Can drinking ice water help you lose weight? Zhou Zonghan: Pear-shaped obesity and menstrual pain are here

The weather is extremely hot, and the best way to cool down is to drink ice water in big gulps. There is a rumor on the Internet: "Drinking ice water can promote metabolism and help lose weight!" Another group of people issued a warning: "If you drink ice water in hot weather, be careful of bursting your capillaries and even causing a stroke!" What is the truth behind these two statements? Let’s hear the detailed explanation from a Chinese medicine practitioner.

Can drinking ice water help you lose weight? It is difficult to prove it in academic experiments

Can drinking ice water really promote metabolism and achieve weight loss? Zhou Zonghan, attending physician at the Ren'ai branch of Taipei Municipal United Hospital, said that after drinking ice water, part of the body's heat is absorbed by the cold water, and the body must increase heat production to cope with the temperature loss, so there will indeed be a temporary increase in metabolism. Once the water temperature rises to body temperature, this increased metabolism disappears.

Therefore, drinking ice water will not reduce your metabolism. On the contrary, it will cause a short-term increase in your metabolism. Such scientific research has been extended to mean that drinking ice water can help you lose weight, which is theoretically feasible, but in reality, it is very incorrect. In fact, academic experiments cannot lead to the conclusion that drinking ice water can help you lose weight, because the experiment only observes the situation for a moment. If you really want to do an experiment, you should find someone to drink 500cc of ice water every half an hour for a few days. If he loses weight in this way, then it can be confirmed that drinking ice water can help you lose weight.

Drinking ice water often may cause metabolic disorders, but beware of "pear-shaped obesity"

As for whether eating ice and drinking ice water all day long will promote metabolism and make you lose 10 kilograms suddenly? Unfortunately, in clinical practice, we often see women with small bellies or those who are used to drinking ice water for a long time, which can easily lead to water metabolism disorders in the body and cause "pear-shaped obesity"; or, they will suffer from excruciating pain every time they have their menstrual period.

Human beings are holistic and cannot be observed from a single organ or a single phenomenon. Drinking ice water, a slight change in temperature, can cause changes in the body's hormones and endocrine system. Ice cream or cold food enters the stomach through the esophagus from the mouth and will begin to affect the entire digestive system.

Also, why does drinking ice water frequently cause menstrual cramps? Because the female reproductive system is controlled by the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, uterus and ovaries, its influence has long gone beyond the gastrointestinal system and is a systemic influence. When you eat too much ice or cold food, it will interfere with the body's feedback system. The first thing affected is the body's metabolism. The local sweat and blood circulation of the body will slow down, and the esophagus, spleen and stomach will be the first to be affected.

Love to drink ice water, be careful of esophagus, gastrointestinal mucosal ischemia, edema

If volunteers are asked to drink ice water and then undergo a gastroscopy immediately after drinking it, it can be found through the lens that the esophagus and gastric wall mucosa are pale in color, indicating ischemia. When the mucosa is ischemic, it will cause two kinds of damage. First, it is very easy to be infected by various viruses or bacteria. The esophagus and gastrointestinal tract are the first line of defense for the human body to receive food, so you must be especially careful. Second, the mucosa is prone to micro-edema, forming what Chinese medicine calls the "spleen dampness" phenomenon. Eating too much cold drinks can easily cause dampness, causing symptoms such as diarrhea, chest tightness, and poor appetite. It can also lead to obesity due to the gradual slowing of metabolism.

Drinking ice water after exercise should be careful to prevent damage to spleen yang

Chinese medicine practitioner Zhou Zonghan said that drinking about 500ml of 3°C ice water can improve metabolism. In fact, the basal metabolic rate is less than 5 calories! In order to maintain a constant body temperature, the body will indeed increase its basal metabolic rate and consume calories to balance the temperature of the ice water in the body. However, the calories consumed are quite limited. And assuming that you drink ice water after intense aerobic exercise to promote metabolism, if you suddenly drink a large amount of ice water, the cold water will enter the gastrointestinal tract, causing the gastrointestinal tract to suddenly cool down, which can easily induce gastrointestinal cramps. This is what Chinese medicine calls damage to spleen yang.

Once the spleen yang is damaged, the body's immune function will decline, and the cardiopulmonary function will also be easily hindered. Therefore, the older generation often says that drinking ice water after intense exercise can easily cause "rushing", coughing, or chest tightness. This is what they mean. If you have a history of chronic diseases such as asthma, heart disease, hypertension, microcirculation disorders, etc., you will be more likely to have problems.

Will drinking ice water on a hot day cause your blood vessels to burst? Severe cardiovascular disease

There is also a saying that "drinking ice water on a hot day will cause your capillaries to burst and cause a stroke!" Chinese medicine practitioner Zhou Zonghan said that in fact, it is not that serious. It is very rare to have a stroke from drinking ice water or taking a cold bath in summer. Unless you are a patient with potential serious cardiovascular disease and do not notice the change in environmental temperature, an unfortunate tragedy may occur. Otherwise, the chance of it happening to ordinary people is close to zero.

Can I drink ice water in summer? Of course, it is definitely helpful for cooling off, but don’t think you can lose weight while drinking it, because you are really thinking too much.