Dr Susanna Søberg, PhD Discovered the Minimum Threshold for How Much Cold and Heat Exposure we Need for Health Benefits

The fight-or-flight response was built for our survival in a merciless natural environment during our evolutionary history. This kept our metabolism up and our minds in balance. Today our health is missing out on these healthy natural stressors. At the same time, more sedentary work and technology have enchanted our minds. The evidently increase in stress, and depression calls for new actions.

Healthy stress of the cold, and the heat navigated by the breath builds your cells stronger, increases your metabolism, and strengthens the nervous system.

Dr Susanna Søberg, PhD, is a leading international scientist and expert in cold and heat therapy to reduce stress and improve health, sleep and to optimise performance. In her research she discovered the minimum threshold for how much cold and heat exposure we need for health benefits. She calls this The Thermalist Approach with health benefits detailed below.

Functional Breathing

  • Calms the nervous system
  • Reduces stress and anxiety
  • Reduces breathlessness
  • Encourages deep and quality sleep
  • Improves blood circulation
  • Improves health in the long term
  • Promotes a focused and sharp mind

Cold Exposure

  • Helps to create better resilience
  • Reduces stress and anxiety
  • Improves mood and happiness
  • Helps to prevent lifestyle diseases
  • Increases metabolism
  • Increases longevity of cells
  • Increases brown fat
  • Encourages you to feel warmer and more comfortable in the cold
  • Reduces acute and chronic pain

Heat Exposure 

  • Enhances mood and happiness
  • Reduces inflammation in the body
  • Reduces acute and chronic pain
  • Improves heart and cardiovascular health
  • Increases metabolism
  • Helps to prevent lifestyle diseases
  • Increases fitness level
  • Increases recovery after workout
  • Improves lung function and lowers the risk of infections

Lower physical and mental stress

  • Increase your window for stress
  • Increase your ability to relax in stressful situations
  • Results in less chronic inflammation
  • Lowers blood pressure and heart rate
  • Increases metabolism
  • Increases mental balance and mood
  • Balance good and bad stress
  • Decrease the risk of lifestyle diseases and depression

More energy and a happier life

  • Learn to become warmer – both physically and emotionally
  • Becoming a warmer person will lower your physical and mental stress
  • Improve mood
  • Become more focused and concentrated
  • Get more energy and positivity in your life
  • Help prevent burn-out
  • Increase your confidence and social skills

Based on the depth of her research and experience, Susanna has developed the Thermalist course which helps to lower stress, improve sleep, and increase physical and mental health. Her course is science-based with the purpose of avoiding burn-out and achieving the highest level of performance. 

Fundamental to Susanna’s research is the science of micro-stressing the body - meaning that, health is obtained by small doses of healthy stress: cold and heat. Healthy stress strengthens the cells and the mind. On the flipside, overdoing stress - or being chronically stressed - ages the cells, causes inflammation and an overwhelmed nervous system.

One of Susanna’s principles is to "end cold", when alternating between taking cold dips and saunas, to increase metabolism and prolong the benefits of chemicals in the brain. A principle, which Professor Andrew Huberman from Stanford University and host of The HubermanLab Podcast, named after her: the #soebergprinciple. Ending your contrast therapy in the cold water demands energy from your body to heat back up. This will activate your healthy brown fat and muscles to generate heat.

Susanna's expertise on how to use cold and heat exposure, as well as your breath to lower chronic stress and inflammation is available via her online Thermalist course, which teaches the balance - finding the sweet spot - where your body repairs itself and get stronger. Read more about it HERE.   

Receive a discount off the Thermalist course when you use the following coupon code at checkout: STAIT

Back to STAIT Articles