape. And also, I think a lot of a large number of women, even recently, I've seen like posts on Instagram about people saying, I really hate this term, like females saying, I hate the term biohacking. I think it's just like it's become something in our common vernacular. And many women I work with one on one are like, oh, you're my biohacking coach. So some people love it. And they think it's like a cute, you know, moniker. And some people really just hate it. But I think it's all around. We all want to live a long time. And with not just getting older, but having vitality, right? This is the whole health span thing that is your mission is so based on. And for me, I grew up as a dancer. I

• 9:36Speaker 01

  was super curious and interested because I really liked food, how at that time, many of the dancers at a very young age were just like undernourishing themselves, like not wanting to eat too much. I hate hesitate to say starving themselves, but in some ways, you know, just really undernourished because they were concerned of what, you know, you're wearing these small leotards, you want need to fit a specific picture or profile. And I was in that era wanting to work towards being a prima ballerina. They were the some of the leanest bodies on the planet at that point. And thankfully, now, you know, it's very different. And then we look at New York City Ballet Company, it's shepli strong women.

• 10:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 10:13Speaker 01

  And a bit more inclusive.

• 10:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 10:15Speaker 01

  But the food thing was a challenge. And so I thought, okay, my first foray into understanding wellness or health was how can I eat things that I still really, you know, I love, and also stay in physical shape? Like, how can I actually power my body? And so I did all the crazy things with food. I was doing food combining, like the book by the Diamonds was a couple who wrote a book about food combining, which I think has since been completely debunked.

• 10:38Dr. Darshan Shah?

  What is that, food combining?

• 10:40Speaker 01

  So it was like, you only eat, you don't combine foods that go together. So you're like, you'll eat just fruits and vegetables on their own, like high water content food. And you don't mix starches with, you know, your proteins. And so it was just like a an interesting, an interesting book at the time, right? It was like another, I don't want to say trend, but it was another like, hey, try this out. We think it will help you digest more quickly and more easily.

• 11:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. This is another form of elimination diet.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, like, and interestingly enough, there were some ways I got healthier. We see this sometimes when you cut out any garbage from your diet. But I tried veganism, vegetarianism. I was just navigating through all the different eating lifestyles. And then I, many years later, this is like a longer swath of time in my life. I read Younger's book Clean. And then I was like, OK, I kind of get and understand this. And that led me to Mark Sisson's work. And so a lot of the pieces of the puzzle for me were around nutrition. And while I was doing that, I was teaching yoga and understanding the human body form physiology. All the while, I went to performing arts high school and then was like a theater person. So I was sort of doing both things at the same time.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  And then I drew all of my health and wellbeing into the periphery around my big corporate job. And so while I was working in spirits and launched Red Bull in the United States, and people were out drinking all the time, I would be leaving the office at 6 o'clock at night. They'd be having cocktails and they'd be kind of making fun of me for going to like my dance cardio or my strength and conditioning class. And I think everyone in my circle and family and friends knew at some point I was going to end up in health. And I sort of didn't know that that was going to come. So when I sort of left my big corporate job, because I wanted my legacy to be supporting people, supporting women and understanding their body and their longevity. Everyone was like, finally. And I was like, oh, I thought all you guys were going to be shocked. And everyone was like, we'd just been waiting for you to like do this whole thing.

• 12:30Speaker 01

  So, yeah, I left the corporate world and really started focusing full time on working with human bodies in many different ways, from personal training to having people understand how to eat well. I studied with Dan Garner to get my nutrition specialist certification. And on and on it goes, right? I think the one thing I would say about my trajectory, and I said this last night when we were eating dinner, is I went through all of these years and I have the amazing opportunity to work with so many people around health and wellbeing. And I never, I always said, I never really had this like mess to masterpiece story. You hear people who went through triumphant burnout and they finally crawl to the top and figure out their answers, or they get some dis-ease that hits them. And then it's a whole life shift.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  And I, for many, many years, didn't really have a story like that. I had this lean in and this big amount of passion. And I think people hire me continually because I aggregate so much information and data. And then, you know, I briefly mentioned last night at dinner, the last couple of years, I mean, I'm in a very different place now, but for about two years, I had a really big, I was sort of struck with some grief, a really big dance with anxiety and depression and suicidal ideation in ways that I never quite fully understood how a human body could have that, even though I was working with people who were coming to me for breath, for cold, for all of these things, when you, when you really get to feel it in your own system, it changes the level of compassion you have. So it's been an unfolding of many, many years of a lot of work and learning from great minds like you.

• 14:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you. Yeah. Well, I mean, what I find really interesting about your story is that you had all these tools in your toolbox.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And you developed them not out of real need, but just, just a real interest.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And then when you needed them, you actually use them.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And they help you through that terrible time in your life.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 14:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's, that's, and that's just the power of, of this stuff really working, you know? And it's, uh, it's really important for people to know what's available. And, um, you know, to your point about biohacking, I agree. Like, there's a lot of term confusion and a lot of almost like negative connotation to it now, I think. And, you know, I really like the space that you're coming from. I love to hear like how you would like to redefine the term biohacking, or just define the term biohacking for women now. How would you, if someone came up to you and said, what is biohacking? How would you define it to a woman?

• 14:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, I always, I always talk about health optimization. I sort of turn the light on that term to say it's like optimizing all these arenas of your health. And I want to be clear that biohacking, while it can be shiny toys and all this beautiful tech and injecting things and peptides and, you know, doing drips and all of that, it doesn't have to be so complicated or so expensive.

• 15:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  And I think it's important to note that we have a lot of access to free tools or low cost tools that are the foundational baseline. And if we don't define our baseline, then we don't get to the, the end game of true health optimization, right? Because we, it's not about cutting corners. It's about changing the environment inside and outside of your body so that you can feel better, live longer and play with your grandkids, you know?

• 15:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. I completely agree with that. And the way I like to talk about it now is, you know, I think all of us are in some health journey, right? And I think you start off trying to get your nutrition, your movement, and then maybe your sleep right. And then you get into some more advanced topics like gut health. Maybe you're trying to avoid toxins. Maybe you're trying to get your hormones in the right place. And then like, what's next? Right?

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But I always like to bring in the next is some of these kind of advanced modalities, like you talk about. And I feel that a lot of people think that bioactin needs to cost a lot of money, or, but it really doesn't. I mean, there's a lot of things that you can do that we know through science works, but most people don't have never tried, right? And so cold exposure is one of these types of, is an example of this. There's also LED light. There's also sauna. We're going to talk about all of these things today. But I think, you know, it's so important for people not to fear the term because they'll be missing out on what's next, right? And I think we, we need to understand that like the science is available, especially in the United States. There's, you know, facilities now around every

• 16:44Dr. Darshan Shah?

  corner that you can become members of, even gyms have this in their, in the, in their locker rooms, the saunas and cold plunges now. It's getting more and more available because it works. And I think it's important for people not to be fearful of it.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

• 16:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So you got your nutrition right. You got, you're teaching people about nutrition, about yoga. What was the first time you experienced a cold plunge? And how did that go?

• 17:09Speaker 01

  Yeah. The first time I experienced a cold plunge, I was 18. I mean, the, the quick sidebar is the first time I really understood the power of cold. It was interesting, it came up on one podcast, I don't know, a year ago, and I didn't fully even recognize. But the first time I recognized the power of cold, I was 11. I was at a birthday party, Rebecca Bossio. You know, it's so odd how you remember people's names, first name, last name. So shout out to Rebecca, wherever she is in the world now. And I was like a night owl as a kid. I like to stay up late. And I really had a tough time getting up for school in the morning. And she said to me at her birthday party, when I was sort of complaining about, oh, I hate getting up early and whatnot. She said, I've been doing this thing and it's really helped. I've been getting up in the morning and just dragging myself out of bed, going right into the bathroom,

• 17:51Speaker 01

  turning on the full cold faucet and splashing water repeatedly in my face over and over. And it almost just seems like then I'm awake. And I certainly didn't look back at it then, like the beginning of my cold plunging journey, right? But I went, that entire year, I went home and I, every single school day, got up in the morning and did this practice without thinking about, oh, it's like, you know, the receptors in my face or, you know, any of that. And it just, I was amazed that it really worked. And so I did that, and that was sort of a touch point to cold. And then I was doing unbeknownst to any, like, no protocols, no full understanding of everything that was happening in the system physiologically. Around eighteen or so, I started doing, I was in New York and I was going to like the Korean spas, right?

• 18:34Speaker 01

  So a bunch of naked women running around, dipping themselves in cold and hot and things like that. And it was like fun and exhilarating and it felt right in some way for like my health. And I would get in for, I would like champion thirty seconds and be like, oh my God, I'm amazing. I did thirty seconds in there, you know? And so those were some of like the first moments. And then I think the most pivotal moment was, I went and I trained, I was so fascinated by cold in general. But I went and I knew, I saw Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reese doing their XPT certification. And all of the craziness is about eight years ago now. And I just elbowed and kneed and clawed and saved and figured out a way to do a big weekend at their house, got connected with them during the course of the weekend, which was more of like a recreation introduction.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  I met Patrick McEwen. I mean, it really unfolded so many things in my life. I met Dan Garner. I met these pivotal people that I worked with for years and still continue to work with. And that was the time that I started to really realize the power of our bodies

• 19:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 19:31Speaker 01

  and the power of the connection to cold.

• 19:33Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 19:34Speaker 01

  It was just a wild weekend event. By the end of the weekend, I was like, when is your next certification? I'm gonna come and coach and learn this and get even more, you know, indoctrinated into this philosophy. But I learned that cold plunge, like I will never forget the cold plunge I did at their house. Because it was, in typical fashion, Gabby and Laird have like an amazing collection of humans around. And many of them are like pro athletes. Or ex surfers, ex pro surfers and things like that. And all of the people that were at the house doing all of these different modalities, like weights in the, in the pool, 11 feet under and cold and hot and layered on his Airdyne bike inside the sauna, ridiculousness with pot holders. But all the people were there. It was like a great group of people. But the, the recognizable thing for me was that I was a little bit of the weaker link

• 20:19Speaker 01

  because I'm not a professional athlete. I'm still strong. I can breathe. I have all the things.

• 20:22Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure.

• 20:23Speaker 01

  I'm super funny, but I like still was not a professional athlete. You know what I mean? So, and the pool work, because I was not as strong of a swimmer at that time, was really created a lot of fear in my body. It would come up from the water with like 40 pound weights at the bottom and I'd have little tears in my eyes being like, thankfully I'm in a pool. No one can tell I'm kind of crying.

• 20:40Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  And just, but navigating stress response and expanding my window of tolerance and all these things was so interesting. That was like day one. Day two, I had to get in, I was like, okay, every single person here has like street cred.

• 20:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 20:53Speaker 01

  And I kind of am like the weaker link and everyone knows it and no one's judging me really. But the next day I knew we were doing cold plunging. And so I learned this beautiful life lesson, which was, I went home and thought to myself, I'm going to get up tomorrow. I'm going to show up. I'm going to go first. I am going to do the full three minutes was what they were asking you to do. I was like, I'm going to head dunk on the way in and I'm going to head dunk on the way out and I'm going to do it like a zen Buddhist. Like I'm just going to be so, I, I visualized, I thought about it. I like set myself up. And then the next day I went and I had, I didn't even have to say I'm going first. It was like Mark who was running that tub was like, I think Kristen's going first because I'm sure I was like very excited.

• 21:32Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 21:32Speaker 01

  And it was mostly men there. And so like all these guys around the tub watching me who had the, the day before just like crushed me in the pool and been so much better. And I got in and I head dunked and I like stayed in three minutes and I was super chill all the way up to my neck and I watched them like sort of one at a time. You know, there's a little competition inside of me. I just sort of looked around at them at one at a time realizing like, oh, she was kind of the weakest link yesterday. I have to do at least as good as she is right now. Like I watched them realize that like, oh, there's some strengths here too. There's some strengths. And what a life lesson. It's like as you, the approach is everything, right? The visualization. Planning, the knowing and and three minutes was a stretch for me at that point. Right. I hadn't ever done cold to that length and and with that many ice cubes like sub forty degrees.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  So it was pivotal experience and yeah, by being witnessed in that as well, it really bolstered my confidence. And then I never looked back like from that moment I talked, Laird and Gabby had like they're they're like it's full. The training session is full for the certification this weekend. I was like, just kept asking until they let me in. And then I never looked back. I started putting people in ice baths on my roof in West Hollywood, right here when I lived here. Just putting more women than men for sure, because that's who I was working with, but just humans of all kinds. And people thought I was insane because you're you're talking about seven and a half years ago now.

• 22:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure, sure.

• 22:48Speaker 01

  People, I was doing thirty day cold plunges on Instagram when people and people were DMing me like, are you, are you okay? Is this safe? You know, it was like not on trend, you know, but I just I never looked back because of all of the benefits and all of the ways it created connection in my life.

• 23:03Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, no, that's so bad. I love Gabby and Laird, you know, I've been to their home and they do some really extreme stuff there, but I've met so many people that they've introduced to this. And then when they, like yourself, they go out there and they spread the word. It's just the power of what happens there. I've heard it so many times because, you know, I think that they were pivotal and especially in California, bringing, bringing cold plunging to the human, like obviously the forefront of people's knowledge and also with sauna too. I mean, they're big into the

• 23:33Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 23:34Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Their huge sauna that they have that's super hot in there.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And then it's, you know, five years ago when I landed in Texas, people started calling me saying, I see you coaching this cold and this breath and and coaches and yoga instructors and teachers and facilitators, nurses, people started calling me or writing me in Instagram even the very first time and said, hey, can you teach me how to do what you're doing? Which is like running people through the cold, like, can you show me how to do this? And then four or five women wrote me at one point and said that. And I said, here's three weekends I'm home in Texas. If you guys will pay me a little money and and you want to fly down here and get an Airbnb, I'll run like a mini training.

• 24:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, that's awesome.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  And and I don't know if I'll ever do it again, but like I put them all on text together. And four women committed, decide, paid me.

• 24:20Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Incredible.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  I put it out locally. I had two local people come. Someone who ran a sauna company and another person from a gym. And it was like my, that's where Sherpa Breath and Cold was born. It was like, people in Texas were saying, oh, Kristen, will you Sherpa Tony through the ice bath? Will you, Mary and her friend want to go in and get photos? Can you Sherpa them? Like, that term was born of my friend group, the collection of people that I knew and loved during the course of like the heightened part of quarantine.

• 24:44Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I love it.

• 24:45Speaker 01

  And so it's really just what a trajectory for me to be able to share this gift that I got given by Claire and Gabby. So many, it's now like 325 instructors.

• 24:54Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  I've certified, yeah.

• 24:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right. And you're certifying instructors to Sherpa now, right?

• 24:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So they're going out there and spreading the message as well. That's, that's amazing. It's so powerful what you're doing.

• 25:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Hi, Dr. Shaw here. I want to take a minute to talk to you about cellular health. So in my clinics, I've actually seen 30-year-old people with cells that look like they're pushing retirement. And I've also seen 60-year-olds with cells that look like they're 40 years old. So what's the difference? It's really about how fast their telomeres are breaking down. Your cells, you see, are like phones and they have limited cellphone battery. Poor sleep, stress, processed foods, all of these things can drain that battery way faster than it should. So this is the reason why I partnered with IMAID. IMAID powers that cellular battery. It's not just another multivitamin. It's a comprehensive 92 ingredient formula designed specifically for cellular health and longevity.

• 25:52Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I'm talking 900 milligrams of vitamin C. That's like 20 oranges worth of DNA protection. The clinical dose of CoQ10 that you need to power your cellular engine. You also get zinc, selenium, vitamin E, alpha lipoic acid. All of these work synergistically for cellular repair and protecting your telomeres. So instead of taking a handful of pills every day and all these supplements, IMAID actually gives you everything that you need in one scientifically formulated system. And this isn't just a theory anymore. IMAID had partnered with Oxford University, the International Space Station, San Francisco Research Institute, and they've done studies and they've gotten this NSF certified to truly power your health.

• 26:35Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Most people are aging twice as fast as they should, unfortunately. You don't have to be one of them. Try IM-8. I actually have a discount secured for you if you go to drshah.com/IM-8 or go to im8health.com/discount/drsah and you can get 20% off with my discount code, Dr. Shah. You can also find the link below.

• 26:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You know, I want to kind of dive into some of the science, if you don't know, but I want to be really mindful about talking about the science because a lot of people ask me all the time, like, what's the science behind this? And I say, look, there's science behind this that we can measure physiologically, but there's so much that we can't measure, right? The mental resilience aspect of this, the nervous system regulation that you get from it. And I want to kind of dive into all of those, right? First with cold, but then let's expand the lens to sauna and some of the other things as well, because I think there's so much benefit that you get from this that you're not going to find a randomized controlled trial that proves it, right? Like, how do you show resilience at a randomized controlled trial?

• 27:40Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 27:41Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You have to under, I think, you know, those, those kind of softer aspects, you have to experience it for yourself and do kind of an end of one experience to see what you get out of it, right? And I think that's super important about some of these therapies that we're talking about because you can get lost in trying to like, find the science and understand the science, but the reality is, it's not going to harm you for most people, right? And it helps a lot of people and it's just an end of one every time, right?

• 28:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, I preach all the time, I chirp to the instructors, to my clients, to the athletes I work with, to everyone. It's like, people will say, what's the best time attempt for me? What's the, it's like, context is king and safety is queen. You need to understand how to do it safety, safely. And that also speaks to people like wild swimming, right? You don't ever want to go out alone, et cetera. How you're breathing is going to make a difference, right? So you're not lightheaded or anything crazy happening near bodies of water, but also just understanding your context. The end of one, this is like, you know, what, what I'm preaching to the choir when you and I talk about this.

• 28:41Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 28:41Speaker 01

  What is the context? Not just about your body or physiology, but what are your goals? Are you just trying to feel better? Are you trying to lose weight? I'm working with an Olympic skater. I've worked with the, you know, people in the WWE. You know, it's like those, those kinds of people and those athletes are going to all have different contexts, right? The university swim team is going to feel very different than a, a mom who's like, I just had a baby and now I'm trying to lose all this weight, you know? So it's important.

• 29:05Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Your context that you shared with us where you were getting through a grief period, right? These are all different times of your life that you might want to look into some of these modalities.

• 29:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we'll, we'll make sure we'll talk about, I'm a big mental health advocate after the last couple of years. And the, the way I continue to see clients showing up to me and the ways I'm working with them. I work with some younger 17, 18, 19 year old women and like, there's really a crisis going on with people feeling, having challenges, unpacking their life's experience and what's gone on and where they want to be and who they are and the, the, you know, AI coming into the fold. There's a, there's a lot of like fear and there's a lot of, yeah, just mental health struggles that people, people can utilize cold and breath for that matter, and sauna, you know, and so many tools to really shift that in the right direction.

• 29:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, really great tools. So let's talk about the mechanics of cold plunging and some of the science.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure.

• 29:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

  If a woman is coming to you for the first time and they ask you on the phone, how do I start cold plunging? What do I do? How would you tell them to start the process of cold plunging? And kind of why, why it works from a scientific basis?

• 30:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. And, and, and you're absolutely right. The science is, um, the science is always changing, right?

• 30:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 30:19Speaker 01

  But there is a lot of research on varied styles of cold. The challenge with it is, and I was just looking at some studies this morning, because I, it's like continue to be a research nerd to look at things, but it's like, some of the studies won't, they don't even, they'll tell you like the protocol, but they won't actually tell you the temperature of the water, which is like, well, how am I supposed to mimic this?

• 30:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  So understanding that there's like, it might be a left arm in ice cold water pre-training for 18 year olds males. It might be a full body immersion. It might be cryo. It might, the temperatures are all over the place. If it's wild swimming, it's going to be, maybe they tracked the temperature every day people went in. Maybe they just gave like the median temp. So there's, there's a lot of different swaths of information, but we, we do really see is that we're getting benefits physiologically. We know the catecholamines, we know all of the neurochemistry that happens, generally speaking, for most people in a cold plunge, and we understand what happens with nervous system tones. So there are tried and true, you know, pieces of research across the landscape of research that really bolster all of the things that can shift in

• 31:18Speaker 01

  the body. So when a woman first shows up to me, and again, humans, when I, when, when we're speaking about women too, I think it's a, a little bit important to just say like physiological females, because like the hormone profile difference and that these are the things that are causing shifts. But when a woman first shows up to me, typically, they're asking about cold plunging, it's more like that nervousness or the anticipation of actually doing it that's holding them back than anything else. Right? They may have rhinodes, they may be like, I'm trying to get pregnant, is this okay? There's some other questions that come up with that, but I always want them to know, like, you don't have to start at what you're seeing on Instagram. You don't have to be Joe Rogan, 21 and a half minutes in a 38 degree Morozko forge, okay? Right, exactly. You can like, no offense to Joe, that's all well and good, but at some point, you're

• 32:01Speaker 01

  staying in too cold and too long, it's a point of diminishing returns at a cellular level. So letting people know that they can start where they're at, like, and also with what they have, because if you don't have a cold plunge at home and you don't feel comfortable going to a venue, and you can't find cryo or something, it's like, I want them to get in cold water. So let's, most people have a shower. Yeah. Or a hose in the backyard. It's like, let's start there and see if we can get you to get into a shower, and maybe it's a minute, or maybe it's three minutes. Maybe it's starting on hot and then going to cold. Maybe you're just really a superhero and you're like, I'm gonna step in on cold, do three full minutes and step out on cold. You know, I, in the, seven years ago or something, I was at some hotel with a curtain, because my home shower had a glass wall, and I just did like a cold, a three minute cold shower and filmed the video and sent it out to everyone being like, if I can do it, you can do it too.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  Right. So starting where you're at, and understanding that, you know, there's been a lot of controversial conversation around temperature for women and is ice bath, you know, practice good for females, but starting at 50 degrees, if you, if you need to start at 50. I think above 50, it's like, are we really, are we in a cool plunge, are we in a cool? Plunge, you know, and we do want to have that charge to the system. You do want to increase your window of tolerance and have this, you know, hormetic stressor, right? So much of what we do, lifting weights to, you know, cold plunging can be a hormetic stressor, which is just expanding our abilities, you know, expanding our landscape, giving us something to adapt to.

• 33:25Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, exactly.

• 33:26Speaker 01

  Picking the right temperature and then, yeah, starting where they're at.

• 33:29Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, and so if someone doesn't want to go to a venue and they don't have a cold plunge at home, just getting in the tub, putting ice in it, measuring the temperature.

• 33:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Is a good way, after doing the shower piece, I think.

• 33:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 33:41Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Step into this. I think the shower is a great way to introduce yourself to it. And one of the things that I talk to people about, not just women, but people in general, is the visualization aspect of it and giving yourself the why really helps before you get in.

• 33:57Speaker 01

  Mm hmm, yeah.

• 33:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You mentioned both of those.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:00Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And I think those are so important because it kind of helps break through the anticipation fear. And it gives you, just like you at Gabby's house, you know, it's a, you visualized it. You, you thought why you wanted to do it, you wanted to prove yourself to these men that were there like, you know, underwater lifting weights.

• 34:18Speaker 01

  Ego, ego.

• 34:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly. But I mean, and everyone's why can be different, right?

• 34:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, of course.

• 34:23Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It was, you know, you wanted to feel awake when you were awake.

• 34:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, totally.

• 34:27Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. What was her name, Robin Braziano?

• 34:29Speaker 01

  Rebecca Basio. Isn't it so funny? It's so funny. Like, she's out there, I've talked about her a couple of times in that, in that context.

• 34:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  At 11, which is incredible, yeah.

• 34:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But I think going into this with a visualization where you imagine yourself under the cold shower, maybe you say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be there for 30 seconds. You, you feel that for 30 seconds before you actually do it, can be monumentally powerful in getting through that initial experience. And then you can experience the after, which you can also visualize, which is a new sense of energy and vitality and focus and, and all of that, right?

• 35:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, like power, clarity, grit, all of it. Yeah, and at Sherpa, we, we call it, I speak to it about, we call it ICE, like I period, C period. E period, which is like a great little acronym, but for intentional cold exposure, right? Because we all talk about deliberate cold exposure, where we're like, okay, I'm gonna deliberately do this. But what is sort of missing from that is the intention. So how do you set yourself up with the intention of what is going? Hey, I'm gonna go ask my boss for this big raise today. Well, let me practice by getting in their cold shower, a tub of ice. Let me just sort of practice my power in a room and standing for myself, even in a little bit of stress, by doing this practice so that I could kind of get all, work all of that out of my system and then go in the office and then ask for my raise, you know? Or whatever it might be.

• 35:48Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, that's fantastic.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's a fantastic example of how you can set an intention and come out of it after a cold plunge and just feel so much more confident about the next steps and what you're gonna do.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure.

• 36:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And then, as far as some of the science around why cold plunging works, can we talk a little bit about, you know, hormetic stress?

• 36:09Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm, yeah, for sure.

• 36:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  And those of you who are graduating too, just I think it's important to say, graduating from shower to tub. If you have a tub in your house and you can use your bathtub or you have any kind of vessel that you can throw ice into, I think that there's a notion of people go, they go and they get a couple of bags of ice from the store and there's a dilution that happens. So just a reminder to anyone who's listening, if you're gonna like go for it, it's like go for it. Go get, you know, 65 to 100 pounds of ice. Get your family involved. Make it something that's can be kind of like fun, exhilarating, maybe even like a little scary, but just like in a fun way. And just really like go for putting the ice in there because we always underestimate how much ice to use when it comes to sort of the water.

• 36:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 36:47Speaker 01

  And then it's, you're like a human champagne bottle. You put the ice in first and then the water after. That's the move.

• 36:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And you can even buy one of those pool thermometers that, you know, they're like really cheap.

• 36:58Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 36:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And on Amazon and put it in there and measure the temperature. So you know you're getting enough ice as well.

• 37:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it's a really, it's a really, yeah, I digress, but I just think it's always important to talk about that, yeah.

• 37:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  One more digression. How do you feel about, you know, dunking your face in a cold bowl of ice? That's a big trend on TikTok now.

• 37:15Speaker 01

  It is, it is. Look at you on TikTok, yeah. I really, I think it's a great practice. I mean, I just was talking to somebody, someone wrote me a company that's like designed a little bowl that's like shaped like your face to make it all perfect. And I'm like, listen, everybody has like a salad bowl or something that they're mixing bowl. Just use a ton of ice, fill it with some water and then in the morning you can get up and it's sort of mimicking the thing that I did when I was 11 and in a bit of a better way. Taking a couple of minutes, and of course, you have to take your face out to breathe every so often. And so just like doing that over the course of a couple of minutes, a few rounds, you know, five or 10 times, it's going to change the the the whole course of your day. Like, I think it's hard for people to believe until they do it.

• 37:55Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 37:56Speaker 01

  But you are creating a mammalian dive reflex, like micro response, you're mood boosting, you're eliciting chemicals in the in the brain and the body that are just going to make you feel clearer and better and happier. You know, it's like, how do you bring joy in? It's like a bowl of ice and your face in there. It's so simple.

• 38:11Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I have people that swear by that. I mean, that's they don't cold plunge. They just do the ice water immersion of their face. And they swear by it. They say it's completely changed their life.

• 38:21Speaker 01

  And if you think that's good, and you think a cold shower is good, and you think cryo is good, just wait till you put your entire body into either freezing cold body of water or a big tub of ice cubes. It's life changing.

• 38:32Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It is. It really is.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:34Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I have a plunge at my house, which is like, you know, the fancy version of all this.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's only because I've been doing this for years now. And it's it's great to have kind of the fancy version that cools the water for you. But it's so, it's not necessary. It's it's easy to do with ice. And this just prevents me from having to go to the store and get ice.

• 38:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's convenient. And listen, I talked to, this is something that I think you and I want to keep pushing people into in some beautiful, loving, kind way, which is I will talk to clients who really fall in love with these practices. And I will say, you know, what's you're in a home with your family and your two kids. And like, what is the investment you want to make in your health and wellbeing? Because the reality is, you could put, you know, 15 or 20 grand together at some point to have a sauna and a cold plunge at your home. And it's going to save you that money in healthcare expenses down the road.

• 39:20Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly.

• 39:21Speaker 01

  Even if you were to go to a facility, you know, and it costs $150 a month in a membership. Or, you know, there's ways that you earn that back. And you definitely earn it back in health, you know, lifespan, the way that your your family's connecting over these tools. You know, it can be something that becomes a real, you know, it's like sitting around the dinner table, but you're doing kind of other activities. So it's worth the investment.

• 39:43Dr. Darshan Shah?

  It's trying it, making sure that this is something that you want to keep doing, right? And you're going to use. And then I think it naturally happens to people that they're just like, gosh, I'm going every day to the gym to use a sauna. I'm like buying all this ice. Like, I just want to make this more convenient.

• 39:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  What's the investment going to be for me? And I think it just naturally progresses that way. The key is just get started and give it a shot.

• 40:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's the big win.

• 40:05Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Let's go back to hormetic stress.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 40:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Describe hormetic stress.

• 40:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, keep me on chat.

• 40:09Dr. Darshan Shah?

  What it is, why it's important. I love this.

• 40:11Speaker 01

  So hormetic stressor, just for anyone who's listening, it's like something that we're applying a specific dose of stress to the body. This is like eustress versus distress. Distress would be so much stress that it would have a negative response in the body. So we're applying this eustress, this like healthy, positive amount of stress, so that our body can create an adaptation and get better, faster, stronger. In this case, more temperature adapted and cellular health wise, we improve, you know, our connectivity, cold shock proteins are folding, all of this nerdy science that comes up with it. But all in that hormetic stressor is doing something for, for everyone who's listening, who's trying this, which is expanding your window of tolerance. And that's maybe a phrase people have heard a little bit more often than hormetic stressor. The window of tolerance being the space with which your nervous system can actually stay regulated.

• 40:56Speaker 01

  So what experiences or things are showing up, expected or unexpected? Quite often, it's the unexpected ones that grab us. But what things are showing up that you can actually stay regulated in or within? Or at least if you're navigating your system, you're hyper aware of where your nervous system tone is. And I, I keep saying, I'm going to make a T-shirt that's like, how do we, how do we practice this, this beautiful practice of no matter where we go, no matter where we end up, that we are the most regulated person in the room? And by that, I don't mean calm, right? Just the most regulated, meaning anything can happen at any time and I can have an appropriate response to it. Or I can, you know, if someone else is having a very upregulated experience, that I can be there to be like in connection with that person

• 41:39Speaker 01

  and really help regulate the rest of the room, right? And if we all showed up in our environments, like very much so, I think, if I can use the example of last night, I showed up to your home. You're, you're already so regulated, you're welcoming. Everyone there is very grounded, a lot of people doing their own work on their own body and physiology. And there's so much human connection and there's so much, even in the highs and lows and excitement of the meal and the dinner, everybody is really regulating to stay on the same page with each other. And there's just, there's nothing like that. There's nothing like that when you can feel that way in a space. And without saying it, what's happening in your home is that everybody feels Safe and safe enough to be vulnerable and to share and to be exactly who they are. And that's like, that's just, isn't that what we want for the entire world, you know?

• 42:24Speaker 01

  And so it's like building a practice that creates this hormetic stressor that you can then adapt to, helps you be more regulated in every general environment that you enter.

• 42:32Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly. That's a beautiful description of it. And I think, I think it's useful to talk about the opposite of being regulated, which is anxiety, which is even depression, which is bipolar. All, these are all the extreme versions of having this dysregulation in your nervous system for years and years and over time. And so if anyone is suffering from those issues, you're probably getting prescribed medications for it. I think one way to lower your dose of medication and eventually work to getting off of these medications is to bring some of these practices around regulation into your life, whether it be cold plunge, sauna, breath work. Over time, you'll see your nervous system getting more and more regulated.

• 43:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And it could be possible to get off of some of the medications that you're on and live in this state like, you know, like you're talking about where you feel safe, where you can be vulnerable and where you don't potentially need these medications anymore in the future.

• 43:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. And there's definitely, you know, there's always a case to be made to say to people like, don't do anything too quickly or go off your meds too fast, if that's your thing, right? There's a case to be made for these, these pieces. But we, you know, I can speak from my experience that I was very, even in navigating like heightened states of anxiety or anxiousness and low states of depression and having challenges getting out of bed and having some connection to my childhood traumas and things like that, that for me, I was, I was, and for my body, I'm still pretty anti like pharmacological intervention. Like I didn't want to go on SSRIs. And it remains, I'll never be able to go back and try it for a little while to see, right? And I was really staunchly opposed to it for my own body.

• 44:11Speaker 01

  And even with my mom and my family being like, hey, maybe you should just do this for a little while to make you feel better. And I wanted to use these tools and I wanted to sort of stretch to the other side and see if I could navigate it. But for me, I really used tools like adaptogenic herbs. Like I use Rodeola, which people don't talk about as much. You know, it's like more research than Ashwagandha. And for me, it had a really beautiful effect of, you know, taking three Rodeola capsules over the course of the day. It's in a flower, you know, and that working. And there's plenty of studies that show that going like nose to nose with like antidepressants and SSRIs and things like that. And then incorporating breath and cold and pieces of the puzzle. I will also say to anyone who's listening, navigating these things,

• 44:53Speaker 01

  there were days that I was like, I know the tools are in my building. I have two cold plunges, a sauna in my building. And I still like, didn't want to leave the apartment, right? I'm still, I'm coaching this, I'm at a high level. I'm an expert in this arena. And when mental, emotional things strike, I think using cold and using these tools are important. And also I want people to give themselves some grace. And I will say that the other big tool in my toolkit was like, I needed to ask people to be connected. I needed to ask for help. I needed to say, will you come cold plunge with me? Not because I was scared, but because someone showing up to my place and being more in community with me and being able to even just hear me talk for a couple of minutes about having a rough morning,

• 45:36Speaker 01

  really helped shift the conversation and shift my physiology. And then I would cold plunge with someone. And then the memory comes back of like, oh, this is, of course, I'm better. It's the same thing when we go and we lift heavy weights, you know? There's like, the more we get a chance to sort of train our bodies, we can feel that cascade of bliss chemicals really shifting us. And it's like a natural, you know, it's a natural way to be able to create that shift.

• 45:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sure, that is so true. And, you know, one of the things I think about when just listening and talking about cold plunging a lot right now, especially when it relates to women, is there's a lot of talk right now about women, potentially it's harmful to women and specifically around states of hormonal dysregulation, whether you're in a state of high cortisol or perimenopause. Those are the two states that people are talking about cold plunging in women specifically. Which is kind of odd to me because, you know, as a male with high cortisol, I still use. Cold plunging to help me regulate my, my stress levels, hormones and sympathetic nervous system.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And so I'd love to hear your thoughts around how you talk to women about these topics now.

• 46:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. And like, I want to shout out anyone who listened to Mel Robbins and Stacey, Dr. Stacey Sims had a podcast that just went viral. A snippet, of course, goes viral. It's a little bit out of context. And also that, that sort of, I felt gave women permission to not cold plunge.

• 46:56Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 46:56Speaker 01

  And it's not that I think anyone should do anything they don't want to do.

• 46:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 46:59Speaker 01

  It's that I want it always to feel accessible to people and not to feel impossible or not to feel like it's going to have a negative effect or be highly detrimental for females. So they spoke a bit about temperature and understanding that and using cold. I think the thing with me, and I've done now solo shows and podcasts and interviews on this as well, is understanding context is important. And also knowing that you can start at a slightly warmer temperature, but working yourself down to that like 40 degrees is not something that is, is impossible for females. And really drawing yourself, and when we compare ourselves to men, there's a few things to look at, right? So males tend to do better with daily plunging really cold, especially if it's before noon, when you're like, as your testosterone is, is in full effect. And it's, it's, we see that

• 47:44Speaker 01

  men can sort of tolerate that a bit better. And there are plenty of women that are doing daily plunges. So not to slight them. I am a bit more conservative on daily plunging with female physiology, because I think many women are not hormone testing, are not out there. I mean, you probably see this all the time. Someone comes in and says, well, something's going on. I should test my hormones. It's like, when was your last hormone test? They're like, never.

• 48:05Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Never, right.

• 48:06Speaker 01

  And so if you already have some dysregulation in your hormones, added stress, it's not necessarily just the cold water, but it's the stress of the cold.

• 48:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Any stress, right.

• 48:14Speaker 01

  That can dysregulate you a bit further.

• 48:16Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 48:17Speaker 01

  And so it is something to consider and think about. And I think if a human being, any human being is getting like three or four cold plunges in in the course of a week, we're doing great stuff. It doesn't, you don't have to push the envelope. So there is that, that notion, I think. It's like every other day is probably great for women. There's no real temperature barometer, except for the fact you want to get in to the level with which you are adapted. And to speak about the cortisol thing, Dr. Thomas Seeger was just, he was on a couple of shows and he's done research and written some books as well. Really, we look at cold plunging, and again, it's very specific to the physiology of the person, the bio individual. But when we look at cold plunging and you look at cortisol, there are research papers in sort of both directions. But most commonly, what we see is that it is actually a cortisol modulator,

• 49:03Speaker 01

  which means that it's helping your cortisol regulate to the space that it needs to be. It's not spiking your cortisol, per se. And does that mean that one person who's super nervous and freaking out before they get in with no coach there is gonna not have a cortisol spike? Like, of course, that could happen. But with specific applied cold getting in full up to the neck, we're not seeing that that's the biggest challenge, right? So knowing that, managing your time, managing your temperature, getting to a space where you are understanding also, the most important thing about cold plunging is really how you breathe. When you get in, before you get in, how you set yourself up from a visualization standpoint. And this is sort of why, you know, we all love Wim Hof. We all might not be doing as much cold if it weren't for Wim in general. Right.

• 49:48Speaker 01

  But, or and Wim Hof is doing a lot of the stuff like in mountains, mountain climbing in his shorts. And, you know, there's horse stance and there's movement and there's big, super ventilated breathing. And all of that can look really scary to females, you know? And badass females, too. It's like, is this okay? Is this, you know, what's going on here? There are reasons that Wim is breathing in that way, especially because he's trying to keep his body temperature in general warm because he's in these snowy landscapes. And he's also breathes in various ways, but he's known for the super ventilation. No. So we don't need to be able to, and I always coach first timers and early plungers, we don't need to be like hyperventilating or super ventilating ourselves. We, if we wanna train for the game of life, because we get in ice baths, not to get good at getting in ice baths, we get in ice baths to get good at life,

• 50:32Speaker 01

  then we wanna have as much of a regulated, calm or nervous system, nasal breathing, setting ourselves up for success right before we go in. We wanna get in and let whatever the cold shock response happens in the body, it might be like an F-bomb or a big breath or a big inhale or, oh my goodness, what's happening to me? But as soon as we can come to the awareness to get back to that sort of nasal breathing, long nasal exhales. Being in a space where your breath is telling your body you're safe, right? And then getting up to our neck so that our heart rate actually naturally slows down, right? Mammoth dive reflex, we can even get up to our chin or cheeks. It slows naturally the heart rate autonomically, so we don't have to do anything about it. And it can calm us to the best of our ability within that state in the cold.

• 51:17Speaker 01

  So it's like navigating so many cool components of this. And more and more, I just want women to understand it is so accessible. It is so manageable. And so many women that I'm working with, so many females, whether they're athletes or, you know, women executives that are running huge companies, they really see, I see not just like the Instagram win of being in the cold tub, right? Yeah, I'm a badass. But I see the big win of they start to little by little adhere and adjust, like adhere to other protocols, adjust their lives, step into everything they're doing with more confidence and just understanding their capacity. And that's the win. Like, I know it's cool to have a photo and a bunch of ice cubes, but the big win is people are like, oh, I was born into this world to do this great thing.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  And now I know that I have the ability to do it. And then they go out and they do it. And that's like, that's the magic. Like, that's to me why it's such a soulful practice.

• 52:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes, yes. And what I love about kind of your message, big picture message, is you've tied together cold plunging, breath work, mindset into this practice that all needs to happen together. And what I see, you know, we have cryotherapy chambers downstairs at our location. And a lot of people, they work themselves up, they're stressed, the anticipation, they go in there, they're like yelling and screaming, they can't wait to get out. They're just like going nuts the whole time. And the whole experience, from the moment they walk into the front door to actually getting in and getting out, they massively increase their cortisol levels. And that's like, you know, that's for the Instagram picture sometimes, you know?

• 52:51Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But the people that go into the entire practice by putting these three aspects together, the visualization, the mindset piece, the why, and then the breath work piece, which I love what you said about, you know, the wind off type of breathing might not be right for everyone. Everybody actually using the cold and the breath work together at the same time while you're in the cold to down regulate your nervous system while you're in there. That's where the magic really happens, right? And so you regulate your cortisol before you get in. You're doing that with mindset activities, visualization. That's teaching your nervous system to get regulated prior to entry. Then you're in there using breath work to get regulated and using the reflex like you're talking about.

• 53:36Dr. Darshan Shah?

  When you're doing that all together, that's where the magic really happens. And so that's, I think, big picture, your message, putting those things together is where you can really negate the negative aspects that you hear about and really, really improve on the positive aspects. Does that summarize it pretty well?

• 53:51Speaker 01

  Yes, you did a great job. I think it's really like how, what level of attunement to your own system can you have? Because like there, I love to get into what's cryo or cold water immersion, whenever it might be, and head dunk or put myself under the water and count to 20 seconds or whatever those things are that I've worked up to and adapted to. And I love to have like a very zen moment where I'm tapping into like my internal system to say, what's going on? I'm so present. I sort of will speak out loud sometimes to myself about, you know, you're being really hard on yourself lately. And I can just be so present with where I am, both nervous system and also like psychologically in life, mindset wise, that I'm clear. But then I also have times where I'm like, okay, today I'm going to do six minutes in and outs,

• 54:34Speaker 01

  dunks on every in and out, play some crazy loud music, hold myself under for 10 seconds on each dunk. And I'm like doing an advanced protocol, but I'm doing it with a place of from flow, right? Not from like, oh my God, I'm skittish and I'm fearful and this is crazy. And so it's like, how can I like, then we, this is this whole window of tolerancing. This is expansion of our body's ability. And it's like, why, I know it's just a cold plunge. I know it's just cold water. I get it, but like it really, there are no two modalities I've ever put together. And I've done a lot of biohacking that are as effective and efficient as putting breath and cold together for pivotal change, just mindset, ability, capacity, everything. And it's so, it's so beautiful. And then at some point, I'm going to have to take you up to like a

• 55:17Speaker 01

  Frozen lake and cut the big holes in the lake and like get you in there. It's like then you're grounding, you get sunlight, your feet are in the silt. You're like in the cold water and it's like nature abounds.

• 55:26Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I've never done that before. I have gone ice fishing in Minnesota, which is a little bit different, but on a frozen lake. Never thought about jumping in.

• 55:35Speaker 01

  Never about getting in the hole. It's so amazing.

• 55:37Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's amazing. So, you know, I think it's super powerful to, to do it. And then to understand that you have the power to regulate your, your nervous system and your emotions. While you're going through the whole experience and then when you get into a routine, maybe doing it three or four times a week. The knowledge is so powerful to know that you can do it because you know, in these extreme circumstances, you have the ability to regulate your nervous system. And so then that translates into maybe getting on stage, getting on a podcast, dealing with tough people, asking for the raise at work. It absolutely translates.

• 56:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:13Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And it gives you so much power in your day to day life.

• 56:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Let's take a quick break to talk about something that I see people are using to completely change how they approach their health data. So at Next Health, we're seeing tons of patients every day. These are people that have struggled with fatigue, losing weight or brain fog. And they're going to the doctor and they're getting their annual blood work. But most of that annual blood work is coming back normal. The problem is they're only getting about 10 or 15 different biomarkers checked by their normal physician. And what they're doing instead now is they're taking their health in their own hands and getting their blood work through a company called Function Health. I love it when people come in with their Function Health results because they have over 160 different biomarkers. Now, normally this would cost about $10,000 out there if you did it with your insurance.

• 57:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  But to get your hormones, inflammation, toxins and nutrient levels checked all under one platform and even have access to scans. You can do this all now with Function Health for about $500 a year. And what I love most is that Function Health doesn't try to sell people supplements or pharmaceuticals or anything. They're just giving you the data. So doctors like us can look at the data and interpret. For you and help guide you with a health plan. It only costs $4.99 a year. That's just $1.37 a day. And it's a really cost effective way for you to get a lot of your own health data into your own hands. And like I said, doctors love it because now you have a ton of data that you can come to us to and review with you. You can learn more by using Function Health and going to functionhealth.com/drschah.

• 57:49Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And if you're the first thousand people, you get $100 credit towards your membership by going to functionhealth.com/drschah or just using my gift code for you, drshah100.

• 58:01Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Okay, I want to dive into the specific breath work technique that you teach people when they're in the cold.

• 58:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Tell me how that goes.

• 58:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, for sure. So for the earlier beginners, when they come and they breathe, we do about a minute, maybe two minutes of breath work next to the tub. And that's typically as simple as like a 2X breath. So it's like, whatever you inhale, you're doubling the exhale and it's all nasal. I also am very keen on making sure people put their hands on their bellies or maybe I have my hands with consent on their shoulders. So that we remember that when we're breathing, this is a really good thing for everyone who's listening to do right now. If you put your hands on your belly and you breathe through your nose, as you inhale, is your belly expanding, let's say, forward or maybe laterally to the side? But are you expanding the body like a barrel? Sometimes I say, making pot bellies cool again, and women hate that. But inhaling through the nose is like when we expand the vessel.

• 58:52Speaker 01

  It's not the thing that I learned as a ballerina because I had paradoxical breathing when I was young. Where it's like, I inhale and I lengthen and I suck in my belly because I'm a girl and I want to, you know, butt out, chest out, suck in the belly. That's not biomechanically correct.

• 59:05Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 59:05Speaker 01

  We want to inhale and then.

• 59:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Feel the belly expand.

• 59:08Speaker 01

  Feel the belly expand. So I will check in to make sure that people are feeling that kind of grounding and that expansion. Sometimes there's bodily confusion. It takes a minute to kind of figure that out. And then really doing that 2X breathing. So what I find is like a perfect count for the cold is inhaling for a count of three and exhaling for a count of six. Right? And so I have them do that next to the tub for a minute or so. And then I always say, for the most part, a similar thing, which is that without hesitation or expectation, step in, step in, all the way up to the neck. And that's really to get in people's mind because you know what starts to happen when people stand next to the cold tub, they're like not really listening to you, they're like anticipating, they're like where they're in, they're lost in space somewhere. So I just, that's the last

• 59:51Speaker 01

  thing I say as they get in and then I'm there the entire time with them, you know, just sitting and working with them and having them, again, have a moment when you first get in the cold. Every human body is going to have some reaction to ice cold water. This is what cold water feels like. So have that reaction and then catch yourself and work to get back to that like three inhale, six exhale, or maybe it's, that's too long for you, you need a two inhale, four exhale. But the point is to lengthen the exhale and the big point is to get to nasal only breathing. And I find that super helpful because this is how we want to breathe when shit hits the fan in life, you know, and it doesn't mean you can't, when you want to upregulate your system, that you can't do like some Wim Hof or super ventilated or shift your breathing,

• 1:00:33Speaker 01

  but the reality is that we wouldn't do that style of breathing all day long. So let's like train for what we really need in this world that is so fast paced and so filled with like tons of environmental stimulus all the time.

• 1:00:45Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah. And I think what's really important, you know, I have crazy stories. So one, the first time I cold plunged was with Wim Hof and Jim Carrey.

• 1:00:51Speaker 01

  Nice. Oh my God, that's amazing.

• 1:00:53Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And this crazy picture of the three of us in a crazy 35 degree cold plunge. And you know, Wim Hof has incredible breathing techniques, but for his breathing technique is really about upregulating your nervous system, creating heat within your body. So then when you get into the cold, it doesn't feel so cold.

• 1:01:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're already there.

• 1:01:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Exactly. You're already there. And that's very different and that could be useful, but it's not useful, in my opinion, for day to day life, like you're, like you're mentioning. Very, I live in a state of upregulated nervous system. And so what's more useful to me is exactly what you're talking about is using breath to down regulate the nervous system, using like a two X or three X breath. And that's where I feel that most people should be practicing that for exactly your, your point, which is you need that ability in day to day because we live in modern society. Where, you know, unfortunately or fortunately, you know, there's a lot going on, right?

• 1:01:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:52Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And so whether you're driving through traffic or you're entering your work environment, whatever it is, you're living in a state of upregulation and having the ability to downregulate using cold plunge because what happens is when you're not in cold, it's much easier to downregulate, right? And you have this technique in your back pocket of using breath work to do this.

• 1:02:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And it's, it's so, you know, it's like I have a Sherpa Breath and Cold dot com forward slash listen, I have a breath work protocol that's like 10 minutes. That's great for like pre-sleep or before the ice tub or anything. If you're feeling nervous. And then there's also a guided cold plunge. That's like a beginner, three minute cold plunge, which is, is great if people just want like, you can download it for free and then you can just put it next to you and you can have.

• 1:02:34Dr. Darshan Shah?

  What's the website again for that?

• 1:02:34Speaker 01

  It's sherpa breath and cold dot com forward slash listen. So you can download both of those and then you can have me in your back pocket. If you want me to be in your back pocket, just guiding you through a cold plunge. So it's a six minute track. It preps you with the breath in the beginning, gets you through the cold and then gets you out of the cold. So you feel like you can, you can be coached, you know? And everything you just said is so poignant and to sort of frame it also in another way, just for people who are listening, we don't, things are going to happen in life that are unexpected and that are not in our plan.

• 1:03:04Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:03:05Speaker 01

  Right? We are going to have a stressor hit. We're going to get the phone call where, you know, knock on wood, this happens to nobody, but like something, someone's in an accident or we're going to be fired and not, we don't know. We don't have a minute or two before that happens to be like, hold on a second. I'm about to get fired, so let me super ventilate my breath and breathe and organize myself. So I'm like ready for it to hit. So what I want people to do is practice for the game of life, which means how do we stay regulated in a space when stress can hit at every, any moment? And trial ourselves through that so that when it actually does, we know at the very least, how to breathe. Like when you're in LA traffic, it's so funny. I'm like back driving in traffic after living here and I'm like, oh, I feel myself getting agitated. Like what's wrong with you, buddy? And I'm like, oh God, this part of me is like not regulated, right?

• 1:03:49Speaker 01

  Finding the places I have a little less freedom and being like, how can I breathe into that? And channel, yeah, the, the work in the cold and the understanding of the nervous system.

• 1:03:57Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, it's so, it's so powerful. And thank you so much for making this available to everyone listening for free. I mean, that's, that's incredible. And I think, you know, I think it's a really great way to step into, no pun intended, step into cold plunging. It's to have you there as a guide to do the entire practice you developed over a decade to and just give it to people. Thank you for doing that.

• 1:04:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I recorded it with some twinkly music and all the vibes. It's like copyright free. It's like I've covered all the bases so that people can just listen to it and play it and share it and not ever have to feel like, I think what I really want people to never feel like is, I don't want people to feel like they're all like alone on this journey of optimizing their wellbeing, you know, or that they're scary things that they're practicing. Like, I'm so stoked for people to try these practices. And even just five or 10 minutes of breath work during the course of the day, I'm so stoked for people to try these practices that I just wanted to put something in the world that, that was like, simple enough that they could just like, download to their phone and be like, okay, let's see what this Kristen girl is talking about, you know? Let me see if she really helps me get through the cold plunge this time. But

• 1:04:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I love it.

• 1:04:58Speaker 01

  It works.

• 1:04:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I love that. And can we talk just real quickly about sauna and how that fits into the equation? When did you experience sauna? And I know you, at Laird and Gabby's house, of course you did, but I'm sure it might have been before that. Talk about how that fits into the puzzle.

• 1:05:12Speaker 01

  In those Korean spas, all different types of sauna experiences. And like, I was in, I lived in New York City for a number of years. I was in the Russian and Turkish bath houses and just like in all different sort of odd ways, which is just, which I think as I reflect back on it, like, just speaks to how oddly beautifully curious I was my whole, like, really from like, my whole life, but like, from 18 onward, I was like, going into the city during college and trying to figure these things out and so drawn to that. And when you look at sauna, this is like the area where science and research is so much. And it's, it's very, very clear, reduction in all-cause mortality. We have studies that have, you know, followed people in Finland over 30 years to see like, have they had

• 1:05:55Speaker 01

  a regular sauna practice, what their, how their lifespan and their health span and how their disease states, you know, were reduced overall. And like, so we have so many studies around sauna that it's undeniable, the benefits, especially Especially as a cardiovascular mimicking

• 1:06:10Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:06:10Speaker 01

  Tool and you know, reduction in hypertension. So lowering blood pressure and helping with your heart. That it's almost like it's silly that there isn't one in every home here.

• 1:06:18Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:19Speaker 01

  Like, that's really how I I get there's costs associated and whatnot. But like, when you go to cultures that have been doing this for thousands of years, you go to, you know, Finland and Scandinavia, there's like, you know, there's a sauna on every block and not in every home.

• 1:06:30Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's so powerful. And I think we're going to get to the point where I'm hoping get to the point where saunas are just built into homes now.

• 1:06:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:39Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You know, how powerful would that be for detoxification?

• 1:06:43Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:06:43Dr. Darshan Shah?

  For nervous system regulation, for so many benefits.

• 1:06:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:46Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Sleep, all of it.

• 1:06:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, all of it. Depression, mood boosting, like this is so many of on the on the flip side of cold and hot and contrast therapy. There's so many mood boosting, you know, things in there. So many healthy vehicles to better health. It's like, how do we, how do we work with these tools together? And then the one thing that's like important to be noted, I think, as we bring more cold and heat and contrast therapy, meaning going back and forth, which also sidebar, if you're doing contrast therapy and you want to optimize it.

• 1:07:14Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Please.

• 1:07:15Speaker 01

  Please make sure you're taking three minutes in between the cold and the hot so that you're actually letting the body do the work of getting the signal of the shiver or the signal of the sweat and the cool off so that your body optimizes. Instead of using the device, like using the cold plunge to, you know, cool off from the sauna or letting using the sauna to heat up from the cold plunge, don't make the device do the work that your body needs to do to optimize. Because then you you blunt the hard work you just did.

• 1:07:40Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Oh, my gosh, I did not know that. I just jumped right in.

• 1:07:43Speaker 01

  You're like once again, and also like you can play and you can go back and forth a lot. But this is why Suzanne Soberg might say like, end on cold. So that your body's working to have to do that adaptation.

• 1:07:52Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right.

• 1:07:53Speaker 01

  Because it's another way we stay comfortable, right? We're like, oh, OK, I'm cold. I'm just going to go get in the sauna.

• 1:07:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:58Speaker 01

  So it's like, how can you, again, like, build your will at the window of tolerance and all those things?

• 1:08:02Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That's such great.

• 1:08:03Speaker 01

  It's like, that's my pro tip. It's my pro tip for sure.

• 1:08:06Dr. Darshan Shah?

  That is a pro trip. I learned something new.

• 1:08:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:08Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So I I try to use a sauna at night before I go to bed. It really helps me. First of all, you know, your phone overheats in there, so you can't have it.

• 1:08:16Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 1:08:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  You you have to disconnect from your phone. And it really does, personally for me, helps me sleep. So I try to use it at nighttime before bed. Maybe once a week I'll do hot, cold, hot, cold. And when I have time, it's, you know, it does take about an hour to do that. How many times hot and cold mechanically do you do?

• 1:08:35Speaker 01

  Um, I like to do like a three, like a three X set, right? So I'm doing like hot and cold, then I'm ending on cold and it's like three rounds.

• 1:08:43Dr. Darshan Shah?

  And twenty minutes in the sauna or?

• 1:08:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, it depends on using, if you're using like a dry finish style sauna, which is my preferred sauna, or using a red light one. Sometimes people need longer in the, in the red. But I will do, yeah, like fifteen minutes. I'm like, I try to push the sauna in my building to like one ninety, two hundred. I try to get it, get it warm. And then I do a lot with, um, I'm a certified sauna master. So I like work with like the snowballs and aromatherapy and steam and like learning, continuing in the last couple of years to learn more and more about the, not just the science of that, but like the experience of that. And there's really two ways to use a sauna, right? You can use a finished sauna or a hot sauna to get it really hot and detox, sweat in fifteen minutes and be hardcore barrel sauna style.

• 1:09:24Speaker 01

  But also when you look at like Banya culture, there's a whole different landscape of like, let's bring this down to like one forty Fahrenheit. Let's create a lot more steam. Let's make a case for us to be able to sit in there for a bit longer and have relaxation. Right? This is like one of the number one things that people write on the, when they leave a big spa is like, what did you come for? They came for relaxation, for unwinding. And, and, and the other pivotal piece of all of this that I think is important to just shout out is, as we bring more cold and sauna into our cultural landscape in North America, what we're actually bringing is more community and connection. And I think people are desperate for that, right? And with the likes of places like Other Ship, I don't know if you've been to Other Ship.

• 1:10:04Speaker 01

  It's like, it's just shout out to Robbie and, and Harry and Amanda, like the team that has formulated that for the North American landscape. It really is just bringing community and connection back to the world. And it, it doesn't have to be in another ship location, because there's only a few. But having those tools at your home, bringing people together, connecting the dots, people feeling, Gabby and Laird used to always be like, this is the truth barrel. When you get in the sauna, it's so hot that you're like, story has to be short. You're going to be really authentic and poignant and quick about it. You're going to tell the truth. And then you, because you want to get the heck out of the sauna because it's getting so hot. So it's like how we share in those environments are very different. And you said it yourself, you can't have a phone in the cold plunge. I mean, you can't. And for a minute, but and you can't have a phone in the sauna.

• 1:10:48Speaker 01

  So what are we, what are we leaning into? We're leaning into more connection. And I think I see romances blossom. I see people having laughter and joy and really like looking at each other and into each other's, you know, souls, if you will, to say, oh, like I am you and you are me. Like where are we, where are we not othering? Where are we like together and connected? And that's just like, that may sound woo to some people who are listening. But I think the end game here is like for us to all be more deeply connected, especially in a time of so much disconnection.

• 1:11:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  One of the favorite texts I get during the week is a bat signal. All the guys are getting together to go to a buddy's sauna. Barrel sauna that can fit six of us in it. And we all just sit there and talk and catch up. And you know, it's like you said, it's you have 20 minutes, 30 minutes in there, then you're out. And he has a cold plunge right next to it. So we get to do that too. So it's, it's so powerful. And there's so many benefits beyond what you see in the research. And the research is very clear on sauna therapy. That it does lead to cardiovascular benefits, to decrease rate of neurodegenerative diseases. Protects you from cancer, is good for your immune system, anti-inflammatory. There's so much great evidence out there.

• 1:11:59Dr. Darshan Shah?

  So you get that plus the connection, plus the nervous system regulation, plus the mental fortitude. It's so powerful. And you know, I really appreciate you bringing this to the world in such a thoughtful way. Bringing it to women that this is something that you should also consider doing. It's not just for men. And providing free tools for people to get that first experience. And I think it's awesome of you to do this.

• 1:12:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's like, I always say, I worked in the health optimization landscape for many, many years now. And this is really my peak expression, expression is having people understand their nervous system, how they can show up just especially for themselves, right? Filling their own cup and then going out and expressing into the world like all of their greatness. And it's just, it's the most, I'm so lucky that I get to do this work. And I get to work with so many different types of clients from like young females to professional athletes, you know, men, women alike and groups and corporate events and really introducing to people. People into you want to see people get crazy. You go to a very staunchly corporate rigid event where like the big bosses and C level execs are like, we're going to do ice plunges. And then they're going first and they're like, all of a sudden they're like, you know, little scared kiddos. They're like, oh, my God, I don't know.

• 1:13:10Speaker 01

  I have to be all tough in front of my work team. And so it's like beautiful to see the unveiling of people as they show up and then the ways that we can all be vulnerable together. Yeah.

• 1:13:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yeah, I love it. How can people find more from you? Um, where can they connect with you?

• 1:13:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, um, I answer all my own DMs still at Kristin Weitzel official on Instagram. I really like that. It's like a way to connect with people. It's like, I try to use social media for good. Sherpa Breath and Cold dot com is where you can see the coaching certification program that comes up. We're launching in October, our first on fully online. I was, I've been resisting and resisting because the power of connection on site is so important.

• 1:13:47Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Yes.

• 1:13:48Speaker 01

  But we're doing our first fully online, um, Sherpa Breath and Cold Level One Training, which is really great because I get a lot of requests globally from people who can't fly from Poland to Boston.

• 1:13:58Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Right, right.

• 1:13:59Speaker 01

  And so we'll do that in October and then, yeah, and then people can reach me. Um, I have a podcast called The Well Power Podcast. So a lot of free information that you're going to be on my show.

• 1:14:07Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I can't wait.

• 1:14:09Speaker 01

  So I'm, I'm pretty easy to reach. Find me, grab me and, um, yeah, tell me how I can support your company, your business, your athleticism, your, your life, your heart.

• 1:14:17Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I love it. I love it. Well, thank you so much. One more question. What's next for you, Kristen?

• 1:14:22Speaker 01

  What's next for me? What's next for me is continuing to work in the, the landscape of nervous system. I'm training to do a little IFS parts work therapy now and work with people because what comes up in breath work and cold exposure, perhaps you can be in an altered state. But in breath work, we get out of our prefrontal cortex. We get in a little bit of an altered state, working with, um, specific different styles of, you know, work clinicians, medicines, to be able to get people to unpack what's going on in their, in their life and really like see themselves for who they are. Because I think we all wake up with this beautiful understanding of like who we can be, but I want people to actualize that and, and be along for the ride to support them. And not only healing their bodies, but really like healing their heart and their mind and

• 1:15:06Speaker 01

  understanding how great their capacity really is. So more of that to come. Yeah, more of, more of that work.

• 1:15:12Dr. Darshan Shah?

  I love it. I can't wait for you to do that and we could have you back on and we could talk more about that too.

• 1:15:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, beautiful. Love it.

• 1:15:19Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you so much for joining me today.

• 1:15:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, thank you for your time.

• 1:15:23Dr. Darshan Shah?

  Thank you so much for listening to the podcast today. Please remember to subscribe if you liked this episode and give us a good review and share a link with your friends. It really helps to support all of our efforts. I also want to remind you that the information shared on this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your healthcare provider or physician before making any decisions or taking any action based on what you hear today, especially if you have any underlying health conditions or on any medications. Your doctor knows your personal health situation the best, and it's always important to seek their guidance.