man drilling through ice
Health

Fellas, Please Don’t Wim Hof Your Balls

You shouldn’t make a cold plunge just for your gonads.

Yes, sure, ice baths have some intriguing benefits.

According to wellness guru Wim Hof and other experts, they improve your ability to get out of fight or flight mode more efficiently by stimulating the vagus nerve, and they reduce inflammation.

If you can tolerate the scream-inducing temperature, it seems like only upsides for your mental and physical health.

But that doesn’t mean your balls need their own testi-sized tub of ice.

Despite this seemingly obvious assertion, some biohacking bros have taken to ice bathing their nuts, Vice points out. And some guys are even soaking the precious family jewels in tiny specialized coolers. (Well, tiny compared to regular coolers, but completely adequate in terms of ball size.)

More Testicle Tips

Much of this appears to be an overcorrection based on the potential sperm damage heat from laptops, baths and hot tubs. However, managing those fertility risks is not as simple as icing your junk, urologist Lye Diwa explained.

“Although there are small studies that would attest to cold temperature and improvement in sperm quality, there are no large clinical trials that would advise icing as a means to improve sperm count,” Diwa told Vice.

While your testicles hang lower by design so they can stay slightly cooler than the rest of the body, Healthline warns: “be careful about trying to cool your testicles too much.”

One study found that “cold water stimulation” after a workout decreased the testosterone levels of young men.

So if you must ice your balls, make sure the rest of your body is submerged too. Otherwise, it’s a slippery slope to becoming a soy sauce balls guy, and we don’t need more of him.

[H/T] IFL Science

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