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A review by rbruehlman
Chill: The Cold Water Swimming CureRevitalize, Repair, and Renew Your Health and Well-Being by Mark Harper
2.0
This book had large print with large spacing for a reason: there isn't actually enough content here to fill out a proper book.
Unlike many pop psychology books, this book doesn't claim that cold water is some magical panacea cure-all, which I really appreciated. However, it's pretty flimsy on scientific research and evidence, both in quantity and quality. Most of the research about the benefits of cold water weren't done with a control group, making it impossible to tease out the effects of placebo. Other findings came from a survey of self-identified regular cold water swimmers. "Regular practitioners of cold water swimming find it makes them feel better." Okay, but isn't that sort of circular logic? Presumably, people who find cold water swimming helpful will keep doing it, and those who don't, won't continue. You can't really reasonably say cold water swimming helps arthritis if you are only asking people who regularly do cold water swimming--what of arthritic people who tried cold water swimming, didn't find it helpful, and stopped? The survey population he is drawing insights from is inherently biased.
You could maybe excuse the quality and quantity of research on cold water swimming and suggest that perhaps this book is meant to inspire a conversation and eventually more rigorous research. The author is not a researcher (I think formally, anyway, although he devised some of the studies in the book), so maybe he had limited material to work with on that front. But there is TONS of research on other, adjacent topics. There was a lot of space here to talk about the science of pain, immune disorders, the parasympathetic system, etc. ... and while they're actually mentioned in *passing*, the exploration is really, really cursory and layman. There just isn't a lot of science here.
Basically, I felt like the book could be summed up as "going in cold water is refreshing and makes you feel better," repeated 200 times in different ways. I am not dismissing the potential medicinal properties of cold water, and I think a compelling case *could* have been made here with reasonable scientific credibility. However, Mark Harper never actually assembles the available pieces together to make a solid case.
Unlike many pop psychology books, this book doesn't claim that cold water is some magical panacea cure-all, which I really appreciated. However, it's pretty flimsy on scientific research and evidence, both in quantity and quality. Most of the research about the benefits of cold water weren't done with a control group, making it impossible to tease out the effects of placebo. Other findings came from a survey of self-identified regular cold water swimmers. "Regular practitioners of cold water swimming find it makes them feel better." Okay, but isn't that sort of circular logic? Presumably, people who find cold water swimming helpful will keep doing it, and those who don't, won't continue. You can't really reasonably say cold water swimming helps arthritis if you are only asking people who regularly do cold water swimming--what of arthritic people who tried cold water swimming, didn't find it helpful, and stopped? The survey population he is drawing insights from is inherently biased.
You could maybe excuse the quality and quantity of research on cold water swimming and suggest that perhaps this book is meant to inspire a conversation and eventually more rigorous research. The author is not a researcher (I think formally, anyway, although he devised some of the studies in the book), so maybe he had limited material to work with on that front. But there is TONS of research on other, adjacent topics. There was a lot of space here to talk about the science of pain, immune disorders, the parasympathetic system, etc. ... and while they're actually mentioned in *passing*, the exploration is really, really cursory and layman. There just isn't a lot of science here.
Basically, I felt like the book could be summed up as "going in cold water is refreshing and makes you feel better," repeated 200 times in different ways. I am not dismissing the potential medicinal properties of cold water, and I think a compelling case *could* have been made here with reasonable scientific credibility. However, Mark Harper never actually assembles the available pieces together to make a solid case.