Cold showers with Wim Hof breathing did no better for depressive symptoms than warm showers with slow breathing
The 2024 trial in Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology is the closest randomized test of cold exposure for depressive symptoms. It enrolled 84 midlife women with high stress and high depressive symptoms.
The paper
A randomized controlled clinical trial of a Wim Hof Method intervention in women with high depressive symptoms
Blades R, Mendes WB, Don BP, Mayer SE, et al.. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2024;20:100272.
See the study at a glance
- Design
- Randomized controlled trial in which the comparison group also followed a program
- People
- 84 women
- Who they were
- Otherwise healthy midlife women in the US with high stress and high depressive symptoms took part in 2020–2021. Forty-one were in the Wim Hof group and 43 in the control group.
- What they did
- Both groups did a daily 15-minute audio-guided session for three weeks. The Wim Hof group paired cold showers with breathing meant to cause repeated short drops in blood oxygen (intermittent hypoxia). The control group did slow-paced breathing and took warm showers.
- How long
- Three weeks, with follow-up at three months
These numbers came out of it
−24%
Depressive symptoms fell 24% in both groups.
−27%
Both groups saw anxiety drop 27%.
3 months
The improvements in both groups held at the three-month follow-up.
6 of 6
All six people who dropped out were in the Wim Hof group.
The researchers did this
Researchers in the US randomly assigned 84 midlife women with high stress and high depressive symptoms to one of two three-week programs.Source 1 · Randomized trialA randomized controlled clinical trial of a Wim Hof Method intervention in women with high depressive symptomsBlades R, Mendes WB, Don BP, et al.. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2024.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Both used a daily 15-minute audio-guided session. The Wim Hof group practiced breathing meant to induce intermittent hypoxia and then took cold showers, and the control group practiced slow-paced breathing and took warm showers.
The team had registered a prediction that the Wim Hof program would do better, and the results didn't support it.Source 1 · Randomized trialA randomized controlled clinical trial of a Wim Hof Method intervention in women with high depressive symptomsBlades R, Mendes WB, Don BP, et al.. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2024.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ Both groups improved about equally. Depressive symptoms fell 24% and anxiety 27%. Perceived stress dropped 20%, and the gains lasted to the three-month follow-up.
The Wim Hof group dwelled less on daily stressors than the control group did. Both programs lowered the cortisol response to a standard lab stress test (the Trier Social Stress Test).Source 1 · Randomized trialA randomized controlled clinical trial of a Wim Hof Method intervention in women with high depressive symptomsBlades R, Mendes WB, Don BP, et al.. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2024.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗ All six dropouts (7% of the women) came from the Wim Hof group.
The study can't tell you these things
- The cold showers came bundled with the breathing, so the trial can't isolate the cold.
- Only women took part, and they were described as healthy, so the results don't speak to diagnosed depression.
- Both groups got an active program and there was no untreated group, so the trial can't show whether either beat doing nothing.
- The programs lasted three weeks.
People quote it like this
The trial matters for anyone who treats cold showers as a depression remedy. It is the nearest randomized test of that idea, and warm showers with slow breathing matched it.Source 1 · Randomized trialA randomized controlled clinical trial of a Wim Hof Method intervention in women with high depressive symptomsBlades R, Mendes WB, Don BP, et al.. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2024.Read the paper ↗PubMed ↗
We cited these sources
- 01Blades R, Mendes WB, Don BP, Mayer SE, Dileo R, O'Bryan J, et al.. A randomized controlled clinical trial of a Wim Hof Method intervention in women with high depressive symptoms. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2024;20:100272. doi:10.1016/j.cpnec.2024.100272 PMID 39606690